Bitter Americans? You bet.

Barack Obama is taking some heat today due to remarks that some small-town Americans are "bitter" and sometimes will only vote for a candidate based on one issue, be it guns, gay marriage, religion, etc.  

While I can't speak for all Americans, I can tell you that there are a lot of people in my former home state of Michigan who are very bitter.  Their economy is in the tank, and both democrats and republicans have caused their economy to tank.  

I try to not vote only on one issue, unless a candidate is a total loon when it comes to that issue.  I even disagreed with Ron Paul on a few issues yet I still supported him vehemently until he practically dropped out of the race.  

Below is the video where Obama explains the bitterness.

Illegals and the IRS

Another benefit of illegal aliens: they pay more than their fair share of taxes.  Just their contributions to Social Security could help the program stay afloat for a few more years than projected.

New Law would make Clove Cigarettes Illegal

The new bill, HR 1108 would make Clove cigarettes illegal, as well as cigarettes containing any flavor that is not menthol.  These changes, in an effort to "save the children" further take away consumer choice.  

This slippery slope could possibly later be applied to cigars, banning Acid cigars and Al Capone's.  

"

(1) SPECIAL RULE FOR CIGARETTES- A cigarette or any of its component parts (including the tobacco, filter, or paper) shall not contain, as a constituent (including a smoke constituent) or additive, an artificial or natural flavor (other than tobacco or menthol) or an herb or spice, including strawberry, grape, orange, clove, cinnamon, pineapple, vanilla, coconut, licorice, cocoa, chocolate, cherry, or coffee, that is a characterizing flavor of the tobacco product or tobacco smoke. Nothing in this subparagraph shall be construed to limit the Secretary's authority to take action under this section or other sections of this Act applicable to menthol or any artificial or natural flavor, herb, or spice not specified in this paragraph.

We can't win

Today General Petraeus (also called Betray-US) said that the security situation in Iraq is "fragile" so we can't leave.  We were told last year that it was too violent to leave and now it is more peaceful but we still can't leave.  Like Senator Obama said today, we keep moving the goal post back and forth.  If they had world peace there, we would still find and excuse to stay there and continue to antagonize the Muslim world, which makes things bad for us and our allies like Israel.

How would anyone define victory in this war?  This situation is much different from WWII.  When that war ended, we signed a treaty with Germany, a country that had rational people that could be controlled.  The people in Iraq simply don't want us there.  There is no government to sign a peace accord with, since we set up their current, fundamentalist government.  We are fighting a guerilla war and the only way to stop people from attacking us there is to either leave or destroy the whole country.  Obviously the second choice is not something we'd want to do.  

Maybe victory is when all of our troops are safe at home.  

A Bad Week for Airlines

This past week, three airlines went out of business.  Two of them had been around for over 30 years.

Aloha Airlines, ATA, and SkyBus are no longer with us.  While I have never flown any of these airlines before, the latter two went under extremely quickly, with little warning.  I think that while the rest of our airlines are having issues, none of the large carriers like Delta, NWA, USAir, etc are going to go under anytime soon.

The one transportation company that should be going under is Amtrak.  The government company that almost nobody uses refuses to die, mostly because politicians with a toy-train fetish keep it alive.  Who in god's name would take a train from NYC to Los Angeles, a 3 day journey that would cost several hundred dollars for a seat, and over $2,000 for a bedroom one way!!!  Considering that I could fly on an airline such as Virgin Atlantic which offers free TV and MP3's (which Amtrak does not have) for $250 (round trip).

So, now that we all agree that the choo-choo should die, let's write our congressmen and tell them to introduce a bill to save the taxpayers over $1B a year (unfortunately we spend that much in Iraq in 3 days) and stop funding Amtrak.  The Acela, the "high speed" (1/2 the speed of the TGV in France) train will likely survive, as it rides from DC to NYC to Boston, but who honestly would ever hop on that train from NYC to LA?