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Dick Trail

The Way I Saw It

Opinion

Political junkie

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Today is the anniversary of the day that the Radical Muslims declared war on us the United States of America. The specter of the second airliner being flown into the World Trade Center, replayed time after time on TV -- that scene is engraved in minds for the rest of our lives.

It is an iconic moment, one that we remember all our lives. Personally I've only had a few other such epic events in my life; the assassination of President J.F. Kennedy and the day that I first soloed an aircraft learning to fly way back in 1953.

The whole event of 9-11 is a vivid personal memory for me. I hear again the Kansas City Approach Controller ordering a Citation (business class small jet) "This is a National Emergency. You are directed to land immediately at Kansas City Downtown Airport." I was just behind him flying a Beech Baron and had filed for the Lee Summit Airport on the east side of Kansas City. I was directed to continue to my destination. There in the lobby of the FBO I watched the TV show the second jet flying into the World Trade Center. I knew instantly that it was an act of war committed on us. Sad memories!

I note in one my trade journals that both United and American Airlines are being sued for damages related to 9-11. They carelessly allowed their aircraft and flight crews to be hijacked and flown into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on that terrible day. I viewed the article in pure disgust. Ambulance chasing lawyers trying to get rich.

Some people have no sense of right or wrong and only seem to be driven by greed. The legal profession is poorly served by not evicting such unworthy individuals from their ranks.

This week I received a letter from a high school classmate who now lives, retired, in the Chicago area. Don is into sailing his fair sized craft on Lake Michigan. Don Glaze writes: "Every year since 2011 I was off sailing the night of Sept 11th. We are usually on (under) the landing pattern for O'Hare (Chicago's huge, International Airport) but on that night there were no planes in the air. We commented on the world conditions and then one lone plane came in to land. We assumed that it was the President on his way back from Omaha. What an experience!"

Yes, there have to be as many stories as there are people who remember the shocking events on that day we now commemorate as 9-11. May our freedom loving country not soon forget!

One more non-mention of a Blue Moon event. Don also wrote "I try to get in lots of sailing this time of the year, Sunsets and moon rise happens within the same hour. What an experience, actually a religious experience, God challenges one and you try to meet the challenge."

I fear that my wife, my Grannie Annie, has become a political junkie. She watched all the Republican Convention and I joined her as I could. Then to be fair and balanced we also watched the Democrat Convention. Quite a contrast. Grannie does not suffer fools well and does not forgive out and out lies. Some of her comments are well, not exactly ladylike. She makes me proud! For sure the voters this year need to choose wisely. One party has faith in ever stronger system of big government, probably because they figure that they will be a part of the elite group making decisions for the rest of us. The other party is a little more business oriented and would like to shrink government and put power back into the hands of we the people. There is no doubt which way Grannie will vote -- again.

Then we had a date out to Dinesh D'Souza's movie "2016 Obama's America." It is D'Souza's vision of what America will look like if we elect President Obama to a second term. Quite honestly it was a pretty sobering two hour adventure. Were I king I would require all person eligible to vote to watch that movie but then such an order would violate the very principles of freedom we conservatives hold dear.

Personally I think that President Obama will go down in a lopsided victory for Governor Romney this time around. That may be wistful thinking as I didn't think President Bill Clinton would see a second term either. Our country was not well served by that decision either, so stay tuned.

That is the way I saw it.

Dick Trail

Comments
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  • Mr. Trail,

    I believe you have taken optimism to a new level thinking Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney will win by a landslide.

    Never have I seen a candidate that expected to garner votes based entirely on what he calls his personal principals -- choosing to postpone details of his proposed platform until after the election. That philosophy sure hasn't gained traction on a local level, every detail of every decision in City and County Government is scrutinized beyond belief. It is hard to imagine that these same people will bite their tongue and turn a blind eye come November.

    Mr. Romney often uses his successful experience in the private sector as proof that he is qualified to be President, yet he refuses to disclose the tax returns which would validate those statements. You would think a successful businessman running for President of the United States would be proud of his business accomplishments and be forthright in providing the critical documentation to the General Public for review. With less than two months remaining before the election, Mr. Romney has released an uncompleted tax return for 2010 and nothing for 2011 due to an extension of the filing deadline.

    Of course there may be other factors involved influencing Mr. Romneys decision to postpone release of his tax returns. Primarily the General Public is questioning his use of offshore tax havens in Bermuda, Switzerland, and the Cayman Islands. This is due in part to the recent disclosure by a former USB banker detailing how the Swiss Bank USB worked with U.S. clients to avoid paying taxes by shielding their wealth.

    This one disclosure by one bank has resulted in over 35,000 taxpayers taking part in a voluntary amnesty program to repatriate their illegal offshore accounts. This has resulted in the collection of over 5 billion dollars in back taxes. There is also a continuing investigation into an additional 4,900 UBS account holders who held illegal offshore accounts. This is just the tip of the iceberg as there are literally thousands of banks and holding companies using these tax havens to help U.S. Citizens avoid paying income tax on earnings made in the United States.

    In the light of the illegal use of offshore tax havens, shouldn't candidates running for the highest public office in the land have to provide documentation that their offshore accounts are above board and within the law?

    http://finance.yahoo.com/news/jailed-banker-helped-crack-swiss-142921849.html

    -- Posted by Geezer on Thu, Sep 13, 2012, at 10:36 AM

  • Geezer, have you seen a birth certificate or College transcripts for your candidate of choice? Also, why doesn't your candidate boast about his history as a 20 year parishioner of Jeremiah Wright? In addition to Reverend Wright (who preached the hate speech of "...not God Bless America. God **** America."), why doesn't your candidate acknowledge his 20 plus year association with Bill Ayers of the weather underground (weathermen) [extreme leftist domestic terrorist organization]. Why doesn't your candidate talk about what he has accomplished in the last three and a half years? Why does he attempt to shift the focus to his opponent's personal histories when he has not intention of disclosing his own? Why is he not honoring his own promise "If I don't have this done in three years, then this is going to be a one term proposition." Your candidate has not only done nothing to make our country stronger but in fact has weakened our country dramatically.

    -- Posted by quick13 on Fri, Sep 14, 2012, at 9:50 AM

  • quick13

    I just read in the news that the stock market is at its highest level in five years -- essentially regaining almost all that was lost during the financial crisis.

    Let's take a look at the Recession which began in Dec. 2007 using the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics jobs data. The peak of the recession was Jan. 2008 which showed a total of 138,023,000 nonfarm jobs. This also was the last month that President Bush showed any job gains during his tenure resulting in a gain of 41,000 jobs. From this point forward job loss was basically on a freefall:

    Jan. 2008 = 41,000 gain

    Feb. 2008 = 84,000 loss

    Mar. 2008 = 95,000 loss

    Apr. 2008 = 208,000 loss

    May 2008 = 190,000 loss

    June 2008 = 208,000 loss

    July 2008 = 210,000 loss

    Aug. 2008 = 274,000 loss

    Sep. 2008 = 432,000 loss

    Oct. 2008 = 489,000 loss

    Nov. 2008 = 803,000 loss

    Dec. 2008 = 661,000 loss

    Jan. 2009 = 818,000 loss

    Total loss of 4,472,000 jobs in one year - this surpassed the previous record set in 1945 (2,750,000 job loss), the year WW II ended.

    Since the Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes the jobs report on the 12th of each month, another 8 days of job loss needs to be added since President Obama didn't officially take office until Jan. 20, 2009. By prorating the Feb. 2009 job loss I came up with another 187,000 jobs that should be added resulting in a grand total of 4,659,000 jobs lost from the peak of the recession to when President Obama assumed office.

    By the time President Obama was able to get the Stimulus Package Legislation passed (Feb. 17, 2009) and the associated programs were staffed and up to full speed, some three months later around the end of April, another 2,028,000 jobs were lost in the recession freefall. Now we are looking at 6,687,000 jobs lost to the recession before President Obamas policies even had a chance of curbing the job loss freefall.

    Now lets take a look at the time span from when the Stimulus was fully implemented to the bottom of the recession trough in Feb. 2010 - when the job numbers returned to gains instead of losses.

    May 2009 = 361,000 loss

    June 2009 = 482,000 loss

    July 2009 = 339,000 loss

    Aug. 2009 = 231,000 loss

    Sep. 2009 = 199,000 loss

    Oct. 2009 = 202,000 loss

    Nov. 2009 = 42,000 loss

    Dec. 2009 = 171,000 loss

    Jan. & Feb. 2010 = 75,000 loss

    Total loss of jobs was 2,102,000

    All total, the job loss from the peak of the recession to the trough of the recession was 8,789,000 jobs. The fact that the President was able to turn an 800,000 job loss per month into a gain of jobs in a 10 month time frame is phenomenal by most any ones standards. Every month from Feb. 2010 through Sept. of 2012 has shown a gain in jobs -- 31 consecutive months of job growth.

    As far as your statements about the Presidents religious beliefs and other affiliations -- have you looked at Candidate Romneys affiliation with the Mormon Church? Many Republicans and Democrats consider the Mormon religion to be a cult. I have included a link for you which discusses some of the differences between conventional Christianity and the beliefs of the Mormon religion.

    http://www.challengemin.org/jofm.html

    I consider Reverend Wrights speech to be no more offensive than that of Pat Robertson -- isn't he a minister. He often suggests that natural disasters are Gods way of punishing some people around the world including the United States -- essentially saying God has damned these people.

    -- Posted by Geezer on Sat, Sep 15, 2012, at 11:33 AM

  • Geezer, I am still waiting to see a birth certificate and college transcripts on Mr. Obama. Not to mention where the funding for his first campaign came from. Also, have you heard of any of Romney's Spiritual leaders telling his congregation to God **** America? There is nothing there to use against Romney. Has Romney ever associated with a terrorist organization? OOPS sorry I forgot about Bain Capital....Such an evil organization! With such vile and evil retail outlets such as AMC Entertainment, Aspen Education Group, Brookstone, Burger King, Burlington Coat Factory, Clear Channel Communications, Domino's Pizza, DoubleClick, Dunkin' Donuts, D&M Holdings, Guitar Center, Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), Sealy, The Sports Authority, Staples, Toys "R" Us, Warner Music Group and The Weather Channel. I am cowering at my desk. Oh and you would fit in nicely with the blame Bush brigade in the white house. Please.....you can't be serious that you are going to drag up the "OH I can't be held responsible because of what my predecessor has left me....OMG!!!!!!!I have nothing to work with what will I ever do.!!!????!!!!???" That line has not worked for years. Can you really believe that this idiot is a good president? I really cannot believe that I am even having this conversation. You really need to get a hobby and stay away from politics. Because you can't see what almost everyone else in this country sees. Our current administration is laughable at best and incompetent at worst. You know one of the things that was done after WWII was to deport all of the Hispanic laborers to make room for returning veterans. Is our current administration going to do that???? Absolutely not. They are trying to figure out a way to let them stay in this country and vote and of course they would vote for that person who paid for their babies to be born in United States hospitals with no cost to them! You speak of job growth. I fear the growth that you speak of is simply people falling off of the department of labor tracking system, because they have been without a job too long. As far as Romney's Mormon faith goes, at least his faith is not preaching to "God **** America" And last I checked, most Mormons were god fearing, law abiding, and productive citizens of this country. Yes freedom of religion is a constitutional right. But so is the right to keep and bear an arm which is a cornerstone check and balance on the power of government. But one Mr. Obama would like to eliminate. I do not listen to Mr. Robertson as I believe in the freedom of the individual to make his own decisions and to justify his behavior to his own God. As you know from 8th grade history, the most freedom is obtained from neither far right nor far left ideologies. The most freedom is received from the exact middle. Anyone trying to take away freedoms is BAD. They are either right leaning (fascist) or left leaning (communist). Both take freedoms away from individuals. This is not what our US of A is about. It is about individual freedoms, and individual responsibilities.

    -- Posted by quick13 on Mon, Sep 17, 2012, at 10:38 PM
  • *

    I guess the CNN fact checkers disagree with Mr. Obama and Mr. Geezer...

    http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/05/politics/fact-check-obama-jobs/index.html

    And apparently, people are not happy with how their personal economic experience is 'trending' despite the sunny glow we get from the Commander in Chief and his able propagandist...Mr. Geezer.

    http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2012/09/10/a-third-of-americans-now-say-they-are-...

    But the president can always remind us that he scored big on bagging Bin Laden and the three teenage pirated off the coast of Africa....wow.

    -- Posted by Mickel on Tue, Sep 18, 2012, at 7:43 PM

  • Mickel

    The numbers and calculations I presented were derived directly from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, same as the CNN fact check you provided.

    Since you called me a propagandist I feel it is necessary for you personally to provide your own breakdown of the numbers using Bureau of Labor Statistics showing where I misrepresented my analysis. In other words, I am calling your bluff.

    In fact, I feel so confident in my numbers that I would like to issue a challenge for you to consider. If you can prove that I intentionally misrepresented my analysis I will no longer provide any comments on this website. On the other hand, if you can not discredit my analysis you will no longer provide any comments on this website. It is time to put up or shut up.

    -- Posted by Geezer on Thu, Sep 20, 2012, at 6:14 AM
  • *

    Okay Geezer - normally I would tell you to bite some sand and be happy with that. But for the chance to cease your inane rants...I'm taking the challenge.

    Here it is....one link...not my own 'personally' added numbers that are non-sourced.

    The official BLS numbers from their own site...verifiable by everyone in cyberspace...

    http://data.bls.gov/pdq/SurveyOutputServlet

    Bye-bye.

    -- Posted by Mickel on Thu, Sep 20, 2012, at 8:40 PM

  • Mickel

    Your reply does nothing to dispute my analysis of the recession.

    The only reason I posted my analysis is because quick13 stated that the President had done nothing to make our country better off. I believe his handling of the recession kept our country from total financial collapse. The statistical jobs analysis showing the loss of 8.8 million jobs during the recession should be a wakeup call for everyone.

    I have included a direct link to the data source I utilized to determine monthly net job loss or gain calculations (2002 -2012) for the Nonfarm Sector, which includes Private and Government. The total amount of Nonfarm Sector jobs are shown for each month in thousands. The difference between the total of Nonfarm Sector jobs from month to month provides the loss or gain amount in thousands. It is pretty simple.

    http://data.bls.gov/pdq/SurveyOutputServlet?request_action=wh&graph_name=CE_cesb...

    The following are quotes from a 2011 BLS overview report entitled "Employment Loss and the 2007-2009 recession: an overview". This report also lends credibility my analysis.

    The United States has experienced 11 periods of sustained employment declines since the inception of the CES survey in 1939. Large declines in employment tend to be associated with recessions. (See charts 4 and 5.) However, peaks and troughs in employment generally do not directly align with the official starting points and endpoints of recessions. Between January 2008 and February 2010, employment fell by 8.8 million--the largest absolute decline in the series' history. The previous record was 4.3 million net jobs lost from November 1944 to September 1945.

    It is hard to generalize given the differences in depth and duration among employment downturns, but the average employment decline before the most recent recession resulted in a drop in employment of 3.6 percent and lasted 15 months. (See table 2). The most recent employment decline, from 2008 to 2010, was a 6.3 percent decrease and lasted 25 months. In percentage terms, the recent decline is exceeded in depth only by that which occurred as WWII was ending. Measured by duration, only the 30 month employment downturn from February 2001 to August 2003 was longer than the most recent downturn.

    In addition to its depth and length, the recent downturn is unique in that it is the first on record to have erased all of the jobs gained in the previous economic expansion. This situation resulted not only from the sharp decline in employment, but also from relatively tepid job growth in the preceding expansion. From August 2003 to January 2008, employment grew by 6.3 percent, its weakest expansion since WWII. From the end of WWII to the expansion that ended in February 2001, the average employment expansion had been a gain of 17.8 percent. In February 2010, employment was 576,000 below its previous cycle low, August 2003. Before the most recent recession, at the end of boom-and-bust cycles the overall employment level had always remained well above where it started, even after the worst declines.

    http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2011/04/art1full.pdf

    -- Posted by Geezer on Mon, Sep 24, 2012, at 12:25 PM
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