"The Death of Conservatism" or Liberal Fantasy? I challenge Sam Tanenhaus.

My open emailed letter to Mr. Sam Tanenhaus, NY Times Book Review Editor and now author of a new book just released last week titled "The Death of Conservatism".


Dear Mr. Tanenhaus,

I caught your appearance on Fox News last week promoting your new book “The Death of Conservatism”,(a saavy marketing move by the way, more people watch FOX News in 10 minutes of an hour than watch CNN for the other 50 minutes). You were pretty funny dancing and dodging all those O’Reilly questions about why as the NY Times book review editor, you failed to review something like 10 of the top selling 13 non-fiction books of the year by authors such as Levin, O’Reilly, Beck, and other Conservative authors. A couple of thoughts occurred to me as I watched you promoting your own book (when you weren’t defending your paper and it’s book review bias as being “Not that Liberal”) of course.

I have a challenge for you Mr. Tanenhaus:

I will bet you $100 dollars donated to each of our favorite charities that Sarah Palin sells more copies of her new book “Going Rogue”  pre-release and through the first month of it’s release; than you do of your own new book “The Death of Conservatism” from it’s release to the end of 12 months. Oh heck lets throw in Glenn Beck’s new book “Arguing With Idiots” too for the same bet amount and sales. 1 month vs. an entire year on yours. Shall we? When you lose the bet, what will it say about your entire premise and belief system that led you to write your own personal fantasy and try to sell it as a book? What do you say? Are you on?

Sincerely,

Michael Bednarz
Just another Average Right Wing Radical American
Pt. Townsend WA


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Obama's Cash For Clunkers Program; A Preview of Obama Health Care?

I am in the Auto Wholesaling business and I can tell you I knew this Cash for Clunker program would be a nightmare for the public, and also the dealers. So now the Government has suspended it and dealers are anxiously awaiting word if their deals will be funded and their submitted applications honored. Personally, this program has damaged my own income significantly. I have seen more than 50 trade-in vehicles at my dealerships that would ordinarily be wholesaled by the dealer to me and others, which we then sell to other small used car retail dealers. We make a bit of money, the dealer we sell to makes a little money when they retail these "economy" cars, the salesperson makes a little money and the lower income folks who have little or no access to financing in these extremely tightened lending times, are able to purchase a car. The car is "recycled" from one owner to someone else who needs it to get to work, or use it for work in the case of these old trucks etc. that make up the bulk of the CFC trade-ins. This program has reduced the supply of these low cost economy cars in the available marketplace, this will drive up prices that have already been very high in due to low availablility from trading in during the poor economy and low new car sales. So, in the end the little guy and the single mom with lower incomes and the least options available to them for purchasing a used vehicle will be the ones hurt. Once again the unintended consequences are not considered.

Once traded in the CFC vehicle engines must be disabled by having acid poured into the running engine until it seizes, and then an authorized salvage agent picks up the car and has it crushed. How wasteful. I have lost potentially thousands and thousands of dollars to this program and other small business people like me have as well. In Mr. Fix-It's effort to save the planet, he expends tax-payer dollars and shows just how inept the government is when they try and inject themselves into areas best left to the private sector. This program is however good for a couple of things.

1) It illustrates and proves just how vibrantly the American people and businesses are that can respond to an incentive. This further illustrates the folly of the Obama/Democrat Stimulus plan. All we needed was a 50% cut in all taxes across the board for 2 years, and ensuring that the 2010 Bush Cut expiration is extended and made permanent. This would have spurred and stimulated activity and growth and job creation by unleashing economic engines of America, Consumers and Business in the same manner as CFC program did. It would have worked without burdening our children and grandchildren with the multi-generational debt, deficits and the abject failure of the Coalition of the Clueless (Obama, Peelosi, Reid, Geithner, Frank, Biden, Waxman etc.) and their ineptitude.

2) The market will respond to consumer demand, when the consumers demand is satisfied. Hybrid vehicles have had greater purchase incentives than even the CFC program. They have all failed to provide any meaningful increase in sales. In fact, Hybrid sales are a disaster. Uncle Sam offers you $2350 Tax Credit on a 2009 Nissan Altima Hybrid. But wait, you also get a local Sales Tax rebate that is part of the stimulus program, so in the case of the Altima in Washington selling for $34,280 you would get back about $3,153 for that alone. Nissan offers up to $3,000 in Cash Rebates. So that would mean $8,503 in Govt. tax rebates/credits plus dealer incentives for the purchase of a 2009 Nissan Hybrid Altima. In honor of the recently departed Billy Mays…. BUT WAIT! There’s more! I am using MSRP for pricing these vehicles are becoming nothing more than ship anchors and I bet you could get another 3 Thousand off MSRP just to get the thing cleared off their lot. What is the point I am trying to make? Simply this, Americans will buy what they want, not what the Government wants them to buy. They still want SUV’s and Trucks, and they are buying them with or without the Cash-For-Clunkers incentive. Visit a dealer’s lot and check out their supply of Toyota Prius and any other Hybrid model. I guarantee you that you will have the best selection to chose from of any other models on their lot despite the Government offering more than double the Cash For Clunker incentive. This is why Chrysler and GM will fail as long as the Government is controlling them. Thy must make and sell what people will buy. No amounts of incentives are currently pushing Hybrids off the lots.

3) It shows how utterly incompetent, unqualified, inefficient and naive the Government is when they get involved in something best left to the private sector. If the Government can't administer a relatively simple and benign 1 Billion dollar Cash-For-Clunker trade program effectively, how and why would Americans ever let them take over the best health care system in the world and and allow Government regulation, control, and administration of something with literally life and death importance for themselves and their families? Socialized Health Care would become the largest Federal Program in history with the absolutely under-estimated initial cost of more than ONE TRILLION DOLLARS for just the initial, small-scale implementation.

This is where the rubber meets the road. Tell all of your Congressmen/women and Senators in no uncertain terms, don't you dare trade-in my health care for this " Clunker" Socialized Government Health Care Program!

Michael R. Bednarz

Obama's Presidential Approval Slides South With His Economy

Obama's June 21st Rasmussen Approval index was -2, the first time he has been negative since he took office. How can this be? All we hear about in the mainstream media is how Obama is still riding high with his 60% plus approval and has yet to be tied to his disastrous policies and mismanagement of the economy and foreign policy challenges facing Americans. This is the perception they report and use to gull the masses into believing this is the reality. The truth is the opposite; the media is guilty of deception by omission. What do I mean by that? Well there are 4 categories in a daily Rasmussen poll of Presidential Approval that they run daily as an index. Here are the questions. 1. Do you strongly approve of President Obama's performance? 2. Do you somewhat approve of Obama's performance? 3. Do you strongly disapprove of President Obama's performance? 4. Do you somewhat disapprove of President Obama's performance?

Remember Rasmussen, perhaps the most respected name in polling, tracks and polls on these same questions daily. But for purposes of his index he takes the STRONGLY approve and DISAPPROVE figures as his basis to arrive at his "index" that he tracks daily. The mainstream media typically use the lower "somewhat" numbers which are usually mamby pamby know-nothings who answer that way because they don't have a clue about what he is doing positive or negative to them and how their lives are affected by his issues and policies. For example, after the inauguration Obama rightfully enjoyed a sky-high approval; he hadn't done anything yet and we were all caught up in the unprecedented history, emotions and we gave him the traditional benefit of the doubt to see what his governing policies would be versus his campaign rhetoric. On Jan 22nd the day after inauguration his numbers were thus 44% strongly approve, 14% strongly disapprove. The somewhat approve and disapprove percentages were 64 and 29% respectively. This calculated to the Rasmussen approval/disapproval daily index to +30. The most recent Rasmussen daily tracking poll on Presidential performance and approval on June 21st went negative for the first time in his presidency. That's right, he now has a higher disapproval rating index than approval. On June 21st he had these poll figures: Strongly approve/disapprove 32/34% and Total approve/disapprove 53/46% which Rasmussen calculates at an index rating of -2. The first time Obama has shown a negative index rating during his presidency. Clearly as the negative numbers mount and the negative response to his policies continue to mount, Obama's messianic popularity is slipping with them as fast as his policies and economy are going South.

You don't hear Approval/Disapproval poll figures like this in the mainstream Obamamedia do you? That is why you must share this with everyone you can. However, we must not let Obama stand alone to face this music. He is only the empty-suited Community Agitator figurehead and leader of the "Coalition of the Clueless" and we Americans must take to task all parties involved in the effort to destroy our economy, weaken our National security and imperil America on virtually every front. Obama, Biden, Geithner, Pelosi, Reid, Dodd, Frank, Holder, et al they need to be stopped by blocking their efforts through Congress. 2010 represents our first critical opportunity, and frankly given the pace of their destruction, perhaps our last chance to save our nation will be those mid-term Congressional elections. Yes we must link and tie these policies to Obama because he owns them but he isn't alone, and that is why we must mount an effective strategy.

Congress bears much responsibility for where we are today. Democrats and the liberals won power and took over control of the GSE's (Government Sponsored Enterprises) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 2006, Democrats led by Barney Frank and Chris Dodd immediately went to work protecting their GSE's and lending programs from Republican and Conservative efforts that had failed to reform and regulate irresponsible and fraudulent practices and policies at the GSE's that Democrats fought, opposed, and thwarted every step of the way from Republicans and a few Democrats trying to prevent or stop the impending doom of the Housing and economic meltdown as early as 2004.

Liberals in Congress in 2007 imposed "Mark to Market" accounting rules on assets and investments for Wall Street that had never been governed by this rule that typically applied to stock and commodity traders and securities; not bond or asset-backed bank and investment house securities and investments. This rule's application in heretofore never applicable instruments had a hastening effect upon the debacle at financial institutions. We must make them all culpable and have them inextricably linked with Obama and their socialist agenda and policies as a whole in a political partnership and conspiracy if you will, that has wreaked havoc on our economy, nationalized our industrial and business independence and vitality, and decimated our small business entrepreneurial base that drives the economic engine of America.

This linkage is important, and it will be successful, it's right out of the Liberal's own play book from 2006 in fact. What did they run for? They really didn't run for anything. They never promised to end the war, not really. They never offered any new positions, they just ran Congressional and Senate candidates against "BUSH" in every district and Senate seat vs. Republican's who were "just extensions and co-conspirators of Bush and his policies". Democrats won even though our economy was in a great economic condition, booming growth in the markets, Personal income growth at record levels, nearly FULL employment in the 4% range for any able-bodied person that wanted to work. They continually told Americans how awful things were and gulled the willing dupes into perceiving a parallel universe from the reality of our strong economic condition. Americans not old enough to remember the Depression or Carter years now have a clear vision and experience about what a horrible economy really looks like. They preached against and condemned the 500 billion Bush deficit, but we and they now look upon that as chump change with their only having 6 months in office creating a deficit of 3.7 TRILLION dollars, and the projections for 12 or 14 Trillion dollars of bankrupting debt by year 10 of the Obama and Coalition of the Clueless budgets. How hard will it be for us to retake the House and Senate given these conditions and TRUTHS of the debacle they have placed us in? Yes, they will keep trying to blame the inherited Bush recession drivel but the numbers will not lie, and they will be exposed as the liars that they are. We must make the case forcefully and eloquently with solid numbers, recovery plans, and take a page from Newt's old playbook that won us the house a decade ago..... we must offer a "Contract for American Renewal" that spells out exactly what we will do, not just economically, but socially and in every aspect of governance to restore our economy, employment, and recovery based upon free-market principles and policies. Bold strokes: Budget, Fiscal and Spending Restraint. Flat or Fair Tax to replace our tax system. Tax cuts to stimulate growth and recovery. Remove government from it's Nationalized businesses. Social Security preservation and reform. Health care reform that strengthens and covers all Americans at lower costs so they can enjoy the finest free-market health system in the world. Restoration of our commitment to stop terrorism. Protect life. Protect Traditional Marriage. Illegal Immigration policies and border security that puts Americans and lawful immigration first, to protect our jobs, economy, and provides for our national security and well-being. Defense policies that don't disable our missle shield that is on the verge of deployment; just as our arch enemies Iran and North Korea are at their greatest threat ever to attack us or our critical and closest allies with missiles and nuclear weapons. An energy policy that promotes domestic production and utilization of our own resources that creates real jobs; not just hiring people to screw in fluorescent light bulbs in federal buildings. We do this while we expand and develop alternative sources, technologies and expand nuclear power to not just help the environment but more importantly provide an alternative to keep America's economy thriving when our fossil fuel sources are exhausted. We will then have perfected these then economically feasible alternatives to replace them.

We will let American see that we will run for principles and concrete and tangible policies, we need to focus on bringing the policies and principles into benefits that they can apply and visualize in their daily lives.

Years ago when I sold new cars for a living, early in my career I would prattle off a bunch of technology features to a customer in my presentation, an experienced old salesman offered me this constructive criticism. Don't just list the features like that, i.e. "This car has ABS brakes and Traction Control with Dual Airbags" and leave it at that. Explain how the feature will benefit them, and educate them to the value of the feature to their lives and safety. Tell them this instead. "The ABS brakes keep you safe by pumping and modulating the brakes so they don't lock up and this will allow you to maneuver and steer safely while braking in slippery and emergency situations preventing collisions, and the Traction Control applies braking control to prevent the wheels from spinning and slipping in rain, ice, and snowy conditions to maintain safe stability and control at these critical times. Should you still find yourself in a collision the Airbag Restraint system deploys and provides maximum safety to prevent serious injury or death in the event of a collision." It's the truth, it's educating the consumer, and it's providing them with the perceived value to make an informed decision.

Rasmussen polling indicates we are making headway and the door is open, Congressional generic ballots indicate the GOP is out polling Dems on being better at handling economic issues, and we are now virtually even on Congressional generic ballots. We have work to do to promote our Conservative principles and solutions even further. We must not relish the misery wrought upon our nation and fellow citizens as good for our political advantage, we must understand we have a responsibility to know that our covenant and great challenge for America is to get us out of this mess, and save millions from economic suffering, misery and disaster. This is a great resposibility and effort we undertake for the sake our our nation. With every new huge program, budget, or bill we know this Coalition of the Clueless are taking America down and it's citizens with it. The inevitable tax, fee, and insidious inflation increases will be felt and burden Americans. Americans must be made to understand where, and who it came from. We must show them the better way. We have to do just that for the mid-term elections coming in 2010. We have to treat the voter as a consumer, we have to create real value for the Republican brand and product. We must offer a better way, better policies, superior ideas and features with proven track records of tangible benefits they can understand and will see in application to their lives. When we do this; in this current state of the economy Americans of all walks and lives will ask themselves this simple question as the folly and failures of the Coalition of the Clueless and Obama policies manifest themselves in their daily struggles.

Am I better off now than I was on November 3rd, 2008? Only this will save America. Please pass this on and share it.


Michael R. Bednarz

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