Back in the USA!

Blogging has been slow lately as I was out of the country visiting our neighbor to the south, Venezuela. It was my 7th trip there and I can now report the following.

Person after person that I talked to told me that the security situation on the ground is getting progressively worse. Thi in spite of the fact that I probably saw more police and National Guard troops around than I ever did.

As weird as American politics can get these days, at least nobody is taking pot-shots (with guns, not words) at those trying to unseat Obama. Opposition candidate and Chavez challenger Henrique Capriles Radonski cannot say the same.

If anyone wants to get a second, medical opinion, I would suggest El Centro Policlinico Valencia 'La Vina'. They do everything from brain surgery to podiatry and all the specialties in between. And they actually listen to you also rather than simply plugging you into a machine and reading the results hich is all too common in the States.

It's great to be back and after vanquishing the worst case of diarrea of my entire life, it's back to blogging again. Hurray!

Suprise! Socialism Doesn't Work in Brazil Either

It seems that the massive public spending programs that Brazil embarked on under previous president Luiz Ignacio Lula de Silva will be unsustainable in the near future if economic news like this keeps turning up..

"The problem is that the deficit keeps widening as Brazil continues to pay for its material appetites. The consensus among analysts is that Brazil needs to press forward with its own investment in order to build its infrastructure and improve productivity. It isn't happening, however, at an adequate and influential rate.

Foreign investment in the Brazilian stock market has fallen off 70% in the first half of 2011. It's true that the previous year had abnormal growth, but this current drop is very serious. Credit growth has slowed and inflation has increased. Meanwhile, the inclination of strong governmental involvement in private enterprise in various sectors has further dampened foreign investment interest. Inflation has forced benchmark interest rates to 12.5% and rising.


Over-ambitious development has been the stimulus to inflation. Finished-product imports from such trading partners as China have outstripped any balance in exports. Brazil doesn't even have adequate fertilizer production, and that kind of thing hurts its agricultural exports. But the biggest shortfall has been in the field of petroleum production from its Obama-lauded deep well off-shore drilling. Far more outside investment is necessary to profitably exploit these considerable oil reserves. And here is where Lula's famous tight government oversight and control (read: socialist management) comes into negative play."

I've never been much of a fan of simply doling out federal funds to recipients. It creates a class of dependency. What if times are bad and the government decides to stop funding these payments? I think Arthur C. Brooks accurately describes what I think would be a much more preferrable arrangement between government and it's more needy citizens...

"
People flourish when they earn their own success. It's not the money per se, which is merely a measure -- not a source -- of this earned success. More than any other system, free enterprise enables people to earn success and thereby achieve happiness. For that reason, it is not just an economic alternative but a moral imperative.

People think that they will be happier if they have more money, but quickly find out that they're mistaken. When people are asked what income they require for a satisfying life, they consistently respond -- regardless of their income -- that they would need an income about 40 percent higher than whatever they're earning at the time.

Benjamin Franklin (a pretty rich man for his time) grasped the truth about money's inability to deliver life satisfaction. "Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it," he declared. "The more a man has, the more he wants. Instead of filling a vacuum, it makes one."

If money without earned success does not bring happiness, then redistributing money won't make for a happier America. Knowing as we do that earning success is the key to happiness, rather than simply getting more money, the goal of our political system should be this: to give all Americans the greatest opportunities possible to succeed based on their hard work and merit.

This is the liberty our founders wrote about, the liberty that enables the true pursuit of happiness.

Earned success gives people a sense of meaning about their lives. And meaning also is a key to human flourishing."

Thank You Allen West!

I had heard earlier in the day that Rep. (and DNC Chairperson) Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL, above, right) had gotten into a public tizzie with someone, but I now just found out with whom. Apparently, after Rep. Allen West (above left, R-FL) had left the floor of the US House of Representatives yesterday, Rep. Wasserman-Schultz singled out West for his support of the so-called "Cut, Cap and Balance" budget. Wasserman-Schultz, who isn't West's favorite person anyway, was then the recipient of of an email directly from West....

"From: Z112 West, Allen
Sent: Tuesday, July 19, 2011 04:48 PM
To: Wasserman Schultz, Debbie
Cc: McCarthy, Kevin; Blyth, Jonathan; Pelosi, Nancy; Cantor, Eric
Subject: Unprofessional and Inappropriate Sophomoric Behavior from Wasserman-Schultz


Look, Debbie, I understand that after I departed the House floor you directed your floor speech comments directly towards me. Let me make myself perfectly clear, you want a personal fight, I am happy to oblige. You are the most vile, unprofessional, and despicable member of the US House of Representatives. If you have something to say to me, stop being a coward and say it to my face, otherwise, shut the heck up. Focus on your own congressional district!


I am bringing your actions today to our Majority Leader and Majority Whip and from this time forward, understand that I shall defend myself forthright against your heinous characterless behavior……which dates back to the disgusting protest you ordered at my campaign hqs, October 2010 in Deerfield Beach.


You have proven repeatedly that you are not a Lady, therefore, shall not be afforded due respect from me!


Steadfast and Loyal


Congressman Allen B West (R-FL)"

West is correct, in my estimation, that Wasserman-Schultz is indeed the " most vile, unprofessional, and despicable member of the US House of Representatives" Her assertion that republicans were "literally" trying to drag the country back to Jim Crow era laws was particularly low, even for her shoddy standards.



Ms. Wasserman-Schultz continues to live down to the reputation so pervasive among democrats of trying to balkanize various groups and capitilize on their grievances rather than attempting to work together to achieve a mutually agreeable end.

Who Lost Peru?

It is the question that anyone with even a whiff of interest of what happens in the Western Hemisphere is asking these days, not the circus sideshow about some congressman named Weiner. Of two recent articles I came across concerning the recent presidential election there, The Guardian was, I believe, unrealistically optimistic...

"With almost all votes from Sunday's poll counted, [Leftist, Ollanta] Humala had won 7,182,788 and his rival Keiko Fujimori 6,807,933, translating into 51.3% and 48.7% respectively after a bitter campaign that polarised the country....

Big business and media groups backed the 36-year-old senator despite the fact that her [Keiko Fujimori's], father, Alberto, is in jail for corruption and human rights abuses committed while he was president in the 1990s. Humala, who led an unsuccessful coup against Fujimori in 2000, pulled ahead in the final days of the campaign after reminding voters of forced sterilisations and rampant corruption during Fujimori's rule. His victory sent the stock exchange plunging 12%, prompting temporary suspension of trading and fears of capital flight. Investors fear the former lieutenant colonel may follow radical economic policies of his one-time mentor, Venezuela's Hugo Chávez.

Humala renounced Chávez during the campaign, swapped red T-shirts for dark suits and promised to rule like a Lula-style social democrat. But doubts remain.

"We believe there is still a significant amount of uncertainty regarding who is the 'real' Humala," said a research note from RBC Capital Markets.

Humala and Fujimori are reviled by many Peruvians as dangerous demagogues but centrist rivals cancelled each other in the first round in April, putting the two populists from opposite ends of the political spectrum into the runoff."

And that's the more optimistic of the two articles. Talk about a couple of 'Real Winners' to choose from. They make a couple of flim-flam artists like Obama-McCain look like Lincoln-Douglas in comparison. From Red State, we read....

"The tremendous flow of money ,introduced into the coffers of Humala by Hugo Chávez enabled him to outspend Keiko by at least 4 to 1. This was known to the CIA and neither was denounced ,nor competing funds distributed to the pro-USA Keiko Fujimori.Three days before the election it took Roger Noriega,ex assistant secretary of state in the Bush administration , and long out of govertnment to publish the news that at least 12 million dollars were channeled through the Venezuelan Naval attache´s office in Bolivia to the naval attache´s office in Perú in the closing weeks of the campaign. A considerable amount of this money was used in vote buying in rural areas of southern Perú. During the years between elections, Chávez built up a treasure chest of petro-dollars in Perú to enable Humala to structure a formidable political party organization. He paid for key Brazilian operatives from Lula´s Brazilian labor party to organize Humala´s campaign.This was known in the state department and the CIA. No action was taken to help our friends.

So now the keystone, Perú is gone leaving Chile and Colombia without a key ally in their democratic front against Hugo Chávez. When Humala takes office on the 28th of July to the applause of Chávez, Evo Morales, Rafael Correa and the Castro brothers , he should issue a special thank you to the firm of Obama & Clinton Inc. for standing idly bye while Perú was lost."

It's not like we couldnt use friends in that part of the world when Iran is actively setting up missle batteries in Venezuela, pointed at the US and Colombia.

If only we had someone in the White House who knew how to counteract against such threats instead of the "community organizer" that currently occupies the Oval Office.

(Pictured; The Tomb of San Martin de Porres, Convent of Santo Domingo, Lima, Peru