Contributed by Mike Walker...

All, 

Back in December I sent some musings on the current troubles in our economy.  Here are the grades with comments I would give to Washington so far:

A.  Increase the velocity of the dollar in the economy.  This means getting the cash flowing again in our financial markets

Grade: C+.  

We avoided a disastrous defeat but have not secured a victory.  To raise the grade Washington now needs to talk the “other” bankers like the people who run community banks.  If you understand their issues/concerns with the current financial market then you will finally understand how to get the entire banking industry back on track.

This is where the capital needed for immediate job growth is most badly needed.  Besides, the big bankers are too busy remodeling their offices.

B. Good Stable Jobs = Support for Private Sector Businesses

Overall Grade: C-.

Job #1 is support for Small Business.  Grade: D.

This is the road to turning the economy around.  Every other stimulus goal must be secondary.

When California began its economic turnaround five years ago it was borne almost entirely on the backs of small business.  Small business created the jobs.  Big business was still downsizing.  These entrepreneurs in California not only created as many new jobs as the big businesses were shedding, they created a significantly larger number of jobs.  

Small businesses are the dynamic and agile engines for growth on the playing field.  If Washington really want to put people to work again then focus on small businesses.  

Job #2 is support for the rest of the private sector. Grade: Unknown 

If we want to keep jobs in America we need to make American industry competitive.  We have the second highest corporate tax rate in the developed world.  Shame on us!  We need to be globally competitive and that means keeping big government out of the pockets of the private sector.  The competing plans have not been sorted out to date.

Job #3 is infrastructure development. B+

Infrastructure can enhance economic growth but alone it cannot turn an economy around.  So far Washington is doing a pretty good job. The stress on information technology is savvy strategic move.  

The key to infrastructure development is to understand that it can never be an end in itself.  Most in Washington seem to grasp the idea that the purpose of infrastructure development is to create an environment that allows the private sector to thrive.  

To get an “A” grade we need to see more investment in defense.  For example, the light armored vehicles (LAV’s) in the Marine Corps should have been replaced nearly ten years ago.  The LAV’s were overhauled but eight years of war puts them right back in the “NEED TO BE REPLACED” category.

The last Job: Bailing out failed/failing industries and State/big city bureaucracies.  

Grade: F.

This somehow became Job #1 to the professional political class in Washington. 

It is folly to think the solutions to our economic problems will be found in the actions of any combination of the folks working at Ford, Chrysler, or GM.  It is plain dumb to think it lies in state and big city government. 

One last point, when the taxpayers put $ billions of dollars in the banks, etc, we received a lot of equity.  When the banks, AIG, etc, turn around (and they will) the taxpayers stand to not only get their money back but with a nice profit to boot.  You will be hearing screams of the rich banker folks from sea to shining sea.

When we pump $ billions into failed big businesses and state governments, the taxpayer money is pretty much poured down the drain.  A small handful of career politicians will get millions in contributions from this mob but the taxpayers will be left with empty pockets.  

Maybe the rich bankers should stop redecorating to take a cue from the government worker’s unions and figure out a way to keep their share of the taxpayer bail-out?

C. Change the business model in Congress

Grade: C  

The jury is still out.  The early signs from the White House and Senate are good but not those from the House of Representatives.  Pork still seems to be the favored food there.  Grass seed for Washington DC + Condoms/Family planning = Immediate Economic stimulus for folks out of work?  Good grief!

This national economic downturn is a real problem.  It is a serious problem.  Congress needs to put our county first and their pork project/special interest pandering dead last.  

Semper Fi,

Mike

Another in a series of letters sent by Marine Col. Mike Walker, retired. This letter was responding to a letter written concerning media coverage of the Israeli/Hamas war.

Martine,

Always good to get a different perspective.  The war in Gaza was very violent and innocents were killed but do not fall for some of lies and propaganda.  There has been an untruthful manipulation of the war in Gaza by Hamas.

War is always savage.  But Hamas and the radicals who follow al Qaeda/Muslim Brotherhood/Hezbullah go beyond refusing to follow accepted international rules of warfare.

The extremists intentionally violate the rules in order get the "Big Lie" out blaming the other side for all the bad things that the extremists largely cause.

Let me give you my first hand experience with this de-civilizing form of warfare from Iraq.  Hamas/Hezbullal/al Qaeda/Muslim Brotherhood: They are barbaric terrorists.

In Iraq they hid weapons and ammunition in Red Crescent (Muslim partner of Red Cross) food supplies.  Our forces were tipped off and searched and found the stuff.  Using the Red Crescent to smuggle arms and munitions is a war crime by the way.

The extremists ensured that al Jazeera and al Arabia only showed it as evil Americans halting desperately needed international aid from the "victims."  A "Big Lie."  

In reality our only requirement was that we would search the aid going through our lines. 

These enemy propaganda stories were more often than not repeated by the Western media with little or no attempt to get at the truth.

The terrorists never wore uniforms when they attacked to try to kill/wound Americans and their fellow Iraqis so that their dead/wounded could always be reported in the news as innocent "civilians" who were victims of American war crimes/atrocities.  A "Big Lie."

We (like the Israelis), in trying to follow the rules of warfare, designate areas as no-fire/restricted fire areas.  They are usually places that are heavily populated or structures such as hospital, schools, clinics, Mosques, etc.

Hamas/Al Qaeda/Hezballah all figured this out.

In Iraq the terrorists immediately began to store their weapons and ammunition only in schools and the like.  They would use the minarets of the mosques as military observation posts and the mosque itself was used for all manner of military purposes.  

Muqtada Sadr's followers had a torture chamber set up in the Shrine of Ali Mosque in Najaf during the fighting there in August 2004.

Even more shocking, our forces found dozens and dozens of empty and broken bottles of hard liquor on the shrines grounds where his Mahdi Army boys used to get up a little liquid courage before fighting the Marines.

Needless to say that sacrilege of the Shrine was never reported on al Jazeera or al Arabia or in the Western media. Instead the Madhi army was presented as a legitimate force opposing the occupation.  One more "Big Lie."  

The truth is that the Mahdi army was a bunch of (occasionally drunk/high) criminal thugs and a tool for Sadr's now ruined plan for becoming the new dictator of Iraq.

The terrorists used the hospitals to position snipers and set up command and control centers to try to kill Americans in Fallujah. 

We would eventually move in to attack the enemy at these places.  Al Jazeera and al Arabia would then air pictures of a damaged minaret or a hospital with American troops all around it and show it as another example of evil Americans doing bad things.  Another "Big Lie."

In Iraq, a humanitarian group brought a convoy of ambulances to Fallujah during the first battle.  We were then put in a lose-lose situation.  If we refused to let the ambulances in we were heartless and evil.  If we let them in we knew the terrorists would use them for their own purposes.  We decided to let them in.

They were immediately used by enemy as military transport for troops, weapons, munitions.  The worst of it was in one fight an ambulance drove up and left the wounded on the street as the driver only stopped to pick up the weapons of the dead enemy and put them in the back of the ambulance and drove off back to the enemy lines.  

After repeated use of the ambulances for solely military purposes we started knocking them out.  Of course the only pictures shown on al Arabia and al Jazeera were pictures of burning ambulances destroyed by the evil criminal Americans.  A "Big Lie."

I could go on and on but hopefully you see my point.  

I do not trust the reporting from Gaza.  I have been met with the "Big Lie" too many times to accept any of it at face value.

The civilized world has a real problem.  

Every time we let Hamas/Hezbullah/al Qaeda/Muslim Brotherhood violate the rules of warfare (storing weapons in schools/not wearing uniforms/using hospitals and mosques for military purposes) we take another step backwards towards a barbaric world ruled by ruthless savages.

Mike

Is it just me or is there something terribly wrong in Minnesota? Well, I know Mike Ramirez sees it!

Do you remember the first "kick-off" function of the John Kerry campaign? Al Franken was the de facto "voice" of the Democratic Party in NY's Central Park. He grabbed the mic and started the chant, "F___George Bush, F___George Bush....(on and on)" There cemented in stone was Al, the Democratic Party, and John Kerry's first effort at creating a dialogue that the American people could take part in... send shivers down your back, huh? This is this platform for change that Reid, Pelosi and Obama have stacked their claim...

And now, this joke of a human being (Mr. Smalley) might be a United States Senator. Is it too late to take this country back? I don't think so! I am a resister, a naysayer, a gad-fly! Join me and the legends that will emerge!