AMERICA WINS THE OSCARS, FINALLY

WATCHING THE OSCARS TONIGHT, it was satisfying to see Avatar lose best picture and director. James Cameron made Avatar as a comment on America, an anti-American statement: evil American military, happy indigenous people oppressed by evil corporate and American interests, I mean, come on, this is a guy who wears a ‘Free Mumia’ T-shirt. What do you expect?  I have heard that it’s a well-made movie, brilliant in fact, but it’s all about bashing Bush, America and capitalism.

Many expected Avatar to sweep the Oscars given it’s quality, commercial drawing power and it’s message. But surprise, The Hurt Locker beat it badly, winning best pic and best director ( oddly enough, an ex-wife of Cameron’s ). I know many veterans have concerns about some of the technical portrayals in The Hurt Locker, but it is a story in which the American military is portrayed in a realistic and positive light and Kathryn Bigelow, the producer, accepted the Best Producer award in the name of the American military, then Best Picture in the name of all in uniform who serve and protect us. And, no boos from the audience.

Then, Sandra Bullock wins Best Actress for The Blind Side, a great story of  a Christian family giving a second chance to a promising young football player from the wrong side of the tracks. She was outstanding in the role and deserved her victory.  It was a good night for the good guys in Hollywood.

If you haven’t seen one or both of these films, see them. You won’t regret it.

HEALTH CARE ALERT!

THE WORD FROM DC is that the House will vote on the exact same bill the Senate passed on Christmas Eve. It has been given a House bill number – HR 3590 – but it is the SAME bill, including the Cornhusker Kickback, the Louisiana Purchase, etc. There will be no reason for the leadership to go back and fix the bill once it passes, so their promises are empty and meaningless. Any future changes are hypothetical. You must contact your House member and say vote no. This is especially vital in the 3rd and 2nd Districts, Congressmen Brian Baird and Rick Larsen. 

THIS BILL, HR 3590, spends too much ( $2.5 trillion the first ten years ), raises taxes on Cadillac plans, insurance and drug companies ( so much for lower costs ), has an individual mandate, taxes employers of 50 fulltime workers or more if insurance is not offerred, expands Medicaid, costing the states more, still allows insurance companies to invoke yearly limits, cuts $120 billion for Medicare Advantagre, limiting choices for seniors, creates a huge Federal bureaucracy and does not mention tort reform.

Time to call, email, fax, stand up for liberty and true health care reform. NO ON HR 3590.

OUR STATE FINANCIAL TRAIN WRECK IS NEAR…

I AM ALIVE, JUST VERY busy after spending time at CPAC and then trying to establish Americans for Prosperity ( www.americansforprosperity.org – please sign up today ). I attended a meeting in Olympia today and the news is not good.

ON THE FINANCIAL FRONT, we are, as a state, on a path to disaster. Unfunded retiree health benefits are between $8 and $10 Billion ( that’s a B ); the budget defecit is $2.8 Billion; a lot of Federal money has disguised our true deficit the last two years, and that money may not be there in the future; our Insurance Commissioner has said that the Health Care Authority, the body which oversees state health care programs, has lost so much money, that if it were a private company, it would be ” subject to reeivership proceedings, potentially mandatory; and, our state pension fund is so underfunded,  the State Actuary has said it could take 20 years to recover the investment losses in the fund alone.  Oh, and the Legislature skipped payments to the fund for 2003-2005.  The Legislature recently reduced their scheduled contributions due to decreased revenue flows due to the recession. The Actuary said that contributions by employees and employer ( us ) may have to triple for the next 12 years to balance everything.

THEN, THERE IS THE REST of the news. State tax revenues are declining as you all are spending less and more of you are unemployed.  The numbers of people receiving unemployment are reaching record levels in some counties; the total number of unemployed statewide is 634, 411.  Another indicator of how shaky the economy is:  the number of foreclosed homes for sale in Snohomish and King counties is in the area of 12,000. Those homes will have to sell, at least a lot of them, before new construction will take off and lift the economy. This is not on the horizon.

AND, EVEN THOUGH THE SPENDERS are crying about cuts, the state will spend more money this year than last year, and is projected to spend more next year than this year. Will you? Actually, indirectly, you will, becaause the state can’t spend a dime it doesn’t get from you. And, all those shortfalls and underfunded pensions and the like, you are responsible for every penny.  Not a pretty picture.

THERE IS SOME GOOD news out there. Newsweek magazine has an astonishing cover story this week on Iraq, headlined Victory At Last.  It reports that something close to democracy is taking root in Iraq and mentions the stability and functional electoral system, as well as the growing economy. It will be hard for the Left to admit it, but  Bush was right.

BTW, THERE WAS another Iraq story last week which got no coverage in the American press: the discovery of another mass grave in the Kurdish areas near Kirkuk. The bodies of 234 children, all under 16 were found. It was left over as part of Saddam’s campaign in the ’80s against the Kurds. Another vindication for W.

FORBES MAGAZINE RECENTLY studied the financial condition of the fifty states and guess what they found: ” Of the 10 states in the worse financial condition, eight are among a total of 23 defined by Gallup as ’solidly Democratic’, meaning the Democrats enjoy an advantage of 10 percentage points or greater in party affilaiation”. Suhprise, suhprise, suhprise. Oh, and the chairman of JP Morgan Chase has warned that California is a greater financial risk than Greece.

More later. I promise to be more faithful in posting, but CPAC and filling in on KTTH last week ( thank all of you who listened and thanks to David Boze, Michael Medved and the management of KTTH, particularly Rod Arquette ) and setting up AFP ( join today – www.americansforprosperity.org  and if you really want to get involved, email me – kirbywilbur@hotmail.com ), I had little time for this. I will do better. Get involved, 2010 is shaping up to be a very important election, in fact I believe the most important since 1980.  If you need ideas on how to be involved, let me know. We need to win in November, but it can’t be done without you. Get involved and say yes we can so on November 3, we wake up and say yes we did.

UPDATE ON CPAC AND RADIO

I WILL POST LONGER lateron CPAC, Obama’s new health care proposal and local developments. Two quick things – don’t forget that I am on KTTH this week, starting today, 3-6 PM. And, you can catch George Will’s awesome CPAC speech at nationalreview.com.

SOME SURPRISING POLL NUMBERS ON OBAMA

THE LATEST POLL NUMBERS ON PRESIDENT OBAMA show a couple of surprises. The CNN poll shows his approval/disapproval numbers are 49/50, 52% believe he does not deserve reelection and 45% identify him as ‘upper class’, 42% ‘ midle class’ and 12% ‘working class’.  The headline for the story: Anti-Incumbent Fever at Record High.

OUR AIRPORT SECURITY SYSTEM AGAIN SHOWS how well-protected we are as the TSA requires a four year old to take off his leg braces. His parents protested, as he is unable to walk without them, but, they recognized the threat, and kept us safe.

THE CBS/NYT POLL RELEASED today shows that 6% believe that the stimulus package created jobs. That’s six, s-i-x, one more than five, one less than seven.  More Americans need to read recovery.gov or listen to the President’s speeches. But then again, maybe they have. Or, maybe they have been listening to Evan Bayh, Democrat Senator from Indiana, who announced yesterday that he is not running for reelection. In his statement, he said he might go into the private sector and create jobs, since if he created one job ( that’s one more than zero, but one less than two ), thaty would be more than the stimulus had created in teh past six months.

THE GLOBAL WARMING SCAM took two more hits over the last several days. A British scientist said the IPCC had distorted storm data in claiming storms were getting more common and more severe over the past 15 years, which they are not,  and another scientist, a former believer in man-made global warming, said the medieval warming period did occur, shattering the hockey stick idea again. When people realize the great scam of man made global warming/climate , and that day is not far off given the number of hits the scam has suffered recently, the main casualty will be the credibility of the scientific community. God forbid that a real crises erupts that scientists truthfully warn us about. Who will be listening??

THE CAPTURE OF MULLAH BARADAR, #2 Taliban guy, shows that we continue to make progress against the 8th Century barbarians and appears to be a positive sign that the Pakistanis are cooperating with us. Hope they got to question him first before he got his Miranda rights read to him…

I WILL BE LEAVING WEDNESDAY MORNING for Washington DC for the Conservative Political Action Conference. Should be a good time, networking, seeing old friends and picking up the latest tidbits of political gossip and info. I will try to update the blogas I can. DON’T FORGET, NEXT WEEK  I AM SITTING IN FOR DAVID BOZE, 3-6 PM, 770 KTTH.

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