There's a nut down on the corner giving dollar bills away!

I was sitting in my basement I just rolled myself a taste
Of something green and gold and glorious to get me through the day
Then my friend yelled through the transom "Grab your coat and get your hat son"
There's a nut down on the corner, givin' dollar bills away"

                         .....Seth Silverstein, "I Got Stoned and I Missed It", 1972 Album, "Freakin at the Freakers Ball"

When Seth penned this son, somewhere around 1969, (and made famous by Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show), he was speaking of the counter-culture, and reflected the people he hung out with. I imagine he would be very surprised to see how accurate hi prophecy was.

Around 42 years after he wrote this, we have people sitting in their basements, waiting for the government dollars to come so they can go out and buy their drug of choice, and get stoned waiting for the next check.

The big difference is that they need not fear missing the giveaway, because good old Uncle Sam has found a way to deliver it to their door!

Now, I am not saying that all people receiving government largesse are dope smoking losers...but a certain sub-set are certainly in that category. In addition to the dope smokers are the soap opera junkies, the drinkers, the gamblers, the no-hopers, the lazy, and the clueless. If we strip these out of the pool, we are left with the ones who truly want a job, truly want to work to better themselves and simply need a short-term hand up. This group deserves our support, for a short time. The other group deserve to wallow in their own waste as far as I am concerned.

Now, the government helps with food stamps, money, housing and God knows what other schemes....all of which are designed to even out the playing field so the less advantaged can at least get food and shelter.

Ok...so why is that the less advantaged can rent $2500 month houses and only pay $600 with my taxes picking up the rest?  Why don't they rent $600 a month houses? How is it that people in these Section 8 properties that you and I are subsidizing are able to afford new vehicles (not just  small sedans...large expensive Cadillac Escalades and such)?

I can tell you how....because WE, the taxpayer, are paying for their food and their housing, while they defraud the government by taking jobs where they are paid cash. So, not only do they cheat the government on taxes, they steal your money so they can buy flash cars.

And when we complain? We are called racists! Even though our complaints do not include color of the recipients. Isn't it funny how everybody thinks we are racists for complaining about the abuse in Section 8 programs?

Anyway, I digress.

All eyes were on the straw poll in Iowa on Saturday...important not for the results as much as for the indication of what the candidates are able to achieve in terms of organisation and mobilization. Bachman was a winner with Paul a close second. Everybody else was way back....and the poor showing (3rd place but with less than half the number of votes of the winner) of Pawlenty created the first casualty in the race. His dropping out of the race showed that he understands that he does not have what the voters want.

I applaud, you Tim for the graceful way you withdrew, giving a nod to the voters to find the best candidate. Well done, sir!

There has been much said about Bachman's campaign reportedly buying 4,000 tickets and giving them away in an attempt to buy votes. Maybe she did....but the recipients were also able to eat free Godfather's Pizza and listen to Thadeus McCotter's rock band....who knows which candidate they will vote for? What it did do was increase the total number of people attending the straw poll...and showed her campaign is in it for keeps!

So today, after all the rah-rah of the straw poll is quieting down, Obama starts his 3 day bus tour...ostensibly a jobs tour. Of course, it is all about A job...his! This is nothing to do with creating jobs or even providing hope to the jobless. If  it was about that, he would be facing the jobless and explaining why they don't have a job and explaining what he will do about that so that they can get a job soon. 

Nope. That is NOT what he is doing.

He is travelling to those places with HIGH employment (not HIGH UNemployment). He claims he is going there so he can "find out what is working" and that will help with his plans in the future.

Really? Really?

Here is the translation of what he is really doing....

He is visiting those places with high employment for several reasons:-

1. people with jobs are happier with what he is doing than people without jobs, therefore they are likely voters in 2012 who will support him

2. people with jobs will be less angry, and ask much easier questions

3. people with jobs tend to be easier to control....with less anger spilling over, it is much easier to sell the story of hope

4. people without jobs are likely to ask hard questions that this fool cannot answer

I didn't even talk about the possibility that people without jobs could just be sitting at home waiting for the next government check...and would not turn up to see this guy.

Here's the thing....I watched John Stossel's wonderful documentary, "The Money Hole" last night....and it was quite eye opening to see the lobbyists lining up to see their representatives so they can get some free government money for whatever cause they supported.

For every highly paid lobbyist in suit and tie and lobbying for Boeing or Intel or Microsoft, there were at least a dozen in jeans and t-shirts (if not physically, at least metaphorically) who were asking for money for housing groups, teacher groups, food groups etc etc...

Every one of them knew about a couple of things:-

1. if your cause aids the elderly and stops them eating dog food, you can get money (it doesn't matter if it is true as long as it sounds true)

2. if your cause aids the children and stops them having to sleep in a shared bedroom, you can get money...as long as it sounds true...doesn't actually have to BE true

3. if your cause aids the illegals immigrants, the homeless, the addicted, the animals or any one of a million causes that sounds good, you can get free money

4. if you can get free money you can use it to pay yourself a great salary while benefiting very few of the folks you claim to want to help

Do I sound cynical? You bet your ass I am!

I am sick of the people Seth Silverstein wrote about, lining up with their hands out looking for dollars from the "nut down on the corner". 

People, that "nut down on the corner" is you and I...the taxpayers. We are the ones giving dollar bills away.

And there is a whole culture that gladly and greedily spreads the word that we are there...and they come...and they take...and they laugh...and they come next week to do the same thing.

I have written about Ron Paul's more off-base ideas before. But as I think about it, his position on legalizing marijuana makes a lot of sense. If it were legalized there would be a whole lot more liberals doing what Seth wrote about in his chorus....

"But I laid around a bit

Then I had another hit.
Then I rolled myself a bomber.
Then I thought about my mama.
Then I fooled around, played around
jacked around a while and then
I got stoned and I missed it.
I got stoned and I missed it.
I got stoned and it rolled right by.
I got stoned and I missed it.
I got stoned and I missed it. I got stoned... oh me... oh my."


While this wont help with reduced spending, it could sure help next election when more people who vote only for the freebies, simply get stoned and miss it!

So...Obama can do as many jobs tours as he likes. If jobs are not created it will do him no good at all. He can find out what is working if he is able to actually understand that, but he is so incapable of implementing it, that is just doesn't matter. 

Of one thing I am certain. He has a job approval rate of 39% today...and that is about 39% too high...which indicates to me that this is the group that we give freebies to. It is time for this to stop!

.....devereaux