Taking a stand:

Friday-September 16, 2011

Taking a stand:

Over the course of the next two weeks, I will not be publishing every day. There are some things that I need to do that will get me into a position to do more than just writing and organizing those that want to take a stand in their own neighborhoods.

The time to take a stand for whatever you believe in never takes a holiday. When you take a stand you become a leader. Some might not like the stand that you take, but then again some will. I will make a stand in a far greater capacity in the coming weeks. This I can promise.

You, too, can make a stand by identifying what really concerns you and getting others to listen by simply asking some questions. Many in America are reluctant to speak their minds and make their opinions known. Some of us should not take a stand for some of things they believe, but then again who am I to criticize?

Making a stand is a choice that only you can make. But don’t complain while doing nothing about it.

Our revolution was all about a few taking a stand for the majority. A few patriots over the course of a quarter of a century made it possible for us to live in freedom and made it possible for you to take a stand today.

On today’s date, in 1782, the great seal of the United States was issued.
On July 4, 1776, the same day that independence from Great Britain was declared by the thirteen states, the Continental Congress named the first committee to design a Great Seal, or national emblem for the country. Similar to other nations, The United States of America needed an official symbol of sovereignty to formalize and seal (or sign) international treaties and transactions. It took six years, three committees and the contributions of fourteen men before the Congress finally accepted a design (which included elements proposed by each of the three committees) in 1782. In the end, the seal would be emblematic of our liberty.

Those that designed the seal took a stand. They wanted the seal to project power and be emblematic of our liberty. The original committee included Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin. These three individuals were used to taking a stand against everything that opposed what the seal ultimately would come to represent.

Today, I fear the great seal is just a seal that is used, because it’s always been used. Today, I fear many of us are afraid to take a stand. However, sometimes people will surprise you if you listen to the stand they are taking.

I will be back full time in week or two to talk more about a stand that I am intending on taking."The liberty of speaking and writing guards our other liberties." --Thomas Jefferson: Reply to Address, 1808.

Gregory C. Dildilian
Founder and Executive Director
Pinecone Conservatives

A footnote: Take stand speak about it and write about it. The great seal provides you with that liberty.

Winners and losers:

Thursday – September 15, 2011

Winners and losers:

When Government steps in and decides who will win and who will lose nobody wins. In the case of the breaking Solyndra scandal, the Obama administration and government authorized nearly half a billion dollars to the company to promote the administration’s green agenda and selected this company to showcase, as its model. Solyndra manufactured solar panels up to about a month ago, when it went bankrupt and 1,100 people lost their jobs. The reason cited was competition from China and a bad business climate, with a reduced market.

The same company applied for federal loans, under the Bush administration and was turned down, because it was considered a high risk. In fact, the approval sources under Bush said that Solyndra would go bankrupt in September of 2011, if it continued down the same path it was going. Guess what it did? This is why the loan was originally turned down.

Under the Obama administration, new documents now show that stimulus money was given under a fast track approval process to Solyndra. There is a fine line between what a loan is and what stimulus money is. With stimulus money winners and losers can be picked.

Many congressional members have said that some of the documents could lead to an investigation of the process that led to the fast tracking in the Obama administration. Some members of Congress are using the impeachment word. Here we go again!

Regardless of how stimulus money made its way to Solyndra, this is clearly the case where the administration wanted to use a company of this kind to show how successful stimulus money can be when applied to promote the presidents ill fated green agenda. This president has committed the number one crime against his country and that is putting his agenda before the country’s well being. This is why this president is sinking in the polls and within his own parties support.

However, we must not ignore the larger picture and that is that government has no business making loans or giving stimulus money to any company especially when the people who are getting the money are political supporters. If government would get out of the business of picking winners and losers the American people would always win. Because, in the end, Obama is not responsible for picking up the tab; the American people are.

The other side of the coin is that the bureaucracy is at fault, because there is layer upon layer of approvals that will insure certain entities get the money even though one layer at the lower end of the food chain turned it down.

The President is out campaigning and is ignoring this scandal that comes at a time where it could be the proverbial nail in his political coffin.

While in Raleigh, campaigning for his jobs bill (another government stimulus), the President said: “If you love me, you gotta help me pass this bill.” In my opinion, this is no way that any president should be talking. I had mentioned this story to a friend of mine today and she said, “Can you imagine if my husband said this in a meeting with General Motors?” This is small story, but it leads up to the bigger picture of this president’s desire to have it his way or no way. It finally defines his narcissistic way. You all know what the results of this combination is 9.1 % unemployment, more job losses, more foreclosures in fact there was a 33% jump in August and, of course, the slow dismal economic growth record.

The government’s arm of control when it comes to job creation is centered on union jobs, and public works jobs. These jobs though needed also become a drain when the tax payer and individual business’s are constantly forced to pick up the tab.

The Senate says we have to be brave, be bold and go big with a new jobs plan. I say being brave, being bold and going big would be to get government out of making jobs and deciding on who the winners are and who the losers are.

I believe we are seeing the beginning of the end of the Presidents support. A lot of the so called “no way speech” that is being aimed at the President is now coming from his own political supporters in Congress and especially the Senate where 28 seats are up for re-election next year.

The problem is that every day we are seeing the results of what happens when a president or any leader is putting self before the country. The country gets hurt and its people get hurt. It doesn’t have to be this way, because no body should pick the winners and losers, except the American consumer. After all, they are still able to spend their money the way they want. Until that day, the government needs to just stay out!

Gregory C. Dildilian
Founder and Executive Director
Pinecone Conservatives

A footnote: There are winners and losers everyday. There are business startups and business closings everyday. However, the ones that always win are the ones that make it on there own, without the governments help. Just look at the stats and follow the money!

It is what it is!

Wednesday – September 14, 2011

It is what it is!

A win is a win and a loss is a loss. No matter if it’s on the tennis court, golf course or baseball diamond, someone has to win. Some of us can break the rules to get a better score or we can make up an excuse about the loss just to make the blow a bit softer.

What happened in New York’s 9th district last night was a blow. It was a defeat for the President, the democratic challenger and the liberal. Bob Turner, the Republican who never held office before, won fair and square in a district that has been in democratic hands for 90 years. His message connected with many democrats and he got the Jewish vote. This election is the one that will go down as the first election that was a referendum against the President. Say what you will about last years Congressional race, that one was seen as a normal midterm with great results for the Republicans. Bush had his mid term defeat and Clinton had his, but this president really got his delivered to him last night.

The spin all day has been aimed at lessening the blow. However, as more details come out we are finding that the loss was not due to the Anthony Weiner Scandal who’s seat was vacated by his resignation which was the backdrop to yesterdays special election. No matter how you cut it, the Presidents ability to lead is hampered, if not gone. His inability to create jobs is now the issue. He is not a fighter for what makes America great, because it is his vision that has been exposed and now rejected by most Americans including democrats.

I see a trend and it is a healthy trend. I think many citizen politicians are going to be elected in this next election. The next election in 2012 will be about Main Street. I believe that many Americans see that prosperity on Main Street is gone.

I believe that the fairness that the liberal speaks of just does not exits it never has. The liberal always speaks about fair competition, but the liberal will stack the cards or change the score when they need to, to win. The fairness that liberals fight for gives the final determination in any arbitration to the Union’s and government bureaucrats who are one sided and care about one thing and that is their self interest.

I have many discussions with many people in the course of a day. They all say they want fairness and what is best for the country. Many will always go back to their old tactics and one sided view. But many are now saying hold on, I don’t want the status quo, I want something different. The election in New York’s 9th proved that people can vote for what might be right for America after all. It is what it is!

Gregory C. Dildilian
Founder and Executive Director
Pinecone Conservatives

A footnote: I believe that the more citizen politicians who get involved will be the key to turning the country around. It took 80 years to get it to where it is now it might take that long to turn it around, but turn it around it will. It is what it is!

What's all the talk about?

Tuesday – September 13, 2011

What’s all the talk about?

I don’t know why everyone is in such a tizzy over some new statistics.

WASHINGTON - Filed: by Hope Yen of the Associated Press.

The ranks of the nation's poor swelled to nearly 1 in 6 people last year, reaching a new high as long-term unemployment woes left millions of Americans struggling and out of work. The number of uninsured edged up to 49.9 million, the biggest in over two decades.

The Census Bureau's annual report released Tuesday offers a snapshot of the economic well-being of U.S. households for 2010, when joblessness hovered above 9 percent for a second year. It comes at a politically sensitive time for President Barack Obama, who has acknowledged in the midst of a re-election fight that the unemployment rate could persist at high levels through next year.

The overall poverty rate climbed to 15.1 percent, or 46.2 million, up from 14.3 percent in 2009.
Reflecting the lingering impact of the recession, the U.S. poverty rate from 2007-2010 has now risen faster than any three-year period since the early 1980s, when a crippling energy crisis amid government cutbacks contributed to inflation, spiraling interest rates and unemployment.
Measured by total numbers, the 46 million now living in poverty is the largest on record dating back to when the census began tracking poverty in 1959. Based on percentages, it tied the poverty level in 1993 and was the highest since 1983.

Broken down by state, Mississippi had the highest share of poor people, at 22.7 percent, according to rough calculations by the Census Bureau. It was followed by Louisiana, the District of Columbia, Georgia, New Mexico and Arizona. On the other end of the scale, New Hampshire had the lowest share, at 6.6 percent.

The share of Americans without health coverage rose from 16.1 percent to 16.3 percent -- or 49.9 million people -- after the Census Bureau made revisions to numbers of the uninsured. That is due mostly because of continued losses of employer-provided health insurance in the weakened economy.

Congress passed a health overhaul last year to address rising numbers of the uninsured. While the main provisions don't take effect until 2014, one aspect taking effect in late 2010 allowed young adults 26 and younger to be covered under their parents' health insurance.

Brett O'Hara, chief of the Health and Disability Statistics branch at the Census Bureau, noted that Brett O'Hara, chief of the Health and Disability Statistics branch at the Census Bureau, noted that the uninsured rate declined -- from 29.3 percent to 27.2 percent -- for adults ages 18 to 24 compared to some other age groups.

The median -- or midpoint -- household income was $49,445, down 2.3 percent from 2009.
Bruce Meyer, a public policy professor at the University of Chicago, cautioned that the worst may yet to come in poverty levels, citing in part continued rising demand for food stamps this year as well as "staggeringly high" numbers in those unemployed for more than 26 weeks. He noted that more than 6 million people now represent the so-called long-term unemployed, who are more likely to fall into poverty, accounting for than two out of five currently out of work.
Other census findings:

--Poverty rose among all race and ethnic groups except Asians. The number of Hispanics in poverty increased from 25.3 percent to 26.6 percent; for blacks it increased from 25.8 percent to 27.4 percent, and Asians it was flat at 12.1 percent. The number of whites in poverty rose from 9.4 percent to 9.9 percent.

--Child poverty rose from 20.7 percent to 22 percent.

--Poverty among people 65 and older was statistically unchanged at 9 percent, after hitting a record low of 8.9 percent in 2009.”

I wanted to be accurate, so I cut a pasted an article, which I never do, but today we must start addressing the trend that has developed over the course of many years, but now has accelerated over the course of three years.

These statistics come as a result of liberal ideals and liberal policy making. It’s been the quest of the liberal to create the perfect set of conditions so that social architecture can be performed. For many years now our deficits have swelled due to entitlement programs, large government agencies, spending and giving aid to some that take it because its there to take. This only helps to encourage the high poverty levels that we see in this report today.

Every report that contains these types of figures centers around one cause, unemployment. The statistic of 9% unemployment has lingered for two years and shows no signs of improving. This is the new norm, so I guess we are now being conditioned to get used to it.

Our Forefathers used three words continually through our founding documents. These words are; happiness, prosperity and posterity. These are the keys to solving the problems that our country faces today. Our current leaders do not understand what you and I see when we walk down Main Street. They have not demonstrated the ability of solving the problems that many of them have created on Main Street. High unemployment, high energy cost and slow economic growth are the results of bad policy. This is what has to change.

When you walk down Main Street, do you see happy faces? When you walk down Main Street, do you see signs of prosperity? Do you feel that a jobless recovery will deliver on the promise of happiness and prosperity for our posterity? Do you believe that continued government spending on false markets will deliver prosperity to us and to our posterity? When you walk down Main Street, do you see the signs of a growing economy with a growing sense of opportunity that our posterity will enjoy? Do you often wonder how our posterity will pay for the errors of those who have been engrained with the Washington experience? These are all legitimate questions that we must now start to ask and then demand solutions too.

I believe that the fight for Liberty, Freedom and Independence is ongoing. Its not that we don’t have these things any longer, it’s that we don’t have enough of these things anymore. This is the basis of how we can restore job growth, lower the cost of energy and increase economic growth which results in wealth on Main Street.

It is wealth that we are talking about. It’s the ability to create personal wealth regardless if you pump gas, cut lawns or run a business. We are all in this now and we are all being pulled down because of these statistics.

There is a term that we all have used. It’s called dumbing down. This term mainly has its roots in educational debates, but there is a reason that it can be used here. We have been dumbed down to accept the status quo. The status quo in this case is, now costing everyone. From the very rich to the very poor these statistics not only brings down our standard of living but our personal standards as well.

These figures don’t instill the one thing that will provide a healthy economy and jobs so that this kind of poverty can be reversed. That word is confidence.

Gregory C. Dildilian
Founder and Executive Director
Pinecone Conservatives

A footnote: I will have confidence when the solutions come form a practical person who can lead with confidence. Then, we will be asking: what’s all the talk about?

It didn't take long:

Monday - September 12, 2011

It didn’t take long:

In its entirety, I am posting what Paul Krugman wrote about 9/11. The title of his article in the New York Times is “The Conscience of a Liberal. “

Is it just me, or are the 9/11 commemorations oddly subdued?
Actually, I don’t think it’s me, and it’s not really that odd.

What happened after 9/11 — and I think even people on the right know this, whether they admit it or not — was deeply shameful. The atrocity should have been a unifying event, but instead it became a wedge issue. Fake heroes like Bernie Kerik, Rudy Giuliani, and, yes, George W. Bush raced to cash in on the horror. And then the attack was used to justify an unrelated war the neocons wanted to fight, for all the wrong reasons.

A lot of other people behaved badly. How many of our professional pundits — people who should have understood very well what was happening — took the easy way out, turning a blind eye to the corruption and lending their support to the hijacking of the atrocity?

The memory of 9/11 has been irrevocably poisoned; it has become an occasion for shame. And in its heart, the nation knows it.

I’m not going to allow comments on this post, for obvious reasons.

First of all, Mr. Krugman has the right to speak what he thinks, what he believes and what he thinks others should hear. I do the same each day. But the difference between him and me are immense. I do not think for a minute that Mr. Krugman is a hero, nor am I. But I know that I wouldn’t run from terror, but I believe he would and then take the credit for saving the day.
Mr. Krugman has the ability, like every other liberal, to re-write history, even when the events and the proof aren’t necessarily what he says they are. The events of 9/11 were not of Commissioner Kerik’s, Mayor Giuliani’s or of President Bush’s making. In fact, the events of 9/11 can be traced back to another liberals reign and that was Jimmy Carter.

The events of 9/11 caused the death of innocence. The events of 9/11 were perpetrated out of hatred by one man and a bunch of his delusional followers. The events of 9/11 also spurred on patriotism that we hadn’t seen in decades. This is what Mr. Krugman detests. He uses the argument, “the attack was used to justify an unrelated war the neocons wanted to fight, for all the wrong reasons.” Mr. Krugman would not know what the wrong or the right reason was if it stared him in the face.

The fact of the matter is that the war on terror will not end under a liberal. It will however end when a true leader brings it to an end. That will be the day when the terrorists are no longer living. The fact of the matter is that all the most important parts of the Bush plan in conducting the war are still in place. Mr. Krugman and the President have not been able to prosecute the war in the way they would like and that is probably fortunate for this countries security.
The fact of the matter is that, when 9/11 occurred, every liberal was livid that they were not in charge, because they would have “raced to cash in on the horror.” This is one thing that I do know. Liberals will always prefer the political wedge instead of the correct wedge that will defend our liberty, our freedom and the independence that they always trade for security. It was Franklin who said: “Anyone who trades liberty for security deserves neither liberty nor security.”

The title of this piece is “The Conscience of a Liberal.” I believe that this is what needs to be defeated now. Mr. Krugman, you do have freedom of speech. I wonder if you knew what it took to give you that freedom.

There is an old saying: “War is Hell”. There is another quote it goes like this: "We are bound, you, I, and every one to make common cause even with error itself, to maintain the common right of freedom of conscience.” This quote goes both ways. I believe that it can defend some bad decisions, but it will never defend a lie that you made about the people you say who cashed in on the horror of that tragic event ten years ago.

I wrote yesterday, it is best try to leave a place better than the way we found it. Mr. Krugman, I do not think you are capable. But then again, that’s the conscience of a conservative.

Unlike Mr. Krugman, I do allow comments on this post for obvious reasons.

Gregory C. Dildilian
Founder and Executive Director
Pinecone Conservatives

A footnote: The quote that is not attributed in this piece was authored by Thomas Jefferson. You know the guy that put into writing your right to freedom of speech! It didn’t take long for Jefferson to think that you have that right, because it was his conscience that told him you do.

It's not just another day:

Sunday- September 11, 2011

It’s not just another day:

I woke up early today, at the break of dawn, to play my weekly round of golf with my pals of 25 years. We met and we shook hands in anticipation of the game that sometimes times makes a champion and always challenges your skill. The routine and the habit is what makes this part of my life something to look forward to, because it’s dependable and it never changes.

Ten years ago, others woke to the bright morning sun to go about a routine they enjoyed and never thought would change. Still others woke that morning to board planes, only have others prevent those planes from reaching their final destinations. The destination was altered by a few, only to alter many lives and a generation to come. This is why today is just not another day.

I thought about what to write today. I wanted to be prolific and at the same time demonstrate through words just how a few lawless people changed a country and took the innocence away from the generation that lost mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, friends and all. While I enjoyed my morning, I also said a prayer for those who are protecting my right and ability to wake up and play a game that I love with normalcy.

Ten years ago today, an attack took place at a point that was chosen by evil and the few that if given a chance would take the world to a place of darkness. The attack was of epic proportions and brought the world’s greatest city to a stand still. The attack brought down the worlds tallest buildings. Two twin towers that represented commerce, freedom and prosperity. Two twin towers that were constructed by the dreams of some and by the sheer sweat of many.

Ten years ago, a country that, for the most part, had an innocence of life, religion, family and friendship realized that those things might never be seen again for generations. The country and its two greatest cities became the victim of a godless attack by some that used the word of God to legitimize their actions.

John Adams wrote in his Diary and Autobiography Vol. III page 9: "Suppose a nation in some distant Region should take the Bible for their only law Book, and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there exhibited! Every member would be obliged in conscience, to temperance, frugality, and industry; to justice, kindness, and charity towards his fellow men; and to piety, love, and reverence toward Almighty God ... What Utopia, what a Paradise would this region be."
Ten years ago, a new president was challenged to come to terms with a new type of attack and battlefield. A new president was challenged to get back to Washington D.C. to fight a new challenge that brought terror to two cities on this date ten years ago. One of the cities represented wealth and the other represented the free worlds base of power.

Ten years ago today, a president who was green to this type of challenge returned to the city that was the seat of power and immediately took aim at those who were responsible. He took aim while being compassionate towards the many that were of the same faith but didn’t practice the faith in the way that those who murdered did. A new president showed the restraint and the determination that only a great man could temper.

President George Bush said of the Attacks: “This enemy hides in shadows, and has no regard for life. This is an enemy who preys on the innocent and unsuspecting people, then runs for cover. But they won’t be able to run for cover forever. This will be a monumental struggle of good versus evil. But good will prevail.”

That new president was the man that time and destiny chose so that a country could be saved from the hand of evil only to ensure that a way of life could be preserved. If you are looking for what is positive, this in my opinion is the answer.

The war today is still being fought on the battle field and in the hearts and souls of those who lost loved ones. We must never forget that our country and our people did not begin this war and we are not responsible for this war. But we are responsible to fight the terror and the violence that this war has created, and is continuing to threaten us with even today.

Today, we continue to hear of the stories of heroes. We continue to hear the little things that were big things for those who lost loved ones. We search for the heroes of good while the heroes of evil, to some, who are a faceless sub culture, still roam the world looking to destroy rather than to build. The story of 9/11 is the story of the heroes who built the monument of memories while living, and still continue to do so in death. It is the juxtaposition of good and evil and what side some choose to be on even in the face of death.

So, while I woke to see another sun soaked day, I remember the good and the evil the good and the bad. I remember what was transfixed in my mind and I see what the evil has taken from all of us. Many of us did not know anybody who perished that day but we have come to know their greatness as they woke to find there way through just another day.

We must continue to do our part so that our Main Street, in what ever town we live, remains free and that finds a vibrant spot for those who want to make things better than the way they found it.

The faceless enemy of evil will try to take liberty, freedom and our independence away because they do not believe in these words and do not think people should have these things let alone practice Christianity, Judaism or what ever other religion is found on the Main Streets of America. The face of evil believes in one thing, total domination and total darkness and to take the human spirit away so that it no longer is free to practice the things that make free people great.

There is something evil when you can call a political/ religious movement a franchise. There is something evil when other nations harbor such evil. The good in America will triumph - this I am sure of. The duty we have is to remain vigilant and remain committed to making things better than the way we found them.

The nation can stand proud today because the franchise of terror is broken and the leader of that franchise is no longer with us. I have an idea of where he is but to be politically correct I will not say. But to be correct in giving thanks we owe it to our military and all those who keep the beacon of freedom alive our thanks. We owe it to the memories of the innocent and the first responders who tried to make that day better than the way they found it. This is why today is just not another day.

Gregory C. Dildilian
Founder and Executive Director
Pinecone Conservatives

A footnote: Today and every day forward try to commit yourself to make things better than the way you found them. This is how we can remember those who are the hero’s of our Main Street!

Why today is so important!

Friday – September 9, 2011

Why today is so important!

I try to bring out our history to shed a little light on the importance of some dates that have brought us the liberty, freedom and independence that we enjoy today.

On today’s date, in 1776, something grand occurred in the history of the world and our country. The Continental Congress formally declared that the name of a new nation be changed from that of the United Colonies to that of the United States.

The actual resolution read: "Resolved, That in all continental commissions and other instruments, where, heretofore, the words "United Colonies" have been used, the stile be altered, for the future, to the "United States.” These simple words led to a unique new concept in Government, self rule and the determination of a people to reject tyranny and oppression.

A resolution by Richard Henry Lee, which had been presented to Congress on June 7 and approved on July 2, 1776, issued the resolve, “That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States…. “As a result, John Adams thought July 2, would be celebrated as “The most memorable epoch in the history of America.” Instead, the day has been largely forgotten in favor of July fourth, when Jefferson’s edited Declaration of Independence was adopted. That document also states, that these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States. However, Lee began with the line, while Jefferson saved it for the middle of his closing paragraph.

By September, The Declaration of Independence had been drafted, signed, printed and sent to Great Britain. What Congress had declared to be true on paper in July was clearly the case in practice, as Patriot blood was spilled against the British on the battlefields of Boston, Montreal, Quebec and New York. Congress had created a country from a cluster of colonies and the nation’s new name reflected that reality.

This might be a small footnote in the history of our nation, but it remains the steadfast element of history that cannot be denied to the place that people from around the world have flocked to, to be free.

This is the key element that brought us 9/11. There is force that is bound and determined to take these United States and take the freedom that it represents away from the world our people and the greatness that we stand for.

As we prepare for the 10th anniversary observance of a day that remains fixed in our minds and the nations unique mosaic, we cannot forget the meaning of freedom, independence and liberty. In our history, our blood has been shed in the struggle to guarantee these rights. Blood has been shed in foreign lands to deliver these rights. Unfortunately, an enemy ten years ago brought death and destruction upon an innocent city that has at its entrance the symbol of freedom itself. That symbol still stands, not only in the brightness of a new dawn, but in the darkness of the day that we will forever honor. This is the important thing to remember on Sunday, September 11, 2011.

I will have a special note on Sunday. It will be my third such note that I haven’t been able to ignore. However, I will say it now, this year I fell that the observance is now being politicized by the Mayor of New York City, he has refused to let the elements that saved the day 10 years ago be a part of the day’s observance on Sunday. This type of politician is what threatens the very essence of what the struggle and celebration of freedom is all about. That is just my opinion, but then again that’s how I roll.

Gregory C. Dildilian
Founder and Executive Director
Pinecone Conservatives

A footnote: Freedom is something I believe in. Liberty is something that I recognize as the most important part of the struggle for our freedom. The search for Freedom and Liberty started with a Declaration that put into words the Independence that moved the world forward by the introduction of two words; United and States. Can you imagine anything less? That is why today is so important.

Just more words:

Thursday – September 8, 2011

Just more words:

He spoke and he wants more money. This unfortunately was what I got out of the Presidents speech tonight.

This is a late edition of the FORUM. I wanted to give the benefit of the doubt to the man that is the leader of the free world. I was stunned by how many times the president said “pass the bill” at his appearance before the Joint Session of Congress tonight. Some of what he said I can agree with; like small business tax relief for one. However, when he said raise the capital gains tax he lost me. On the one hand he wants to help, but on the other he still wants to punish. This is the reason why jobs are not being created and this is why I was disappointed. In my opinion, the only real conviction I saw was pass it now- all or nothing.

I am beginning to think that all the President and his administration wants to accomplish is to make us feel that there is activity and that the Republicans will ultimately be blamed for no activity. And that kind of activity is reason enough to not create the confidence that is needed on Main Street. Wall Street will react, in a positive way, because Wall Street is only a reflection on that day’s confidence level they have. But ask anyone on Main Street if they have confidence and if all this activity or the appearance that something is being done will actually turn things around.

The President said he has a plan, it will take more investment, and the details will come together as the plan rolls out.

His shovel ready jobs plan resulted in a laugh from him in an interview. His Healthcare plan is now being constitutionally challenged. It has just been found out that one of the original recipients of federally backed loans from the stimulus, a company called Solyndra, has filed for bankruptcy and was raided by the Feds and the Department of Energy this week. This company manufactured Solar Panels for the green industry that the President has touted for so long, as being the saving grace of America.

The reason given by Solyndra executives, explaining the bankruptcy, was that “Regulatory and policy uncertainties in recent months created significant near-term excess supply and price erosion,” Solyndra president and CEO Brian Harrison said in a statement. “Raising incremental capital in this environment was not possible. This was an unexpected outcome and is most unfortunate.”

The real words in the statement should have been - China and falling prices in the solar industry has caused the company to go belly up and consequently had to lay off 1,100 employees.
The number of the unemployed at Solyndra will be reflected in the next jobless claims report. The other part of this story is that the company executives were supporters of the President. The company was awarded federally backed loan guarantees. In 2009, the Obama administration fast-tracked Solyndra’s loan application and it awarded $535 million in guarantees from the stimulus funds. The stimulus and every other program of this president have been fast tracked and this is the result.

President Obama visited Solyndra in May 2010, heralding the company as “leading the way toward a brighter and more prosperous future.” He also cited it as a success story from the government’s $787 billion economic stimulus package.

“Less than a year ago, we were standing on what was an empty lot. But through the Recovery Act, this company received a loan to expand its operations,” Obama said at the time. “This new factory is the result of those loans.”

You have heard the expression “buyer beware”. This is how we must view this administrations knack for creating activity only to make it look like something has happened. Something did happen, the tax payer lost out to the tune of 535 million dollars. Unfortunately, only 45 % of the people understand it.

We don’t need more words and then an explanation on how to pay for the words in a couple of weeks. The President said he wants to see more products sold around the world with ‘Made in America’ stamped on it. That’s fine, but don’t confuse the image with the facts in the picture. Jeffrey Immelt, the CEO of General Electric, who has moved thousands of jobs off shore, was sitting with the First Lady in the balcony tonight. Products ‘Made in America’ start with him and he hasn’t done it. General Electric one of the nation’s largest corporations is also sitting on billions of dollars that it hasn’t paid taxes on, because the money earned was earned overseas. Just more words to make it look like activity is occurring.

Jefferson said it best, when he said to the Maryland Republicans in 1809: "The care of human life and happiness and not their destruction is the first and only legitimate object of good government."

Gregory C. Dildilian
Founder and Executive Director
Pinecone Conservatives

A footnote: A president cannot just wave his hand and expect this Congress to follow. When that happened, with the old Congress, our debt soared, unemployment soared and Obama care was passed. Then, the spending occurred and occurred and occurred. There has been too much activity, because of the words that dictated it.

A look ahead!

Wednesday – September 7, 2011

A look ahead!

Between today and tomorrow, we will have a presidential debate held by the Republicans and a Presidential address to a joint session of Congress on a new jobs plan.

I will look seriously at what each contender says tonight and I will listen to what the President says, as well. I believe that the Republicans will approach the jobs situation a lot differently than the President. The latest on the President’s proposal is calling for an additional 300 billion dollars in stimulus to create jobs. We should be suspect, because nothing he has proposed has worked. This is why we need to listen closely.

Today, the United States has slipped to fifth in global ranking for competitiveness. The U.S. has fallen from the top ranking in 2008 to taking a back seat to Switzerland, Singapore, Sweden and Finland. The rankings, which the forum has issued for more than three decades, are based on economic data and a survey of 1,500 business executives.

This ranking is the latest bad news for the President. He says he wants to make the U.S. a competitive nation, but with high unemployment, high debt, huge deficits and a declining public faith in government, it is becoming more and more evident that he either doesn’t want to or that he doesn’t know how.
A quote comes to mind that I have used before. Thomas Jefferson wrote to Jedidiah Morse, in 1822, after many years of public service and observation: “We are to guard against ourselves; not against ourselves as we are, but as we may be; for who can imagine what we may become under circumstances not now imaginable.”

Take these words at face value and ask yourself just what are we becoming as a nation and society. We have leaders that are elected, because they speak well. We have leaders who are elected, because they have more money to spend on campaigns. We have leaders that have occupied their respective offices for decades. Michigan has four of them, itself.

Ask yourself one question; if our politicians are allowed to continually vote one way, is it possible that what we are becoming a nation that our forefathers never envisioned would become a reality. Jefferson was worried about what we may become under circumstance not now imaginable. He didn’t envision a government that would grow and that would cost our posterity not only in un told monetary expense, but an expense of liberty and the freedom that Jefferson was part and parcel in creating.

When I view the debates tonight and listen to the president tomorrow this is the prism by which I will view these two events.

Reagan said: “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.” It is the future generations of Americans that will know no difference between freedom and supporting government for the sake of liberty. The true terms of what liberty and freedom mean is something that will become distorted through continued support of those who have voted for initiatives that cost our posterity.

Reagan said it best :“One thing our founding fathers could not foresee…was a nation governed by professional politicians who had a vested interest in getting re-elected. They probably envisioned a fellow serving a few hitches and then looking forward to getting back to the farm.”

It becomes necessary to view our current circumstances with guarded caution and a willingness to take the bold action that Jefferson once did and that Reagan was so apt at articulating.

A look ahead should be done while viewing what has occurred when you are being asked to make a decision on your countries future. The voting pattern of all our elected officials has created the circumstances that are not now imaginable.

If you knew that 9 % unemployment was going to be the new norm and that our world competitiveness ranking would be fifth, would you start asking the question of why and how did we get here? This is the question of the day that needs to be answered. At some point we drifted to where we should not be. At some point we need to wake up and get America back on track with new leaders that can do a better job.

Gregory C. Dildilian
Founder and Executive Director
Pinecone Conservatives

A footnote: Take a look ahead and start to imagine what some of the circumstances could be that are not now imaginable.

Run Jimmy Run:

Tuesday – September 6, 2011

Run, Jimmy run:

The Hoffa family has had a lingering hard felt impact on American labor life. The elder Hoffa, Jimmy, was a Union organizer, he was a voice for Union workers and in the end he unwittingly helped in the down fall of American job creation.

Jimmy Hoffa was a convicted felon sent to jail and was given a pardon. His life ended early with all the mystery of a Hollywood script. His death was not of natural causes. He literally disappeared off the face of the earth from a Suburban Detroit area restaurant, which I used to dine at. Though his body has never been found, nor has the perpetrator been sentenced and jailed, many believe that his death was due to a mob hit. I am not fabricating this story.

Jimmy Hoffa was full of vitriol and hatred for big business and then Attorney General Robert Kennedy Jr. The slogan Run, Jimmy Run came about when he ran to become President of the Teamsters Union. He served as the union's General President from 1958 to 1971. He secured the first national agreement for teamsters' rates in 1964, and played a major role in the growth and development of the union, which eventually became the largest single union in the United States, with over 1.5 million members during his terms as its leader. Hoffa was convicted of jury tampering, attempted bribery and fraud in 1964. After many appeals he was imprisoned in 1967, and sentenced to 13 years, after exhausting the appeal process. It was not until mid-1971 that he officially resigned the Teamsters' presidency, an action that was part of a pardon agreement with then President Richard M. Nixon, in order to facilitate his release later that year. Nixon blocked Hoffa from union activities until 1980; Hoffa was attempting to overturn this order and to regain support. Hoffa was last seen in late July 1975, outside the Machus Red Fox restaurant in suburban Detroit. A shady time for a shady character!

Fast forward to this year’s Labor Day visit to Detroit by his son, Jimes P. Hoffa and the President of the United States. We now should have a pretty good picture of why these Unions have diminished in their stature. James P. Hoffa is the General President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Hoffa was first elected during December 1998 and began office on March 19, 1999. He was re-elected subsequently during 2001 and 2006 to five-year terms.
What do these three figures have in common? They are Democrats. They are and do have President as a title. They did and still lead political machinery. They all had a roll in the demise of labor, even after they said they helped labor.

James P. Hoffa said before the President stepped onto the stage in Detroit on Labor Day, “Everybody here has a vote, if we go back and we keep the eye on the prize. Let’s take these sons of bitches out and give America back to America where we belong.” What is so wrong with this rhetoric? Can you imagine what would have happened if Mitt Romney said this in his home State of Michigan and in the city that made his family great? We can’t, because Mitt would never say anything similar to this type of rhetoric. Mitt is not responsible for the downfall of labor, jobs and Detroit like Obama and Hoffa are. Those two are birds of a feather, because they believe in the same things and if the President could have uttered those words he would have.

Hoffa said this is a war against the Tea Party. The Vice President said this is a fight for our existence. The Barbarians are at the gate. Don’t these guys understand that it was the Tea Party that gave us our seeds of freedom over 200 years ago? Today’s Tea Party did not give us the low growth, no jobs recovery, because the Tea Party does not have a leader. The Tea Party did not give us 9% unemployment because The Tea Party came into existence after the fact.
Truth be told, guys like the Hoffa’s and the President, through their policy initiatives, have destroyed jobs, industry and manufacturing in this country.

If you take the setting of Detroit, contrast that with the time Governor Romney Mitt’s father was Governor of the State of Michigan and over saw the manufacturing strength, the economic strength and the corporate strength of what Michigan and the City of Detroit represented, to what happened when Democrats and the Unions took over 40 years ago, it becomes a stark reality check. The Democratic machine and the unions are responsible for the empty shell that now defines Detroit.

Many of the Union members just do not understand how the organization and Party that protected their fathers has ruined their choice and the opportunities for their future. It was not the conservative, it is not the Republican Party or the Tea Party that has caused Detroit to become the poster child for the rot and decay we now see in our once great Cities that provided opportunity, fed families and raised great leaders.

It is the Union thugs. It is the Democratic machine that is responsible for much of the decay we see in every facet of this nation. So I say, run, Jimmy run, because you cannot run far enough or fast enough from being held accountable and answering for your role in the demise. I can say this, because I live in the suburbs of Detroit and I see it everyday.

Jimmy and Mr. President, you would be better served in your next speech to use these words: "The care of human life and happiness and not their destruction is the first and only legitimate object of good government." Thomas Jefferson used these words when he addressed the Maryland Republicans in1809. I do not expect you to use or even understand these words, because you two are incapable of using these kinds of words. I can use these words, because I believe in them. That is the difference.

Gregory C. Dildilian
Founder and Executive Director
Pinecone Conservatives

A footnote: This bit of history is representative of the problems we are now faced with. This bit of history is the result of forgetting the words of people like Jefferson and listening to the words of people like the Hoffa’s.

The real plan!

Friday – September 2, 2011

The real plan!

On today’s date, in 1789, the U.S. Treasury Department was established by Congress.

The United States Department of the Treasury is a Cabinet department and the treasury of the United States government. It was established by an act of Congress to manage the revenue of the United States government. The Department is administered by the United States Secretary of the Treasury and the Treasurer of the United States who receives and keeps the money of the United States. The Department prints and mints all paper currency and coins in circulation through the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and the United States Mint, respectively. It also collects all federal taxes through the Internal Revenue Service.

The Office of the Treasurer is the only office in the Treasury Department that is older than the Department itself, as it was originally created by the Continental Congress in 1775. The act of Congress read:
And be it... enacted, That it shall be the duty of the Secretary of the Treasury to digest and prepare plans for the improvement and management of the revenue, and for the support of public credit; to prepare and report estimates of the public revenue, and the public expenditures; to superintend the collection of revenue; to decide on the forms of keeping and stating accounts and making returns, and to grant under the limitations herein established, or to be hereafter provided, all warrants for monies to be issued from the Treasury, in pursuance of appropriations by law; to execute such services relative to the sale of the lands belonging to the United States, as may be by law required of him; to make report, and give information to either branch of the legislature, in person or in writing (as he may be required), respecting all matters referred to him by the Senate or House of Representatives, or which shall appertain to his office; and generally to perform all such services relative to the finances, as he shall be directed to perform.

The plan was to have a balanced approach by which the nation’s business could be conducted. In 1789, the forefathers never envisioned that the Department of Treasury would become the personal bank of Presidents and future Houses of Congress.

This weekend, the President will be putting the final touches on his new jobs plan. I do not believe that his new plan will have anything new in the way of content. He is more concerned about making the argument that will put the Republicans on the defense. He will say if you aren’t for this plan, then you are playing partisan politics. He will say in front of a joint session of Congress on Thursday night, if you aren’t with me and the millions of Americans who are for this plan then you are not American. This is the push and pull that he is banking on. The other side of the coin is just how much money is this new plan costing the bank. How will the treasury handle the needed revenue that will be required to implement and fund the plan once Congress can get its hand around the plan?

In 1789, the forefathers and Alexander Hamilton worked to put in a system that would guarantee prosperity for the nation, if a few rules were followed. Alexander Hamilton the first Secretary of the Treasury said: “A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing.”

The plan then was not to be excessive. Hamilton went onto say: “A feeble executive implies a feeble execution of the government. A feeble execution is but another phrase for a bad execution; and a government ill executed, whatever may be its theory, must be, in practice, a bad government.”

Hamilton said of credit in his report on Public Credit January 9, 1790: “As on the one hand, the necessity for borrowing in particular emergencies cannot be doubted, so on the other, it is equally evident that to be able to borrow upon good terms, it is essential that the credit of a nation should be well established.”

You now can see the basis of the plan that was laid out more than 200 years ago. Today, the plan is to keep the Treasury and Congress borrowing to create jobs in false markets. Until the president’s plan can include what Hamilton stressed in his report on a National Bank on December 13, 1790, nothing will change: Industry is increased, commodities are multiplied, agriculture and manufacturers flourish: and herein consists the true wealth and prosperity of a state. Another 409,000 new unemployment claims were made last week. According to the labor department there were zero (0) net jobs created in the month of August.

These words will not be part of the plan on Thursday night that is why the plan is destined to fail before it is even announced. To have a plan you must have something to say. The forefathers had a plan when they created the Treasury, they enacted it. Reagan had a plan when he inherited the same kind of jobless economy when he took office. His policies and his words inspired the country to start down the road of unprecedented growth. The question is what will the president now say? His policies have not worked. They have been rejected. He will not reject the ideology that he thinks is America.

As we prepare to celebrate the last few days of summer over the upcoming Labor Day weekend, we must celebrate all those who contribute to the nation’s wealth by their labor. We must remember what the intent of the country’s labor was meant to provide; people working and building people sharing their wealth with one another through free enterprise and freedom of choice. A tax system that is equitable with every American contributing and an America that was free of its debt and that could be thankful for its blessings.

This is a plan that we will never see because some politicians don’t want to celebrate the blessings that can keep America giving, because that would take the power from them and keep it among the people.

Gregory C. Dildilian
Founder and Executive Director
Pinecone Conservatives

A footnote: The most simple of plans would be to go back to the roots of what gave us our original prosperity. A plan that let’s the minds of the people work so that creativity is rewarded and industry is less regulated so that it makes it attractive for manufacturing to bring back the jobs and become the main part of the economic engine once again in the country.

A new Season:

Thursday –September 1, 2011

A new season:

When the month of September rolls along, I think of one season ending and a new one beginning. I think of the long hot days of summer and the cool October days of fall that lie ahead in just four more weeks.
When September comes along we celebrate the last holiday in summer. Labor Day in the United States was observed on September 5, 1882, by the Central Labor Union of New York. It became a federal holiday in 1894, when, following the deaths of a number of workers at the hands of the U.S. military and U.S. Marshals during the Pullman Strike, President Grover Cleveland put reconciliation with the labor movement as a top political priority. Fearing further conflict, legislation making Labor Day a national holiday was rushed through Congress unanimously and signed into law a mere six days after the end of the strike. The September date originally chosen by the CLU of New York and observed by many of the nation's trade unions for the past several years was selected rather than the more widespread International Workers' Day, because Cleveland was concerned that observance of the latter would stir up negative emotions linked to the Haymarket Affair, which it had been observed to commemorate. All U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and the territories have made it a statutory holiday.
This year, Labor Day has struck an ominous tone. The Unions are making it rough for any Republican to participate in any parade down Main Street in any city in the State of Wisconsin. This was in retaliation for the state’s Governor Scott Walker, who went up against the public service employee unions to reform their benefits and salary packages. After many weeks of protests and an absentee Senate, the Governor won the battle. Is this peaceful dissent by a so called peaceful union? Is this fair play and fair treatment that the unions demand from their employers? The Governor was elected by the will of the people to do just what he did. Doesn’t this matter anymore?
The other side of the labor story is the number of unemployed Union workers and non union workers who contribute to the total number of 9% unemployment in the country. We all know the true number is higher, but true accounting is never done by the government. Many people have fallen off the government’s statistics of being unemployed, because they don’t qualify for unemployment benefits anymore and are not counted. Some states have in excess of 16% unemployment.
On yesterday’s date, a year ago, the president was promising that a new jobs plan was in the works. He said he had his people on it. A year later, on today’s date, the president is saying the same thing. He will have a new plan that he will discuss with the nation next week. The exact date is yet unknown, because he wanted to address a joint session of Congress to announce it. John F. Kennedy said: “The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie, deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth, persistent, persuasive and unrealistic.”

On today’s date, in 1752, the Liberty Bell arrived in Philadelphia. It wasn’t hung until a year later, but it was still a symbol that would have to be reckoned with in future years. Why is this important today’s FORUM? I had a conversation recently with some one that didn’t quite get the connection with Liberty and the Bell. I explained it the best I could and I believe I connected with that individual after the story. I went on to say that Liberty is everything. We couldn’t have our national celebrations, without liberty. We couldn’t be free to assemble and make our opinions know, without our liberty. The list went on and the discussion went onto other areas of freedom and independence, because liberty is also connected to these things as well. After all, there is the old saying, “give me liberty or give me death.”

It used to be that we were free to go out and find a job. We were free to quit one job for another job. It use to be that the free enterprise system practiced liberty and freedom and independence before regulations forced the work place to conform to federal regulations on who to hire, or hire certain people if you want federal assistance and federal contracts. There were a lot of things that used to be that are no longer.

This is why, on this particular Labor Day, it is important to take a stand on what you want to change for next Labor Day. The political season usually starts on Labor Day. It becomes a singular moment for many when they finally get a look at who they will vote for. We are a year out from next year’s political decisions. Take this year and this holiday to start with a plan review the President’s record and review the Senate’s record. You might find out that the House Record is not so bad after all.

There will be a new season to enjoy this year, its right around the corner. Take some time to enjoy this Labor Day. If you have a job, be thankful. If you don’t have a job, consider coming up with a new plan that will get you that new job.

Remember, the President will have a new jobs plan next week. I am sure that if it was left up to you to come up with a new plan, it would be a plan that would work a lot better than the ones we have seen so far from this President. After all, Labor Day is the holiday we celebrate labor.

John F. Kennedy, believe it or not, was conservative in many ways. He had a sense of history and a sense of being. He said:

“Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future.”

Gregory C. Dildilian
Founder and Executive Director
Pinecone Conservatives

A footnote: Sometimes we should revert back to things that worked well so that the nation can go back to work - as Kennedy said: “Let us accept our own responsibility for the future.” This is the start of a new season!

What do you want to hear?

Wednesday – August 31, 2011

What do you want to hear?

Many of us just want to go through life living it and enjoying it. I have to admit that I am one of them.

Many of us come home at night only to turn off the news and put on the Food Channel. We do this to escape the reality of life and to leave our problems at the door step. I have to admit that I would like to do that most nights, but I don’t.

My search for the truth is one that never stops. I research the facts, I listen to the pundits and I listen to whichever Congressman or Senator that is interviewed. Like many, who do the same, I know that at the end of each interview I am a little more skeptical and a little more confused.

There is an appetite that is now brewing among many voters who just don’t want the spin anymore. They don’t want the partisan politics and they don’t want leaders to blame past administrations on their lack of performance.

As we enter the Labor Day holiday this year, we will also be observing the 10 year mark of 9/11. I will never use the word celebrate to describe the events of 9/11. There is nothing to celebrate. Except to honor the day and the holiday that will forever precede the 9/11 observance.

The administration has released a memo that wants this year’s observance of 9/11 not to be “just about us.” There is now a debate of how we as a nation should start to observe this date. Some of us want to feel the sorrow and some of us obviously want to move on. If we diminish the day and the observance then we diminish the true facts behind the attacks and start to ignore true horror that some men can create.

For those who want to move on turn on the Food Channel. For those who want to observe the day go ahead and do it your way. But don’t let anyone tell you that you shouldn’t or maybe its time for you to move on.

Are you comfortable with the change that this White House wants to see when the date of 9/11 comes along on the calendar? Are you comfortable with the change that this White House has made in just about every aspect of our lives? Are you comfortable with being told that you must get along just to go along?

The truth is there is a reason why this White House is now trailing behind its own low numbers and there is a reason why this White House is losing in key battleground states like Florida, Ohio and Virginia. The truth is people in these states have already made the decision about what they want to hear.

When we don’t hear the words of loyalty to the flag or loyalty to the themes of American life, we lose. When we don’t hear the words of praise for those who protect, us we lose. When we don’t hear about how the attack of 9/11 was aimed at us, we lose.

The 9/11 observance and the observance of Pearl Harbor are two seminal events in our history that should never change in tone or in their impact on the nation. In both cases the nation went to war, in both case heroes rose from obscurity. We should embrace these days and embrace the ones that continue to fight for us. We should remember why these events occurred and find ways to prevent them from occurring again. Changing the tenor or the tone of how we observe the day will do nothing to prevent these events from happening again. Changing the tenor and the tone will in all likelihood encourage others to commit similar acts of horror.

When we ignore the things that bind us like patriotism, like a common day of remembrance and the solemn tone that some want us to change then we lose the identity that was frozen in time as the towers collapsed. We should never forget, no matter who wants us to or who says we should not make it “just about us.”

The President wants us to change our view of 9/11. One man who will never change his view, because he lived 9/11 everyday of his presidency was George Bush. He said two things that we should remember:

“Americans are rising to the tasks of history, and they expect the same of us.”
George W. Bush

“Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America. These acts shatter steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve.”
George W. Bush

You tell me. What do you want to hear?

Gregory C. Dildilian
Founder and Executive Director
Pinecone Conservatives

A footnote: Listen to your gut. It will tell you all you need to hear about a person, a candidate and even an enemy. Listen to your gut. Mine tells me to leave 9/11 alone for the sake of those who can’t.

One man, one woman-one incident!

Tuesday – August 30, 2011

One man, one woman- one incident!

Yesterday, I wrote about the National Purpose. I brought into focus many events that took place on August 29 throughout our history and that had an affect on the nation’s National Purpose. From the known to the unknown, a man or a woman a boy or a girl, have all contributed to the National Purpose when called upon or when single events dictated their service.

The story of our National Purpose will never end. It might change in depth and meaning, but the diary of our history is destined to go on.

I was watching the National Geographic Channel production of George Bush’s interview about 9/11. I watched and I thought about my impressions and the visions I witnessed on that day. Like millions, I was mesmerized by the visions of the terror I saw.

That night, I wrote the President a letter. I am sure that some staffer read it and maybe the President did, too. However, I would not blame him if he didn’t. That is not important to today’s story, but the words I wrote are. I do not have a hard copy, because I sent it e-mail to the White House website, but the words I used reflected my thoughts about how some of us are placed at the doorsteps of history. I remember saying I don’t think you wanted this, but you are now making history – all I could say was God’s speed as you write a page in history.

As we approach the ten year mark of 9/11, I will remember the sights the sounds and the anguish of those that lost someone that day. I will also remember how the president reacted and acted in the following days to bring about what the National Purpose was on that day, that week that month and the subsequent years of the Bush Presidency.

True greatness should never be sought. It should be measured by how that greatness affected people and the common purpose of those that serve or those that volunteer selflessly in times of disaster and in time of need. This was brought into light, as the President visited the site of the fallen towers and addressed the nation and all those that were working to clear the site. He was able to find the words with bull horn in hand and an arm around a fireman who was just there at that moment to bring focus on the National Purpose.

Those sounds and sights are what some of us remember and what some choose to forget, because it wasn’t their guy standing on that heap of destruction getting all the attention.

As I watched the coverage of Hurricane Irene and heard the President and the left say you will have the money to rebuild. The right was following with spoken caution about where those funds would come from. The word is the Congress will deliver, but other budgets will have to suffer, as a consequence.

When I consider the ongoing cost of 9/11, the escalating cost of Hurricane Katrina and now Irene I cannot fault the people who demand that the government assists in the rebuilding of the hard hit areas with timely aid. President Bush said of 9/11, “this is how war will be fought in the 21st century.” While hurricanes hit land, FEMA is usually on the ground ready to give aid when its time. The aid is always at the discretion of Congress and always gets caught up in the politics that follow the funding requests.

We all have our opinions of how 9/11 occurred. We all have our opinions on how these super hurricanes come to be. Isn’t it time that we now have the same opinion on how the country pays for disasters when they occur? Shouldn’t it be part of the National Purpose to do so now?

In my opinion, there should be a super fund to provide the necessary money to fund the rebuilding after these disasters occur. This disaster relief fund should be proposed as other unnecessary budgets should be cut or eliminated. In addition, the principal of baseline budgeting should be eliminated and year to year fiscal budgeting be put in its place. The notion that we did it this way last year has to change. A super fund can be designed to keep the funds intact and to grow the funds from year to year. This super fund should be kept separate from any other governmental funding program. This super fund can provide the flexibility needed and it can be designed to take the politics out of rebuilding areas that are devastated by man or by nature.

When government takes on the role of giving aid it should do so in a responsible way, so that one man or one woman can provide the direction in giving aid when and where it’s needed the most. Congress can manage the money. They can make the budgetary recommendations from year to year and they can approve the money going in and going out. But Congress and the President and other politicians should not be allowed to play the politics when our National Purpose is to provide safety and to provide a quick path back to normalcy.

Gregory C. Dildilian
Founder and Executive Director
Pinecone Conservatives

A footnote: Shouldn’t we do as much as we can to promote the National Purpose with using the best possible methods and providing the best possible services? Sometimes all it takes is one man or one woman with a common purpose to do just that.

The National Purpose:

Monday - August 29, 2011

The National Purpose:

When I think of what The National Purpose means I conjure up visions of past history, the great feats of America and the accomplishments of great Americans that are known and greater Americans that are unknown who have all added to the greatness of a nation and the country’s National Purpose.

On today’s date, in 2005, Hurricane Katrina caused severe damage to the Gulf Coast killing 1,836 people who were, in the end, a part of the National Purpose in their own way. As a nation, we searched for the reason why, only to end up criticizing some and not blaming others when the National Purpose was questioned.

This weekend the country’s East Coast was ravaged by yet another Hurricane called Irene - that was downgraded into a tropical storm of immense size as it entered New York City. Lives were lost and property was damaged. Our leaders called for unity, as the National Purpose, this weekend in the wake of the 10th anniversary of 9/11 while the storm was gaining in strength.

We should not have to be reminded to search for our National Purpose in the wake of any disaster. Shouldn’t National Purpose be a part of our every day Common Purpose?

On today’s date, in 1982, George Brett got his 1,500 hit. This added to the National Purpose, as another accomplishment by another great American baseball player. This feat added to the simple landscape of what America is.

In 1968, on today’s date many unknown Democrats added to the National Purpose to change history as they nominated Hubert H. Humphrey as their presidential candidate. The convention was held in Chicago amid mass rioting and protesting all of which was a part of a changing National Purpose by unknown faces. Never the less, greatness rose to calm the day to only reaffirm the National Purpose.

On this date, in 1965, Astronauts Cooper and Conrad completed 120 Earth orbits in Gemini 5 setting a record in space travel that would further define America’s National Purpose after President Kennedy put forth an initiative to conquer space itself by going to the moon. He wouldn’t live to see it but he knew his words defined the National Purpose for generations of explorers and adventurers with dreams to come. In 1991 on this date, his son John F. Kennedy Jr. won his first court case as a young lawyer. The Kennedy family rose from obscurity to become the family that would define the nation’s version of Camelot. They defined again what the National Purpose was.

In 1966, on today’s date the Beatles performed their last public concert at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. The British Invasion created what the National Purpose was for millions of young admirers. Years later the National Purpose was recognized by the timeless tunes of a timeless era.

In war, our National Purpose is always questioned for the moral value, but in the end war is defined by the generals, the colonels, the majors, the sergeants and the privates who go in harms way to protect and define what our National Purpose is. On today’s date, in 1945, General MacArthur was named Supreme Commander of Allied Powers in Japan. He is known for his words that defined the National Purpose, “I shall return”, because he did. The National Purpose then was to defend the weak, by winning the war that brought our National Purpose to bear.

On today’s date, in 1862, the Battle of Bull Run (Manassas) began. The Civil War was fought to define a National Purpose over States Rights and the freedom of millions. On today’s date, almost a century later, the Civil Rights Act of 1957 was passed by Congress. This ended the question of how our National Purpose was limited to some Americans. On today’s date, in 1990, Saddam Hussein declared “America can't beat Iraq”. In the end, American soldiers beat back the forces that threatened our National Purpose.

In 1776, on today’s date the Americans withdrew from Manhattan to Westchester as our National Purpose was only beginning to be tested in ways that our enemies would only come to fear in future years. On August 29, 1786, Shays Rebellion in Springfield, Massachusetts began. Shays Rebellion was an armed uprising in Western Massachusetts from 1786 to 1787. The rebels, led by Daniel Shays and known as the Shaysites (or Regulators), were mostly small farmers angered by crushing debt and taxes. Any failure to repay these debts often times resulted in imprisonment in a debtor’s prison or the claiming of property by the state. A Massachusetts militia was raised as a private army to defeat the Shaysites on February 3 of 1787. However, there was a lack of an institutional response to the uprising, which energized calls to reevaluate the Articles of Confederation and gave strong impetus to hold the Constitutional Convention, which began in May of 1787.
The United States may be unique, because it was formed as a voluntary association of States based on declared moral principles. These moral principles are known today as our National Purpose. Our National Purpose was also guaranteed in a Constitution that was new to the world.
The National Purpose is all around us. We don’t have to look for it and we don’t have to wait for disaster to rekindle it. All we have to do to see it is to walk down Main Street. We see it in our grocer’s face, as he practices commerce. We see it in the mailman’s face, as he works to deliver the mail in the rain, the sleet and the snow. We see it the fireman’s face and the policeman’s face, as they bravely deliver the public service. We see it as the old are tended to and the young are nurtured. We can celebrate the National Purpose by reading the names of those who were lost in war at our town’s memorials. We see the National Purpose as we maintain a set of morals that are based on a set of laws that bring civility and peace to our town squares. If you have any doubts, you can read about the National Purpose in our nation’s founding documents.

No matter how we are tested, be it by another man’s dangerous thoughts or be it the danger that nature sometimes delivers, our National Purpose should never be doubted, should never be politicized and can never be forgotten, because history is the diary of the National Purpose. Today, take that walk down Main Street and open your eyes. The National Purpose is right in front of you.

Gregory C. Dildilian
Founder and Executive Director
Pinecone Conservatives

A footnote: America’s National Purpose will sometimes be questioned. Americans have that right, because it is a part of our set of morals to do so. The best part of the National Purpose gives us the morals to know when to question them and when to use them.

The cost of doing business!

Friday – August 26, 2011

The cost of doing business!

I know you all have heard the term, the “cost of doing business”. Some of you have probably used it. When I have, it usually has been said after great deliberation. However, some just say it, because they think they have nothing to lose, because things will work out in the end. Some who spend other people’s money might say it, because they are not paying the bills.

When the attitude of those who work in government say it’s the” cost of doing business”, then it becomes an issue, because it becomes our problem. This week, I have been talking about the cost of what happens when government through its agencies enacts regulations. I wrote about the seeds of freedom and about finding the common ground.

I started the week with discussing what the liberal plan is going forward. It is no surprise that the liberal plan is to demonize and practice the politics of personal destruction. Congresswoman (D – CA) Maxine Waters started it when she said, "As far as I'm concerned, the Tea Party can go straight to hell." These words are the worst kind of words that an elected official can use. I guess its okay when someone who isn’t an elected official uses them, but when they do, the real picture of what we should be looking at becomes clouded. This is also part of the plan.

The president is vacationing this week on Martha’s Vineyard. This is a special place, because it is a resort town on the East Coast. It’s actually an island south of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Many in the town who live there year round depend on the seasonal tourist trade. This year hasn’t been so good. Main Street on the island now has empty store fronts and the towns folk have found themselves out of work and in some cases out of business.

I do not fault the President to take some family time. This is part of the President’s job, too. Sometimes going on vacation is just the “cost of doing business”. Many in business find a way to write off vacations and many in business use a place like the Martha’s Vineyards as a way of doing business.

This was the choice the President made when a budget of about 10 million dollars was created for the presidential vacation. My only comment is: Martha’s Vineyards is the home to many liberals. The Vineyards usually will welcome a fellow liberal, some did this week and some were cool towards their visitor. The real issue here is how could that10 million dollars have been better used? Could it have been used to pay down the National debt? Could it have been used to invest in education? Could it have been used to help the poor people on the island to open up the empty store fronts that were closed? Could it have been used to help prop up more social welfare? The answer to this and many more questions is yes!

The “cost of doing business” was on full display this week. The President had some downtime on the golf course, the president went shopping and the president worked. He visited the CEO of Comcast. He met with advisors to draft up another jobs bill and came up with another idea of how to save the housing industry, by encouraging yet more low interest government backed loans to homeowners who are still in trouble with their mortgages. The “cost of doing business” was put on display this week when Warren Buffet bought 5 billion dollars of Bank of Americas stock; 50,000 shares to be exact. The bank has been hard hit by its holdings of tainted mortgages. The problem with housing is that when these stock sales occur and the government artificially props up the housing market instead of letting it hit bottom by itself and rebound by itself the cost of doing business becomes far more expensive.

417,000 jobs were lost last week. The economy hit a dead spot in mid July and the unemployment rate is now stuck at 9%. Couple that with the governments own forecasts this week which indicated a new era for America. It seems that the New Era in America is headed for continued low growth and high unemployment for the foreseeable future. Last month the country experienced 1 % in economic growth. This is the result of when the government takes the attitude of this is the “cost of doing business”.

While the East Coast is bracing for Hurricane Irene the “cost of doing business” will go up, because the hurricane will be blamed for all the bad news next week. The high unemployment figures, a downed market and yet more bad economic news will be used by the President as another excuse. The “cost of doing business” will again be on display, because someone will ask who’s going to pay.

Every week I end the FORUM with a quote. Today, I have a series of quotes from Jefferson himself. These quotes all relate to what I have written this week. Take the time to consider the words and then ask yourself who is right and who is wrong. Why is Main Street hurting and what is the cause? Is the loss of freedom and liberty something that we should fight or is that loss of liberty and freedom is just the “cost of doing business”?

Take a walk down Main Street this weekend and ask yourself those questions. Then, consider these words.

Jefferson on the Constitution:
“On every question of construction [of the Constitution] let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or intended against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed.”

Jefferson on the issue of today:
“The issue today is the same as it has been throughout all history, whether man shall be allowed to govern himself or be ruled by a small elite.”

Jefferson on Government:
“The true theory of our Constitution is surely the wisest and best, that the States are independent as to everything within themselves, and united as to everything respecting foreign affairs. Let the General Government be reduced to foreign concerns only, and let our affairs be disentangled from those of all other nations, except as to commerce, which the merchants will manage the better, the more they are left free to manage for themselves, and our General Government may be reduced to a very simple organization, and a very inexpensive one; a few plain duties to be performed by a few servants.”

Jefferson on Taxes”
“Taxes should be continued by annual or biennial reenactments, because a constant hold, by the nation, of the strings of the public purse is a salutary restraint from which an honest government ought not wish, nor a corrupt one to be permitted, to be free.”

Jefferson on the economy and debt:
“I, however, place economy among the first and most important republican virtues, and public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared.”

Jefferson on the value of the industrious:
“I think we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious.”

Jefferson on Liberty:
“Liberty is to the collective body, what health is to every individual body. Without health no pleasure can be tasted by man; without liberty, no happiness can be enjoyed by society.”

Jefferson on Democracy:
“The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.”

Jefferson on Prosperity, or what the cost of doing business should be:
“The happiness and prosperity of our citizens is the only legitimate object of government.”


Gregory C. Dildilian
Founder and Executive Director
Pinecone Conservatives

A footnote: Finding these quotes was an easy thing to do, but applying them to our everyday life is something entirely different. The true “cost of doing business” lies somewhere in the words that I am ending the week with and asking you to consider.

A vote of no confidence:

Thursday – August 25, 2011

A vote of no Confidence:

The President said, on July 3, 2008 that then President George Bush, “has a credit card from the bank of China, in the name of our children”, while he was complaining about the 4 trillion dollars that Bush had added to the National Debt during his entire 8 year presidency. He was campaigning against the spending and the waste then.

Fast forward 3 years and you will find that the President has added 4 trillion in his presidency so far in his first term. The CBO announced that there would be another trillion dollars added to the debt next year alone. So, let’s get this straight. President Bush added 4 trillion dollars in 8 years and this president has added 4 trillion dollars in just under his first three years and counting. This is an important scenario and one that should be highlighted whenever the economy is discussed. This is the reason the economy is not moving forward.

The CBO came out yesterday and announced that unemployment would be at a rate of 8.5 % for the next three years. This, coupled with the debt that keeps on soaring, is why many of the CEOs in the country are starting to give the President a vote of no confidence.

The Democrats were trying to make George Bush a one term President. They failed. Now the Democrats are complaining that the Republicans and the Tea Party are trying to make Obama a one term President. What’s the difference? There is no difference, it’s just the politics. But one thing does remain clear. The president campaigned on his theory of how economics works and he is now being proved wrong. This is why it is OK to give a vote of no confidence now.

The CEO of Starbucks, Howard Schults, has asked other CEO’s of great American companies not to give campaign donations to anyone in elected office until the balance sheet is cleared. I give this a vote of confidence. This is the start of a movement that should be encouraged. People donate large amounts of money to politicians for two reasons: access and influence. If more people would do the same as Schults is asking for then the influence and access that is gained through political donations will come to a halt. Maybe then people will get the message that it’s not about partisanship, it should be about citizenship.

The vote of no confidence is being felt in every corner of the economy lately. The president is meeting with business leaders for suggestions on what to do. What the president should be doing is meeting with those of us who are self employed and who run small businesses on Main Street to get a perspective of why there is a no confidence vote.

Part of the vote of no confidence is due to government regulations that hamper business growth and jobs growth. The CBO just came out with a new figure regulations are now 10% of GDP. I hate to be so dry with the figures I used yesterday and today, but these figures tell a story and these figures are the reason why there is now a vote of no confidence.

The EPA is about to come out with new regulations that would have been put into law if the Congress passed the cap and trade legislation. The EPA is usurping Congress and their ability to vote down bad legislation. The EPA will now add these regulations that will cost American industry billions. This money will go up the smoke stacks instead of down the drain.

The CBO just announced that there will be a reduction of 10 billion dollars in regulations, while the EPA and other agencies will enact new regulations that total 9.5 billion dollars in new cost to business. Where is the savings, it’s just a wash. There are new regulations on the amount of dust that can be allowed in the air, there are new regulations on the height of fences on cattle farms. These type of regulations tie business up instead of freeing business up to expand and create jobs.

There are 6.2 million Americans that have been out of work for 6 months. 7.33 million Americans are collecting unemployment insurance. In 2011 the Obama administration has proposed 340 new regulations at the cost of 65 billion dollars to business. No wonder there is a vote of no confidence. A new poll says that only 26% of Americans now favor how the president is handling the economy. This number is the lowest it has ever been. 2.4 million Job’s have been lost since the president took office a new record of job losses in any presidency. And we are supposed to be patient while we are told that things will work out. This administration is the first in 100 years to have more academics than business people among the ranks of advisors and cabinet members. Maybe this is part of the problem and another reason to give a vote of no confidence.

With all these new figures we are still not looking at the regulations that will be added into the economy under Obama-care and the new Dodd - Frank banking regulations bill that hasn’t even taken affect yet. One question I have is why is it possible that Chris Dodd and Barney Frank are still able to write new legislation when it was their original legislation that caused all this economic uncertainty in the first place?

There will be at least 59 more months of 8.5% or more unemployment that the CBO report is now projecting. The CBO also said that an additional 3 trillion dollars will be added to the debt on top of the 4 trillion the president has already accumulated. On July 3rd of 2008, the president said the amount of debt that has been accumulated under Bush was “irresponsible and unpatriotic.” I will use these words to describe this administration now.

I will use these words as a way to describe the administrators that legislate through the offices they hold in the bureaucracies such as the EPA that make law through the regulations they enact. The Congress is the only body in the government that can make law. Our government was originally designed through the system of checks and balances to prevent the things that are happening today in these agencies. I proposed a plan last week that would audit every agency and the charters that put them in business originally. What I think we would find would be the root of how government grows and how our money has literally disappeared.

A vote of no confidence on the part of every American has to be taken now so that our entire government goes through the house cleaning process that is now needed. This is why we must vote in new Representatives that are wise and realize just how prosperity works and how to grow the prosperity that is needed to take the government back from the few that regulate and that stealthily has taken our freedoms away.

When government and the people who operate the government through administrative functions consolidate ideology and start to legislate we must be prepared to call them “irresponsible and unpatriotic” and we must be prepared to take a vote of no confidence.
Jefferson wrote to Gideon Granger in 1800: "I do verily believe that a single, consolidated government would become the most corrupt government on the earth."
Gregory C. Dildilian
Founder and Executive Director
Pinecone Conservatives

A footnote: Let’s stimulate the patriotic forces necessary to make a no confidence vote and rid the agency bureaucrat and the politicians from the offices they hold. This is the only way that will ensure that our government serves us and not the bureaucracies that now rule our lives.

Just what is Common Ground?

Wednesday – August 24, 2011

Just what is Common Ground?

It takes leadership to find the common ground and to find solutions.

The left seems to be rigid and the right seems to be the ones that always bend. But with the left it is never enough. The right might have the best solutions; they might have the fairest solutions. The right might even have as some polls show the solutions that most Americans agree with.

But with the left it is never enough, because they just can’t get over the idea that some people in life have a rougher time than others. They can’t get over the fact that some have more money than others. They can’t get over the fact that some would give their wealth to help some others that they want to help, instead of what the government says should be the ones to help. They can’t get over the fact that we have a system that rewards individual excellence.

When an administration believes that a system that rewards individual excellence is flawed, then an atmosphere is created that does not provide for the proper leadership to do the things that are required to find the common ground and negotiate for a common ground.

When leadership is absent, the ability to find common ground is also absent. The President is meeting with Warren Buffet, the billionaire, and Alan Mulally, the CEO of Ford Motor Co., to discuss what needs to be done on the job front. In other words, how can we create jobs in this economy? When a President of the United States continually meets with business leaders and gets the same answers, but packages those answers in combination with his theories and ideology, common ground still cannot be found. Warren Buffet is a one of the wealthiest men in the world. He believes that the super rich should pay more. So that advice will only bolster the President’s belief on who should pay more in taxes. The increase in revenue that will result from the rich paying more is miniscule and will only disappear into the entitlement abyss.

There is no doubt that a safety net must exist in this country. For instance, the safety net of Social Security was intended for short term relief when it was created. However, the left made it into the bureaucracy it is today so that tax dollars would fund the growing entitlement and every thing else under the sun. In time, like everything else the government manages, it grows into something it was never intended to be. Social Security is now a retirement benefit and/or a way of life. If the money that had been put into Social Security over time was untouched and still there, based on the original charter, it would be fully funded and it could handle the pay out to the baby boomers that are now entering the system daily. However, the government via the President and the Congress over time has raided the fund to the point that it will be broke by 2017. This is what government does. This is the model of the left. Healthcare will be no different, when it becomes a bureaucracy.

The model of job growth that the president will propose on September 5, will be just another government sponsored program with the rich paying their fair share. When the rich are required to pay their fair share it registers with those who want government aid and who want the government to provide for the masses. In other words the government is doing its job!

The Bureau of Economic Analysis recently came out with these statistics. In 1960, government spending was 27% of the nations GDP. Now the government spends 37% of our GDP. In 1980 the National Debt was 42% of the nations GDP. Now the National Debt is 100% of our GDP. The Tax Foundation recently published these statistics. In1986, 18% of the population paid negative or no tax. Today, 51% pay negative or no tax.

The solution is to view all entitlements as safety nets. The cost of these entitlements go up, because of fraud and because many who do not need the benefits collect them, because its law. Instead of asking the super rich to pay their fair share why not ask them to opt out of the entitlements altogether?

Many participants should be means tested and be given benefits based on their economic need and there income level at retirement. In other words if someone was fortunate to make millions during their careers their benefits might not be as much as those who were not as fortunate. We should not penalize someone if they want to work past the legal retirement age either. If they produce, they will be contributing to the economy.

Instead of another jobs plan that will cost more in tax payer dollars and do nothing to cure the spending and entitlement problem, we should be demanding that the government spend our money more wisely before they ask the rich or upper middle class to pay more in taxes. If we place wise, practical and experienced people in elected positions, then common ground can once again be attained over time.

The Politicians of today are nothing less than theoreticians. A wise experienced person would look at entitlements and see that the premise was good, but also see that the current programs really don’t help those that need it most today. A wise and experienced person would take an objective view of spending and realize that it can no longer be supported without reforms that would make entitlements a safety net instead of a way of life. In time, the entitlement crowd would become producers and tax payers, if they were given the means to wean themselves from government sponsored programs. In time, the entitlement crowd would come to see the benefits of being prosperous contributors.

The means are a simple thing called a job and a career. The means are a simple thing called a pro growth economy that encourages investment in business and in people. In time, if 100% of the people who worked paid their fair share we could have the safety net as it was originally intended by some wise people who were once office holders and who had the compassion to provide a short term benefit to the people by a limited government.


Gregory C. Dildilian
Founder and Executive Director
Pinecone Conservatives

A footnote: You see common ground can be achieved, if we follow the original plan. This also includes the original plan of those who created the Constitution so that common ground could be achieved.