Local Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick is leaving office at the end of his current term.  As usual, a few candidates lined up for the chance to take his place.  At the moment, one of them in particular seems sure to win the primary race next week.  That would be… Fitzpatrick?!?  Yes… but not Mike.  His brother Brian Fitzpatrick is running to take the office. Now, to the part I find interesting, and perhaps even a touch devious.  Brian’s campaign signs are colored and stylized just like Mike’s signs were in previous elections.  They boldly proclaim the last name, “Fitzpatrick”, listing the first name in much smaller text.  Brian has also been keeping a very low profile.  He has had limited interactions with the press and is generally trying to stay out of the limelight.  This is by design. The strategy is clever – hope no one notices that you’re not actually your brother, and gain the advantage of being the incumbent, without actually, well, you know… being the incumbent.  Based on the little bit of poking around I did on Brian Fitzpatrick’s website, there doesn’t seem to be much difference between him and his brother.  So even though I find the […]

The saga of the Great Debt Ceiling Crisis of 2011 came to a disappointing end Tuesday when President Obama signed into law the lousy “compromise” that was sent to him by Congress.  Let us look back on the events that brought us to the pathetic end of the over-hyped debt ceiling “crisis”. The President addressed the nation on Monday July 25, in the hope of frightening the American people into a blind, thoughtless frenzy that would have them pressure their respective members of Congress into a “compromise”.  The days following his speech brought the introduction of several plans by various leaders in Washington DC.  The primary of those being one from House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) – who incidentally filibustered his own bill for more than 20 hours. In the President’s speech Monday he did his very best to explain the problem to the American people.  He did so by: Demonizing tax cuts as an expense to the government – as if the money belongs to the government, and the government is being inconvenienced in allowing you to have it, as their gift to you.  This money belongs to you!  The government has […]

By now everyone has heard that the United States is going to hit our current borrowing limit on August 2nd according to a US Treasury estimate.  The President has stated repeatedly that the limit must be raised or the US will default on its debt and trigger an unprecedented financial crisis that will have widespread and far-felt ramifications.  Congress is currently wrestling over how to address this most serious issue, though how much of it is genuine dissent and how much is put on to create a good show for the public is debatable. The President would like us to all think that the problem here is that the debt ceiling is not high enough.  That is not the problem.  The problem is that the debt ceiling is even an issue.  The problem is that the federal government is borrowing at such a rate that the federal debt is increasing by $40,000 per second!  That comes out to $3.456 BILLION a day.  And the President wants more. The choice here is a simple one.  We either continue down the path of reckless spending that will ultimately lead to the utter destruction of the dollar and the complete financial collapse of […]