What's Important. A rambling

Why is it that we read all of our lives the regrets of scholars, leaders, politicians, giants of industry, or just the average Joe on the street that they waited too late to fugure out that life is more than who you are or what you accomplish at work. We read countless stories of those who wished they had spent less time working and more time with family, but when it happens to us we are shocked. No this realization didn't come to me recently. I actually came to the realizations several years ago but with my traditional zeal I launched myself into a post military retirement career with gusto, and now I am trapped.

Not trapped in the physical sense of course although that might be less stressful. No, I am trapped by the success I have enjoyed during my second career, by choices I have made...like moving for a new opportunity before selling the old house, taking advantage of the great deal on the time share, boat, etc, etc. You get the picture. You may even be there yourself. So what to do? Well I for one am going to eat that elephant one bite at a time. Sure I could divest myself of the two houses, timeshare, etc at a big loss, depleting retirement accounts and staring over but I am old enough to be more patient and take some time and work to a plan. I won't ever recapture the time I didn't spend with my children because I was deployed or distracted or busy, but I can position myself to be able to visit and share once they are more settled.

The boat is already gone. At a loss? Perhaps some would say so, but how do you quantify the lessons learned and the fun I had on the water?  No I think it was worth it.  The empy house is on the market (again) and I am confident that it will sell. The current house is worth less than when I bought it but we are working to make it better and more desirable to some lucky family in the future. The timeshare, well its in Orlando so if you are looking for a vacation site, drop me a line.

Where are the Leaders

I'm sorry but I can't sit around and watch what is happening in washington without chiming in. The folks in Congress, and I use the term "folks" to remind us all that they are not special, they are like the rest of us (whether they believe it or not). Anyway, the "folks" in Congress view themselves as leaders of our country...would you agree? I know a little about leaders. I worked for good and bad leaders during my 23 years in uniform. I have lead men in combat and in peacetime, and I have lead organizations since my retirement. I believe I know what leadership is, and the problem is if I were asked, I would classify the actions of those in Congress as the actions of followers, not leaders. Leaders do not follow party guidance at the expense of those who elected them to lead...followers do. Leaders do not sign absolute commitments "I will never vote to raise taxes" in an environment where they are uncertain of the future, that would be called giving in to bullies and that is not leadership...it is what followers would do. Leaders do not build policies and guidance on "making sure that XXX is a one term President, or that this or that person is not re-elected. That would imply that you are willing to discount things done that benefit the country and that is what followers would do. Call me one of the frustrated majority who is not heard but if you need to raise my taxes so my kids have a job then I say ok, let's figure out how to make it fair. Need to increase the sales taxes on certain items? I say ok as long as you can tell me how it helps. My concern is that if we continue to be "led" by followers then we will become the "former world power" and read about the glory days of America in the history books.

The Cost of Gridlock...or...A Billion Here, A Billion There

Well, the bill increasing the debt ceiling passed. Were you surprised? This after a month of some of the most useless political posturing, showboating and name calling in a long time. We have seen our political system degrade to the point that a handful of elected officials who claim a mandate from the people (but actually represent 4 or 5 percent of voters) can hijack a critical issue for our Nation and use it for their own political ends. And the reality is that after all is said and done, the hard work remains. As Charlie Cook put it in an article yesterday in the National Journal, “The stakes are so high and the performance is so utterly disappointing. The goals of most of the debt-ceiling proposals being debated are so modest that victory would really be a defeat in terms of what needs to be done.” In fact what we accomplished was an increase in the debt ceiling of something like .08% from $14.3 trillion to $16.4 trillion in exchange for $2.4 trillion in spending cuts and a additional unspecified cuts of cuts of $1.5 trillion to be determined by a bi-partisan commission before Thanksgiving.

So my question is this. What is the cost of the fighting for what is right for the party rather than what is right for the Nation? Had Congress been able to work together for the Nation what other business would they have been able to accomplish to deal with issues like job creation or next year’s budget to run the Government. Here a re just a couple of points to consider.

· The FAA’s legal authorization expired on June 23d. While no air traffic controllers are off the job, the agency does have has almost 4,000 employees on furlough and has suspended more than 70,000 construction jobs. Since Congress has decided to start a month long vacation a week early the agency will lose an additional $1.2 billion in airline ticket taxes before Congress returns to work on September 8. In the meantime, FAA safety inspectors are using their personal credit cards and funds to pay for airline tickets and hotels to perform airline safety inspections to keep us safe.

· The treasury has spent an addition $1.2 to $1.5 billion in interest to make US securities attractive in the face of Congressional paralysis.

· Numerous government agencies still have not been given a budget for 2011 (which ends in less than 2 months. While these agencies were funded through a continuing resolution through September 30, that means they can only operate at FY10 levels so all of the small companies and entrepreneurs who would have benefited from new work have been unable to receive a contract this fiscal year. Did I mention that small companies are the largest job creators in the US?

Something has to change. I am not sure what it is but as a voter I have a voice. Perhaps we should start from scratch and fill the House and Senate with new faces. Of course some of the new faces were the reason this crisis happened in the first place. Perhaps term limits would help. What about a third viable party? I wish I had the answer, but I don’t. You can bet on the fact that I will be looking for one.

Where are the Leaders?

The drama surrounding the potential shutdown of the federal government has reached a level we haven’t seen on daytime TV since the OJ Simpson chase. The budget game has been going on now for almost a year with no winner. The goal is to reach an agreement and pass a budget BEFORE the start of the fiscal year. If you do everyone wins. If you don’t pass a budget before 1 October no-one wins. But...to keep everyone from losing you use a budgetary tool called magic.

Actually it’s called a Continuing Resolution Authority or CRA but it works like magic. Under a CRA, the government can continue to operate at the same levels as the previous year. Sounds ok right? Unless of course you hired a few new folks, or gave someone a raise or promotion, or want to start a new program. One of the unique restrictions of operating under a CRA is the stipulation that there can be no “new starts”. If you were not doing it last year then you can’t start it under a CRA. And there is the problem…think about the number of government programs that may start in a given year. It is a lot more than you think. I am most familiar with the Defense industry where a CRA means delays in funding for contracts that you may have been ready to start as soon as the budget was signed and the money was available. Which means layoffs and no new hiring for the many jobs that would have been created to support new programs.

I don’t know about you but I have a problem with that. Congress can’t get past their playground politics and do their jobs, so more Americans are out of work. The longer the CRA runs, the more people lose. Now to be fair, CRAs are not uncommon and they generally aren’t that disruptive, because the budget is usually passed by the first of the year. This year however there are so many juicy political balls being juggled around in Washington that our elected servants don’t have time to notice the impact of their incompetence on the American people. They really only have time to look for opportunities to play “gotcha” and work on the next set of talking points so they can talk over the reported who ask hard questions without answering any hard questions. Perhaps the biggest travesty this year is that we are still without agreement on April 6 when so many reasonable options have been presented. The bipartisan Bowles Simpson deficit commission released their recommendations on November 10, 2010. I am sure it wasn’t a perfect solution but it recommended reductions in federal spending as well as tax changes (reducing many credits and deductions) with a total impact of just over $200 Billion. Congressman Paul Ryan has recently proposed a $2 decrease in spending for every $1 increase in taxes. A bit simplistic but it’s a start and moves us toward the kind of decision that must be made if we are to get out of this mess.

When times are tough we must have leaders who are willing to lead the country rather than a party. We need people who can see past the next election and make the hard calls that although unpopular today, will prove to be right in the end It’s not about winning polls or elections, its about the economy stupid.

Remembering 9-11

This Saturday was as you know the 9^th anniversary of the September 11^th Terrorist attacks. My initial plan for Saturday was to make sure I had my flag out and perhaps to pause at 8:45 (I knew that was close to the time of the first impact) and think of all those affected by that terrible day. Plans of course are only a starting point and are subject to change. What actually happened is this:

I was up early to take my wife and son to the airport for a flight to the West coast to visit Grandma for a week. Since I was up and the day was supposed to be hot I started to work in the yard. By 9:15 it was already getting pretty hot so I stopped for a quick dip in the pool and went inside for a cool drink. I turned on the TV (for company I suppose) and quickly found myself watching a re-broadcast of September 11 coverage in real time. I was immediately taken back to my own reaction to the events. It happened that I was starting a new job within the Army’s Recruiting Command in September of 2011. I had flown to Milwaukee on the 10^th with a team of inspectors to review recruiting operations for the operations run out of that city. On the morning of the 11^th I was in a hotel lobby having a quick breakfast with my new boss. Of course we were in uniform and just before we left the hotel manager came over and in said he felt like we should know that an airplane had just crashed into one of the World Trade towers. Our initial reaction was far from exciting as we said something like “Hmm, that’s interesting”. As we drove into the city we started listening to a local radio news report as we be

gan to wonder among ourselves what was happening. We were all thinking small private plane and discussed possible causes like incapacitation of the pilot, mechanical malfunction, and even at some point the possibility of a disgruntled employee taking a drastic action. By the time we reached midtown the news was reporting the impact of a second plane that was, according to witnesses, a commercial airliner. When we arrived at the recruiting headquarters we immediately found a TV and saw the first images of what was happening in New York.

On Saturday I re-lived the next few hours and in hindsight I was struck by just how confused we all seemed to be, especially in the beginning. It was so difficult for us to envision a deliberate attack of this kind that many initial reports were wondering, as I did, what could have caused such a horrible “accident”. As the reality that this was a deliberate attack began to sink in there was still an overwhelming sense of disbelief. The news reporters were trying to stay objective and report what was happening. And there was always the confusion of the initial reports. There was the first report from the Pentagon that a bomb had detonated on the helipad, there was a report that a radical Palestinian group claimed responsibility, there was a report of a bomb going off outside the State Department. I was struck by how the news reports seemed somewhat sterile until just after to

wer 2 collapsed when Matt Lauer pointed out that it was almost certain that rescue operations were still going on in the building when it collapsed and that in a single instant there had been a significant loss of life.

When details of the crash at the Pentagon were reported I started making phone calls. It is a really big building and I only knew a handful of folks who worked there but I wanted to find out if everyone was OK. Of course I didn’t find out much that first day. Late that night I heard from a friend of a friend that Martha was “shook up” but ok. The next days were a blur as we listened to the reports of the death and devastation. By late evening on the 12^th I learned that 4 friends were still not accounted for. Ironically they were all in the same meeting at the time of the attack.

This Saturday I shed tears for them once again.

Lieutenant General Tim Maude was the highest ranking officer killed that day. At the time he was the Deputy Chief of Staff for personnel for the Army. I remember him as bright and cheerful, someone who loved the Army and cared deeply about her soldiers. http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/tjmaude.htm

Retired M

aster Sergeant Max Beilke was working on issues affecting retired service members. He was a big friendly guy who always had the time to stop and chat with you for a few minutes. Max was officially the last combat soldier to leave Vietnam. http://www.startribune.com/local/11594516.html

Gary Smith was a retired Lieutenant Colonel. he served as the Chief of retirement services and I remember him as a quiet man who seriously wanted to make a difference. He and max made quit the pair walking the halls of the Pentagon together. http://projects.washingtonpost.com/911victims/gary-f-smith/

Lieutenant Colonel Kip Taylor was the Executive Officer to Lieutenant General Maude. He was quick witted, funny, and loved his family. Although he didn’t take himself too seriously, he was a gifted officer with much still to give to his country. http://projects.washingtonpost.com/911victims/kip-p-taylor/

Religious Freedom

Can you believe how our leaders have politicized what I really thought was a constitutional right. Our history tells us that religious freedom was extremely important to our founding fathers. It was sort of a non-negotiable when the good old US of A was struggling for liberation from those oppressive Brits wasn't it. How times change. Today, the prevailing train of thought seems to be...you are free to practice whatever religion you want as long as my religion is ok with it. The tragedy of September 11 was not an attack on the U.S. by Islam any more than Timothy McVeih's act in Oklahoma was a Christian attack on the U.S. OK I know that many believe that McVeih was a self proclaimed atheist, but he did have ties to a religious doctrine known as the Christian Identity. Some scholars make the point that if McVeih was a Christian he could not have carried out such a horrific act. I would counter that if the 9-11 hijackers had been truly devoted Muslims, they could not have carried out the attacks that they perpetrated. Sorry I guess I am getting a little off track. As Americans we are quick to point to our history of tolerance and freedom and yet we want to make the location of a place of worship into a political issue. Muslims have been worshiping in Manhattan for decades. I should not matter the location of the place of worship. Are we going to restrict Islamic service members from practicing their religion at the Pentagon chapel?

As a final comment I will remind you that in June of 1967, Israel attacked the USS Liberty (nine hours after identifying it as a U.S. Navy vessel) in International waters killing 34 American Sailors. Instead of national outrage the result was national coverup with many documents related to the event still classified. Do we control the location of synagogs near Naval facilities? No we don't.

Insanity Politics

The electorate is fed up with politics as usual. I hear it at least 4 times a week. It seems to be the new battle cry. After all, it's the reason that the Democrats won the White House and control the Congress...right?...or...is it the reason Mr. Brown went to Washington (Sen Scott Brown)?...or it is the reason ...uh...well you get the picture. If you were to stop people on the street anywhere in America and ask them if the political system is broke my guess is a large majority would say yes. If you ask them how to fix it, you will begin to see the problem. Most of those who offered a solution would repeat party sound bites. And that, my friends, is insanity. We've all heard the definition of insanity, it's "doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results". So how do we change politics enough to stop the insanity? I will admit that I don't have the answer, but I did have a "duh" moment this week, and no I wasn't in a Holiday Inn Express. Here's my question...

...When did the political process begin to revolve more around the party than the person?...

We...the people that is, only think about politics and government before elections, and when "government" does something we don't agree with; like rearrange the school districts, or widen the road in front of our property, or raise taxes, etc. I live in Florida, and the recent theater surrounding Governor Crist's announcement that he would run for Senate as a no party candidate has been eye opening. There was a lot of speculation about how many of his large donors would ask that contributions returned. And most of his campaign staff resigned of course. So that tells me that the donors weren't supporting Mr. Crist because the believed in the man and were confident in his ability to represent Florida in the Senate...no, they were supporting the Republican party. Likewise the campaign leadership. I may be naive but there is something wrong with that in my book. To quote Howard Troxler, an editorial writer for the St. Pete Times, "everybody likes to talk ideology, but what usually decides an election are mechanics, strategy and money." Think about that for a minute. Does that sound like what our founding fathers had in mind when they drafted the Constitution? I for one don't think so.

So how do we stop the insanity? To get any real change we are going to have to find a way to decrease the power and the influence of the party. We, the people, need to listen the political hopefuls and they in turn must listen to the people. No elected official is ever going to make all of the people happy so instead of pretending to be something they are not, to appeal the the largest number of voters, we need politicians with convictions and the moral courage to stick to them. We need politicians who are not professional politicians, but are leaders. We need politicians who are willing to go for the hard right instead of the popular wrong. I could go on but you get the picture? Do I think this is going to happen? No. It might happen occasionally at the local level, and I mean very local. Above the local level, I don't think there is an incentive to change that dramatically. Without the total collapse of the current system where the party and the loyal party minions control money and media we are going to continue the insanity...and while I can't change it, I can at least talk about it and dream...this is America after all.