Obama leaves his balls in his golf bag

"He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself."-Thomas Paine

LAKE WORTH – A funny thing happened in the fascist nation of Iran last week.

An “election” for the Iranian Presidency was held. The people of Iran went to the polls to vote for hope and change.

Millions of voters waited many hours on line and cast their votes. It was a record turnout.

When the votes were allegedly counted, the rulers of this fascist nation quickly proclaimed the incumbent a winner by a landslide, even though it was a lie.

The funny thing is that the oppressed Iranian people refused to accept the results. They knew their government was lying. They hit the streets and staged violent protests against the Fascist government and the winner, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, one of the most dangerous men in today’s world.

The world watches with anticipation to see if the people of Iran, through protest in the streets, anticipated general strikes, and other action can overthrow their brutal theocracy.

Shamefully, the United States, lead by President Barak Obama, has basically said or done nothing to help or support them.

Thomas Jefferson once said that “The tree of liberty must be refreshed fromtime to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure."

The tree of liberty is attempting to take root in Iran and the blood of democrats is spilling in the streets there.

What is happening in the streets of Iran is a fight for basic human rights and democratic rule. It is also the rebirth of the hope and vision of democratic rule, this time in the Middle East.

Freedom from tyranny too often has to be fought for and born out of bloodshed.

President Obama, in his first real foreign affairs challenge, has chosen a very predictable cautionary approach. He says little-really, absolutely nothing at all.

President “Hope and Change” claims he does not want to give the Iranian dictatorship an excuse to blame the United States for meddling in Iran’s internal affairs.

Obama just doesn’t have the guts to take a hard stand. As usual, our politically correct President is afraid to offend other tyrants in the Middle East and the world with meaningful, harsh words of support for the demonstrators in their pursuit of freedom and human rights, something his predecessor to his credit was never afraid to do.

Obama rationalized his inaction, stating he did not see much difference between the present President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his opponent Mir Hossein Mousavi, despite the fact that Mousavi is viewed as a reformer in a contest of religious extremists.

While Mousavi is no Thomas Jefferson, he is a ray of hope that Iran can begin to transition itself from fascism.

The President has chosen to sit back and be guarded in assisting and encouraging the protestors, despite the fact that the present government of Iran has instigated violence by being the benefactor of terrorist organizations in Iraq and other nations in the Middle East.

What is Obama scared of? That the US will get blamed for instigating democratic change in a regime that is an enemy of not only our country, but every democratic principle this country stands for. We are going to get the blame anyway.

American soldiers are dying daily because of treacherous Iranian interference in Iraq, Afghanistan, or the nations of the world.

Why should be afraid of strongly supporting the efforts of people trying to overthrow a Fascist theocracy that is destabilizing the world? Why should we be afraid of telling the people of Iran that we strongly support an overthrow of their government and all that it stands for?

What would happen if our President got up and said that we strongly support the efforts of the oppressed to democratize their government?

With such words coming from the great Obama, it would electrify the effort in Iran. Would it put more people in the streets of Iranian cities? Absolutely. Would it help to destabilize one of our worst enemies in the world? Absolutely.

Most importantly, it would absolutely show that America did not sit back and say basically nothing at an historic moment when another country in the Middle East was starting down the road to democratic rule?

Would strong words in support of the street protesters from Obama make America look great again? Absolutely.

While our President was taking Father’s Day off to play some golf, the United States officially remained muted in its support for the bloodied protesting for their children’s future in the streets of Iran.

As he shut off his Blackberry and was teeing off, thousands and thousands of people in the United States and the world followed accounts of pitched battles and demonstrations on Twitter, a new messenger of the democratic dream-the American Dream.

Americans also tweeted back that unlike their government, the people of the United States were enthusiastic supporters of the protesters in Iran.

Next week, we will celebrate the day our American forefathers declared
independence from tyrannical rule, the day that officially began the American democratic experience that continues to be the model of freedom throughout our world.

July 4th would be a very good time for our President, who loves to give monumental speeches every week, to give another great speech, this one stating unconditional support for the street protesters in Iran.

President Obama needs to ignore safe polticial instinct and find the fortitude to proclaim our great moral support for those looking shedding their blood in the streets of Iran-drawing parallels to the same way the American experiment was ignited in the streets of Boston against the colonial British.

The least our President on July 4th before he goes to a barbeque or plays golf is grab his Blackberry and send a tweet proclaiming that our minds and hearts are with the Iranian demonstrators as we celebrate our Independence Day.

Check out Kurly's recent articles:

Time for courts to decide a truly decent joke
Judge Sotomayor is really one of the boys

Planned obsolescence has become itself obsolete
Kurly's Belated Mother's Day Message
Recession” fries" mom and pop restaurants
Marxist interpretation of historical American History and Presidents

Recent Kurlykomments Tweets:

On July 4th, 2009, you think Americans should be dedicating the day to the protesters in Iran & their fight to overturn fascism & tyranny?
Send following email to Iran at iran@un.int :"Free Iran from Islamic fascism-report and respect true result of Presidential vote-Free Iran"
Hungry and Prague revisited? How come Obama isn't forcefully showing support for those demonstrating in Iran-long live the Bush Doctrine! If you are thinking of a trip to Hawaii next week, you might want to check out the Army/Navy store for some accessories
Age Discrimination in workplace is rampant in recessionary times & SC was totally wrong to judicially legislate high standard of proof.
Minnesota senate debacle shows need for "do over"elections if results statistically even-if within 100ths of pt.Judges shouldn't decide race
More regulation w/o antitrust action by Obama is useless. Need to break up inefficient giants & allow more competiton-natural m/p regulation
Wondering if a starbucks drink has more calories than a Big Mac,
MDs want caps in malpractice cases, but what about better policing & elimination of bad doctors who continue to practice and hurt and kill? Tweeting/blogging stimulating revoltuion in Iran.Revolutionize biz by blogging. http://bit.ly/1ayrbv

Time for courts to decide a decent joke

www.stevenkurlander.com

KurlyReaders:

Since innuendos about Thomas Jefferson’s sexual behavior were circulated in newspapers at the turn of the 19th century, American politicians have had to endure defaming remarks about their private conduct. This week, I examine whether a recent sexual joke by David Letterman concerning a daughter of Governor Sarah Palin was slander. I argue that Palin should sue Letterman not only to right the wrong against her daughter, but to challenge the accepted mores of our society which tolerates jokes and messages of violent sexual behavior toward American women.

Please give me feedback by emailing me at skurl@aol.com.

Have a great week. Kurly.

Time for courts to decide a decent joke

Any woman who chooses to behave like a full human being should be warned that the armies of the status quo will treat her as something of a dirty joke. That's their natural and first weapon. -Gloria Steinem

LAKE WORTH – Last week, David Letterman once again made a not so funny, indecent “joke” at the expense of Governor Sarah Palin-actually, this time, it was about her 14 year old daughter Willow.

After attending an autism event near New York City, Governor Palin and her husband took her daughter Willow to a baseball game at Yankee Stadium. A snide Letterman told his audience that the Alaska governor suffered an awkward moment while attending the game:

“During the seventh inning, her daughter was knocked up by Alex Rodriguez.”

Palin rightfully called the joke an insult to young women and Letterman in turn stated that he had meant to joke about Palin’s older daughter Bristol, who recently had a baby out of wedlock.
When Palin basically called Letterman a dirty old man, he argued back that he would have never made an obscene joke about a 14 year old.

So is a bad joke about the wrong daughter so bad and offensive that it deserves all the consideration it is getting?

Letterman’s joke and his defense that the wrong daughter was the butt of the joke are evidence of a conventional tolerance of indecency and cruelty toward political figures, particularly women. Often, as evidenced by Letterman’s joke, members of political families become derivative victims of despicable political pundits and comedians.

The Letterman joke has sparked a debate about a number of issues surrounding both Governor Palin and women in politics, including the fixation by liberal pundits to be totally unfair and cruel to Palin, the acceptance of the use of negative sexual connotations toward women in politics, and the hypocrisy of the leftist, feminist double standard that exists in regard to Palin and other conservative women when it comes to them being negatively attacked in chauvinistic rather than racist terms (it can be framed as the Imus v. Letterman syndrome).

But another major issue that arises from Letterman’s “comic” reference to Willow Palin is whether our libel and slander laws are outdated and inadequate when it comes to public figures being subjected to a lack of decency and sexuality appropriateness, even in the context of protections afforded to the press and speech by our constitution.

David Letterman has every right to make jokes, comments, and observations about Sarah Palin and every other Republican he may hate. Yet, he stepped over the line with the joke about Governor Palin’s daughter (either one ).

As guardians of Willow, Governor Palin and her husband Todd should sue Letterman for making such a vulgar, slanderous remark (so should A-Rod-while he may not be the most drug-free player or faithful husband, he is not a child rapist). The kid, and especially her sexuality, should be off limits to a national audience, no matter if the child appears in public with her famous mother. It’s called common sense decency.

The benchmark case in regard to this issue is New York Times v. Sullivan, which was decided in the early 1960s by the Warren Court. That case was decided in the context surrounding the media reporting of the civil rights movement, when libel and slander laws were used by segregationists to discourage reporting of civil rights events in the South.

The Sullivan decision stated that in order for a public figure to prevail in a defamation case, an “actual malice” standard must be proven, which requires that the public figure prove that the publisher or speaker of the statement must have known that it was false or acted in total disregard of its truth or falsity.

The standard is a very high one for a plaintiff to prove. The result has been that public and political figures have been basically free targets to brutal character assassination in this country for the last 45 years.

Palin has an important opportunity to change an outdated status quo in suing Letterman, CBS, and other companies involved in the production of his program. She should attempt to have the courts throw out Sullivan’s “malicious” standard.
Instead, Palin should seek the establishment of a common sense balancing test between basic decency and privacy concerns for public figures-and their families- and the right to free speech and press, particularly in terms of dialogue concerning sexual violence toward women.

If Letterman refuses to be decent enough to apologize about for the joke itself instead of not using the right name (and milk the controversy to get his ratings up), he needs to state in a court of law how the violent sexual nature of the “joke” was not indecent and slanderous as it pertains to Willow individually and women in general.

If Imus (who really did the correct thing right away by apologizing profusely) had to lose his livelihood for his really stupid racist, sexist remark, Letterman deserves to endure equal pain for his equally inane joke.

So on behalf of her family, all American women and public figures in this country (and Republicans too), Governor Palin needs to challenge the armies of the status quo by fighting back legally, challenging self righteous, nasty douche bags like Letterman in court so at least they, and their media parents, will think twice next time before telling an obscene joke about women and the sexuality of a politician’s child.

Isaac Asimov once stated that “Jokes of the proper kind, properly told, can do more to enlighten questions of politics, philosophy, and literature than any number of dull arguments.”
Letterman’s jokes, as well as commentaries by others, about Sarah Palin have always been nasty, overdone, and far from enlightening. It is time that political pundits like him were challenged. Good people don’t run for high public office because of the sleazy, slanderous crap they and their families have to endure from people like Letterman. Governor Palin should sue and eventually have the last laugh in this matter.

Kurly’s recent Tweets:

· Send following email to Iran at iran@un.int : "Free Iran from Islamic fascism-report and respect true result of Presidential vote-Free Iran"2:26 PM Jun 14th
· Iran is not a democracy and the outcome of the election was predetermined by a fascist gov't. It's funny to see our Prez shocked by outcome2:03 PM Jun 13th
· Isn't it time to change libel laws in this country to protect family members of politicians from sexual accusations by douche bag comedians?7:46 AM Jun 13th
· Watching Koren tourist group eating bagels and a shmear iand watching CNN in bagel shop in WPB & lovin it-wonder if they would like kishka?7:44 AM Jun 12th
· Is it nuts to want to organize a GOP picket in front of the home of a local known white supremacist to protest attack on Holocaust museum?5:19 PM Jun 11th
· Holocaust Museum Shooting-American Jews better wake up & get in touch with dangers faced in anti-semitic world that reflects the mid 1930s.2:35 PM Jun 10th
· 1 in 8 mortgages was 30 days or more past due or in foreclosure in 1st quarter-isn't getting better & banks & mortgage biz still vey corrupt7:35 AM Jun 10th
· Can someone explain to George Mitchell, Hillary Clinton, & their boss that West Bank was JORDANIAN territory in 1967 & not a separate state?2:32 PM Jun 9th
· Ford complains GMAC now has unfair advantage. Supreme Court holds up Fiat purchase of Chrysler.Is there a chance the free market may return?7:31 PM Jun 8th
· Mr. President, you ask Americans to sacrifce for others in these times of hardship, how about giving up your salary til things gets better?3:19 PM Jun 7th

Truth and empathy are universal and classless precepts

http://www.stevenkurlander.com/

Dear KurlyReaders:

This week, I examine whether the quote by Supreme Court designee Judge Sonia Sotomayor extolling the wisdom of Hispanic women was actually “racist” and argue that she is basically just one of the “boys” if you consider her legal training and experience.
Please let me know what you think and give me feedback at skurl@aol.com. I would also ask you to send me one email of a friend, relative, or fellow worker who would enjoy receiving Kurly’s Kommentary on a weekly basis.

Get Daily Kurlykomments at https://twitter.com/Kurlykomments .

If you are interested in blogging for your business, please call me at 561-523-3500 and check out http://www.stevenkurlander.com/smbizblog-business_blogging for more information.

Thank you for reading my blog and have a great week. Kurly.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sonia is really just one of the boys

"I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experience would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life."
Judge Sonia Sotomayor


LAKE WORTH – Between my second and third year of law school, I worked as a law intern in the NYS Attorney General’s office in Buffalo. During that summer, I worked with two African-American law students and we developed a true friendship with one another, learning about each other and our life experiences.

As the summer continued, I began to understand a lingering resentment they nurtured growing up and living in poverty of New York City ghettos. I grew to understand about a cultural sensitivity to racial bigotry which touched their lives on a daily basis.

During the third year of law school, one of them asked me to come to a meeting of BALSA, the Black American Law Student Association to see if I wanted to join the organization.
When it was time for the meeting, I walked into the classroom where it was being held and encountered immediate, intense hostility from some of the law students there. “What are you doing here?” one asked. “You don’t belong here,” another student said to me.

An immediate debate broke out about me attending the meeting between my two friends and others who wanted me to leave. I never forgot the feeling I had of being the only “different” person in the room and feeling the resentment of some to my being there because of the color of my skin.

Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination for the Supreme Court by President Obama has resulted in the usual hypercritical recrimination associated with the selection of any candidate for the court. Some right wing pundits and politicians have seized on the quote above as evidence that Judge Sotomayor is a “reverse racist” and unfit to preside on the high court.

If anything, the analysis of her statement as racist is nothing more than converse political correctness. The quote in itself is not racist (if anything it is reverse-misogynistic), poorly worded, and just plain self-serving, egotistical crap.

When I read her statement, I understood better than others what she really meant to say based on my own particular law school experiences. However, at the same time, I truly doubted Sotomayor really had endured the true bigotry my friends in law school had really faced in their lives that would define her thinking in such terms.

Sotomayor is not at all the woman she describes in her remark. She has not struggled in her adult life against prejudice, but has instead greatly exploited being a minority woman in the age of affirmative action and political correctness.

Her “racist” statement is evidence of the persona she has developed to help rationalize her actual membership to America’s most elite legal society. She may talk the poverty talk, but her true life experience shows that she is actually no different than the white males she will be joining on the bench.

Judge Sotomayor’s life experience as a Latin woman may have shaped her initial nurturing, but it is important in terms of her appointment to the Supreme Court to separate her childhood upbringing from her professional career, particularly in terms of her interpretation of the rule of law.

Judge Sotomayor’s legal career was foremost shaped by her clinical legal training and professional experience, not her sex, upbringing, or ethnic background. A brilliant person, she was educated at Princeton and Yale Law School, where she was a member of an elite group of students on law review. Her legal experience as a prosecutor, a member of a boutique law firm, as a law professor at NYU and Columbia, and as a privileged Federal judge over a long period of time truly distances herself for the last 35 years from the common man and women in any terms of true empathy gained from life experience.

So, let’s stop pretending that Judge Sotomayor is truly a unique, historic candidate for the Supreme Court. Despite the Obama propaganda, the “richness of her experience” is no different than any other sitting white justice on the Supreme Court. Notwithstanding Sotomayor’s family and ethnic background, she in fact belongs to a very powerful elite club of American lawyers that don’t spend much time preparing Arroz Con Pollo for dinner for a large family.

Even if the facade of struggle being propagated by the Obama Administration is deceptive, it is a mistake to focus on her silly self-serving statement and the Marxist class struggle rhetoric in determining her fitness for the Supreme Court. Instead, let’s judge the Judge strictly on her legal talents and rulings alone and not worry about whether her unique personal ethnic or sexual compassion will make her fit or unfit to sit on the bench.

A debate about whether Judge Sotomayor is racist is an asinine, but caustic distraction that is designed in part to alienate the Republican Party further from American Hispanics and diminish the important process of picking a Supreme Court Justice on the sole merits of her legal decisions and her interpretation of the rule of law.

The true shame of this debate is that the bona fide trials and tribulations of people like my law school friends in Buffalo are being cynically exploited by the President to drive the appointment to the Supreme Court of an otherwise very qualified member of the elite American legal hierarchy.

This week's Kurlykomments Tweets on Twitter:
· Obama's Sat. night date a good thing for the country. They are allowed to have a good time together. Dating keeps marriage & minds healthy 9:02 AM May 30
· Recent news on Jon & Kate plus 8 exemplifies what is wrong with American morals-TV ratings & fame supercede children, family, and marriage 7:44 AM May 30th
· FLOCCI­NAUCINI­HILIPIL­IFICATION-a summation of the stimulus package & the attitude of Congress propping up corrupted lending institutions 1:49 PM May 29th
· Life expectancy for diabetic is 8-12 years less-should that be an issue when picking a SC Judge especially if age of candidate is important? 9:48 AM May 28th
· Republicans should remember many SC picks never follow adhere to earlier pol.leanings ala Earl Warren & may be surprised later w/Sotomayer 10:36 AM May 27th
· Free Aung San Suu Kyi 6:33 PM May 26th
· Colin Powell's perspecitve important & valid-new Rep.Party needs to respect & debate moderate views & stop infighting to get strong for 2010 12:46 PM May 26th
· Thank you to all American soldiers, past & present-fighting 233 yrs for the rgt.of free speech that allows me to post this tweet & my blog. 7:22 AM May 25th

Get Daily Kurlykomments at https://twitter.com/Kurlykomments

Planned obsolescence has become itself obsolete
"Obsolescence never meant the end of anything, it's just the beginning"
Marshall McLuhan

Lake Worth – I am very frustrated.

I am sitting here in an auto repair center, waiting for a mechanic to replace the right low beam headlight in my 2006 Mazda 3. It’s costing me $50.00 I don’t have right now.

Last night, I was pulled over by a Palm Beach County Deputy Sheriff and received a warning ticket from him for driving with a dead headlight. I have to get it fixed.

My car now has 100,000 miles on it. Every mechanic tells me that the car should run up to 300,000 miles easy if I perform the required maintenance. But the question is whether I will be able to afford the cost of parts and maintenance to run it another 100,000 or 200,000 miles.

This week, NASA succeeded in extending the life of the Hubble Telescope another 15 years by replacing parts and simultaneously incorporating new technology into the aging telescope.

The repair of the Hubble Telescope, which was launched in 1990, illustrates that America is still able to produce well-built machinery that lasts for years and that can be modernized with the latest technology to increase longevity and enhance its capability and results.

A fundamental underpinning of our economy is planned obsolescence. Most of our products are designed so that consumers must either replace expensive items after short product cycles or spend more money to fix them than they are worth over time.

As we continue our slide into a depression, it is obvious that this country needs to change the way we both produce and pay for goods and services. Right now, we are a nation of debtors. For the economy to be healthy again, we must learn to live within our means, which requires that we cut back our spending and avoid being in debt.

There has been a high expectation that the Obama Administration was going to make sweeping changes to fix fundamental weaknesses in an economy premised on consumer spending, but except for depleting the Treasury to prop up corrupt lending institutions, no major “changes” are being really discussed or implemented.

One significant change which can be implemented easily would be to take action to discourage planned obsolescence built into products made both here and imported from abroad, so that the average American consumer does not have to constantly be in hock to pay for them.
Obsolescence built into consumer goods drives consumer spending. It causes purchasers to carry a heavy debt load and maintain a reliance on leasing and credit cards to make the purchases.

For example, automobiles are costly and are designed only to last only a certain amount of miles. What’s worse, they utilize technological advances not to improve true durability, but to actually make them more expensive and complex to repair and maintain. Generally, the consumer is punished if he or she tries to fix up a car instead of buying a new one.

If Lockheed can design and manufacture a complex telescope with a lifespan of 15 years, and then with one major repair double the life and increase capacity of the complex instrument, why can’t manufacturers design and sell cars and other big ticket items that are reasonably priced and can fixed and upgraded to last a lifetime?

In addition, if we are so concerned with gas mileage, carbon footprints and otherwise saving the environment, wouldn’t it make sense to put forward a policy to manufacture goods that would last for decades and could be later modified to incorporate technological advances? Such a policy would reduce overall energy consumption, save landfill space, and reduce the depletion of minerals and resources.

Even our tax code wrongfully rewards planned obsolescence in calculating the depreciation of goods by granting less and less tax advantage to businesses as their assets get older. Businesses are encouraged to buy instead of fixing their assets to gain constant tax advantages.

Normally, I would be looking for a new car at this point. But like many Americans, my credit is shot and I can’t even think now about buying a new car. Thankfully, the Japanese are still designing and building their cars to last and hopefully I will be able to afford to get another three years and 100,000 miles out of my car until I can get back on my feet again.

Real changes need to be made to refocus our economic policies toward both mandating and providing tax incentives to encourage the sale and production of technological products that are affordable, durable, and upgradeable.

In 2009, planned obsolescence should become itself an obsolete economic standard. A headlight of a car should be built to shine as long as the Sun-or at least to last as long as the Hubble Telescope continues to send back images of our universe.
Check out recent articles:
Kurly's Belated Mother's Day Message
Recession” fries" mom and pop restaurants
Marxist interpretation of historical American History and Presidents
Celebrate Spring reading "Spring Tribute to Tommy"

Read Feedback from Kurly Kommentary readers on Kurly's Query Response page.
Send me your komments and become a Kurly Reader by using my Kontact Kurly page.

“Recession” fries mom and pop restaurants

www.stevenkurlander.com

LAKE WORTH- Last week, one of my favorite hamburger joints closed its doors, another victim of the ongoing “recession.”
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/search/content/business/epaper/2009/05/11/a4b_fuddruckers_0512.html.

I really liked to take the family to Fuddruckers in Wellington. When I read about the restaurant’s demise, it saddened me. It was reasonably priced, there was a great variety of burgers, including veggie, ostrich, and buffalo burgers, and the place had a nice, family atmosphere. When we went there, it was always packed with diners. www.fuddruckers.com
Follow Kurly's Daily Komments on Twitter
Read this week's Kurlykomments tweets below

A fine part of “Americana” is being lost in this “recession” as thousands of “mom and pop” eateries and small franchises nationwide are being driven out of business by high food prices and decreased patronage. They can’t compete with large chains like McDonald’s or Denny’s which operate at much lower margins.

Drive up any main street or suburban thoroughfare in any town or city and you will see empty buildings that once hosted traditional family restaurants, burger joints, “diners, drive-ins, and dives.” It’s very sad.

What was very interesting to me was that a spokesman for Fuddruckers was quoted as saying that the restaurant “got tired of breaking even. They were working real hard to break even."

The restaurant was obviously in business to make money and return a profit on investment. But the statement sounded kind of stupid to me. Why would a restaurant, employing over 40 people, not want to stay in business if they were not losing money? In my mind, if they were staying afloat during very hard economic times, they were actually successful and had a great future. They were also keeping 40 workers gainfully employed.

But that does not matter in this day and age, there is no social or moral responsibility toward employees-business is business, period.
Or open until we close for good?

But there is a cost in this type of thinking to all of us. Forty employees losing their jobs, many of them college students, in fact will have a big impact not only on the individuals being put out of work, but to the viability and standard of living of the local community.

The only answer these days being touted by the Obama Administration for saving small businesses is to reestablish the flow of credit from large financial institution to them (and future tax cuts for small businesses, but they are dwarfed by other tax increases that will hit small businesses).
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/26/AR2009042602838.html

But cheaper credit is not the answer. The whole key to economic recovery to this sector is ending layoffs and closures by providing immediate tax incentives, not more credit, to allow for survival and incremental investment.
Temporary emergency tax breaks and incentives to endangered small businesses would lower margins and help business owners make ends meet.
Furthermore, if wholesale suppliers, landlords and utilities were given tax incentives to pass on in lower costs to endangered small businesses, many distressed businesses could survive these hard times.

Such measures could save thousands of small businesses across the country, including mom and pop restaurants, and be the true jumpstart to economic recovery. It’s not too late.

If the owners of Fuddruckers had been given temporary or emergency tax breaks and incentives after qualifying under parameters that would measure their future viability, they may have been able to achieve the little profit they needed to justify staying open.

Interestingly, a second news item appeared the next day that this Fuddruckers franchise was not paying its workers over $12,000 in wages due to them. All of a sudden too, the owners were now losing $2 million on their investment and were going to file bankruptcy.

So, not only are the workers losing their jobs, but they are getting stiffed out of their wages they had earned. Again, business is business, even if you steal from your workers.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/search/content/business/epaper/2009/05/13/0513fuddruckers.html.

Emergency tax incentives at all levels of government would also be a start toward promoting responsible business behavior in the future. It is long overdue. There is nothing wrong with rewarding a business owner with lower taxes if they make a commitment not only to building a business, but also toward ensuring their employee’s long term employability and well-being.

Also, a great “change” would be to make the repayment of worker’s wages not paid the first priority in any business bankruptcy. They earned the money and should be paid it.

If you get a stimulus check from the government, spend it at a local restaurant. Order a hamburger and fries, but get a glass of water instead of a soda. Then, give your server a bigger tip with the difference saved. It may be his or her last night of employment there.

That is, of course, if you are not heading to McDonald’s for the only available hamburger in town.
Read Kurly's Belated Mother's Day Message
Check out Kurly's kommentary on the recent Marxist interpretation of historical American History and Presidents
Celebrate Spring reading "Spring Tribute to Tommy"