Cars.gov: And You Thought Government Wiretaps Were Out of Line!

I missed the news earlier today, and I had to find out from my dad about this one. He told me at dinner that if you wanted to go to Cars.gov to get the $4,500 for your car, you would have to sign this privacy policy that states that if you log in, your system is considered a federal system and is subject to monitoring, audits, and investigation.

I questioned this, so I had to go look it up for myself. Glenn Beck brought this to life, and regardless of your own personal opinions about Glenn Beck, it is pretty hard to discount what he showed on the video today. Sure enough, after doing my own investigating, I found this to be basically true.

The text of the privacy statement is this: "This application provides access to the DoT CARS system. When logged on to the CARS system, your computer is considered a Federal computer system and is the property of the U.S. Government. Any or all uses of this system and all files on this system may be intercepted, monitored, recorded, copied, audited, inspected, and disclosed to authorized CARS, DoT, and law enforcement personnel, as well as authorized officials of other agencies, both domestic and foreign".

WOW. What a mouthful that is. Rockwell may have been right: "Always seems like somebody's watching me!" And the Democrats bitched and complained about wiretaps! What about THIS? All using the excuse of protecting you, the consumer and taxpayer, from fraud.

If you ask me, it all sounds very hipocritical, not to mention dangerous as hell. If you want to talk about the slippery slope to lost freedom, you may want to take a good and hard look at this. Government telling you that if you access the site your personal property now belongs to them is a very dangerous thing. This time they can access everything, not just a simple phone conversation you have.

Hmm, I hear crickets. Any comments or thoughts on this are welcome, and if you think I am wrong by all means let me know about it.

The Mang

Conservative Capo of Youngstown

Healthmare on Elm Street: Numbers and Alternatives

On my lunch break today, I was reading an interesting article in the Morning Journal which had an article by Dick Morris in it. While he said a lot of things, Morris basically compared the Obama Administration’s attempt to take over healthcare as Orwellian in nature and very reminiscent of the book 1984. Is he terribly off base with that statement? Perhaps not. But I want to get away from this and talk about raw numbers when it comes to health coverage for a moment.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are 45.7 million people in America (not Americans, people in America) without health insurance as of their latest survey in 2008. Illegal immigrants account for 15% of that number (6.85 million people), so if you do not include those who should not be getting healthcare benefits anyway, then that brings the number down to 38.8 million Americans uninsured.

How many of those people are between the age of 18 and 23? Generally, for people of that age group, there is not necessarily a need for health insurance. According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), in 2006 there was about 1.7 million college aged students without insurance. It has been three years, so I am going to add about 10% onto that number, so make it 1.87 million college aged students without health insurance. You can say that they may be “unable” to get health insurance, but can you honestly look at me and tell me that health coverage was one of your top five concerns back when you were 19 or 20? If you still say yes, then either you are a unique person or you are bullshitting me. If you can afford a $100 a month bill for your cell phone and buy cell phones frequently, then you can afford to get a basic healthcare plan at that age.

I believe that brings us down to 36.9 million people, roughly 12% of the population. We could go into the statistics of how many of these people are temporarily uninsured due to the result of job transitions, probably reducing this number even further, but I think you get my point.

So, about 88% either have a private plan via the employers/personal plans or choose not to be insured for their own reasons (i.e. college students). Is it any wonder people are pissed off about this public health plan?

Obama wants to dismantle a system that 88% of the population is currently apart of in favor of insuring 12% of the population. Why? Nothing says dictatorship of the minority more than this statement.

The Feds can do a lot without having to exercise full dominion over healthcare. If they want to go into a catastrophic coverage program for people in the United States, fine. But to create a bureaucracy of healthcare and mandating every employer pick up coverage they may not have been able to afford or pay an 8% tax on payroll? That is wrong, foolish, and asking for a world of trouble we have never seen before in the U.S.

If government wants to make it so insurance companies have to accept people with non-terminal preconditions, fine. If government has a catastrophic plan, terminally ill people can get insurance through the Feds. Anything non-terminal however would have to be accepted.

If government wants to make it so a person cannot legally have a drivers license without health coverage, FINE. You legally cannot drive a car without auto insurance after all, and people have gone to jail over it in the past.

The pool of people can be expanded without having to have a massive government intervention. The Senate, just recently, proposed a plan that would require health insurance for anyone who drives. The plan is expected to be cheaper than this behemoth of a bureaucracy being proposed by Congressional Democrats.

Pelosi, in contrast, will not settle for anything less than complete and total control with a public option. Some believe control is what is at the heart of this. There may be an element of truth in that, but personally I believe she is fuori di testa, or in other words, out of her damn mind.

I am hoping that cooler heads will prevail to not pass this nightmare of a health system. But hoping is not enough, and again, if you are angry, let your elected officials know! They are coming home soon, and you can bet your ass I will try to reach them when they do.

The Mang
Conservative Capo of Youngstown

Where have All the Obama Stickers Gone?

It is a curious sight driving around these days. Two months ago, the streets were laden with Obama paraphernalia stuck on bumpers, car windows, and windshields. I remember going to the grocery store in the Short North back in April and practically every other car had some kind of representation that the driver voted for the current President. At the time, it must have been a popular thing to do.

Today, this is not so much the case. In fact, I am hard pressed to find a handful of these stickers on cars anymore. Maybe you will see an abundance of them in liberal parts of the country, but even in Columbus and the Short North where it tends to be liberal, these stickers have disappeared in big numbers. I know in Youngstown, where majority of the people are Democrats (or so they think wrongly), it is unusually hard to find Obama stickers here anymore.

Some may argue that the political season is over and people are removing these items, but I find it a little hard to believe everyone at one time, en masse, decided to remove their stickers without having a reason.

The typical day of an American involves a number of tasks, including work, running errands, figuring out what to do for dinner, looking after the kids and bringing the kids wherever they need to go, paying bills, paying taxes, and trying to fit some social time in there so they do not go completely crazy.

Removing a political sticker of a person you support does not make that list. However, if you find yourself at odds with the person you once supported, then a person will in fact find the time to remove the item as to dissociate themselves from that person quickly.

The mass disappearance of these stickers lends more to the latter theory of people having problems with the current administration rather than the former theory that huge numbers of people in the U.S. suddenly found the spare time to remove the tedious sticker that is always difficult to remove. If you ever removed a bumper sticker, you know they are hard to get off.

Could it be that more people are frustrated with Obama and are, dare I say, embarrassed to have supported him now they see what he has been doing? It could very well be. It is quite curious indeed. Whilst this is just an opinion, I leave you to make your own judgments about this.

The Mang

Conservative Capo of Youngstown

Moving in Stereo: Fast Times at Ridgemont High!

Today I am going to deviate from politics to cover the lighter side of things.

A few days ago I was watching television and came across one of my favorite movies, “Fast Times at Ridgemont High”, a classic starring Sean Penn, Robert Romanus, and of course Linda Barrett who played Phoebe Cates, who is most memorable from the pool scene. If you have seen this movie, you know what I am talking about. If you have not seen this movie, it is worth watching.

I love this movie, particularly because it is something I can relate to from my days in high school. In fact, if there was a character from this movie that I was closest to, it would have to be Mark Ratner. I was a quieter kid and was, well, a lot like Mark Ratner. But I knew my fair share of Mike Damone’s and Jeff Spicoli’s, and of course there were the teachers I had that were like Mr. Hand and Mr. Vargas. We definitely had our Phoebe Cates’ and Stacey Hamilton’s as well.

A few of us even pulled a Jeff Spicoli a few times back in high school and had pizza delivered to the school. One time, it was delivered to class similar to how it happened in the movie. Granted, it was towards the end of senior year, but we still did it. We also did other stupid shit too, a lot of which I am not going to mention here, but trust me, it was decent.

The beauty of films like this (as well as any other John Hughes film) is the realism that came with these movies. Everyone can relate to the characters in these movies on some level, which makes them all the more memorable.

I must say the music is fantastic, and I encourage you to get the soundtrack if you can. Some of the music is so-so, but there are some major songs on there are SEVERELY underrated and underplayed. The following is a list of some of the songs from the movie, and each of them are solid tracks. Ones with asterisks are missing from the official soundtrack, so if you burn the CD instead of buying it, you can add them. This is 80s at its finest. For a full track list, check it out at Amazon.com.

“Raised on the Radio”-Ravyns
“Somebody’s Baby”- Jackson Browne
“Love Rules”-Don Henley
“Waffle Stomp”- Joe Walsh
“Fast Times (The Best Years of Our Lives)”- Billy Squier
“I Don’t Know (Spicoli’s Theme)”- Jimmy Buffett
“Fast Times at Ridgemont High”- Sammy Hagar
“Moving in Stereo”- The Cars***
“We Got the Beat”- The Go-Go’s***
“American Girl” – Tom Petty***
“Life in the Fast Lane”- Joe Walsh***
“Kashmir”- Led Zeppelin***

Definitely check out this movie if you haven’t yet, and GET THE MUSIC. I promise you will enjoy it. Most of you were born in the 80s anyway, so this should be of your era anyway!

The Mang

Conservative Capo of Youngstown

Monday's Mang New and Improved

Here is the second official Monday's Mang, much better than the original pilot. Motown with The Matrix and Obama skit.

I know it is a day early, but I am not going to have the time to post it tomorrow until late.

The Mang

Our Lady of Mt. Carmel and Youngstown Observations

Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in Youngstown is having its Italian Festival this weekend. Though I was tired from work this week, I decided to go with my parents like we have been doing the last few years. It happened to be packed this year with tons of Italians from around the Youngstown area. As I usually do every year, I gorged myself on cavatelli, smelts, and cannoli and listened to Italian music and watched all of the hot Italian girls walking around. Of course, on that subject, there was a line from the Godfather that put it best about Italian girls: “In Sicily, women are more dangerous than shotguns”. The same holds true for this area, and when it comes to a lot of the girls around here, you need to be careful who you hook up with. The last thing I need right now is a mini-Jersey Housewife to put up with, and we have plenty of those types around here.

It is quite a contrast being back here from Columbus. After spending a year in Buckeye Land and seeing how other people live, I can honestly say I have realized a lot about what I hate about the Youngstown area and a lot that I love about it. The things that I used to think were mildly bad seem to be magnified a whole lot more, and the same can be said for the good things that I just thought were okay. Might as well start with the bad.

Youngstown is an interesting place to say the least, and it took a year away from home to realize how flawed it can be relative to other cities. It is very ethnic, very clicky, and very in your face. If you an outsider looking in from a place like Columbus or Cincinnati, then I can see how this region can be a big turn off if you are not used to this environment. I can compare this to the culture shock I had when I moved to Columbus, because the people are not nearly as tough and very white bread. VERY white bread. This politics in this town is noticeably different from politics in most places, and though it may not be as dirty as it was, it still gives off that kind of vibe. The job market is worth shit here unless you are in business for yourself. And overall, you need to be a hardass, because people are pretty intense around here. Also, the nightspots by and large are strictly from hunger compared to the bigger cities.

For all the bad, there is a lot of good. Small business flourishes around here, and with it great ingenuity. We have a couple major employers of people, but most of this city is small business reliant. Youngstown was named one of the top ten places to start a business. How it can be we made this list and also made the list for one of the most economically depressed regions in the entire U.S. I do not know (as well as one of the most dangerous places to live), but by and large people work for themselves here. And overall, people can be successful here.

Of course we have Youngstown State, an improving business district downtown, decent hospitals, and a massive metro-park. Convocation Center is doing halfway decent, and usually it is not hard to find some kind of entertainment on the weekend. Also near Pittsburgh. Downside is we are near Cleveland too. Sorry Browns fans.

It is also a city environment without all the traffic. I will not miss driving on I-71 because it was a big pain in the ass. People are all over creation and after awhile driving in that mass traffic can turn you into an angry drive, or like me, an angrier driver. When I think about my driving, I think about Groundhog’s Day with Bill Murray when he was telling the groundhog “Don’t drive angry, don’t drive angry!” That was an awesome movie by the way.

We have more Italian festivals in the Youngstown-Warren area than most places in the United States, and in that regard NYC and New Jersey have nothing on us. The entire summer is filled with them, and I doubt anywhere else in the United States can claim that kind of fame. Also, I picked up a “Welcome Home Jimbo” t-shirt at the festival last night, and I doubt you can find any place else in the U.S. that would glorify a convict by slapping his face on a t-shirt.

The food is outstanding here, and I missed it GREATLY when I was in Columbus. I never had such a hard time finding a decent plate of spaghetti or a real pizza. There were no hot peppers in Columbus the way you find them here. If I wanted good Italian food, I made it myself. Since I was pressed for time, I couldn’t make my own sauce, but I imported sauce for a quick fix. When you live to eat like me, the food issue is very important.

So overall, Youngstown is a mixed bag. It has a special place in my heart. While I have no intention of staying here forever (I really want to go to Pittsburgh to live to be completely honest), it is a decent place to live in the meantime.

The Mang

Conservative Capo of Youngstown

Brand New Intro for Monday's Mang Video

This is the new intro I plan to use for the weekly Monday's Mang. It is a lot better than the pilot version of the intro and looking for some feedback on it. This time the show will be decent because I intend to be not tired as hell when I put it together. Let me know what you think of the intro.

The Mang

Roethlisberger and Rape Accusations

Why is it these rape and assault allegations always emerge over a year after they happened? I doubt Ben Roethlisberger can answer that question, because the idea of waiting that long to report something as serious as those things is hard to rationalize—unless of course the person is trying to make a quick buck off of a false accusation and a quick settlement. These days, I would not put it past anyone, because this kind of thing has happened before.

The idea of waiting this long to report a rape or sexual assault while the assailant is out walking around free for an entire year is ridiculous. And frankly, because it IS Ben Roethlisberger, he is not going to be that hard to find to bring him in to court. A guy that big with that kind of recognition is hard to miss and if this woman wanted to get justice, it would have happened a long time ago if what she claims is true. Seeing how she is not bringing a criminal complaint against him, this should cast an even greater doubt on this alleged claim.

The problem with the accusations of rape is it destroys reputations, even if the person being accused is in fact innocent. In most situations, the accuser’s name is never revealed, but the accused has his name thrown up on every news station, paper, and radio program in a way that that makes it so the person is guilty until proven innocent. Even then, there is always going to be doubt as to whether or not that person actually did the rape, unless the evidence is so overwhelmingly in the person’s favor that it did not happen. This is not always the case.

Lest we have seen this before at a university you might have heard of: Duke. The lacrosse players had their names dragged through the mud for a very long time, only in the end up being found innocent after having their reputations destroyed. They filed a lawsuit to seek damages, and rightfully so.

If the rights of the accuser are protected, I believe the rights of the accused should also be protected, in the event the claim being brought against him is bogus. It is her word against his, and if the guy is actually innocent, he still has to vigorously defend himself. The names of the accused and the accuser should not be revealed, simply in the interest of fairness and protecting the reputation of both people until a verdict is reached. If the accuser has a legitimate claim, the accused can still be arrested. If the accuser has a bogus claim, at least the accused will not have to be a billboard and the center of media attention.

If you have thoughts on this, I would like to hear them.

The Mang
Conservative Capo of Youngstown

Health Wars: The Obama Empire Strikes Back

Nothing bad can last forever. I have always viewed this statement with optimism, because for the most part, it generally holds true. No matter how bad things get, they can always recover. Unfortunately, I do not foresee this to be true if Congress and President Obama continue pushing for this national healthcare system.

Why do I say this? Well, when government gets involved, it is unusually difficult to undo any action of government, particularly when it elects to enlarge itself. This healthcare system would do precisely that, a bureaucracy of a kind which has never been seen before in the United States. Once you have such a system in place, removing it is an extremely difficult task. After all, when has the government ever elected to shed programs before? You might find a few instances in history, but by and large government grows regardless of its inefficiencies.

I am bothered by a number of things with this new program, particularly the issue of not fully understanding the extent of the program itself. Congress has stopped reading bills folks, and that was more than evident when the House passed this Cap and Trade bill. Have to hand it to John Boehner for reading it out loud for the benefit of everyone, because I doubt very many in Congress actually read that piece of garbage, that behemoth of a bill that reads like a set of radio instructions in Spanish. You know, the ones where you can vaguely make out some of the language because it is similar to English, but by and large you cannot understand it because it is in fact a different language—i.e. the language of bureaucrats.

Obama is stumping around the country trying to push this healthcare agenda like there is no tomorrow. And frankly for Obama, there might not be. The American people are beginning to put this Congress on notice, and people are speaking out against it.

Now, Obama and company can pack as many people from the SEIU and other trade unions into these discussions as they want. After all, what better way to make an impact than by trying to make your numbers look big? RON PAUL did the same damn thing back in 2008 with his own supporters, and though it looked like he had a lot of support, it was never there in the first place. Smoke and mirrors are wonderful things if you are trying to make a statement, but they are just that: smoke and mirrors.

So, you have the appearance of a big base of supporters because you control organized labor, and they can bring in the numbers at the drop of a hat. Obama’s own PAC that was formed by his campaign is out there buying up advertisement space to push for this bill. He is stumping around the country, and he is on TV more than most people these days, usually with an open forum given by the mainstream outlets. Anyone who disagrees is shot down and ostracized. Obama is having private meetings with the head of the Congressional Budget Office to talk about this healthcare bill.

Does anyone else out there see a problem with what is going on? If you are angry, I encourage you to speak up. Let your Congressman and Senator know how you feel. Go to a TEA Party. Write your papers telling them your opinions—Congressman Wilson does to promote his bogus healthcare agenda! If he can, so can you! And when you reach your Congressmen, ask them if they plan on giving up their VIP healthcare plan to join the rest of us peasants in the new healthcare bureaucracy. And if they say yes, I hope you let me know so I can personally hold it against them when they vote for this thing and take back their word. And they will.

The Mang

Conservative Capo of Youngstown

Early Morning Commutes! Of Idiotic Drivers and Jackalopes!

It is a late article tonight. I had to be up at 5:00AM to get to my audit in Mansfield today, and my ass just returned to Columbus a little while ago. It was a little hectic this morning, and being up that early always puts me in a bad mood. In fact, it pisses me off. I was okay after four cups of coffee, but I still had to drive to Mansfield to get to work. The good news was the people at the Taco Bell I was auditing were pretty cool and happy to see me. I told them auditors generally are hated beings, and after a few days of doing this I now fully know why. But at least it went smoothly.

You know, I think the idea of traveling is a lot better than actually doing it. Anytime someone says, “I am traveling for work today”, it usually comes in the form of an air of importance. Like, yes, they are that awesome because their work dictates they have to actually drive somewhere. Well, deep down, they are thinking, “I can’t believe I have to get up this damn early to drive to work!”

And the reality is traffic is never that bad in the morning, but you have an unusual collection of drivers at these times. People like me will amp it up to 80-85 MPH, but then you have those other people that are flying down the highway at 100 MPH with their brights on driving like complete assholes, particularly in your blind spot. You know who these people are. These are the ones that are driving 70 MPH, and then as you try and pass them on the left they immediately speed up to the speed you are going and chill in your blind spot just to piss you off. If you are going 85, they will speed up to 90 and just “hover” by you the next fifteen miles. Why they do this, I do not know.

Then you have the jackholes (not to be confused with jackelopes, which actually are pretty cool) that drive with their brights on. But these are not your average brights. These brights seem to increase and decrease in intensity as they follow you. With the exception of Corey Hart, have any of you ever purposely put your sunglasses on at night or in the early morning? Maybe you have, and it is as hilarious as it is annoying. But I digress. Anyway, today I did, for the reason of the geniuses that were behind me.

Then of course you have the people that tail you in the early morning. There is no one really out there on the road, but if you are passing a single car, chances are this guy or gal is behind you three feet from your bumper. There is no reason for tailing this early in the morning, particularly if you are like me and go a good 10-15 over the speed limit on average.

In consideration of this, I think I prefer driving in mass traffic because it is not nearly as bad as driving in the morning when only a handful of people are out.

Anyone else feel the same way? Give me your thoughts.

The Mang

Conservative Capo of Youngstown

Monday's Mang (Pilot)! Guidos, Cannabis, and Politics?

The first "Monday's Mang". Given the lateness of this creation, my being unusually tired tonight, and my initial testing of the site's upload abilities (which seems to be 100 MB), this is only a pilot. I plan to make the production quality better as well as making it more interesting than me just sitting there talking to you. Not that my talking to you does take the place of the best part of your week, but hey, I can make much better videos than this. Seriously! I am not kidding!

Generally, videos are going to be a once a week thing, unless I find an interesting video online that is worth sharing.

The Mang

Conservative Capo of Youngstown

Organizing for America: The President's PAC and Influencing Public Opinion

It is very interesting to note that a lot has changed during the Obama Administration, notably the use of PACs. For those of you that are not as politically savvy, these are political action committees used for a specific purpose. President Obama's PAC, originally intended to elect him to the White House, has now switched over to influencing public policy. It is called "Organizing for America". Whether this is good or bad remains to be seen. However, one thing that can be said with certainty is it really has not been done before.

In effort to push for a national healthcare system, President Obama has begun running political ads on television in hopes of swaying public opinion (as well as Congressional opinion). Currently as it stands, there remains significant opposition to this healthcare bill in Congress and the nation. To be expected is the Republican opposition, but what was not expected from the President was the amount of opposition from within the Democratic Party. While both parties agree that a change to the system is necessary, there is not a consensus as to how it should be implemented.

While the President has the bully pulpit, I do not believe there has been a time in history when a President unleashed the power of his own PAC to influence policy. Well, at least not in American history. What is even more interesting is the fact this PAC continues to raise money and serves as both a financial arm and a volunteer outreach extension that is influenced heavily by the President but does not have to answer to anyone but the FEC for finance compliance.

These ads are running in a number of states, including Ohio, Florida, and Indiana.

Sure, FDR had the fireside chats, but this is a new animal entirely. If it was the Democratic National Committee or an unrelated PAC doing these advertisements, I would not take issue. And in all fairness, some of these ads are from unrelated PACs.

However, I am not sure how I feel about Obama using his personal PAC to influence policy. It does not feel right, and in fact it makes me quite nervous.

The Mang

Conservative Capo of Youngstown

Welcome to the Site!

Welcome to "Mang Now!", a new site created by The Mang, aka me, Alex Mangie!

This is for all of my adoring fans out there that either have a genuine interest in what I have to say (however ridiculous, random, mundane, or intelligent it may be) or for my friendly political adversaries that absolutely loathe me for my political viewpoints. Well, that is true to a certain extent anyway. They probably loathe me generally, political viewpoints be damned.

Most of you know I have done a lot of writing on Facebook on a number of different things. It has varied from political opinion to sports to music to complete randomness for lack of a better description. While I can reach out to only so many on Facebook, I would like to try and generate a bigger following if possible. So this brings us to the site.

While the site clearly is coming from a conservative slant, I do plan on writing about things unrelated to politics. Though politically there is a lot to talk about today, I don't want to be politically exclusive.

Also, I am in the process of doing something called "Monday's Mang", which as you probably can guess is me on video rambling about God knows what. There is a good chance it will be on the CPA exam and me bemoaning it! Yes, that probably will be the first video I will do.

I also want to bring your attention to the FOX News and Wall Street Journal RSS Feeds on the right side for a few of the major headlines of the day.

Enjoy, and if you have any questions, complaints, or insights, please feel free to email me: Alexinytown@AOL.com

The Mang
Conservative Capo of Youngstown