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Monday, November 5, 2012

Probationary period is over..time to let him GO!

If I sat at my desk during work and did nothing but play solitaire or Sudoku all day long I would be guilty of stealing from my employer because I am not performing the duties for which I agreed to be paid for.  In fact, at where I work, being caught sleeping on the job is grounds for automatic termination.

Firing someone is not easy nor is it enjoyable. Recently a good friend of mine was re-hired by the company I work for, only he was not the same person who had previously worked with me.  He went through some very painful and stressful situations while working for other companies which, I believe, caused him to have a complete nervous breakdown.  It was difficult to watch a person who once was so brilliant and so capable be turned into an introverted and impotent employee.  He never came into work but opted to work from home on his computer.  Week after week went by and no progress was made.  He missed staff meetings constantly.  He forgot critical meetings and deadlines.  After 6 months, his probationary period was over and our boss had to make the critical decision to let him go.  It was agonizing but there was no other choice.

To let him continue "working" would make all of his guilty of cheating the company out of 100's of thousands of dollars.    I hated to see him go because I saw him not only as a co-worker but also as a friend of 18 years.

So it is with our choice tomorrow (Nov 6th).

We made a choice back in 2008.  We chose (although I did not vote for him, as an American I must say WE CHOSE because that is what WE DID) an unknown upstart from Illinois.  A man who never worked in business but instead was a "community organizer".  We chose a man who spent most of his years in the Illinois senate voting "present" rather than "yes" or "no".  A man who spent only 2 years as a US Senator.  We chose a man who could give great speeches and had great campaign slogans of "HOPE and CHANGE" or "CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN".

This was similar to what I did when I helped re-hire my friend.  I saw some changes in his behavior that was concerning during his interview.   He spoke very softly (almost to the point you could not hear him).  He appeared VERY agitated when the subject of some people he worked with previously came up.  But we (there were several of us who interviewed him who were his friends) decided to look past all of that because we were emotionally attached to him.  We hoped that during his probationary period things would change and he would come around and be the engineer he was before.  But, alas, that was not to be the case and our hopes were dashed.

The same can be said for President Obama.  We had the same "hope" when the American people elected him, but now 4 years later the "probationary period" is over and we must decided to keep him on for 4 more years or let him go.   And like my situation, I must decide if I am going to be complacent and be an accomplice in this theft or I am going to do the right thing.

Let's look at the facts:

When we interviewed him in 2008 he said he would cut the national debt in half by the end of his first term.  He called Bush's addition of 4 trillion in 8 years (500 Billion every year) "unpatriotic".   Now 4 years later Obama has added 5 Trillion dollars (1,250 Billion every year).

When Obama took office he said that with the $800B stimulus he would get unemployment down to 5.2% in 3 years.   Well it has been 4 years and unemployment is 7.9% (and really its 10.5% if you factor in those who have given up looking for work).

In 2008 Obama lambasted Bush for spending too much time on the golf course and not in the White House dealing with issues that concern our country.  Bush played 24 rounds of golf in 8 years (3 per year) and so far Obama has hit the links over 100 time in 4 years (25 per year).  He also came off the golf course with just 20 minutes to spare before the take down of Osama Bin-Laden was complete (which is why in the Situation Room photo he is wearing someone else's jacket at the table).

In 2000, the Bush administration found out who was responsible for 9/11 within 24 hours.  In 2012, it has been over 7 weeks and the Obama administration has yet to determine who and what caused the 9/11 attack on Benghazi that killed 4 Americans including a US Ambassador.  Instead, they trotted out the YouTube video as the cause of riots and arrested an American citizen as the instigator even though we can see from the videos of the attack that it was an organized raid on our facilities and not a mob riot.

During the BP oil spill, Obama order ALL off-shore drilling stopped (not just those doing 1-mile deep drilling) causing many of our oil rigs to leave our coasts and drill for other countries because they are not going to stick around unused waiting for Obama to open them back up.  He also gave $2 billion dollars to a Brazilian oil producer to drill in the Gulf at a depth 3 MILES (3 times more than BP was doing).

In 2008 he said he would be the most bi-partisan president ever.  But instead under his leadership the Senate has not voted a budget in over 3 years and his own budget proposal was so far out of reality that the House voted against it 414-0 and the Senate voted against it 97-0.  (He is not even uni-partisan with his own democrats).

When he could not get Cap-and-Trade passed through Congress he order his EPA to find ways to implement it though regulation by making CO2 an environment hazardous waste. (Yes. What we exhale as humans is now under government control).  When he failed to get any legislation passed on immigration as he promised he would (even though for 2 years he had full control of the House and Senate) he decides to bypass Congress again and orders his justice department to not prosecute cases involving illegal immigrants under the age of 25.   (Where is his vow to uphold the laws of the land and the Constitution?).  He also orders his ICE agents to NOT assist Arizona in processing illegals they capture on their roads.

In 2008 he said it was wrong for Bush to use drones to kill terrorists because of civilian casualties.  As President he has not ended the use of drones but increased it.  His answer to civilian casualties is to RE-DEFINE all people killed within a 50 foot radius of a drone strike to be terrorists since their proximity to the target means they are probably involved.

In 2008 he said it was wrong of Bush to keep enemy terrorists in Gitmo without a trial even though these men are not US citizens he argued they deserved an American trial by jury.   In 2011 the President orders the drone strike of Anwar al-Awlaki an American citizen who had Al-Qaeda connections.  Later he orders another strike for Anwar al-Awlaki's 16 year-old son, Abdulrahman al-Awlaki because they deemed him a threat since most likely he had been radicalized as well and would most likely take his fathers place. (Where were these 2 US citizens rights to a trial by a jury Mr. President?)

In conclusion, we must FIRE this worker though it pains us to do so because we had such great hopes for him.  We cannot expect better from him, in fact we can only expect worse.  As in my case, people usually are on their BEST BEHAVIOR during the probationary period because they know they are being watched closely and they might not get held on.  Often people's behaviors get WORSE after their probationary period because they know it will be harder for the company to fire them and they can get away with more.  Those are the hard facts we must face.

Obama will , in my opinion, become more extreme in his views and his actions.  He will issue MORE executive orders ... not less.  He will order MORE regulations through the EPA ... not less.  He will ignore the Constitution more... not less.




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