Why the end of the republic is at hand

From The Weekly Standard via Mary Katherine Ham talking about Congressman Jim Moran (D-VA) on the "simplistic notion" that people who earned money have the right to keep it:

Moran always manages to stick a foot in his mouth shortly before elections, but it makes little difference, as he's running in the heavily blue Northern Virginia 8th District. In 2006, he proclaimed that, “When I become chairman [of a House appropriations subcommittee], I'm going to earmark the sh** out of it.”

He won 66-31 percent.

This time around, he reveals to us his very frank feelings about redistribution of wealth, which he feels has been impeded by simplistic notions such as right to property. This is the kind of Democrat Obama the Redistributionist will have obliging him in Congress, if elected:

And who pray tell who votes for people like this? The very same people who vote for Barack Obama. And this voter tells us why:

Again, the final end of the experiment called America. Alexis de Tocqueville was right.

To wit:

"A democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it." (which why we were constructed as a constitutional republic, not a democracy).

"Americans are so enamored of equality that they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom. "

"The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money."

But, that being said, he also told us why it took from the 1820 until now to accomplish this:"The dignity of man is not shattered in a single blow, but slowly softened, bent, and eventually neutered. Men are seldom forced to act, but are constantly restrained from acting. Such power does not destroy outright, but prevents genuine existence. It does not tyrannize immediately, but it dampens, weakens, and ultimately suffocates, until the entire population is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid, uninspired animals, of which the government is shepherd."

If McCain wins

My predictions if McCain wins:
If McCain wins, it will be a squeaker. Maybe 272 +/- 1. He will collapse like Phippides over the finish line.
If McCain wins there will be riots in some major cities.
If McCain wins the Dems and BHO will sue in a handful of states that went for McCain: New Mexico, Colorado maybe Nevada. They and he will sue with a eye to winning enough of the suits to give him just enough Electoral College votes to give him a squeaker win. Possibly suing in Pennsylvania if he gets greedy if the Keystone state understands that cap and trade will bankrupt PA and send coal miners onto the unemployment lines. Can't have that. Bankrupting the state is for the greater good afterall.
But, lands, over 45% of the American electorate will vote for Obama. So, why not in PA?
And if BHO wins? Possibly lawsuits. Much lower probability though.

What I did on Sunday before the election

Sunday afternoon, 2 November 2008, I spent doing three things, well, four:
1. Enjoying the fabulous season we call Indian Summer here in Minnesota with the windows open.
2. Watched the Vikings put an end to the Texans' winning streak.
3. Prepared for teaching a bunch of 8-10 year old kids in Bible Study Fellowship about grumbling Israeli's who forgot about God's goodness within a month of being set free from slavery.
4. Preparing to write a number of articles about Barack Obama and his stated views on some very serious issues.
So, with number 4 in mind, I did a bunch of research and opened up a number of tabs. Some of my, and what should be your concerns:
Courts and judges-
How Obama will select judges and how he sees the law:
"We need somebody who’s got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it’s like to be a young teenage mom. The empathy to understand what it’s like to be poor, or African-American, or gay, or disabled, or old. And that’s the criteria by which I’m going to be selecting my judges. " Justice will no longer be blind but prejudiced. The blindfold is torn off Lady Justice.
A warning by Jonah Goldberg. A warning from his Obama Messiahness.
Personal choices- HAH! Kiss those GOOD BYE!!!!! They may not be quite appropriate . Under the BHO enlightened administration, "price signals" need to be sent to you and the economy to "encourage" you to make "appropriate" choices to have changed behavior.
The money quote? "

Q: How do you convince people to change their lifestyles, to live differently, or to turn the question on its ear, are voters ahead of the politicians on this stuff? Do they get it, and maybe the politicians don’t?

A: Well, I think, uh, I think voters do understand it. I think it is important for us to send some price signals to change behavior.

the se
Remember, this is the POTUS candidate that says that we can't drive what we want or heat our homes because the world doesn't like that.
Go here to read Ed Morrissey's comments at Hot Air.
Defense-
Asymmetrical warfare (like flying fully fueled planes into buildings) is a danger. It was in 1993, in 1998, in September 2001. BHO wants to cut defense spending and especially, and dangerously, missile interceptors when danger of ICBM's is just around the corner (go down to "Ballistic Missile Defense...") or read this. This is what BHO wants to cut or eliminate. Just when we need it most. However, a BHO teamed up with Pelosi and Reid and the rest of the crackpot left that couldn't see an energy crisis, and economic crisis coming won't see this coming either. But, when Jerusalem and Tel Aviv are turned into glass parking lots or there is an EMP attack here in America, they'll blame Bush and the Republicans. Or evil "Big Defense".
The following is the second video I decided to embed. The reason is that Frank Gaffney knows exactly what he's talking about. Hugh Hewitt defaults to Gaffney when there are matters of national defense. On the morning of 9-11, as I was on my way to the pharmacy for pain meds after extensive foot surgery, I had my Mom pull the car over so I could hear Hugh interview Frank Gaffney at about 10:30 that morning. Mr. Gaffney is a sober reasoning intellect when it comes to security and threat analysis. He needs to be listened to and heeded.


But for me, the most chilling and most ominous position were the righteous Obamessiah comments on the Constitution that, if he wins the election, he will swear an oath to "Preserve, protect and defend". His views are that the Constitution is flawed because the Founding Fathers didn't see to the necessity of "spreading the wealth around" and that the Supreme Court didn't attend to that glaring flaw in the supreme law of the land.
Listen here.

There is so much more that I planned to and could go on to say.
This will and should suffice.

Laura Ingraham wants to know

Here are some questions for his Obamaness that will more than likely remain unanswered.
From Laura Ingraham's daily email.(I especially like the "right to privacy and Joe the Plumber" and the "how will BHO fix the Constitution" questions):

For many Americans this campaign season seems to have gone on forever. Yet with only five days until Election Day, there is still much that we don't know about Barack Obama. Among the unresolved questions:

Khalidi tape. Here's a compromise, LA Times. How about at least starting by providing a second-by-second transcript of this tape? This way you don't break your supposed agreement with your source and Americans receive the information they need.

The Times's initial story DID report Obama saying that his many dinners with Khalidi had been "consistent reminders to me of my own blind spots and my own biases. For that reason, I'm hoping that, for many years to come, we continue that conversation." Does Obama still speak with Khalidi? What biases is Obama trying to overcome? How is Khalidi helping in that effort?

Campaign finance information. Obama has yet to release information on more than 80 percent of his contributors. Could this be because it's really more like 5 percent posing as 80 percent? (Obama's website allows contributors to use phony names, thereby allowing well-off financiers to circumvent contribution limits.)

Does Obama support or condemn Ohio state officials using government computers to rifle through Joe the Plumber's personal paperwork in a partisan hit job?

If Obama believes the Constitution provides a "right to privacy" that includes aborting babies, does this right not also protect against Joe the Plumber-styled intrusions by the state?

What exactly did Obama mean when he compared America to Nazi Germany in a 2001 radio interview?

Does Obama still believe America suffers a "fundamental flaw" that is embodied in the Constitution? What is it, exactly? How does he plan on "fixing" the Constitution?

Obama has expressed disappointment that the Constitution "imposes restraints" on income redistribution; as president, would he seek to undo these "constraints"?

When Obama says he's willing to sit down with leaders of terrorist states like Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who aspires to destroy Israel, just what exactly is Obama willing to negotiate away? Only half of Israel?

Obama said that community-organizing groups like ACORN will have a voice in setting the agenda when he's in the White House. In light of revelations over ACORN's massive voter fraud and other criminal activity, does he still plan to give them a seat at his table?

Barney Frank is proposing cutting military spending 25 percent, arguing, "We don't need all of these fancy new weapons." Obama has also pledged big cuts to defense, promising that as president he would "slow our development of future combat systems." Just how much is he planning on cutting? What weapons systems? Missile defense?

We're waiting.

A timely quote

From The Patriot Post:

Founders' Quote Daily
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it."
-- Thomas Paine (The Crisis, no. 4, 11 September 1777)
The Marine Corps motto is "Freedom isn't Free". Neither is it easy. As Jefferson said "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance."
Two words in the Founders Quote Daily for today stood out: "fatigues" and "men". Obviously Thomas Paine lived in the time before metrosexuals and whiny girly lefty men who stay married to Code Pink women. Paine is clear, speaking to us from 231 years ago: freedom is a burden. It does however bear fruit that must be labored for. As Walter E. Williams says "The government can not create anything without first destroying something else first. It can not give anything without taking it from someone else, the rightful owner."
Those who refuse to "undergo the fatigues" of freedom and the labors of freedom are neither men nor are they respectable. They are thieves. As Frederic Bastiat says in "The Law": the government plunders. Call it "legal" plunder, but it is plunder none-the-less.
As I think of the proverb of the grasshopper and the ant and its modern version (believe it or not, there is an Indian version ), it's no wonder grasshoppers were and are considered a plague. They eat all and produce nothing.
I'm seeing the left as a plague.

Forseen unintended consequences

Fifteen years ago, I met a gentleman quite by accident. I had just been hired by a company and went into the training pool for new sale hires. I got a call from this guy (I'll call him Kent, not his name). He had sat at the desk I now occupied with the phone extension that was assigned to that desk. He related how he had sent out a number of letters with that extension as a contact number and asked that if I got any calls would I forward them or give the caller his new number. I said I would do both so his bases were covered.
I went upstairs to meet with Kent and we became good friends over the months.
Kent was an Airborne Ranger. And an officer. He had a very impressive resume'. Very impressive! One thing that impressed me greatly was his affiliations and assignments during Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Kent was a Lt. Colonel.

In 1992, when Bill Clinton was elected, he resigned from active duty Army. His service and acumen was so highly regarded that he was offered the rank of Brigadier General, jumping two grades, if he would re-up for five years. He passed. What he told me was that he wasn't the only officer that resigned. "The resignation letters fell like snowflakes in a winter storm." The Army lost a significant number of officers and sergeants with twenty plus years of experience. And this thought occurred to me last week: what will happen to the experienced officer and sergeant class if Barack Obama is elected President? If there were these resignations sixteen years ago with Bill Clinton coming on board as Commander in Chief, what will happen with a radical left winger as the near term future CinC? Just when we (and believe it or not, his Messiahness) need that experienced officer and non-com class, I believe we will see those resignations come flowing in.
Just one more item to put on your punchlist before you vote.

This just in: I agree with Obama...

From nearly three years ago:
I opened up my email today, and had a link here and got the following list.
And it reminds me of the question I asked my screaming socialist buddy a while back (screaming socialist: his plan to save Social Security? A 100% estate tax.). I had asked him when is it that whomever was elected, when were they inculcated with the incredible wisdom and deep insight to run my life that they never seemed to have before they were elected? And here is the proof that Article 1, section 8 and the 10th Amendment need to aggressively and fully regained and the Federal Register reduced to 20% of its current size.
Read and shake your head in disgust. Then find another Ron Paul (R-Tex) to vote for in your state.
I offer for your entertainment and disgust: Why We Are In REAL Trouble-

A Washington, D.C., airport ticket agent offers some examples of why our country is in trouble!

1. I had a New Hampshire Congresswoman ask for an aisle seat so that her hair wouldn't get messed up by being near the window.
2. I got a call from a candidate's staffer, who wanted to go to Capetown. I started to explain the length of the flight, and the passport information, then she interrupted me with, "I'm not trying to make you look stupid, but Capetown is in Massachusetts."

   Without trying to make her look stupid, I calmly explained, "Cape Cod is in Massachusetts; Capetown is in Africa," Her response – click.

3. A senior Vermont Congressman called, furious about a Florida package we did. I asked what was wrong with the vacation in Orlando. He said he was expecting an ocean-view room.

   I tried to explain that's not possible, since Orlando is in the middle of the state. He replied, "Don't lie to me, I looked on the map, and Florida is a very thin state!"

4. I got a call from a lawmaker's wife who asked, "Is it possible to see England from Canada?"

   I said, "No."

   She said, "But they look so close on the map."

5. An aide for a cabinet member once called, and asked if he could rent a car in Dallas. When I pulled up the reservation, I noticed he had only a one hour layover in Dallas.

   When I asked him why he wanted to rent a car, he said, "I heard Dallas was a big airport, and we will need a car to drive between gates to save time."

6. An Illinois Congresswoman called last week. She needed to know how it was possible that her flight from Detroit left at 8:30 am, and got to Chicago at 8:33 am.

   I explained that Michigan was an hour ahead of Illinois, but she couldn't understand the concept of time zones.

   Finally, I told her the plane went fast, and she bought that.

7. A New York lawmaker called, and asked, "Do airlines put your physical description on your bag so they know whose luggage belongs to whom?"

   I said, "No, why do you ask?"

   She replied, "Well, when I checked in with the airline, they put a tag on my luggage that said (FAT), and I'm overweight. I think that's very rude!"

   After putting her on hold for a minute while I looked into it (I was laughing), I came back and explained the city code for Fresno, California, is (FAT), and the airline was just putting a destination tag on her luggage.

8. A Senator's aide called to inquire about a trip package to Hawaii.

   After going over all the cost info, she asked, "Would it be cheaper to fly to California, and then take the train to Hawaii?"

9. I just got off the phone with a freshman Congressman who asked, "How do I know which plane to get on?"

   I asked him what exactly he meant, to which he replied, "I was told my flight number is 823, but none of these planes have numbers on them."

10. A lady Senator called, and said, "I need to fly to Pepsi-Cola, Florida. Do I have to get on one of those little computer planes?"

    I asked if she meant fly to Pensacola, Florida, on a commuter plane.

    She said, "Yeah, whatever, smarty!"

11. A senior Senator called, and had a question about the documents he needed in order to fly to China. After a lengthy discussion about passports, I reminded him that he needed a visa. "Oh, no I don't. I've been to China many times, and never had to have one of those."

    I double-checked and sure enough, his stay required a visa.

    When I told him this, he said, "Look, I've been to China four times, and every time they have accepted my American Express!"

12. A New Mexico Congresswoman called to make reservations, "I want to go from Chicago to Rhino, New York."

    I was at a loss for words. Finally, I said, "Are you sure that's the name of the town?"

    "Yes, what flights do you have?" replied the lady.

    After some searching, I came back with, "I'm sorry, ma'am, I've looked up every airport code in the country, and can't find a Rhino anywhere."

    The lady retorted, "Oh, don't be silly! Everyone knows where it is. Check your map!"

    So, I scoured a map of the state of New York, and finally offered, "You don't mean Buffalo, do you?"

    The reply? "Whatever! I knew it was a big animal."

I wouldn't trust these people to plan a good, well, anything. Let alone try to run any aspect of my life. Let alone with ten cents of my money.
I agree with Barack Obama: we absolutely need change. Radical change.

Send in the cats!

The NYT had a front page, above the fold story on the Repubs spending $150k on Sarah Palin's wardrobe. However:
Listening to Glenn Beck- when Hillary's 3 pantsuits , 3 pantsuits that is, that were being held up to see which of Hillary's 3 pantsuits looked best with the background in Denver, those 3 pantsuits were worth a total of $18,000-that's $6,000 per pantsuit.
Never heard that in the MSM.
The MSM is demanding Sarah Palin's medical records.I suggest she reveal them: just after we get the medical records from: John Kerry, Hillary Clinton,Michelle Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Ted Kennedy, Chuck Schumer, Barbara Boxer, Diane Feinstein, Maxine Waters, Sheila Jackson Lee, Katie Couric, Joy Behar, Whoopi Goldberg.

In 2012

No matter who wins on 4 November, I've been thinking about the 2012 race. Here are my picks as who should run on the Republican side along with a few Cabinet picks:
President: Sarah Palin
Vice President: Michelle "Give 'Em Hell with the Truth" Bachmann
Secretary of State:Ted Nugent
Secretary of Defense: Samuel J. Wurzelbacher (aka Joe the Plumber)
Attorney General: Janice Rogers Brown (on her way to being appointed to SCOTUS)
Press Secretary: Megyn Kelly of Fox News
Secretary Treasury: Steve Forbes
Chair JCOS: General David Petraeus
SECDEF and SOS candidates are interchangeable.

Old archive picture newly discovered

From The Patriot Post.

The ads McCain should be running

I came across the site Never Find Out yesterday from Freedom Dogs.
These are the ads McCain/Palin should be running.
Three examples:





The only exception I'd take is in the second ad: it's not big corporations, it is those Americans who make more than $250,000 a year-the small business owner, who employees the majority of Americans. They will be hit, and hit hard. But the concept Never Find Out brings out is correct: to maintain profit margins,in the face of higher taxes, corporations either increase prices (not the best solution) or cut expenses or a combination of the two. Either way, the middle class takes it in the shorts: higher prices or lower salaries, lay-offs, no new jobs created.

Over under

I'm looking for the over under on Code Pink or some other lefty fringe group disrupting the debate this evening with McCain speaking. I'll put the wager point at 39 minutes.

9 minutes and 46 seconds well spent

An intelligent rapper is what it took for me to listen to this from beginning to end:

And it's approved under Obama's National Healthcare Plan

After this exchange:


We have this from The People's Cube (be sure to go to the first link and read the entire article):

Quick- somebody put this on the back of a T-shirt!

Anniversaries

Today hundreds of people observed the murder of Matthew Shepard.
Will these same people observe the anniversary of the torture death of Jesse Dirkhising?
Never heard of him have you? He was thirteen and was raped and tortured by two homosexuals.
From the article:

News of the Dirkhising case was surprisingly muted throughout the country, perhaps because it involved a homosexual crime, said WND readers, who voted it one of the most spiked stories of 1999.

At one point, Farah took the Washington Post to task over it, and most major newspaper's, lack of coverage of the case. In response the Post's ombudsman, E.R. Shipp, blasted Farah and WND in a column she penned defending her paper's decision to focus more attention on the death of Matthew Shepard, a homosexual student who was murdered in Wyoming in Oct. 1998.

The men who murdered Shepard didn't know that he was a homosexual. But, you would never know that by the Prairie Pravda article. They robbed him because he was flashing money and his assailants needed drug money. It was a robeery that went bad. Real bad. But it was not motivated by homosexual intolerance. No matter, again, what the propagandists would say.
Another example of the SOS radical left taking a tragedy and exploiting it. No shame. None.

Rucks and mauls

Many of you know that I played rugby for two decades. In rugby there are some terms for what happens when a man is tackled and the forwards (the "linemen" of rugby) close around the tackled ball carrier: ruck or maul.
Some years back, we were in SW Minnesota playing rugby. It was a game with a number of fights. After about the fourth or fifth fight, the referee, after blowing the whistle and untangling the mess, had one guy by the arm. "Whenever I sort out a fight, you're always the one I find at the bottom of the pile. You're off the field!" And so, he was sent off.
In rugby, back then, when you were kicked off the field, you were not replaced. Your team played a man short for the rest of the game.

Today, every time there is a disaster, much more often than not, there is a government program, directive, agency somewhere in the mix either causing the problem or causing the problem to be worse or become worse. Witness the sub-prime mortgage and resultant financial collapse. All brought to you by: government. Aided and fully abetted by Democrats. And yet, John McCain can not make or will not make that connection.
Time is short.
And I'm losing hope that McCain has the will to fight.
He faces a man who has no respect for and seeks to destroy all that John McCain fought for, risked his life for and suffered for five horrible years in the Hanoi Hilton (and still suffers from those years). McCain's response: "Senator Obama is a fine family man."
President-elect Obama. And Nancy Pelosi will preempt the Constitution (nothing new there) and call Congress back if Obama does win the election to get a head start on the left wing mischief.
The Republicans have no one but themselves to blame.
http://tinyurl.com/3ruf7j

And this is what we have to look forward to (thanks to Powerline):


And believe that this one campaign promise Obama will keep.
Yup. The bottom of a lot more rucks and mauls.

Cartoon Saturday

Growing up in the '50's Saturday mornings were for cartoons.
So today, here a few cartoons I came across this past week:

I'm not surprised at not being surprised

"Troopergate Probe Shows Palin Had Power , but Abused It to Fire Trooper". Oh.
And the fact that the investigation was headed by Obama supporters is not news. That the report was rushed to be released now is not news.
If she did abuse her authority, bad on her. So what. I expected nothing less:


What is news that somehow I can't find in any MSM outlet is the rampant, and I mean rampant voter fraud from Obama's organization, ACORN. That concerns me that ACORN is stealing an election. This CNN report uncovers is being repeated around the country especially in battleground states. Look at the video again the previous post. This, again, is what's happening in many states. ACORN needs to be indicted in the next 10 days. ACORN organizers need to perp walked out of their offices. Those indictments need to be open. American citizens need to open lawsuits against ACORN for disenfranchisement.
To quote Arnold Schwarzenegger;"Dew whit. Dew whit nauuwgh!"

And to quote Indiana Jones-"This is serious!"

Do crushed acorns make acorn butter?

I had a question after I watched this video to the end (HT to Ed Morrissey at Hot Air):


Now that Barack Obama has thrown ACORN under the bus, after giving them $800,000, what next?

Mark Twain revisited

I heard a few days ago a quote attributed to Mark Twain-"History doesn't repeat itself, at best it rhymes."
My evidence is as follows:



































BTW, do you think these children sang as well to Benito Mussolini as those children sing about Obama?

(Here is the caption for the above picture from the Mrs. Music website:
The W.L.A. Children's Choir truly participated in the democratic process this spring by shooting a commercial for Barack Obama and then singing for Hillary Clinton! The commercial was shot on location at the picturesque Ahmanson Ranch in Calabassas and will be part of a competition on MoveOn.org. The winning director will have his commercial aired on National T.V. later in the campaign.)

The twist tie

In my post below I wrote that McCain/Palin need to tie Obama and all the Democrats together.
Here is a headline:
"HUD: Five Million Fraudulent Mortgages Held by Illegals".
Let that sink in: 5,000,000 fraudulent mortgages held by illegals.
The story goes on to state:"The problem began years ago when banks were forced to give mortgages without confirming social security numbers or borrower identification. As a result, illegal immigrants were able to obtain home mortgages which they could not afford."
Who did this? The Democrats. The Democrats forced banks to do this. The rest of us were required to play by the rules. The rules that a real world of risk assessment dictates. Not those who couldn't afford a house. They had the Democrats to make the world "fair" with rules to match.
And do you think that HUD has understated or overstated the number, if you had to bet?
I'm waiting to hear this story repeated as often as John McCain says "My friends".
BTW, how does it feel to have to pay $1,000,000,000,000's for the world to be "fair"?

Is this 1992 redux

I remember a quote a few years back regarding the election of Bill Clinton in '92 and '96-"In 1992 we didn't know anything about but elected him. In 1996 we knew all we needed to know and elected him anyhow." I have that same feeling today.
In 1992 we had a current president who kept hitting the character issue. And it didn't work. Clinton was a polished campaigner and it showed. The character issue did not resonate with the public at all. George Bush was playing catchup and losing.
In 1996 we had a horrible candidate in Bob Dole. He was certainly a war hero. That does not make one qualified to be President. It always appeared to me that the Republicans somehow thought that it was Senator Doles turn to run. That he was rewarded for his long service to the party. A horrible reason to be nominated for President.
This brings me to the 2008 election. I do not see the Barack Obama/Bill Ayers connection as a winner. It goes to character but this is all too reminiscent of the '92 election. In 1992 people were hearing the left scream "The worst economy in 50 years", "It's the economy stupid!". Sound familiar?
I've written so many times and reminded Republicans in Minnesota that the greatest book I've ever read about campaigning is David Horowitz's book "The Art of Political War and Other Radical Pursuits". It was written for 2000 election cycle. And precious few Republicans have ever read it! The takeaway for me-"Republicans look at politics as the Oxford Debating Society. Democrats look at politics as a knife fight." There are no Marquess of Queensbury Rules in politics. The Republicans are still looking for the rule book however, confident that they'll find it real soon.
My read on the remaining on the remaining time until the election:
It's a one act play with three characters: McCain, Obama, Palin. There are four scenes and some supporting players: Biden, Ayers, Wright, Dodd, Frank. The whole play had better have a single plot theme :"These democrats did it you! Here's the proof." The main Republican actors had better tie all the Democrat players together through Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Raines, Johnson and ACORN.
And the Republicans had better start now. It can be done. But the Repubs need to start now.

The Repubs have this much time to get this point across:

A Touch of Grey

I went over to Hot Air and saw a post from Allahpundit for an old 1980's video.
Well, I took his idea.
I searched for this video. It's the video that's credited with introducing The Grateful Dead to a new generation.
I put it into my You Tube favorites an irresistible catchy song with nonsense verses (there is one stanza that's dropped from the video)
Hope you enjoy it:

When SNL gets it right-mostly

Will George help?

This from Hot Air:


And this:



I've mentioned on these pages a number of times that Bernie Ebbers, Ken Lay, et al from WorldCom, Enron, Tyco have all been arrested in public:




























































These men were arrested for fraudulent accounting practices. The resulting financial collapse was in the tens of billions. People were screaming for their heads. "This is what corporate greed in America is all about!" clucked all the people on the left. "More regulations!" they shouted.
Well, here is a nicely timed "October Surprise" all ready to deliver:
Obama advisors Franklin Raines and Jim Johnson cooked the books at Fannie and Freddie. There is/was a $200,000,000,000 collapse of these two. If Enron and Worldcom executives were arrested for tens of billions...
Time to have Raines and Johnson arrested, ala Ebbers and Lay, perp walked out of their offices, in front of many cameras. This has to be done around 25 October.
And there is plenty of evidence over at the SEC, the FBI and Postal Service to have this done in the next two weeks.
Yup- equal treatment under the law is all we ask.
Come on George. The left hates you anyhow.
Try for a legacy with all us conservatives.

Overoptimism is a killer

From Drudge this morning:
Bush: 'It's going to take awhile'...
Pope says world financial system is 'built on sand'...
Dow Plunges 550 Points; off lows...
STAMPEDE AT NBC: Jim Cramer warns investments could lose 20% of value...
FLOOD AT FED: Doubles Cash Sales to $900 Billion...
London suffers sharpest fall since '87...

President Bush said that "It's going to take a while..."

Many who know me know that I'm active in a number of 2nd Amendment organizations.
As I heard people cautioning about setting our expectations TOO high regarding the bailout (now gently renamed "an economic rescue package") I'm reminded of a bill that passed in the 1990's called "The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act" aka "The Assault Weapons Ban" that did nothing to prevent handgun violence. I remember a newsclip that was recorded literally moments after the bill passed the Senate. There was Senator Bob Dole, on the floor of the Senate, again, just moments after the bill passed, telling us not to expect too much from the just passed bill. That it was not a panacea. The deed was done and the excuses were already flowing from the mouth of the man, one Senator Bob Dole, who could have stopped it square in its tracks (scroll down to "The Brady Bill Passes" and see how Senator Bob Dole, with two words or one hand signal, could have prevented this awful bill from becoming law).
So now, this weekend and this morning, we see how the politicians who have strapped us with trillions of dollars of debt and risk are now telling us not to expect TOO much from their misdeeds.
There were no hearings on this bill. There were no considerations for any alternatives (eliminate capital gains, taxes on dividends, zero out corporate taxes all of which would have involved private capital fro America and around the world. Sir John Templeton once said that if Congress eliminated the capital gains tax, there would be such a rush of money into the capital markets it would be breathtaking). But alas, no hearings. Nothing. Your money only was at risk.
My advice on politician who voted for this: Sweep them all out office. Every last one.

Jim Ramstad can be had

Once again, someone else's great idea becomes the way you live your life if that someone is a Senator or Representative.
Congressman Jim Ramstad will now vote "Yes" on the $700,000,000,000 bailout bill. Why the change? Because of a "sweetner" that anyplace else would be called a bribe. And it was your money that was used to bribe Congressman Ramstad.

P.S.-
I just watched this from Glenn Beck:



After watching this I thought about the above blog entry and feel I really needed to add this:
Mr. Ramstad- If you vote for the bailout bill: YOU are what is exactly wrong with America. YOU are exactly what is wrong with Congress. YOU are a prime example of what is wrong with Republicans and the the Republican Party. YOU have no ethics. YOU have no morals.
YOU are exactly why Congress enjoys a 9% approval rating. YOU are all that.
These are your last months in office.
Good riddance.

Letters, or "Speak now or forever hold your peace"

With the travesty of the Senate Bailout Bill behind us, I sent off this letter to my Congressman John Kline. It contains the text of letters I sent to Senators Coleman and Klobuchar:
John,
Here is an exact copy of the email I sent to Senator Norm Coleman and Senator Amy Klobuchar:
Senator Klobuchar:
I have four questions on your recent vote for the "bailout bill" that I am submitting to you and to Senator Norm Coleman.
As these are direct and unique questions, they will not be able to be adequately answered with a form email reply. Therefore I will expect a direct reply.
The four questions are as follows:
1. Did you read all 415 pages of the bill?
2. In voting for the bill, did you know the amount of $700,000,000,000 was not even a guess, but just a big sounding number from the Treasury? This was reported at forbes.com ("It's not based on any particular data point," a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com Tuesday. "We just wanted to choose a really large number." )
3. If you didn't know where the amount requested by the Treasury came from, why didn't you know if I could easily find out this critical piece of basic information?
4. If you did know, why did you vote for this bill?

I look forward to your reply.

Respectfully,



There was no language dissolving Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac (the only mention of those GSE's was on page 99 and referred only to stock treatment under the 1986 IRS rules).
The original Treasury request was three pages long. The House Bill was what, 140 pages? The Senate bill was 415 pages? Reducing excise taxes on children's wooden arrows? Mental health parity?

John, as I was against the original House Bill, I am certainly stridently against the Senate bill.
I urge you to vote "No" on the new House bill.

The Monsoon of incompetence

Heritage has an article which outlines two more glaring instances of Congressional incompetence. Again, this is all about the onrushing Social Security and Medicare tsunami.
The title is " $700 Billion bailout? You ain't seen nothin' ".
A number of times in the article Congress has been apprised of this coming situation. And just like the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac implosion, the Maxine Waters, Barney Franks and Chris Dodds of Congress smiled, yawned and tell us all is OK.
If you need a graphic (double click on the graphic, then again to expand):




























BTW, the $40,900,000,000,000 is a conservative current figure. It means that $40,900,000,000,000 needs to be put away TODAY, NOW to meet all future obligations. $4,650,000,000,000 is added to that figure each year. Every year.

The polls

Rush Limbaugh states that the most expensive commodity in America is ignorance. What is even more disturbing is willful ignorance.
Jay Cost at Real Clear Politics shows us this graph:























Despite all the evidence, facts and history showing the Democrats (Jimmy Carter and the Democrat controlled Congress of 1977, Chris Dodd, Barney Frank, Bill Clinton) and groups like ACORN (Obama's parent organization for his "community organizing") are the parties responsible for this financial disaster, the polls show that the public supports those who brought the crisis to the fore.
Perhaps this is a carryover of what Basswood Research found two years ago.

Some time ago I wrote that we are all cursed by Congress with inefficient toilets that flush 1.6 gallons that do not adequately flush and therefore waste my time as I wait to be sure that there isn't a,well, liquid disaster. So, we have a Congress that can't get flush toilets right, but the electorate trusts them to get the economy right.

"We don't need you. We have your children"

No explanation needed:







Comment from Savage Republican:
It should be noted that the top Video was produced by none other than
Jeff Zucker, CEO of NBC

Why nearly everyone should leave Washington D.C. forever, now...today

When Katrina hit Louisiana and New Orleans in particular, what we saw was three disasters:

1. Hurricane Katrina
2. Left government (Governor Kathleen Blanco and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin)
3. Big government as witnessed by FEMA

With the "crisis" on Wall Street and Washington, we see another thoroughly predictable disaster: Washington running as only Washington can.

We have the perpetrators of this fraud, the Dems and one Rep. Barney Frank accusing the Repubs of killing the bailout bill when there were 94 Democrats that voted against the bill. The Dems could have absolutely ridden roughshod over the Repubs as the Dems have an absolute majority in the House. Listen to Karl Rove tell how Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama either couldn't or didn't get the bailout passed:

So one of two things is true: Nancy Pelosi is incompetent or this whole thing was planned by the left. And Obama has been AWOL on this whole thing. He couldn't even convince the Illinois Congressmen/women to vote for this thing.

This situation has always been termed a "crisis". Can't be much of a crisis if Congress takes off for two days for Rosh Hashana.

But, the most damning piece of information I've heard was this: where did the figure $700,000,000,000 come from? Computers on Wall Street and in Washington cruching volumes and columns of numbers? Captains of finance and Treasury officials burning out computer memory running figures 24/7? Uh, well, no. Not at all. Here is the filthy, dirty, little secret: " 'It's not based on any particular data point,' a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com Tuesday. 'We just wanted to choose a really large number.' " And there you have it. You and yours have been put at risk for $700,000,000,000 by using the Treasury Department's Magic 8 Ball combined with the Omniscient Never Fail Dart Board bolstered by the Always Accurate Coin Flip (2 out 3 tosses to be sure).

It really is time to reset the trip odometer and for We, the People to take the country back. Time to re-establish the constitutional republic.
See you at Concord Bridge.

The end of the world as I know it

The debate

Tomorrow night, the first debate between John McCain and Barack Obama is scheduled to take place. Whether or not is happens as scheduled is up in the air.
The Christian Science Monitor has proposed fifteen questions for the two large party presidential candidates.
Well, as I am constitutionally qualified to president, I think I'll answer the questions:
1. When horrific war crimes or a humanitarian crisis occurs in another country, should the United States intervene – even if the United Nations refuses to approve? What would be your threshold for such a crisis to justify US military action? Unless there are legitimate concerns and issues regarding the United States, economically or militarily, there is no humanitarian or war crime crisis that would prompt me to intervene. The United States has for far too long been the default rescuer of foreign government and/or their citizens. America has been castigated and pilloried for "not doing enough" when the blood of our sons has long ago soaked into foreign soil. I will address the United Nations in a following question.
By the way, on my watch, the United States military will never, ever be used as a guarantor of an international "Meals on Wheels" or any other type program such as was witnessed in Somalia. This is strictly under the purview of the United Nations
2. Some experts contend that the US should address the security fears of Iran, Russia, North Korea, and China in order to prevent these countries from becoming threats to others. Do you agree with this approach? First of all I'd ask: which "experts" have said this? It appears that the concerns of these countries have little to do with "security fears" and have more to do with "ideological expansion". Iran's President and the ruling imams seems hell bent (a term I specifically use) on introducing the 12th Imam. Russia pines for the days of the Grand Soviet and seems quite willing to use energy to extract tribute from Europe and become a world arbiter at the minimum. North Korea is run by a despot who is willing to starve his own citizens to accomplish his own ends. China, make no mistake about it, is a police state that uses a form of capitalism to threaten a region then a hemisphere. It would appear that the United States and many other countries should be the one that have legitimate security concerns.
3. What are the three most important steps to achieve American energy security?
1. The government, especially Congress, accepts its limits under Article 1 section 8 and the 10th Amendment. In other words, it gets out of the way. 2. Drill here. 3. Drill now. I would also reduce any and all taxes on revenue from new domestic oil production by at least 75% for any and all new wells brought in in the next two years, 50% for any new oil wells brought in the next 3 years. I'd issue tax credits, not tax deductions for all investments in new wells for the next 10 years. All restrictions on off shore drilling within 50 miles of the shoreline will be eliminated. Lawsuits against oil companies will be severely restricted. Clean coal technology will be fast tracked. Ethanol subsidies will be eliminated. As will all CAFE standards. Nuclear power stations will also be fast tracked.
4. Would you compel Americans to adopt standards on carbon emissions even if China and India do not take similar actions? Absolutely not.
5. And why do you prefer a cap-and-trade system to reduce greenhouse gases when that approach has not worked in Europe – whereas a carbon tax in Sweden did help lower greenhouse-gas emissions? I don't. It would appear that you don't know me well enough, or the lack of science behind the fraud called "climate change" or "global warming" or whatever you're calling it today, or you wouldn't have even thought of asking me that question.
6. If US involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan largely ends during your first term, how would you then change the American military based on your reading of its potential roles? My concern since that horrible day in September 2001 has been the changing nature of the threats that face the United States. And it appears that the left, especially in Congress have dramatically failed in every and all respects to realize that change and address it. The United States military is made up of the finest men and women in the world. Period. It is the military that ensures that the left can complain about what a miserable place they believe America to be. I have friends who are members of the Band of Brothers. And they hold the modern day troopers and air assault soldiers in the highest regard. That being said, the military faces a dual mission: they must be prepared to fight asymmetrical assaults by radical terrorists all the while being prepared to fight the 21st century version of conventional war in the near future. I believe that certain nations and governments encourage and support asymmetrical assaults against the United States to keep us off balance while planning more conventional conflict. A case in point is the arrival of Russian ships of the line to participate in joint military exercises with the government of Venezuela. This represents a direct threat to the United States sea lanes where we import so much of our oil. This is just one example of why drilling for domestic oil is vital to the United States.
7. The international community has helped reduce extreme poverty by almost half a billion people since 1990. What would you do to reduce poverty in other countries, especially in Africa, in addition to what President Bush has already done? I'm very curious as to how you arrived at that conclusion. What's your evidence? If I may, I'd like to direct you to the United States efforts to reduce poverty via the failed programs of "The Great Society" and their expansion. Those programs have wasted $1,000,000,000,000's of dollars and yet we have the same percentage of poor that we did in 1965 when these programs went into effect. So, it would appear that poverty is not defined by the absence of money. It also appears that poverty is not cured by throwing money at poor people. Anecdotally some lottery winners who have won millions have lost it all with years. So, money is not the problem. The best and proper thing for governments to do is to protect liberties that allow people to exercise their talents and to fully reap and keep the fruit of the labor and enterprise.As far as foreign aid: I will not send American's hard earned money to foreign governments where most of that money goes into the pockets of tyrants and bureaucrats.
8. Every president who has tried to solve the Palestinian question has failed. How would your approach be different? Your question presupposes that there is a solution to the "Palestinian Question". All the evidence over decades points to the fact that the Palestinians are incapable of self-government. It also leads one to rationally conclude that the Palestinians have only one answer in mind: the complete destruction of Israel and the Jews.The Israelis have given up much in compromise and have received Katusha rockets and murder bombers in return. Let me ask you a question: The Palestinians, in direct contradiction to their rhetoric, want the Israelis dead. The Israelis don't want to die. Where is the middle ground or compromise between those two positions?
9. Is it possible to greatly reduce illegal immigration from Mexico by helping improve the quality of life in that country? How would you do that? To answer the first part of your question- it's possible IF and WHEN the MEXICAN government improves the quality of life in ITS country. In case you haven't notice and in direct refutation of La Raza's philosophy, Mexico is a sovereign nation. To help Mexico along those lines, I propose an impenetrable wall along our southern border to keep the labor pool of Mexicans in Mexico. The people that are leaving Mexico are obviously risk takers and are exactly the type of person that Mexico needs to keep. No need to thank me Presidente Calderon. More than happy to do it.
10. Name three things the United Nations does well.
A.The UN wastes money, and more of it, than any other international organization.
B. If you need an international scandal that may include raping children, keeping horrific tyrants in power or completely abandoning its mission, the United Nations is the go to entity.
C. The United Nations has no equal when it comes to sharply worded and completely ineffective resolutions.
I could go on but in the interest of time,and you only asked for three, I'll stop here.
11. Does the US have a special role in the world as the guardian of international security and as the indispensable leader of the world community? I've answered this in previous questions.
12. Both of you support Georgia and Ukraine joining NATO, making them allies. Are the American people ready to jeopardize their soldiers in defense of these countries if they are attacked? I support this only, and I mean ONLY with the full and equal inclusion of all NATO members. This will reflect the implementation of my policy as outlined in my answer to questions 2,3 and 6. I will never engage in another failed NATO incursion such as Bosnia where the combined military efforts of Great Britain, Germany, Denmark and France by themselves were so completely inadequate on their own that they could not address this pitifully small problem without the inclusion of the American Air Force. Never!
13. What steps would you take to open foreign markets now closed to US goods, to allow export of products and services that the US does well? First off is to rid American enterprise of all illegal and unConstitutional encumberances. To name just a few: OSHA, EEOC, Sarbanes-Oxley. I will also aggressively press Congress to totally eliminate the Karl Marx induced inheritance tax. The United States governement will not have the IRS be the first person who talks to a grieving family after the undertaker. The inheritance tax is unconscienable at any level! I will aggressively press Congress to reduce the Capital Gains tax to zero. I will also aggressively press Congress to reduce the corporate tax to zero. I would then aggressively press Congress to repeal the 16th Amendment to the Constitution or affix a truly flat tax whereby every citizen of the United States pays roughly the same tax per citizen. This will free Americans to profitably exercise their talents either directly or via investments. It will free up Americans to compete in the world market. Should a country decide to erect barriers to trade, my Cabinet will explore an appropriate response. However, the government will remove itself as a barrier to the great American engine of enterprise.
14. Roughly what proportion of US resources should go toward helping and protecting other nations compared with the resources that are needed to build up America? Little if any. The United States is always willing to fully and truly partner with others as long as it is beneficial to and in the interests of the United States. That's what the idea of "partnering" is.
15. Twenty years ago, Islamic terrorism was a sleeper issue. Some people warned about it, but few paid much attention to it. Same thing for climate change. In your opinion, what is today's sleeper issue? A sleeper issue is not and certainly was not "climate change". Nice try trying to sneak that one into the conversation. Again, my concern is the many faceted threat posed by the lack of aggressively exploiting our own oil resources, the failure of Congress to be able in any way to perceive a crisis long before it kicks down the door and the rise of state sponsored expansion of ideology across a wide range of venues.

The direction

A few weeks ago I heard a very disturbing phrase on the radio from a candidate. I didn't hear who it was, but I kept thinking about that phrase over and over as it was so disturbing and at the same time also revealing. Coming home today, I heard it again. And a parallel phrase to boot. It was from His Selected Oneness, Barack Hussein Obama.
BHO was responding to a call from McCain suggesting that this Friday's debate be postponed as Congress reviews to what extent Congress will screw the taxpayer.
Here was the money statement "And move the country in the direction we want." He said that twice. Then also commented about "moving the economy in the direction we want." Twice.
Haven't these clowns showed us over the past forty years the direction they "want to take the country"? What about the direction that I want to take my life? Well, thanks to the fact that we now live in a functional democracy where we were supposed to live in a constitutional republic where I had protection from the will of the majority, I'm screwed. Unless of course I want to go to prison.
Land of the free...as long as you're going in the direction "we want you to go".

Your grief counselor

There is at least one point that where I disagree with Jim Angle : we had an opportunity to avoid this mess by never getting into it. There is no authority in the Constitution for Congress to authorize a Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae type entity. None at all. There is no authority in the Constitution for Congress to pass a Community Reinvestment Act. There is no authority in the Constitution for the President to sign such acts. We got into this mess by government doing what is was never allowed to do. This is like letting your three year old drive the SUV and shaking your head when he wrecks the Explorer. And then buying him a new one-with pedal extensions and GPS navigation!
Time and time again the government screws up big time then comes to the rescue with another band aid for cancer.
And why would we trust these people to come up with a solution?
That makes as much sense as having Ted Bundy be the grief counselor for his victim's family.
I now hear that the Dems in Congress want to punish the execs of Wall Street. Only after Chris Dodd and Barney Frank are frog walked off the floor of Congress. And after the execs of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac share a cell with Bernie Ebbers.