Tuesday, March 31, 2009

"He will surround himself with the best and brightest!"

Well, that was the stock line, anyway, when citizens of good intent questioned the experience and gravity of Barack Obama.

So who's he consulting with on the Middle East? Why, only the man who has made a worse mess of things than anyone before, or anyone since. The man whose mistakes we are still paying for, in American blood.

Yup. Barack Obama is getting advice on Syria, Iran and Israel, from...Jimmy Carter:

Last December, Carter visited Syria, and met not only with President Assad but with Khaled Meshal, the Hamas leader.A senior White House official confirmed that the Obama transition team had been informed in advance of Carter’s trip to Syria, and that Carter met with Obama shortly before the Inauguration.

The two men—Obama was accompanied only by David Axelrod, the President’s senior adviser, who helped arrange the meeting; and Carter by his wife, Rosalynn—discussed the Middle East for an hour.

Carter declined to discuss his meeting with Obama, but he did write in an e-mail that he hoped the new President “would pursue a wide-ranging dialogue as soon as possible with the Assad government.”

Great. As Glenn Reynolds is apt to say, the country's in the very best of hands...

Liberal Plunder of New Jersey Continues Apace !

Governor Corzine barely let the ink dry on his budget proposal containing $1.5 billion dollars in tax hikes before he figured out a way to spend a bulk of it.

On charging illegal immigrants in-state tuition cost at state colleges. Seriously. For this he's raping the private-sector taxpayer:

Illegal immigrants in New Jersey should be eligible for in-state tuition and be able to obtain drivers' licenses, a special panel says.
Those were two key recommendations of the governor's
blue-ribbon panel studying immigrant policy.

Gov. Jon Corzine said yesterday he agrees that illegal immigrants should pay in-state tuition to attend New Jersey's public colleges. But he didn't endorse the panel's recommendation that illegal immigrants be extended state driving privileges, saying that's an issue for the federal government to decide.


Maybe because, in an election year, over 60% disapprove of the idea?

So this is why Corzine raises taxes on the private sector, so that every illegal who calls a shanty "home" in New Jersey gets taxpayer-subsidized higher education. And what to the taxpayers get for their investment? Why, nothing, most likely, except a letter telling them their children will not be eligible for lower tuition rates since all those subsidies have gone to law-breakers and their children.

And as the private sector and the citizzens who compose it within New Jersey gasp for air, as its rights are taken away in favor of those whom break the law, whose cash is confiscated and redistributed to those who contribute nothing, the public sector...fights the minimal (very minimal) burden the state has asked them to carry:

Six public unions are trying to block the emergency rule allowing state workers to be furloughed one day each during May and June, two days total. Led by the CWA, they filed papers with the state appeals court.

Here's the kicker, though:

Among their complaints, the unions maintain the rule was illegally adopted because the state didn’t prove imminent peril.

Maybe we should make the state prove "imminent peril" every time they need to raise taxes. May make it harder to make the case for using taxpayer dollars on illegals...

Update: This Jersey-based protest is scheduled for today.

Monday, March 30, 2009

Earth Hour Wreaks Havoc, Destruction...

...right here in North America, just over the border in friendly Canada. And you thought going back to the olden ways would make life better? Hey folks, there's a reason we have been frantically inventing sh*t for the past hundred-plus years:

A Mississauga family who tried to light a candle for Earth Hour nearly burned their Meadowvale townhouse down.

Afshan Khalid, 46, said her 8-year-old daughter tried to light a candle before Earth Hour started at 8:30 p.m. Saturday.

“She was lighting up the candle and we thought it didn’t light up or the match fell somewhere that we didn’t notice and then we left,” said Ms. Khalid. The family was going to see friends and when getting ready, they lighted scented candles so they could see.

While they were gone, Ms. Khalid’s son Omar, 19, came home at 9:30 with a friend, saw smoke and called 911.

“The upper floor is damaged. The central part is all burnt out, smoke damage to all the bedrooms,” said Ms. Khalid.
Platoon Chief Paul Hunter of the Mississauga Fire Department said the fire caused an estimated $15,000 damage.


That's what they get for living in an artifically contructed, man-made, house, as opposed to a nice, natural tree or cave.

Imagine the carnage if we had an Earth Day? Oh, wait...

Hat tip: Enviornmental Republican

First Referendum on Obama, Tomorrow...

..when the good people of the 20th Congressional District, in the Hudson Valley region of upstate New York go to the polls to vote for a replacement for Congresswomen Kirsten Gillibrand, who is now Senator Gillibrand.

This is a district where Republicans enjoy a voter-registration edge of 75,000, and yet have elected Democratic representation in Congress for the last four years. New York Assemblyman Jim Tedisco (R.) is trying to whip up the faithful in order to grind out a victory in this very in-play district, but opponent Scott Murphy has just taken the lead in polling.

Maybe because Tedisco is currently campaigning as simply Democrat-Lite:

We understand there’s a lot of waste going on in Washington,” says New York Assemblyman Jim Tedisco (R.), addressing a group of 50 or 60 people who’d volunteered on a Saturday morning to help get out the vote in Tuesday’s special election. “They’ve taken our money and they’re going on a shopping spree.”
That’s the sort of thing you expect to hear from a Republican politician. But Tedisco goes on: “Wall Street has done the same. We’re not only going to stand up to Washington and its waste, we’re going to stand up to Wall Street and its greed!”

Hmmm - so he's a populist Conservative? I don't know, I see how the Tories in Britain seemingly have lost power forever, by saying that they'd be just like Labour, only a tiny - TINY - bit more to the right. In this kind of choice, the consumer - or voter - always buys the genuine article, and not the repackaged warmed-over version that's discounted just to get sold.

But maybe I'm wrong. With Tea Party activists storming the streets in cities nationwide, maybe it is the time for the Republicans to engage in some type of economic populism. But banging their heads against Wall Street doesn't strike me as the right note.

If Tedisco wins, RNC Chairman Michael Steele — who has made this race a personal priority — will have eased early fears about his competence. Republicans will have recovered a seat they lost in the blow-out of 2006. At a cost of more than $2.6 million from Republican donors, they will have earned a right to claim that their comeback is already underway — that Democrats in Washington have gone too far.

If Murphy prevails, Democrats will claim it as a ratification of President Obama’s entire agenda — deficit spending, energy taxes, and all. The GOP will return to the endless soul-searching, praying for a comeback that could still be several elections away.

Let's hope Steele and Tedisco knwo what they are doing. The future of America may rest upon this small district, nestled between the Hudson River and the foothills of the Catskill Mountains...

Obama's Judicial Picks: Destroying America, Now and Forever

Sure, Obama's a moderate, just like the media kept telling us all campaign season.

That's why the man Obama nominated to be the State Department's legal adviser - Harold Koh, dean of Yale Law - cannot wait to take a moderate path by giving away American soverignty to the first iman that passes beneath his transom. The New York Post:

He's a fan of "transnational legal process," arguing that the distinctions between US and international law should vanish.

For example, Koh believes that the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child -- a problematic document that we haven't ratified -- should dictate the age at which individual US states can execute criminals. Got that? On issues ranging from affirmative action to the interrogation of terrorists, what the rest of the world says, goes.

Including, apparently, the world of radical imams. A New York lawyer, Steven Stein, says that, in addressing the Yale Club of Greenwich in 2007, Koh claimed that "in an appropriate case, he didn't see any reason why sharia law would not be applied to govern a case in the United States."

Koh has called America's focus on the War on Terror "obsessive."

Gee, I feel safer already. (and here)

If that doesn't turn your stomach, Gateway Pundit describes Obama's first judicial nominee as a "raving lunatic". Hmmm...think he's got a point there:

Hamilton is precisely what Obama wants in a judge: Someone who ignores the Constitution and imposes his own liberal ideas on each case. Hamilton will have what Obama calls “empathy” for the poor, child molesters, abortionists, murderers, etc. Hamilton has ideal liberal credentials. He is a former ACLU lawyer and was a fundraiser for the corrupt group known as ACORN.

...Hamilton is also an enemy of the First Amendment and religious freedom. Interestingly enough, Hamilton has ruled that prayers in Jesus Name at the Indiana House of Representatives was unconstitutional, but prayers to Allah were not.

Before our eyes, we go from a secular-capitalistic society to a Muslim-socialist society. And all within 70-odd days. And there is nothing - and no one - to stop Barack Obama, as he knows his majorities in Congress will rubber-stamp any radical nominee/economic plan he proposes.

I was convinced, as recently as a few weeks ago, that the damage being done by Barack Obama could be undone partially in 2010, perhaps completely by 2012. Now, with the long-term damage he is doing to the economy with his insane deficits and the long-term destruction he is doing to American society with his far-left judicial appointments, I am beginning to think otherwise.

Obama is -with full intent - dynamiting the underpinnings of what has been America for the last 200+ years, in order to fill the vacuum with his own vision of what American should be. He has the time, and political capital, to do it. And the media will simply stand along the sidelines and cheer. Protests will be ignored, or worse.

Well, he did come through on one promise. Change. We are different from what we ever were, and we may never be able to go back.

Things may be worse that I thought.

Sunday, March 29, 2009

WWE Heel Smacks Down Obama

Chris Jericho, professional wrestler, was asked a few questions the other night by TMZ (with video, almost 1:40 in):

[TMZ]: "You're a wrestler ... so, do you think you have better abs than Barack Obama?"

Chris Jericho: "As of right now I have better abs ... but pretty soon he's gonna take 65% of my abs away from me and give 'em to somebody else."

Man, these guys are spot-on...I'm telling you, the next candidate for New York Senate's seat is right there in the WWE as well...

Hat tip: Blonde Sagacity (and yes, it's always the WWF to me too!)

Oh, and Vince McMahon is ahead of the curve as usual, decided to make his new bad guy a bone-crushin' Russian. How did he know?

("...The Moscow Mauler.....Vladimir Kozlov ! ")

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Obama Stacks The Deck

It appears as if Barack Obama is no longer afraid to do the "town hall" meet and greet that he so studiously avoided during his campaign against John McCain.

Well, before you give him props for going out there sans teleprompter, please be aware he had the next best thing: A room full of campaign backers that were as unthreatening as a UN nuclear inspector. The Washington Post (!) reports:

...while the online question portion of the White House town hall was open to any member of the public with an Internet connection, the five fully identified questioners called on randomly by the president in the East Room were anything but a diverse lot.

They included: a member of the pro-Obama Service Employees International Union, a member of the Democratic National Committee who campaigned for Obama among Hispanics during the primary; a former Democratic candidate for Virginia state delegate who endorsed Obama last fall in an op-ed in the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star; and a Virginia businessman who was a donor to Obama's campaign in 2008.

Give this guy anything but unconditional love (a room full of supporters, a one-way speech laid out on a teleprompter, a smoochfest on Leno ) and he falls apart, stumbling over his words, glowering at reporters, and otherwise acting immaturely and illogically.

Alas, the world (not to mention his own nation) will not fall in line behind his program as he believed it would. How will he treat the rising opposition to himself and his policies, with dialogue, respect and co-operation (as he promised) or with threats and intimidation?

You know which side my money is on...

Friday, March 27, 2009

Pack Up The Road Show, Baracky...

....'cause people ain't buying what it is you gots to sell.

So what do we find after three weeks of intense political blitzing that included a presidential news conference, an appearance on Jay Leno's late-night show, a 60 Minutes interview, Democratic National Committee and third-party advertising and grass-roots work to rally the troops, and the usual sympathetic coverage from the mainstream media?

We get this:

Support for the Obama budget dropped to 39 percent [from a pre-blitz figure of 44%]. Go into the numbers and you find that the biggest drop in support came among liberals, with a nine point decrease, then moderates at eight points. For Democrats and Independents, the decrease was five points.

And this:

Voters are evenly divided over whether President Obama’s proposed $3.6 trillion budget will help or hurt the economy. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 42% believe it will help the economy while 43% say it will hurt. . . Forty-percent (40%) of voters have a favorable opinion of the president’s budget while 46% have a unfavorable view.

And this:

Democrats in the Senate are talking of cutting back President Obama’s pledge of tax cuts for most Americans in the face of record deficits. But 63% of U.S. voters now say tax cuts would help the economy, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. That’s up from 56% in February and marks the highest level found in years of tracking this question.

This won't deter the Democrats, they are on an ideological quest, and will explain everything later, after they change the nation to fit their liking. Of course, many of them might not be around after 2010 to defend their work, but...that's the price for limiting your reading material to the New York Times and your own press releases....

Better Stiffen Your Spine...

...because our time to stand up and be counted - or discounted - is coming.

I took this passage from Dawn Eden's blog, it refers to the outrage many Catholics are feeling over Notre Dame's invitation of President Barack Obama - staunch abortion activist - to give this year's commencement address.

Nevertheless, I think it speaks on a number of levels:

"Those of us Catholics in the under-40s...are inheriting the wasteland of the culture wars that have decimated Western society. Like appeasement makers of old, we are led by Catholic priests who announce that a Catholic university is 'honored' by the presence of an individual who intends to persecute Catholic institutions that do not bend to his will. We are soft, and we are too willing to shrug our shoulders and say, 'What can I do?'"

If my experience over the past several days provides any wisdom to anyone reading these words, it is that each of one of us must raise our voice in alarm when the moment is right to do so. Oftentimes it is our lot to remain silent, or unheard, because we cannot chase every monster, defend every outcropping. Let it not be said, however, at the end of our lives when an accounting is called for, that when the battle came to our turf, we failed to stand up to be counted."

Indeed. And there is a battle coming to our turf as we speak. Will we give a Gallic shrug and accept our fate, as Europe has done? Or will we "stand up and be counted".

We have often told ourselves we are diferent than Europe, and the things that are happening - and have happened - there, could never, ever, occur on this side of the pond.

Interesting test of national character. We'll see...

Thursday, March 26, 2009

New Jobs in the Obama Economy!

Well, never let it be said that Obama's stimulus package hasn't created some jobs. As unemployment mounts and deficit spending devalues our currency daily, there is one occupation that seems to be making a comeback:

Digging on your hands and knees in the hope of finding gold:

Geologists estimate that during the gold rush of 1849 in California, about 80 percent of the gold was never found. Today, with the price of gold soaring and the economy falling, the idea of panning, digging or diving for precious metal has become serious business...

....But prospecting is not easy money. It takes time and a lot of hard work. John Gurney, who came out to California from the East Coast to find gold, was able to pull out about $35,000 worth of gold nuggets over a couple of months. Then there was a dry spell -- and now, John is at it again.

"Some days you sit here and make two cents. Some days you make a couple of hundred dollars..."

This is the "progressive" theory, put into practice. Americans reverting back 150 years in order to find ways to survive.

Next big growth sector: Buggy whips. Hey, once they outlaw the internal combustion engine...

Planned Economy or Planned Destruction?

Bold
This cartoon is from The Chicago Tribune, circa 1934. Click to enlarge...

"Plan of Action: Under the guise of recovery - bust the government - blame the capitalists for the failure - junk the constitution and declare a ditactorship"

Dick Morris, incidentally, does think this is all part of a well-thought out plan:


The most rational explanation for Obama's puzzling conduct — sabotaging his own program by way of his own rhetoric — is that he truly wants to be forced to nationalize the banks in pursuit of his ultimate goal of a socialist economy.

Obama has to oppose nationalization today in order to achieve it tomorrow.

He has to show the country and the world that he is doing all he can to help the private sector to sort things out with government help. He must ostentatiously invite the hated demons of Wall Street to join him in rescuing the banks in order, later, to say that he did his best to avoid having to take over the banks. Only then will nationalization be an acceptable alternative — when he has run out of other options.

Even when he takes over the banks, as he almost inevitably will, he is going to have to dress up the nationalization as a temporary measure forced on him by the economy and the previously unrealized depth of the problem...

Remember how the media ridiculed John McCain and Sarah Palin for calling Barack Obama a socialist? How much better off our nation would be today had we possessed an honest media...


I'm gonna bookmark this post, for I bet we hear Morris' words repeated, verbatim, by the Teleprompter-in-Chief in the not-too-distant future...

From Citizens To Subjects in 65 Days

Man, I hate being right. A few days back I was talking about why Obama' sliding poll numbers will not affect his governing style or the implementation of his program:

...expect the 60-vote rule in the Senate to give way to a 50+1 vote as Obama and the Democrats use the tools of power to push through an agenda opposed by most Americans. The polls don't scare them - Obama feels he can talk his way out of any crisis anyway, and the Democrats in Congress see themselves as overlords rather than elected representatives. The madness will stop when Congress changes hands, but a lot of damage can be done in two years, assuming a changeover does arrive in '10.

So what do we see today? The Democrats, planning to overhaul the nation's medical system by jamming it down America's throat via single-party fiat:

Majority Leader Harry Reid indicated Wednesday he's willing to move sweeping health care legislation through the Senate with a procedural maneuver that would block a GOP filibuster. The prospect of the controversial tactic has already ignited Republicans' ire, and key Senate Democratic chairmen have said they don't want to do it.

Reid, D-Nev., took a different position on a conference call with reporters."I think it's something we need to consider," Reid said.

At issue is a so-called reconciliation bill, which could pass with a simple majority of 51 votes and without Democrats fearing a GOP filibuster....Revising health care via reconciliation has been viewed favorably by House Democrats. The House Budget Committee included language providing for the method in its annual budget resolution released.

White House officials reiterated Wednesday that it's not their preferred method but they don't want to take it off the table.

Of course they don't want to take it off the table. Bipartisanship is rolling over to have your belly rubbed by the Democrats, not the shared input of ideas and compromise. And this move to overhaul our health care system in the model of Europe is an ideological goal that is not to be compromised, discussed, or even allowed passage through a traditional voting system (no wonder the Democrats have so much sympathy for Islamists!).

Obama and the Democrats will use every tool at their disposal to manipulate the system and force this Holy Grail of Liberalism upon a population that has no idea how devastating the effect would be. Want a clue? See here - CanadaCare May Have Killed Natasha.

We now have one-party rule, like many totalitarian states. And we are seeing what life is like for the ordinary subject (no, not citizen - citizens participate in government, subjects are beholden to it and have no say in its policies) in these types of regimes...

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

John Galt, Rising...

So I met some old friends for a few beers over the weekend. One of them is a very successful lawyer, with a nice Park Avenue firm with his name on the front door. Small - he works a niche - but profitable and busy.

So what's new, I ask.

Plenty, he tells me. I'm thinking of closing up shop.

WTF? I'm shocked. So he explains:

I'm doing fine, but running a business is exhausting and time-consuming. I'm in it for the money - mostly, I do love my field - but I'd also like to leave a legacy behind for my kids if they choose to enter law.

But I dump a huge amount of my profits back into the business. I have eight lawyers, a receptionist, and a handful of paralegals that need to get paid and have medical coverage. Fair and good as it stands. But when I look at how my taxes are going to go up over the next year or so, I get sick. The taxes on my business profits will go up, my taxes on my personal income will go up, and I will be forced to pay even more into health and medical benefits for my employees. Not to mention whatever other family-based repsonsibilty the government feels I need to cover in the future...

There's another company, a larger firm, that has been chasing me for years. They've made me an offer for an amount significantly larger than the salary I take out of my business for myself now. I've blown them off for years, but now...why work my ass off running a business when the harder I work, the more the government plans to take, and the less I have to show for it?

I hate to do this to my employees, but I'm not working for them. And I hate to lose what I hoped would be my legacy, but at least I'll get to spend some extra time with my kids. And that'll have to be a legacy of its own, I guess.

So what happens when the government penalizes hard work? This guy is closing his business, putting eight lawyers out of work (and no, there is little demand for them in this economy either), people who may likely lose their homes and will need federal dollars in unemployment and possibly homeowners assistance. Not to mention the secretaries and the paralegals - mostly minorities, all making between $40-$80K/year. I believe that's a "living wage", right? Where are they going to find comparable jobs in this economy? And of course, there's the empty office space that will be created. Big demand for that these days.

This is the grand fault of the Obama Plan - the assumption that people will work just as hard and produce just as much even when they are effectively penalized for it. And this is where John Galt was right - the the loss of the men of the mind, the loss of businessmen, is the most fatal blow an economy can suffer.

Sure, Galt did it on purpose, in order to hasten the end, and my friend reached the same point in a more roundabout fashion. But the end result is the same - liberal economic policies creating not wealth, but joblessness, homelessness, and ruin.

Are you listening, Barack Hussein Obama?

Galt is rising - see the letter from the resigning AIG executive here - one who was not a crook and one who obviously got the job done - who essentially asks, "what do I need this sh*t for?" as he departs a firm that desperately needs his talents.

And here - Chicago rises, perhaps not Galt-like, but apparently the Second City will no longer stand for being gouged for the simplicities of life - like parking a car - and have taken to a violent pushback.

Who is John Galt?

Why, it looks as if we all are.

The Search for New Tax Revenues

Well, as we said about a thousand times prior to the election, there is no way Obama could massively increase the size of government while at the same time reduce taxes. And here on Day 65, we see how it's really gonna go down.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

Lawmakers also were effectively excluding several middle-class tax-cut pledges that Mr. Obama made in his budget, including long-term relief from the Alternative Minimum Tax, and even long-term extension of his Making Work Pay credit. Extending AMT relief and the Making Work Pay tax credit could run around $200 billion each over the next five years. Both are in effect now but expire soon.

Oh, but don't worry! The government is making a "sacrifice" too!

Sen. Kent Conrad (D., N.D.), chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, presented his version of Mr. Obama's budget to his colleagues on Tuesday, including an increase in annual nondefense spending of 7% for 2010 -- a $15 billion reduction from the president's.

Oh, the generosity! The government will take another $200 billion from the population - in contradiction to the promises made to it - but in turn will limit its spending increases to only 7%!

And if you were starting to think that all these progressive liberals simply could not be as smart as they claim to be, well, this ought to set you straight:

Progressives say now isn't the time for fiscal restraint, given the economy's fragile state and the need for long-term overhauls in health care and energy.

Make sense to you? No, me neither. Just remember, though, that this is the working strategy that Barack Obama is operating in....promises to the American people be damned!

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Corzine, Selling Snake Oil

So Dirty Jon Corzine goes to the Shore the other day, only to be met by a group of irate small business owners struggling mightily under the King's levys and fees.

Settle, settle, he tells them. The fault lies not with my budget priorities, but...

Man, you gotta read this:

Business owners such as Bill Lloyd, landlord of a rental property that houses Avalon Coffee and Teaberry Antiques,....said he was disappointed with the 25 percent cut Corzine proposed for tourism promotions, which is Cape May County's No. 1 industry.

Corzine's budget increases spending for grade-school education and children's health programs....

While the governor was speaking, a few miles away U.S. Rep. Frank LoBiondo, R-2nd, criticized state shortfalls in beach replenishment Monday during an address to the Ocean City Regional Chamber of Commerce....LoBiondo said the governor's decision to fund just $18 million instead of $25 million for beach replenishment means New Jersey stands to lose federal matching grants.
The Ocean City Chamber opposed the cuts last week, saying the city needs its beaches to attract tourists.


Here it comes:

Corzine said people will continue to visit New Jersey because of its location and because it is less expensive than other destinations. Meanwhile, a bigger threat to the shore is climate change, he said.

"We've got the best programs in the country to pull back carbon buildup," Corzine said.

Wow. So not only is he raising their taxes and cutting spending on the very natural resources these people need to survive, he's telling them their problems are not his fault, but Mother Nature's. But don't worry - King Corzine is here to protect you! Just keep forking over those taxes, and he'll fight the big bad Climate Gods, and you guys will still be free to scurry around and make (less) money. And since he spending your moeny by expanding programs for kids and grannies, why, you ought to feel downright good about your current circumstances!

Kinda like a high priest of the ancient temple, saying that only by tithing him could you avoid the wrath of the gods. And shaking, you gladly paid him, and thanked him for what peace you have.

Maybe this is nto the kind of man New Jersey wants as a governor anymore? Actually - maybe this is not the type of man America wants as a president anymore?

Hat tip: Corzine Emptied My Wallet

Geithner, Starring as "Atlas Shrugged" Villain Wesley Mouch?

Sometimes I feel as if God has taken Rand's Atlas Shrugged and turned into into a nonstop running play, using the United States as his grand stage (much as Rand did in her novel).

Listen to Tim Geitner today as he demands the title of economic czar of the nation:

Geithner seeks new powers over financial companies

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner called on Congress Tuesday to grant him new powers to regulate huge financial companies like insurance giant AIG, whose failure would pose a grave danger to the U.S. financial system and the broader economy.

Specifically, Geithner wants powers similar to those of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which has authority to seize control of banks, take over their bad assets and sell good ones to competitors...


Now pay attention to Wesley Mouch, economic czar of Atlas Shrugs' America, and listen to him complain as Rand's "elite" discuss taking complete control of the nation's production:

'It's obvious that measures have to be taken. Drastic measures,' said James Taggart, speaking , not to Mr Thompson, but to Wesley Mouch. 'We can't let things go the way they're going much longer.' His voice was belligerent and shaky.
''Don't look at me,' snapped Wesley Mouch. 'I can't help it. I can't help if people refuse to co-operate. I'm tied. I need wider powers.'

'Go ahead, Wesley,' [Thompson] said. 'Go ahead with Number 10-289. You won't have any trouble at all.' …'
If you want me to go ahead, you'll have to declare a state of total emergency.'
'I'll declare it any time you are ready.'…'

"The chief difficulty is that I am not sure whether the law actually grants us the power to put into effect certain provisions of Directive Number 10-289. I fear they might be open to challenge.''
"Oh, hell, we've passed so many emergency laws that if you hunt through them, you're sure to dig up something that will cover it."

An explanation of why this is going on, and where it will lead:

The primary motive behind the government’s scheme, which is a vast, seemingly opaque combination of the Ponzi and pyramid models, is not greed, avarice, or even the “quick buck” but rather power. As the pyramid pharaohs and Ponzis fake reality in order to steal from their duped victims, politicians strive to keep reality at bay, that is, to postpone or delay the consequences of their past and current policies. They fake reality by blaming any financial crisis on anyone but themselves, usually on “unfettered“ capitalism .

Their role as “confidence men” is to persuade everyone else of it and to call for an expansion of the scheme, to assume more powers in an attempt to correct a crisis of their own making, literally with their fingers crossed. (“I need wider powers!” demanded Wesley Mouch in Ayn Rand’s prophetic novel, Atlas Shrugged.)

So is Geithner a real-life Wesley Mouch? And is Obama really nothing more than Bernie Madoff, running the biggest Ponzi scheme in world history, one destined to destroy our wealth in one fell swoop?

Remember, in Rand's novel, the United States slips into chaos and anarchy due to the "Mouch Mentality". Are we destined for the same inglorius end?

Why Obama's crashing poll numbers are meaningless

Gateway Pundit reports on a number of polls showing Barack Obama doing a crash-and-burn virtually unprecedented in the first sixty days of a presidency:

A Zogby poll due out in the morning will be reporting the Obama admin’s latest grim milestone-- "Obama’s job approval stumbles to about 50 percent over the lack of improvement with the crippled economy"

He also displays a Rasmussen chart showing that the strongly approve vs. strongly disapprove margin is only +5%, and dropping like a stone...

The Boston Herald reports the same story, linking The Fall to Obama's gaffes, the sputtering economy, and his media overexposure.

But none of it matters.

Obama was presented to us as a smart and pragmatic politician, but it turns out he is neither. He is dead-set on implementing his radical liberal agenda, as even he has said in recent days that despite the CBO's report saying his budget would bankrupt America, he would still move "forward":

"What we will not cut are investments that will lead to real growth and prosperity over the long term," Obama said. "That's why our budget makes a historic commitment to comprehensive health care reform. That's why it enhances America's competitiveness by reducing our dependence on foreign oil and building a clean energy economy."

Obama is less concerned with his re-election than with the implemtation of his agenda. If he leaves four years from now, having crippled America with socialized medicine, cap-and-trade carbon emissions, a weaker military, and less well-off, why, he has accomplished his goals.

What a good socialist I was, he can say. Our overall health care is worse, but at least everyone has it. Our military was cruel and evil anyway, they deserved to be disassembled. The cap-and-trade plan helped the enviornment (hey, blame the other guy for the devestating economic side effects!), and well....I sure did spread the "wealth", didn't I (cue snarky laugh)?

He will be, in his eyes and the Reverend Wright's, an unqualified success. The Democrats in Congress will not stop him, hell, he's helping them - every bit of government intrusion he puts into place give more power to Congress and sends more lobbyists and campaign contributions scurrying to their doors. They feel invicible, seeing the Republicans as an already-vanquished foe, and like many who hold power, they lust to increase it and see Obama as the vehicle to that end.

So expect the 60-vote rule in the Senate to give way to a 50+1 vote as Obama and the Democrats use the tools of power to push through an agenda opposed by most Americans. The polls don't scare them - Obama feels he can talk his way out of any crisis anyway, and the Democrats in Congress see themselves as overlords rather than elected representatives. The madness will stop when Congress changes hands, but a lot of damage can be done in two years, assuming a changeover does arrive in '10.

Based on the careening downhill course our nation is now on, two years looks to be way,way too late...

Monday, March 23, 2009

Obama Sends Love Letter to Wrong Frenchman

This is the guy the media assured us was transcendant, who was brilliant, intelligent, and The One we have been waiting for? The same guy who just wrote a letter to former French president - and renown anti-American - Jaques Chirac - saying how he was looking forward to working with him?

In what capacity, exactly? Via Gateway Pundit:

In a letter described by Chirac as 'very nice,' Obama wrote, 'I am certain that we will be able to work together, in the coming four years, in a spirit of peace and friendship to build a safer world.'
The use of the word 'peace' was taken to be an indirect reference to Chirac's stance against the US intervention in Iraq, which Obama had also opposed as senator.

Related, unfortunately:

Yesterday, we told you Sarkozy is irritated because Mister O. refuses to tell him if he will accept to meet him personally in the next few months.

Is Obama truly clueless about who runs France these days? Or is he planning to snub Sarkozy, who helped warm relations between France and the US, by wooing Chirac, who did more to damage Franco-American ties than any French leader in modern history?

Dangerous foreign policy, no matter what is endgame is. Lends more creedence to my theory, expounded on yesterday, that Obama is no genius - he's just batshit crazy....

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Barack Obama: Insane in the Membrane?

In what appears to be the highest-profile case in history of "locking the barn door after the horse has escaped", the media have finally taken the blinkers off vis a vis one Barack Hussein Obama.
A drubbing all across the NY Times op-ed pages certainly is startling enough, but Obama's behavior and attitude during a 60 Minutes interview forced an incredulous Steve Kroft to question the president's sanity:

“You're sitting here. And you're— you are laughing. You are laughing about some of these problems. Are people going to look at this and say, ‘I mean, he's sitting there just making jokes about money—’ How do you deal with— I mean: explain. . .” Kroft asks at one point.

“Are you punch-drunk?” Kroft says.

“No, no. There's gotta be a little gallows humor to get you through the day,” Obama says, with a laugh.

So is he incredibly disrespectful, or is he cracking under the strain of having a job with responsibility for the first time in his life? Well, we feel the evidence points to the latter rather than the former - note these symptoms for mental illness as listed by the MHAM:

Irrational statements
Peculiar use of words or language structure
Excessive fears or suspiciousness

All we've heard from Barack (al least, when he's not travelling with The Teleprompter) lately is irrational statements and peculiar words. "Excessive fears"? Well, it certainly puts Obama's Limbaugh obsession in a new light...

Hostility, from one formerly pleasant and friendly (Obama's ugly partisanship)
Indifference, even in highly important situations (see above re: 60 Minutes)
Inappropriate laughter (60 Minutes, again)
Inability to concentrate or cope with minor problems (still can't get those low-level posisitions filled yet, Mr. Chief Executive?)

Insane, he is. Clinicaly insane.

Though it does go a long way in explaining his delusions of granduer....

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Tea-Time in Orlando!

Nice turnout today at the Orlando Tea Party today, with estimates of over 3000 attendees. Some great pics and signage can be found here. My favorite:



I'm not sure the local media is quite getting the "tea party" concept, though:

Protesters said they felt the multi-billion dollar stimulus package will not do enough to help stimulate the economy....

Ah.......kinda?

Friday, March 20, 2009

Because He's An Ideologue...

...facts don't matter. Obama is committed to changing American society in his image, and if it all falls apart in the process, well...his intentions were good, right?

The problem is, the non-partisan CBO is warning that Obama's budget is a disaster waiting to happen:

The Congressional Budget Office figures, obtained by The Associated Press Friday, predict Obama's budget will produce $9.3 trillion worth of red ink over 2010-2019. That's $2.3 trillion worse than the White House predicted in its budget.

Worst of all, CBO says the deficit under Obama's policies would never go below 4 percent of the size of the economy, figures that economists agree are unsustainable. By the end of the decade, the deficit would exceed 5 percent of gross domestic product, a dangerously high level.

How does Obama address this cliff on the horizon? By vowing to step on the gas:

...without referencing the figures, Obama insisted on Friday that his agenda is still on track.

"What we will not cut are investments that will lead to real growth and prosperity over the long term," Obama said. "That's why our budget makes a historic commitment to comprehensive health care reform. That's why it enhances America's competitiveness by reducing our dependence on foreign oil and building a clean energy economy."

That's right. Lack of socialized health care is destroying our economy, not the bursting housing bubble, damaged credit markets, failing banks, and the onset of inflation. Oh - and global warming - that's the real culprit! Maybe if we spent a trillion dollars, it wouldn't snow on the first day of spring because it would be...warmer? Then we would have economic security!

Dangerous man to have at the helm at a dangerous time. An ideologue, who will not be diverted from reshaping his nation in his dogma, no matter how many corpses wind up at the end of the road.

Props to the AP for at least telling the story rather forcefully. Is there anyone listening?

Don't Bet On Obama...

...or at least, don't bet with him.

The president took time off from his schedule of White House parties and Leno appearances to stop by ESPN and fill out a NCAA Tournament Bracket. How's he looking after day one? Well, he's getting his ass kicked, which makes his hoops prognostications about as successful as his recent forays into economics and foreign-policy:

After the first day of the NCAA basketball tournament, President Obama's bracket appears to be a bust.

The president, a self-described basketball junkie, managed to only pick 11 of 16 games correctly--or 69 percent.CBS 2 imported Obama's picks, which were originally made for ESPN, into its Bracket Challenge game. Currently, the president ranks in the 27th percentile among all players.

Perhaps Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski was right when he said the president should be focusing on the economy, rather than picking NCAA brackets...

Jeez, can't this guy do anything right? Shoot, I watched all of two games all season leading up to the Big Dance, and I'm 14-2.

Here's the irony: William Bolitho on gambling:

A gambler is nothing but a man who makes his living out of hope. ~

And where will Barack's gambling ways take America? William Mizner:

Gambling: The sure way of getting nothing from something.

Great. Can we get an intervention in the White House?

Thursday, March 19, 2009

The AIG Tax - Fascist Precedent

{revised, and bumped with new material..originally posted 9:15AM -e d.}

The financial genuises that make up Congress have decided that the only way to compensate for the bill that they passed allowing AIG bonuses is to create a new tax on the wing, specifically targeted to those who recieved AIG bonuses:

The House is scheduled to vote today on a bill that would levy a 90 percent tax on bonuses paid to employees with family incomes above $250,000 at companies that have received at least $5 billion in government bailout money.
"We figured that the local and state governments would take care of the other 10 percent," said Rep. Charles Rangel of New York, chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee.


Nice. Whip up new wealth-aquisition taxes on the dime in order to compensate for your own stupidity. Way to go, Democrats. And make no mistake - this is the Democrat's fiasco to own:

"The fact is that the bill the president signed, which protected the AIG bonuses and others, was written behind closed doors by Democratic leaders of the House and Senate. There was no transparency," said Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, the senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee.

And Chris Dodd (D-Dead Man Walking) has finally stopped lying and admitted he he was responsible for adding the bonus loophole into the stimulus package that permitted AIG and other companies that received bailout funds to pay bonuses (video here).

My problem with this? It sets a horrific precedent. What other new "spur of the moment" taxes will we see to raise needed funding, or to cover the Democrat's asses? An increase in Social Security taxes overnight when the kitty runs dry? A huge "insurance tax" on both the publically and privately insured to shore up a teetering socialized medical program? An "emergency government assistance tax" on anyone making over $75,000- a year (hey, that's "rich" in New Jersey) to cover a potential financial meltdown?

This is a huge overstep by Congress in an attempt to cover their own fetid tracks, and a huge increase in federal taxation power that will be happily signed by a president who likes it that way. One can only hope one of the victims of this tax scam will bring this case all the way to the Supreme Court, as a specifically targeted tax like this is certainly not provided for in the Constitution.

Reminds me of old socialist countries - with their "windfall taxes" on the wealthy - and old fascist nations, with their punitary taxes on say, Jews, for being Jews....

Hey, don't blame me for making the comparison. While it may not be entirely apt, this is where it leads, and every slippery slope we've decended so far has taken us right to the bottom...

At Just One Minute, more outrage:

I deplore this confiscatory tax aimed at whoever Congress is mad at today. Right now it's AIG and Fannie Mae; later it will be Merrill and Citibank, and eventually it will be defense contractors, profiteering oil executives, or whomever the Congressional Dems single out as their whipping boy du jour.

Yep, just as I said above. Michelle Malkin gets it as well - First, they came for AIG bonuses...

The Wall Street Journal gets in some snark:

White House economist Larry Summers was saying the bonuses were regrettable but there wasn't much that could be done to stop them. "We are a country of law. There are contracts. The government cannot just abrogate contracts," he said, with great good sense. Assorted Congressmen then did what comes naturally, which is declare their mock outrage. Rather than keep his legendary cool, Mr. Obama and the White House panicked as well and joined the braying pack.

I like that image - Obama as a braying donkey. Expect to see protesters outside the WSJ offices by Monday, "braying" that somehow, this is a racial slur....

How the Stimulus Plan "Works"

Great job, Baracky:

PAWTUCKET –– In this city burdened with one of Rhode Island’s highest home foreclosure rates and a $10-million current-year budget deficit, $550,000 in federal stimulus money is coming to build a skateboarding park and renovate tennis and basketball courts at Jenks Junior High School.

“I can only spend this money” on Community Development grant projects, Cassidy said, “I can’t use it to pay for police or fire.”
Pawtucket, which for the budget year ending June 30 is facing a projected $5.2-million school budget deficit and about a $4.8- million hole on the municipal side, has cut about 40 city jobs this year.


Hope, change, and massive, massive waste.

(Ayn Rand has a similar scenario in Atlas Shrugged, when I get home I'll update...)

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Treasury Adds An Economist....

....and a pretty poor one, may I add. I thought that the Obama administration was going to be the dawn of light and reason! Instead we get knaves, crooks, fools, and now...rank incompetents:

The Wall Street Journal reports:

Citigroup Inc.'s chief economist is leaving the company for a job at the Treasury Department, according to an internal Citigroup memo.
Lewis Alexander, who has been at Citigroup since 1999 and before that worked at the Federal Reserve, will head to the Treasury "to work on domestic financial issues," said the Citigroup memo, which was sent Tuesday.
According to a government official, Mr. Alexander will be a counselor to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.


Mr. Alexander's role as Citigroup's chief economist didn't entail significant management responsibilities. But his optimistic economic forecasts colored executives' views that the U.S. was unlikely to face a prolonged slump.
"I think that's not going to spill over more broadly into the economy, and so I think we're going to have a normal kind of housing cycle that's going to last through the middle of this year," Mr. Alexander said in a 2007 interview on PBS.
In the past five quarters, Citigroup has booked a total of more than $37 billion in net losses, largely stemming from the company's overexposure to the U.S. real-estate sector.


So "Tiny Tim" Geithner's ear will be owned by a man who brazen called the economy completely and utterly wrong as it was on the verge of a meltdown, influencing other financial firms who counted on his position and "expertise" as a high-ranking private sector economist.

What other baffling predictions and incoherent remedies can we expect in the upcoming months from Geithner & Alexander? Wait, don't answer yet, 'cause there's a ton of positions still to be filled in Treasury. Note there is no rush among the best and brightest of the private sector to take any of them (wonder why? Because they are capitalists, not socialists?). So expect the remaining slots to be filled by more men of Alexander's ilks, folks with impressive resumes but no accomplishments to speak of.

Sounds like a certain president I know....

Tea Parties: The Revolution Is Comin' To Jersey !

New Jersey was at times a focal point for great Revolutionary War battles...so it is about time that the Second American Revolution stirred in the Garden State (aka The People's State). We have a number of different tax revolts brewing, suggesting that the sheeple of Jersey have finally reached the breaking point with their liberal masters.

Bob Ingle reports on an "empty wallets" protest being organized by 101.5 FM, one of the most provocative political talk stations in the nation (remember when Governor Codey challenged DJ Craig Carton to a fistfight? Codey is forgotten, Codey moved up to AM Drive in NYC):

The mail has been heavier than usual since Corzine’s budget proposed doing away with the property tax deduction on the state income tax form. People are unhappy, especially when that’s combined with the comments by state Treasurer Dave Rousseau that sounded to some like he was calling beer drinkers low class.

New Jersey 101.5 FM is getting increased reaction too, which prompted the station to come up with its Empty Wallet Convoy so New Jersey residents can show Corzine and the Legislature they’ve had enough taxes, fees, lies and condescending attitude from people feathering their nests with tax money.
Starting at 8 a.m. Thursday, the station’s yellow vans will be collecting empty wallets at rest stops along the Garden State Parkway. That continues until Friday afternoon. The wallets will be delivered by The Jersey Guys, Casey Bartholomew and Ray Rossi, to the Statehouse “in a hearse signifying the death of the middle class in New Jersey.”

Businesses with vans, like plumbers, contractors, undercover private eyes etc. are invited to roll along in the convoy in a show of diversified force.

See The Empty Wallet Convoy for a pickup schedule...should be interesting...

And here's a list of Tea Parties scheduled for April 15th all across New Jersey:

City: Morristown
When: April 15, 9:00 am - 12:00pm
Where: TBA
Contact: EMAIL
Facebook Group: CLICK HERE

City: Newark
When: April 15, 12:00 pm
Where: Gateway Center One - 782 McCarter Highway, Newark Offices of Senator Lautenberg and Menendez conveniently located in the same building.
Contact: EMAIL
Other Info:Parking: 66 Edison Place, Newark
Google Map: Click Here
Facebook Group: CLICK HERE

City: Trenton
When: April 15, 11:30am - 4:00pm
Where: New Jersey State House, 125 W State St
Contact: EMAIL
Facebook Group: CLICK HERE

That one in Newark sounds quite juicy...I think I feel an April 15th sick day coming on...

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

"JournoList" and the Media Conspiracy

Wonder why only one point of view in any "Left/Right" story gets represented in the mainstream media? Curious about how they all seem to be working off of a "talking points" list, with multiple media outlets repeating the same angles and points, almost verbatim?

Wonder no more. Apparently this is all rehearsed, at a liberals-only chatsite known as "JournoList". Politico reports:

For the past two years, several hundred left-leaning bloggers, political reporters, magazine writers, policy wonks and academics have talked stories and compared notes in an off-the-record online meeting space called JournoList.

Last April, criticism of ABC’s handling of a Democratic presidential debate took shape on JList before morphing into an open letter to the network, signed by more than 40 journalists and academics — many of whom are JList members.

But beyond these specific examples, it’s hard to trace JList’s influence in the media, because so few JListers are willing to talk on the record about it. POLITICO contacted nearly three dozen current JList members for this story. The majority either declined to comment or didn’t respond to interview requests — and then returned to JList to post items on why they wouldn’t be talking to POLITICO about what goes on there.

While members may talk freely about JList at, say, a Columbia Heights house party, there’s a “Fight Club”-style code of silence when it comes to discussing it for publication.

A secret society of Republican-hating journalists, who happen to control most of the mainstream media outlets in America today. They exist in an echo chamber, hearing their prejudices ratified by like-thinking contemporaries, and then presume to speak for the majority of Americans. Maybe that's why their industry is dying on thie vine?

"There is probably general agreement on the stupidity of today’s GOP”...

..and of the 50% of Americans that generally support them. Way to run a business, geniuses.

Mickey Kaus (not a memeber, or a fan ):

"You don’t want to create a whole separate, like, private blog that only the elite bloggers can go into, and then what you present to the public is sort of the propaganda you’ve decided to go public with"

Joe Klein (left-wing syncophant):

But Time’s Joe Klein, who acknowledged being on JList and several other listservs, said in an e-mail that “they’re valuable in the way that candid conversations with colleagues and experts always are.” ... And then Klein — speaking like the JLister he is — said there wasn’t “anything more that I can or want to say about the subject.”

Collegues and experts whom happen to think exactly the way you do. The newspapers used to be a forum for ideas, to be argued out in print, with each side making their points and the reader left to his own devices to choose the better argument.

No more. A group of liberal journalists - especially in the print field - is using the media as an outlet to disseminate liberal propoganda, in order to push an agenda they believe in. With GOP supporters being "stupid" in their "analysis" , they feel no need to present opposing viewpoints or even offer logical arguments for their case (like one could have been made for Barack Obama...ha!).

And we see the result. The J-Listers have been sucessful in dominating the media, and perhaps somewhat instrumental in presenting the American people with a government that is as disfunctional as it is socialist. But their primary medium is dying, and every day their ugly cabel continues is another day in the rotting corpse of American journalism as it exists today.

Whatever rises in its place, these people will have much less influence. And that is something, I suppose, we can be grateful to Journolist for.

Obama Parties While America Burns

Paying taxes is for the little people. Throwing multiple parties with their hard-earned money in the middle of a crippling recession is what Democratic presidents do:

A White House aide tells POLITICO44 that Obama (O’Bama?) will be hosting two St. Patrick’s Day bashes ...... at the White House Tuesday night. The theme at the WH will be green all day. Starting at the top o the morning--or more like 11a.m. -- Obama and Joe Biden will meet with the Taoiseach of Ireland in the Oval Office. A little while later, they'll attend a Shamrock Ceremony in the Roosevelt Room.

After meeting with the Northern Ireland officials, Obama will travel to the Capitol where he will deliver remarks at Speaker Nancy Pelosi's St. Paddy's Day lunch. Then, later in the evening, Obama will deliver the remarks at not one but two St. Patrick's Day receptions at the WH, where he's hosting Irish American lawmakers and other Irish Americans, a White House aide said.

My taxes have gone so high I've gone from single-malt scotch to turpentine. Obama is taking so much of my money he can afford to throw multiple parties with it. Hmmm....change, but not a lot of hope.

Well, maybe Obama can at least tell us how much fun he had on Thursday, when he jets out to LA to appear on the Jay Leno show. He's the first sitting president ever to do so. Another first! Can you imagine George Bush going on Leno a few weeks after 9/11?

Well, all that partying can make one tired. And after all, he did do his best work on the campaign trail, and with his approval ratings sinking like a lead balloon, maybe a good yuk-fest with the slack-chinned wonder will give him an extra point or two.

But I don't know. Even the AP has got a list of complaints, which maybe they wouldn't have had if they had told the truth about Obama in the first place. Still, gotta love their self-referential style:

Behind the headlines, the Associated Press wrestles with bizarre administrative hurdles and jaw-dropping contradictions trying to use the law...

Disappointed? Chin up! At least you guys will get an invite to the parties...