Pushing Back the Frontiers of Ignorance

Question:
Gino: " palm boy: what taxes did she raise that turned you off on her? if its what i'm thinking, it wasnt really an increase in taxes as reported in the media."

Answer:
The CATO institute has a good, albeit short, look at her tax record.
"Palin supported and signed into law a $1.5 billion tax increase on oil companies in the form of higher severance taxes."

The current Governor of Alaska, former Vice Presidential Candidate of the Republican party, has announced her resignation for later this month.

This is brilliant. No longer is the largest news item for the Republicans Mark Sanford of South Carolina's adultery, but Palin's resignation. Not only that, but it has been a lightning rod once again for energy and chatter on the Right. Where the malaise of Obama was setting in, a resignation for defeat, her exit, if not inspiring, has been though provoking.

Personally, I think she should run for Congress in 2010, then see what happens in 2012. I'm no Palin fan boy, and I really was strongly opposed to her when McCain selected her, and every time I hear her speak in public or the radio my ears revolt violently, but she is a soaring star in the republican party, and primed for a national run in the future.

...and what those books are.

I've read 8 of these 10, some more then once. If it's up there, its because I personally belive it to be an an eye opener, a perspective re-setter, fundamental for realistic beliefs, or just crazy interesting. So, quick summary for each book is here for your enjoyment, enlightenment, or boredom-at-work-killer.

Freakonomics: The Hidden Side of Everything by Levitt and Dubner
Taking an economist's approach to other issues or conundrums in the world, Stephen Levitt lays out the Chicago School system, the 90's crime solutions in New York, a person's first name and its effect on their life, and the danger of Handguns vs. Swimming Pools. Rife with memorable anecdotes, historical examples and statistical analysis, Freakonomics meanders through a wide range of topics with stunning clarity. It begins and ends with a person's incentive, and how these incentives govern how we collectively act.
I've read this 3 times, and listened to the audio book once.
It's an eye-opener, a perspective re-setter, and crazy interesting. (it'll come in really handy at some boring Christmas party, mark my words.)

Empire of Wealth: An Epic History of the United States by John Gordon Steele
Epic History is a broad, over arching look at a topic, and an Epic History is what Steele has penned. From Jamestown to Independence to agricultural expansion to industrial revolution to civil war to Wall Street to the Depression and through Pax Americana, it is a focus on US economy rather then the military conquests. Such a perspective is seldom presented, and it is pivotally important. I've read this book twice.
It's a perspective re-setter, and a eye-opener

Basic Economics: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy by Thomas Sowell
Being home schooled, this was actually my economics textbook in high school, and I learned far more from it then from my Keynesian nut ball economics book in college. Easy to read, easy to understand, with no charts nor baffling statistics. It's economic fact and theory presented with analogies and historical examples from a personal liberty perspective.
It's a fundamental book for realistic beliefs, and maybe even a perspective re-setter.

My Grandfather's Son: A Memoir by Clarence Thomas
I have not read this, but Gino said too. So, it's probably good. At least a little.

Generation Kill by Evan Wright
Evan Wright was an embedded reporter with the Marine Recon battalion surging into Iraq in Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. Its gritty, its raw, its the war as seen from the back right seat of a Marine's Humvee. Fascinating portraits of men who grew up blasting pixels on video games, now rolling through Iraq, and their 21 day journey of conquest. Riveting in detail and subject, its the finest piece of modern history I have read, and I am doubtful that anything will surpass it for years to come. HBO even made a series off of it, similar to the Band of Brothers.
It's eye-opening and crazy, crazy interesting.

Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Red wing by Marcus Luttrel
I have not read this, but Gino said too. So, it's probably good. At least a little. Probably.

A Splendid Exchange: How Trade Shaped the World by William J. Bernstein
An epic history of the world, and how the vagaries of trade formed the world we live in. From the Chinese and the Arab traders, the black plague, Portuguese, Dutch, Spanish, British, and now American dominance of the seas, Bernstein has traced a marvelous condensation of world history through the eyes of economic development.
Its both eye-opening and perspective re-setting, and crazy interesting.

Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto by Mark Levin
A bed rock book for any budding conservative, questioning moderate, or even the die-hard republican, Levin's Manifesto is a exemplary distillation of conservative ideals.
It's fundamental for realistic beliefs.

The Post-American World by Fareed Zakaria
This is not a eulogy to the United States, but a celebration of the rise of other nations. Its a prediction about the future, where the US is only one power player, albeit a very powerful one, in a world of regional powers. China, India, Russian, Brazil and South Africa rising the occasion, in a world of peace carved out by the United States. Globalism come to nest, and the benefits to be reaped are enormous.
Its eye-opening, perspective re-setting, and crazy interesting.



General book discussion starts in the comments!

"You did nothing!" being the primary line in this... its therapeutic to listen to.

"Democracy does not repress people, it unleashes them!"

Not a big fan of mandatory 2 years military service nor abolishing the electoral college, but we need more people talking like this in office.

"President Barack Obama's plan to transform the Federal Reserve into a super-regulator ran into skepticism Thursday from lawmakers who worry that the central bank is not the best suited to keep an eye on firms deemed so big and influential that their demise could hurt the economy." Associated Press


This is my first post on this blog so I am going to begin with a brief and elementary discussion of government and civilization in general. In order to be productive as a society it quickly becomes a necessity to divide labor. There isn't enough time in a day for all of us to do everything. Some farm, others teach, plumbers, carpenters, even bankers, etc. There are some industries that help us perform those tasks better but by nature are not designed to be profitable on their own. Here I am mainly talking about defense, fire, and things of that nature. So we pay taxes to pay for the people and equipment to perform those tasks. As a result we end up creating a body of people in charge of distributing those funds and managing those functions. Alas government is born.

The inevitable problem, that seems to build and build over time, is that you can't ever really trust those people to continue to look out for you the common citizen. Ultimately any group in charge of its own funding and size is going to swell. And that is what I am proposing we are seeing at this point. We have a government that has bent the idea of protecting us from war, crime, and nature to the idea that we need to be protected from ourselves. We have certainly had to deal with government corruption but I argue that worse than that are those that truly believe that government is the answer.

Regardless of party our government has backed a wide range of programs that "protect" us from economic collapse and unemployment by leveraging trillions for some of the biggest corporations. Strangely though, unemployment still occurred and was widespread. My hypothesis is that the government bailouts only help the top 5-10% of each company with any consistency and I further contend that they were designed as such. If a big corporation like GM goes under, thousands of people lose their jobs. That is guaranteed and it would be tragic. But the competition would then be rewarded for making smarter business decisions and would ultimately end up hiring some of those people (probably not the top tier though since they made the bad decisions and have huge salaries).

What we have done now has prevented the natural business cycle. We are keeping businesses afloat that made bad decisions and for the most part the well-to-do have kept their jobs and retirement packages. The problem therefore is spread to the entire industry (and beyond). Now everyone must cut production, even the better-run businesses. Blue collar and entry level jobs are slashed. The competition doesn't reap any benefit for their better practices.

You probably get where I am going here. The natural cycle takes care of the hard workers and punishes the brass and the bailout system protects the errant leadership and punishes the lower income workers (punished for not having a massive lobbying group at their disposal).

All that to say that this seems to be the plan moving forward for the current administration; prevent large companies from failing at all costs. Like a resurgence of "mom and pop" operations would be so hurtful to our country. This plan feeds the government ego so perfectly by "necessitating" an army of bureaucrats to watch over all of these invasive programs.

So my question is how do we move past the stage of being upset about this to a point where we can get our country back?

Bloomberg: " A Chicago ordinance banning handguns and automatic weapons within city limits was upheld by a U.S. Court of Appeals panel, which rejected a challenge by the National Rifle Association.

The unanimous three-judge panel ruled today that a U.S. Supreme Court decision last year, which recognized an individual right to bear arms under the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment, didn’t apply to states and municipalities.

“The Supreme Court has rebuffed requests to apply the second amendment to the states,” U.S. Circuit Judge Frank Easterbrook wrote, upholding lower court decisions last year to throw out suits against Chicago and its suburb of Oak Park, Illinois."
...
Chicago’s law took effect in 1982, Hoyle said. While it allows ownership of long guns such as rifles, they must be registered annually with the city’s police department. Concealed weapons, semi-automatic and automatic weapons are not permitted."

This city ordinance is nothing new, running for the past 27 years in the city. In fact, it astonished me and my brother how gun touchy this area was 2 years ago on our vacation, as we were required to be 18 or with a parent to handle a toy pop gun at the Lincoln Library in Springfield. Come down to Texas, and there is hardly a child in sight who is not running around with a toy gun of some kind in the neighborhood Cabela's.

Putting aside the constitutional implications, here is the practical ramifications of this regulation, demonstrable in the violent crime rate of Chicago when compared to the rest of the nation. (Click to embiggen. Many hat tips and thanks to NeighborhoodScout for collating the data and presenting it in such a fashion. )

Let me break this down in a three simple markers:

"Wall Street Journal: The government-orchestrated shrinkage will cost taxpayers $30 billion, on top of $20 billion in U.S. funds already put into the company. In exchange, the U.S. will own 60% of the new GM. In all, the rescue of the car industry could cost taxpayers close to $100 billion.
...
GM -- which hasn't made a profit since 2004 -- declared in its filing that it had $172 billion in debt and $82 billion in assets."

Is there an example of a government owned corporation being competitive on a global market?

What?
No?

This then is where generations of incompetence, and a reliance upon the exertions of others to carry society have led us. The bastion of freedom in a dark world, snuffing its own lights of the free market one by one in a perceived maelstrom of 'economic crisis'.

"Chief Executive Frederick "Fritz" Henderson appealed to consumers to "give us another chance."

The government's plan calls for 10% of the new GM to be owned by existing bondholders, while a United Auto Workers union health-care fund will own 17.5%. The Canadian government will own the remaining 12.5%.

Next Monday, after 84 years, GM will cease being part of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, replaced by technology company Cisco Systems Inc."

Ah, the words of a true business man. Give us another chance.

Its also good the UAW will own 1/6, and the current bondholders only 1/10. Makes all kinds of buisness sense. But then, what does?

The Credit Card Responsibility and Disclosure Act (HR 627) was gleefully passed by 90% of the senate last Tuesday. When this bill first cropped up, your faithful blogger decried it here.

90 United States Senators voted to pass this legislation.

Reminds me of a quote from that venerable bastion of intellectual dialogue, Star Wars. "So this is how liberty vanishes. To thunderous applause."

Friday, I discovered I had Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'I Have a Dream' speech on my ipod, courtesy some podcasting shenanigans. I listened to it while i was at work. And then again. And then again. And then again. I've never heard the full length and breadth of this speech, and it is truly oratory for the ages.

But where any politician can have oratorical skills to marvel at, there is something much more potent in this glimpse of the past. There is a strength of character, an ironclad assurance of the justice of the cause of freedom, and the persist, unfaltering appeal for this nation, for these United States of America to live up to its promises to its Citizens.

Yes, its long, but it doesn't actually start until 1 minute in.




The saddest part about this whole event? that it was necessary, that it was required for hundreds of thousands of Americans to gather at once to cause a change in freedoms.

The next saddest part?
How far the decedents of this movement have fallen since.

In my continued efforts to turn this into a movie review site, here's my thoughts on Terminator Salvation.

Having only recently watched the original 2 terminators (Terminator & T2-Judgment Day), its subsequent tag-along T3-Rise of the Machines, I am pretty fresh on my terminator films. As a rough sketch of the past films, Robots take over earth, and send robots back to prevent a man, John Conor, from being born. The second and third films is about the humans trying to prevent the creation of a Sentient computer system, Skynet. They win once, Skynet wins in T3 and nukes all of mankind to assure its survival.

Salvation picks up several years after 'Judgment Day/Apocalypse', and the Humans have formed a resistance to fight for their survival. John Conor is seen as a prophet of sorts, the man destined to wrest control of earth from Skynet and return it to mankind. But something new is happening, Skynet is capturing humans to turn them into the Robots, and in turn infiltrate and destroy the Resistance. The story revolves around two characters, John Conor and Marcos. Marcos is an artificial creation, not human but with the firm belief that he is, in fact, a human.

With an avalanche of action, bedazzling special effects that are inextricable from reality, an A-List lead actor, and a solid Science Fiction foundation, this film was poised to be one of the best science fiction films in years. It even gets many little things right, be it camera angles, story development, or the Unix programming used for the opening credits. However, it fails at one crucial point.

The driving force behind humanities struggle for survival, the simple fact that makes mankind different from the machines we created, is emotions. The heart, the will to survive, the sacrifice that man can make even when logical algorithms would dictate it impossible, this is what separates the Man from the Machine. Yet Christian Bale's character seldom shows emotion, even in moments despair, wrath, acceptance, love, or joy. Much like Batman: The Dark Knight, Bale is a chalkboard that refuses to be drawn upon, a blank slate of darkness that is hard, cold, and immovable. Even the robotic creation Marcos has more emotion.

Still, its an enjoyable ride. No star Trek, and certainly better then Wolverine, but much less then it could have been.

5/10, I won't be buying the DVD

The premise of Taken is quite simple. Dad is CIA, and divorced without custody of his daughter, who he has to watch grow up from a distance with only limited involvement. When Kim turns 17, she goes on a trip to Paris with a friend of hers, who has lied about several aspects of their prospective trip. They are both kidnapped on the first day, and shuffled into a large scale prostitution ring.
Dad goes to get his daughter back. In glorious, righteous, unpretentious fashion, he goes and gets his daughter back. The good guy is a good guy, the evil is evil, and the good guy win.

This is a one man show, with Liam Neeson turning in a wonderful performance. Acting that doesn't look like acting. The camera work is generally good, a step back from the tumultuous work of the recent Bond and Bourne movies.

7/10, I'll buy the DVD when its cheaper.

WCBSTV: "According to a letter from the FDA General Mills' advertising violates the federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. The agency said claims that Cheerios ingredients can lower cholesterol within a certain amount of time, all while providing cancer-fighting and heart-healthy benefits, essentially makes Cheerios "a drug" by their definition. And no drug in this country can be legally marketed without an approved new drug application.
...
The FDA gave General Mills 15 days to explain how it will correct the statements on Cheerios boxes."

I like Honey Bunches of Oats, but this is absurd. How can a breakfast cereal that has been sold for decades and decades be a drug?

When the state controls frivolous aspects of society, that's how. I can not blame Obama himself for this, only the years heaped upon the years of fascist bureaucracy toiling away to prove it's own importance.

Having never seen any Star Trek movies, and my experience with any of the TV shows being limited to but a handful of random episodes, I did not know what to expect going into this movie.

What I saw was an incredible rush of Science Fiction, Space Opera, and quality action film. Woven throughout with wit and emotional firepower, it is a spectacular movie. Even when the camera work was irritating, the movie itself has the power to sweep you along into it's story, one both epic in scope and yet, personally endearing at the same time.

James T. Kirk is born into this universe as his Father captains a ship to his death, and with that over his head, the boy grows into a young man who refuses to loose. He joins Star Fleet, trains with his comrades, and then is thrown into the mix of things immediately. If Kirk is the star, Spock is his binary twin, in orbit around each other. Where Kirk relies upon the emotions and sheer will power of man, the Half-Human/Half-Vulcan Spock attempts to rely solely upon logic and rational decisions. This is what really propels the movie, and does so like a well tuned warp drive.

Incidentally, the special effects were nothing short of spectacular in every sense. Space, Space ships, land cruisers, aliens, planetary destruction... all put together with such astonishingly clarity it's difficult to comprehend without seeing. Now I want to see it all over again on digital projector.



7/10, I'm buying the DVD.

I attended the midnight showing of X-Men Origins: Wolverine. It was no Ironman, but its a solid contender as a summer movie.

Earlier in this decade, a trilogy was created out of the Marvel Comic book series, the X-Men. The basic premise is that parts of humanity are evolving beyond normal men, and how they deal with their powers and how mankind deals with them.

Logan (To be Wolverine) heals, ridiculously amazingly fast.
Victor (To be Sabertooth) heals, ridiculously amazingly fast.
They are bothers. For over a century, they fight for the US in various wars, only to develop a problem with authority and be tucked away into secret weapon programs. From there, a cornucopia of plot lines emerge, culminating in a fantastic, nuclear-reactor-destroying fight on Three Mile Island, and ultimately Wolverine having no memory of anything, and restarting his life as a enraged weapon of incredible destruction,

Yes, that's a big jump. No, its not unwarranted.
That's how this movie is, a marvelously enjoyable bullet train of comic book sound and fury, tied together with the spit and bailing wire of the marvel universe.

It's special effects are iffy, much of the action is ill paced, and characters don't always behave in believable ways. But where it matters most, the Hugh Jackson's Wolverine rings true once again, as does his love of the girl (name? :/) and his brother Sabertooth.

It's also remarkably clean. No sex, innuendo, drugs, gratuitous blood, and only a spattering of coarse language throughout.

I liked it well enough, 4/10, and I'll probably get the DVD just to round out my collection.

Bloomberg: "Chrysler LLC will proceed today with a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing to reorganize into a more viable car maker, an Obama administration official said.
...The president’s staff plans to use the filing to pave the way for Fiat Spa to take a 20 percent stake in the Auburn Hills, Michigan-based automaker, people familiar with the situation said. If Chrysler has to go through bankruptcy, it won’t take long, Obama said yesterday.
“It would be a very quick type of bankruptcy, and they could continue operating and emerge on the other side in a much stronger position,” Obama said. "

As the bitter taste of irony settles from Fiat taking stake in a Fascist car maker, there's some notables here.

The automobile 'bailout' (read:takeover) George W. Bush gave the automakers was to prevent bankruptcy.

The automobile 'bailout' Barrack Hussein Obama gave the automakers was to prevent bankruptcies.

The automobile 'bailouts' have failed.

It has been demonstrated ad nausem by arrogant men in history that a fiat government cannot run private enterprise, nor are they conducive to free enterprise. This is yet another ringing example in an increasingly noisy bell tower, an echo chamber of destroyed liberty.

How the mighty have fallen.

Positive Growth = BOLD
Negative Loss 0-5% = Yellow
Negative Loss 5-10% = Orange
Negative Loss > 10% = Red

USA TODAY -- 2,113,725 – (-7.46%)
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL -- 2,082,189 -- 0.61%
THE NEW YORK TIMES -- 1,039,031 -- (-3.55%)
LOS ANGELES TIMES -- 723,181 -- (-6.55%)
THE WASHINGTON POST -- 665,383 -- (-1.16%)

DAILY NEWS (NEW YORK) -- 602,857 -- (-14.26%)
NEW YORK POST -- 558,140 -- (-20.55%)
CHICAGO TRIBUNE -- 501,202 -- (-7.47%)
HOUSTON CHRONICLE -- 425,138 -- (-13.96%)
THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC -- 389,701 -- (-5.72%)

THE DENVER POST (02/28/2009 to 03/31/2009) -- 371,728 -- N/A
NEWSDAY -- 368,194 -- (-3.01%)
THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS -- 331,907 -- (-9.88%)
STAR-TRIBUNE, MINNEAPOLIS -- 320,076 -- (-0.71%)
CHICAGO SUN-TIMES -- 312,141 -- (-0.04%)

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE -- 312,118 -- (-15.72%)
THE BOSTON GLOBE -- 302,638 -- (-13.68%)
THE PLAIN DEALER, CLEVELAND -- 291,630 -- (-11.70%)
DETROIT FREE PRESS -- 290,730 -- (-5.90%)
THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER -- 288,298 -- (-13.72%)

THE STAR-LEDGER, NEWARK, N.J. -- 287,082 -- (-16.82%)
ST. PETERSBURG (FLA.) TIMES -- 283,093 -- (-10.42%)
THE OREGONIAN, PORTLAND -- 268,512 -- (-11.76%)
THE ATLANTA JOURNAL CONSTITUTION -- 261,828 -- (-19.91%)
SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE -- 261,253 -- (-9.53%)

It's been rough for the news papers. Blatently obvious reasons include:

• Associated Press Wire articles do not equal investigative journalism.
• Only half the market appreciates left wing news biases

Other Reasons papers will rationalize their failings with:

• Cost of Paper & Production
• Loss of Advertisers & Classifieds due to internet
• People don't want real news!

Also contributory:

• Bloggers (Thats us!)
  
• Proliferation of available news for free

AP:"""I trust that those in the industry who want to act responsibly will engage with us in a constructive fashion, and that we're going to get this done in short order," Obama said, delivering a pointed message to leading executives of credit-card issuing companies after a closed-door White House meeting.

Both the House and the Senate are pursuing bills to give consumers greater protections as an expansion of new rules slated to take effect next year. Obama said his economic advisers will examine the various proposals and work with Congress and the industry, but he made clear he wants to sign a bill into law.

"The days of any time, any reason rate hikes and late fee traps have to end," Obama said."

A credit card is intended to be a very short term loan, easily accessible by individuals and businesses. Its done marvels for speeding up purchasing and allowing flexibility in emergency financial situations people run into.

The price for this convenience?
High, HIGH interest rates. If its paid off in time, then your in the clear, and plenty of people are happy to lend to you again. But avoid or skip a payment, you'll be hurting. But you already knew this.
But because of these interest rates, and the rapid increase in cost to debtor, credit is easily and quickly available for a multitude of responsible Americans. It works well.

Required Lower Interest rates can only contract the available money pool from lenders, making it more difficult for low income, 'poor' Americans to borrow money for their needs. If the profit incentive for Credit Card companies is reduced, then they lend less, or what they do lend will have a higher base interest rate. Both outcomes are negative for all parties involved.

To borrow or not to borrow should be the decision of the Borrower and the Lender, not society through the savage blows of Federal law. This is economic populism at its worst, and I expected little else from the current administration.

AP Spin Meter: "The president gave his Cabinet 90 days to find $100 million in savings to achieve over time.

For all the trumpeting, the effort raised questions about why Obama set the bar so low, considering that $100 million amounts to:

--Less than one-quarter of the budget increase that Congress awarded to itself.

--4 percent of the military aid the United States sends to Israel.

--Less than half the cost of one F-22 fighter plane.

--7 percent of the federal subsidy for the money-losing Amtrak passenger rail system.

--1/10,000th of the government's operating budgets for Cabinet agencies, excluding the Iraq and Afghan wars and the stimulus bill.

Obama only asked his Cabinet secretaries to identify waste in their annual operating budgets, which total a little over $1 trillion. He's leaving out war costs, the economic stimulus measure, the Wall Street bailout and benefit programs like Social Security and Medicare."

So I went with some of my family and a friend to the Fort Worth Tea Party tonight.
My first impression was how large it was, I'd guess 3000 people. Gov. Rick Perry was the highlight speaker, but the rest of it was rather dull from that point on.

The lasting impression I'm left with is not an encouraging one. I felt like I was watching an old hound dog gnaw on the remains of a long ago devoured bone. Bitter, insular, resentful, and still defiantly wringing what taste he can out of the bone. No fresh meat is a part of this meal, only insufficient remains of the past.

There were no solutions presented besides a strident call of 'STOP!!'. No drive for a fresh awakening of Liberty in the minds and hearts of my American brethren, only a policy of self congratulations for the patriots present at the rally.

While I imagine the Boston Tea Party was a rather angry event, my particular party was not positive. Friends at other parties report differently, so this may be the start of something. It's still rather mind boggling that these events were organized independently of any party or PAC.
If it happens to the same degree next year, it may even impact the elections.

In the US, its tax day. What that really means is beyond me, I paid my first Federal Taxes a few weeks ago. (No income tax in texas!)

But this year, it also means something different. It's a day to protest our tax rates with a tea party, and I'll be at one tonight. To find one near you, click here.

Basically, there are rallies in over 2000 cities today. Its a ground swelling, and without an organization such as MoveOn, or a political party behind it. In fact, the GOP chairman asked to speak at a Chicago rally, and the organizer's declined.

I'll be there, report from this intrepid reporter to be forthcoming.

""I knew that there is a manifest, marked distinction, which ill men with ill designs, or weak men incapable of any design, will constantly be confounding,—that is, a marked distinction between change and reformation.
The former alters the substance of the objects themselves, and gets rid of all their essential good as well as of all the accidental evil annexed to them.

Change is novelty; and whether it is to operate any one of the effects of reformation at all, or whether it may not contradict the very principle upon which reformation is desired, cannot be certainly known beforehand. Reform is not a change in the substance or in the primary modification of the object, but a direct application of a remedy to the grievance complained of.

So far as that is removed, all is sure. It stops there; and if it fails, the substance which underwent the operation, at the very worst, is but where it was.""
-Edmund Burke, 1796 (Via Mark Levin's Liberty & Tyranny)

doesn't even cover it.

Wall Street Journal: "Mr. Wagoner was asked to step down on Friday by Steven Rattner, the investment banker picked last month by the administration to lead the Treasury Department's auto-industry task force. Mr. Rattner broke the news to Mr. Wagoner in person at his office at the Treasury, according to an administration official. Afterward, Mr. Rattner met one-on-one with Mr. Henderson, who will fill in as GM's CEO."

I'll be back on this.

But friends, remember this. Remember this for a long, long time. Remember this to the ballot box in the coming years, as the democrats are moving farther forward in a fascist agenda.

Daniel Hannah tells it like it is to Gordon Brown and the absurd spending plans now being passed.

" Prime Minister, I see you’ve already mastered the essential craft of the European politician, namely the ability to say one thing in this chamber and a very different thing to your home electorate. You’ve spoken here about free trade, and amen to that. Who would have guessed, listening to you just now, that you were the author of the phrase ‘British jobs for British workers’ and that you have subsidised, where you have not nationalised outright, swathes of our economy, including the car industry and many of the banks? Perhaps you would have more moral authority in this house if your actions matched your words? Perhaps you would have more legitimacy in the councils of the world if the United Kingdom were not going into this recession in the worst condition of any G20 country?

The truth, Prime Minister, is that you have run out of our money. The country as a whole is now in negative equity. Every British child is born owing around £20,000. Servicing the interest on that debt is going to cost more than educating the child. Now, once again today you try to spread the blame around; you spoke about an international recession, international crisis. Well, it is true that we are all sailing together into the squalls. But not every vessel in the convoy is in the same dilapidated condition. Other ships used the good years to caulk their hulls and clear their rigging; in other words – to pay off debt. But you used the good years to raise borrowing yet further. As a consequence, under your captaincy, our hull is pressed deep into the water line under the accumulated weight of your debt We are now running a deficit that touches 10% of GDP, an almost unbelievable figure. More than Pakistan, more than Hungary; countries where the IMF have already been called in. Now, it’s not that you’re not apologising; like everyone else I have long accepted that you’re pathologically incapable of accepting responsibility for these things. It’s that you’re carrying on, wilfully worsening our situation, wantonly spending what little we have left. Last year - in the last twelve months – a hundred thousand private sector jobs have been lost and yet you created thirty thousand public sector jobs.

Prime Minister, you cannot carry on for ever squeezing the productive bit of the economy in order to fund an unprecedented engorgement of the unproductive bit. You cannot spend your way out of recession or borrow your way out of debt. And when you repeat, in that wooden and perfunctory way, that our situation is better than others, that we’re ‘well-placed to weather the storm’, I have to tell you that you sound like a Brezhnev-era apparatchik giving the party line. You know, and we know, and you know that we know that it’s nonsense! Everyone knows that Britain is worse off than any other country as we go into these hard times. The IMF has said so; the European Commission has said so; the markets have said so – which is why our currency has devalued by thirty percent. And soon the voters too will get their chance to say so. They can see what the markets have already seen: that you are the devalued Prime Minister of a devalued government."

Washington Post: "The administration's proposal contains two pieces.
First, it would empower a government agency to take on the new role of systemic risk regulator with broad oversight of any and all financial firms whose failure could disrupt the broader economy.

The Federal Reserve is widely considered to be the leading candidate for this assignment. But some critics warn that this could conflict with the Fed's other responsibilities, particularly its control over monetary policy.

The government also would assume the authority to seize such firms if they totter toward failure.
Besides seizing a company outright, the document states, the Treasury Secretary could use a range of tools to prevent its collapse, such as guaranteeing losses, buying assets or taking a partial ownership stake.

Such authority also would allow the government to break contracts, such as the agreements to pay $165 million in bonuses to employees of AIG's most troubled unit.
The Treasury secretary could act only after consulting with the president and getting a recommendation from two-thirds of the Federal Reserve Board, according to the plan. "

The arrogance of power being displayed by the treasury department over the past decade is astounding. After repeated failures and increases in the federal expenditures of Olympian proportions, this department and this administration pursues even more power. Power truly has corrupted. 10 people would be able to create a seizure.
(1 Tres. Sec + 1 POTUS + 8 Fed. Rsv. Members)

The end result of this proposal would be disastrous. Where Eisenhower warned of the rise of the Military-Industrial complex, this would be an order of magnitude worse. Creation of a Federal-Industrial complex is little different from that of a centrally planned economy, which has been shown time after time to be a dismal failure, lashing the freedom of man to the will of the state, fermenting a toxic brew of equal poverty floundering in corruption and brutality.

Free corporations are free. They are not to be owned by the nation, but to serve the people in a market that thrives on competition. When the real and legitimate threat of federal take over exists, it only exacerbates the hostile business climate that Washington DC seems so intent on creating. When a climate is hostile, business move. An example of unyielding weight can be found in the States of America, most obviously California. Those seeking success will find else where to operate.

It is obscene, literally obscene that any United States President would consider it a right and proper action to seize control of corporations for 'the public good'. When the negative incentive of failure is removed, there is no reason to avoid drastic risk. When these risks perpetuate more failures, the government will comply and again seize and nationalize even more corporations. This only leads to more risks which will necessitate even more nationalizations, as a vicious, snarling tornado of nationalization and free market destruction ensues.

I can find no other explanation for this variety of economic policy other then an intentional attempt at irrevocable damage to the freedoms the United States were based on. As the lackeys in Washington applaud, the liberty of our fathers vanishes before the very eyes of a apathetic public.

The giants upon whose shoulders we stand are in very real danger of being knee capped by the neo-fascist policies of Obama and his rotating pack of liberal wolves.

Those of you old timers know I love watching baseball. So this year, I had a blast following the World Baseball Classic, which is essentially the World Cup Soccer for baseball, except the USA team is actually pretty good.

USA was knocked out quite handily in semifinal round.
Last night, Japan continued to win the championship, besting South Korea 5-3 in Los Angeles.

The game was over at 1am after the 10th inning, and it was a spectacular finish. Worthy of the somewhat presumptuous title 'Classic'.

The strangest thing was at the end of the game, when all the Japanese players celebrated in the same fashion as my Cardinals in the World series, with one crucial difference. It was in Japanese, not English (or espanol, this being LA).

Then it struck me... we're all people, the same basic needs, wants and desires. Victory is victory, triumph is triumph, failure is failure, hope is hope, and baseball is baseball. Made me smile and the world was a little brighter in my late night vigil.

This is ridiculous.

So, the band just played a nice mix between Dixie and Hail to the Chief... wow.

EDIT: AIG was just a regular old insurance company???
EDIT: A securitized credit market? Government lending on a large scale???
EDIT: Obama is pluging Plug in hybrids??
EDIT: Obama rolled a 129. Last time I went bowling, i was beat by some pretty blonde girl on crutches.
EDIT: "If you want a friend in washington, get a dog!" (I like it!)

I think the employees of AIG have earned their bonuses. The company should be under water right now, liquidating amongst the capitalists of the world. Rather, they managed to swipe billions from the USA. From a corporate view, they've earned their bonuses.

The administration is looking to conjure a bogyman so it can perpetuate a sense of crisis. In the words of Rhambo, never waste a good crisis.
And the printing of $1,000,000,000,000? Three cheers for rampant inflation. It'll be a joy when gas is hitting $5 a gallon, if only because the consumer price index rises due to inflation. You simply cannot just print more money, that is one economic lesson that the chronicles of history scream incessantly.

As for our Fearless Leader Barak H. Obama, he was a busy man on Tuesday.
"Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen was just a few paragraphs into an address in Washington when he realised it all sounded a bit too familiar.

It was. He was repeating the speech President Barack Obama had just read from the same teleprompter.

Mr Cowen stopped, turned to the president and said: "That's your speech."

A laughing Mr Obama returned to the podium to take over but it seems the script had finally been switched and the US president ended up thanking himself for inviting everyone to the party."

In other news... 1000 posts.
Didn't figure I'd break 4 figures this soon. Thanks for reading and commenting. I'm terribly blessed to have grown up in an age where the Internet has come into its own, and it's really amazing how like minds that are thousands of miles apart can still come together in the blogosphere.

Newsbusters: "As the visit of the national leader of our closest ally began, the President informed the Brits that he wouldn't be attending the joint press conference that was planned to be held once PM Brown's plane touched down.

This threw the visiting delegation into a tizzy leaving them scrambling to explain the sudden change in plans to the folks back home. Still, meetings were had and things smoothed out. Eventually the visit seemed to right itself... then came the Obama's gift gaffes.

It is well understood that visiting diplomatic delegations come bearing gifts and gift giving is returned in like fashion by the host country. It is an ages old human practice in diplomacy after all. Usually the gifts are valuable, representative of the products of the nations involved, or at least symbolic of the history of those nations.

For his part, PM Brown gave two symbolic gifts and one that expressed national pride. Brown came bearing a pen holder carved from the timbers of the sister ship of that which gave the wood to create the famous "Resolute Desk," the desk that has been in America's charge since 1880. He also gave Obama the framed commission for that famous ship, the HMS Resolute. His third gift was a seven-volume biography of one of England's greatest leaders, Winston Churchill.

So, what did President Obama give the British PM? 25 movies on DVD. Yeah, that's it. Brown gives a symbolic gift like the pen holder fashioned from a famous British warship and Obama responds by sending a staffer to WalMart to pick up a few quick movies.

... Not to be out done in tastelessness by her husband, Michelle got into the act, too. Mrs. Brown came bearing two outfits for the Obama girls from Topshop, one of Britain's trendiest and expensive women's wear retail outlets.
In return, Michelle apparently had a staffer run down to the White House gift shop and grab two toy Marine One helicopter models for the Brown's boys."

This is quite frankly revolting. It would be ill treatment for many Heads of States, but especially so for one of the United Kingdom, a nation which is undoubtedly our staunchest ally in this world.

There absolutely has to be something going on here. For a president who based his foreign policy on winning friends to reject the friends we have makes little sense, especially considering the profusion of appreciation for United States. How can a group of politicians so competent on the campaign trail become so amazingly imbecilic once they are in the White House?

Oh, and the White House response to the situation?
"...The President noted that the pen set is being displayed on the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office and the books are in the Presidents personal study adjoining the Oval Office.... "

Guardian UK:
"Live television is hardly the most convenient setting in which to be reminded of the age-old proverb that only children and fools speak the truth.

So the father who nicknamed his child's toy monkey after Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, must have been mortified to have his private joke cruelly exposed when the youngster took part in one of the country's most popular TV phone-ins.

The embarrassing disclosure was made on Amoo Pourang (Uncle Pourang), a programme watched by millions of Iranian children three times a week on state TV. It came when the unsuspecting presenter, Dariush Farziayi, asked the name of the toy animal his young caller had been given as a reward for good behaviour. "Well, my father calls him Ahmadinejad," the child replied.

Now the father's discomfort has spread to the programme-makers after the state broadcaster, IRIB, responded by withdrawing it from viewing schedules. The final episode will be screened next week after a successful seven-year run.

A conservative website, Jahan News, quoting "reliable sources," said the decision was prompted by the "high financial and spiritual damage" inflicted by live broadcasts. "

Heh. This made my day.

It passed yesterday, much to the consternation of all thoughtful citizens.

It also passed on a voice vote, providing little accountability for those elected by the people. Rather then actually taking the time to file a vote on this, we just had 100 old people shout at each other. It was all very civil.

There is a semi-record of the vote, in that there was a Roll Call vote before the vote came up.
Look for your senators, both of mine from Texas voted no.



Meanwhile...
"Absolutely, we need earmark reform. And when I'm president, I will go line by line to make sure that we are not spending money unwisely"
-Our Fearless Leader Obama, 1st Presidential Debate:

The sad fact though, is that the largest waste is by far the federal spending itself, not the earmarks attached. They really are little more then ears upon an ugly beast.

Seattle Times: "The Dow Jones industrial average has fallen 21 percent during Obama's first seven weeks in office. Count back to Election Day and the results are even bleaker: That afternoon, the Dow closed at 9,625. Now it stands at 6,547, a loss of 32 percent.

...

Before Obama, the worst Dow performance for the first seven weeks of a new administration was an 18 percent plunge in 1974 after Gerald Ford was sworn in, during a severe bear market triggered by the Arab oil crisis.

Ronald Reagan presided over a Dow decline of more than 20 percent from April 1981 through the end of the 1982 bear market. And in 2001, George W. Bush's first year in office, the Dow plunged from a peak above 11,000 to a low below 8,300 after the Sept. 11 attacks."

If I can understand this, I know you can understand this, then Washington understands this.

It's increasingly difficult to see why we continue with Fascist government policies. Since the victory of Big Government in the twilight days of 2008, the market has responded as it should. Shrinking away from that which seeks to hurt it, a larger federal government.

More Taxes? Bad Business. More Subsidies? Bad Business. More Protectionism? Bad Business.

On a Personal Note, here's whats been going on.
Mexico went very well, we finished the house in 4 days, fastest I've been a part of yet. Even though we were in the hot spot of the drug war called Reynosa, we saw very little activity. Its there, but we weren't threatened by it.
This time though, I had the good fortune of snagging ol Montezuma's Revenge this past week, so I was out of commission for a few days. I should be back in action as we rapidly approach breaking 1000 posts.

Obama and his advisers are idiots.

I have to take a shower, but I'll get back to this later.

EDIT:


I can't really do the magnitude of this new proposal justice. It just absolutely boggles the mind. The amount of blithering idiocy, nay, the raw, unvarnished calculating wolves of Fascism have reared their ugly heads in plan view of America and the world.

It is a budget expansion of biblical proportions, and only means a further economic fall from grace for the world's greatest nation. As the bastion of the world economy, when the US has a cold, the world contracts pneumonia.

In the same way the man with a millstone around his neck drowns in the icy depths of the north Atlantic, this 3 stage expansion of the Federal Government and its borrowing off the back of my generation and our offspring will continue to wreak havoc for years and years to come.

Mr. KnightWing, I do trust you are happy with an update.

Just so ya'll know, I'm in Reynosa Mexico on yet another trip. This is for another house, I'll be back saturday night.

In the mean time, i'm liking Bobby Jindal more and more.
" "The way to lead is not to raise taxes and put more money and power in hands of Washington politicians," Jindal said. The plan will "grow the government, increase our taxes down the line, and saddle future generations with debt."

"It's irresponsible," Jindal said. "
-Link

2/21/09: Your Weekly Address from White House on Vimeo.

International Herald Tribune: "If the environmental agency determines that carbon dioxide is a dangerous pollutant to be regulated under the Clean Air Act, it would set off one of the most extensive regulatory rule makings in history. Jackson knows that she would be stepping into a minefield of congressional and industry opposition and said that she was trying to devise a program that allayed these worries.

"We are poised to be specific on what we regulate and on what schedule," Jackson said. "We don't want people to spin that into a doomsday scenario.""

I'm sure the trees would disagree most vehemently. As will I.
There's an odd juxtaposition, tree huggers and the right wing of the nation joining hands.

I doubt it happens though, I think the environmental movement has sacrificed its soul upon the altar of political expediency and hyperbole for financial expediency.

Composition of the Earths Atmosphere:

• Nitrogen - 78.084%
• Oxygen - 20.95%
• Argon - 0.934%
• Carbon Dioxide - 0.036%

The concept of humans creating pollution with our very breaths is ludicrous, and yet, this is where we find ourselves. Seeing as government agency are merely political hack jobs of whomever is in office, this travesty of ecological and economic management will proceed.

UPI - "The North Carolina security contractor Blackwater Worldwide has changed its name to Xe, a company memo says.

Company President Gary Jackson said in a memo that the company has been reorganizing for several months to "create unique brand identities for its products and services," The (Norfolk) Virginian-Pilot reported Sunday.

As part of its rebranding, the company is jettisoning the name Blackwater and its red-and-black bear-claw logo."

Makes sense. A company that has earned as much ill will in its home country should probably rebrand itself. Just didn't want this to pass without ya'll noticing.
A company called Xe will start showing up on the news soon enough, and now you can impress your posse with this knowledge.

Or at least, the budget is.

Rueters: "California, which is on the brink of running out of cash, will notify 20,000 state workers on Tuesday their jobs may be eliminated...

The layoff notices will affect about 20 percent of state workers, McLear said, adding the cuts would extend to every part of state government.

The positions would be eliminated in June in preparation for California's next fiscal year, which starts in July.

California, America's most populous state and the world's eighth biggest economy, has experienced a dramatic fall in revenues because of the housing downturn, rising unemployment and a sharp pullback in consumer spending."

Who has been running this state for the last two decades? Far left democrats.

Great work, Captain Socialism.

"The 1,071 page, 8-inch-thick measure"

It passed the house today.

Every Democrat, sans 7 with a modicum of intelligence voted for it.

Not a single republican voted yes. Well done GOP, well done.