Thursday, April 30, 2009
Chrysler is Dead. Long live Chrysler.
...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.
Monday, April 27, 2009
The Nations Leading Newspapers
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
- Cost of Paper & Production
- Loss of Advertisers & Classifieds due to internet
- People don't want real news!
- Bloggers (Thats us!)
- Proliferation of available news for free
Friday, April 24, 2009
Obama Seeks to exacerbate 'Credit Crunch'
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.
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.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Panem et Circenses
Monday, April 20, 2009
Blasphemy of Budget Cuts
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."
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Fort Worth Tea party
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.
Tax Day Tea Day
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.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Change & 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)