Friday, January 25, 2013

The DC Circuit opinion.

Very interesting. If this holds up, and I believe it will, this will end up putting even bigger limitations on "recess" appoints than ever.

Amazing that these days a Federal Court of Appeals will uphold the plain meaning of the language in the Constitution.

Will Obama appeal to the Supremes, or will he not take the chance?


***************************
Rand Paul to John Kerry: If it was wrong to bomb Cambodia without Congress’s approval, why is bombing Libya without approval okay?

From over at Hot Air. Kerry and the leftist Democrats are the biggest hypocrites in history, with a lot of lying as well.

Kerry thought bombing Cambodia to assist our own troops was somehow criminal without Congress' approval, but somehow it is OK to bomb Libya without any approval. And just because the President wanted to assist people who turn out to be our enemies.

Hope and Change.

Tar and feathers!

*******************************
I see where West Va. Democrat Manchin can go along with stronger background checks on gun buyers.

You know, that sounds good, but who is going to do the background checks on those that steal guns? LOL

The current background checks would do the job pretty well if the governments involved would keep up the databases. Unfortunately, they will just throw up more red tape, but won't get the crazies in the databases. Silly.

But this is more about control that it is about guns, anyway. Am seriously considering re-joining the NRA just to thumb my nose at the controllers.

Doubt if I will be able to vote are support any politician that votes to "strengthen" gun control without addressing getting the crazies in the databases and taking steps to limit their capability to get possession of the guns. Democrats will probably oppose that simply because so many of them would make the list. LOL


***************************
Aussies hit black gold. It could be the equal of Saudi Arabia. You can bet they will exploit it. Just as you can bet that the Luddites (Democrats) here in the US will try to impede our development of our own resources.

These new processes are going to revolutionize the energy business, and all of the industries that need abundant energy.

That means a lot more jobs and a lot more commerce, while at the same time, it makes the Middle East more irrelevant.

That will mean that Democrats will fight it, just like they are fighting the Keystone Pipeline.

What in the world are those people thinking?

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Romney Care bills finally come due. This is one of the reasons I had to hold my nose real hard when I voted for Romney. he is an establishment Republican, and like them, he is more of a Democrat than like a large part of the Republican base. It is the power of the establishment that keeps giving us the wimpy Presidential nominees. Time to say "no more."

Poor old Democrat Deval Patrick is now meeting the obligations that Obama will have to meet in a couple of years when Obamacare finally hits at full strength.

"The health reform that Mitt Romney passed in 2006 in Massachusetts presaged President Obama's, and its results are showing what we can expect nationwide. The latest warning comes in a huge new tax increase proposed by Governor Deval Patrick."

*******************
Chivalry is dead. The women's libbers have now reached the pinnacle of equality. Now they have an equal right to die in combat.

I am wondering how they are going to carry the 60-80 pounds of comabat gear. Will the guys in the unit have to help them?

This absurd bit of political correctness is just going to get some people killed.

But it is an insight into how Democrats think only politically, and not practically.

Fools.

Update. NRO chimes in on the issue:

"What’s wrong with current physical requirement standards for infantry soliders? Is this official implying that more woman-friendly standards will have to be developed? The male/female upper-body strength difference is by now tediously well documented. There is no question that the average woman (and yes the average enlistee is often quite average indeed) especially in our overweight times, will have difficulty, say, carrying a wounded comrade to safety and walking for days dressed in full “battle rattle.” Study after study shows that women get injured at at least twice the rate of men — and this is in a military where women are not doing the most physically demanding jobs."

This just gets more absurd as time goes by. People will die because of this foolishness. Politial correctness has run amok. And it would not be politically correct for me to say what I really think, so I won't.

*****************
Boby Jindal is taking on the Republican establishment. A job that needs doing.

"“By obsessing with zeroes on the budget spreadsheet, we send a not-so-subtle signal that the focus of our country is on the phony economy of Washington, instead of the real economy out here in Charlotte, and Shreveport (La.), and Cheyenne (Wyo.),” Jindal is set to say at one point in the speech. At another, he will argue that “Washington has spent a generation trying to bribe our citizens and extort our states,” adding: “As Republicans, it’s time to quit arguing around the edges of that corrupt system.”

He is very much on the right track. The whole Washington setup is corrupt and getting worse by the day. By trying to be Washington insiders, the Republicans have become as corrupt as the rest of it.

Our country is not Washington, D.C., nor is it the liberal northeastern corridor. It is all of us; but in Washington, only those interests are represented.

It is time for the people to take back their country from the corrupt politicians. If the Republicans won't do it, then we need to have another party.

More from Jindal:

“Our objective is to grow the private sector. We need to focus our efforts on ideas to grow the American economy, not the government economy. If you take nothing else away from what I say today, please understand this – We must not become the party of austerity. We must become the party of growth.”

This is what Romney and the establishmant Republicans forget. It is not about Washington, it is about the rest of us.

********************
Slow day today. Other chores to do, and it is an absolutely beautiful day outside.

I did notice that Harry Reid's filibuster reform was agreed to by the Republicans, but accomplishes nothing except to save the rears of some democratic senators who now won't have to vote on gun control.

I think I would have preferred to make them actually vote on it. But they are safe now.

The story is here on HuffPo. They, of course, don't mention the gun control issue. And they quite naturally do not like it.

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

The head of Germany's Bundesbank on monetary policy in the current situation:

Jens Weidmann: 'wrong and dangerous' to rely on ECB to resolve crisis

Central banks can only buy time:

 ""Monetary policy can only buy more time. It is like a painkiller which will not erase the reasons but can cause risks and side effects," he said. "

This is really simple, and most knowledgeable observers already knew this.

What are they buying time for? Do they even know, or are they just kicking the can down the road as long as they can until the whole world financial system blows up?

Whatever the central banks the world over intend to be doing, the beneficiaries are the very large financial institutions around the world. And it is all being done at the ultimate epense of the middle clsses worldwide.

******************************
Gold and guns.

A friend with whom I have done some business, Art Massey of Blanchard and Co. sent me this:

"The biggest impact the Bundesbank's (Germany's Central Bank) actions have, though, according to Brebner and Xiao (Deutsche Bank commodity analysts Daniel Brebner and Xiao Fu ), is that they lend further credibility to the shiny yellow metal.

The analysts conclude, "we view the repatriation and upgrade of old gold by the Western World’s central banks as a further positive in gold’s evolution as a legitimate form of money.""

 

This would be my view as well. It appears than the central banks are remonitizing gold without actually saying that they are.
 

After the CBs have their ducks in a row, and have their gold in their vaults, what will happen next? We all know that the huge debts in the world cannot be repaid, but they are all denominated in fiat currencies. Would the world governments pull an FDR and confiscate all privately held gold, then devalue the existing fiat currencies, and issue new money?
 

If they decide they can screw the majority of the people that way, they may well do it.
 

A question was asked in a poll the other day if the government tried to confiscate guns, would you give up yours? 65% said no.
 

Ask the same question about gold. Would you give up your gold (if you have any) so the government could screw you out of the value of it? People did under FDR.....and got screwed.

*******************
Quote of the Day:

"I know some of you may have a distressingly partisan view of the festivities in Washington. You may not be on board with all the jubilation. So look at it this way: Today marks the midpoint of the Obama presidency. In other words, this is hump day. It's all downhill from here!"

-Mark Steyn

The end of the Obama Administration is now getting closer every day. Well, that's a relief.

*****************
Will Britain exit the European Union?

Prime Minister Cameron has promised a referendum, but in 2017. Why the wait? I suspect that  he is afraid the the voters would really vote to do so. Of course, what the voters may want is not what the politicians want. They alwys "know better" than mere people about things like that.

Reuters has an article on this. I doubt there will ever be a referendum.

Big business and big government........cronies forever. To the detriment of all of the rest of us.

Tim Carney of the Examiner has a short piece on this.

"Big Business can afford the added costs of regulations. It can hire up the former senators as its lobbyists to tweak the rules. It can hire the former Food & Drug Administration Commissioners as its lawyers to work around the rules. And it will always get a disproportionate amount of the subsidies."

Who gets hurt? You got it. The little guys.

"Corporate-federal collusion was embodied in ObamaCare, largely written by drugmakers, vociferously supported by hospitals, and driving business to private insurers. Obama’s stimulus was a huge gift to corporate America, with its plethora of subsidies. In the fiscal cliff deal, Obama insisted on a raft of corporate tax extenders. Obama’s “New Economic Patriotism” is a dress for corporate welfare to wear to the prom. Obama supported TARP. He bailed out GM. He signed cash for clunkers. He has set new records in export subsidies. I could fill a book with this sort of thing."

Both political parties have sold out the middle class.

**************************
How optimistic are Americans? Well, Gallup has a poll out that says not very.

"Gallup: American Optimism Hits Lowest Point Since Carter Administration"

When you look at the clowns that are running the country, it is easy to see why. We have the worst president since Jimmy Carter, and the Congress could hardly get any worse than it is now.

A thorough application of tar and feathers is badly needed in Washington.

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Texas without Federal money? Believing in the 10th Amendment

I see that Rep. James White has filed a bill in Austin that would set up a select committee to study what would happen if Texas lost its Federal funding. He says because the Feds might go broke, but what if Texas decided that the Feds demanded too much in return for the money. Seems like a great idea to me.

""We always talk about Tenth Amendment rights but there are Tenth Amendment responsibilities. If Texas is an independent nation or if we continue to be a part of the United States, which I am for, we still need to have a strong Texas," he said."

The Texas Tribune has the story. It is the best site that I know for Texas political coverage.

********************************
Would you give up your guns?

Bill Katz over at Urgent Agenda points out a new Fox Poll where that question was asked. The result was not a surprise.

"If the Government passed a law to take your guns would you give up your guns or defy the law and keep your guns?"

The answer: Defy the law and keep guns = 65%;  Give up the guns = 22%; Don't Know = 13%

A few years back, Canada tried to require its people to register their guns. So many refused to do so that they abandoned the attempt.

Why won't liberals ever learn?

*******************

Filibuster reform? The Hill has a story on Harry Reid's proposals to "reform" filibusters. Of course, Harry wants to be able to use his majority in the Senate to run over the minority even more than he has the past few years.

There are negotiations going on between him and Mitch McConnell, but Reid seems to often beat poor Mitch when the chips are down.

Of course, in two years, the shoe may be on the other foot, with Republicans holding  the majority.

I am afraid that the Senate has gone from a great deliberative body to an "in your face" no compromise, partisan group that cannot get anything done right.

Tar and feathers for them all.

****************

Study: "Debt Problem Began Four Decades Ago"

The St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank has let the truth out, if anyone will pay attention. Good old LBJ, with his War on Paverty and Vietnam War, both paid for by bringing Social Security revenues into general revenue (requiring the SS Trust Fund to take government IOUs) and by just borrowing money started the problem.

"[A]fter 1970, both revenues and expenditures increased on average relative to the previous two decades; however, revenue increased marginally while expenditures increased significantly... on average, the government spent 2.4 percent of GDP more than it received in revenue during the 38-year period."

There you go. All of these years we have been borrowing from the future for our instant gratification, and to allow the politicians to maintain their power at our chidren's expense.

Who will stop the madness? Not any of the politicians in Washington, that's for sure. Some talk a good game, but there is never a chance that spending will be controlled.

But what can't go on forever, won't. What will happen to the country when we run out of our kids' money?

The story is in Townhall.

********************
The inauguaral address.

I know it happed. Did not watch it. Have not read it. Only know it happened from story headlines discussing it, but I have not read the stories. Don't intend to. It is a waste of one's time.

Also will not read, or read about, any Republican responses. Another waste of one's time.

When politicians of all stripes talk these days, it is virtually all lies and obfuscation.

Watch what they do. If you do, you will find little difference between them. They are all doing a very poor jobs for most Americans, but doing quite well for themselves and the very rich, particularly the big banks.

Time to throw them all out.

Monday, January 21, 2013

A walk down memory lane for us old timers. This is worth a look to see how we were way back then.

The 1940s

Sad days and great days. Depression, war and recovery. That decade led us to perhaps one of the finest decades Americans have enjoyed: the 1950s. Then came the 1960s with assassinations, war and corruption, the latter two of which are still with us today.

What will the 2010s bring? It looks like debt, poor economic performance and a fear of addressing those problems properly.

We will see, I guess.

*************************
Best Thing Ever To Emerge from a Celebrity Trip to North Korea

Claudia Rosett has a short, but interesting story on the latest trip to North Korea by liberal gadfly Bill Richardson. It seems that Bill took with him Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt, and his daughter Sophie.

The important thing about the trip was not any kind of diplomatic breakthrough (there are never any of those from such trips), but what Sophie posted online is a very interesting insight into North Korea. No politics, just kind of a travelogue. See it here:

It might not get weirder than this


*****************************
ObamaCare in action.

The Wall Street Journal has a piece on the effects of ObamaCare on colleges, and particularly the adjunct professors who teach there. Seems like the are all having their teaching hours cut so the colleges can avoid the huge cost increases associated with the Affordable Care Act. This will, of coure, cost the professors money by reducing their wages....but they will also have to buy their own insurance or pay the "tax."

This seems like poetic justice to me, since the huge majority of those people voted for Obama and the Democrats, surely thinking they would get even more "free stuff."

Walter Russell Mead has some good comments on this, particularly:

"Partisans of the blue social model like to think of it as a utopian commonwealth; academic adjuncts know the truth, and the revolting treatment of adjuncts by colleges understandably anxious to avoid the high costs of Obamacare should remind us all that the blue social model, especially in decline, is not as benign as its supporters and beneficiaries believe."

It couldn't happen to a more deserving group of people.

Sunday, January 20, 2013

'We're only after the Christians...'

This from The Daily Mail in London. The Brits, you see, can print these stories, while our own media will not. Shameful, of course.


"‘Us Algerians were rounded up separately and were treated with kindness. We were told that because we were Muslim we would not be killed, and it was only the Christians they were after.

‘The terrorists allowed the Algerians to send texts and make phone calls, but to stop the expats communicating, they forced an Algerian telecommunications man to cut network connections for mobile, internet and power........"

There were Americans there as well, of course. This is the Hope and Change that the left has been so excited about.
************************
US oil production grew more in 2012 than in any year in the history of the domestic oil industry back to the Civil War

"The record increase in oil output last year reminds us the US oil and gas industry continues to be at the forefront of the otherwise sub-par economic recovery, and without that sector’s strong growth in output and jobs, the economy’s sub-par performance would be even more lackluster. The 1 million bpd increase in domestic oil production last year has delivered a powerful energy-based economic stimulus to the economy, creating thousands of new direct, shovel-ready jobs in oil and gas activities, and igniting many spinoff business and indirect jobs throughout the oil and gas supply chain like the “oil-by-rail shipping boom.” The future of the US economy over the next few years looks a lot brighter because of America’s surging domestic energy production."

Don't anyone forget that Obama and the Democrats are doing everything they can to slow this down. They are not interested in the economy, or jobs, but in CONTROL.


************************
IBD pretty much nails Obama, and less politiely than Peggy Noonan did, and they are absolutely right: Obama's No. 1 Second-Term Goal—Win Back The House

"But if you want to know how Obama will actually govern in his second term, forget about these well-crafted speeches, and pay attention instead to what he said at his press conference a few days ago.

There he made it clear for anyone with ears to hear that his goal isn't to achieve some kind of grand unity to tackle the nation's toughest challenges.
No. Obama's No. 1 goal in his second term is to do whatever it takes to destroy Republicans and win back Democratic control of the House in 2014, giving him two more years to enact his agenda without any GOP meddling."

In other words, Obama is going to make the 2014 Congressional elections the most important ever. If the Democrats should gain control of the House, then Obama will be free to impose his far left agenda on us all.

Scary thought, indeed.

Unfortunately, the other party, the Republicans, just cannot seem to get things together. I personally wish we had another viable party, but for now we are pretty well stuck with the Republicans.

They are the only chance to stop the madness. Are they smart enough to get that done?

Stay tuned.

******************
Peggy Noonan has a good one up at the Wall Street Journal: His Terms Are Always Hostile Ones.

She is writing about Obama, of course, and pretty accurately for once:

"President Obama has been using the days and weeks leading up to his inauguration to show the depth of his disdain for the leaders of the other major party and, by inference, that party's voters, which is to say more or less half the country. He has been spending his time alienating instead of summoning. It has left the political air more sour and estranged."

This guy is out to destroy his opponents rather than unite the nation. Not very Presidential.

Bill Katz at Urgent Agenda has some good comments on this as well:

"The basic problem, it seems to me, is that Obama never had the size to be president. He is, bottom line, a small-time politician with a golden voice. He presents himself very well, but there is not much substance, and certainly not much curiosity. He has led, especially for a man of color, a very sheltered life.
 

He is also a very cold man. You get the sense that he feels for nobody except himself. Some 60,000 people have been murdered in Syria and he doesn't bat an eyelash."

Well said.

***********************
Benghazi

Why can we hear the truth about Benghazi? That is a rhetorical question. We know why we can't hear the truth because the truth is that the Obama Administration really screwed up the whole thing in Libya, and they are lying and covering up to avoid being held accountable.

The mainstream media, of course, is aiding and abetting.

The Weekly Standard has a good article on the situation: Debacle in Ben­ghazi.

"Despite its many promises, after four months of a criminal investigation, the U.S. government has made little progress on bringing the Benghazi attackers to justice. The Obama administration, which came to office trumpeting “smart power,” has shown itself unable to produce cooperation even from governments receiving vast sums of aid from the United States without congressional threats. And now, the same terrorist organizations that supplied the attackers for the assaults on American facilities in Benghazi and Tunis are openly threatening FBI investigators and celebrating the release of one of the few suspects in the 9/11/12 attacks."


********************
Bill Clinton to Democrats: Don’t trivialize gun culture

Slick Willie is smart enough to understand the issue of gun control, and gives the Democarts some sound advice:

"“Do not patronize the passionate supporters of your opponents by looking down your nose at them,” Clinton said."

This is a fight the Democrats can't win. And shouldn't.
*************
Collecting Disability

I see that we are at an all-time record for people collecting disability. Ever since the Obama Administration loosened up the requirements, there has been a huge jump. It seems like now all you have to be is unhappy about being unemployed to qualify. That, of course is good for Obama, because it reduces the official unemployment rate. It is bad for the public because it hastens the demise of Social security, and, of course, it helps hide the fact that if unemployment rates, if defined like they used to be, are at Depression levels.

CNS has the story. One on disability for every 13 employed now. In 1968, there were 51 people employed for every one on disability. Seems like a scam to me.

Saturday, January 19, 2013

I see that the true perp in the Katrina fiasco in New Orleans is finally getting his comeuppance. The media blamed Bush, but Mayor Ray Nagin was the one responsible for not evacuating folks or otherwise preparing for the disaster. Remember all of the underwater school busses?

Now Mayor Ray has been indicted....21 counts of conspiracy, money laundering and bribery. Who would have thought it?

More at the New York Times. A "sweeping corruption case" they say.

**********
An interesting post over at Monty Pelerin's World that I came across. A good quote:

"Elections are when the political class pretends to care for its constituents. This concern is motivated by a desire to stay in office. The two parties, much like the Bloods and Crips, battle for territory at election time. Meaningless promises are made by both in an effort to win the votes of citizens. Citizens have value to these predators much like milk cows do for farmers. They are important only to the extent that they can be milked (bilked) to further the lifestyles of this new American criminal class."

Don't know if it could be said any better. There is more there.

**************

In 2011, more people were murdered with knives, "hands or feet" or "clubs and hammers" than with any type of rifle.

Of course, handguns topped the list. But the concentration on "assault" rifles is completely overdone by the anti-gun nuts.
***********
This is a real hoot. Some intrepid reporters went around to "gun free" homes of reporters and others to expose theie hypocrisy. Of course, it worked. James O'Keefe at his best. A fun watch.

***********
Chris Cillizza over at the Washington Post Has a piece up on how the NRA is winning. Whhich is true. I have a lot of liberal friends that just cannot understand why guns are such a gut issue for so many of our citizens. But it is.

My view is that the gun issue is designed more to take the public's mind away from the really important issues, such as runaway Federal spending and the like. The politicians, and particularly the Democrats, just do not want to make the hard choices necessary to avoid the approaching financial Abyss, so they will go after guns. And continue to fiddle while Rome burns.

**********
Investor's Business daily does a good job keeping up with the financial situation. Today Andrew Malcolm has a statement by Rep. Lanford of the GOP on the ongoing budget situation. The title says it all: GOP: $16 trillion in debt but still no Democrat budget for 1,361 days
This is pure politics, of course. If the Republicans were pulling this kind of stunt, the media and the democrats would be justifiably outraged. Where is the outrage at Reid and the Democrats?

The reasonable conclusion is that the Democrats are interested only in spending, and not in budgeting. And the Abyss is coming nigh. It is kind of like Nero fiddling while Rome burned.

Our civilization will not last if the spending is not addressed.

*********
Money in Bad Faith This is a new one by  Judy Shelton in the Weekly Standard. It is about the federal reserve, and how its policies are corrupting the economy.

The conclusion: "If we continue to allow the Fed to underwrite deficit spending and inflict the resulting monetary distortions on the people who actually contribute real value to the economy, who live and work in the belief that saving is a virtue, we will witness the steady demoralization of democratic capitalism."

The only people benefitting from the Fed policies are the big banks and the politicians. Seems to me to be time to ablish or drastically reform the Fed.
*********
I see that the Republicans are going to agree to lift the debt ceiling for three months to give Congress time to  do its duty of producing a budget. The Democrats, of course, don't want to budget, they just want to spend, and a budget would set a new baseline, and they certainly do not want that. The story is in the New York Times.

********
Walter Russell Meade, who is almost always good, has a short piece about how the blue model in Illinois is stealing from the young.

"Sticking it to either group, the young or the old, isn’t appealing, but the boomers are politically organized and better positioned to fight for their interests, particularly because powerful unions are on their side."

Like almost all of our politicians these days, they are too weak to make the hard decisions and so follow the line of least resistance. Sad. But typical.

"Are the Good Times Really Over?"

Recently I heard a song by this title sung by Merle Haggard, and it seemingly described the feelings of a lot of folks right now. Don't worry, it was first published in the Spring of 1982 in the midst of the recession caused when Paul Volcker of the Federal Reserve cut off the credit spigot that had caused accelerating inflation from the late 1960's through the 1970's.

Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty and the War in Viet Nam had been financed with credit, and very loose monetary policies were followed by Nixon, Ford and Carter, and the Fed chairmen that served under them. This created double digit inflation and extremely high interest rates by the end of Carter's term. He appointed Volcker to solve the problem. He did, but at the cost of a serious downturn.

At the end of the recession, the good times started back as a result of tax cuts and more deficit spending under Reagan, but this was again briefly halted by a real estate bust and the failure of most savings and loan institutions around the country.

Volcker was not reappointed, and Greenspan replaced him as chairman of the Fed.

The good times started back, to be only briefly interrupted by a tightening of money just in time during George H. W. Bush's term to cause a short recession in the election year of 1992, when Clinton was elected.

During Clinton's two terms, the good times returned, and the party, which was based upon very easy credit, lasted until 2007. Then, the world ran out of credit.

A slump has ensued that we are still not recovering from. So how about the good times? Are they really over for good?

I say "No." There are plenty of good times left. To get there, however, there must be some pain.

We as a country, and indeed the whole world, are at the end of a long term credit cycle. These have happened before, and, given human nature, surely will again.

What has happened? Chris Martenson put it this way:

"Banks began lending money at a faster rate than the global economy grew, and we're now at the turning point where we simply have run out of new borrowers for the ever-growing debt the system has become addicted to."


Now the bill is coming due. When one tries to create prosperity with easy credit, which the world has done, it will always end with a serious contraction.

Prosperity has to be earned, not borrowed. We have borrowed to obtain prosperity, and now, having danced to the tune, it is time to pay the Piper.

The economic paradigm we have operated under in the world since Bretton Woods in 1944, and particularly since Nixon closed the gold window in 1973, was based upon easy credit and fiat currencies, particularly the dollar.

In spite of huge efforts by governments and central banks around the world, led by the US, that old paradigm is failing, and cannot be saved. They are literally creating trillions of dollars and Euros out of thin air trying to do so, but it won't work in the end. But it will make the world's currencies, including the dollar, worthless if they continue. It may already have.

That reminds me of another country song, by Willie Nelson: "Turn Out the Lights, the Party's Over." All we have to do is recognize it, and move on.

Now, how about the good times? We have to get over the funk we are in. It will be painful, but we must go back to sound money. I am not expert on that, but we had pretty sound money before 1913, and since then the dollar has become worth only a penny of its value during that year.

Perhaps we will see whether after the Great Depression and the current ongoing crisis, our government and our people have the courage and determination to put in place a more sound and sensible economic paradigm.

If we do, the good times will come back.

Afterword:

For those who like country music, here ate the sites for the two songs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFHJ41ktt3Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsTAUs_h_uY

Bits and Pieces for January 12, 2012

Haley Barbour? Tell me it is not true! Apparently the conservative, law and order  Republican governor of Mississippi has pardoned a bunch of criminals, including 14 murderers. Even the Democrats are appalled. Ths story can be found here.

Marin County, California is going to outlaw smoking tobacco, but the county supervisors are going out of their way to make sure marijuana is not included in the ban. I suppose it shows a lot about the culture out there.

Marin’s war on smoking was blunted Tuesday as a measure cracking down on tobacco and other “weed” was sent back for revision to make clear the crackdown does not include marijuana.

Although supervisors were in agreement with the policy when county staff last month asserted an ordinance outlawing smoking in unincorporated-area apartments included marijuana and other herbs as well as tobacco, the county board Tuesday abruptly called for revisions making clear tobacco was the only weed at issue.

 This is not a joke. Coverage from the Marin Independent Journal is here.

Law and Order. Steven Hayward over at Power Line Blog has a good short story on the Obama recess appointments. It is a discussion with Tom Campbell. Read it here. Obama is pretty clearly making new precendent with them. What will be the end result?

Defense spending is shovel ready. So says Victor Davis Hanson. Pointing out that defense spending is not the real problem he concludes:

The decline of civilizations of the past -- fourth-century-B.C. Athens, fifth-century-A.D. Rome, 15th-century Byzantium, or 1930s Western Europe -- was not caused by their spending too much money on defense or not spending enough on public entitlements. Rather, their expanding governments redistributed more borrowed money, while a dependent citizenry wanted even fewer soldiers to guarantee ever more handouts.

History's bleak lesson is that those societies with self-reliant citizens who protect themselves and their interests prosper; those who grow dependent cut back their defenses -- and waste away.

Some people never learn.

Orangutans using iPads at zoos - soon to use Skype. For all of you iPad owners that think you are smart, just read this article from Gizmag.com.

"They like many of the free apps that I think children would like - they like the free apps where you can fingerpaint, they like the apps where you can use the drums," says Trish Khan, Milwaukee County Zoo's orangutan keeper.

Maybe we humans aren't as much smarter than the apes as we thought. lol

Climate change from CO2 may not be as bad as predicted. Also from Gizmag is a story about the new report from the National Science Foundation's Paleoclimate Program that says that climate change may be far less sensitive to CO2 than previously thought.

"Many previous climate sensitivity studies have looked at the past only from 1850 through today, and not fully integrated paleoclimate date, especially on a global scale," said Schmittner. "When you reconstruct sea and land surface temperatures from the peak of the last Ice Age 21,000 years ago - which is referred to as the Last Glacial Maximum - and compare it with climate model simulations of that period, you get a much different picture.

"If these paleoclimatic constraints apply to the future, as predicted by our model, the results imply less probability of extreme climatic change than previously thought," Schmittner added.

The sciece of anthropogenic global warming is still not settled, in spite of what the scaremongers who wish to profit from government programs would have you believe.

Masters of the World. That is what the Muslims Brotherhood's goal is. And good old Jimmy Carter says about their election in Egypt:

"I don't have any problem with that,and the U.S. government doesn't have any problem with that either. We want the will of the Egyptian people to be expressed."

I knew Carter when he was President, personally. He became the reason why I left the Democratic Party, along with the policies he and they espoused.

Like Obama, he has no use for the national interest of the United States. He would turn the whole world over to the radicals.

Bits and Pieces for January 11, 2012

New Hampshire. Romney and Obama both win, as expected. For a lot of stories, go to Memeorandum, which has a lot of links. Good site.

Pay particular attention to Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight blog. Although he is a liberal and it is a New York Times blog, he is probably the best analyst out there these days. Pretty positive outlook for Romney, as one might expect.

Obama's War on Energy. John Hinderaker has a blurb over at PowerLine about this, with a good chart. He concludes, correctly:

The real question, of course, is how much petroleum is being recovered from public lands. Because of three years of Obama anti-energy policies, energy development is down substantially:

Oil production on federal lands is down 13 percent in 2011: 97,721,813 barrels in 2011 versus 112,124,812 barrels in 2010.

This is what happens when we have an administration that thinks Americans consume too many resources, which is to say, live too well.

 Mr. Obama’s 99% — Are We Poor or Just Unequal or Both or Neither?

Victor Davis Hanson has an excellent essay up exploring the differences between the 99% and the 1% that has been in all the news lately. I highly recommend it. He concludes:

Keep all that in mind as we enter the most divisive, class-warfare campaign in recent memory. We are living in the upside-down world Orwell wrote about. A president who likes upscale golf a lot, and Martha’s Vineyard even more, who has hired three “fat cat” bankers as his chiefs of staff (how odd that Emanuel and Lew probably both made a lot out of the Freddie/Fannie bubble), and who is the largest recipient of Wall Street cash in history now argues that half of America suffers from the hands of “them.”

Being unequal is not poor. And not having what the “rich” have hardly means having it bad. Sorry, that’s just the way it is.

FuturePundit reports that full genome sequencing costs are dropping to close to $1,000 per genome. The way things are going it won't be long before it is affordable for anyone that wants it.

These low prices are going to drive up the rate of full genome sequencing. Therefore expect to see an explosion of discoveries on what the many genetic variants mean. What I'm especially looking forward to: genetically derived personal advice on ideal diet, exercise, sleep, and other lifestyle choices.

I have had a small bit of mine sequenced, and the information derived is quite interesting. I got my testing at Family Tree DNA and tranferred it and had additional testing at 23andMe as well. It is all pretty interesting.

A Future History. Came across this wandering around some science blogs. Kind of wild speculation, but interesting. Much seems impossible, but I remember my Dad telling me in the 1950s (I was reading science fiction of the day) that men would never go to the moon. Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon less that three years after he passed away. For those who may be interested in space, this is an interesting read.

Here are the writer's prediction for 2015:

By 2015:
By now, Virgin Galactic will have flown dozens of tourists into space, and anticipation will be growing for the next step – Bigelow’s orbiting hotels. It should come as no surprise that many couples are already making advanced bookings with a wink toward zero-gravity sex. The Google Lunar X-Prize will have been won and a few companies vying to dominate the resulting private space probe market. Exoplanets continue to be discovered, with a few Earth-sized planets plus many more large planets in habitable zones, but as yet no confirmed Earth-like planet.

With commercial launch capabilities now obvious even to Congress, plus growing space programs in other nations, the ambivalence toward NASA is finally subsiding. Human spaceflight, beyond the recreational commercial near-Earth activities is now being pursued in the form of multinational programs and the negative stigma of nuclear space propulsion and power is waning. NASA has a large role in making that happen, along with a resumption of the research to bring the more-difficult space technologies to fruition.

There are a lot more predictions. Go to the site and see what they are.

Twinkies. Has filed for bankruptcy according to the WSJ. It owes the union nearly $1 billion, and can't pay. It has tried to sell out, but there are no buyers. Too bad.

Paying College Athletes is a Terrible Idea. So says Mark Emmert in today's Wall Street Journal.

There are fundamental flaws in the pay-for-play mantra. Proponents naively think that paying players will solve all the problems involving agents, team boosters and others who are willing to break rules. They are wrong. The stakes will simply be raised to bribe athletes to attend a school, support them financially for the agent's future gain, or help them cheat in school. No, paying players a salary would make the situation worse.

Can't say I disagree  but what he proposes may do the trick. The problem is that the NCAA doesn't have the guts to really enforce the rules, and larger schools get away with a lot of violations, and aren't really punished when they are caught. It is a lot easier for an Oklahoma or Ohio State or an Oregon or a USC to get away with it because the NCAA is dependent on schools like that for their money. They don't make any off of Arkansas State, or similar schools.

We have to be willing to take hard stands based on our principles. Rather than push college athletics further and further from academics, we need to bring it closer. The values of our colleges and universities need to be consistent across the campus, classroom and playing fields. Coaches, administrators and student-athletes need to be held to the same standards and expectations as all members of the community.


That's what we started in the fall: clearing the way for student-athletes to get a $2,000 miscellaneous expense allowance, awarding multiyear scholarships, raising academic standards, simplifying the rule book, and toughening the penalties for egregious rule breakers.

I will have to see it to believe it.

Is Romney the only Republican candidate that has not alienated more than one half of the Republican Party? Jay Cost over at the Weekly Standard suggests that it is atleast so in New Hampshire.

We have heard a lot over the last couple months about the anti-Romney sentiment in the Republican party. However, this statistic suggests that, in New Hampshire at any rate, Romney is the only candidate with whom a majority of the party is satisfied. The rest of the candidates seem to have alienated more than half of the GOP.

There is more analysis in the story. Read the whole thing at the site.

Did Ron Paul win the liberal crossover vote in New Hampshire? So say Jim Hoft, who has the exit polls here. Go read it all at the site.

Bits and Pieces for January 10, 2012

Politics. Is anybody getting pretty sick at the inanity of our politics and the press coverage thereof? I am.  Is contraception or the ability of someone in the private sector to fire people all that important?

This may be the most important election in our lifetime, and nobody is really doing much talking about what the real issues are, or the press is not covering it.

We need to get serious about this. Now.

Is it just me. Or is it just a dull day all over while we wait for New Hampshire to vote?

I guess it is not dull in the world of medicine. Brigham and Women's Hospital, via E! Science News, has announced:

Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) have successfully tested a controllable endoscopic capsule, inspired by science fiction, that has the ability to "swim" through the body and could provide clinicians with unprecedented control when photographing the inside of the human body. The capsule is designed to be swallowed like a pill and can be equipped with a camera. Once inside the patient's digestive track, a doctor can "steer" the capsule through the body using an MRI machine, photograph specific areas of interest, and view those pictures wirelessly.

Wow! Anyone that has ever had endoscopy or colonoscopy will appreciate this research. Let's hope the FDA won't screw this up.

The Congressional Budget Office has released a brief on suggested changes to Medicare and Social Security eligibility. They have a chart on their blog. The blog concludes:

CBO estimates that by 2035, the set of increases just described would cause outlays for Social Security and Medicare to fall by 0.4 percent of GDP and federal revenues to rise by around a half percent of GDP—leading to a reduction in the budget deficit of nearly 1 percent of GDP, not including the effects of lower interest outlays. Altogether, by 2060, the federal budget deficit would be reduced by about 1¾ percent of GDP.

 In a 15+ trillion dollar economy, those can be big numbers. Enough to save the system? Who knows?

Maybe something will come out of the MF Global scandal. Seems one of the perps wants to make a deal:

While prosecutors and regulators have jointly conducted dozens of depositions with former and current employees, a senior official in the Chicago office of MF Global recently declined to meet with the federal authorities, people briefed on the investigation said.

That official, Edith O’Brien, a treasurer at MF Global, is considered a “person of interest” in the investigation, the people said. Federal authorities suspect that she transferred about $200 million to JPMorgan Chase in London on the eve of the bankruptcy of MF Global, money that turned out to be customer cash.

If they can get some of the rats to rat on the others, maybe at long last we will see a big banker do the perp walk. There have been far too few prosecutions of the bankers who have perpetrated huge frauds against the public. Of course, the reason for that is they are being protected by politicians including the one at the very top.

The top perp in this case is Jon Corzine, one of Obama's big pals.

 

Bits and Pieces for the Day

Speaking of Goldman Sachs, Timothy Haight, writing in The Orange County Register, says that the Dodd-Frank legislation did not solve the problem of the Too Big to Fail financial institutions.

Unfortunately, legislation enacted does not solve the fundamental problem. It simply provides cover for those who were asleep at the wheel, while ignoring the underlying cause of the crisis.

Some, of course, knew this. Including most in Congress. But many in the public were fooled. Our ignorance is going to come back and bite us. He recommends that we go back to Glass-Steagall and increase bank capital requirements. He would also cap the FDIC insurance on bank deposits per institution. That is leave the coverage where it is for smaller banks, but cap the exposure in the very big ones.

My thought is that the FDIC should charge premiums to the large banks according to the real risk they have. But that would require that they be honest with their risks, and right now the Federal Reserve and the Treasury are permitting them all to pretend they aren't already broke. I call it The Golden Rule: those with the gold, make the rules. In spite of their anger at Obama, they have had it real good the last few years. And they have pretty much had their way with the Congress and the President.

Uh Oh. Charles Gasparino says in the New York Post that Goldman Sachs is supporting Romney this year after having been Obama's big supporter in 2008.

What makes Goldman’s move to the right so striking is just how far to the left it was in 2008. The Goldman community gave more than a $1 million to the 2008 Obama campaign, bested only by donors tied to the ultraliberal University of California. But the latest contribution records (through the end of September) show that Goldman-linked givers barely crack the top 20 of Obama donors, with a little more than $50,000 toward his 2012 re-election effort.

Now they are the leading source of cash for Romney. They are good at picking winners. That has given them unprecedented power and influence in Congress and the executive for many years. How else could they have gotten the huge bailouts in 2008 and since?

Romney should not celebrate this. It gives many a sound reason to oppose him. Very sound. The crony capitalism we have had the last two decades is a huge part of the financial difficulties we have been experiencing. GS and a lot of the huge institutions have way too much influence.


Tim Tebow.  What more can one say? After all of the denigration and criticism, he put in a great performance to win the playoff game yesterday. Congratulations to him, and a big loud raspberry to those who have been on him for his overt Christianity. I am really getting tired of the people who belittle others for being Christian, particularly when many of them are apologists for Muslims, even the radical ones. You can guess who I am talking about.


The only known photos from the White House’s 2009 “Alice in Wonderland” party.

Why did the Obamas want to keep this secret? Why did the press go along? Goodness, Marie and Louis partied during a recession. Guess the Obamas wanted to avoid the same result. LOL

There are others. Go to the site for more.



Roger L. Simon takes on George Stephanoloupos and his question on contraceptives in Saturday night's debate here. He also is critical of the GOP for letting the leftwing media set the terms of the debates and would prefer having no moderators:

I am interested in the candidates and what they have to say to each other — mano-a-mano — in the style of Lincoln and Douglas.

They should be given a topic for the debate (entitlements, Iran, whatever) and be set free to examine it. Those issues can be discussed at length and in more depth without the interference of media personalities who, besides being biased one way or the other, are often more interested in the promotion of themselves or their companies.

Mark Steyn also has a post on the subject:

 This country is broke, and the unprecedented scale of its brokeness is an existential threat. Yet, with the exception of Newt’s occasional flashes of contempt for the questioners, everyone else plays along with this absurd game. It’s not merely that the GOP is letting the left frame the contest but that a party willing to dignify this pitiful charade is sending a broader message about the likelihood of its mustering the determination to stand up to a Democrat-media establishment once in office and effect meaningful course correction.

I think I have to agree with them both. Does anyone think Obama would do debates like this, particularly without a teleprompter?


Quote of the Day:

In a world inhabited by sincere sane leaders, willing to level with the citizens and disposed to allow financial institutions that took world crushing risks to fail through an orderly bankruptcy process, debt would have been written off and a sharp short contraction would have occurred. The stockholders, bondholders and executives of the Wall Street banks would have taken the losses they deserved. Instead Wall Street used their undue influence, wealth and power to force their politician puppets to funnel $5 trillion to the bankers that created the crisis while dumping the debt on taxpayers and unborn generations. The Wall Street controlled Federal Reserve provided risk free funding and took toxic mortgage assets off their balance sheets. The result is total credit market debt higher today than it was at the peak of the financial crisis in March 2009.

Read 2012 - The Year of Living Dangerously here. This is certainly not an endorsement of everything he says. He gets off the rails a bit, particularly towards the end when he gets partisan.

Lance Roberts at StreettalkLive.com has a good rundown on last week's employment report:

First, let's start by putting things into perspective. If you take a look at the  actual number of those "counted" as employed, that number has risen from the recessionary trough. However, in reality, employment is still far below the long term historical trend. Currently, the deviation from the long term trend is the widest on record and has made very little improvement.

 The unemployment number went down, but it was not all a happy thing.

If, and that is a big "IF", employment was truly improving, we would be seeing these numbers begin to reverse course. They aren't, and the reason is due to population growth. During the last month it is estimated that the number of individuals of working age, 16 years and over, rose by 143,000 with the working age population now residing at 240.6 million. The offset is that, while job gains are modest and primarily located in lower-paying temporary employment for the end-of-year seasonality, the population continues to grow at an unfettered clip. In simple terms, the economy is not creating jobs fast enough to keep up with population growth.

There are some very good charts that show the real situation. If the government were measuring unemployment like they did during the Great Depression, the unemployment rate would be much, much higher. Read the whole thing at the site.

At USA Today, Richard Wolf notes that the US national debt is now at 100% of the economy. This is the point where all analysis shows that we are in seriious trouble. And our politicians are whistling past the graveyard trying to avoid offending anyone by doing what is necessary. All of them are failing us because they are too busy playing politics. Its time for a change. They all need to be thrown out.


Gallup says that 40% of Americans prefer to be independent rather than identify with either of our political parties. 31% are Democrats and 27% are Republicans.

As dysfunctional as both parties are, I cannot really imagine anyone wanting to identify with either of them.

On Eating Our Seed Corn; Or, Why Gross Domestic Product Measures May be Deceiving

Those raised around farms will probably know what eating one's seed corn means, but what does that have to do with Gross Domestic Product? Read on, and I will try to make the point.

Back in the 1970s on the campaign trail with my good friend Bob Krueger (former Democratic Congressman and US Senator) Bob would often use the term "we are eating our seed corn" in discussing government budgets and deficits. (Yes, Democrats, or some of them, were concerned about that in those days.) Bob was one of those rare politicians who would tell the truth, even when many people didn't want to hear it.

Of course we know that if you eat your seed corn, you have no seed to plant to get next year's crop. You would then be broke, or would starve to death. Not a good outcome.

This brings us to the current debate over the huge and growing deficits and national debt. Borrowing against the future to pay for the present is just like eating your seed corn. Our people, many businesses, and almost all of our governments have been doing this for years. The party is just about over. The train that is our economy is about to come to the abyss.

So what does this have to do with Gross Domestic Product, and how it is measured. Read on.

GDP is measured by adding Consumption (both private and business) plus Investment plus Government Spending plus Net Exports (exports - imports).

Those are the constituent parts of GDP. Note that the only net figure is the import/export number, and for over 40 years that has been a negative number.

Right now, GDP as thus measured is positive, and we are in a "recovery." Does it feel like a recovery to you? Ask the record number of long term unemployed.

Why do not we measure the net domestic product, whereby all of the spending would be reduced by the amount of borrowing that supports it? NDP has a good ring.

I am not an economist, so I cannot give any expert opinion on why the gross figure is considered better than a net figure, but I do know that relying on the gross figure has to distort the view of what is really happening in the economy.

Consider that government spending is all included although at least 44% of it is borrowed money. Is that why politicians always want to do a big stimulous when we hit a recession? It certainly makes it statistically look like a recovery. That is why we had a "recovery" this past year, and now that the stimulous is running out the "recovery" is faltering.

Back out the deficit spending and a clearer  image of the real economy emerges.

Also consider that private (consumer) spending is also a gross figure, when by all reports, much of it is again being done on credit cards. This, of course, is one reason why the Federal Reserve always wants to force interest rates down during a recession. They want to encourage the consumer to borrow and spend.(Another is to allow the banks to borrow at low rates and lend at higher rates, helping their profits.) That is a lot of what got us into this problem.

The last decades were spent on a big joyride, with consumers being encouraged to buy things (houses among them) that they could not afford. A lot of people maxed out their credit, then borrowed their home equities to buy the tickets for that ride.

The fact that the measured GDP was good enabled the politicians---of all stripes--- to get elected and reelected because times appeared to be better than they were. And they sold it as such.

Here is where the measure of GDP deceives us: the last forty years we have been eating our seed corn, and the economic measure the government statisticians, the economic statitisticians, and the politicians have been using to tell us where we are has hidden the facts. Of course, we all know about liars, damned liars, statisticians, and politicians.

What is all this about? It is very simple. Over 30 years ago, Bob was right. We were eating our seed corn then, and that has continued to this day. And many want to continue.

That train I wrote about six months ago when I last posted speeds on nearer the abyss. At some point it will get too late to stop it in time.

Somebody needs to get serious about this, or we need to throw them out.

Imagine a train

A very long train, with the United States on board. Call it the Gravy Train, for a name.

This train has been speeding down the tracks for many, many years. It has been a great party for most on board, though not for all.

At the end of the track it is running on there is an abyss. Nobody knows where the end is, but it is there.

It might be one mile away, ten miles, 100 miles; nobody can know for sure. We only know that the train must be stopped before it reaches the abyss, or there will be a terrible train wreck.

We also know that the train takes a long distance to be stopped, so there can be no waiting until the last moment to apply the brakes.

The only way to stop the train is to stop the party. Everyone will have to give up some of their gravy. It cannot be stopped any other way.

Meanwhile, the Engineer is opening the throttle. The train is picking up speed rapidly.

The rest of the crew is dithering, doing little at all to stop the train.

Some of the passengers are getting worried, many are just ignoring the speed and are enjoying all the gravy.

Very little is being done because nobody on the train wants to give up any of their gravy.

So the train keeps speeding toward the abyss. Will it be stopped in time?

It doesn't look much like it.

This little story should seem familiar. Our government has a huge and growing budget deficit and huge and growing entitlement commitments that cannot be paid for under any scenario.

The President has offered a budget proposal that will increase the deficit considerably. His party which controls the Senate is fighting to preserve current levels of spending.

The other party, which controls the House of Representatives are engaging in tokenism so far, and were split on a vote this week that would cut a mere $22 billion from the $1.5 trillion deficit.

The only conclusion that I can reach about this is that we are governed by morons.

Who will lead the political revolution that is needed?

Is Egypt Iran Redux?

We are at the 32nd anniversary of the overthrow of the Shah of Iran, sped along by Jimmy Carter when he abandoned the Shah to the Ayatollahs. That had a great result, putting one of the chokepoints for the world's oil supplies in the hands of radicals who hate the United States.

Now we see the same thing going on in Egypt. And sure enough, our bowing and scraping President is abandoning our long time ally Mubarak.

To be sure, both the Shah and Mubarak are/were SOBs. But they were OUR SOBs. Those that replace(d) them hate us. And they are still SOBs.

Carter had no plans for the aftermath of the Iranian Revolution, and now, our government is apparently going to allow the Iranians to produce nuclear weapons, as well.

Obama? Where does he stand on Egypt? Unprepared, quite obviously. When the phone rings, there is nobody to answer it, not even Hillary.

Egypt has been the linchpin of our Mideast policy, helping to keep the shaky peace between the Israelis and the Arab nations. It also controls another major chokepoint for the worlds's oil supply, the Suez Canal.

And Obama........well, he opines that the Muslim Brotherhood would be fine in the new government. That is the grandfather of all Jihadis groups, and has just this week called for war between Egypt and Israel.

What could go wrong?

The Financial Crisis Commission Reports

It reported, and didn't really add anything to what we didn't already know.

Six Democrats and four Republicans did interviews and investigation, and probably could have read Sorkin's book TOO BIG TO FAIL and derived the same information. They also could have read Simon Johnson and James Kwak's book 13 BANKERS. Both of those shed a good bit of light on the situation.

The majority report is 545 pages, and from the reviews I have read, most of it just repeats the same things found in the above books, although I doubt it makes the allegations made in 13 BANKERS. That would not have been politically correct. I don't think I will bother, but it is available on Amazon in paperback for under ten bucks.

What it boils down to is that a partisan majority blames the banks, a partisan minority (of one) blames the government, and the rest of the Republicans blame everything and everybody.

So much for that waste of time. The government at least appears to have "done something" when, in fact, it has done nothing but perpetuate the problems at the expense of the taxpayers.

And all the politicians wonder why the Tea Parties are gaining influence.

The State of the Union

It sure didn't take Obama long to solve the fiscal crisis here in the US.

He is going to freeze spending!

This occurs at the point where the Congressional Budget Office confirms that spending at current levels will result in a $1.5 TRILLION deficit this year.

That will certainly get the job done.

The state of our union is going to be desperate until we get better leadership.

Sigh.

Musings on a Monday

Fooling around on a chilly Monday, a few thought have occurred to me:

First, The New York Times reports that our Congressman, Randy Neugebauer, has blown the whistle on a large scam taking place at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It seems that the taxpayers have paid the legal bills for some of the worst of the perps in the greatest banking fraud ever....to defend them from charges of civil fraud!

The scandal of the banking collapse, the government bailouts of the perpetrators, and the government coverup of all the fraud needs to be fully exposed. Go Randy!

Secondly, it appears that one of the big perps, Jeffery Immelt of General Electric (General Electric Credit Corp.), has been appointed to a high economic post at the White House. He will know how to bail out the perps even more at the expense of Main Street Americans.

One wonders if there is no shame in Washington, D.C. But not for long. Clearly there is none.

Third, I note that Texas Tech has won in the Court of Appeals in the Mike Leach case. I have not read the opinion, and have no thoughts about the ruling.

From the news stories, it appears that Tech is not bound by the contract it signed, and is immune from any damages it might be assessed if Tech doesn't pay under its terms.

Bad news for Leach, but I wonder how everyone else that has signed contracts with Tech feel?

New Year's Resolutions

Christmas has passed and we approach the New Year, so it is time for some resolutions.



Not for me. For Uncle Sam.



Mine are the same old ones: lose weight and avoid going broke.



Uncle Sam needs a lot more than that, so here goes with what I think they should be (in part):



1. BALANCE THE BUDGET!



Now. Not 10 years from now; not 5 years from now. Do it NOW!



How to do it? Cut spending. How about cutting the budget to where it was on September 1, 2008? That was before the bailouts started. A good start. But not enough.

Restore Federal employment to the level of September 1, 2008, then cut it 10% across the board, except for the uniformed military.



Taxes? Tax rates don't need to be raised. Just do away with all of the tax shelters that the very wealthy use to avoid paying taxes.



No more tax subsidies for anything. If it is not profitable without tax breaks, then let the resources go to something that is. (this would include the oil and gas depletion allowance, something dear to my heart, among other things).


Stop subsidies as well, for the same reason. (this would include farm subsidies, and the ethanol subsidy, also very dear to close friends).


If that has not insulted everyone, I could continue. The point is that nothing should be sacred except preserving our economy and our freedom. Everyone will have to pay up. It has to be an equal opportunity cutting contest, with no sacred cows. Everything must be on the table.


It has to be done, so get started..



2. Pass a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution that would require a balanced budget every year unless a super majority of Congress and the President declared a national emergency. There needs to be teeth in it so the politicains can't ignore it. 'Nuff said.



3. Do away with Too Big to Fail.



If a financial institution or large corporation is that big, the law should require that they be broken up. Think Teddy Roosevelt.


A corollary to that would be to reenact the Glass-Steagall Act, or something that accomplishes the same thing.

The big banks and bankers are getting fatter and fatter, while our middle class shrinks.


Go back and strengthen the extraordinarily weak regulation of financial institutions that was passed last year. Congress let the perps write their own rules. Ridiculous!


With the above, outlaw bailouts of corporations (and states, and municipalities) that go broke.



4. Enact a Sunset Act which would subject every Federal agency and program to expiration if not renewed every 10 years. No exceptions.


Texas has one that is pretty good. Model it on theirs, but stronger.



5. Reform Social Security.



Gosh, where to start? Begin by extending the age of eligibility to 70 years gradually, like it was previously extended to 67. Then index the eligibility age to life expectancy in the US.


Remove the Social Security tax from the general revenue budget, and restore the trust fund ( really too late. That horse is out of the barn.).


Establish a way to begin changing Social Security to a defined contribution plan rather than a defined benefit plan, like the private sector is doing.



6. Reform Medicare and Medicaid.


I have to admit that I do not have a clue about these.


Obviously, the benefits will have to be reduced. There just have to be limits, particularly on end of life payments. Tough choices there, but they have to be made. It needs to be made the right way, by doctors, patients, and families, not bureaucrats. Although the right is critical of Medicare supporting end of life counselling, my view is that it is necessary to encourage families to plan ahead for that eventuality. My family has. We have medical powers of attorney, living wills, and the like. Everyone should.


Premiums and deductibles for Medicare will have to be raised. The same for Medicaid.

While we are on health care, Obamacare needs to be replaced with something less intrusive. Some reform was needed, but the bill went WAY too far.

Other suggestions are quite welcome.




7. Bring the boys (and girls) home.



No great power has ever pacified Afghanistan, and we can't do it now. If we did, what would we accomplish? There is nothing there that is worth the expenditure of lives and money that is required. Declare victory soon, and bring them home.


Keep the carrier strike groups in the Persian Gulf, however. We will need them when Iran makes their first nuclear weapons. That could be another resolution, but I will resist.



8. Secure the borders now.


When that is accomplished, and only then, we can make some strides on a humane way to deal with the illegal immigrants that have been here for a good while. But there should be no blanket amnesty.


We can also then reform our immigration policies to make immigration more available to other than those who come illegally. Our current rules are way too restrictive. We need to be a bit picky about who we let in as well, but based upon skills and education, not race.


Before anything else the borders must be well secured first. And soon.



This is just a few of many things that are needed. Both political parties have contributed to a terrible situation that is a real threat to our country in many ways.



They have both sold out to the big money folks and the big labor unions. Campaign contributions are far more important to our elected officials than doing the right thing.



The big banks, labor unions, and politicians are thriving, while the middle class and the lower class is suffering.


It is time for a change, but for the RIGHT change.

This is not a complete list of what I think should be done, and I am not married to all the details. But the overall resolutions are quite necessary, in my opinion.

Clearly, the economy is not singled out for a resolution. The government just needs to get out of the way of the economy, and the other resolutions will help that quite a bit.

Other suggestions are welcome, either on this site or on Facebook.

Fire away. Let the conversations begin.

Bill Clinton and the Tea Party

Former President Bill Clinton, best known for having soiled a blue dress in the Oval Office, weighed in on the Tea Party menace a few days ago.

He is afraid the limited government rhetoric of the Tea Partiers will lead to another act of domestic terrorism like the Oklahoma City bombing.

Naturally, he leaves out the really pertinent point: that McVeigh bombed Ok City in response to Bill Clinton's mangement of the seige at Waco.

You can read a good story on the subject by Tony Blankley here.

At the same time that he was trying to trash the Tea Party, a real incident of domestic violence was taking place.

A young woman staffer for the Republican Governor of Louisiana and her date were leaving a function in New Orleans when they were set upon by left wing thugs, viciously assaulted and hospitalized. This for wearing Sarah Palin pins. More on that here. And parts of the police reports are here.

Of course, there has been no media coverage, and certaily no comments from Clinton or other Democrats who are so concerned about violence in the political sector.

Double standard?

Trashing the Tea Party won't work.

Mr. Clinton needs to slither quietly back under his rock.