Disappointed & Pissed...

Issues 2 & 3 are examples of the majority of voters not doing ANY research at all, passing two amendments written by the very owners of the interests those amendments purport to control.

Frighteningly, it may be a sign that most voters can't do the research, and even when things are spelled out to them, they either can't understand, or more likely, are ignorant through wilful stupidity.

It looks like they just gave their rights away (Issue 2 - a board now makes their decisions for them), followed by their wallet (Issue 3 - they sold something for less than a 10th of its market value).

The state just lost 450,000 million in license fees, and the farmers just took the right of the rest of us to vote on our food away.

Ignorance begets dangerous decisions.

Now the only way you can change it is through another public vote, either to amend the amendment or repeal it, which will cost the Taxpayer even more money -- on top of what they lost in the deal.

Now, we'll still have to deal with the Humane Society, as Issue 2 does nothing to stop that. And I think the average voter lost what control they have over the quality of our general food supply.

The only thing Issue 2 did was place the farmer under even more control from Big-Ag.

In the end, the farmers will find out they hurt their own pocket-book; and the real result will be that this board will be against everything from organic, free-range farming to Truth in Labelling. Big-Ag and the "Harm" Bureau don't want us to know where food comes from, how livestock are fed, and how many steroids and antibiotics are in the livestock they market.

More importantly, they don't want the voters to have a say about what types of farming and farm pollution will be allowed to expand in Ohio. This lack of voter power will really hurt all of us down the road.

It's disgusting how much trust the public puts in TV ads.

Corruption loves an uninformed populace.

NO on Issue 2 -- Again...

Issue 2

Issue 2 is a run-around to take power out of the voter’s hands.

We don't need a constitutional amendment that takes power out of the voters and their elected representative's hands and puts it in the hands of an appointed board -- no matter who is doing the appointing.

Does anyone think that a board appointed by a governor advised by a farm bureau that is indebted to and in the pockets of Big-Ag is going to approve things like "truth in labeling” that help people know where their food comes from and how it is processed?

If you don't care to know where your food comes from, and you don't care what added ingredients are in it, or what processing standards are applied, then this amendment, and the resulting loss of personal control and responsibility is for you.

Big-Ag and the money (follow the money -- look at who's spending like the dickens on TV and Radio) are trying to make this a Liberal vs. Conservative thing. The PETA, Humane Society thing is a totally fake scare tactic being broadcast by the Farm Bureau, and paid for by Big-Ag.

Now here's the real scare: If you want several gigantic messes like The Croton Egg Farm polluting the air, water and soil, run-off from giant hog and chicken farms ruining water supplies and beautiful Ohio streams and creeks, and large, single crop farms damaging soil with nitrate accumulation and leaching it into your water supply and NOT be able to stop the damage because you foolishly gave away your right to vote on it, then this amendment is for you.

Here is a message from Snowville Creamery's Warren Taylor:

http://snowvillecreamery.wordpress.com/

Vote NO on Issue 3...

This is an amendment to the state Constitution. Once done, we can't change it.

If we don't get it right this time, we are screwed worse than we are now.

This is a BAD proposal. It also creates a monopoly that is anti-free trade/anti-Capitalism. It buys our future and doesn't pay us enough for the deal. We are screwing ourselves if this is approved.

One of the really bad things is that the police unions, groups supposedly interested in the welfare of Ohioans, are supporting their own little slice of the pie, while knowing that this is a bad deal.

From BallotPedia:

The Columbus Dispatch is opposed, saying, "The Ohio Constitution is no place for such detailed, self-interested amendments. If Ohioans wish to bring casino gambling to the state, the proper way would be to approve a succinct amendment granting the governor and General Assembly the authority to draft statutes, rules and regulations for such enterprises. In this way, the state would retain leverage to properly license, govern and tax casinos. As times and circumstances changed, the state would be able to respond. If State Issue 3 is approved by voters, the amendment would be unalterable by any action of this or future governors and legislatures. Only another statewide vote could change the amendment."[15]

The Toledo Blade is opposed, saying that a gambling casino monopoly should not be enshrined in Ohio's Constitution. "Voters should also remember that the reason it is difficult to amend the state constitution is to avoid having short-term concerns or passions result in wholesale changes that harm the state in the long run. What is given away in haste, such as control over gambling, may be regretted at leisure."[16]

The Youngstown Vindicator is opposed to Issue 3, saying, "We have said before when commenting on other casino gambling issues in Ohio: Gambling is the most successful scheme for the redistribution of wealth ever devised. It takes from the poor and gives to the rich. That’s because, as any gambler can tell you, the house never loses. Don’t be taken in by the promises of easy money being made by Issue 3 proponents. Vote no on Issue 3"[17]

The Akron Beacon Journal is opposed to Issue 3. In an editorial, the board said, "The state estimates the casinos would generate $643 million in annual tax revenue, slightly less than the $651 million claimed by Issue 3 proponents. But studies of gambling's economic impact on communities show that most of the money wagered comes from local residents who quit spending on nearby bars, restaurants and the like. Studies also show an overall negative impact, once the social costs of gambling are included, among them, increased crime, broken homes, bankruptcies and addiction treatment. In other words, casinos are not an engine of economic growth."[18]

In an opinion column published by the Toledo Free Press, Tim Higgins writes that his opposition to the measure is not related to immorality, amount of revenue brought in, or the jobs that may or may not be created for Ohioans. However, Higgins writes: “My objection to Issue 3 is much like it was to Issue 6 before it from the 2008 ballot. It is that both proposed Amendments limit gambling in Ohio by creating a casino monopoly, something that should never be considered in Constitutional politics. As we would never place such a monopoly in the hands of a utility company or a corporate media outlet, neither should we do so for a group operating casinos. Penn National may be a great corporation, but so was the group who failed to get Issue 6 last year; and it does not make them more deserving of such a monopoly.”[19]

Buckeyes vs. Purdue...

"Giving Tressel Pryor is like giving me a helicopter. I don't know what to do with it, and it's going to end in a fiery crash."

This is indefensible. Sick. Unpardonable.

Blow the whole thing up and start over.

Bad O-Line, bad QB and very, very bad coaching.

This makes USC's loss to WA look like a minor upset.

Tressel needs a new O-Line coach and an offensive coordinator NOW. Those should be the requirements to keep his job.

The 2009 Nobel Peace Prize Winner...

[Pause for Applause] “I am so humbled.” [Look lovingly at wife - DO NOT make Eye Contact with SecState Clinton]...

Vote NO on Issue 2, the Livestock Care Standards Board...

I am opposed to Issue 2.

First of all, it's a Constitutional Amendment to create a Board -- and no one seems to be sure what this Board's powers will be, or what limits will be set.

Secondly and more importantly to me, this Amendment is supported by the Farm Bureau -- which means that it is in the best interests of Agra-giants like ADM, Tyson, Cargill and other food manufacturers and buyers -- not necessarily the small, LOCO-producer/seller that I prefer to buy stuff I EAT from.

The Farm Bureau is heart-and-soul in the pocket of these big, corporate interests. Seems to me that they don't need help.

They are trying to cast it as an anti-"Peta"/Humane Society legislation, which their lobby hopes is supposed to strike a chord with conservatives, but from what I have heard, it's the big, corporate owned farms that already treat their product badly who are supporting it -- not the small, free-range, organic farmers.

Right now, I think that it is a vaguely worded attempt to put all farms under the same State bureaucratic control -- a bureaucracy that is already owned, lock/stock/barrel by somebody other than the voters/taxpayers.

Because it’s designed to favour large factory farms, not family farmers, Issue 2 is opposed by the Ohio Farmers Union, the Ohio Environmental Stewardship Alliance, and the Ohio Sierra Club. The editorial boards of Ohio’s major newspapers—including the Columbus Dispatch, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Akron Beacon Journal, and Dayton Daily News—all oppose this effort to enshrine the agribusiness lobby’s favoured oversight system in the state’s constitution.

Folks, Issue 2 are more important than people realize.

The proposed oversight board would strip the Ohio Legislature of its ability to act as the defacto oversight agency that represents the people of Ohio and gives that responsibility to a group of 13 individuals that have no accountability to the citizens of Ohio. Based on this observation, I have decided that I do not want another government agency in this state that cannot be held accountable to the wishes of its residents through their vote.

I will be voting NO on Issue 2. Not because I support the Human Society or Peta, as the Pro-2 Lobby would have you believe, BUT because the people behind the Pro-2 Lobby (The Ohio Farm Bureau and large farms backed by industry giants like Cargill, Tyson and ADM) are trying to modify the Constitution to suit their needs, not ours. If this passes expect all kinds of political pressure to stack this board by people who want to put independent co-ops and family farms out of business.

Please vote NO on Issue 2.

Health Care -- Selfishness Is Good...

The Bottom Line:

It would be wonderful if we had a Single-Payer Health Care System that worked for everyone, with no waiting, no rationing and no decisions made that are not in the best interest of THE PATIENT.

But the reality is that we all see "Health Care" through our particular lens.

Our opinions and preferences are grown from our reactions to our experiences, driving the resulting decisions affecting both our lives and the lives of others. In the end we all want what is best for our loved ones and ourselves and everyone else is secondary. This is why "Capitalism" is true and at least partially works, and why the tyranny of the few manifested in any form of "Collectivism" is false and never works well enough to sustain for any appreciable time.

In relation to all of the so-called "facts" flowing from those supporting a single National Health Care System: I think the statistics are skewed. The EU/UK/UN way of keeping stats doesn't match up with the way health stats are kept in the US (see the easy example in natal care), so the comparisons are difficult.

I don't want my loved one to wait 2-3-4 months for a test my Doctor says my loved one needs to have. And I don't want my loved one to wait for a test because my loved one is not in the particular cohort segment deemed eligible for that test.

Heck, I want to be able to go to the doctor I choose -- If the one in my locale or town is not up to my standards, I want to have the choice to go elsewhere -- and, I want to do so immediately, without waiting for some government entity to give me clearance.

Driving this reasoning is that I believe hospitals in the US are better at emergency, high-risk, and extreme trauma care than anywhere else in the world. And that belief causes me to doubt the stories I hear, especially those put forth by supporters of "National Health Care" that tell me how much better other health care systems are, especially when their claims don't in the least jive with my personal experience.

If a health care system is not at its best when I need it most, then everything else, including cost, is secondary and possibly irrelevant.

The "My Favorite Band Sucks And I'm A Lemming" T-Shirt...

"My Favorite Band Sucks" or Crap Seeks It's Own Level.

It should be a T-Shirt. And I am convinced that the majority of you lemmings should be wearing it. Send me my money now.

If you listen to pop/country radio and worship at the feet of mega-record company made and marketed "stars" created in studios then you should be wearing that shirt.

Here's a test: go to the credits of your favorite "musician's" latest cd and check to see how many songs they "co-wrote".

Some of these "stars" never see the songs they supposedly wrote until time to rehearse for the recording.

It's a common practice for the publishing company for these created "stars" to buy songs outright - then list the "star" as the writer. An even more common practice is for the publisher for these "stars" to mine available pitched songs and then offer the real songwriter a conditional deal to get the song published: add the "star" as co-writer. Adding the "star" as co-writer often cuts the take of the publishing rights in half, effectively giving the real writer half what he or she deserves.

Most people listen to what the mainstream media and record companies provide -- although that is slowly getting better. In short, they listen to what they know, which is crap (most popular culture), and without "enlightenment" their taste stays at the level of crap. And, for some strange reason, people who will put up with JW's and Mormans calling at the door don't like it when you are honest about something as personal as their taste in music. It's like you called their baby butt-ugly.

You call 'em like you see 'em.

Your music is crap and your baby's butt-ugly.

One of those you can fix through the enlightenment of education.

Call me an elitist, I guess. Been called worse.

LEAP

Leap, by Brian Doyle


A couple leaped from the south tower, hand in hand. They reached for each other and their hands met and they jumped.

Jennifer Brickhouse saw them falling, hand in hand.

Many people jumped. Perhaps hundreds. No one knows. They struck the pavement with such force that there was a pink mist in the air.

The mayor reported the mist.

A kindergarten boy who saw people falling in flames told his teacher that the birds were on fire. She ran with him on her shoulders out of the ashes.

Tiffany Keeling saw fireballs falling that she later realized were people. Jennifer Griffin saw people falling and wept as she told the story. Niko Winstral saw people free-falling backwards with their hands out, like they were parachuting. Joe Duncan on his roof on Duane Street looked up and saw people jumping. Henry Weintraub saw people "leaping as they flew out." John Carson saw six people fall, "falling over themselves, falling, they were somersaulting." Steve Miller saw people jumping from a thousand feet in the air. Kirk Kjeldsen saw people flailing on the way down, people lining up and jumping, "too many people falling." Jane Tedder saw people leaping and the sight haunts her at night. Steve Tamas counted fourteen people jumping and then he stopped counting. Stuart DeHann saw one woman's dress billowing as she fell, and he saw a shirtless man falling end over end, and he too saw the couple leaping hand in hand.

Several pedestrians were killed by people falling from the sky. A fireman was killed by a body falling from the sky.

But he reached for her hand and she reached for his hand and they leaped out the window holding hands.

I try to whisper prayers for the sudden dead and the harrowed families of the dead and the screaming souls of the murderers but I keep coming back to his hand and her hand nestled in each other with such extraordinary ordinary succinct ancient naked stunning perfect simple ferocious love.

Their hands reaching and joining are the most powerful prayer I can imagine, the most eloquent, the most graceful. It is everything that we are capable of against horror and loss and death. It is what makes me believe that we are not craven fools and charlatans to believe in God, to believe that human beings have greatness and holiness within them like seeds that open only under great fires, to believe that some unimaginable essence of who we are persists past the dissolution of what we were, to believe against such evil hourly evidence that love is why we are here.

No one knows who they were: husband and wife, lovers, dear friends, colleagues, strangers thrown together at the window there at the lip of hell. Maybe they didn't even reach for each other consciously, maybe it was instinctive, a reflex, as they both decided at the same time to take two running steps and jump out the shattered window, but they did reach for each other, and they held on tight, and leaped, and fell endlessly into the smoking canyon, at two hundred miles an hour, falling so far and so fast that they would have blacked out before they hit the pavement near Liberty Street so hard that there was a pink mist in the air.

Jennifer Brickhouse saw them holding hands, and Stuart DeHann saw them holding hands, and I hold onto that.

Copyright 2002 by Brian Doyle.

Brian Doyle is the editor of Portland Magazine at the University of Portland in Oregon. He is the author of three collections of essays: Credo, Saints Passionate & Peculiar, and (with his father Jim Doyle) Two Voices. Doyle's essays have been reprinted in the Best American Essays anthologies for 1998 and 1999.

"Inglourious Basterds" reviewed. Sort of...

Quentin Tarantino seems to be a not-so-unusual combination of 12yr.old boy, 23yr.old Master's student, and 40-something Director.

Maybe I'm missing something, but it seems obvious that outside the film-buff references and spaghetti western theme he used this baseball bat of a movie to show - in this case, not necessarily to the audience - that the leap from movie patron to Nazi really IS just a dose of Pepsi, popcorn, pigotry and politics away...

The movie patrons at the Athena Grand in the supposedly the enlightened educational rose of Diversity that is Athens, Ohio made Tarantino's job very easy. Some of them were flat-out cheering with every scalping and bat-blow, and most were noticeably amused.

I get what he's trying to do, I think. I hope. He's pointing out the "They did it, so if we do it back, it's ok." mob-mentality that creates Nazis out of ordinary movie-goers, while still playing to those popcorn peons by glorifying the violence he uses to make his point. I do believe that there is a time and place for violence, but what he is doing is the movie equivalent of people taking turns blowing up each others school buses.

Is it okay to out-Nazi the Nazis, as long as it's on the silver screen, to show how easily it will happen again?

Christoph Waltz was fantastic, probably an Emmy nomination performance, although his part makes you wonder just how good a German accent James Woods could have pulled off. The French farmer at the beginning of the film was great. The rest of the individual performances were weak - probably because the writing was weak, even for someone trying to imitate spaghetti western dialog.

I’m not a fan of either, but I would have replaced Brad Pitt with George Clooney. Pitt's role seemed written for Clooney.

The older I get...

"The older I get, the more I see politics as nothing more than theater intended to cover up a good old-fashioned smash-and-grab."

Conservative Anarchism...

Great article via Old Hop.


http://oldhop.blogspot.com/2009/08/finally-towards-synthesis.html

The Guy on the Corner with the Offensive T-Shirt....

The guy on the corner with the offensive t-shirt….

This is a very interesting debate. When does “free speech” become a public nuisance? When does personal and public safety come into play?

A person was observed, on a street corner in Athens, wearing a t-shirt that said something that I cannot bring myself to say here, or anywhere.

Someone complained, with these results:

"...Discussion with the local police revealed that in Athens people and animals like that one can say, parade on a sign, or wear any words they choose without limits...."

I'm pretty sure that is not true that there are no limits to “free speech” in Athens. I can think of several religious or non-religious slogans that would have the wearer arrested as a nuisance or threat to public safety.

It really depends on WHO you are offending....

When is "hate speech" mislabeled as "free speech", and who gets to do the labeling?

Are there any lines left to cross? Is all speech "free speech", or can some speech be considered assault?

For instance: that guy on the corner of Court Street can get away with wearing the t-shirt that says "Jesus is a ----", and probably gets quite a few - unfortunate - snickers of approval from some of our populace.

But put the same guy in a "Mohammed is a ----" t-shirt, and he probably gets physically assaulted. Say his shirt is saying "All ---- go to ----", or "Kill all the (whoever)". He would definately be confronted.

Is one part of the populace so cowed that they won't stand up for their beliefs, while another group feels empowered by the fact that minority status can be a pass to say literally anything? Is this to be considered a double-standard, or just desserts - the 21st century version of "Stickin' it to The Man"?

You can boldly wear a shirt that proclaims "Police LIE". I've seen it, and I don't disagree with the statement... BUT, if you put on a shirt that accuses a popular politician/public figure of the same offense, and do it in Athens, you are gonna get your --- kicked.

I could go on with even more obnoxious examples, but it's pretty clear that in Athens, as in many other and diverse communities, you can get away with certain publically expressed opinions - in fact, they kinda blend in... - BUT, reverse those opinions and they not only draw a crowd, it would become both a personal and public safety issue.

Proof abounds that we, as a nation and a culture(s) have lost any sense of common decency - and we have lost it to the point that we really can't find it, or even know when we have crossed any line.

When did we begin to believe that in order to make a "point" we have to shock and offend? It seems we don't enough command over our language to express ourselves without resorting to intellectual shortcuts.

These shortcuts continue to work their effect on any public discourse.

Right now we're reduced to TV spouting one-line sound bites that totally disregard truth. Indeed, our elite, educational tribe views truth as pretty much subjective in all contexts. So much so that a large portion of our "intelligencia" regard the oaf on the corner with the offensive t-shirt as enlightened, and his vile statement a wonderfully insightful observation. Not, the sick, twisted offront to civilization that it actually is....

Budget troubles will mean more Cops on the road...

The worse the budget situation gets, the more patrols there will be. For a while this will be both traffic enforcement and DUI/OMVI patrols.

As the economy moves more toward total break-down, the police will move more toward their original purpose: to protect the State's interests, which government refers to as "keeping the peace".

No matter how bad the situation gets, be it for revenue purposes or just to control the populace, there will be more patrols of all kinds in the future.

And anybody who has done the math knows that there is a whole culture of jobs and dependent economy built on both Traffic and OMVI tickets. Just look at the cost of your speeding fine on your ticket and compare that to the add-on of court costs that you pay even when admitting guilt and mailing in your payment. Look at the fines, court costs, schooling/rehab and long-term insurance costs associated with just a first-time OMVI offense.

Ohio is ranked the forth worst state for speed traps in the US. To reiterate, it will get worse as the times do...

I drove to WVa the other day, spent 35 miles on 33 in Ohio and saw 10 troopers and 2 sheriffs. That's one every 2.9 miles. In 145 miles through WVa on Rt.77, I saw one trooper and one sheriff.

Mikey (I'm a man!) Coleman, Users vs. Suppliers, and the C-bus Tax Increase....

Mayor Mikey (I’m a man!) Coleman threatened his city with chaos if his 25% income tax increase was not approved in the sneak election yesterday-- a sneak election where the minority gets to decide for the majority, again.

Yep, we the minority in numbers, are actually the majority of tax dollars for the wunnerfull city of C-bus.

Whose police and fire “protection” are we paying for? Yessiree, it’s the guy or gal who tries to panhandle us downtown or in the Short North, or the thousands of non-citizens and welfare junkies living in the too-numerous tax supported projects.

And why are we the ones paying? A city estimate of 55% of C-bus income tax is paid by non-residents. And since that is the number supplied by the city Auditor’s office, I am betting that the reality is much higher; probably 65% or more.

Those people who work in the restaurants and shops we frequent and where we frequently get hasseled by said panhandlers? Why, they don't live in C-bus either! More and more of the people who work in C-bus are commuters; the result being that those on the teat and with the resident vote decide things, not the reluctant suppliers.

With fewer people working and paying the problem is fast reaching the critical mass of users overbalancing producers.

More people on the teat. Suckling piggies. On The Dole.

While the welfare junkie that is C-bus is trying to hold the dealer up, that works only once, and then the supply is gone. The junkie doesn’t have the wherewithal to do his own supplying. If more and more jobs and taxpayers move out of the city limits, bye-bye city. And maybe that’s a good thing...? Then mebbe Mayor Mikey I’m-a-man! will get a look at real chaos – not the pretend stuff he threatens us with.

Mikey told you that the gangs and panhandling problems will spin out of control if he didn't get his money. Rrriiiiiiight. Like they've been in control, while he adds more "Freeway Police" and tries to convince us that writing speeding tickets and helping set up DUI checkpoints is really fighting crime.

As for we Worker-Bees, we are paying city income tax and a separate school tax where we live, and now another tax increase on top of the C-bus tax we now pay, and the chunk of state and federal taxes with which we supply more public services and one form or another of government assistance for said non-citizens and welfare junkies.

Mayor Mikey I'm-a-man! scheduled the vote for August. Not November. August. Even though it costs more than twice as much to hold a special election than to put the rape…errrrr issue on the general ballot. That’s so he can get his bunch of “users” out while any city-dwelling “producers” are at work. It wouldn't surprise me if the “get out da vote” effort was just Free Cigs and 40s fer everbuddy.

As it stands right now, I might be bending over, but it is so Mikey (I’m a man!) Coleman and his scum-sucking scam artist pan handling welfare grubbing constituency can kiss my ***.

It is a day for whining....

I hate my 178 mile commute. And, I very much dislike Columbus. It has no soul - at least to this country boy. I doubt I could live here. And I hate being away from my beautiful home and my much-much better half.

I dislike my job, not necessarily the mechanics of it, but I hate having to interact with shallow and insincere people to whom office politics, gossip and rumor is the only spice of the day. I wonder if their souls look and act like rats in a sinking ship?

It is my own fault, as a chronic underachiever, that I am only qualified for the job I do. I am very good at it, but the company where I work is the only place within 150 miles of where I want to be that has a job for me...

Yep, it is a day for whining.

The Beer Summit: Oh, the Beers that should have been....

The final word on the beers that should have been served at the historic but meaningless "Beer Summit".

Sergeant Crowley could have been drinking a number of beers, from Carling “Black Label” to Saranac “Black Forest”, to Boston’s own Sam Adams “Black Lager”.

Only one Cerveza fits Professor Gates: Mexico’s own "Carta Blanca". That way he can be drinking the “White Card” in lieu of playing the Race Card.

There are many beers suggested for our President, from “Arrogant Bastard”, which is only half true, to “Blithering Idiot”, which really should have been Joe (Plugs) Biden's beer of choice in lieu of Buckler.

Only one American made beer REALLY FITS, though:

LOST NATION PALE ALE

The Beer for people who have Lost Their Nation, NOT Their Taste.

LOST NATION PALE ALE from Willoughby Brewing Company, 4057 Erie Street Willoughby Ohio.

http://www.willoughbybrewing.com/beer.htm

Amateurism and Incompetence....

Amateurism and incompetence spell disaster.

And when it's from the person holding the most important job in the world...?

Then the disaster moves on up the Richter scale.

The Peasant Plan....

(From "Shot In The Dark" Blog)

The Peasant Plan
July 31st, 2009 by Mitch Berg

John Edwards, in a line that may well top off his political epitaph one day, famously said that there are “Two Americas”. He was referring to the literal and metaphorical gulf between America’s “Haves” and “Have Nots”. He didn’t note that there are also two Indias, two Phillipines, two Frances and two Argentinas, but Edwards has never been one to let eternal truths of the human condition get in the way of a sound bite.

Conservatives accept these gulfs, recognizing that talent, innate applied intelligence, hard work and just-plain-luck and the lack of them will put people in one America or the other. At the same time, most see a moral obligation to cut down the hurdles and obstacles between the two - especially the (creating more) exits from “Have Not” America.

The left, on the other hand, has always sought to make life in “Have Not” America at least superficially less onerous, all the while making “Have” America a refreshing oasis for those who spend their days dwelling on the plight of the “Have Nots”. Their rationale isn’t much different from the one that royalty accepted in years past; the responsibilities of taking care of ones’ inferiors justified life’s little luxuries, and the big ones as well. In big ways (the USSR’s kommissars shopped at special stores and lived in special housing while the proles waited in line for bread and crammed entire families into studio apartments) and little (count the number of anti-Second-Amendment celebs who’ve used their connections to get themselves and/or their bodyguards concealed carry permits), the left constantly squirrels away perks for their fellow “haves”.

Since the bloom is finally coming off Obama’s electoral rose, it’s time to catalog the Administration’s, and the Democrats’, attempts to make “Have” America a nicer place for those who take care of all of us peasants....

(Read the rest at "Shot In The Dark")

State Run Media Lies On Severity of Recession (Depression)....

All the news outlets were Obamatized today with stories that said the "recession" was "lessening in severity" or "the economy is recovering" or "economic indicators" are improving.

Notice how most of them are all on the same page when it comes to the The 0-Man's press releases, errrrr... "news"?

The economic data (You know, the actual math involved?) says different.

My Beer and My Civil Rights....

So, we're all agreed then:

All cops drink.

And... all black men break and enter.

Cool. The national referendum on that is over.

Long as we got it straight.

Btw, the Cerveza should have been Carta Blanca.

That way the Beer Summiters could drink the "white card" in lieu of playing the race card.

Think I'll go stand on my front porch and yell at cops for a while. It's fun, but not very profitable.

But I'm well within my rights....

A Parable of Beer at The White House....

The Ethnic Stereotyping Parable of Beer

So...

Maybe if we were to consider the whole "beer at the White House" (Breaking and entering) thing from Sgt. Crowley's (Prof. Gates) point of view?

You never know, he might feel a little put upon, having someone of another ethnic background automatically assuming he liked to drink (break and enter) because he was Irish (Black)? Maybe even if he is standing in a bar (In the foyer of a house with a broken front door) when he gets the invite?

I mean, especially if he knows in the depths of his very soul and through the personal experience of generations of his ethnic group that there is a history of societal-wide biased belief that the majority of Irishmen (Blacks) abuse alcohol (Break and enter)?

What if the invite was really only an innocent one - the kind of invite that someone might extend to a working acquaintance (Perp) or customer (Taxpayer) while in the course of their job?

But what if then, as Sgt. Crowley (Prof. Gates) has been conditioned to look at such pleasantries as an insult to his heritage and his intelligence, he takes offense at the invitation to “have a beer” (Show some I.D.)?

Are we to then blame Sgt. Crowley (Prof. Gates)?

Of course not – blame the inviter, not the invitee.

And The Tax Circle Will Be Unbroken....

... by and by, Lord. By and by.

From the continuing saga entitled "Bend Over To See How Taxes Work".

The Revenue Circle

I'll bet that it will get to the point that it has with Federal monies for roads: States will have certain laws they must enact and enforce, as well as certain benchmarks or metrics they have to meet, or the Federal dollars (actually the state's dollars to begin with) will be taken away.

Lessee, we are taxed to pay for citizen penalizing "safety" programs (ClickItOrTicket, Traffic Cameras, etc...) that are mandated by Federal law, states collect the revenue from these "programs". Then the Feds raise the number of such mandates, and states have to figure how to make more revenue to fund the mandates, just so they can qualify for more Federal monies, taxes go up to provide more Federal monies... on and on and on....

President guilty of ethnic profiling....

One of them thar thangs that jus' make ya wanna go "hummm" just occurred to me -- According to the 0-Man, this is supposed to be a "teaching moment" about racism.

So why is it that he invited Crowley over for, of all things, a beer? To talk about racism? Why not a White House dinner? Why not tea? 'cause everbuddy knows the working class can't be trusted to behave at a proper White House din-din. Prolly never seen a salad fork before.

Is it because, you know, Crowley is an Irish name, and hey, you know about those Irish and their alcohol?! Give 'em a little likker and everythang'll be ok. Heck, just 'cause he's Irish don't mean he ain't got sum Injun in him.

What The 0-Man did here is the equivalent of a white President inviting a person of color to the White House to share some watermelon, fried chicken, and listen to some drivin' while black stories. Jolly time.

Unbelievably (or not) oblivious.

Proving the 0-Man's point though, is that Gates does have better taste in beer, preferring Red Stripe or Becks over Crowley's Blue Moon.

Uh, weak wheat beer made by Coors. Almost as bad as ethnic profiling by the 0-Man.

Now, all of us know (or we should) that The 0-Man is 1/2 Irish. But he's in denial of his Irish "roots". That's why he's called the first (2nd?) Black President instead of the 11th partially Irish President.

Plus, it just sounds better.

Now here's a way for him to keep sounding good: Get the facts first... when you're President, that's important.

What IS happening...

"Let us face reality. The framers [of the Constitution] have simply been too shrewd for us. They designed separate institutions that cannot be unified by mechanical linkages, frail bridges, tinkering. If we are to "turn the founders upside down" we must directly confront the constitutional structure they erected....

...Others might press for major constitutional restructuring but I doubt that Americans under normal conditions could agree on the package of radical and "alien" constitutional changes that would be required. They would do so, I think, only during and following a stupendous national crisis and political failure."

From: The Power to Lead by James Macgregor Burns, Presidential Biographer and Member of The Council on Foreign Relations.

Wow. We are really in trouble.


Here's what's happening, folks. (From a web-poster aliased "JustPassinThru")

Everybody needs to brush up on Saul Alinsky.

Destroying what IS is a necessary prerequisite for building their New Utopia. They ARE destroying our structure - BY DESIGN. So that when the people get panicked; and with church and community rendered impotent, they will, Liberals hope, turn to GOVERNMENT.

It's reminiscent of the Three Stooges short, where they were exterminators trying to hype business by planting vermin in an expensive house. - JustPassinThru

Here are some Alinskyisms:

"Radicals must be resilient, adaptable to shifting political circumstances, and sensitive enough to the process of action and reaction to avoid being trapped by their own tactics and forced to travel a road not of their choosing."

"A Marxist begins with his prime truth that all evils are caused by the exploitation of the proletariat by the capitalists. From this he logically proceeds to the revolution to end capitalism, then into the third stage of reorganization into a new social order of the dictatorship of the proletariat, and finally the last stage -- the political paradise of communism."

"An organizer working in and for an open society is in an ideological dilemma to begin with, he does not have a fixed truth -- truth to him is relative and changing; everything to him is relative and changing.... To the extent that he is free from the shackles of dogma, he can respond to the realities of the widely different situations...."

"By 1985, the influence of traditional Christian philosophy in the West was weak and negligible.... Humanly speaking, it was no longer too tall an order to strip large majorities of men and women in the West of those last vestiges that remained to them of Christianity's transcendent God."

"The end is what you want, the means is how you get it. Whenever we think about social change, the question of means and ends arises. The man of action views the issue of means and ends in pragmatic and strategic terms. He has no other problem; he thinks only of his actual resources and the possibilities of various choices of action. He asks of ends only whether they are achievable and worth the cost; of means, only whether they will work. ... The real arena is corrupt and bloody."

"The means-and-ends moralists, constantly obsessed with the ethics of the means used by the Have-Nots against the Haves, should search themselves as to their real political position. In fact, they are passive — but real — allies of the Haves…. The most unethical of all means is the non-use of any means... The standards of judgment must be rooted in the whys and wherefores of life as it is lived, the world as it is, not our wished-for fantasy of the world as it should be...."

"The third rule of ethics of means and ends is that in war the end justifies almost any means...."

"The seventh rule... is that generally success or failure is a mighty determinant of ethics...."

"The tenth rule... is you do what you can with what you have and clothe it with moral garments.... It involves sifting the multiple factors which combine in creating the circumstances at any given time... Who, and how many will support the action?... If weapons are needed, then are appropriate weapons available? Availability of means determines whether you will be underground or above ground; whether you will move quickly or slowly..."


"Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules. You can kill them with this, for they can no more obey their own rules than the Christian church can live up to Christianity."

Health Care Reform Rhetoric vs. Reality....

From the NY Post:

Rhetoric: The president insisted in his news conference last night that "the bill I sign must also slow the growth of health-care costs in the long run."

Reality: Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad asked the man who is the top authority on the subject -- Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf -- if the bills before Congress would "bend the long-term cost curve" in health care.

"No, Mr. Chairman," Elmendorf said, adding, "the legislation significantly expands" health costs.

Strike one.

Rhetoric: Obama said last night his plan "will keep government out of health-care decisions, giving you the option to keep your insurance if you're happy with it."

Reality: The Lewin Group, a respected economics-consulting firm, estimates in a new study for The Heritage Foundation that more than 80 million people would lose the coverage they have today if the Obama plan is implemented.

Strike two.

Rhetoric: President Obama has traveled the country extolling the virtues of the Mayo Clinic and other integrated health systems, saying they offer "the highest quality care at costs well below the national norm" and should be a model for the nation.

Reality: The Mayo Clinic and 12 other top health-care-delivery outlets just sent Congress a letter, warning that the bill that already has passed two committees in the House would put them out of business.

If the government creates its own health-insurance plan paying at Medicare rates, as the administration and Congress propose, the organizations say the result will be "unsustainable for even the nation's most efficient, high-quality providers, eventually driving them out of the market."

Strike three.

Obama and his False "Fact" of 46 Million...

President Obama and his minions are continually throwing this very deceptive figure out: that according to the Census Bureau, there were 46 million uninsured Americans in 2007—about 15.3 percent of the population. It’s actually about 16 million, or about 5 percent of the population.

Those carefully chosen few privileged to interview him (see the recent Jim Lehrer interview on News Hour which prompted this letter), never call him on it.

The difference between 16 million and 46 million: the millions of people who qualify for but do not take government insurance benefits already offered, the population making more than $50,000 a year who are uninsured, and uninsured non-citizens.

The majority of people (59.3 percent) purchase plans through their employer and forgo direct purchases. Plans provided by private insurers directly to consumers only account for about 8.9 percent of total purchases; a very small percentage of the overall private market.

Over 27 percent of Americans are covered by taxpayer financed public insurance. These Americans are covered by Medicare, Medicaid, State-Child’s Health Insurance Programs, military health care, and sometimes a combination of these options.

Through war, an influx of immigration, and a number of recessions the uninsured rate has stayed relatively constant, moving between 12 and 16 percent since 1987.

Of the 46 million people without insurance 12.4 million were foreign born, of which 9.7 million were non-citizens. According to the Census Bureau, the number of illegal immigrants without insurance is difficult to calculate accurately, but it is believed to be the largest factor contributing to climbing uninsured rates in recent years.

Of the 46 million uninsured, 17.5 million had a household income greater than $50,000 per year in 2007 and 9.1 million had incomes over $75,000. These Americans did not qualify for public insurance, given their incomes, and have elected to stay out of the private insurance market. This correlates with the fact that about 40 percent of all uninsured Americans are between the ages of 25-44.


Ref. Sources of insurance analysis: http://www.freedomworks.org/publications/the-sources-of-insurance-issue-analysis-126

Ohio's Gambling Revenue Is A Pipe Dream...

The projected gambling "revenue" that is supposed to prop up the back end of all of the Social Services in Governor Strickland's lazy-man's budget will end up just so much smoke.

As is the norm for most State-run projects (see lottery as funding for education????), it will be full of cost overruns, bad purchasing choices, kick-backs and loopholed contracts.

West Virginia revenue from slot machines is off 7 percent for the current year. And projections for this coming fiscal year are worse.

If a state that is experienced is missing their projections, what will happen to Ohio's rookie projections?

Wanna guess?

Gov. Strickland's projections for Keno profits for the Ohio Lottery Commission were at $73 million of the budget for the current fiscal year. Now those "revenues" are running off $40 million at a pace that projects to only $33 million.

That's a lotta red ink and a pretty big difference, doncha think?

When the slot machines were first proposed back in March by racetrack owners to “save their businesses”, they estimated the revenue to the state to be $600 million. Now, when Governor Ted wants slots to balance the budget, they're supposed to make $933 million.

Jimi was right: If 6 were 9, well, wishes still ain't horses, after all.

The solution to a healthy budget is a better business environment with better tax structures, NOT A SHELL GAME where the only winners are a couple of outdated gambling ventures and an out-of-state slot machine manufacturer.

That is, unless your whole economic plan is a shell game. Then it makes sense because you are trying to scam the citizenry. Just. One. More. Time.


Instead of helping prop up his lazy man's budget, Gov. Strickland will be looking at an ultra-costly fiasco. The state will count on the $933 million of projected revenue, which will fail to materialize, and at that point they will have another deficit built on those faulty expectations, ending up with even more job cuts, and as they usually do, an end result worse than an honest days work at effective budget cuts and a revamped tax system would have been.

To simplify, here are the steps involved:

1-The assumption (see "projected revenues") that a government program, especially one designed to raise money, is going to be badly run, is a pretty safe one.

2-Being off on projected revenue hurts budget plans. Ohio sees what is happening with other gambling states, and blithely ignores those results when making its own plans. Pretty smart, huh?

3-The problem is that they plan their spending and make the budget based on the false assumption that they are getting $73 million in revenue, when it is actually $33 million. At this point we don't even know if that is gross or net - we don't know the formula they used - although you can wade through the 1000+ pages and presumably find out. It probably changes based on political expediency.

Can we assume, given the record on Keno, that things will be the same with slots? I think so.

The result is a LOSS as the budget is in deficit because, using Keno as the example -- Slots will be worse, they have already spent the $73 million, additional jobs and programs have to be cut, and the cycle of deficit spending goes on and on...

America's Deathbed....

(Exerpted from World Net Daily)

"...That government is best that governs least is an Americanism. When "Silent Cal" Coolidge went home in 1929, the U.S. government was spending 3 percent of gross domestic product.

And today? Obama’s first budget will consume 28 percent of the entire GDP; state and local governments another 15 percent. While there is some overlap, in 2009, government will consume 40 percent of GDP, approaching the peak of World War II.

The deficit for 2009 is $1.8 trillion, 13 percent of the whole economy. Obama is pushing a cap-and-trade bill to cut carbon emissions that will impose huge costs on energy production, spike consumer prices and drive production offshore to China, which is opting out of Kyoto II. The Chinese are not fools.

Obama plans to repeal the Bush tax cuts and take the income tax rate to near 40 percent. Combined state and local income tax rates can run to 10 percent. For the self-employed, payroll taxes add up to 15.2 percent on the first $106,800 for all wages of all workers.

Medicare takes 2.9 percent of all wages above that. Then there are the state sales taxes that can run to 8 percent, property taxes, gas taxes, excise taxes and "sin taxes" on booze, cigarettes and, soon, hot dogs and soft drinks.

Comes now national health insurance from Nancy Pelosi's House. A surtax that runs to 5.4 percent of all earnings of the top 1 percent of Americans, who already pay 40 percent of all federal income taxes, has been sent to the Senate. Included also is an 8 percent tax on the entire payroll of small businesses that fail to provide health insurance for employees.

Other ideas on the table include taxing the health benefits that businesses provide their employees.

The D.C.-based Tax Foundation says New Yorkers could face a combined income tax rate of near 60 percent.

In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson called George III a tyrant for having "erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people and eat out their substance."

What did George III do with his Stamp Act, Townshend Acts or tea tax to compare with what is being done to this generation of Americans by their own government?

While the most productive are bled, a third of all wage-earners pay no U.S. income tax, and Obama plans to free almost half of all wage-earners of all income taxes. Yet, tens of millions get Medicaid, rent supplements, free education, food stamps, welfare and an annual check from Uncle Sam called an Earned Income Tax Credit, though they never paid a nickel in income taxes.

Coming to America to feast on this cornucopia of freebies is the world. One million to 2 million immigrants, legal and illegal, arrive every year. They come with fewer skills and less education than in even the recent past, and consume more tax dollars than they contribute by three to one.

Latina women have more babies north of the border than they do in Mexico and twice as many here as non-immigrant women.

Almost all immigrants qualify for ethnic preferences in hiring and promotions and admissions.

All of this would have astounded the Founding Fathers, who, as they declared in the Constitution – created this country "for ourselves and our posterity."

China saves, invests and grows at 8 percent. America, awash in debt, has a shrinking economy, a huge trade deficit, a gutted industrial base, an unemployment rate surging toward 10 percent and a money supply that's swollen to double its size in a year. The 20th century may have been the American Century. The 21st shows another pattern.

"The United States is declining as a nation and a world power with mostly sighs and shrugs to mark this seismic event," writes Les Gelb, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, in CFR's Foreign Affairs magazine. "Astonishingly, some people do not appear to realize that the situation is all that serious."


GAME OVER.

The BIGGEST Rip-Off. Goldman-Sachs and the fleecing of the Taxpayer....

The Bubble Machine - How to profit from disaster. Goldman-Sachs and the fleecing of the American Taxpayer....

This is a great audio interview from the program "Here and Now", on WBUR, Boston public radio

Goldman-Sachs has people throughout our government, and that enabled it, through Henry Paulson and others, to game the system.

They control both the Federal Reserve Bank System and our government oversight programs.

http://www.hereandnow.org/stand-alone-player/?fileUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bu.edu%2Fwbur%2Fstorage%2F2009%2F07%2Fhereandnow_0715_1.mp3&fileTitle=Goldman%20Sachs%20the%20"Bubble%20Machine


Guess who owns the Chicago Climate Exchange, the firm that will be handling the majority of Trade Cap sales?

Thaaaaaat's right, folks. It's our good old buddy Goldman-Sachs. The people who rigged the rape, errrrr "Bailout".

Yessiree, G-S, the company that right now controls most of our nation's monetary policy, through their former employees that head up the FED and parts of government, and now they are in charge of selling our 21st Century INDULGENCES.

Our Manifest Debtstiny....

Reduce the size of Government? Reduce the size of Government?

Why oh why would anyone want to reduce the size and influence of the Ultimate Source of Goodness, gifts from which in multiplicities the Holy and Blessed Federal Reserve spews out of its cavernous mouth, drowning us in the wonderful destiny of inherited debt manifested as the Heavenly Manna of Inalienable Rights to Unlimited Social Services and Inflated Dollars?

What, you say you believe in personal responsibility and "savings"????

Oh, I pity you your ancient and naive little provincial view. You are close to heresy.

Repent before The One (Pbuh) issues a fatwa on your ass.

The Teleprompter in Chief™ defies reality....

(Courtesy of Mitch Berg's "Shot In The Dark". This is an edited version. Visit the blog for the rest.)


The Teleprompter in Chief™ defies reality, regurgitating well-worn propaganda that flies in the face of reality as revealed in real numbers.

The 0-Man said his $787 billion stimulus bill “has worked as intended” as he pushed back against Republican criticism that his recovery program has failed to rescue the economy.
“It has already extended unemployment insurance and health insurance to those who have lost their jobs in this recession”.

…which is a good thing, and probably all the “Stimuless” spending package should been enacted to do; provide a safety net. The rest of the plan is a combination of deferred liberal agendas and political payback.

Meanwhile, unemployment continues to rise, oil prices are falling (which believe it or not is bad), and the stock market has fallen four weeks in a row in anticipation of an extended worldwide recession as global government borrowing digs an ever-deepening crevasse.

Oil prices and the stock market are accepted leading indicators. The 0-Man’s rhetoric has no or predictive value whatsoever. Where are even some of our 2-3 Million New Jobs? - a number The 0-Man pulled from his backside some time ago - why is unemployment above 8% and still rising? If this is not a free fall….

…the bill “was designed to spur demand and get people spending again and cushion those who had borne the brunt of the crisis,” The 0-Man’s said.

Both missions: Unaccomplished.

Wouldn’t it be nice if the media displayed a little scepticism towards The 0-Man’s stimulus plans? If nothing else I would like to see some mainstream journalist note that The 0-Man’s training is in the law, not economics, and that he has no history of managing an economy bigger than an office budget, and that we don’t even know how he did on that.

The 0-Man has already saved (or created?) 600,000 jobs. He says so! I dare you to disprove him, because God knows, Obama can’t prove it.

Obligatory Palin Post....

Added note:

Lately I've heard a couple people comparing Sarah Palin's current situation to Richard Nixon in '62, when he famously said "... you won't have Nixon to kick around any more...."

This is all said with the point seeming to be that a comeback is in the offing.

Difference being: Tricky Dick was educated, prepared and a diabolical genius. Then the genius part took a vacation and he was left with just the evil.

Palin is nothing but a few memorized catch phrases that she can’t define; but this is combined with the misplaced hopes of someone else’s disappointed constituency, a lot of seriously reaching wishful thinking, and what very well may be an Adderall overdose. All of this is completed (and complicated) by a bunch of hubris sprinkled on top to form a quite probably insane and definitely unstable mix.

We already have one couple in the White House right now who don't know how to act in public (Do they have any competent advisors?). Why would we want to do this again on top of all the rest of our troubles?

Conservatives need to find a serious/real candidate or two and quit messing around with this weird glorification of someone who doesn't deserve consideration.

-------
Org. Post:

Any sane person who listened to Sarah Palin's news conference has to say she at least sounded shaken and almost unhinged.

I wonder what McCrazy thinks about this?

Do you think he feels like giving Cheney a free shot at his face?

If not for his incredibly egotistically niave view of the VP selection process, this probably slightly unbalanced person would not have had a sniff at a ticket and would have eventually just faded and floated away on some ice flow....

I still can't get over the fact that McCrazy had KBH available and (even better) CTW possibly available, and he picked Palin.

That will go down as one of the worst political moves... ever.

Ad.note:

All you hear from the Neo-cons (a la "Conservatives Lite") is their normal Palin-talk ("Elitists bla bla, Elitists bla bla, Elitists…") as they continue to get in their own way.

I require my leaders - on a national level anyway - to be obviously intelligent, well-versed in every possible facet of policy and ready to stand on the world stage and command respect if not fear.

Who qualifies? The 0-Man doesn’t, Joe Plugs surely doesn’t, McCrazy doesn’t… and yet Neo-cons all over (Yep folks, they haven't gone away.) are glorifying Palin when she is obviously proven to be unqualified and unready for any kind of national exposure or pressure.

Palin was a huge mistake and Neo-cons continue to try to defend it instead of calling it what it is: McCrazy’s foolish conceit.

Ohio -- Raising taxes in bad times....

The question is not "... why would you ever want to raise taxes during a time of prosperity?", but why would you spend the increased revenues from those more prosperous times so frivolously?

The fastest way to eliminate helpful state programs is to continue the course of making Ohio one of the least business-friendly states. Inacting a sales tax increase, especially one that increases taxes on business-to-business purchases, will result in another flood of jobs leaving Ohio (for states like Indiana, with much better tax climates), as well as businesses (as my employer has done) choosing to expand in other states rather than open in new markets in Ohio.

This welfare first/business last environment will result in more unemployment, more reliance on support-starved state programs, speeding our state toward that point where the critical mass of users overbalances producers, crashing what is left of our economy and bancrupting both State and taxpayers.

Our government, on all levels, and much like the people it "serves", will never learn to live with a budget that saves money during good times, so that the bad times will not be so bad.

Recycling comes in handy....

Recycling comes in handy...

... when the PO-liceman pulls you over and "in the course of human events" happens to ask why there is a case of open beer bottles in the jeep....

The Worst Public TV Guest Ever....

The evening of May 27th, I watched "State of the State" show on WOUB, the local public channel in Athens, Ohio.

One of the guests on the forum type show dealing with multiple aspects of the unemployment problem in Southeastern Ohio was Mark Tatge, some sort of visiting professor at Scripps College of Journalism, Ohio University.

Tom Hodson is the moderator, and the other members of the forum were:

Angie Hawk Maiden: President and CEO of Appalachian Center for Economic Networks;
Perry Varnadoe: Director of the Meigs County Economic Development Office; and
Debbie Phillips (D-Athens) State Representative for the 92nd Ohio House District is also home to Ohio University.

"Mr." Tatge was the most unprepared, impolite and offensive guest I have ever seen on any real public forum/information show. My wife wondered if he thought he was auditioning for a bit on Colbert. I thought that he thought he was on the Bill "Blowhard" O'Reilly set and in some sort of gruesome competition with Ann Coulter.

I am a Libertarian, and I really tried, but I could find absolutely nothing redeeming about his appearance on a show that usually has a thoughtful and well-meaning discourse that seeks practical solutions to problems in our State and in our local area.

With his reckless, unfocused, arrogant "Faux News" style of blathering bloviation, he alienated the other guests on the show, and probably everyone watching as well. The other guests and the moderator were noticably shocked and embarrassed as they tried to politely interact with this pretentious fool.

Mr. Tatge had done no research, spoke in offensive and outlandish generalities throughout, frustrated and discomfited the moderator and belittled the efforts of the other guests by his lack of knowledge and interest in the causes, applicable questions and possible working solutions to the problem of local unemployment. It was a shameful example of ego combined with ignorance by a person who touts himself as an expert and is rumored to teach a class in professionally reporting on financial matters at Ohio University.

Mr. Tatge's one answer to everything (when he wasn't offending literally every single resident of Southeastern Ohio) seemed to be "You people need more help from State Government", which seems a strange proposition for a "Conservative" to espouse. He had the air of someone whose dog ate the homework and who has chosen feigned superiority and attacking in ignorance as his method of defense.

But that is not the worst. The worst is that for anyone watching the show that was still on the political fence, he singlehandedly did his best to make any low tax, small Government, Libertarian leaning political world-view as unsavory and unsympathetic as possible. Mr. Tatge was the onscreen epitome of that generalized view of the Big Business, money-grubbing, unsympathetic, me-first Conservative that the Far Left loves to put out there.

In short, Mr. Tatge is either a stone idiot or he cannot be a real Conservative, but some actor hired by the Far Left to spoof the good intentions of people who want lower taxes and less government, more individual freedom and responsibility.

This may be not giving some enterprising Liberal jokester enough credit, but I'm betting that Mr. Tatge is a stone idiot.

SCOTUS Pick: Obama goes for Demographic over Scholarship....

Noted lefty constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley thinks Sotomayor tends toward the lightweight edge of the scale of the available talent:

“She is not the intellectual powerhouse that many academics had hoped for.”

and,

“Advocates have struggled to cite a single opinion that could be viewed as a brilliant or extraordinary treatment of the law.”

And,

“Looking objectively at the body of opinions by Judge Sotomayor, one is not overwhelmed by their depth. There is nothing in this body of work that would scream out for the elevation of the author to the Court.”

Read the whole article here:

http://jonathanturley.org/2009/05/26/white-house-to-announce-court-pick-at-10-am/#more-11301

I probably wouldn't agree with Turley on anything. Especially individual rights, making law from the bench and US subjugation to International Law. But he seems to be quoted an awful lot by MSNBC, which is the Faux "News" opposite number in the war for the lemming mind -- and by NPR. So....

On the other hand, what the 0-Man has got going for him is the Harriet Miers nomination. That and Clarence Thomas.

But apart from Thomas, the rest of the SCOTUS, when nominated, seems to have been much more qualified than Sotomayor.

Consensus of those who worked with Sotomayor is that she’s intelligent, but an intellectual lightweight and not patient enough to take the time to understand complex issues.

One wonders whether there will be a shock to the court's system, giving up a quiet, very polite Justice who is known for listening, for one who often comes across as rude, pushy and domineering of discussion from the bench, and who's opinions often are viewed as overly simplified, short and dismissive.

In an added note, three out of the five Sotomayor ruled cases that have been accepted on appeal to the SCOTUS have been reversed, and they are working on what may be another right now.

That does not speak well of her ability to get it right -- or at least right enough for the SCOTUS. It also brings up the question of how many of her rulings were probably wrong, but SCOTUS chose not to hear them... and it amounts to a lotta "bad justice" out there.

GM = Government Motors....

Does this mean that I have to pick sides when the UAW goes on strike and the 0-Man calls in his Brownshirt strike-breakers?

Whew… tough call.

Nothing more deserving or entertaining than Union Thugs beating and getting beaten by Government Thugs!

It also means that Chevy will have to change its ad tune from “Like A Rock” to Neil Young’s “Welfare Mothers (Make Better Lovers)".

Much, much better song anyway....

The Halliburton/KBR/Cheney/War/Money Machine....

You know, looking back on it, the incredible, interwoven web of deceit and corruption that was the Halliburton/KBR/Cheney/War/Money Machine, may go down as the costliest bit of political and economic deception (that term does not do credit) ever foisted on America's conscience and wallet.

Remember, the "cost" of the War was not included in the Bush Jr. era budgets, so we really have no way to grasp the size of the scam and how much was siphoned away like so much stolen gas -- but if we really could see it, I bet it could make AIG and Madoff look like one fall purse-snatchers.

Oh, and one more thing: I wonder, did Halliburton/KBR execs get little happy chills all over every time an IED blew up a HumVee, knowing full well that the deaths of our soldiers were providing the smokescreens for their robbery?

Things must be made Right.

How do you not believe in a Righteous and Vengeful God?

Cops Lie...! Surprised?

The very idea of "probable cause" has been eroded so far that it is a joke. LEOs lie all the time. If they are looking to pull someone over, there will definitely be some judgment for probable cause, real or not.

A lot of "solid" arrests for other crimes start with a suspicion -- NOT real probable cause. If any charges go to court, many LEOs don't have a problem lying under oath. It's "part of the job", and also well referenced under the term "testilying".

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123319367364627211.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Testilying

Biden and Pelosi....

Joe Plugs don't lie!

He's always reaching out with both versions of the truth, what didn't happen and what he said!

The truth is shorter than Joe and he just has to stoop a little!"

Hey, wadda-ya expect from a proven exaggerator and a thief (plagiarist)?

I have always said that Biden was a dumber version of John Kerry. Remember Kerry's war stories, especially about his hat?

Only in just deserts for his poor judgment does the 0-man deserve every bit of diarrhea that gushes out Joe Plugs' mouth.


As for Pelosi, we get what California deserves.

As usual.

What's new.

"Click It Or Ticket" -- Wave bye-bye to your 4th Amendment....

It is amazing how many people who proclaim their support for the 2nd Amendment tend to not read any further.

Evidently the right of the many to own guns is higher on their list than the right of the many to be safe from unlawful search and seizure. They don't realize that the continual encroachment on their 4th Amendment rights will eventually result in their right of the 2nd vanishing, along with their privacy and any pretense of freedom.

That is evidenced in the well-documented abuses of "probable cause" by our LEO community.

All for our protection, of course.

So here we come to "Click It Or Ticket", the latest waste of taxpayer dollars and supposed revenue generator forced on the states by the Fed: Millions of taxpayer dollars spent to collect (hopefully) even more millions in revenues.

Yessiree folks, it's highway robbery by our "finest" -- and at its finest.

I am going to start with an issue that concerns me: personal liberty. And here is one that may surprise all you ACLU-card-carrying supporters of personal freedom: The Dems are for letting law enforcement pull over citizens JUST because the officer THINKS THEY MAY not be using their seat belt.

Look at states where they have a majority Dem representation, and most of them have given police the right to use just the suspicion of no seat belts as probable cause to pull a driver over.

Right now, 26 out of 50 states list seat belt violations as a "primary enforcement", which means that an LEO just has to suspect that you don't have your seat belt on to light you up. Out of those 26 states, 20 have the State Senate controlled by Dems.

This is just another step in the progression from Freedom (with a framework of not harming others), to Nanny State, and on to the goal of a Totalitarian State.

But now, with the "Click It Or Ticket" revenue program, the Feds are helping your local police violate even more of your civil rights than normal.

Do you know how hard it is to determine if someone has their seat belt on when they are passing you at 65mph?

Btw, if you are pulled over for anything else, DON'T take your seat belt off before you are staring him in the eye -- the LEO is trained to accuse you of not wearing your belt, and he has no proof that you were not. And here's a little secret that they don't want you to know: they are counting on you not taking it to court. I have had one say to me "I know you weren't wearing your belt", when I was -- he backed down after I looked him in the eye and said "Yes, I was. I do every time I drive... and, I'll swear to it in court."

Now why, when all supposed "liberal" causes (see ACLU, etc...) state that they protect individual rights, would the Dems be overwhelming in their support of this? It just gives LEOs another tool in their endless list of fake "probable causes".

I drive over 500 miles a week, and never leave my driveway without my belt on. My opposition to this is purely based on Civil Rights. It is another non-Constitutional intervention by the State, and should not be tolerated by citizens.

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/2009%20...%20seat+belts

Ohio Revised Code 4513.263(D) Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, no law enforcement officer shall cause an operator of an automobile being operated on any street or highway to stop the automobile for the sole purpose of determining whether a violation of division (B) of this section has been or is being committed or for the sole purpose of issuing a ticket, citation, or summons for a violation of that nature or causing the arrest of or commencing a prosecution of a person for a violation of that nature, and no law enforcement officer shall view the interior or visually inspect any automobile being operated on any street or highway for the sole purpose of determining whether a violation of that nature has been or is being committed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Click_It_or_Ticket&oldid=214238694


Well, we're heading toward the totalitarian extreme really fast. And it'll end up being an extreme that puts any free-thinking person in a camp. For the "good of society", of course.

And the idea of "funding" public services from fines just lends itself to abuse of civil rights. Funny, but you'd think that the ACLU would be in there somewhere, biting and scratching. Uhhhh, nope.

All these little blurrings of Constitutional rights add up. Pretty soon they'll be stopping you on the road at checkpoints. Oh wait, that already happens. Doesn't that word "Checkpoint" have such a wonderful East German flair? Next they'll be taking your homes to build high revenue districts. Oh wait... that's already happening.

And we laugh our little self-conscious laughs and roll our eyes and adopt the PC, coweringly abject, subservient roll-over, show our bellies and hope that they don't think so badly of us that we are labeled anti-public safety child abusers as we say in a tiny, tiny voice "Wait, isn't that un-Constitutional? Oh, I'm sorry, I know... if we aren't "guilty", we have nothing to fear."

Woohoo. All for the "greater good".

Note to self about "Job Security"....

Remember, if your immediate bosses are not capable of understanding or doing your job, or of even assessing the effects of your efforts upon the end results (because they don't understand anyone else's job either), then they cannot accurately measure your worth.

Welcome to my world.

I'm guessing that this might have been the reason there used to be strikes....

Death Of A Nation....

Polarization is not the problem.

The problem is not that the 'pubs are too right wing, or even that they are too anything different from the Dems; it's that our country as a whole has largely become populated with people who expect the Government to be the end and answer for all ills. It is liberals and most moderates who tend to think that way, but also a surprising number of people who style themselves conservative.

The problem won't be solved by 'pubs trying to act like Dems. In fact, the problem has already reached the critical mass of users overbalancing producers and I truly believe our country is beyond saving -- in its current form. It's like watching a giant tree topple... slowly at first, and then faster and faster....

Gas prices at the pump are rising fast. It is the Oil companies and OPEC's aim to have gas at $4+/gal. by October/November. They are doing this by cutting production and storing oil outside the US.

Any business operating off of their P&L statement to get money has to be watching A&R very closely. They still have to keep inventory low and take absolutely no hits such as a big customer going under. It still will do no good. Any company not making products that people actually need, or companies that depend on "marketing" to drive demand are goners. Like most biz that operates on "buzz", they think they can create demand without products people need, but they are done. Cooked. They just don't know it yet.

I expect unemployment will pass 12-15% by the 2nd quarter of 2010, there will be across-the-board credit defaults, by both individuals and companies, and then it will become evident that we are in a full-blown depression.

And we will find out that the Government cannot save our economy or our souls -- if we still have either.

Here's exerpts from a great post by Old Hop:

... "Citing Murray Boochkin, Riggenbach shows how the conventional political appellations of “left” and “right” are turned on their heads:[A] brief look at the history of the relevant political terms – Left and Right, liberal and conservative – will persuade us that libertarianism has absolutely nothing in common with anything on the Right. For it is as the anarchist Murray Bookchin said back in 1978: “People who resist authority, who defend the rights of the individual, who try in a period of increasing totalitarianism and centralization to reclaim these rights – this is the true left in the United States. Whether they are anarcho-communists, anarcho-syndicalists, or libertarians who believe in free enterprise, I regard theirs as the real legacy of the left […].”

... And what about the socialists, the Maoists and Trotskyites, and the liberals of the Democratic party? Bookchin was asked. What about the people most Americans regarded as “the Left”? Those people, Bookchin replied, were “going toward authoritarianism, toward totalitarianism.” They were “becoming the real right in the United States.”

... In other words, one who believes in unhindered free markets and individual rights is really on the left side of the political spectrum. Those who favor government intervention in social and economic matters (thus considering themselves flaming liberals) turn out to be supporters of conservatism – unwittingly preserving the statist status quo that under different guises has dominated public affairs in this country for decades.

The GOP is the conservative party in American politics, the party that since Lincoln (and Henry Clay and Alexander Hamilton before him) has stood for mercantilism, welfare statism, and war. Libertarians are not conservatives; they are not on the Right. They are on the Left, the last remnant of the original liberals.

... And lest we forget that Barack Obama’s #1 campaign contributor was Goldman Sachs:

Though some true liberals remain in the Democratic Party of today, almost all of them have made the error of pursuing liberal goals by conservative means. And the majority in the party has been New Deal liberal – false liberal, conservative in liberal’s clothing – since the 1930s. In effect, the United States is now governed by one or the other of two conservative parties.

Specter lies, and fools are surprised....

UPDATE: "Arlen Specter" may now be the definition of idiot.

After he told everyone he would retain his "seniority", it seems the only "seniority" A.S. (as he is now known by da 'pubs) will retain is his ever-more-frequent "senior moments".


You know, why are we continually and repeatedly surprised when a politician lies?

Why do we get all offended but never seem to get even?

Just vote the liar out. Even if he has “The One’s” support. Or better yet, just burn the whole damn thing down. That option gets my vote!

“Politicians lie, fools ‘re surprised”; they take us for fools, time-and-again, and we never disappoint ‘em.

If you think taxes and government intrusion in our lives are bad now, just wait until one party has more than a 60/40 split advantage.

It's and oldie but goodie, but I wish we could connect shock collars to lie detectors and put them put them on Politicians.

I wish there was a mechanism in place to expedite impeachment....

The REAL Culture War is over Capitalism....

For the rest of this article:

The Real Culture War Is Over Capitalism

Tea parties, 'ethical populism,' and the moral case against redistribution.
By Arthur C. Brooks

There is a major cultural schism developing in America. But it's not over abortion, same-sex marriage or home schooling, as important as these issues are. The new divide centers on free enterprise -- the principle at the core of American culture.

Despite President Barack Obama's early personal popularity, we can see the beginnings of this schism in the "tea parties" that have sprung up around the country. In these grass-roots protests, hundreds of thousands of ordinary Americans have joined together to make public their opposition to government deficits, unaccountable bureaucratic power, and a sense that the government is too willing to prop up those who engaged in corporate malfeasance and mortgage fraud.

... the president's budget office reveals average deficits of 4.7% in the five years after this recession is over. The Congressional Budget Office predicts $9.3 trillion in new debt over the coming decade.

... On behalf of corporate welfare, political largess and powerful special interests, government spending will grow continuously in the coming years as a percentage of the economy -- as will tax collections.

... The protesters are homeowners who didn't walk away from their mortgages, small business owners who don't want corporate welfare and bankers who kept their heads during the frenzy and don't need bailouts. They were the people who were doing the important things right -- and who are now watching elected politicians reward those who did the important things wrong.

Voices in the media, academia, and the government will dismiss this ethical populism as a fringe movement -- maybe even dangerous extremism....

... Asked in a Rasmussen poll conducted this month to choose the better system between capitalism and socialism, 13% of respondents over 40 chose socialism. For those under 30, this percentage rose to 33%. (Republicans were 11 times more likely to prefer capitalism than socialism; Democrats were almost evenly split between the two systems.)

The government has been abetting this trend for years by exempting an increasing number of Americans from federal taxation. ... last year that the percentage of American adults who have no federal income-tax liability will rise to 49% from 40% under Mr. Obama's tax plan. Another 11% will pay less than 5% of their income in federal income taxes and less than $1,000 in total.

... Social Democrats are working to create a society where the majority are net recipients of the "sharing economy." They are fighting a culture war of attrition with economic tools. Defenders of capitalism risk getting caught flat-footed with increasingly antiquated arguments that free enterprise is a Main Street pocketbook issue. Progressives are working relentlessly to see that it is not.

Advocates of free enterprise must learn from the growing grass-roots protests, and make the moral case for freedom and entrepreneurship. They have to declare that it is a moral issue to confiscate more income from the minority simply because the government can. It's also a moral issue to lower the rewards for entrepreneurial success, and to spend what we don't have without regard for our children's future.

Enterprise defenders also have to define "fairness" as protecting merit and freedom.... ... Millions of ordinary citizens believe it is unfair for the government to be predatory -- even if the prey are wealthy....

... The last several years have brought malaise, in which the "conservative" politicians in power paid little more than lip service to free enterprise. Today, as in the late 1970s, we have an administration, Congress and media-academic complex openly working to change American culture in ways that most mainstream Americans will not like....

SCOTUS in Rare Pro-4th Amendment Mode....

SCOTUS Decision slaps down The Man, for once.

At least a little.

From Grits For Breakfast:

Here's some good news for liberty-loving drivers:

The US Supreme Court today issued a rare pro-4th Amendment decision to restrict vehicle searches incident to arrest. In a 5-4 ruling, the high court held in Arizona v. Gant that "Police may search the passenger compartment of a vehicle incident to a recent occupant’s arrest only if it is reasonable to believe that the arrestee might access the vehicle at the time of the search or that the vehicle contains evidence of the offense of arrest."

The majority lamented that "Countless individuals guilty of nothing more serious than a traffic violation have had their constitutional right to the security of their private effects violated as a result."

In a concurring opinion, Justice Scalia wrote that:

Law enforcement officers face a risk of being shot when-ever they pull a car over. But that risk is at its height at the time of the initial confrontation; and it is not at all reduced by allowing a search of the stopped vehicle after the driver has been arrested and placed in the squad car.

Bottom line, said the court: "Police may search a vehicle incident to a recent occupant’s arrest only if the arrestee is within reaching distance of the passenger compartment at the time of the search or it is reasonable to believe the vehicle contains evidence of the offense of arrest. When these justifications are absent, a search of an arrestee’s vehicle will be unreasonable unless police obtain a warrant or show that another exception to the warrant requirement applies."

Though Gant is a relatively narrow ruling, one hopes it portends a renewed commitment to basic Fourth Amendment protections which have been battered and abused by the Court recent years.

Addtional info here: The Volokh Conspiracy.

Tax Protests, Sinking Ships and Reality....

Excerpt from Forbes article here and below:

Here is me spouting off now:

I'm tired of hearing about "Sacrifice For The Greater Good". And I'm 'specially tired of hearing it from fatcat politicos who are running the biggest con-game in the world - the Guvmint.

Usually anytime anyone says "sacrifice for the Greater Good" it is a sign to run the other way as fast as possible. Nine times outta ten they are talking about taking from you and giving to sumbuddy else.

This is especially important today as "consumers" are continually bombarded with the message that it's for the "Greater Good" to "consume" instead of saving.

It's not.

The way to take care of "the Greater Good" of your society is to take care of your community first; and the way to take care of your community is to take care of your neighborhood first; and the way to take care of your neighborhood is to take care of your family first.

If people were to save instead of consume, we wouldn't need so many government services and tax rate hikes. But we (Yep, it's us, not the Government.) are spending billions of a bad paper IOU to the future on businesses that are providing products and services no one needs.

And jobs: If the reality is that if we are being told that the best reason a particular company is in business is to provide jobs... then that's why you should let the free market the **** alone. Comparatively good money after bad dragging us all down. Our default on that great big IOU and the accompanying crash will come soon enough.

Take care of you and yours, and the "Greater Good", for what it's worth, ususally takes care of itself.

... And in these days
When darkness falls early
And people rush home
To the ones they love
You better take a fool's advice
And take care of your own
One day they're here;
Next day they're gone...

(Don Henley – New York Minute)

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"...Some analysts have made the case that Americans are not overtaxed (at the federal level) and that therefore the protests were not justified. But this misses the point. Government spending is exploding, with the Congressional Budget Office projecting $9.3 trillion in deficits over the next 10 years. People know that this spending represents future taxes.

Here is an interesting set of facts. If the government increased the top tax rate from the current rate of 35% to 100% (yes, that's right 100%), it would only collect an extra $400 billion this year. In other words, confiscating all the income that is currently taxed at 35% would not raise enough revenue to cover any of the annual deficits projected in the next 10 years. There is no way that tax hikes on the rich alone can pay for proposed spending in the current budget. In addition, state and local taxes are going up, with at least 10 states planning on hiking taxes. And promised future spending on Social Security and health care must also be paid for. Under the Obama administration's budget, federal government spending in the next 10 years will average 24% of GDP, almost triple what it was back in the 1930s. As a result, when we add together today's taxes and expected future taxes, Americans will face a bigger tax burden than at any time in history.

Meanwhile, the government is taking over private-sector companies, printing massive amounts of new money and interfering in the free market. And it doesn't help that this has happened while many government officials are running into trouble over not paying their own taxes, which undermines the Obama administration's call for the average taxpayer to sacrifice for the greater good...."

The Most Dangerous Man in the US....

Here's my nomination. He's also the 0-Man's nomination for the Legal Adviser of the Department of State -- Read up on him.

Harold Koh.

Wave goodbye to the last vestiges of US sovereignty.

Obama and claims about US guns in Mexico....

The 0-Man says 90% of the weapons used in crimes in Mexico come from the US.

The reality is that 90% of the *weapons they can trace* come from the US, but they can't trace the origin of very many of the weapons, especially all of those AK-47 knockoffs that come through the southern Mexican borders and that are used by all the seriously violent druggies and their Lords.

And, it is commonly thought that Mexican officials only turn over to the ATF for tracing those weapons already thought to have come from the US and used in a "violent" crime.

Using math that is beyond me, the figure seems to be somewhere between 17% (Right-wing Faux News) and 25% (Left-wing Politifact). Who you believe depends on your political leanings and the drum yer beating, but the reality is that far fewer guns are traced to the US than the 0-Man would have you think.

Now, why would he want you to think that?

The problem is that most of the automatic weapons they find in Mexico have markings that clearly show they come from places like Guatamala and China. And the gun and pawn shops don't sell these guns. And that's where the traceability comes in -- not every gun recovered in Mexico is submitted to the ATF for tracing; only those with US markings.

So the 0-Man is using this false statistic as very thinly veiled anti-legal gun propaganda here in the US.


Isn't it about time the Mexican government built a wall along the border to prevent the flow of illegal weapons into their country?

Homeland Security and you and me....

And there will first be a listing of “extremist” organizations (Hey, look, they’ve already been all lumped together in the public’s little mind.) - in a "Risk Report", if you will.

And then - amazingly enough - because times are tough and as it is "in the best interest of The Republic", few people will be surprised or even offended when anyone in “the opposition” is labeled extremist.

And then there will be laws enacted to make it impossible for there to be any physical opposition.

And then there will be a banning.

And then comes the round-up.


Knock-knock. Anybody been here before?

Privacy Expectations of Bloggers: “Outing" a Blogger’s Identity....

A Blogger from Alaska named "The Mudflats Muckraker" has been embroiled in a little "Identity Outing" incident. The Blogging community, part of it at least, is up-in-arms.

One of my pet peeves is when a private citizen claims to "know" things that "others" may not have access to, intimating the access is special and privileged, and yet expects those "others" to refrain from inquiring as to their qualifications; especially if the information these people claim to have access to and are propagating is false, misleading and libelous.

There IS a Constitutional right to anonymity; but it's a little fuzzy when the anonymous party is spreading lies. There is also no law that says you can't out someone on the net, unless you obtain the information regarding their identity by illegal means. If you already know who "Joe" is, you can shout it from the virtual roof-top. And evidently there is no law against "guessing" bloggers identities.

I think there is a larger question here. The Internet is full of "experts" who really aren't. And those "experts" are often crossing the line of "opinion" and approaching the line of "libel". Some are running right up to that libel line and stopping, others are continually sticking their toes of ignorance over that line.

Bloggers are not journalists protecting a “source” and needing a "shield law". Blogging is not “reporting”; no matter how many Bloggers pretend they are reporters.

(Is "muckraking" reporting? I'm not sure. Look at the scumbag National Enquirer -- they have broken quite a few big political stories -- see the John Edwards' love-child fiasco.)

When a Blogger - and many do - crosses the line from opinion to stating supposed fact based on claims of privileged information, the reality is that the Blogger has lost any expectation of keeping their identity secret.

IMNSHO, if you claim special access, privilege and expertise not available to the general public, expect to get outed. If you go after somebody -- this is teh internetz, remember -- especially if you claim insider information, you should expect them to fire back. Don't get all uptight and offended when they call you out. Expect it.

If you cross the line from Opining to Muckraking (especially if your screen name is "Muckraker") or Reporting, don't count on your target to sit still and do nothing.


PS - I posted the same questions on the "Muckraker" blog and was banned almost immediately; going to show us that double-standards are quadrupled at least half the time, AND that the supposed offended party (or her surrogate) is just as guilty as the person who "outed" her.

If "There are no wrong questions, just wrong answers", Muckraker, and despite the screen name, and playing both the game and the innocent victim, gave the wrong answer.

And now the Government is Everything and Nothing....

Fiat and Chrysler: there are two companies with “sterling” reputations for product quality.

You know FIAT stands for "Fix It Again Tony".

Here's the way it's gonna go:

The collapse of a couple of overweight, out-of-shape and dated union machines is the least of our worries.

Continued and increased government involvement in every facet of our lives will erode what is left of the American "entrepreneurial spirit", and we will find our nation becoming even more of a consumer entity as more production moves overseas.

As the deficit is quadrupled over the next few (couple?) years, eventually social programs will collapse and our realization of our misplaced faith in the big business of government (which exists largely to self-perpetuate) will come too late.

I hear all the time from my "liberal" friends: "We deserve that money and those programs. After all, as workers we paid into them."

Guess what, that fact that you pay taxes for a service doesn't mean you are going to get that service back. Look at the record of government promises.

Those of us who use government “services” like Unemployment Compensation, State Retirement Plans, Medicare and Social Security will lose those teats and probably in that order. As government takes over more and more of the economy, you will see the standard of living rapidly fall. The dream of global equality will be achieved.

Good luck.

Either unfortunately or fortunately, depending on your world-view, luck has nothing to do with it.

Insanity reigns. Digging the deficit hole....

From The USA Today's Editorial: Huge Deficits Unsustainable.

"President Obama cannot keep from mentioning (every chance he gets) that he “inherited a trillion dollar deficit” – and then has the audacity to propose increasing the deficit four times over.

Now, that’s insane!"

I may be wrong about Comm-1:

If the practical understanding and use of language is limited to texting, then I am wrong about the state of public education, we don't need no stinkin' reassessment, and we have reached our zenith.

Local Cop emulates a classic Barney bit....

Lancaster's latest Barney Fife episode:

Monday, my brother was riding his motorcycle through the street that goes from 188 to Main Street beside Kroger East and the Hospital parking garage. As usual, and as ALL motorcyclists do when they can (Everyone who rides any kind of two-wheel vehicle avoids speed bumps when they can.), he avoided the speed bumps, coasting around them at less than 10mph. He does not believe that he swerved far enough to be considered outside of the lane -- those speed bumps - as most speed bumps - do not extend to the edgelines of the lane, and most of that road has no edge lines.

As he passed through the Kroger parking lot, he thought he heard someone yelling, but because he was wearing a helmet, he couldn't tell where it was coming from. He proceded through the light and into the Dairy Queen parking lot.

As he exited the DQ lot, a cruiser lit him up. The officer then proceded to read him the riot act about avoiding speed bumps.

I looked, and nowhere in the ORC can I find anything about avoiding speed bumps. And that, according to what the officer told him, was the sole reason for the officer pulling my brother over. (My brother has no points, is an AMA member AND volunteer trainer and otherwise model citizen -- unlike me.)

It must be this cop's pet peeve. But I have never heard of a cyclist being warned or ticketed for avoiding a speed bump. Next he'll be ticketing stray cats for jaywalking.

Unfortunately, even though our police are supposed to be "public servants", from the taxpaying public's standpoint there is very little defence against these overreactions and overreaching authority. And the proper response, which is laughing at them, will get you a ticket.

A classic Barney bit.

This brings another question: What are the percentages of "Barneys" to good, intelligent cops?

I have a good friend who teaches English at a local college where there is a sizable program in Law Enforcement. All students are required to test out of or take an introductory (Less than college Freshman level) course in Communication (Reading and writing and basic English). "Comm 1", as it is called, is taught at about a high school sophomore level. In "Comm 1", the Law Enforcement program's students tend to show less than adequate communication skills. My friend expresses concern that many of these future LEOs are not qualified to work in fast food, let alone in a job where they are responsible for any decision making that in any way affects other people.

Back to our "Barney": We would hope that any "weeding out" process by various agencies can catch most of these guys. But unfortunately, that is not happening. The placement figures for graduates of the local college's LEO program is over 80%.

Fills you with confidence, don't it....

Amateur time, again....

Open mouth, insert foot. The Prez confesses to being mentally handicapped. Excellent post from Wheat Among Tares.

The First Lady says she was teased for talking white.


Well, I'll do 'em one or two better: I bowl like I'm "retarded", AND I was born a small Black child.

There, now we all have foot-N-mouth. The difference is that I'm more likely to be castigated for stupid remarks. Well, forgiveness is "divine".

Only Real Savings Will Save the Economy....

Excellent post and comments by Chuck at Old Hop's Hideout.

The Big Black Bailout Hole....

Update: This is in reaction to the assumption that by not supporting "The Bailout", we are setting ourselves up for a total manufacturing failure here in the U.S.

Please explain to me how banks failing would affect manufacturing. Keep in mind that manufacturing of products that depend on "buzz" or "marketing" are already at a standstill, as there is no "credit" to be had.

If there is an actual need for something, and there is a way to pay for it (credit is already gone, ask any LLC or PLLC - or any corporation for that matter - operating on a P&L statement line), then things will get made because of actual demand, not an artificial demand - the artificial products that most companies market and depend on people (falsely) needing.

(Guess what? You don't need a new car. Or expensive designer clothes. You need food and water and a place to live.)

We are extending and deepening the damage. The dollar will devalue and businesses that trade in artificials such as derivitive investments will fail anyway, no matter how much worthless, unbacked pieces of paper or electronic blips we throw at them and they absorb. The later they fail, the more they take with them.

My guess is that this has already gone from a two year recession into a 4-5 year depression. Continuing the policies that are being dictated by AIG and Goldman Sachs will turn this into a 7-10 year depression.

To rehash, those businesses operating off of bank loans based on either a P&L statement or inventory will have a tough time of it. Those companies making goods that are needed and those with cash reserves accumulated through good business sense AND making a needed product, will have a much better chance of surviving. Those selling "services" will have a tough time of it, even with reserves.

On the "stimulus package": so far it is a play to pass partisan government programs. Both Emanuel and Clinton have been quoted using the same basic language: "never waste a good crisis". We're getting the bailout just like we got the "Patriot Act". Both were reactionary, the difference is that the P-act can be repealed, but the cost for the bailout is with us always, or at least until the death of the dollar.

Again, our government policy is being dictated by AIG and Goldman Sachs. We are being led down a big black hole BY the big black hole.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Our government is an accurate reflection of the majority of citizens. And those of you who take this post seriously are in the minority.

Simply, there is too much debt and not enough savings.

The big difference between Right Now and the last twenty years or so is this:

In Good Times, people believe what is called "marketing", and a large percentage of them rush out to buy that which is "marketed". In Bad Times, they take a second look at the "marketing" and ask themselves "Is this something I really need?" The worse the times, the less "things" people really need and as economic realities set in the less subjective need becomes.

The idea that people acting sensibly is bad for the economy is the normal BS from the same people who came up with the "derivative investment". (If the majority of our purchased goods were manufactured in the U.S., then it would be different.) We are all learning that acting like it is Bad Times whether the economy is strong or weak is GOOD. If we all act like it is Bad Times all the time in relation to our personal finances, then we all have a better chance to experience financial Good Times all the time.


On lay-offs:

If your company makes a product that looks old, but isn't, and has much less intrinsic value than you charge for it, and really isn't a "one-of-a-kind work of art", is this not bound to happen - and sooner, rather than later? It amazes me that these companies survive for the amount of time that Longaberger has. What surprises me even more is that they expect to thrive when in reality they should die a quick death.

Outside of the short-term "buzz" marketing that succeeds only in Good Times, any company that produces product that nobody really needs cannot stay in the market.

We forget that NEED always trumps a faux created "demand". Don't confuse real demand or NEED, with "marketing". Marketing without good product to back it leaves you dying or dead. If you don't provide something that people NEED to make their lives easier, then you better get out now and get into a business grounded in the reality of need.

Anti-Bailout Tea Parties are a good thing....

One of President Clinton's staff was famously (either mythically or really) quoted, saying: "Yeah, power corrupts, and absolute power is pretty cool...".

The problem facing dissenters is not whether they are "right", or "good" or even focused on a real problem. In a "free" country (so far) the only questions with dissent are legal ones: Are the dissenters harming other citizens in their act of dissent and does government deside that dissent is so politically dangerous to the status quo of society that it must be stomped down?

Who decides legitimacy? Unfortunately, it is the people in control of the government, and very often they are at odds with the concerns/best interests of those citizens in dissent. The penalty for not being "legitimate" can vary. Since we are talking The United States and not Russia, dissenters are more likely to be "investigated" than jailed or killed (so far). But there will probably come a time when that will change.

So legality can't really be allowed to be the issue. Truth is the issue.

Who decides when those in power have gone too far, and when to take true dissent past the point of legality? In this country and at this moment the Democratic Congress is saddling the people with as many big-government programs as can possibly be crammed into what's left of Obama's "political capital".

I'm not certain how much power the 0-man actually has over this Congress. But the cool thing for him, is that he can always blame socialist extremes on the far-left wing of the Democratic Party. It really takes the short-term heat of of him.

This is another argument for a line-item veto, even if it does increase executive powers. It sure would put a lot more pressure on the President to be right about everyhing, or lose the public relations battle.

For those of us who have long been in true opposition to big government and all of the supposedly "legitimate" doings that come with the abomination, we consider the Obama administration as simply the continued growth of the Bush administration, keeping a growing federal government growing ever larger and more incompassing, decreasing state's rights, and as a result, stifling individual freedom and liberty.

These anti-bailout, anti-tax tea parties are a good thing. They keep the problem fresh in the public's mind, as well as draw Uncle's attention and give cover for those who are really serious about change.

We need a national sales/flat-tax combination, and we need to do away with the IRS. If our government keeps screwing us, there will be some sort of revolt, whether for good or bad.

My point is not to continue to rail against Obama, but to make the point that dissent is still "legal", and the definition of legitimacy has two meanings (legality and truth), in this example neither of them pitted against one another, UNTIL government moves on dissenters.

As of right now we are all permitted to put whatever "premium" on whatever opinion we want to -- or this is not a free country. And "credibility" seems to be very subjective. Just look at the views regarding Keynesian economics (voodoo, if there ever was). The real problem is when government starts stifling expression to "preserve society".

True, these particular Republican Tea Partiers are fakers. But there are real Tea Partiers who may yet play their hand, if things go the way I think they will. With the burdans of social programs growing on the taxpayer, there will come a time when there will be a real Tea Party, and then the 0-man will really have the opportunity to act in a disturbingly Lincolnesque way....

Hope and change, baby. Hope and change.

Rainbow Stew....

(Courtesy of Buckblog)

Given the 0-man's speech last night, what could be more appropriate?

Rainbow Stew - Merle Haggard

There's a big, brown cloud in the city,
And the countryside's a sin.
An' the price of life is too high to give up,
Gotta come down again.
When the world wide war is over and done,
And the dream of peace comes true.
We'll all be drinkin' free bubble-ubb,
Eatin' that rainbow stew.
When they find out how to burn water,
And the gasoline car is gone.
When an airplane flies without any fuel,
And the satellite heats our home.
One of these days when the air clears up,
And the sun comes shinin' through.
We'll all be drinkin' free bubble-ubb,
An' eatin' that rainbow stew.

Eatin' rainbow stew in a silver spoon,
Underneath that sky of blue.
All be drinkin' free bubble-ubb,
An' eatin' that rainbow stew.

You don't have to get high to get happy,
Just think about what's in store.
When people start doin' what they oughta be doin',
Then they won't be booin' no more.
When a President goes through the White House door,
An' does what he says he'll do.
We'll all be drinkin' free bubble-ubb,
Eatin' that rainbow stew.

Eatin' rainbow stew in a silver spoon,
Underneath that sky of blue.
We'll all be drinkin' that free bubble-ubb,
Eatin' some rainbow stew.

Eatin' rainbow stew in a silver spoon,
Underneath that sky of blue.
All be drinkin' that free bubble-ubb,
Eatin' rainbow stew.

Taxed by Mileage -- Rural Route's money to support urban dweller's deficits....

This particular proposition is the continuation of the population centers of the US being propped up by the taxes of those of us who choose to live in the country.

Gas WILL be going up.

The problem is that outside of the non-acceptable intrusion into our privacy, the money collected will not go to the roads YOU drive on. It will go where the central government decides - after the general budget takes a 90% cut. Like all of these rip-offs, the money never ends up where the government says it will....

We're outvoted, folks. We already spend more to drive, and we'll be disproportionately taxed to support those less self-sufficient....


Those of us who want nothing to do with the government dole and it's inevitable control will soon be considered insurgents in what used to be our own land.

Nationwide Gerrymandering with the Census....

Hummmm... seems we've seen this before: From the Republicans in Texas.

This time it's the Democrats and the nationwide census.

HERE is a well-balanced article on what seems to be a very aggressive power-play that is getting no time in the "mainstream press".

I wonder why?

Talk about Gerrymandering.

This Modern World....

Will Kimbrough: "This Modern World"

Truer words were never:

"...Run right through the milk and honey,
plum outta faith and love,
but we ain't gonna run out of money,
when push comes to shove...

Sweet Jesus, is it really gonna rain down fire and brimstone on our heads?"

Why don’t you say what you mean?
You’re just mouthing the right words
Just like you’re perfectly made for this modern world
I’m just an old-fashioned boy
Can't get up for the down-beat
I don’t think that I can compete in this modern world….”

Bonnie Proudfoot, Glass Artist, on NEA Funding....

"Cudos to those who stand up for the arts as a way to create community identity, tourism, local-level revitalization for communities suffering the loss of local industry. The NEA serves to bring arts to underserved communities, which allows performers, exhibits, etc, to tour and to touch the hearts of Americans across the spectrum. Each time the endowment provides funds for public sculpture, or helps out with grants for the operations of a local arts organization, it is providing economic stimulation and community stimulation-- not the least of all by keeping pride in local communities.

Arts feed more than just the artist; they feed the mind, the spirit, and the soul. Hospitals recognize the healing power of art. As a glass artist, I'm proud to tell anyone who will listen that my equipment and my raw materials are made in America."

A couple notes on Barack Obama and "Middle East Peace"....

"... The Islamic world isn’t going to suddenly, or even eventually start liking the USA even if the Zionist supporters of the "Religious Right" and the AIPAC supporting Neocons stop trying to influence US policy, or the Israelis stop fighting back.

For one thing, Muslims consider ALL of Israel to be “occupied territory”, not just Gaza and the West Bank. And Barack Obama isn't going to talk anyone into changing that fact.

Secondly, Muslims do not get along with their neighbors anywhere in the world -- not Jews, not Christians, Hindus, or even other Muslims. For centuries, despotic Muslim leaders have used hatred of The Other to keep their people oppressed and divert them from revolt. This is not going to change peacefully...."

Closing the Collapse Gap....

Closing the Collapse Gap by Dmitry Orlov

The Village Storefront Church....

I like old-time country stores, old hardware stores, old barbershops and old-time bars with tin ceilings. If I had my choice, a large portion of my time would be spent in those sacred places. And when one of them vanishes into the shadows of our past, our beautiful country dies a little more... along with what is left of a people's heritage.

A couple months ago I was driving through a little Ohio town and saw that one of my favorite country stores was gone. In the window was a sign advertising the space as the meeting place for a church.

Have you noticed, how in tough times, the small town stores vanish and many are replaced by the common but still strange phenomenon of the Non-denominational storefront Church -- you know, the ones with the full sentence-length names?

Well, whether it's a foxhole or Main Street USA, human nature doesn't change much, do it....

Who or what do you put your faith in? The power of the US economy? The government as an extension of the "good" in humanity? Your neighbors? A smooth, but untested politico with big plans and promises and designs on your wallet? Your pitifully frail and fatally flawed human self? Or the God so big that he holds universes in His hand and so artful that He designed every strand of your DNA - and knows your every thought.

A Common Fallacy....

Crossposted from Old Hop's Hideout - by Chuck Icks

I couldn’t resist. This softball was tossed into the air and needed to be hit out of the park.

The other day my sales analyst sent a note around to the staff that opened with this statement:

Manufacturing activity fell to its lowest point in 28 years as factories are slashing capacity in the face of weakening demand.

Can you guess where the fallacy in that statement is located? “…in the face of weakening demand.”

This illustrates an illusion we operate under, taught us by the Keynesian economists who dominate our media outlets and public schools. Demand is the problem, i.e. people just aren’t buying enough stuff. “If all those unpatriotic tightwads would get out there and spend, the economy would recover.” Thus, the messianic State (I’m going to henceforth avoid using the term “government” generically, since government does have a legitimate purpose and function according to Scripture) proposes new “stimulus” packages to instigate more consumption by the public.

Declining demand is not the cause of our current economic distress; it is rather the effect. Contrary to conventional wisdom, a “recession” (or depression) is the corrective response of producers to mistakes made in productive capacity. In other words, it is a “supply side” phenomenon. How is this so?

During periods of “easy credit,” i.e. when interest rates are artificially suppressed by the unauthorized and unconstitutional Federal Reserve system, producers get false signals from a distorted (as opposed to free) market. The perception is that the economy is robust; therefore, demand for goods and services must be strong. In reality, the demand for certain goods and services is nowhere near what some producers believe it to be. Meanwhile, they ramp up production, order more material and capital, and employ more labor. When they discover their mistake (and different sectors of the general economy make this discovery at different stages) they pull in the reins, cutting production and laying off workers.

As unemployment and uncertainty rise we find individuals behaving rationally, cutting back on frivolous expenditures.

Now, here comes the State, pushing folk to take more risks, assume more debt, and spend borrowed money (including “stimulus” money printed out of thin air).

Tell me, what is remotely biblical or morally sound about that?

The ONE-TRILLION DOLLAR HUG....

A One Trillion Dollar Hug -- from Roosh at Mitch Berg's "Shot In the Dark" Blog....

January 9th, 2009 by Johnny Roosh

Obama gave a speech yesterday. Word has it (I didn’t watch or listen) he discussed the economy in no uncertain terms.

Let me guess though, I’ll bet he used the words “crisis” numerous times; I’ll bet he furrowed his eyebrows real good like and probably had a real ominous look on his face too.

Were ya scared?

Did he make you think you need him to save you? …that this crisis is too severe for you to solve it on your own? Did he speak of sweeping, decisive, massive and immediate action being required on the part of the federal government? Did you need a hug? A big government hug?

These days it seems like it is our patriotic duty to consume more. And if we don’t choose to spend more money ourselves, the government will do it for us.

Obama is building his case: You need big government. You need guys like him; guys that are smarter than you cuz they read more books, went to better schools and have more letters after their name. Guys that aren’t afraid to take massive, decisive action; to write big checks with someone else’s money.

These problems, despite being undeniably caused by liberal policies in the first place, must be solved by the government. The government must “create” three million “jobs.” The government is the answer, no matter what the question, when you’re a liberal.

Liberals can’t do anything if it doesn’t justify government’s growth and influence in our lives.

But wait a minute. Isn’t it excessive spending that got us into this mess in the first place? Spending more now seems like drinking Scotch to cure a hangover.

But what if the right thing to do right now is nothing? ....

(Continue Reading at Shot In the Dark.)

Hey Hey, My My -- It's the New Global Order....

Yeppers. It's the NEW GLOBAL ORDER.

Look for the downfall of the US to continue at a faster pace, and the rise of the EU (Or check out The Book of Revelations and the Revived Roman Empire, why doncha?)

I may not be standing on the curb with a "Prepare 4 Judgment" sign, but....

Donald Westlake, Goodbye - Dortmunder is off parole for good....

Donald Westlake has passed.

The best obit is at Do The Math Blog.

"This is the life of a writer. You will touch the lives of those you have never met. You will help them through their own private hells and they will weep, someday, when you are gone."

I've been reading his books since I was in grade school - and I'm forty-seven.

One of my favorite authors, he and his buddies Lawrence Block and Bill Pronzini have provided me with tons of fun and wonderfully enlightening entertainment down the years.

One of the most prolific writers in modern times, he published 104 books (so far - this is up for revision) under multiple pseudonyms, the most famous being "Richard Stark" (the Parker novels).

Other Westlake pseudonyms:

• John B. Allan (Elizabeth Taylor: A Fascinating Story of America's Most Talented Actress and the World's Most Beautiful Woman, 1961, biography);
• Judson Jack Carmichael (The Scared Stiff, 2002, mystery; U.K. editions dropped the pseudonym);
• Curt Clark (Anarchaos, 1967, science fiction);
• Tucker Coe (mysteries featuring the character of Mitch Tobin: Kinds of Love, Kinds of Death, 1966; Murder Among Children, 1967; Wax Apple and A Jade in Aries, both 1970; Don't Lie to Me, 1972);
• Timothy J. Culver (Ex Officio, 1970, thriller);
• J. Morgan Cunningham (Comfort Station, 1971, humor);
• Samuel Holt (mysteries featuring the character of Sam Holt: One of Us is Wrong and I Know a Trick Worth Two of That, both 1986; What I Tell You Three Times is False, 1987; The Fourth Dimension is Death, 1989);
• Several other names, under which he wrote paperback porn, in the 50's and 60's.
  

I am sure the weekly writer's poker game will not be the same.

When this happens, you feel as if part of your own existence has been cut off. The characters are still there, but you know there won't be any more... and simply because they won't continue to grow - they have died too.

As a fan - an avid reader - you don't really know the author, but you do.

His best books?

Apart from the Dortmunder Series, I highly recommend "Dancing Aztecs" and "Trust Me On This" as well as all of the Richard Stark and Tucker Coe books.

I'll be moseying down to the OJ Bar and Grill sometime this evening.

Looks like a half-bottle of Old Amsterdam Liquor Store "Our Own Brand" Bourbon night

Don't wait up.

Hey there Rollo....

Reap the Whirlwind....

"Advising the target of proposed annihilation to respond "proportionately" to a feeble aggressor is so vile as to be almost funny. God's response to those who sow the wind does not seem particularly proportionate.

If Hosea 8:7 gets it right, they shall reap the whirlwind." -- George Jonas


Here's hoping Hamas reaps the whirlwind.

To the Inevitable Year End Music List Makers....

Boo, hissss. I crap on your lists.

... See, that rhymed.

I like it when my favorite music is all a non-mention in the year-end lists of the hoity-toity music mags. It's a sign of an almost "Bushian" combination of ignorance and self-confidence that these non-mentions make me feel both superior and privileged to the rewards of a secret knowledge that makes the highest audit level of Scientology seem a cheap investment.

In short, I (with only a very few exceptions) look down on music critics like I look at Amway salespeople.

Search Order = Where we are headed....

Search Order -- by Raúl Rivero

What are these gentlemen looking for
in my house?

What is this officer doing
reading the sheet of paper
on which I’ve written
the words “ambition,” “lightness,” and “brittle”?

What hint of conspiracy
speaks to him from the photo without a dedication
of my father in a guayabera (black tie)
in the fields of the National Capitol?

How does he interpret my certificates of divorce?

Where will his techniques of harassment lead him
when he reads the ten-line poems
and discovers the war wounds
of my great-grandfather?

Eight policemen
are examining the texts and drawings of my daughters,
and are infiltrating themselves into my emotional networks
and want to know where little Andrea sleeps
and what does her asthma have to do
with my carpets.

They want the code of a message from Zucu
in the upper part
of a cryptic text (here a light triumphal smile
of the comrade):
“Castles with music box. I won’t let the boy
hang out with the boogeyman. Jennie.”

A specialist in aporia came,
a literary critic with the rank of interim corporal
who examined at the point of a gun
the hills of poetry books.

Eight policemen
in my house
with a search order,
a clean operation,
a full victory
for the vanguard of the proletariat
who confiscated my Consul typewriter,
one hundred forty-two blank pages
and a sad and personal heap of papers
--the most perishable of the perishable
from this summer.

CIA Recruitment on the Radio -- What????

Yep, folks. File this under more "Stuff I Just Don't Get".

And I don't know 'bout you, but I don't really feel any safer, now that I know this:

There are CIA Recruitment ads on radio (610 WTVN), complete with martial music and "be-the-best-you-can-be" kinda crap, website address, AND they tout that The Company is now an "Equal Opportunity Employer".

Wow.

Again, don't know 'bout you guys, but I grew up with the John Le Carre' "Smiley" novels, Graham Greene, Frederick Forsyth, Edward S. Aarons, the best: Adam Hall's "Quiller" and more, and I don't see my CIA operatives as average people.

I want my spy to be a 150+ IQ MIT grad, recruited by his/her professor with a whisper-in-the-ear out of an IVY League Masters program.

I want them to be ultra-smart persons of questionable ethics and morals who don't mind waterboarding the occasional terrorist/informant/captive for the "greater good", and who are always up for a little "wet-work" on the side.

The Republic is in serious trouble and the CIA is now an Equal Opportunity Employer.

We truly do not want to be an independent nation much longer.

Ohio Spends 7 MIL on Rigged Bid for Breath Testers....

State of Ohio to spend 7 Million on 700 Breath Alcohol testing machines. AND, guess what, the bid was RIGGED.

Furthermore, it appears that the machine is unreliable.

They must be planning on making their money back pretty quickly.

Just like the decision to use this grant money, the DUI game is rigged to make money for the state.

This is NOT about highway safety. It is only about REVENUE.

The Obama COLB Controversy -- Update....

Update: A second Obama COLB/citizenship case has been refused hearing by the SCOTUS. More cases will surely follow.

I've changed my tune, somewhat. I'm beginning to think that there is something concrete to this conspiracy theory.

I believe that while it may be hard (for me, but maybe not someone with legal experience and qualifications) to point out SCOTUS decisions that have been political, I believe that the process of deciding what cases the SCOTUS hears has always been affected by politics. And I'm sure that some research would probably bear that out.

As for Barack 0bama, there is a little bell that goes off in what's left of my brain. I distrust him. That's it. He sparks something inside that screams "this is a giganitic con" - and I really do hope I'm wrong.

Also, at this time, he has spent over $800,000 in legal fees to suppress or cover up discovery and inspection of a document that costs only ten dollars to produce. So much for openness and transparency.

Compared to the history of baseness and corruption that plays on the stage of American politics, the idea that a politician - and yes, he IS one - would possibly lie about his eligibility for office is not a big stretch. And, if the man is not Constitutionally qualified for the office, then he shouldn't be allowed to take it.

The problem here is that he could very easily release the original BC. And because he doesn't, that makes me think that there is the possiblity that some piece of information on that piece of paper proves him a liar. Or, that (despite what partisan local officials say) the piece of paper itself does not exist. That is the only reason that I see for not taking the opportunity to clear it up and proceed.

-----------
Org. Post:

I'm not going to spend a bunch of fruitless time on this here. The evidence, pro and con, is out there if you want to go look at it. Suffice to say that if you don't know to what I'm referring, check out the difference in the definitions of: "Certification of Live Birth" and "Certificate of Live Birth", and then proceed from there. Guaranteed, it will be interesting.

I just want to make a quick prediction.

No Judge is going to make the decision to choose to act on or to even examine any evidence in this case. Talk about signing your own either figurative or literal death warrant.

Unfortunately, the courts will refuse to hear the case. And in reality, they don't want to go anywhere near it. If Barack Obama were to be ruled not qualified to be President (And I'm betting that there is something screwy about the paperwork -- something that disproves earlier-life related claims of some sort -- which is the reason behind not releasing an original COLB or authentic Birth Certificate.), imagine the turmoil. And I would bet that most liberals don't really care if he's Constitutionally qualified.

Barack Obama could end it right now, but the real mystery is why he doesn't....

Social Security -- The Biggest Ponzi Scheme....

From The Mises Institute:

Wall Street executive Bernard Madoff was recently arrested after admitting to his sons and later, to the FBI, that he was running a gigantic Ponzi scheme -- to the tune of $50 billion. He is now being sued by a number of investors.

Since he voluntarily admitted to the crime, he sets a good example for individuals like Michael Astrue, commissioner of the Social Security Administration.

With a budget of over $600 billion and more than 62,000 workers, the SSA is one of the largest pyramid-Ponzi schemes in existence.

Yet there is one difference: contributions to social security are compulsory, whereas Madoff's firm didn't coerce starry-eyed investors. While neither has the moral high ground, if Mardoff is going down -- to be consistent -- so should the SSA.

Fiat Money -- France = USA....

Fiat Money in France

Hard lessons. And we still don't learn.

Tips on How to Discourage Burglers....

Under the "Things I don't understand" label.

The Columbus Dispatch has an article on "Tips on How to Discourage Burglers".

Nowhere in the article do they mention shooting the burgler, cutting off his head, and hanging said head from the railing/balustrade/overhang of your front porch along with a sign that simply says: "Burgler".

IMNSHO, that should be "tip #1".

An Open Letter of Apology....

Dear Mr. Perot,


We were wrong. You were right.

We are very sorry.


Sincerely,
The American People


WTS says: "And we laughed him away, because he dared think us intelligent enough to be interested in the statistics that were spelling out our national peril. That was his big mistake. If he'd only put the damned charts on the side of a NASCAR, he'd've served two terms."

CFG says: "We have a problem created by people spending money that they had no hope of ever paying back. The government is solving the problem by spending money that we have no hope of ever paying back."

The Issue is Main-stream Islam's support for Terror....

A great article from Harold Evans at US News and World Report.

I think the most important issue relating to World-wide Islamic Terrorism is the support that Radical Islam gets from "mainstream" Islam -- along with almost NO condemnation of the radical element's plans for exectuting a cycle of terroristic violence that they promise will end only when Islam rules all people.

Mosques all over the world collect money for supposedly peaceful purposes that finds its way into the hands of terrorists. This is documented. It is not even a secret to the Muslims who are encouraged to give by their leaders.

Even in democratic host countries, Imams preach the establishment of Sharia Law and the eventual subjection of non-Muslims into Dhimmi-hood.

No other organized and supposedly mainstream Religion has these world-wide problems. You can't even compare any other religion's hard-line supporters to Islam's.

For those of you who point the finger at "extremists" of ANY religion, that's not the deal here.

Actually, there are so many different sects within major "religion" - especially in "Christianity", and for the sake of labeling, I don't see a lot of these as "Christian" - that even the label of "extreme" is not a good indicator.

For instance, many would think the "Amish Friends" or lighter versions of the same an "extreme", or the Bahai, but you would be hard pressed to find more peaceful people.

And even "Fundamentalism" is a misnomer in this "extreme" usage, as the church of my family (GARBC Baptist) is "Fundamental", but you would be hard pressed again, to find a more peaceful people.

Just because someone believes that the Bible says that you, as an unbeliever, are doomed to Hell, and feels a need to warn you about that danger, doesn't predispose them to violence. And while you might find them smuggling Bibles into China, you won't find them blowing up a cafe' of "unbelievers" -- or bombing someone else's church.

So, again, I think that at some point you have to point the finger, and say "You people are not policing your own. What is your problem?"

That is the question you need to ask mainstream Islam.

Union Concessions tend to hurt retirees more....

Retirees have virtually no defense against the broken "promises" of their employer.

What bothers me about "union concessions", is that they always seem to be tied to the retirement benefits of workers who have already retired.

It's like getting a 30-year loan from your bank and five years into it, the bank comes back and doubles your interest rate -- it's just damn unfair.

Some of these guys were employed way before 401Ks and Roths. And here they are with half the retirement they were promised and little to no health care.

Life's a bitch -- and then you retire, evidently.

Of course, the way things are headed - and fast - it really won't make any difference. Retirement and health benefits will soon be a part of our Golden Age past....

Evil Hates Goodness....

The Rabbi and the Terrorists By Dennis Prager

It was obvious to observers around the world that one of the designated targets of the Pakistani Islamist terrorists was the Mumbai Chabad House, the one Jewish center in Mumbai. The 10 Islamic terrorists who came from Pakistan to India chose their targets with great care.

If one assumes that the terrorists' primary goals were to destabilize India, weaken growing Indian-Pakistani cooperation in fighting terrorism, and greatly increase Indian-Pakistani tension, hopefully to the point of military war between the two countries, every one of the targets made strategic sense. Slaughtering as many people as possible in India's major economic center, including as many foreign tourists as possible at Mumbai's finest hotels, also made sense.

But one target seemed to make little sense. In fact, until the attack was over people were uncertain whether the terrorists' attack on the Jewish center known as the Chabad House was part of the original plan or chosen spontaneously. Only when the lone terrorist who was captured told his interrogators that the Chabad House was planned a year earlier was it indisputable that killing the Rabbi, his wife, their children and any other Jews present was part of the plan.

The question is why?

Why would a terrorist group of Islamists from Pakistan whose primary goal is to have Pakistan gain control of the third of Kashmir that belongs to India and therefore aimed to destabilize India's major city devote so much of its efforts -- 20 percent of its force of 10 gunmen whose stated goal was to kill 5,000 -- to killing a rabbi and any Jews with him?

The question echoes one from World War II: Why did Hitler devote so much time, money, and manpower in order to murder every Jewish man, woman, and child in every country the Nazis occupied? Why did Hitler -- as documented by the late historian Lucy Dawidowicz in her aptly named book "The War against the Jews" -- weaken the Nazi war effort by diverting money, troops, and military vehicles from fighting the Allies to rounding up Jews and shipping them to death camps?

From the perspective of political scientists, historians, and contemporary journalists, the answer to these questions is not rational. But the non-rationality of an answer is not synonymous with its non-validity.

For the Islamists, as for the Nazis, the destruction of the Jews -- and since 1948, the Jewish state -- is central to their worldview.

If anyone has a better explanation for why Pakistani terrorists, preoccupied with destabilizing India, would expend so much effort at finding the one Jewish center in a country that is essentially devoid of Jews, I would like to hear it.

With all the Pakistani Islamists' hatred of Hindus, they did not attack one Hindu temple in India's major city.

With all their hatred of Christian infidels, the terrorists did not seek out one of the 700,000 Christians in Mumbai.

To reinforce my point, imagine a Basque separatist terrorist organization attacking Madrid. Would the terrorists take time out to murder all those in the Madrid Chabad House? The idea is ludicrous. But no one seems to find it odd that that Pakistani Muslim terrorists who hate India and want it to give up control of Indian Kashmir would send two of its 10 terrorists to kill perhaps the only rabbi in Mumbai. As Newsweek reported during the siege, "Given that Orthodox Jews were being held at gunpoint by mujahideen (sic), it seemed unlikely there would be survivors." Newsweek, like just about everyone else, simply assumes Islamists will murder Jews whenever and wherever possible.

They are right.

For years I have warned that great evils often begin with the murder of Jews, and therefore non-Jews who dismiss Jew-hatred (aka anti-Semitism, aka anti-Zionism), will learn too late that Jew- and Israel-haters only begin with Jews but never end with them. When Israeli Jews were almost the only targets of Muslim terrorists, the world dismissed it as a Jewish or Israeli problem. Then it became an American and European and Filipino and Thai and Indonesian and Hindu problem.

Two final points:

One is that it is exquisitely fitting that the same week the murders in Mumbai were taking place, the United Nations General Assembly passed six more anti-Israel resolutions. As it has for decades, the U.N. has again sanctioned hatred for a good and decent country as small on the map of the world as the Chabad House is on the map of Mumbai.

Two: Statements from Chabad in reaction to the torture-murders of a 28-year-old Chabad rabbi and his wife called on humanity to react to this evil "with random acts of kindness." Evil hates goodness. That's why the terrorists targeted a Chabad Rabbi and his wife.

Copyright 2008, Creators Syndicate Inc.

The "Religion of Peace"....

The Religion of Peace:

"Don't judge the Muslims that you know by Islam and don't judge Islam by the Muslims that you know."

... Islam is an ideology. No ideology is above critique, particularly one that explicitly seeks political and social dominance over every person on the planet.

Muslims are individuals. We passionately believe that no Muslim should be harmed, harassed, stereotyped or treated any differently anywhere in the world solely on account of their status as a Muslim.

Islam is not simply a belief about God. It is a word that means Submission. Islam is a set of rules that establish a social hierarchy in which Muslims submit to Allah, women submit to men and all non-Muslims submit to Islamic rule.

Since we don't live in a Muslim country (where censorship, intimidation and brute force are shamelessly employed to protect Islam from logical deconstruction), we are still free to openly exercise our right to debate the merits of the Islamic value system against Western Liberalism.

Are men really superior to women as the Qur'an says? Are women intellectually inferior as Muhammad taught? Does propagating material (the Qur'an) that openly curses people of other religions amidst random calls to violence really improve the health of our societies? Is it right to keep women as sex slaves, merely because the Qur'an explicitly allows it in multiple places? Should atheists and homosexuals have to choose between the noose and an outward profession of faith in Allah?

Yes, there are Muslims who take issue with these aspects of Islamic theology, but it doesn't change what Islam is. Don't confuse the ideology with the individual. Don't draw conclusions about Islam based on the Muslims that you know, be they terrorists or humanitarians. Islam must be understood on the basis of what it is, as presented by the Qur'an the Hadith and Sira (biography of Muhammad).

By the same token, don't draw conclusions about the Muslims in your life based on the true nature of Islam. Like any other group, not all Muslims think alike.

... Most Muslims (even devout ones) have only a superficial understanding of their religion. Most never made the choice to be Muslim, so (as with all religion) there are widely varying degrees of seriousness with which they may take their faith.

The Muslims that you know are not terrorists. More than likely their interests in life are similar to yours and they have the same ambitions for their children. They should neither be shunned, mistreated nor disrespected merely because of their religion. Their property should not be abused, and neither should copies of their sacred book be vandalized.

Pre-judging an individual by their group identity (or presumed group identity) is not only unethical, it is blatantly irrational, since group identity reveals nothing about them. Every individual should be judged only on the basis of their own words and deeds.

Don't judge Islam by the Muslims that you know, and don't judge the Muslims that you know by Islam.

Further Up And Further In....

Thank you for your prayers.

Margaret passed the threshold at 9:14 this morning. Angels in heaven are rejoicing. "Further Up And Further In!"

My Brother and I held her and prayed with her as she passed. It was a relatively easy path and a comforting experience.

She is catching up with Dad right now.


... In the southland of the heart
Where night blooms perfume the breeze
Lie down
Take your rest with me

... In the southland of the heart
Where the saints go lazily
Lie down
Take your rest with me

... In the southland of the heart
There's no question of degree
Lie down
Take your rest with me
In the southland of the heart
Everyone was always free
Lie down
Take your rest with me

- Bruce Cockburn

My Mother....

My Brother and I would appreciate your prayers.

I just drove to Lancaster from Athens, about two hours ago.

My Mom is in the process of dying. She started seriously toward it early this week, and today her body started the shut-down process. Tonight hospice gave my Brother and I the morphine to ease her breathing. She's not big, so it just takes a very small amount every half-hour or so. We are in contact with the hospice nurse and she is in contact with the doctor on call for them.

God is with her, and I believe that she is very aware of what is happening. His Grace and Mercy are abundant and strong.

It's a process that we have prepared ourselves for, as we have known that barring Our Lord Jesus' Return, she would soon leave us.

Again, Prayers would be appreciated.

Palin Bitten by Rabid Fox (Reporter)....

Palin Bitten by Rabid Fox (Reporter)....

PRESCOTT, Ariz. (AP) - With a Fox reporter locked onto her arm, Sarah Palin ran a mile to her car, where she was able to dislodge the animal, throw it into the trunk and drive to a Prescott hospital. The Yavapai County Sheriff's Office said the Fox reporter, which later attacked Keith Olbermann also, tested positive for rabies. Olbermann is immune, however, and apart from his daily megadose of Xanax and wiping the drool from his chin, required no treatment.

Palin told deputies she was on a trail Monday at the base of Granite Mountain when the Fox reporter attacked, biting her foot. Palin said she grabbed it by the neck when it went for her leg and it latched onto her arm. Knowing that a Fox reporter is always rabid, she wanted to make sure it didn't get away so she ran to her car, where she was able to pry open its jaws, wrap it in a sweat shirt and toss it into the trunk.

Palin is receiving rabies vaccinations, along with truth serum, courtesy of MSNBC.

Update:

The rabid reporter has been identified as Carl Cameron, and has denied actually testing positive for the disease. He was quoted as saying "Like all Fox reporters, I carry the Vapid virus. I'm not rabid at all." However, witnesses on the scene, including famous bloviator Bill O'Reilly, have testified that Cameron was, in fact, foaming at the mouth.


(Yes, I did tamper with this, and may be sued by AP. They probably have NO sense of humor. You'd be amazed at how few words I had to change/add/delete.)


Faux News is in the middle of literally throwing Palin under the bus.

I thought she was the "future of the party".

Guess ratings DO matter more.

Carl Cameron literally threw her under the bus this evening.

Amazing. Check out the vid.

Boy, some people's fifteen minutes are a little rougher than others... I actually felt sorry for her. Collectively stabbed in the back, it looks like Faux and their masters are trying to ruin what little career she has left.

I hated the pick, but it was McCrazy's pick to make, and the 'pub power structure is painting her as the reason they failed. As if she volunteered to be the VP pick.

To illustrate this weirdness, contrast that with "Joe The Plumber" who seems bound for his own TV show, or sumpthin'.

Btw, they failed because McCrazy wasn't conservative enough. Oh, and his ideas were lousy.

So much for "governing from the middle"....

Rahm Emanuel, possibly the most partisan, anti-conservative Democrat since Darth Maul, is now Obama's Chief of Staff....

It is gonna be a "long, long year".

Some Investment Advice -- and The Good Part....

From Iowahawk:

Buy: Sterno Inc, Guns R Us, Amalgamated Firewood
Sell: Apple (electronics), apples (the fruit), Jerusalem real estate

From Mr. Shirt:

"One good thing, It is a great moment in history that an African American can be elected President with 52% of the vote. And the the fact that at least 90% of the other 48% voted based on issues rather than superficial characteristics, like skin complexion.

I’m more comfortable with the deal, because the Dems did not achieve the 60% of congressional control that would have made for a very scary 2 years minimum. As of today, my biggest future fear is we are only one psycho-nut-job-racist away from hearing the words “President Biden.”"

Courtesy of BuckBlog at It's A Paul World: The best post on the election. EVER.

Daniel 4:17

This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones: to the intent that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men.

NIV Version:

The decision is announced by messengers, the holy ones declare the verdict, so that the living may know that the Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone he wishes and sets over them the lowliest of men.

VP Choice costs McCain....

... More than he knew at the time. It was hubris. I think he knows now. He's no dummy, but his off-the-cuff, seemingly "maverick" choice has bit McCain good.

It was a choice he didn't have to make. Play to your Conservative Christian base (btw, I am a "Crunchy-Con" Christian), Anti-abortion, etc... OR play to female undecideds (the most likely demo of undecideds to vote) and pick a woman who was qualified. He picked a pretty face, who had some softball interviews on Faux. Without giving it a lot of thought. (Seems Obama didn't give much thought to his choice, either. THAT is Blowhard Central.)

Christy Todd Whitman would have eaten Biden's lunch. She is smarter, more knowledgable on almost every subject, and a better speaker. And, she probably knows more about energy than any candidate, Prez or VP, ever. But, she's pro-choice.

McCain made the mistake of thinking the CC bunch would not support a pro-choice VP. He was wrong. They had no choice. Where would they go? The CC leaders are pragmatic. The people would follow. In the end McCain would have gotten their vote, and their protestations would have brought attention and votes from undecideds.

They wouldn’t have been left with a choice, they aren’t going to pull a Dem ‘04 and Naderize by going to the Constitutional “Party”. They would have fallen in line, he would have gotten his share of independents, a VP debate winner, and this race would probably have been his.

Ohio State Football -- What a mess....

Disappointed....

I don’t have high expectations. And my hopes have gotten lower over the last two Vest “press conferences”. I realize he doesn’t answer questions, but this time, I think he doesn’t know the answers. I realize it’s early, but he may have a QB on his hands who will not function well in his offense, and I don’t know if The Vest is capable of designing an offense that TP can function well in.

Here's what's wrong at this point:

1- A smoke and mirrors offensive line. Not helped by big, slow guys with cement shoes, and a Zone blocking scheme made for small quick running backs. Nobody uses their hands correctly, or gets low and drives their man off the line. You'll rarely see a pancake from any of these guys, no matter how much of a weight-room hero they be.

2- A quarterback who passes the ball like a bad free throw shooter (and the pass looks like a weak fade-away three-point attempt).

3- A coach with play-calling that is so predictable that he trys to make it sound like a positive in his "press conferences". "Press conferences", because they are classic studies in avoidance and spin.

4- A bunch of seniors -- who guaranteed don't like the switch to a freshman QB, but have to shut up and live with it -- are watching their stock drop, along with the loss of a productive senior year. (See the ESPN/ABC Lauranitis interview before the Penn State game and look at the body language when asked about TP's leadership.)

5- A defense that HAS to be great. After all, we're ranked 11th, with one of the worst offenses in OSU history.

Yeah, given the fact that the Vest handicapped the rest of the season in an overreaction to the USC blowout, we're doing "great"; this is the Big-Ten. -- not the SEC. With a decent passing attack, Beanie could run. Receivers wouldn't have to depend on coming back to the ball to get a reception. You may be amazed at how good some of these guys are once they actually get some passes thrown their way -- in the NFL.

The Vest has no idea where this football team is, and he may not be capable of designing an offense that TP can succeed in.

My guess is that after two years of a failed attempt to integrate TP into a combination of offensive schemes, and despite his physical talent, the Bucks and The Vest will opt for a pro-style QB. If not, recruitment will suffer, and we will be saying hello to a couple of Michigan-like years....

Kantians With Cruise Missles....

Kantians With Cruise Missles.

An excellent article on Empire/Liberal Republics, by Joseph Stromberg.

"Pay no attention to that State behind the Democracy.

Brought to my notice by The Dawg at Old Hop's Hideout.

I learn a lot reading Chuck's blog.

Obama's handlers seek to lower expectations....

From JRoosh at Mitch Berg's at Shot in the Dark blog:

Don’t Look Behind the Curtain (Please)...

Barack Obama’s senior advisers have drawn up plans to lower expectations for his presidency if he wins next week’s election, amid concerns that many of his euphoric supporters are harbouring unrealistic hopes of what he can achieve.

Hope will now become Mild Despair

Change will now become Slightly Less of The Same

We Are The People We Have Been Waiting For will now become "Your call is important to us, Please Hold The Line; Calls Will Be Handled In The Order They Were Received. Your call will be monitored and recorded to insure Fairness Doctrine compliance, have a Joy Joy Day”

Tax cuts to 95% of Americans will become New Online Access to the Unemployment Benefits Application Process

Spread the Wealth will become Oops. Sorry About Your Job....

"I'm not dead, I'm inspecting the grave yard...."

The originator of one of the best quotes of all time is dead.

Tom Moody was the 44th mayor of Columbus, and served from 1972 to 1984. During his time in office, the Columbus Public School District was desegregated and the city's freeway system underwent significant expansion. The downtown skyline also grew during Moody's time in office. The city saw development of the Huntington Center, One Nationwide Plaza and the AEP Building.

He was notable for his response to police when pulled over for suspicion of drunk driving: "I'm not drunk, I'm inspecting the city".

Tom Moody passed away on Thursday, October 30, 2008 of natural causes, at Riverside Hospital. He was 78 years old.

Obama volunteers move to Ohio -- to help us out....

NPR's Morning Edition had a story on today about the out-of-state Obama volunteers that have moved here to Ohio to help us decide how to vote (my characterization).

Quite a few liberal volunteers, mostly from New York, and the most in "forever", per NPR, have moved here, and taken up residence for the Election season.

Interesting stuff.

For "Serious" Believers in the Future of Independent Politics....

Follow my tortured reasoning here. This is the best time to vote a 3rd party candidate. McCrazy is toast. Viva La Revolucion.

The Future Is At Stake

Here's why you "real" Conservatives should vote for Bob Barr, the Libertarian candidate, to register a serious protest vote, and further the cause of Third Party politics in America.

Pulling the lever for McCain will not help the chances of any future for 3rd party politics in America in any way. The larger Obama's margin of victory - and make no mistake, the margin will be huge anyway -, and the more attention his huge monetary advantage gets, the better it will be for the chance of future serious 3rd party candidates.

And here's why:

People need to see that the impending Democratic landslide combines a Congress that will start with enactment of the "The Fairness Doctrine" and soon proceed down the path to a dreaded ratification of some form of "The UN Small Arms Ban" with a President who is going to make Jimmy Carter look like Ron Paul. The future looks good for a one-party Demo overrun of the Three Branches. And this revelation of the imminent threat of total one-party control might be just enough to spur a resurgence of interest in 3rd party candidates, especially on the Conservative side, now that the Neo-Cons seem to firmly control what used to be the Republican Party.

Things have GOT to get worse - and they will, from a freedom standpoint - before we, as either a Nation or a remnant of Independent Anti-Government people, decide to make things better.

So Viva La Revolucion! The sooner the better.

We need to start cultivating the Spirit of Revolution here and now. The best way to legitimately access publicity and the advantages that come with it, is a strong 3rd party showing in a major election. And at this point, "strong" doesn't have to mean more than 2-3 percent.


McCain and Obama BOTH want to take away your freedom through the "Nanny-State".

Remember the Mel Brooks' line "It's good to be the King."?

A lot of people are fine with "spreading the wealth around" -- except if it's their wealth. And remember that the "wealth" concept is subjective. To an extremely poor person, even a lower middle class person is "wealthy".

Well who decides? It's good to be Robin Hood. Not so good being the rob-ee....

Giving "tax refunds" (which are basically bribes - a “tax cut" which is more accurately described as wealth redistribution) to people who don't pay taxes in the first place is Socialism in action.

Promoting Class Warfare through redistribution schemes (which both McCain and Obama are proposing) simply results in costs being passed on down the line, with the rich continuing to get richer, while the poor get poorer faster, and the middle class totally vanishes.

What do you think happens when the tax man shows up at the widget factory and tells the manufacturer that taxes just went up? Exactly. The factory raises the price of widgets and costs work on down the line. This is the REAL "trickle-down" economics.

Tax collections for corporations that take their profits offshore, or transfer profits to private income need to be redesigned totally.

When the government takes revenue generated by taxes and gives it to someone else, be that entity a defense contractor for weapons, a soldier as salary, a builder for a new library, a congressional staffer for research or a non-taxpayer for no reason at all, that is what we used to call spending.

You can call it "Make work pay", or whatever you please, what is really proposed is nothing more than a massive new spending program. Calling it a tax cut is pure BS.

"Hi there, Mr. Mug-ee".

You're gonna find that from your middle-class perspective, with rising costs of everything being passed on to YOU, that while it might be great to be the mugger, mug-eeville is not where it's at!

My worry is that "Yes We Can," an excellent campaign slogan, will continue to morph into "Because We Can," an evil method of governance.

So, even given the fact that Obama may very well try to appoint the entire 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to the SCOTUS, I can't pull the lever for McCain. Both of these men and their programs will be Long-term Bad for America.

Vote a 3rd party ticket, please. Do it for the future of America.

Media Double Standards....

If you are one of my Liberal friends or loved ones, you better just not read this. It is guaranteed to make you mad. Remember, if you do, that "the truth will set you free".

After this week of Biden quotes, I'm pretty sure Obama selected Biden because the Senate wants to get him as far away from foreign policy matters as possible, and the VP slot is it. Seriously. Get him off the committee if he's gonna walk around making irresponsible statements. Has anybody actually asked the reason for running off at the mouth like this? This guy just plain likes to hear his own voice. Secretaries of State and Foreign Ministers all over the world just swallowed their chewing gum.


"... "Mark my words. It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. ... Remember I said it standing here if you don't remember anything else I said … we're gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy."

A "generated crisis"? By whom? Moscow? Beijing? Tehran?

This is an astonishing statement from a chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee who has access to the same intelligence as George Bush. Joe was warning of a crisis like the Berlin Wall of July 1961, where JFK called for a tripling of the draft and ordered a call-up of reserves, or the missile crisis where U.S. pilots like John McCain were minutes away from bombing nuclear missile sites in Cuba and killing the Russians manning them.

Is Russia about to move on the Crimea? Is Israel about to launch air strikes on Iran's nuclear sites? What is Joe talking about?

If one assumes Joe is a serious man, we have a right to know.

Instead, what we got was Obama's airy dismissal of Joe's words as a "rhetorical flourish" and a media – rather than demanding that Joe hold a press conference – acting as Obama surrogates parroting the talking points that Joe was just saying that new presidents always face tests.

Had John McCain made that hair-raising statement, he would have been accused of fear mongering about a new 9/11. The media would have run with the story rather than have smothered it.

Contrasting McCain with his hero, Joe declared a few weeks back, "When the stock market crashed, Franklin D. Roosevelt got on the television and ... said, 'Look, here's what happened.'"

Nice historical reference. Except when the market crashed in 1929, Hoover was president, and there was no television....

... Joe also has a record of 36 years in the Senate.

Has anyone ever asked Joe about his own and his party's role in cutting off aid to South Vietnam, leading to the greatest strategic defeat in U.S. history and the Cambodian holocaust? Has anyone ever asked Joe about the role he and his party played in working to block Reagan's deployment of Pershing missiles in Europe, and SDI, which Gorbachev concedes broke the Soviets and won the Cold War?

In the most crucial vote he ever cast – to give Bush a blank check for war in Iraq – Joe concedes he got it wrong.

(Joe has a record of being wrong with the most important decisions.)

"I've forgotten more about foreign policy than most of my colleagues know," says Joe humbly. Given his record, it is understandable Joe has forgotten so much of it....

... Is there a media double standard? You betcha."

The Racist Vote -- Black and White....

Re.: the racist vote, Black and White.

I am going to address this because of a question I was asked on another blog. And I am going to answer it as truthfully as I know how.

There are several blacks at my workplace who have never voted. (I asked.) You bet your a** they are registered, voting and are very aware of what is going on -- this year.

There are a couple blacks who work there that have been registered and vote every election, but the rest are ALL newly registered. I asked. They were happy to tell me.

As gently as I can (and I can do this, because I'm not just some nosy white guy, I'm the guy that talks to them about everything else...), I try to narrow it down, and when it comes down to it, it is not for any other reason, even though they may list it as something else (economics, mad at Bush, etc...). When you ask them in any depth about economics, and why they're mad at Bush - no matter that they didn't register a protest vote in 2004, what prompted them to register this time, it comes back to Obama -- and yet they can't really give a reason why HE inspired them to register. None of them comes out and says "Hey, it's time for a black President."

So, even though it may piss a few of you off, I think that most blacks who are newly registered, especially people who have had the opportunity to register and vote before, are doing it this time because a (partially) black man is running. And that's that.

As far as the anti-black, White, traditionally racist vote, McCain will not benefit from any supposed cross-over vote. From the historically racist areas, and from voters who are already registered, there is gonna be NO substantial group of newly registered voters that are registering simply to vote against Obama. In fact, and I've said this before, the Democrat White racist voters (see WVA, KY, Al, GA, etc...) are simply gonna stay home, or not vote in the Presidential. The 'pubs are not going to see a cross-over vote of any size from these people.

The pollsters are radically wrong if they think this race is close right now. That's not saying it won't get closer, as it always does in the last two weeks, but the newly registered Dem voters are going to have the say in what happens this election, and that say says Obama will be the next President.

Shaky....

I don't often post my songs here. This one I will.

Shaky

I got shaky hands and leaky eyes
Tired of shilling compromise
Of lying liars' lying lies
And the way we eat it up
The full debt due is dreck and doom
The end of days might be real soon
We’re slouching toward a ready ruin
And the fire door is nailed shut

Oh my hands
Oh my eyes
Here we stand
And useless I
Wish wishes win
One last, once more
Hold the course
Steady on
Toward that distant shore

We fenced the range where freedom rang
Where Woody, Jack and Utah sang
Shining cities felt the pang
Slid down the hill in doubt
Cloud slides over Harvest Moon
John Smith and Pocahontas too
Thanksgiving came and stayed and grew
'til the turkey all ran out (Chorus)

Farmer Brown and Plumber Joe
Run the race, they place and show
Bankers take it all, foreclose
Class warfare by a nose
The framers never could relate
We're reined in, tamed, been replaced
With ruthless change for change's sake
And then they count the vote (Chorus)

Cross my heart, hope to die
Boots off, loved one by my side
No shaky hands, no leaky eyes
Burn it down and start it over
Burn it down and start it over
Burn it down and start it over

© DDC ‘08

The "Crack" in Joe's Story....

Ok. There's a lot of anger out there from the mostly Neo-Con side of the Conservative blogassphere, and all of it directed at the Liberal-in the tank for Obamamania-media. This is badly misplaced. In fact, it's hilarious, when you give it a little thought.

Anytime a Presidential Campaign decides to use a person as the main focus of their publicity, that person will be vetted by the press. What's amazing about this, is that the vetting wasn't done by the more-and more-amaturish appearing McCain Campaign.

And... any time a Presidential Candidate chooses a running mate, you would have expected that person to have been fully vetted by the campaign. Right? Right.

Of course, any American who is givin the chance, has a full right to ask questions of Senator Obama, including Joe the Plumber.

Update: Now, it turns out that "Joe the Plumber" is related to Charles Keating. Oops. Should we say that again? A big, Palinesque "You Betcha!" Oops.

Update: “Plumber Joe” isn’t a licensed plumber at all? According to AP, he “works for a small plumbing company that does residential work.” He doesn’t need a license “because he works for someone else.”

Also, he won’t be affected by any of Obama’s tax increases on people making over $250K because he doesn’t make that much; he just thinks that, if he ever succeeds in buying the plumbing company where he works, he might make enough to have to pay the taxes. In addition, I assume, to paying the fees for a plumber’s license.

Also, he evidently owes the State of Ohio $1200 in unpaid taxes... AND, he may not even be registered to vote. You'd think McCrazy would have checked, right? Right? Right.

Watch for Faux News to claim he's an Obamamania double-agent plant.


But still:

The difference between two philosophies:

One wants Joe to act like a man, help him and society by encouraging him to pull his own pants up. YEA JOE! Way to go!

The other wants to take Farmer Brown's over-alls and give them to Plumber Joe, so we don't have to stare at his crack. Poor Joe. Boo-hoo.

After all, Farmer Brown has two pairs of over-alls. He can wear his Sunday pair all the time.

And Plumber Joe won't ever have to worry about pulling his own pants up....


The debate:

I was listening, not watching. It makes for a better understanding of what is actually said, and I thought it pretty much a wash except when it came to the Supreme Court question. McCain won this.

Neither one really repeated what the negative ads were saying to the other’s face.

Obama killed McCain on health care. Again.

If I were the moderator, I would have asked three questions:

1- Do either of you support the UN's Small Arms Ban Treaty, and if so, why? (This would really separate the candidates, but might be a little too involved for most of the viewers. Pity.)

2- Do either of you think the Constitution is a "living document", and will you pick "activist" Judges for the SCOTUS, and what is your definition of "activist Judge"?

3- What are the advantages of allowing Health Care companies to set up shop in states with lower regulation, thus lower care; and how does this relate to the McCain health care plan.

I admit the last question is loaded.

Obama's Health Care Plan is better.

BUT, I would rather have McCain picking the SCOTUS Judges. Obama's stand on that scares me. He is going have a "Litmus Test" that excludes many of the most qualified jurors. Obama will pick people who want to MAKE LAW, not determine the Constitutionality of Law.

Nasty Campaign Ads....

Repost from Terry Smith, Managing Editor of The Athens News.

Negative ads: Nasty is as nasty does

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH ran a fascinating story Monday headlined, “Attack Ads Unpopular But Effective, Party Official says.”

The party official in question, Scott Borgemenke, chief strategist for the House Republican Campaign Committee, has a key role in devising the advertising strategy for Republicans running in Ohio House of Representatives districts across the state, including the 92nd District that includes Athens County.

So he would have to claim some responsibility for the repulsive “death-penalty” mailers the Ohio Republican Party sent out against the Democratic 92nd District candidate, Debbie Phillips. I wrote about these mailers last week, so I won’t go into full detail, but they basically made the argument, in Technicolor negativity, that because Phillips opposes the death penalty, she is therefore an “ally” of brutal murderers and child rapists.

This is not unlike GOP vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s recent offhand remark that Barack Obama “pals around with terrorists,” based on his acquaintanceship with a man whose domestic terrorism occurred when Barack was 8 years old.

The article actually cited another noxious ad campaign that Borgenmenke is involved in this election season, a homophobic mailer whose underlying grievance against the Democrat in a House race (opposition to a bill that would ban gay adoption) would have applied just as well to GOP House Speaker Jon Husted and a majority of Republicans who opposed the same bill, according to the Dispatch.

In the article, Borgenmenke freely admitted that this sort of campaigning is bad. “I don’t think it’s a good thing for the system,” he said about the negative ads. “It just works.”

His attitude is so cynical and corrosive that I’m not going to waste your time explaining why. If you don’t see the moral bankruptcy of using scare tactics and outright deception — completely divorced from any reasonable discussion of issues — to win an election, you’re just Borgenmenke’s type of voter: Stupid, gullible and impressionable.

Real Life Differences Between Liberals and Conservatives....

Are your friendships and personal relationships suffering because of politics?

Do you find yourself "treading lightly" in your day-to-day interactions with people, simply to avoid conflict or discomfort?

Is it actually causing you anxiety?

Is it just me, or has anyone noticed this difference between Liberals and Conservatives?

In my experience, Liberals are more aggressive in On-Line give and take, while Conservatives seem to be more aggressive face to face, but in "real life", Conservatives more readily forgive and forget.

Liberals who take their politics very seriously seem to view non-agreement as almost a criminal offense. If you “make a point” that contradicts their views, basic tenents or beliefs, they are much more likely to let political disagreements damage or limit personal and social relationships.

I've had a conversation turn plain ICY, just over the slightest observation, much less a difference of opinion.

At first I thought that the difference was Rational vs. Emotional, but I don't think that's the case now. I do know there is a lot of anger on the Liberal side over the last eight years, and believe me, as a Libertarian, I am extremely angry over the NeoCon highjacking of both our Country's policy and the Conservative label -- BUT it still doesn't explain this seemingly basic difference in the approach to discussing politics.

Do Liberals take political disagreement more seriously and it is more likely to affect their every day interaction with other people, or is this just my experience?

Here's a fresh example: On Thursday, my boss, the owner of our company, came out for Obama publicly -- in a company-wide meeting.

If it had been for the other major party candidate (I am voting for Bob Barr, the Libertarian candidate, so I have no dog in this tussle.), I think that probably complaints would have been filed -- whether or not there was legal recourse.

Friendly discussion, anyone?

Old Hop on the Economic Collapse....

Some condensed and edited comments from Chuck at Old Hop's Hideout:

We are in a Depression.

Austrian School economists have been predicting this since 2002. Our economy, inextricably linked to an unconstitutional central bank called the Federal Reserve, is dis-contorting itself from false, manipulated credit and has entered the crack-up phase of the boom-bust cycle. If ever the prescient wisdom of Thomas Jefferson and John Taylor of Carolina was to be proven, it is now.

Central banking is the ruination of any economy.

The harder the Federal government tries to fix the problem the worse it gets. Chicago School economist and Nobel laureate Milton Friedman demonstrated that a series of time-lags (recognition, decision, and implementation) results in government fiscal and monetary interventions only exacerbating market convulsions. George W. Bush has embarked on the same disastrous policies taken by Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt in the 1930's.

Both Presidential candidates John McCain and Barak Obama have supported the infusion of yet more false liquidity into the financial markets, proving that neither understands the Federal Reserve System as the cause and aggravation of the business cycle. Neither of these men have the economic acumen to solve this crisis, regardless of their political demagoguery. Whatever policies either of them pursues will only deepen and protract the suffering.

Meanwhile, the only candidate who understands how the economy works, Ron Paul, was roundly rejected by American voters.

It does not take an economist with a Ph.D. to intuit that days of debt-financed high living have to meet with an inevitable end.

In a free market, business failures are absorbed by the market with minimal impact to the general public. More efficient players buy up and reallocate the assets.

Under our managed economy inefficient players -- in many cases large inefficient players -- are allowed to continue operation, propped up by subsidy and/or loose liquidity. They then become "too big to fail," and their losses are socialized and passed on to the public. Marc Faber used the metaphor of a crack addict (where "crack" is credit) to describe our economy.The main lesson the Austrians teach us: credit is not the engine of economic health; saving is.

We're hearing and will continue to hear from a chorus of boo-birds blaming the "free market" and "capitalism" for all of this. But the fact is that we don't have free markets; they are actually managed markets, especially the financial markets that led to the bust.

The great danger in times like these is for a public outcry for more regulation and tighter government controls. There is always a Hitler out there waiting to oblige.

The Yard Sign Test....

Every Sunday morning, I drive from our place east of Athens, to Lancaster, where I look after my mom while my brother goes to church.

I usually start out about 6:30am and I don't have to be there until 8am, which gives me a little extra time. I do this on purpose, because this is my personal time for "thinking", and I do my best thinking while I'm driving slowly through small towns and countrysides (Kinda my early Sunday afternoon drive -- so don't tailgate me, I'll drive even slower. I promise).

I go through Logan and take the back roads up through Hideaway Hills area, across Paradise Road (I love the name "Chicken Coop Road". How can you not?) and angle northwest so that I end up coming in on Duffy Road south of Lancaster. I take the small town and countryside route because I am a small town/country boy, and I love this country. It also keeps me rooted in what's important; for instance, when I see a house or a piece of land that somebody has done something special with, I relate it to me and mine, wondering if we could do THAT for our place and our family. The older I get, the more insular and family oriented I seem to get.

But, all I'm sayin' is that I keep "an eye out", and one of the things that I have noticed is the political yard sign biz.... So here's what's hap'nin' with that:

Eight years ago, in Southern Ohio, the Presidential Campaign yard signs ran 3-1 across the board for Bush/Cheney. Four years ago they ran 3-2 for the 'pubs.

This year the small towns are running for Obama, while the countryside/rural areas are running even. Bad (really bad) for McCain/Palin.

Even more amazing is the number of obviously 'pub households with ALL the 'pub candidate's yard signs EXCEPT for McCain/Palin. BUT, of all the Dem' yards with multiple signs, half of them did not have an Obama/Biden sign.

It is "beyond my pay grade" to figure out exactly what all this means, and statistical analysis needs a little more than an early morning drive, but it can't be good for the 'pubs.

Right now it looks worse than the end result of the Dole campaign....

You might be a Golfer if... and National Debt....

... "You might be a golfer if you clean the walnuts out of your yard with a sand wedge." -- courtesy of my brother.


Also, there are not enough walnuts in the State of Ohio to match the number of dollars in the National Debt....

Waiting For The Barbarians....

“In our time, the curse is monetary illiteracy, just as inability to read plain print was the curse in earlier centuries.” - Ezra Pound (1885-1972)

Mises meets Poetry.

And they think that it will only be a "recession", but Here's what I said some time ago....

Hope springs eternal.

Evidently.

In fools and wise men alike.

We can't help it....

The Neo-Cons have no idea how they, in the form of the Republican Party, have alienated the populace over the last 8 yrs.

Conservatives haven’t been conservative for a long, long time, and we are going to pay the price.

We are paying it....

Now we are just Waiting For The Barbarians.

Yeah, we all could use a little mercy now
I know we don't deserve it
But we need it anyhow
We hang in the balance
Dangle 'tween hell and hallowed ground
Every single one of us could use some mercy now

- Mary Gauthier "Mercy Now"

What Is a Right and How Do We Know?

What Is a Right and How Do We Know?

By Bill Whittle

During the presidential debate Tuesday night, Barack Obama was asked if he thought health care was a “right.”

He said he thought it was a right. Well, if you accept that premise, I think you can ask some logical follow-up questions: Food is more important than health care. You die pretty quickly without food.

Do we have a “right” to food in America? What about shelter? Do we have a “right” to housing? And if we do have a right to housing, what standard of housing do we have a right to? And if it is a right, due to all Americans, wouldn’t that mean that no one should have to accept any housing, or health care, which is inferior to anyone else’s… since it’s a right? Do we have a right to be safe? Do we have a right to be comfortable? Do we have a right to wide-screen televisions? Where does this end?

See, by taking something to a ridiculous extreme, we can illuminate the problem here… what is a right? How do we know? What’s the difference between the right to free speech — which is enshrined in the Constitution — versus the “right” to health care, which is not?

Well, back in the day, we would simply say that a right has legal authority — it’s in the Constitution and therefore it’s a not just a right, it’s a birthright. So why shouldn’t we amend the Constitution to include the rights to health care, food, housing, education — all the rest? What’s the difference between the rights we have and the “rights” Obama wants to give us?

Simply this: Constitutional rights protect us from things: intimidation, illegal search and seizure, self-incrimination, and so on. The revolutionary idea of our Founding Fathers was that people had a God-given right to live as they saw fit. Our constitutional rights protect us from the power of government. But these new so-called “rights” are about the government — who the Founders saw as the enemy — giving us things: food, health care, education... And when we have a right to be given stuff that previously we had to work for, then there is no reason — none — to go and work for them. The goody bag has no bottom, except bankruptcy and ruin. Does that ring a little familiar these days? Because isn’t the danger here that if you’re offered something for nothing… you’ll take it?

Only it’s not something for nothing. “Free” health-care costs us something precious, and no less precious for being invisible. Because there’s a word for someone who has their food, housing and care provided for them… for people who owe their existence to someone else.

And that word is “slaves.”

Republican Party's Shame -- 6 Degrees of Separation in Action....

My brother made this astute appraisal of this year's particularly venomous political ads:

"It's like 6 Degrees of Separation. If you went to high school with a murderer, you're guilty by association."

I hate to see this. I support Jill Thompson. This is really bad.

From The Athens News - Editor Terry Smith

Worst political mailer ever:

Whenever I think I've seen it all with regard to negative campaign literature, something gets left in my mailbox that out-stinks what’s come before. Something so despicable and sick that the word “evil” isn’t an exaggeration.

The Ohio Republican Party funded the hateful mailer I’m referring to, which attacks Athens City Council member Debbie Phillips. The Democrat is running for the 92nd House District seat against Republican Athens County Auditor Jill Thompson.

The cover of the mailer shows a mugshot of a bearded man, and states, “Frederick Mundt KILLED a little girl… And,” the mailer continues on the inside, “Debbie Phillips is his ally.”
It then states, “Debbie Phillips opposes the death penalty, so murderers like Frederick Mundt aren’t punished.”

The mailer then describes the terrible kidnapping, rape and murder of Mundt’s 7-year-old victim. It concludes by saying, “Debbie Phillips may be a murderer’s ally, but she shouldn’t be our representative.”

Let’s be clear here. Debbie Phillips and Fred Mundt are not connected in any way. They don’t know each other, probably have never heard of each other. The Ohio Republican Party, however, is so desperate to retain this House seat that they will do anything, including trying to deceive people into thinking this basically decent Democrat is allied with the worst of the worst, a child rapist and murderer.

And it’s not just bending the truth. It’s flat-out lying to say that people who oppose the death penalty don’t think murderers should be punished. Inmates serving life terms in America’s prison hellholes would be shocked to hear that they’re not being punished.

A lot of good people oppose the death penalty on moral and ethical grounds. (I oppose it because of the possibility that we will mistakenly condemn and kill someone who’s innocent.) To say this means that death-penalty opponents are “allied” with the murderers is not only idiotic; it’s mean, malicious and sick.

Not to mention, using these tactics betrays how the Ohio Republican Party feels about you, the voters. They think you’re stupid, since anyone with a sixth-grade education can see through the pre-school logic used in the Fred Mundt mailer.

Jill Thompson probably didn’t authorize or endorse this mailer, just as Debbie Phillips didn’t authorize a union-funded mailer that unfairly and dishonestly attacked Thompson based on her use of sick days over the years.

But I do blame the Ohio Republican Party for this immoral garbage. And while I consider myself an independent when it comes to local and regional candidates, this makes it unlikely that I’ll look favorably at any candidate endorsed by the Ohio Republican Party anytime soon, including Thompson.

Issue 6....

Issue 6

A gambling proponent said that Casinos often sponsor Gamblers Anonymous groups and that "everything should be done in moderation".

That's like the Medellín Cartel opening up a Methadone Clinic franchise, or MS-13 moonlighting as Guardian Angels.

The casino scam just moves money around. It doesn't create any real product. Right now we're in the middle of a mess caused by just that type of business.

Gambling proponents start with writing some pretty big checks to our politicos. Once entrenched, it then takes money from people who don't understand the odds (Sound familiar?) and funnels it into the pocket of mostly out-of-state interests. Then it throws a little chump-change into the pockets of the working poor, half of whom have gambling problems of their own and just pour it back in, not helping the economy at all. Then it skims off to the state a token in the interest of publicity ("Do it for the kids.").

Gambling is often referred to as “an Industry”. Wrong. An "industry" creates a durable product. It's a business, and the jobs in the gambling biz don’t make up for the extended misery it adds to lives and the money it takes that people need to live.

Gambling is designed to NOT be profitable for the consumer. The only way it exists is that success depends on the ignorance of that consumer, and a society that believes it can get more out of this scam than it puts in is just the sucker they are looking for.

For those of you who say that gambling should be allowed in the "interests of personal liberty", let's just take that to the extreme and put up Casinos right NEXT to schools. If it’s good for society, you shouldn’t have a problem with that. In fact, why don't we incorporate the schools into the casino system by setting up "Blackjack dealer 101" as an advanced math class? Instead of a test-out for college credit, there’s a test-out for a casino job.

The idea of gambling paying for public services is silly - the casino scam as a way to pave streets. It basically exists as another TAX, just like booze and smokes, and if you are pro-tax, you are pro Government involvement in the gambling biz. We pay enough taxes for that, to our mostly ineffective local government. And this is very important: the more taxes raised from Gambling, the more influence the Gambling biz has over your Government, compromising the legislative process.

That is not a good thing.

Voter Fraud... Is it happening on BOTH Sides?

Amazing, but both sides of the "blogASSphere" are all a-twitter with stories - albeit unverified, for the most part - of VOTER FRAUD (Jaws theme plays in background).

With the Dems, it's the spector of poll-fixing, where the machines take over! Dum-da-da-daaa-DUMMMMM!!!!

With the 'pubs, it's ACORN, the New Jersey Mafia of the Voter Registration Scam, only less competent... but still with the evidence riding around in the trunk.

You can check my experience watching ACORN work here.

I wonder if ANY of it is warrented.

From "Gordon Gekko" on the Thurber's Thoughts blog:

"... When you consider that you can register on line, in person at the BOE, and fill out the registration form enclosed with your tax returns, this seems ripe for just this kind of activity.

At what point does a citizen have a responsibility to seek out and act on their "right to vote"?
If the only way to vote is have an ACORN rep show up at a supermarket (or a Likker Sto') for you to fill out the forms, it doesn't appear to me that you consider your civic duty all that important."

I promise to pursue the truth... at least as far as the next beer. (Oops. Make that Bloody-Mary. I'm on a diet.)

First take on tonight's debate - McCain down in flames....

“My friends”. How many times? Thirty?

McCain missed too many openings. He didn’t listen to Obama’s replies and let too many opportunities pass. He referred to his notes to remember the questions and his talking points, and that looked weak.

Obamamania didn’t turn in a strong performance, but McCain would have done better if he hadn’t shown up.

McCain lost almost every point. He was especially weak on health care.

Of course his plan is written by the HC lobby and designed to effectively take the very chance of coverage away from those who most need it.

He missed the opportunity to really connect the Dems and the Fannie/Freddy debacle.

He had a chance to go for the kill on that and either chose not to, or flat-out wiffed.

No mention of Ayers either, but that may not have been a mistake. That is only flying with his supporters right now.

Only on the Pakistan and the Russia questions did he sound as if he knew what he was talking about.

The Iran waging war on Israel question was idiotic. How long would that last? 5 minutes?

Most importantly, he lost the “look and act” test. Unfortunately that’s what counts for most viewers. It left me wishing I’d listened to it on radio, so I could make-believe it was a tie.

Voter Registration -- OHIO STYLE....

Today I was on an errand, and happened through Northern Lights Shopping Center off of North Cleveland Avenue in Columbus.

Today, October 6th, was the last day to register to vote in this year's General Election.

Two of the Center's major tenants are a Thrift store and a Liquor store, and being the first Monday of the month, there was quite the little steady stream of people heading into the "Likker Sto'" for their noon bag and lotto tics.

As I drove through the lot near the Liquor and Thrift stores in the Center, I noticed two cars at the curb and three people, volunteers of some sort, waylaying the people on the sidewalk in front of the liquor store and approaching cars that were driving past. They had clipboards, and were conducting what appeared to be a shuttle service, carting "prospective voters" to the registration and early absentee voting.

I noticed they were approaching every car that came near, so I drove around the lot and then coasted by really slow, my window rolled down and looking "interested". No luck. I did it again. Still no luck.

Then I noticed a couple of guys across the lot -- they had cameras and appeared to be documenting the scene.

Now, it's not against the law to talk to people outside of liquor stores -- AT 12:00 NOON on a MONDAY; but if you're looking for a certain type of prospective voter, then you're outside of a liquor store in a certain part of town at 12 Noon on a Monday. Right?

Right.

I'm a-bettin' they weren't Republican volunteers. Know what I mean?

The Fine Print Scam of the Debates....

The Candidates don't really want to hear the people's questions....

It's called The Memorandum of Understanding.

What a joke.

McCrazy and Obamamania don't want you to understand s**t!

Coming to grips with the Healthcare Crisis....

As a "Paleo-Conservative", Libertarian oriented American, this has been a tough one to deal with -- but I've done some research, and having recently come to grips with the inadequacies of our health care system, I've also had to come to grab hold of the fact that, in this instance, my economic ideals are trumped by belief in the righteousness of mercy, by logic and by need.

If Jesus healed the sick, should we not at least try to do likewise?

McCain is wrong on healthcare.

Simple.

If you ask the right questions.

The healthcare lobby, who wrote most of McCain's "health care program", pits the healthy, the young, and the wealthy against the poor in a Class War. And the poor cost us much more money.

Given the current economic facts, many more of us are soon to be poor. Which means that without some kind of national plan, many more of us will very soon be without healthcare.

The economic facts are CLEAR. As a nation, we would save money by enacting a one-payer, national healthcare system.

The Insurance Lobby will not let that happen.

And Obamamania is not much better. He's not in bed with the big business lobby as much as McCrazy, but his party is....

Replies to "Religulous"....

Bill Maher picks the easy targets throughout this heavily edited Moorer-like expedition into "Religion". I have not seen the movie -- just as I plan not seeing American Carol, but from what I've read, it is just an expedition into the ego of Bill Maher in the form of a very weak rant, unburdened by any actual intellectual exploration of world-views. Evidently, when anyone says anything remotely sensible, Maher takes the easy way out, using the magnetics of editing it until the compass points to his previously decided conclusions....

Here's the skinny:

"... At one point, he interviews a scientist who believes in God and sees nothing inconsistent with science and religious faith. This man is no hick, and it would have been nice to hear what he had to say. But Maher doesn't give him a chance to talk. Maher's not interested in talking."

Mick LaSalle
San Francisco Chronicle

“Maher can target Christians because, if they take their calling seriously, they will heed the words of Jesus, which include: "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you" -- or in this case "mock you". It would be helpful if Maher would expand his definition of religion a bit and discuss worldviews. I'm sure he has one and wonder if he would be willing to articulate it.

If not, some questions: How did we get here? What time is it (i.e. in history)? What is our purpose in life? What is the source of [his] truth? It sounds like he is judging religious people against some moral standard he expects them to recognize as valid. Great, he should tell them how he stumbled upon it or how it was revealed to him.

There are people (atheists and theists alike) who are taking this discussion much more seriously and demonstrating some intellectual rigor in the process.”

UnConstitutional Fleecing....

The UnConstitutional FLEECING of the American People continues....

Biden Wins Debate, Palin Wins "Most Improved"....

Some fact-checking on the debate. As usual, the candidates lied about or distorted a number of things.

Amazing the difference between the way the Con and Lib blogs are spinning this. Each one saw a different debate and very few of them seem to have actually heard the answers (or, in most cases, the non-answers).

I wish there was a way to actually get candidates to answer important questions… so here's Palin's Debate Flow Chart.

Candidates very often ignore a question they don't want to answer and go about espousing whatever line of tortured reasoning gives them an out and they think makes points with the viewers. It's a common debate tactic. However, few have ever done what Palin did by announcing: “I may not answer the questions that either the moderator or you (Biden) want to hear, but I'm going to talk straight to the American people.” In other words, silly debate rules don’t apply to me, even though the McCain-Palin campaign negotiated and signed off on those rules.

This "folksy" speech crap has gone too far.

I'm sick and tired of both of them (especially Palin) droppin' the G off of everythinG. I get why she does it -- evidently she's goin' fer what someone is telling her is the countrified/illiterate vote, but why does Biden have to match her? Brings both of them down in my eyes (Biden didn't have far to fall anyway.).

Palin narrowly lost the 1st 3rd, won the 2nd (Energy) and massively lost the last third. But then I was actually listenin' to what was actually said.

She avoided most of the questions. To be fair, Biden avoided them when it was convenient, but he won point by point. Some of her answers were not even in the same Galaxy in relation to the questions, while he was on point almost across the board.

Funny quote from Reason Mag's blog: “I think it was clear that Palin rolled up her sleeves, went a-rufflin' some feathers, winked a few times, was a maverick somethin’ somethin’ and is not from the East Coast. That's good enough for me to think she can handle the job.”

I do think it’s clear that everybody loves Israel. Except that both candidates were talking to Christian Zionists – not Jews.

The upshot is that Biden won the debate, and Palin won the "most improved" award, simply because expectations for her were (and rightly so) soooo low.

Ifill did a terrible job. She didn't make them ANSWER. Probably the debate format and her revealed book deal had something to do with it. Still, she was not an aggressive questioner at all.

I'm sick to my stomach listening to the various spin-meisters doing their fact-avoidance. The obvious is that our “News” providers are becoming more polarized. Each is a functional non-stop press-release of a particular party. Nobody "reports" anymore. They just spin, and spin, and spin, and spin, and....

Palin/Biden Debate....

I've decided to ignore the economy and concentrate on something a little more fun: The Heart-beat Away Debate, or McCain's "Damn. I should have picked Christine Todd Whitman." moment.

Re.: Hard questions for candidates: "Why should a politician/candidate for high office have an easier time of it than a Doctoral candidate during the oral portion of an examination?"

I say "put 'em ALL on the grill", and not just for an hour debate, either. I'm talkin' serious, hard questions asked in front of the American people, complete with instant fact-checking of the answers -- on TV.

But we all know that could never be allowed -- at least by the American people, who would immediately get bored and flip to reruns of American Idol.

On the VP debate, I've changed my mind. No prediction here. I have no idea whether Palin will be able to handle the pressure.

The most important thing is that Gwen Ifill will decide the questions and I believe that very few of them will be what is expected. The questions will be calculated to highlight any unpreparedness of either candidate -- and give them rope to hang with....

I'm a-bettin' that while the candidates are prepping for the debate, Ifill is cribbing up on foreign policy questions. (Who's the Pakistani Assitant Minister of Defense?)

"... If you want to start your watch, it's 49 and a half hours before Gwen Ifill is accused of sexism and bias against moose-hunters."

Of course, Palin's team knows that, and they will try very hard to ready her. She may be a quick study. Or not.

Will be interesting.

Why McCain Will Lose....

The indictment of the Republican Party.

It no longer knows what it believes.

It no longer knows what is important.

"Credit Crunch" -- Who's to blame?

Will history remember that Bush tried to fix it in 2003?

Via Jack Of All Trades blog, by Master Of None.

From the N.Y. Times Sept 2003:

“The Bush administration today recommended the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago. Under the plan, disclosed at a Congressional hearing today, a new agency would be created within the Treasury Department to assume supervision of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored companies that are the two largest players in the mortgage lending industry. ”

But, Democrats didn’t see the need:

‘’These two entities — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — are not facing any kind of financial crisis,'’ said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. ‘’The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing. Representative Melvin L. Watt, Democrat of North Carolina, agreed. ‘’ ”

Anyone who asked for regulation that kept banks from lending to people who couldn't afford houses were accused (by Democrats -- look up the history of the "Community Reinvestment Act") of racism. As if a computer and a credit history could tell skin color or country of origin. Thus, these bad bets infected other good loans through "bundling" in an effort to limit risk.

This crisis has been brewing since the Carter administration, and was propelled by loosening reigns during the Clinton years.

The Democrats, for the most part ARE to blame for this mess.

BUT, why would anybody believe The President when he crys wolf? He has been wrong on practically everything else.

One last note, from poster "Paul" at Reason Mag.Blog:

"The only 'credit crunch' that exists- and even that is being generous to the 'credit crunchers' is interbank lending. Anyone with decent credit can still get a loan, just like you could yesterday, a month ago, two years ago. Banks are still lending-- and some bank managers have gone to the media saying as much. However, they have been drowned out by the din of "credit crunch!". In fact, I'm thinking that the words "Credit Crunch!" can now finally replace "9-11!".

There has been a slow-down in interbank lending-- tightening of terms, shortening of timelines, etc. This, however is probably a necessary correction, and allows the market to adjust to new lending mechanisms. The fact that the market is acting cautiously is precisely why the market is working like a well-oiled clock."

"... We should all look especially askance at the hurry-up offense coming out of the White House, the Congress, and the media. Bush is desperate for a legacy that doesn't involve quagmires and broken bodies; Congress is trying to give voters some goodies; both McCain and Obama want to show that they can lead, dammit, and please all the people all the time. And the press is desperate for copy and for change."

And so, we "mortgage" the future. Or, in reality, which DC doesn't deal in, we flush it....

Italy, circa: 1933....

(Update: Well, it went down BIG. Wonder what TPTBs will try next?)

Trying to handle the crisis, the Fascist government nationalized the holdings of large banks which had accrued significant industrial securities.

The government also issued new securities to provide a source of credit for the banks and began enlisting the help of various cartels that had been created by Italian business leaders since 1922.

The government offered recognition and support to these organizations in exchange for promises that they would manipulate prices in accordance with government priorities.

A number of mixed entities were formed, called instituti or enti nazionali, whose purpose it was to bring together representatives of the government and of the major businesses.

These representatives discussed economic policy and manipulated prices and wages so as to satisfy both the wishes of the government and the wishes of business.

The government considered this arrangement to be a success, and Italian Fascists soon began to pride themselves on this outcome, saying they had survived the Great Depression without infringing on private property.

Banking also came under extraordinary control. As Italy’s industrial and banking system sank under the weight of depression and regulation, and as unemployment rose, the government set up public works programs and took control over decisions about building and expanding factories.

The government created the Istituto Mobiliare in 1931 to control credit, and the IRI later acquired all shares held by banks in industrial, agricultural, and real estate enterprises.

Oh NO!!!! "Bush Confident Bailout Will Work"....

Talk about pounding nails in a coffin and spelling out doom.

This man has been so wrong about so many things, that this confidence spells the death-knell for something that I am sure won't work anyway....

"Ultimately, all the bad banks out there that are insolvent will not be saved. They will be taken under in one form or another. This "bailout" is really nothing more than a stalling tactic that puts the day of reckoning for some banks to the future by 1-24 months."

On this connected note: Bush has not only been wrong about most things, he has been flat caught-out on so many lies that the only credibility he has is with p