Sunday, October 31, 2010

Time Will Tell



Ballad Of A Thin Man



Something Wicked This Way Comes - To South Carolina

The Boyz at Hill Buzz are on to something. What it is ain't exactly clear. But it has to do with South Carolina.

So, last night someone in the Democrat political world here in Chicago read my post about something weird going on in South Carolina…and the mystery of why so many people are digging into what happened to Hillary Clinton in the 2008 Democrat primary there.

I was warned not to dig into this, and to “just let it go”.
So what was the Buzzer in Chief's response?
Apparently, whatever South Carolina is about involves something the Democrat Party does not want to be revealed, because it would destroy them.

I want to burn the Democrat Party to the ground and then salt the Earth with its ashes so that it never reconstitutes itself again. I am sick and tired of the thuggery the party engages in. I have had enough of everyone being too scared to stand up to these people. I am through allowing the media to keep quiet about whatever evil things the party does, because everyone is in cahoots on this…or just too afraid of reprisals to stand up to it.
Kevin is not afraid.
So, I don’t know what exactly is in South Carolina to find. But, I’ve been told not to put myself in danger by digging into it. I’ve been told there will be massive blowback by writing about whatever happened down there…and that I should just leave it alone.

Well, you know what that means…I have found my new hobby because there is no way I am going to be bullied away from a mystery.

I made a few calls today to people on the 2008 Hillary Clinton campaign to find out what they thought could possibly be the South Carolina Mystery. No one wanted to talk about it, because they said it involves race, and what the Obama campaign did to the Clintons in South Carolina to brand them racists and racialize the primary against Hillary.

People are still terrified of being called racists or having the Left lob these race bombs at them…so they won’t come anywhere near whatever the Hell it is in South Carolina that’s the heart of the mystery.

There’s also this: whatever it is that happened down there is so bad that it could take down the Democrat Party for good, and the Clinton people I talked to don’t want that to happen because Rush Limbaugh is right — Clinton people are indeed of the belief that once Obama is defeated in 2012, the Clintons can rebuild the Democrat Party and resume control over it. Thus, Clinton people want to do enough damage to Obama and the Left so they lose control…but not too much damage because they want to use whatever’s left post-Obama to rebuild the party.

This is not what I want — I want the Democrat Party burned to the ground…because the Democrat Party turned the Alinsky weapons on fellow Democrats, like me, and used accusations of racism, thuggery, ACORN, the SEIU, the Black Panthers, and other Democrat tools to intimdiate, bully, commit fraud, and personally destroy anyone that stood in Obama’s way.

The Democrat Party should not be allowed to exist anymore. Americans need to stop supporting it, and to relegate it to either the dustbin of history or to marginalize it with the other radical, Marxist, lunatic fringe minor parties that exist for the entertainment and masturbatory enjoyment of radical Leftists in this country. Mainstream America needs to stop seeing the Democrat Party as a mainstream political party — because what the party sanctions is diametrically opposed to what America, and 99% of Americans, stand for.

I have absolutely no fear of whatever Democrats will do to me for digging into what happened to Hillary Clinton in South Carolina in 2008. I’ve been under constant attack since January of this year for speaking out about things Democrats didn’t want me talking about. They used their race bomb on me, and I was indeed heavily harmed, but not obliterated.

Still here!

Still standing!

Not giving up!
There is way more but let me leave you with this little bit where Kevin (the Buzzer) tells his enemies where he stands. He was discussing the drama in terms of a movie plot.
But, this time the protagonist gets to be a gay dude from Boystown who refuses to be intimidated. Folks, never F&%$ with a fag who’s got nothing to lose…and a readership in the tens of thousands.

They say, “don’t get involved in this, or else”.

I say, “Welcome to Thunderdome, bitches”.
I've got your six Kev.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Witching Hour



It could also be the Season Of The Bitch. But that is a different race.

Which race am I thinking of? The O'Donnell/Coons race in Delaware.
Obama is heading to Delaware again in a last-ditch firewall effort to salvage Commie Coons’ imploding campaign.

Coons has now canceled the two debates he was scheduled to have with O’Donnell between now and Tuesday.

Canceled them.

Because he was afraid to debate her.

The woman the Democrats keep hitting with every sexist, misogynistic attack they can conjure. The woman the call stupid. The woman they make fun of relentlessly.

Why are they so scared of Christine O’Donnell.

Because, she really is YOU…and she is WINNING.
According to the latest polling data O'Donnell is down by 10 points in Delaware. Maybe. But you don't send the President in to campaign in the last three days before the election for a candidate who is really down by 10.

Also note that the No sex sex scandal that Eric of Classical Values wrote about hasn't hurt O'Donnell a bit so far. In fact maybe it has helped.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Friday, October 29, 2010

Low Ratings

I was reading an article about Drug Prohibition Violence in Mexico and as usual I had to say something. It went like this:

It is not drug related violence. It is Prohibition Related Violence.
That comment made my user rating drop like a stone. So I thought I would make another comment in response.
With just one comment my user rating went from +1 to -29! Let me see if I can lower it further:

DRUG WAR = BIG GOVERNMENT

Heh.
I'm now at -64. Evidently some people are paying attention.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Expanding



Socialism = expanding the coercive sector of the economy

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Chickamauga! Chickamauga!

I liked this short history of the Battle of Chattanooga.

Reeling from defeat at Chickamauga on September 19-20, 1863, Army of the Cumberland forces under the command of William S. Rosecrans retreated to Chattanooga to regroup. Braxton Bragg's men drove to the summit of Lookout Mountain and retook the peak without a fight. With this advantage on the Rebel side, Old Rosy feared losing the city.
After stopping flank attacks by W.T. Sherman and "Fighting Joe" Hooker the rebels faced General George Thomas, "The Rock of Chickamauga" in the center. And something interesting happened.
In the center of the rebel line sat Thomas. Over the past 3 weeks his men had been subject to taunts from Hooker's and Sherman's soldiers over the defeat at Chickamauga two months earlier. At 3:30pm, after word reached headquaters of Sherman's inability to reach his objective, Grant ordered Thomas to advance on the first line of defense on Missionary Ridge. The rebel line resisted at first then gave in to the advancing Federals.

Fully aware that the men of Sherman's and Hooker's armies were watching the men began to move up Missionary Ridge. Shouting "Chickamauga, Chickamauga" the men advanced on the entrenched rebels. The artillery line had been misplaced at the top of the ridge instead of the crest. The cannon fire was less effective and the Union advance quickly overran the Confederate forces.

Bragg ordered a retreat to Dalton and gave General Cleburne the grim task of guarding his rear. Safely back in Dalton, he wired Davis of the defeat and asked to be relieved of duty, admitting it had been wrong to leave him in command when Davis visited in October.
Some men do not take defeat well. It inspires them to do better. Likewise some do not handle victory well. Yes Mr. Obama, I'm talking about you and your party.

And that was not the first time in the Civil War that such chants arose from Union troops. Gettysburg was another such time and place.
Some of the Rebels in Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg on July 3, 1863, may have heard the voice of Sgt. Benjamin Hearst before they met the withering Union fire at the stone wall on Cemetery Ridge. Hearst, a veteran with the 14th Connecticut, yelled at the advancing mass, “Now we’ve got you! Sock it to the Blasted Rebels. Fredericksburg’s on the other leg!” And as the doomed men fell, the Federals behind the low stone wall shouted, “Fredericksburg! Fredericksburg!

Why did an engagement fought seven months earlier, on December 13, 1862, become a battle cry? Because only now, with the tables so perfectly turned, was the Union avenging its own dead thousands, struck down in front of a different stone wall in what turned out to be the nadir of the war for the North.
Well America took a walloping from its own citizens in 2008. Now the shoe is on the other foot. One can only hope the Republicans have some fight in them.

Such a hope is by no means a certainty. At least if we have Republican John Boehner (likely majority leader in the next Congress) to go by.
“I think the American people want us to find a way to work together to address the concerns that face the American people every day. We’re going to drive for a smaller, less costly and more accountable government here in Washington, D.C.,” Boehner says. “And to the extent that we can find common ground in that direction, I would welcome it.”
What kind of common ground is he thinking of? A nominal reduction in the rate of acceleration in spending? I dunno. Maybe that is not what the voters have in mind. It will not be the first time in war that the troops will have to make up for the deficiencies of the generals.

I'm not dismayed. Before we can put Boehner's feet to the fire we have to win a battle for him. So what is the battle cry for 2 Nov.? 2008! 2008! Or if you like TEAnami! Let us out vote and overrun the sons O bitches. After that whispering (with a powered megaphone) in the ears of our generals might be in order. Lead, follow, or we will push you out of the way.

TEA minus 5 and counting.


Tea Party Difference

Click on the above image and learn how to spread it around.


Cross Posted at Classical Values

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Post Election Scandal?

I was reading the latest bit of insider gossip (fiction?) from Ulsterman called: White House Insider: "President Obama is lost. Absolutely lost." A very interesting read. As is the rest of the series. Let me give you the gist of the "Lost" story:

In your email to me last week, you indicated a scandal was coming to the White House. Could you elaborate a bit more on that now?

Sadly, with this White House it is no longer a matter of a scandal, but of scandals. I see you did a story recently on the Justice Department situation surrounding the voting rights case. Continue watching that – it’s going to break open more soon after Republicans take the House. As you stated, it’s going to be investigated.
A lot of people think the scandal will revolve around voter intimidation (The Black Panther case) and vote fraud.

The boyz at Hill Buzz think so too. They recount stories of vote fraud in the Democrat primaries and in the Democrat Party in 2008. You can read all about that at the link. Here is how they see the essence of the scandal.
This morning, I had pancakes with a friend in the Chicago political world, ostensibly to start planning our anti-Rahm Emanuel efforts (beginning November 3rd, to save Chicago from that tyrant in what I hope becomes a national effort against Rahm), but we ended up spending most of breakfast talking about that Ulstermann “Big Scandal”.

“You are too close to the trees to see the forest”, my friend told me. “It’s right in front of your face but because you were in the thick of all this stuff, and have lived and breathed it for two years, you forget just how damning this stuff is and how this could destroy the party for generations”.

I now believe I know what Ulstermann is talking about, and why this “Big Scandal” could indeed be bigger than Watergate, as his “White House Insider” claimed. I still don’t think there really is a “White House Insider”, but I give Ulstermann props for seeing the bigger picture on this.

Essentially, the scandal is the Justice Department under Eric Holder and the “Voting Rights acts don’t apply to white people” attitude the Department has taken in regards to the activities of the Black Panthers in 2008. This is the equivalent of someone discovering “plumbers” breaking into the Watergate complex in the Nixon White House. Holder personally ordered the prosecution of the black panthers quashed…on a direct order from “president” Obama.

The reason this scandal is going to explode and be “bigger than Watergate” and could destroy the Democrats is because it ties directly into activities of the Obama campaign in 2008 — where a coordinated voter fraud and intimidation effort was run with ACORN, the SEIU, and the Black Panthers to elect Obama at all costs, using race as a weapon.

The ramifications of all of this are explosive.
Yes they are. And people are noticing this year. Instapundit has a roundup of the voter fraud cases that have shown up so far. I'm going to relist them here for convenience.

But first compare how slot machines are audited vs voting machines. When Money Is At Stake. Quite a difference huh?

Now for the links.

Fraud In Nevada

North Carolina

A Pattern Of Fraud?

Stephen Green

New ACORN effort is mobilizing voters, run by woman indicted for violating election laws.

Dallas

And something I did in 2008 about confidence in elections and paper ballots. Electronic Voting. Plus another one I did in 2004. Why I am against machine voting.

We have to give the Rs enough votes and enough seats so that cheating will not tiurn the results. Then post election we have to prevail on our Congress Critters to open up on anyone, individual, or party that is involved in vote fraud.

Also it would be a good idea to look at The Secretary of State Project and the Soros connection to it and how fraud at the very final stage of an election can change the results at The Soros Connection in the Minnesota Senate Race Vote Count. Plus another instance of the same see 2004 Washington State Governor Election (yeah - I know) Wiki.

These are not isolated incidents. There is a pattern. And most of the fraud appears to be coming from the Democrat side (there were the Ohio votes for Bush in 2004 that seemed suspicious).

As I said: post election put the heat on your Representative to get some hearings going - at the minimum. If it looks like there is probable cause it needs to go to court. If we can find some honest judges.

Let me add that In From The Cold explains what we need to do on election day. Something I have already said but wish to emphasize.
The remedy for conservatives is simple. Turn out in such huge numbers that it becomes impossible for Democrats to steal the election. But in the blue states, that's easier said than done. Besides, if the machine can't conjure up enough votes on election night, there's always Step Two in the Democratic playbook. Flood the zone with lawyers and start recounting until you achieve the desired result.

If you can, make a last-minute donation to Mark Kirk or Bill Brady, or volunteer some time for their campaigns. They need all the help they can muster in defeating their opponents--and the Democratic machine.
Let me add that I'm not too happy about either candidate. The alternative is to let the Democrats win without a fight. I'm totally against that.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Recycling The Bad Ideas Of The Past

Thomas Friedman says Republicans are recycling the bad ideas of the past. What he leaves out is that the Democrats are recycling bad ideas of the present. Which do you think will have a bigger impact? Me too. See you on 2 Nov.

The Law As Blackmail

David Bernstein is discussing his forthcoming book Rehabilitating Lochner: Defending Individual Rights against Progressive Reformin this audio clip. You can download the clip for casual listening.

The good stuff begins about 4 minutes in. The title of the post comes about 7:20 into the audio. The short version: a case of union extortion gone mad. Note: when I worked for a union packing house in Omaha we regularly had to do unpaid overtime. One day I messed up and didn't punch out until I was leaving the floor and the union steward was kind enough to "fix" my time card.

Unions do provide some worker protection, but the thing they are the very best at is providing union protection. They have in fact reached their peak in the competitive sector of the economy with the bail out of Government Motors. In the coercive sector of the economy (government) the peak has not yet been reached. It is coming.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Politics And Burnout

I'm burned out on politics and have nothing useful to say about anything else. Maybe tomorrow.

Monday, October 25, 2010

The Money You Steal From Me

From Hill Buzz:

A Constituent’s Letter to John Lewis
To Mr. Lewis,

My husband and I are the first people in our families to graduate from college (on scholarship to West Point). Yes, we’re black, so no you can’t write us off as racists. We’ve worked hard, served our country on 4 different continents, and are finally at a place where we are each earning six figure incomes. We own our own family business in addition to working full time, and all I ever hear you say or do is to our detriment. You and the rest of the federal government already take HALF of our earnings in taxes/Social Security/etc. After we pay for Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, and countless other government programs you keep voting for, we have 50% of our hard earned dollars left. Out of that 50% we have left, we have to buy our own health insurance, our own 401k (because even though we’ve paid over $100,000 into the SSA, we’ll never see it), our own groceries, our ever increasing property taxes, and our own charitable giving.

Through a lot of prayer and hard work, we are debt free and operating in the black….unlike you’ve done with the other half of our money. You and Obama (who you’ve voted with literally every time) have run up our debt in less than a year and a half more than every other president in history combined. And you have the gall to try to say that it’s for my own good. Not only is it not good for me, I have to fight you and your policies every day of my life just to try to take care of my family/business. And yet I hear you say time and again that I’m not doing my fair share. I want you to explain to me how my husband and I are not doing our fair share. We are doing exponentially more than our “fair share.” Over 45% of the people in this country (and I’d wager a significantly higher percentage of those in the 5th) pay NOTHING AT ALL in taxes. Nothing. And as if that insult weren’t already making my blood boil, now you are trying to adjourn and come home to try to get re-elected (I hope and pray you and your entitlement policies get voted out of office) without voting on the record about whether to extend my tax cuts, provided me by President Bush (who has done more for me than you ever did). In an economy that is already the worst its been in my lifetime, we are waiting to make business decisions for 2011 because we don’t know what the tax penalties will be. And if you don’t extend the Bush tax cuts, my family will be paying 60%ish of our income to you. IT’S RIDICULOUS AND UNACCEPTABLE for you to keep taxing me to death for trying to live the American Dream that is my birthright.

I want to know 1) what you think my fair share of taxes is (80%? 100%? Why not just go to work all day and then go to the food line to get bread and toilet paper from the government? Is that what you want?). 2) Why you are scared to vote for raising my taxes right before you come home to try to get re-elected 3) How on earth you sleep at night when you are leading America to live on credit (doesn’t work for my family or yours, yet you think it should be fine for America) while we responsible Americans not only do our “fair share,” we drag the rest of you along as well. I’d love to get your irresponsible spending, ill-conceived policies, and all the succubus non-taxpayers who keep living off the dole off my family’s back. They can work their way through school, pay off student loans, work hard working multiple jobs, and live the American Dream just like we did. I shouldn’t have to pay their way because they chose not to do so.

My husband and I grew up in the Atlanta public school system with single moms and all the odds stacked against us…and we made it. And we’re both disabled veterans as a result of that journey, who would gladly do it all again. Don’t you dare tell us we are not doing our fair share. And I don’t want some canned form letter some staffer sends to try to get rid of me. I want a real response from you as to my concerns…after all, I am your employer. I have the right to hire you, fire you, and your paycheck is paid with the money you steal from me. I want answers.
I have only this to add:

Read more at Fenn Little for Congress

Define Injustice



Something I don't like combined with "there ought to be a law".

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Getting A Hold

It is a good thing that many Americans have a low tolerance for Moral/Cultural Socialism. It will make it harder for Sharia to get a hold on the country.

Conversely every place we allow government to act is another place it can act differently later. And often does.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Democrat Hate

The Democrats hate says P.J. O'Rourke.

Democrats hate Democrats most of all. Witness the policies that Democrats have inflicted on their core constituencies, resulting in vile schools, lawless slums, economic stagnation, and social immobility.
I think they got into this situation by forgetting their mission: help the people and take a little graft on the side (Hey. It's politics)

What is their mission now? All graft all the time. Screw the people for as long as they can keep the con going. I'm hoping The Marks Are Wising Up.

H/T Instapundit

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Hayek Book Sale - Serfdom

I don't usually straight up flog books. But this sale is too good to pass up.

The Road to Serfdom: Text and Documents--The Definitive Edition (The Collected Works of F. A. Hayek, Volume 2) is available for $8.72. And if you order three of them (you have a friend or two who need an education. No?) shipping is free.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Friday, October 22, 2010

Taller and Older Dave

Tall Dave, who writes for Classical Values and who is an avid Polywell Fusion fan is having a birthday. I'm not at liberty to divulge his age.

Happy Birthday Dave


Cross Posted at Classical Values

Thursday, October 21, 2010

The Trouble With Hold Your Nose Voters



They might let the other side stink up the place for a while.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Slipping Away

Watch this video. It is about a minute and a half. I'll wait. And just in case you are not up to following orders from disembodied voices on the Internet. Good for you. Here is the money quote:

"I don't want to be in Washington another six years and watch the Republican party betray the trust of the American people again. I mean, we had the White House. We had a majority in the House and the Senate. We voted for more spending and more earmarks. Most of our senior members seem to be focused on taking home the bacon. I'm not going to be in a Republican party like that and that's not what the Republican Party is across America," Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) told FOX News.
So how does the changing Republican Party relate to the social conservative right? Things do not seem to be going well. At all. You see, the Social Conservatives make up 80% of the Republican Party (or is that 80% of Republican voters? No matter.), but without that other 20% they can't win elections. And that 20% is very much not interested in a Republican culture war. At all. And they will drop the Rs in a heartbeat if they go down that road.

Newsweek (yeah they get it right this time) looks at the issue.
It's just smart electoral politics; there's no good reason to bring in divisive issues when conservatives are united on fiscal discipline. But will the more staunchly libertarian members of the Tea Party—the 20 percent who aren't Republicans, or who are adamant that libertarianism means the government shouldn't decide who can and can't get married—be alienated? Perhaps, Samples says, but he hasn't seen it yet. Indeed, despite hopeful prophecies to the contrary as far back as February, there haven't been any high-profile defections. Part of it is that libertarians are holding their noses for the time being. "The socially conservative emphasis didn’t really work very well as an issue and they don’t want to blow this one," Samples says. And in fact, it's the values voters who are starting to panic, he adds: "Two or three weeks ago I was at the Family Research Council, and there seemed to be an almost desperate sense that the train was leaving the station and they weren’t on it."
No government that gets involved in social issues is going to be a small government. Those issues - if enacted - will need to be policed (do you have any idea how much a Drug War costs?). The days of "I'm against abortion so pay no attention to my spending habits" politicians on a national level are about over. The libertarians won't stand for it. Thank God.

H/T Instapundit

Update: 21 Oct 2010 0951z

Dick Morris sees what I'm seeing.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Democrats: Vote for the Republican

I was visiting Althouse (thanks Instapundit) and came across this comment.

Revenant said...

Had our 2011 benefits review at work this week. Thanks to ObamaCare, employee contributions are up 5% to 50%, deductibles and out of pocket are up 100%. Plus the joy of my HSP no longer covering over-the-counter medication (that being what I've spent almost all of it on to date).

Nothing I hadn't expected, but I think the Republican ticket just gained a few new voters from among my coworkers.

10/20/10 6:31 PM
The fools had hoped to have these changes come in after the election. But the idiots didn't read the bill before they voted on it. I believe it is clobbering time.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Flash Mob Politics

I think one of the reasons the Democrats are losing political battles (they have already lost the zeitgeist) is that the Internet and instant money transfers have brought us into an age of flash Mob politics. Political parties no longer get to decide on a monolithic message. The people can bypass the parties and directly support candidates - instantly.

Take my support for a Rocket Scientist for Congress who is going up against a Democrat who got 62% of the vote his last time out. And the Rocket Scientist, Ruth McClung, has a chance of winning. Send her a few bucks and improve her chances of winning.

Or take the Christine O'Donnell race in Delaware. She has a 24 hour money bomb request out to raise one million dollars. Sadly - she fell short. She only raised about $880,000 in 24 hours.

RS McCain - you know the other one - has called forth cash for a lot of candidates. Right now he is assisting Charles Lollar, a Marine who is going after Steny Hoyer. And if you want to help - the RS McCain link will get you there.

And this is going on all over the Internet. The Democrats have organized to fight an army and what they are actually facing is an insurgency. And for the Democrats one problem is the tooth to tail ratio. For an insurgency you don't need much tail. What you do need is popular support. And that does not have to be 50% - probably as little as 30% will work - if the insurgents focus on picking off a few of the opposition. Make an example of them. Pour encourager les autres.

Now here is where it gets even more interesting. As the insurgents start picking off the various Democrats and succeed the Democrats switched to a fire wall strategy. But the firewall is not holding. Every time the firewall is breached the effort put into those candidates just behind the wall is wasted. Hot Air has a bit on the wasted effort.

The DCCC did not spend money on behalf of Reps. Mary Jo Kilroy (D-Ohio), Debbie Halvorson (D-Ill.), Betsy Markey (D-Colo.), Alan Grayson (D-Fla.), Suzanne Kosmas (D-Fla.), Patrick Murphy (D-Pa.) and Steve Kagen (D-Wis.), the filings show. Republicans believe those seven seats are all but guaranteed to fall their way.

Even in some races where Democrats did spend money, their advertising indicates little more than a token effort at salvaging seats that are also likely to fall to the GOP. The DCCC is spending just $30,000 for Rep. Steve Driehaus (D-Ohio), who polls show trailing ex-Rep.Steve Chabot (R) by wide margins. That follows reports that the DCCC was pulling out of Driehaus’ district.
Things are still fluid and moving the Republican's way. I have seen some pretty wild predictions. One hundred seats. One hundred and seventeen seats (that is pretty finely calibrated). I dunno. I'm sticking with 65 seats in the bag. I sure wouldn't mind being surprised if that number was low.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

They Need Help

My God is so powerful he doesn’t need any boosting from government.

It is the weak gods that give us all the trouble. Always needing government help.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Shovel Ready Project



Bury the Democrats on election day.


TEA minus 13 and Counting.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

They Got It All Wrong

News Weak says the TEA Party folks have made a fetish out of the Constitution but worse - they get it wrong.

In legal circles, constitutional fundamentalism is nothing new. For decades, scholars and judges have debated how the founding document should factor into contemporary legal proceedings. Some experts believe in a so-called living Constitution—a set of principles that, while admirable and enduring, must be interpreted in light of present-day social developments in order to be properly upheld. Others adhere to originalism, which is the idea that the ratifiers’ original meaning is fixed, knowable, and clearly articulated in the text of the Constitution itself.

While conservatives generally prefer the second approach, many disagree over how it should be implemented—including the Supreme Court’s most committed originalists, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas. Thomas sympathizes with a radical version of originalism known as the Constitution in Exile. In his view, the Supreme Court of the 1930s unwisely discarded the 19th-century’s strict judicial limits on Federal power, and the only way to resurrect the “original” Constitution—and regain our unalienable rights—is by rolling back the welfare state, repealing regulations, and perhaps even putting an end to progressive taxation. In contrast, Scalia is willing to respect precedent—even though it sometimes departs from his understanding of the Constitution’s original meaning. His caution reflects a simple reality: that upending post-1937 case law and reversing settled principles would prove extremely disruptive, both in the courts and society at large.
Ah. So we can no longer follow the law because it would be inconvenient? An interesting argument. However, there is opposition to that sort of thinking.
Tea Partiers tend to sound more like Thomas than Scalia. Every weekday on Fox News, Glenn Beck—“the most highly regarded individual among Tea Party supporters,” according to a recent poll—takes to his schoolroom chalkboard to rail against progressives like Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt. “They knew they had to separate us from our history,” he says, “to be able to separate us from our Constitution and God.” In Beck’s view, progressives forsook the faithful Christian Founders and forced the country to adopt a slew of unconstitutional measures that triggered our long decline into Obama-era totalitarianism: the Federal Reserve System, Social Security, the graduated federal income tax. True patriots, according to Beck, favor a pre-progressive vision of the United States.
Me too!

Election day will give us a chance to test those ideas with the electorate. And where do the ideas come from? The Libertarian Party has kept those ideas alive until they could flower.

TEA minus 13 and counting.


Tea Party Difference

Click on the above image and learn how to spread it around.


Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Boomer Revenge

Well all you boomer haters (hippie punchers) on the right, Real Clear Politics has some news for you.

This senior surge is, like the electorate overall, coming from the right. Democratic seniors and baby boomers are less engaged than past midterms. But at least seven in 10 GOP seniors and baby boomers, including right-leaning independents, are highly engaged. That's roughly 20 points above past norms and their Democratic counterparts this cycle.

The tea party momentum is one factor. Nearly a third of tea party supporters are seniors, according to New York Times/CBS News polling. Almost half are baby boomers.
The people who brought you the Internet Revolution seem poised to bring you the TEA Party Revolution. Oh. Yeah. We have better music too. Suck it up. More seriously. Let us all work together to bring down this abomination.

TEA minus 14 and counting.


Tea Party Difference

Click on the above image and learn how to spread it around.


Cross Posted at Classical Values

The Weapon Shops Of Isher

The Weapon Shops of Isher By A.E. Van Vogt is one of my all time favorite science fiction books. It tells of a shadowy organization "The Weapon Shops" designed to redress the grievances of a corrupt galactic empire.

It was brought to mind by a story Instapundit linked to about the breakdown in the mortgage market. Middle Class Anarchy. And what a story it is.

On Saturday October 9th the Earls and their attorney followed thru with their previous threats and took the law into their own hands. They hired a locksmith to break into the Mustang home. They had arranged to have t.v. news cameras filming their actions, and then proceeded to hold a press conference stating that they were within their rights and that we (Conejo Capital Partners) had somehow violated the law. All along the Simi Valley Police Department sat idle and refused to get involved no matter how much proof was offered supporting our legal rights and position. We were told that we needed to resolve it in front of a judge even though it had already been decided.
That is the "bank's" side of the story from a news report.

The story asks a very important question. Where did the lawlessness originate? The banks. And despite admitted fraud no one at the banks, or those who were contracted by the banks is being prosecuted. (Just so you know - I'm using "banks" as a sort of generic term for the money movers. Loan arrangers as it were.)

Evidently there is a problem with the law. To wit: judges unaware of the existance of the Constitution.
If the foreclosure was unlawful and initiated with "robosigned" and bogus documents then it was. The Earls apparently attempted to demand a jury trial on the facts (including these facts) and were told to go to hell. Someone hasn't read their Constitution lately - it says that for all controversies exceeding $20, you have a right to a trial by jury (7th Amendment). It doesn't say that if it's inconvenient for a bank and might expose criminal fraud for which bank officers could be imprisoned the judge can tell you to pound sand. That, standing alone, broke the chain of lawful behavior in the instant case.

This is where lawlessness leads us - to more lawlessness. Once you commit a lawless act against someone and are not punished for it you have invited them to retaliate with complete disregard for the law in their response. You are only required to deal ethically and morally with an ethical and moral entity across the table - one who ignores the law loses their right to demand that respect in return.

This mess begins with the securitization and sale of these mortgages in the first instance. It begins with whether or not the original banks actually transferred the notes at all (there's plenty of evidence they did not) and whether the representations and warranties were complied with when these securities were sold to investors (we know in many cases - if not all - they were not, from FCIC sworn testimony.)
A very hard rain is going to fall. In fact I predict 20 ton (metric) blocks of hail.

The article closes with:
We are not far away from a complete and total breakdown of lawful behavior among the population of this nation. If it happens, it will not be because of people like the Earls. While I cannot recommend a lawless response to any insult suffered by people like them I will understand what has happened and why - and who's to blame.

This has and will in the future occur because the government has refused to enforce long-standing laws against "favored people", allowing the general public to be asset-stripped mercilessly through various connivances and frauds, even though such conduct is blatantly unlawful - and the people have simply had enough of being treated like a turkey drumstick at an amusement park.

The blame for this incident and those like it rests squarely with Mr. Holder, President Obama, Tim Geithner, Ben Bernanke, President Bush, Hank Paulson and the 50 States Attorneys General who have all refused, collectively, to prosecute the rampant lawlessness in our financial system for the previous two decades - and are still refusing today.
You know. This sort of thing is enough to turn elections. And if that doesn't cure the problem we should consider ourselves lucky that America has plenty of trees. And matches (well lighters mostly these days). And fire arms. Fortunately only a moderately enraged populace so far.

I am definitely in favor of seeing this mess solved without violence, arson, or any of the other of the Devil's tricks. But that means the devils who caused this mess must be constrained and then banished. Because unrestrained deviltry breeds more Deviltry.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Monday, October 18, 2010

Republicans Have Everything Going For Them

Well at least three things. Says E.J. Dionne.

1. Flexible Platform

At the first level are the party's candidates, who can be as reasonable or as angry, as moderate or as conservative, as their circumstances require.
You mean the Republicans are not a Borg? I dunno. That sounds like a pretty good feature to me. A range of ideas and candidates get tested.

2. Lots Of Money
Next come the outside groups that refuse to disclose their donor lists. They are doing the dirty work of pounding their Democratic opponents in commercials for which no one is accountable. The Republican candidates can shrug an innocent, "Who, me?" Deniability is a wonderful thing.
This may be true. But Mr. Dionne should look up election law. The law Democrats once championed. Outside groups can't co-ordinate with candidates or parties. And as for anonymous money in campaigns? It is a tradition since the founding. Something about free speech without retaliation or something.

3. Turn Out
And then on the far right, Glenn Beck and his allies cast President Obama as the central figure in a conspiracy against America itself, fueling participation by the most extreme 10 percent or 15 percent of the electorate.
A LOT of people who normally wouldn't bother with elections are coming to this one? You betcha. And so totally unfair. Heh.

Plus. E.J. is getting smarter. Much smarter. He has figured out who is behind this nefarious plot that claims to want smaller government and lower taxes. And it is a block buster. The John Birch Society. No really. I can quote him:
Their crackpot ideas, as the historian Sean Wilentz documented in The New Yorker recently, originated in the 1950s and '60s, in the paranoid theorizing of the John Birch Society. But whereas responsible conservatives such as William F. Buckley Jr. denounced the Birchers and the rest of the lunatic fringe back then, Republicans this time are riding the radical wave. In some cases (think Sharron Angle in Nevada), the extremists are their standard-bearers.
Run for your life E.J. the lunatics who want smaller government, lower taxes, and adherence to Constitutional limits on the scope of Government (where was that drug prohibition amendment again?) are coming to gettcha.

I could let him say more but he already looks foolish enough. Instead let me turn a little attention to Tim Rutten.
Though the actual voting is still 17 days [TEA minus 15 and counting as of today. - ed] away, it seems clear that this midterm election cycle will be defined by a surprising presence and a remarkable absence.

The presence, of course, is the "tea party," and what's absent are the social issues that so bitterly divided the electorate in recent campaigns. Demography and evolving public opinion are well on the way to making an electoral dead letter of same-sex marriage, which played a pivotal role in the 2004 presidential campaign. Despite the best efforts of Democratic candidates like Barbara Boxer to rally their base around protecting access to abortion, most voters' attention is fixed firmly on their ability to feed and clothe the children they already have. The Roberts court's declaration that the 2nd Amendment confers individual rights was an unintended gift to the Democrats because it essentially took gun control off the table.
Damn. The right refuses to have a serious internal war. Oh. There is some sniping. I have engaged in it some myself. But the all out - take no prisoners - action of the past is over - for now. Reminds me of when the capitalists and communists united to defeat the Germans (Godwin prevents me from saying more). It really sucks when your enemies unite against you.

See. I have discussed the abortion question. And my opinion is that other than regulation the Federal government for sure should not be involved. That Constitution thing all us crazies want followed. So we all agree on that. That it is a States Rights issue. So that takes a lot of the fever on both sides off the table. Now personally I think any states which enacted such laws would find them unenforceable. i.e. a lot of expense for not much result, kinda like the drug laws. But that is just me. And where exactly did the Feds get drugged on such power? They needed an amendment for alcohol.

OK. Tim (he is not Tiny) is just getting warmed up. And say. This is looking like he cribbed from the same notes E.J. Dionne got. Or he (or could it be E.J.?) is a psychic. Well never mind. Maybe they just read each other.
A secondary influence on this election is the novel role of so-called third-party money, much of it secretly contributed to groups unaccountable to either party. By election day, according to a report Friday in the Wall Street Journal, such committees will have spent $300 million in support of GOP candidates. And, unlike the Republican National Committee or congressional sources, these third parties have been perfectly willing to spend on behalf of those with tea party roots. (By contrast, about $100 million in independent contributions will go to Democratic candidates; organized labor will spend an additional $200 million, but the bulk of that is going to rally union voters, whose enthusiasm has waned.)
Dang. There is a market for smaller government, lower taxes, and Constitutional limits on government power? Who knew? And the union spirit not what it used to be? Maybe they know something about the looting of their pension funds. Which, with the Democrats going out, will no longer have an open tap on the US Treasury. Dang. Screwed just like the rest of us.

Tim is looking at the candidates and is just so damn annoyed that the Republicans seem to be running a few libertarians. That has got to hurt. Especially for a man who has never heard of the Republican Liberty Caucus in the now serving Congress. Nice of you to pay such close attention Tim.
At least three candidates are such programmatic libertarians that they'd really be more at home in that party.

On Friday, the New York Times reported that its pre-election analysis has 33 tea party-backed candidates running in congressional districts that are either leaning Republican or too close to call. Eight "stand a good or better chance of winning Senate seats," the paper says.

If that's correct, the next Congress is going to contain a significant tea party caucus, and that may bring social issue tensions back to the fore.
But Tim. We have already agreed that social issues are not a job for the Federal Government. The Gordian knot of social issues has been cut on the national level. I think that means some one is going to win big or something. Maybe for a long time.

And I guess since I'm shooting fish in a barrel I might as well have a few blasts at Lorelei Kelly at the Huffington Post. And she too has it all figured out. We are a lucky country to be full of such genius.
The Tea Party has done us all a favor. It has pointed out how absent we've been in building a common narrative about modern American citizenship. Their candidates are fascinating -- like watching campaign season through beer goggles. But every time I hear one of them speak in public, I realize what an advantage the rest of us have -- real stories, real characters, real democracy.

The Tea Party is taking a joyride through the world of American ideals.
She has that right. It is more than a joy to espouse smaller government, lower taxes, and Constitutional limits on Federal power.

Loreli says this is just a fantasy.
Along the way, it has grabbed the best revolutionary symbols, the cinematic frustration of the masses, and an irreproachable sounding plan (Fiscal responsibility! Constitutionally limited government! Free markets! Yay!)

But it's all emotions and fantasy. Despite the symbolic appeal, Tea Partiers don't really speak to tradition. They speak to nostalgia. These signals resurrected from the past are not representative. They are kitsch.
Just you wait honey. America is BACK. And it is taking no prisoners (metaphorically). We have the better symbols and the better arguments. We're gonna get your children (if you have any).

Enough time for her. Nodda clue.

Peter Berkowitz writing at the Wall Street Journal diagnoses the root cause of the misunderstanding so amply illustrated above.
For the better part of two generations, the best political science departments have concentrated on equipping students with skills for performing empirical research and teaching mathematical models that purport to describe political affairs. Meanwhile, leading history departments have emphasized social history and issues of race, class and gender at the expense of constitutional history, diplomatic history and military history.

Neither professors of political science nor of history have made a priority of instructing students in the founding principles of American constitutional government. Nor have they taught about the contest between the progressive vision and the conservative vision that has characterized American politics since Woodrow Wilson (then a political scientist at Princeton) helped launch the progressive movement in the late 19th century by arguing that the Constitution had become obsolete and hindered democratic reform.
There are a fair number of us who do not think the Constitution is obsolete. And we intend to do something about it. For starters we intend to start winning elections. Starting this November 2rd.
Enough Tea Party-supported candidates are running strongly in competitive and Republican-leaning Congressional races that the movement stands a good chance of establishing a sizable caucus to push its agenda in the House and the Senate, according to a New York Times analysis.

With a little more than two weeks till Election Day, 33 Tea Party-backed candidates are in tossup races or running in House districts that are solidly or leaning Republican, and 8 stand a good or better chance of winning Senate seats.

While the numbers are relatively small, they could exert outsize influence, putting pressure on Republican leaders to carry out promises to significantly cut spending and taxes, to repeal health care legislation and financial regulations passed this year, and to phase out Social Security and Medicare in favor of personal savings accounts.
TEA minus 15 and counting MOFOs.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Not An Idiot

This should really be part of my "Overheard On The 'Net" series. But I just couldn't resist the title.

“You voted for Obama to prove you’re not a racist. Now, who are you going to vote for to prove you’re not an idiot?”

Overheard On The 'Net - 6



TEA minus 15 and counting

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Election Snap Shot


Real Clear Politics has a page tracking House races. For almost a week they had Democrats at 185, toss ups at 39, and Republicans at 211. Today it is Democrats 181, toss ups 42, and Republicans 212. The Democrats are still losing ground.

Saturday, October 16, 2010

A Shift On The Left?

I am a member of a mostly lefty anti-prohibitionist list. The question to the list was: given Holder's recent Oct. 2010 announcement that he would go after Calif if Proposition 19 passes, how would the youth vote break? Would Proposition 19 bring them out? Would Holder's remarks make them vote R?

Which made me link to this post in my email response.

Richard Lee, the founder and president of Oaksterdam University, is a veteran activist who also is sponsoring a statewide ballot measure that would allow adults 21 or older to possess and grow relatively small amounts of marijuana. The initiative also would allow cities and counties to tax and regulate marijuana sales and cultivation.

Lee calls himself a "Libertarian Republican."
So I'm searching around the 'net to see if I can get a feel for the zeitgeist and came across this comment at a FireDogLake article about Federal corruption in the drug war.
I’m beginning to think the Teatards are right, maybe we should drown the Fed Gov. in a bathtub.
When even lefties start catching on I think the current game is OVER.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Friday, October 15, 2010

Complications


It turns out that Carl Paladino has an adviser. The adviser is pictured above at the Gay Pride Parade that Palidino said was unfit for Cuomo's children. Probably. And just so it is clear. He is the person getting his ear licked.

His name is Roger Stone and he has a few things to say about a few things.
Stone has been an adviser to Carl Paladino’s campaign efforts, and Paladino said Monday that the parade is “disgusting.” Tuesday evening, as he apologized for remarks that offended many gay leaders, Paladino said he still believed it was bad judgment for Democratic candidate Andrew Cuomo to attend the parade with his daughters.

Paladino did not attend the parade.

UPDATE: Stone wrote to point out why he was marching — he says he worked on the same-sex marriage bill and helped Sen. Joe Bruno draft a statement urging his former Republican colleagues in the chamber to vote yes.

He also has written on his website in favor of same-sex marriage, and told the Daily Beast that he rejected Paladino’s remarks.

Yeah I marched with KRISTIN DAVIS in the Gay Pride Parade. Proud of it,” he wrote. “I’m a libertarian Republican. I support Marriage Equality.”
There is a nice picture of Kristin marching at Libertarian Republican. Along with the lady who had Roger's ear in the above picture. Needless to say you can guess where I got the idea for this post.

Kristin is also running for Governor of New York.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Trade

Buy Low, Sell High = FREE TRADE

Buy High, Sell Higher = NO TRADE

Any questions?

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Women Are Not Moral Actors

I'm over at Hill Buzz discussing (in the comments) what an enforcement of anti-abortion laws might look like and said this:

Could some one tell me how a government program against abortion will work? Like the drug war?

How will you combat RU-486? Menstrual extraction parties? Birth control pills as morning after (or later) pills?

Not only that. If you put it in the hands of government you are abdicating your personal moral responsibilities.

======

If you look at it objectively (assuming that you agree that abortion is murder) it is murder one. Where the woman hires an accomplice to pull the trigger.

Suppose we put 2,000 females a year on death row for abortion? Will that create a counter movement?

And how will you handle miscarriages? As murder investigations?

====

It is all a fantasy. Utopianism. Here is an anti-abortion group that does not want government “help”.

Rockford Pro Life
Well, I got some responses. This one is a doozy (and it is not the first time I have heard it.
The problem with having women tried for murder because they had an abortion is that many women are misled or lied to by abortionists – “it’s not really alive yet,” “it doesn’t have a heartbeat”, “it just looks like a big clump of cells.” While some would freely admit they knowingly ended the life of a human being, a lot of women can only make themselves go through with an abortion by reassuring themselves that the doctor said their baby isn’t a “real person.” In order to be convicted of murder, it has to be found that you wilfully and knowingly killed a human being. If you believe – because a medical professional told you, no less – that abortion didn’t end the life of a human being, the wilfully and knowingly aspect is gone.
So the impregnated woman doesn't believe that she is carrying a potential human life? Uh. That is hardy creditable. And medical professionals as the great deceivers? Man - the devil is every where you turn. No one is safe from demon possession. Kill the witches.

The deeper seated "reasoning" behind this rationalization is that women are not moral actors. That they are incapable of telling truth from fiction. Wasn't that one of the reasons given for not allowing women to vote?

The truth of the matter is that the most rabid abortion foes refuse to follow the logic of their own pronouncements because they reel at the obvious consequences. Which is to say they do not believe what they claim to believe. So they invent fictions like: "women are not moral actors and if they are they have never heard the 'abortion is murder' line."

So how about some truth: "abortion is misdemeanor manslaughter and the woman goes free". Not quite the same punch as "abortion is murder" is it? But generally that is the current truth of the abortion foes.

My problem with all this? To give over to government the responsibility for "preventing" abortion (they will probably find a way to increase the number of abortions - it is a government program after all - if enacted) makes our moral muscles go flabby. Instead of fixing the problem in civil society we hand it off to them and can then forget about it.

In engineering we like to find the root causes of problems and fix those. The root cause of the abortion problem is not "the doctor made me do it". In this case I think the root cause of abortion is envy. "I can have more stuff if I have fewer or no kids". Another cause is the lack of fathers. And a big cause of that is how the Drug War changes the Demographics in some communities. So we could reduce abortion some by ending the drug war. But you know - that would be rational. Besides we would be just trading abortion demons for drug demons. Well you know where that ends. The demon possessed see demons everywhere.

And we could reduce abortion by eliminating envy (we could pass a law). Good luck with that. As I said in the beginning. The people who mouth "abortion is murder" are for the most part Utopians. Run for your lives and liberty. Because most of them don't mean it.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Cheery News - It Is Way Worse Than We Thought

As most of you know by now there has been massive incompetence or fraud (take your pick - the initial net result is about the same) in the mortgage issuance and foreclosure markets. I covered that at Who Has The Title? You might want to visit there for some background.

The Financial Times finds that at least at Wells Fargo Bank it was straight up fraud.

Unlike its rivals, Wells Fargo has not halted foreclosures. The San Francisco-based bank said on Tuesday it was reviewing some pending cases, but it has maintained that it has checks and balances designed to prevent serious procedural lapses.

In a sworn deposition on March 9 seen by the FT, Xee Moua, identified in court documents as a vice-president of loan documentation for Wells, said she signed as many as 500 foreclosure-related papers a day on behalf of the bank.

Ms Moua, who was deposed as part of a foreclosure lawsuit in Palm Beach County, Florida, said that the only information she verified was whether her name and title appeared correctly, according to the document.

Asked whether she checked the accuracy of the principal and interest that Wells claimed the borrower owed – a crucial step in banks’ legal actions to repossess homes – Ms Moua said: “I do not.”

Ms Moua nevertheless signed affidavits that said she had “personal knowledge of the facts regarding the sums of money which are due and owing to Wells Fargo”. The affidavits were used by the bank in foreclosure proceedings.

Ms Moua added that before reaching her desk, it was her understanding that the foreclosure documents had been reviewed by outside lawyers.
Ah but it gets worse.
In an effort to rush through thousands of home foreclosures since 2007, financial institutions and their mortgage servicing departments hired hair stylists, Walmart floor workers and people who had worked on assembly lines and installed them in "foreclosure expert" jobs with no formal training, a Florida lawyer says.

In depositions released Tuesday, many of those workers testified that they barely knew what a mortgage was. Some couldn't define the word "affidavit." Others didn't know what a complaint was, or even what was meant by personal property. Most troubling, several said they knew they were lying when they signed the foreclosure affidavits and that they agreed with the defense lawyers' accusations about document fraud.

"The mortgage servicers hired people who would never question authority," said Peter Ticktin, a Deerfield Beach, Fla., lawyer who is defending 3,000 homeowners in foreclosure cases. As part of his work, Ticktin gathered 150 depositions from bank employees who say they signed foreclosure affidavits without reviewing the documents or ever laying eyes on them -- earning them the name "robo-signers."

The deposed employees worked for the mortgage service divisions of banks such as Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase, as well as for mortgage servicers like Litton Loan Servicing, a division of Goldman Sachs.
The bankers were running the banks as if they were casinos. Except that the wheel has come up double zeros. And that is not their number.

H/T Tyler Durden Tyler also has a long explanation of why this is so bad. Money For Nothing And Houses For Free

Update: 15 Oct 1010 1111z

Head of Freddie Mac dead of apparent suicide.
The Best Congress Fannie Could Buy might explain it.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

I Learned A New Word

No not that kind. I already know most of those. I was a sailor, remember? And actually it is three words.

Ruling Class Right



H/T Instapundit

Yes It Does

Paladino

I have been writing for the last week or so about how much I don't like Paladino in the New York Governors race. You can find the articles:

From The Beach

Wedge Issues

I think Warren Redlich is probably the best man for the job of those running. But let us be real. The odds are not in his favor this close to the election. (Yeah. Never tell me the odds.)

Which brings me to something Instapundit pointed out yesterday. Did Paladino smear our current Attorney General (who deserves it) or not?

It’s open season on Carl Paladino, the homophobic, racist email-forwarding Republican candidate for governor of New York. And much to the delight of the Cuomo campaign, everyday seems to bring a new scandal. Now Paladino stands accused of using salty language about Attorney General Eric Holder, apparently telling a voter that he would say “fuck him” if he attempted to try terrorists in a Manhattan court.
But did he actually say that? It looks like (from the linked post) the answer is no. Dang!

OTOH I have learned from surfing the 'net that in one of Cuomo's past elections the unofficial slogan for Cuomo was "Cuomo not the homo".

You have to wonder why New York State puts up with any of these mopes?

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Got 401s?

Union pension plans in America are falling apart. Congress has a plan to fix that.

Democrats in the Senate on Thursday held a recess hearing covering a taxpayer bailout of union pensions and a plan to seize private 401(k) plans to more "fairly" distribute taxpayer-funded pensions to everyone.

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee heard from hand-picked witnesses advocating the infamous "Guaranteed Retirement Account" (GRA) authored by Theresa Guilarducci.

In a nutshell, under the GRA system government would seize private 401(k) accounts, setting up an additional 5% mandatory payroll tax to dole out a "fair" pension to everyone using that confiscated money coupled with the mandated contributions. This would, of course, be a sister government ponzi scheme working in tandem with Social Security, the primary purpose being to give big government politicians additional taxpayer funds to raid to pay for their out-of-control spending.
The plan has been in the works for a while.
In February, the White House released its “Annual Report on the Middle Class” containing new regulations favored by Big Labor including a bailout of critically underfunded union pension plans through “retirement security” options.

The radical solution most favored by Big Labor is the seizure of private 401(k) plans for government disbursement -- which lets them off the hook for their collapsing retirement scheme. And, of course, the Obama administration is eager to accommodate their buddies.

Vice President Joe Biden floated the idea, called “Guaranteed Retirement Accounts” (GRAs), in the February “Middle Class” report.
You have to love the names they give these abominations. More correctly it would be called Guaranteed Retirement Accounts for Unions. If you are an ordinary citizen all Guarantees are off.

Here is a report from 2008 on the topic which names some more names.
GRAs would guarantee a fixed 3 percent annual rate of return, although later in her article Ghilarducci explained that participants would not “earn a 3% real return in perpetuity.” In place of tax breaks workers now receive for contributions and thus a lower tax rate, workers would receive $600 annually from the government, inflation-adjusted. For low-income workers whose annual contributions are less than $600, the government would deposit whatever amount it would take to equal the minimum $600 for all participants.

In a radio interview with Kirby Wilbur in Seattle on Oct. 27, 2008, Ghilarducci explained that her proposal doesn’t eliminate the tax breaks, rather, “I’m just rearranging the tax breaks that are available now for 401(k)s and spreading — spreading the wealth.”
What she means by "spreading the wealth" is straight up theft by the government.

Well 2008 was a good year for warnings about this stuff. Joe "The Plumber" Wurzelbacher tried to warn the 53% among us who were about to do something foolish.
Wurzelbacher said he planned to become the owner of a small plumbing business that will take in more than the $250,000 amount at which Obama plans to begin raising tax rates.

"Your new tax plan is going to tax me more, isn't it?" the blue-collar worker asked.

After Obama responded that it would, Wurzelbacher continued: "I've worked hard . . . I work 10 to 12 hours a day and I'm buying this company and I'm going to continue working that way. I'm getting taxed more and more while fulfilling the American Dream."

"It's not that I want to punish your success," Obama told him. "I want to make sure that everybody who is behind you, that they've got a chance for success, too.

Then, Obama explained his trickle-up theory of economics.

"My attitude is that if the economy's good for folks from the bottom up, it's gonna be good for everybody. I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody."
Well that is history now. You know what this administration is up to. No excuses this time. The only recourse short of appeal to the Gods of War is to vote the Democrats out. Every single last one of them. No exceptions.

H/T Vox Populi and I think I got the Vox link from a comment at Riehl World View. But I can't find which post right now.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

From The Beach

Watch this video. Or this one:



Needless to say the videos are Not Entirely Safe For Work.

I posted the above to illustrate a point. Beach wear. Now I could have done a bit with guys in Speedos but I'm partial to the ladies. And my point? I'm getting to that. There is a race in New York that I have been giving some attention to. And the gay punching is getting rough (Hippie punching does not work as well as it used to. I guess the hippie menace is no longer so menacing.)

Which brings me to Carl Paladino.
Carl Paladino, the volatile GOP candidate for governor of New York, refused to step back yesterday from his comments disparaging gays over the weekend, saying that children should not attend gay pride parades because they featured men in bikinis “grinding at each other and doing these gyrations.’’

“I don’t think that’s proper; I think it’s disgusting,’’ Paladino told NBC’s “Today.’’

In appearances before Orthodox Jewish groups Sunday in Brooklyn, the Buffalo developer and Tea Party-backed candidate created an uproar by saying that children should not be “brainwashed into thinking that homosexuality is acceptable.’’

He also took a swipe at his opponent, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, for marching in a gay pride parade with his children.

He spoke as the state was still absorbing the news that nine young men had lured a gay man and two teenagers to a building and for hours savagely beat, tortured, and raped them with a baseball bat.
I'm not much up on public displays of affection by guys. But my eyes have not offended me so much yet that I'm interested in plucking them out. And my kids have to live in the real world. All the time. I have never seen the point of overly restricting them. I never put internet filters on their computers when they were growing up. Curfews were flexible. I tried to keep the reins as loose as possible without letting them go slack.

So given the choice between a society that tolerates gay guys prancing (yeah, what a cliche) in the streets or one that creates a truly vile atmosphere towards my fellow humans that makes some folks think acting out their violent fantasies towards people who are different (actively despised) is in the spirit of the age, I'm with the prancing gay guys all the way.

I'm kinda like Grant when it comes to moral panics. I don't scare worth a damn. And there are more citizens joining the unafraid ranks every day. I'm hoping that they represent enough New Yorkers to defeat Palidino. Pour encourager les autres.

Update: In case you are not comfortable voting for a Democrat and don't want to sit this one out Warren Redlich has been giving Paladino the HELL he deserves on the campaign trail.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Clinging To Hope

Nate Silver over at Five-thirty-eight is clinging to hope. His latest headline reads:

Incumbents Polling Below 50 Percent Often Win Re-Election, Despite Conventional Wisdom

So I wrote him a little something to cheer him up.

Nate,

You sound like me in 2008. Every tiny spark of hope magnified into a lightning flash. Look at what is happening in AZ. A no name, no money, rocket scientist is statistically tied (latest numbers show her two points ahead) with a 4 term incumbent.

Morale keeps going up on the R side. Races that were not even on the radar become first competitive and then fugedaboutit. The fire wall is not holding. Money is not working. A word from Sarah Palin and the money starts flowing. And her endorsement is GOLD. Politically and in terms of cash. She is going to have between 20 and 50 allies in the next Congress.

In fact Palin has been our shadow President ever since she stopped being Governor. The Democrat campaign to drive her from the Governorship of Alaska has epic failed. Oh. It worked all right. It just didn't have the intended consequences. She is stronger than ever. It is an old Jedi trick I'm told.

I believe, based on the zeitgeist, that a 100 seat change is within the reach of the Rs. If you are a Democrat you have to consider that the mood of the country is murderous. If you are an old school R the mood is horrible. If you are with the rebels it is looking very good.

Yeah. I'm with the Rebel Alliance. You're welcome.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Democrats Losing The Mandate of Heaven

Well I'm not sure they ever had the Mandate of Heaven. More like Hell. But that is a theological argument. More interesting is the political argument. They are losing the Brain Dead Media. Which just goes to show you that even in a dying animal a few brain cells can trigger in synchronism giving the appearance of life. A twitch or two before going quiet.

CBS’s Bob Schieffer on Sunday mocked President Obama’s senior adviser David Axelrod for echoing last week’s unsubstantiated charge by a liberal website that the Chamber of Commerce is funneling foreign money to support Republican candidates.

“The New York Times looked into the Chamber specifically and said the Chamber really isn’t putting foreign money into the campaign,” said the Face the Nation host.

“This part about foreign money, that appears to be peanuts,” chided Schieffer.

When Axelrod continued to press the issue, Schieffer said almost laughing, “If the only charge, three weeks into the election that the Democrats can make is that there’s somehow this may or may not be foreign money coming into the campaign, is that the best you can do?”
That is not all. Here is a bit from Time Magazine that is worth a repeat.
With the exception of core Obama Administration loyalists, most politically engaged elites have reached the same conclusions: the White House is in over its head, isolated, insular, arrogant and clueless about how to get along with or persuade members of Congress, the media, the business community or working-class voters. This view is held by Fox News pundits, executives and anchors at the major old-media outlets, reporters who cover the White House, Democratic and Republican congressional leaders and governors, many Democratic business people and lawyers who raised big money for Obama in 2008, and even some members of the Administration just beyond the inner circle.
Mark Halperin, for God's sake. Bob Schieffer for God's sake. (OK I guess I am getting a bit theological). The Democrat's fire wall strategy (only spend money on races where the odds of victory are good) looks to be shot. The line keeps moving on them. Which means that money that went to candidates on the edge of the fire wall has been wasted.

In this election small amounts of money for insurgent candidates has an effect all out of proportion to the amount. In engineering terms we would say that the gain is high and the system is well out of the proportional control band. In a word: instability. The system (as formerly constituted) is no longer responding to the usual inputs. (OK in terms of real engineering the above is not totally coherent - still - I like the way it sounds and it does generally express my views.)

When your biggest and most faithful ally no longer gives you unconditional support you are deeply wounded. We will only know how deeply come 3 Nov.

A Rocket Scientist In Congress?



Send Ruth some money.

Gateway Pundit, where I got the video, has more.

Another Arizona lady needs your help.

H/T commenters at Hill Buzz.

Monday, October 11, 2010

Housing Is Not The Only Sector Underwater

It seems the Presidential sector is in a similar condition.

Barack Obama is being politically crushed in a vise. From above, by elite opinion about his competence. From below, by mass anger and anxiety over unemployment. And it is too late for him to do anything about this predicament until after November’s elections.

With the exception of core Obama Administration loyalists, most politically engaged elites have reached the same conclusions: the White House is in over its head, isolated, insular, arrogant and clueless about how to get along with or persuade members of Congress, the media, the business community or working-class voters. This view is held by Fox News pundits, executives and anchors at the major old-media outlets, reporters who cover the White House, Democratic and Republican congressional leaders and governors, many Democratic business people and lawyers who raised big money for Obama in 2008, and even some members of the Administration just beyond the inner circle.
And I'm going to plagiarize myself again because it fits so well.
Obama did not turn out to be an orthodox liberal. He turned out to be a Communist. Community organizer? Black liberation theology? Share the wealth?

Puhleeeeeeeeeze.

Any one who didn't see this guy coming wanted to be rolled.
I really like Instapundit on self plagiarism.
I prefer to think of it as "They came at us in the same old way, and, you know, we beat them in the same old way."
Well. As they say in the song See You In November.

Instapundit has a great take on the media change:
IS THE MEDIA GIVING UP ON OBAMA? Hey, they’ll go down for you, but they won’t go down with you. . . .
Heh.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Welcome Instapundit readers.

Wedge Issues

I have been meaning to write a post about wedge issues (with the usual delays and procrastinations) when commenter Fritz obliquely brought up the issue. So I went a lookin and found this. So - procrastination over.

Carl Paladino, Tea Party darling and New York Republican gubernatorial candidate, went on a shocking anti-gay rant, telling a group of Orthodox Jewish leaders that homosexuality is unacceptable.

Speaking in Brooklyn Sunday Paladino claimed that children should not be “brainwashed” into thinking that homosexuality was a "valid" or "acceptable" option.

Paladino's harsh words proved to be a stunning example of homophobia. Paladino's tone and words serve to foster and perpetuate a hostile environment for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (lgbt) people.
I believe the days of wedge issue politics are numbered. Why? Well there is a tale in that.

To start it is always wise to know what you are talking about.
A wedge issue is a social or political issue, often of a divisive or otherwise controversial nature, which splits apart or creates a "wedge" in the support base of one political group. Wedge issues can be advertised, publicly aired, and otherwise emphasized by an opposing political group, in an attempt to weaken the unity of the divided group, or to entice voters in the divided group to give their support to the opposing group. The use of wedge issues gives rise to wedge politics.

Wedge politics are the key to understanding the behavior of both candidates and voters during political campaigns. Among the voters most likely to be responsive to campaign information are those with conflicting predispositions—partisans who disagree with their party on a policy issue. For these cross-pressured partisans, campaign messages from the opposition can be persuasive if they are focused on the incongruent issue.
Of course this kind of thing could backfire. In fact it often does. As it did in Illinois in 2004

Currently Wisconsin is also embroiled in a culture war.
The economy has dominated the debate in the race for governor, but groups opposing abortion and supporting reproductive rights say the stark differences between the candidates mean results of the Nov. 2 election will have repercussions for years to come.

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, the Democrat in the race, and Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker, the Republican, have spelled out their positions over the years, and groups on both sides of the abortion divide say the distinctions are clear.

"We look at Tom Barrett as a retread of (outgoing Gov.) Jim Doyle on our issues," said Susan Armacost, legislative director of Wisconsin Right to Life.

Walker "is really out of the mainstream when it comes to basic health care for women," said Tanya Atkinson, executive director of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin.
OK. Republicans are doing again. I knew it couldn't last.

Despite these examples (and how the two races turn out and the exit polling afterward) I think this tactic will get deep sixed. Why? Well to figure out that question we have to look at why wedge issues are used. That is not to hard - it is used because there is not a dimes worth of difference between the major parties on general issues - you know - one party wants socialism hell bent for leather. The other party is not quite in such a rush. Some choice. So you need wedge issues to crank up your base and maybe gather a few votes from the other side.

The down side is that you get a culture war. Straights vs gays. Dopers vs alkys. Pro abortionists vs those who prefer a black market in abortion. And on it goes. And you know this kind of thing works. In some places at some times. And when it does the outcome is always ugly. How do I know? Because it has worked before in Germany against the Jews. In fact it seems to be happening in this country against gays. Just suicides so far. I'm not encouraged. Still. I don't think Americans will stand for this. It is not in our nature generally. Most of the time. People who push this crap are playing with fire. Why? Because there are some of us who would rather vote bankruptcy than culture war.

And with all the economic issues on the table a "Culture War" is unnecessary unless you have nothing generally different to offer. I don't care who the TEA Party darlings are, if they are culture warriors I will work against them with all my power. So - Thanks Fritz!

Because I will be God Damned if any of these bastard sons of bitches are coming after any one, because Jews will always be on that list sooner or later. Which is why I take this sort of thing personally. And why Republicans have such a hard time attracting Jews. You stupid fucks.

OK. Deep breath. Anyway I think this will end in time because unity on financial issues is the most pressing issue now and we will not have a culture to fight over unless we get our economic house in order.

Cross Posted at Classical Values