Government Solution

Occupy Wall Street? You might as well send them a check.

The only way to get business out of government is to make government smaller. There is no "government" solution to the government problem.

Update: I see comments here and there around the www about how messed up these kids are. I dunno – Wall Street pretty much owns government. Aside from the part the Drug Cartels control. They got the problem right. They got the answer wrong. What they want is smaller government. Something no faction in America favors. They all have their pet projects for improving moral and social conditions that REQUIRE Big Intrusive Government (that would be BIG. And if this were a movie it would be controlled by Mr. Big or perhaps his brother). Ah. Well. Maybe when the kids grow up they will become libertarians.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

You Must Read: Inequality: Ferraris and Famine

Tall Dave has an outstanding post up at Classical Values. Let me just give you the money quote:

...inequality is a much bigger problem when some people are starving and others are fat than when everyone is fat and some people have Ferraris.

Yep.

Ron Paul Will Be Auditing The Fed

I'm a little late to the party (this is from 12 Nov.) but it is true.
Ron Paul will be keeping an eye on the Federal Reserve.

Ben Bernanke has had his hands full since his first day on the job as Federal Reserve chairman nearly five years ago. It's about to get even tougher.

His harshest critic on Capitol Hill, Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, is about to become one of his overseers.

With the Republicans coming to power, Paul, who would like to abolish the Fed and the nation's current monetary system, will become the chairman of the House Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy.

If you've never heard of the committee before, you're not alone. But Paul promises you'll be hearing a lot more from it.

"It's basically been a committee that's dealt with commemorative coins. I'm going to deal with monetary policy," he said.

Another site described the move this way:

The greatest critic of fiat currency perhaps anywhere in the world is about to take control of a congressional panel that would conduct oversight on the US Federal Reserve bank.

This could get interesting.

Yes it could.

A book by a well known libertarian author on the subject:

The Case Against the Fed

Here is part of a review from 2000:

This book, written by Murray Rothbard, an economist and historian of fairly well known repute, is a scathing attack on not only the Federal Reserve, but the interests that created this institution. Rothbard is an adept writer, as he takes a concept that can be fairly daunting and makes it accessible to the those readers without an economics background. I considered trying to earn a degree in Economics, but abandoned it when I found out that most of it is tied to higher mathematics. I'm more interested in the conceptual side. Rothbard cuts out math and focuses on the real meat of the issue, the concepts that govern money supply and inflation.

The book starts by discussing the biggest problem with the Federal Reserve system, which is fractional reserve banking. Rothbard explains how this system is only functioning because people believe that it works. If there was a run on banks tomorrow, the entire financial system would collapse, because there isn't enough "real" money in reserve to cover all of the bank notes in circulation

How far are we from such an eventuality? Probably too close for comfort.

Of course metals are no panacea. A flood of precious metals from the new world in the 16th century caused severe inflation in Spain. Now a days it would take a gold asteroid to do the job. But that is a possibility that is not out of the question.

Here And There

"A billion here, a billion there, sooner or later it adds up to real money." - Everett Dirksen, Congressman

Except Ole Ev never said that.

An Extreme Drop In Value

It appears that Present obama is suffering an extreme drop in value when it comes to his fund raising abilities.

Pres. Obama is the best fundraiser the Dem Party has, but his drawing power is way down from its peak during the '08 campaign.

Obama is heading to MO and NV today to raise money for Sec/State Robin Carnahan (D), running for an open Senate seat, and Senate Maj. Leader Harry Reid.

But Carnahan's campaign wasn't able to completely sell out the Folly Theater, where Obama will appear for a grassroots event on Carnahan's behalf, at the prices they wanted. Tickets once priced at $250 are now going for $99, while $35 tickets are half off.

We can only hope this is the beginning of his

Going Out Of Business Sale - Prices Reduced Up To 60%

I look forward to a final closeout sale in 2012.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Greedy

We hear a lot about how greed is ruining _____ (fill in the blank). In other words:

Definition of greedy: anyone who has more than you do.

OK I'll play. Governments are the greediest bastards on earth.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Money And The Women Who Date It

Women who date for money are finding it more difficult to get a date with the money they crave. But this is what really caught my eye.

Countless times I've been asked to explain "dating" to friends from Europe or the West Coast: the scrutinizing rounds of drinks and dinners, the game-playing, the jockeying for some sort of advantage. There's something deeply unappealing about the way New York women adopt the language of contracts when it comes to romance, wanting "commitment" instead of love. One friend, a financial adviser with plenty of cash, told me it showed "respect" for her when a man paid for dinner. Which I've never quite understood: If charging for the pleasure of one's company begets respect, why don't prostitutes get more of it?

A lot of it has to do with price. Bloomingdale shoppers get more respect than those looking for bargains at Big Lots.

H/T Instapundit

Currency

Ex-Presidents and other famous Americans get their pictures on our coins and paper money in order to honor them.

I propose Obama should get his picture on a $3 bill.

Something Strange Coming Your Way

Real Clear Politics has Obama up by 11 in Pennsylvania as of 22 Oct 008 0300z. And yet Governor Rendell is nervous about Pennsylvania and is asking Obama to return.

Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell has sent two separate memos to the Obama campaign in the past five days requesting that the Democratic Presidential candidate—as well as Hillary and Bill Clinton—return to campaign in Pennsylvania, Rendell told CNN's Gloria Borger.

Rendell said the McCain campaign is clearly making a push to win Pennsylvania, given the recent visits by the Arizona senator, his wife and his running mate. As a result, he wants Obama to appear in western Pennsylvania, Harrisburg and one more “large rally” in Philadelphia. Democrats generally worry that the race is significantly closer than what recent polls have suggested. According to Rendell, there is also worry among Democrats the McCain campaign has successfully raised the enthusiasm level among Republicans in the state.

“I don’t want to be selfish,” Rendell said. “But I’m still a little nervous, so I have asked Obama to come back. We understand he’s got demands from 20 different states, but we’d like to see him here.”

Obama's support appears to be weakest in the western part of the state, a region Pennsylvania Rep. Jack Murtha recently called 'racist,' and one where he badly lost to Sen. Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary.

Yeah. The Democrats have done a real good job in PA what with Obama's "bitter clingers" remark and others. Still the polls have Obama up by 11, well outside the margin of error, so that PA should be a waste of time in ordinary circumstances. So maybe the circumstances are not ordinary.

It also looks like the Obama campaign is having money troubles in Philadelphia. Specifically street money troubles.

When the Philadelphia Democratic Party's faithful gathered for their pre-election fundraiser last night, conversation among many anxious ward leaders kept coming back to the same question: Would Barack Obama come up with street money?

In the April primary, the presidential candidate spurned the Philadelphia tradition of distributing cash to ward leaders for Election Day operations, saying his campaign doesn't "pay for votes or pay for turnout."

Street money, typically between $100 and $300 per voting division, is used to pay expenses such as meals and transportation and sometimes pay election workers for their day's work.

Many thought Obama had changed his mind and would provide street money for the general election, but ward leaders said last night that they still hadn't heard of a commitment from the campaign.

"Honestly, they'd be crazy not to do it," said Lou Agre, leader of the 21st Ward in Roxborough and Manayunk. "We're the ones who can get those last five, six hundred people [in a ward] who haven't voted, and that's a big difference for the campaign."

City Democratic chairman U.S. Rep. Bob Brady said he's confident the Obama campaign will come up with the money.

But several ward leaders said Brady had told them he'd gotten no commitment from the Obama campaign, and Gov. Rendell said he didn't know what to expect.

"Who knows?" Rendell said when asked by a reporter. "I've recommended and Bob's recommended it, but we have no word, no word."

You know, the Obama campaign does not sound like a campaign that is flush with votes or money. Despite what the press is telling you.

Maybe Obama was thinking that with his ACORNs in a row he didn't need the regular party machine. No money, no votes. One way or the other. Of course this could just be a negotiating tactic by Obama to drive the price down. And Rendell's moves could just be his way of driving the price up. This lack of honor among the thieves could be a serious problem for an Obama administration.

And one other point I want you to keep in mind:

Don't give it to him. Make him steal it.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Obama Money Needs Investigation

Yep. Obama seems to be getting money from a lot of strange places.

An auditor for the Federal Election Commission is attempting to have his bosses seek a formal investigation into the collection by the Obama for President campaign of more than $200 million in potentially illegal political donations, including millions of dollars of illegal, foreign donations, and has sought a request for assistance from the Department of Justice or Federal Bureau of Investigation. But the analyst's requests have largely been ignored. "I can't get anyone to move. I believe we are looking at a hijacking of our political system that makes the Clinton and Gore fundraising scandals pale in comparison. And no one here wants to touch it."

One reasons cited by his superiors, says the analyst, is that involvement by the Justice Department or FBI would be indicative of a criminal investigation, something the FEC would prefer not take place a month before the presidential election. Such actions, though, have been used to scuttle Republican campaigns in the past, the most famous being the Weinberger case in the days leading up to the 1992 re-election bid of President George H.W. Bush.

The analyst, who declines to be identified for fear of retribution, says that on four different occasions in the past three months, he sought to open formal investigations into the Obama campaign's fundraising techniques, but those investigations have been discouraged. "Without formal approval, I can't get the resources I need, manpower, that kind of thing. This is a huge undertaking." And the analyst says that he believes that campaign finance violations have occurred.

The Obama campaign seems to be getting huge amounts of money.

More than half of the whopping $426.9 million Barack Obama has raised has come from small donors whose names the Obama campaign won't disclose.

And questions have arisen about millions more in foreign donations the Obama campaign has received that apparently have not been vetted as legitimate.

Obama has raised nearly twice that of John McCain's campaign, according to new campaign finance report.

But because of Obama’s high expenses during the hotly contested Democratic primary season and an early decision to forgo public campaign money and the spending limits it imposes, all that cash has not translated into a financial advantage — at least, not yet.

We do have some of the names and they seem like some very nice people.

When FEC auditors have questions about contributions, they send letters to the campaign’s finance committee requesting additional information, such as the complete address or employment status of the donor.

Many of the FEC letters that Newsmax reviewed instructed the Obama campaign to “redesignate” contributions in excess of the finance limits.

Under campaign finance laws, an individual can donate $2,300 to a candidate for federal office in both the primary and general election, for a total of $4,600. If a donor has topped the limit in the primary, the campaign can “redesignate” the contribution to the general election on its books.

In a letter dated June 25, 2008, the FEC asked the Obama campaign to verify a series of $25 donations from a contributor identified as “Will, Good” from Austin, Texas.

Mr. Good Will listed his employer as “Loving” and his profession as “You.”

A Newsmax analysis of the 1.4 million individual contributions in the latest master file for the Obama campaign discovered 1,000 separate entries for Mr. Good Will, most of them for $25.

In total, Mr. Good Will gave $17,375.

Following this and subsequent FEC requests, campaign records show that 330 contributions from Mr. Good Will were credited back to a credit card. But the most recent report, filed on Sept. 20, showed a net cumulative balance of $8,950 — still well over the $4,600 limit.

There can be no doubt that the Obama campaign noticed these contributions, since Obama’s Sept. 20 report specified that Good Will’s cumulative contributions since the beginning of the campaign were $9,375.

In an e-mailed response to a query from Newsmax, Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt pledged that the campaign would return the donations. But given the slowness with which the campaign has responded to earlier FEC queries, there’s no guarantee that the money will be returned before the Nov. 4 election.

Similarly, a donor identified as “Pro, Doodad,” from “Nando, NY,” gave $19,500 in 786 separate donations, most of them for $25. For most of these donations, Mr. Doodad Pro listed his employer as “Loving” and his profession as “You,” just as Good Will had done.

The Obama campaign has also received contributions from some people who are not very nice.

US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama was apparently the recipient of nearly $30,000 in campaign contributions from a pair of Palestinian Arabs in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

While recently investigating online campaign contribution logs, Pamela Geller of the blog Atlas Shrugs discovered a curious set of entries from mid-2007 showing a series of contributions from two Arab men who listed their place of residence as "Rafah, GA."

Skeptical about the existence of a town in Georgia called Rafah, Geller did some digging and discovered that the contributions had in fact come from the Gaza Strip border town of Rafah.

It is illegal for a US presidential candidate to receive contributions from non-US citizens, or to receive in excess of $2,300 from a single individual.

Curious for more information, WorldNetDaily correspondent Aaron Klein tracked down the two Gaza Arabs, brothers Monir and Hosam Edwan.

The Edwan brothers said that they and many other Palestinians love Obama, and are confident he will be the US president to force Israel to surrender land for the birth of a Palestinian Arab state.

When pressed about their illegal contribution, the brothers altered their story and insisted that they had not made an online donation, but had rather purchased $30,000 worth of t-shirts from the Obama campaign website.

WorldNetDaily also learned that while Monir and Hosam are themselves believed to be non-religious, their clan is known for supporting Hamas.

That Obama has some very interesting supporters. If he wins the election I sure hope it works out well for all of us, but what I'm thinking is are all his supporters going to get their money's worth? I hope not.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Keeping Up The Burn Rate

Obama is going to have to raise a lot of money to maintain his required burn rate. His efforts should keep the television advertising business out of recession for a few more months.

Democrat Barack Obama’s campaign has budgeted $39 million to win Florida, and that’s just one of several “robust” set asides for swing states, campaign manager David Plouffe told supporters in a fundraising appeal this month.

That figure alone explains why Barack Obama decided to forgo taxpayer money for his general election campaign.

Simply put: His strategy for winning requires a bigger budget than public money would allow.

The Sunshine State strategic plan alone would have consumed nearly half of the $85 million allotted for the general election by the Federal Election Commission.

“This shows you the sheer magnitude of what we are trying to accomplish,” said Plouffe. “We are spending more money and more time on the grass roots than any presidential campaign in history.”
It’s a strategy, however, that has many other Democrats worrying.

"They’ve had an experience where every time they had a problem, people would donate money,” said one Democratic insider. Noting that some of Obama’s key primary victories came after he dramatically outspent former rival Hillary Rodham Clinton, the insider asked: “What if they don’t outspend John McCain in Ohio, Michigan and Virginia?

Yep. What if they don't? And it is not just a matter of outspending. He has to do it by a large margin, because as his primary race against Hillary proved, he had to spend a lot more dollars per vote than Hillary did.

Lets look at some battle ground states and their electoral votes. And assume it will take money proportional to the electoral votes (very roughly) to win a state.

CO - 09 $13
OH - 20 $29
FL - 27 $39
PA - 21 $30
MI - 17 $24
VA - 13 $18

That is $150 million (roughly) to win those 6 states. That means he has to raise about $75 million a month just to win those states. If his calculations are correct. In August he only raised $66 million. Given other states he has to spend in and campaign expenses I'd say he has a problem. And that does not even count providing any money to down ticket races.

Look at it another way. He outspent Hillary by 3 to 1 or more in a number of states and still lost to her. No wonder why he has to rally by day and fund raise by night. If he maintains a pace like that he is going to be very tired by the last debate. And tired people make a lot of mistakes.

How is McCain dealing with the fundraising problem? He has decided to Leave The Money and Get The Votes. In other words he and Palin will be campaigning and doing very little fund raising. They will be rested and refreshed for the debates.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Fighting Over The Money

It seems like the Democrats are fighting over money.

Earlier this month, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid made a personal appeal to Barack Obama: Help me grow the Democrats’ Senate majority by sharing some of the $77 million you’ve got in the bank.

Obama’s campaign said no.

Although Democratic insiders say a better deal could still come, the Obama campaign so far has agreed only to let Senate Democrats use Obama’s name — as well as those of his wife and running mate — in mail and online fundraising pitches. The campaign has planned no joint fundraising events with House or Senate Democrats, and insiders say none is likely to be held before Election Day.

In rejecting a direct request from his Senate leader, Obama has put a fine point on the financial pressures he’s feeling as the presidential race turns toward the fall.

Obama raised a record-setting $66 million in August, leaving his campaign with about $77 million in cash now. Because he has turned down public financing, he can keep raising money through Election Day. John McCain, having accepted public financing, can’t do that — but he already has the $84 million in public money in his campaign coffers.

More importantly, McCain will get substantial help from the Republican National Committee — which has dramatically outraised its Democratic counterpart — and the Republican Party’s state and local committees.

I discussed ∅bama's money troubles in Obama Piggybank Broke. His figuring was that he had to raise $100 million a month for three months for his campaign and $50 million a month for Congressional races. So although $66 million may be a record it is far below what he needs to win. Given that he outspent Hillary by margins of 3 to 1 or more in a number of states and still lost those states in the primaries he is in a world of hurt. And so is the Democrat Party.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Obama Piggybank Broke

A few days ago American Thinker did a post on how the ∅bama money machine was breaking down.

We have heard quite a lot over the past year about Barack Obama's fund raising prowess. But the good times may be over.

Now it suddenly appears that John McCain and his campaign are no slouches in this area. The announcement of Sarah Palin as his running mate has changed things.

Ah yes. Finally. Change we can believe in.

The American Thinker links to a Wall Street Journal article.

During the primary campaign, Sen. Obama set fund-raising records while Sen. McCain struggled to meet monthly budgets. Now it appears Sen. Obama's money advantage is far smaller than it was assumed to be early on.

Sen. McCain's fund-raising operation has rebounded since he emerged as the presumptive Republican nominee. One reason is due to a fund-raising account that allows Republicans to solicit individual donations of as much as about $70,000, far above the normal limit of $2,300 per individual per election.

How can they do it? They take the money given and divvy it up into smaller chunks to stay within the law. ∅bama has a similar operation but it is not working as well as the McCain fund raising efforts.

Sen. Obama turned down the government funds, opting instead to raise money from the public. When he secured the Democratic nomination in early June, Sen. Obama's campaign said it hoped to raise a total of $480 million for his campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

Fund-raising reports through July show that the DNC and Sen. Obama have raised about $150 million but spent much of it already; going into August, the campaign reported having $68.5 million on hand. The reports also showed that in July, the campaign was spending at a rate that was faster than donations were coming in.

The Obama campaign declined to comment on its fund raising or spending in August. One major donor said it is likely the campaign has only a small cash cushion at the moment.

The Journal goes on to describe how the money being raised will go to support Republicans in House and Senate races. Of course all the money coming from the McCain campaign will go to unify the message of the Republicans across the board.

It looks like the ∅ campaign is having trouble raising money according to their plan.

After months of record-breaking fund raising, a new sense of urgency in Sen. Barack Obama's fund raising team is palpable as the full weight of the campaign's decision to bypass public financing for the general election is upon them.

Pushing a fund raiser later this month, a finance staff member sent a sharply worded note last week to Illinois members of Obama's national finance committee, calling their recent efforts "extremely anemic."

The signs of concern have become evident in recent weeks as early fund raising totals have suggested Obama's decision to bypass public financing may not necessarily afford him the commanding financing advantage over Sen. John McCain that many had originally predicted.

Extremely anemic. Which means that instead of campaigning ∅ will have to take time out to raise money. It becomes a vicious cycle. The more time he spends fund raising the less time he has to garner free media making him look weaker, lowering his fund raising ability.

The Obama campaign is struggling to meet the goals it set in mid-June of raising $300 million for the campaign and more than $150 million for the party, fund raisers said. As of the end of July, the Obama campaign was well short of the $100 million a month pace it had set, taking in about $77 million between the campaign and the party that month.

Moreover, McCain will have the luxury of concentrating almost entirely on campaigning instead of raising money, as Obama must do.

I think we can start a death watch for the Obama campaign. One sign is that they begin thrashing around striking in every direction and going off message. What was their message? Let me see if I can remember. Oh yeah. Hope and Change. And what have they been doing lately? Well it seems like Sarah Palin has become a burr under their saddle. And they are lashing out hard. This has two effects. It leaves McCain untouched and draws sympathy for Palin. Every blow they strike comes back at them doubled. What is the best thing to do in that case? Nothing. Get back on message and sell your plan. I believe it is something they are incapable of. They can't hold their fire and regroup. Why? They don't have the strength to appear weak.

The New York Times has an interesting report from California.

A California fund-raiser familiar with the party’s August performance estimated that it raised roughly $17 million last month, a drop-off from the previous month, and finished with just $13 million in the bank.

Still, the Obama campaign said last Thursday that it had raised $10 million over the Internet in the 24 hours after the speech by Mr. McCain’s running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin, at the Republican convention on Wednesday, a one-day record for the campaign.

Hmmm. I find that suspicious. Of course they can announce anything they want and it will be a while until the facts can be checked.

The Republican Party can spend unlimited amounts of its money independent of the McCain campaign. It can also split the costs of so-called hybrid advertisements with the campaign, commercials that must promote not only Mr. McCain but also other Republicans down the ticket, something media strategists said could be ineffective when trying to create a cohesive message. Nevertheless, McCain fund-raisers pointed out the pressure is now on the Obama campaign to raise far more than it ever has before.

Well yes it could be ineffective if there is no unified message. So what might a unified message look like? How about Energy security = economic security = national security. Gee. That was tough. How did I outsmart the media strategists? Just lucky I guess. We will see if the Republicans follow my advice.

So how is fund raising in the black community coming along? For that we have to depend on the BBC for our news.

Nigerian anti-graft investigators have seized money raised by the head of the Nigerian Stock Exchange to support US presidential candidate Barack Obama.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission said it would give the money back to those who attended a gala dinner in Lagos last month.

The EFCC said it had seized 74m naira ($630,000, £314,000), but said no Nigerian laws had been broken.

US political parties are not allowed to receive contributions from abroad.

Stock exchange chairwoman Ndi Okereke-Onyuike is also the head of Africans for Obama, a Nigeria-based support group.

She was interviewed by the EFCC after media reports that the Obama campaign had disassociated itself from the group.

Well, well, well. ∅bama was once associated with the group but now that the fraud is out in the open they are under the bus. What an embarrassment. I wonder if ∅bama has any other friends in the world who would like to see him become President?

How about a Saudi Billionaire?

New evidence has emerged that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama was closely associated as early as age 25 to a key adviser to a Saudi billionaire who had mentored the founding members of the Black Panthers.

In a videotaped interview this year on New York’s all news cable channel NY1, a prominent African-American businessman and political figure made the curious disclosures about Obama.

Percy Sutton, the former borough president of Manhattan, off-handedly revealed the unusual circumstances about his first encounter with the young Obama.

“I was introduced to (Obama) by a friend who was raising money for him,” Sutton told NY1 city hall reporter Dominic Carter.

“The friend’s name is Dr. Khalid al-Mansour, from Texas,” Sutton said. “He is the principal adviser to one of the world’s richest men. He told me about Obama.”

Sutton, the founder of Inner City Broadcasting, said al-Mansour contacted him to ask a favor: Would Sutton write a letter in support of Obama’s application to Harvard Law School?

Well there is enough there that you can start looking deeper into the connection. I want to go forward with another of ∅bama's overseas friends. Nadhmi Auchi.

A British-Iraqi billionaire lent millions of dollars to Barack Obama's fundraiser just weeks before an imprudent land deal that has returned to haunt the presidential contender, an investigation by The Times discloses.

The money transfer raises the question of whether funds from Nadhmi Auchi, one of Britain’s wealthiest men, helped Mr Obama buy his mock Georgian mansion in Chicago.

A company related to Mr Auchi, who has a conviction for corruption in France, registered the loan to Mr Obama's bagman Antoin "Tony" Rezko on May 23 2005. Mr Auchi says the loan, through the Panamanian company Fintrade Services SA, was for $3.5 million.

Three weeks later, Mr Obama bought a house on the city's South Side while Mr Rezko's wife bought the garden plot next door from the same seller on the same day, June 15.

Mr Obama says he never used Mrs Rezko's still-empty lot, which could only be accessed through his property. But he admits he paid his gardener to mow the lawn.

Well that is right neighborly of him.

You know if Obama's overseas pals don't come through for him and Americans won't pøny up for the phøny he could very well lose the election. I hope so.

And to finish this off how about a little anecdotal evidence from No Quarter

Comment by sayitisntso 2008-09-09 00:43:42

“Every advantage it seemed that Obama has had is evaporating. Obama was supposed to have so much more money. Perhaps he does but he certainly isn’t spending it on ads in Michigan where McCain seems to be running 3 ads to every one for Obama. I wouldn’t be surpised to see McCain taking the lead in Michigan with the next poll.”

YaYYYYYY!

Well that is good news indeed. Without Michigan it will be nearly impossible for ∅bama to win the election.

Let me just add that there is so much I have left out of this report. Read all the supporting material and remember Google is your friend.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Money

Money at one time had two functions.

1. A store of value
2. A medium of exchange

for various reasons (one of which is to keep money invested in order to increase an economies' productive capacity as opposed to keeping it stuffed in a mattress where it produces nothing) money is no longer a store of value. The only way to maintain the value of your money is to invest it.

So at this point in time money is no longer a store of value. This may be good. This may be bad. However, it is what it is.

Invest accordingly.

Ron Paul.

The Wall Street Ghetto

Did you know there was once a Jewish ghetto in America? Me neither. The history is interesting.

350 years ago, in 1654, 23 Jews escaping from the Portuguese reconquista of Pernambuco - or eastern Brazil - from the Dutch, arrived on the French frigate St. Catherine in the New Amsterdam settlement in the colony of New Netherland. There they sought to settle. The Dutch had conquered Recife, but lost it a few years later to the Portuguese reconquista, leaving the 23 Jews adrift and stateless.

The Dutch governor of New Netherland, Peter Stuyvesant, refused to admit the Jews and built a wall to temporarily ghettoize them, while he wrote to the Board of Investors of the Dutch West India Company to seek resolution on whether to permit the entry of Jews into America. The Dutch West India Company Board, on which several prominent Jews of Amsterdam sat, one year later ordered Stuyvesant to tear down that wall and let the Jews live with full rights to buy land, to trade, and to serve in the militia. By the way, the place where that ghetto wall stood became known as Wall Street.

From that moment in 1655, when Asher Levy won the right to serve in the militia and buy his own house, it became abundantly clear that this would be for us a new land, a new opportunity, a new home, and a radical new challenge.

We became integrated into the American religious mainstream. In 1776 Haim Solomon helped to finance the American Revolution. In 1730, Shearith Israel was established in New York City as the first synagogue in America. In 1790 president George Washington wrote his famous letter to the members of Touro Synagogue assuring them that their rights as a Jewish community in America were secure, and that their right to religious freedom was guaranteed by the United States government "which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance."

Something else I didn't know:

A couple of years ago, at the West Point Jewish Chapel, there was a display about Haim Salomon and the Revolutionary War. He died penniless, having used all his resources to aid the newly formed and poorly supplied American "army".

This is a wonderful story sent to me by a friend: A Story about: George Washington and the first Jews in America. General Washington's financial advisor and assistant was a Jewish man by the name of Haim Salomon.

During the cold winter of Valley Forge when American soldiers were freezing and running out of food, it was Hyam who marshalled all the Jews in America and Europe to provide money in relief aid to these stranded American troops and turned the course of history.

Without this help, our "Army" would have perished before they could have defeated the British.

If you take a one dollar bill out of your pocket and look at the back at the Eagle, the stars above the Eagle's head are in the six point Star of David to honor Jews. If you turn the Eagle upside down you will see a configuration in the likeness of a Menorah....both at the insistence of George Washington who said we should never forget the Jewish people and what they have done in the interest of America.

Very interesting.

H/T Atlas Shrugs

Update: 04 "Nov '06 0255z

I actually looked at a dollar bill. The eagle's tail feathers could be a Chanukah menorah. However, the stars are five pointed above the eagle. It is possible this has been changed from the original design. I'll look into it.

I have looked into it. The five pointed stars are arranged into a Star of David.