Thursday, December 18, 2008

If Washington could refrain from causing the worst it would be a good start.

Four really, really bad scenarios - Eamon Javers - Politico.com
His lecture comes as part of an annual “Rethinking Seminar” produced by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. Rickards argues that government is not doing nearly enough to prepare for the worst. “Here’s the policy problem for the United States,” he said in an interview. “We have experts in defense and intelligence, and huge depth in capital markets experience at the Fed and at Treasury. But they’re separated by the Potomac River. And they’re not talking to each other.”
Next we'll find out that Jamie Gorelick -- who put "the wall" between Justice and the National Security agencies before 9/11 -- put the Potomac River between the Pentagon and the Fed and then stoked the subprime mortgage mess over at Fannie and Freddie.

But there are work-arounds to get around the "Potomac problem" which actually go across it. Get two tin cans and a long string. Put one tin can in the Pentagon and the other in the Fed and connect them with the string. But remember, you got to keep the string taut or it won't work. Then experts at the Pentagon could talk into one can and the experts at the Fed could listen out of the other. It works the other way around, too. We'll call it the can/can system. Or The Canned "Can" system. Or the "yes we can, can-can" system. This set up will work when the cell phones go down, the Internet goes down, even when there is no more electric power. In lieu of fax machines, they can use pneumatic tubes and carbon paper. Congress "can" provide the air -- but only when it is in session.

Also, I'd like to point out the hidden resource our nation has in overly fertilized and watered suburban lawns. These lawns could provide at least four bumper crops of carrots, sweet potatoes and corn, with no need of additional fertilizer. The three car garages could hold a milk cow, several pigs and a pony -- useful beasts that will provide sufficient manure for the fifth and sixth years. Basements can easily become root cellars. In addition, household chemicals can be turned into pipe bombs and nerve gas.

I hope this has been of help.

This is the end, again.

This explains a lot.

Who Is at Fault for the Decline of the Big Three? - Michael Barone (usnews.com)
The UAW also created a constituency within itself of retirees who have voting rights in union elections just as actual workers do, and there are now something like three times as many GM retirees as GM employees as voting members of the UAW. Retiree benefits account for the lion's share of the difference between GM's labor costs and the labor costs of foreign automakers in the United States.

Meet the New Revolution. Same as the Old Revolution.

SPIEGEL sets the scene:
The violent unrest that followed the shooting of a 15-year-old boy has driven Greece to the brink of a political crisis. The rioting marks an explosion of rage by the country's young people who have few prospects of carving out a place in a society where all initiative is stifled.

The mood in the jam-packed auditorium was reminiscent of the student protest movements of 1968. Hundreds of young people thronged their way into the dark room, sat on the steps or stood on tables. They shouted "murderers" and "pigs" -- and thunderously applauded calls for revenge. Cigarette smoke and the smell of sweat hung heavily in the air.
I see the Speaker and his throng and I think, "Greek Throngs still smoke cigarettes? And smell of sweat? No wonder the world thinks they're revolting." I watch. I listen.

He's a thirty-five year old student leader wearing Trotsky glasses. He told the reporters he's twenty-nine which is OK because they think he's ageless. He claims to know and like computers -- and some people as well. His friends call him "The Brute" despite his slight stature. He is confident his enemies will some day become refugees -- if they survive to flee the country. The same applies to those "friends" who call him Brute.
BRUTE: We have to hold out until the government steps down!

THRONG: (Cheers. Applause.)

BRUTE: We have to transform the protests into a political movement.

THRONG:(Cheers. Applause. Howls. The Throng is in Thrall -- that's a suburb of Athens.)

BRUTE: We have to formulate political objectives!

THRONG:(Cheers. Applause. Howls. Foot Stomping in Thunderous Ovation--that's the rented hall in Thrall.)
I want to encourage the young mob and almost shout "Kill the pigs!" and "Keep the Cycle of Violence going!" But the better angles of my nature intercede. I decide to move the throng towards peace.
ME: Oh, Throng! I say, Throng! Calm down Throng and please listen to reason. What you need to do is think this thing through.

THRONG: (Irritably) Who is this guy? (Malevolently) Capitalist tool. (Creatively) Let's play "get the Fascist." (Delightedly) Cut out his entrails!
I run to the Bastille for safety. Throng storms it! I run to the winter Palace. Throng burns it! I fly to Guantanamo Bay. Throng closes it!

Desperate, I swim to Florida and ask for Asylum. The border agents are Mexican illegals doing a job Americans will no longer do. They don't believe I'm a Cuban entering illegally and refuse me permission to stay (I speak halting Spanish with a heavy Ohio accent). I tell them I will not show them my identity papers because they are all wet. I'm thrown into jail, but only for the customary two hours. Then I am given a court date and a bus ticket to Akron (they said they'd send me wherever I wanted to go but I didn't believe them and said Akron).

The moral: don't try to reason people out of a revolution they were not reasoned into. And if anyone asks you where you want to go, don't say Akron.

Monday, December 15, 2008

The End

More of that Spengler style commentary.
Financial crises, like epidemics, kill the unhealthy first. The present crisis is painful for most of the world but deadly for many Muslim countries, and especially so for the most populous ones. Policy makers have not begun to assess the damage...

Iran's President Mahmud Ahmadinejad controls Iran through a kleptocracy of Central African proportions, dissipating the country's oil windfall into payoffs to an "entire class of hangers-on of the Islamic revolution"...

Pakistan has one of the world's youngest populations and an enormous capital requirement. Young people borrow from old people, and countries with young populations should import capital from countries with aging populations. That is out of the question, for the world markets have turned Pakistan into a pariah. The cost of credit protection on Pakistani sovereign debt is now more than 3,000 points (or 30%) above the benchmark London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR), reflecting a complete shutout from capital markets...

Turkey has been able to keep afloat through the crisis, but barely so. The Turkish currency has fallen by a third, its stock market has fallen by nearly 80% in dollar terms, and the central bank must keep interest rates at a punishing 20% to prevent money from fleeing the country. Turkey has a real economy with a few first-rate manufacturing companies, unlike Iran and Pakistan, so the comparison is not quite fair. Nonetheless, Turkey relied heavily on short-term interbank borrowings to finance its balance of trade deficit, and the crisis has pulled the carpet out from under its economy. In August, before the crisis erupted in force, Turkey had 10% unemployment. It will get much worse.

Asia Times Online :: Asian news and current affairs
Those who objected to America's role as world policeman will get what they wanted, but they won't like it: a religious war reaching from Lebanon to Pakistan, and Colombian-style narco-war spreading to Mexico and Brazil...

The financial crisis will push Pakistan further towards radical Islam. Now this proclamation will be preached from every mosque from Tyre to Lahore: "The corrupt West tried to seduce you with consumerism. Now the poisoned gifts of the West are shown to be an illusion, and those of you who lusted after them are left only with your humiliation..."

Mexico in some ways is the most worrying place in the Western hemisphere. A low-level civil war between the drug cartels and the federal government has been fought over the past two years, and the cartels are winning. Senior Mexican officials charged with suppression of the cartels have been moving their families quietly out of the country. The collapse of the oil price and the likely collapse of remittances from Mexicans in the United States threaten the stability of the financial system, and the Mexican peso has lost nearly 40% of its value during the past several weeks. With the collapse of the American construction industry, a major source of employment for illegal Mexican immigrants to the US, the economic safety valve has broken, and the cartels have in inexhaustible supply of young men willing to risk their lives for a living.

Global Analysis - J. R. Nyquist "Hitting Bottom" 10/31/2008
But sometimes, even the insanity of war carries a cold logic of its own. This column has previously discussed the statements of Chinese Gen. Chi Haotian, known to Chinese dissidents. In recent years China’s leaders have been quietly talking to party cadres about a future war with America. It is true that Chinese dissidents see this as a political tactic for derailing the democracy movement. It is more than a tactic, however, to tell the political elite of a country that war is coming. The Chinese leadership has not been blind to the financial problem inherent in the U.S. economy and, therefore, the related problem of the Chinese economy. It is time to revisit Gen. Chi’s speech titled “War is not far from us and is the midwife of the Chinese century.”

Do we have time to consider the problems facing the Congo? Oh hell, let's just revisit Vietnam.



Intro Apocalypse Now

They see. They just don't inform.

Will 'feditis' spread to Obama and Daley? -- chicagotribune.com
After stubbornly refusing to see Chicago politics as it really is, the national media are finally paying attention. That's great news for most everybody, except for our politicians.

The election's over so I guess it is not too early. As for those politicians, something tells me they will be alright.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Investor f-off

Madoff's alleged $50 billion fraud hits other investors - Yahoo! Finance
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investors scrambled to assess potential losses from an alleged $50 billion fraud by Bernard Madoff, a day after the arrest of the prominent Wall Street trader.

Prosecutors and regulators accused the 70-year-old, who was chairman of the Nasdaq Stock Market in the early 1990s, of masterminding a fraud of epic proportions through his investment advisory business, which managed at least one hedge fund.

Hundreds of people, investing with him through the firm's clients, entrusted Madoff with billions of dollars, industry experts said.
They should put this guy in charge of Carbon Credits: such talent should not be allowed to languish the Federal Pen. Make him the "Federal Car Tar" too. Combine the positions. There. Progress being made.

If they can show "The Valley of Elah" in the Middle East, why not?

Instapundit:
IS THIS A GOOD IDEA? The makers of the new movie “The Day the Earth Stood Still” have arranged for it to be beamed into space on Friday.
Hollywood is constantly making movies that are basically anti-American to sell on foreign shores. Having made an anti-humanity movie, why not make sure Space Aliens get to see it? In fact, if the Space Invaders in the remake had been watching I Love Lucy it would be an interesting plot twist. Lucy gets them coming here. But on the way here they watch All in the Family and Married with Children. Then when they get here they watch CNN. No wonder they send in the exterminator.

Maybe if we had all said “Klaatu barada nikto” to the Producers the movie would not have opened.

Friday, December 12, 2008

Take your IGCC and shove it where the sun don't shine. Put Solar Cells where the sun does shine.

Can Coal Come Clean? | Alternative Energy | DISCOVER Magazine
The technology behind the Polk plant is called an integrated gasification combined cycle—a mouthful usually shortened to IGCC. Unlike conventional coal-fired generators, IGCC plants don't actually burn the coal itself; they convert it into gas and burn the gas. This highly efficient process makes it possible to selectively pull out the resulting emissions, including carbon dioxide, which could then be collected and buried rather than released into the air.


Let's see: Go to all that trouble and Coal is still cheaper. What more do we have to require to Bankrupt them? Are the Democrats up to the challenge? Stay tunned.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Thinking Outside the Pizza Box

Belmont Club » Thinking the no longer unthinkable
Fox News reports that Barack Obama is offering Israel an nuclear guaranty against Iranian attack, signaling that a nuclear Iran is inevitable.

Wretchard thinks Obama's offer through for him.

I've a notion the Obama folks are up to this: Make the Israelis an offer they have to refuse and then when they refuse it, walk away from our other guarantees.

Which implies that Obama's folks have thought that far ahead. They likely came up with this over late night pizza while trying to figure out a foreign policy without a poll to guide them. "We three National Security Advisors disoriented are, ah, lah-tee-dah: Moor. Mountain. Field. Fountain. More Moors. Where are we? Who got the latest poll from Bethlehem?"

Or perhaps they are so far ahead in their circular reasoning that they are now behind themselves. They are so good at Mirroring each other that Mirrors have become redundant. Wait. Mirrors could never be redundant in Washington.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

What's this? Youth respecting tradition?

Clashes outside parliament as strike grips Greece | U.S. | Reuters
Many shops in central Athens stayed shut, boarding up their windows to prevent further damage. Bus stops and litter bins were blackened by fire, public telephone booths smashed and some buildings gutted by blazes.

Greece has a tradition of violence at student rallies and fire bomb attacks by anarchist groups, which have heightened tensions with police. Amnesty International, in a report on Tuesday, accused police of brutality in handling the riots.

Well, the police have their own traditions. The world wide Leftist hissy fit proceeds.

Sunday, December 7, 2008

And then the Youths became middle aged.

BBC NEWS | Europe | Fresh riots erupt in Greek cities
However, our correspondent says that nothing the politicians or authorities can say or do is likely to reduce the anger that is building.

A similar shooting incident in 1985 led to a lengthy vendetta between the youths and police, with violence continuing for years.

It is so hard to figure out what the news is telling us. If the riots were in France we would be safe in assuming the "youths" in question were Muslims. Even in the Mumbai attack the terrorists were described as "youthful" -- as if blowing off heads was their way of blowing off steam. But in Greece, who are these youths? Apparently, the rioters are leftists and the government there is Conservative, which should be enough of an explanation, I suppose (though the left and Muslim extremists will often make common cause).

What do the police say in their defense? According to the BBC, "In a statement, the police said their patrol car had been attacked by about 30 youths and responded, with one officer firing a stun grenade and another shooting and fatally wounding the boy."

And this tidbit in the list of riots and riots to commemorate earlier riots (how else would you do it?): 1999 - Police clash with protesters opposing a visit by US President Bill Clinton to Athens.

What did he do to them?

Friday, December 5, 2008

A Belly Full of Bailout

It's forced feeding time for the Auto Industry. And Otto Von Carmaker is not just going to get it in the tank, but up the tail pipe and in the trunk.

Detroit revs up its bailout begging | Salon News
On bended knee, and with promises to retool their operations, the Big Three ask Congress for billions to save the auto industry. They might get it this time.


Oh, there going to get it. It's what they are going to do with it and what the rest of us are going to do about it that is the mystery. Can we buy Cars in Canada? You know, like prescription drugs?

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Do Terrorists ever experience unintended consequences?

BBC NEWS | South Asia | US 'warned India' about Mumbai
Mumbai police chief Hassan Gafoor told a news conference on Tuesday that security authorities had "had an alert that hotels like Taj could be exposed to such danger".

ABC News quoted Indian officials as saying that after receiving the US warning, they also intercepted a satellite phone message on 18 November warning of a seaborne attack on Mumbai.

The city had been on high alert but security measures at the attacked hotels had recently been relaxed, the network reported.

ABC also reported that the Indian authorities had seized a mobile phone SIM card belonging to the attackers, which they said had led to a "treasure trove" of contacts and information.


We were told this was a well organized and planned operation. Why would the well trained terrorist bring along a "treasure trove" of contacts and information?

I'm reminded that the 9/11 attackers did not bother to conceal their identity. In fact, AQ hoped to get the US bogged down in that sand trap known as Afghanistan. Instead, we fought AQ in Iraq -- which at least has an outlet to the sea and the prize of vast amounts of oil. The idea that we should isolate a large US army in Afghanistan (in the midst of hostile neighbors) never appealed to me. If Barack Obama puts a large army in there, he better hope there are no Barack Obamas around to undermine him when the going gets tough -- as it likely will.

Clearly the idea behind this attack is to provoke conflict between India and the new Civilian government in Pakistan. If the terrorists deposited evidence of the involvement in this atrocity of Pakistan's security forces, then the Civilian government will find itself in a hard place indeed. But it might be possible to rally the rest of the nation against the "Pashtun-Arab alliance" that is trying to drag Pakistan into a disastrous war with India -- and perhaps the US as well.

The High Cost Alternative

Pajamas Media » Green Policies Mean Less Green in Our Wallets
At first glance, one wouldn’t see a connection between a rash of stolen copper pipes from vacant buildings and sky-high prices for food items — say the $70 that a local St. Louis grocer was charging for a single holiday goose — but those connections are there, and they ultimately stem from environmentalist-driven land use policy imposed by the government. It’s difficult to imagine that restrictions in ANWR may be responsible for copper theft, but responsible it is! Ditto food; why would we pay more for our holiday feast because the price of natural gas has risen?


The extreme Global Warmist are about concentrating power in Washington and turning the USA into the Soviet Union that works -- only it won't.

Monday, November 24, 2008

They blow bubbles, don't they.

Here is Spengler's take on President Elect Obama's financial wizards, from an article with some good background:
For a quarter of a century, the inbred products of the Ivy League puppy mills have known nothing but a rising trend in asset prices. About the origin of this trend, they were incurious. The Reagan administration had encountered a stock market in 1981 trading 50% below its the long-term trend. Reagan restored the equity market to trend by cutting taxes, suppressing inflation and easing some regulations. The private equity sharps were fleas traveling on Reagan's dog. They simply rode the trend with the maximum of leverage...
Without leverage, the clever folk around Barack Obama are fleas without a dog. None of them invented anything, introduced an important new product, opened a new market, or did anything that reached into the lives of ordinary people. They wore expensive cufflinks, read balance sheets, exercised regularly, sat on philanthropic boards, and assumed that their flea's ride on the Reagan dog would last forever.
Apparently their new idea is "shock and awe" stimulation for the economy.  Like the old joke says, when you have a hammer all your problems look like nails. The Real Estate bubble worked out well for Rahm  Emanuel, Barney Frank and the Congressional Democrats. Their Wall Street Pals will "bail out" alright, too.  Obviously, if you know how to create bubbles then when you see a problem break out the bubbly.  So soon we'll have a bubbly auto industry, a bubbly "alternative fuel"  sector and a bubbly bath for the taxpayer. I hope it is "for the children" since they are the ones who will pay for it.

Will his sensible appointees come up with sensible policies?  Or will they break out the bubbly?

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Want a well used crisis? How's about Global Warming for 45 trillion?

History News Network
What is to be done? We must use this crisis to make major strides towards energy independence. A major part of the stimulus package should be spent on investment in our energy resources. This is the time to take a holistic approach. We should do everything, so that never, but never, will energy warlords be in a position to hold us hostage again. As in 1973 and 1979, they have demonstrated yet again that they cannot be trusted. Enough is enough.
I wonder. If President Obama wants to serve two successful terms he will go slow on alternative energy development. Alternative energy is expensive energy and will drain America's wallet while putting the nation's industry at a competitive disadvantage. He would be wise to keep the price of oil low (and our enemies -- now his enemies, too -- poor) by allowing more domestic production and generating cheap, coal powered electricity for the grid. The fact that we may be entering a mini ice age should help. Instead of a ten year time frame for alternatives, he should think thirty years and have a successful Presidency.

He has been making sensible appointments. He should follow up with sensible policies.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Settled Men

Pajamas Media » The Peter Pan Myth: The Real Reason Men Won’t Settle Down
But what was original was just how much of a backlash Hymowitz herself incited –all of it from the boys. Her inbox overfloweth with righteous invective styling itself as the “Menaissance,” which sure sounds as ridiculous as “Iron John” did in the ’70s, but recommends an altogether healthier program than banging bongo drums naked in the woods. The Menaissance mantra seems to be, “We’re mad as hell, and we’d rather be masturbating”...


I watched "House" Tuesday and on that show an "emancipated" 16 year old girl said the reason she was estranged from her parents was that her father had raped her. I thought the statistical genius Doctors on the show should point out that for the biological father to rape the daughter is a rather rare event. For the "live in" boyfriend or the latest hook-up of a single mom, much more common. This is one of my favorite gripes against Hollywood: They constantly show the "traditional fathers" as wretches; the single mom as heroic. Then they will associate the social problems of the broken family with the intact ones. In the real world a daughter living in an intact family is at much less risk.

Now in this case the daughter was lying about her father raping her. On the program it seemed regarded as a perfectly acceptable "polite" lie, however. In the end they did show the parents reuniting with the daughter. That is progress, for Hollywood.

I think the gripes of the "boys" have to do with what they are called when they become men.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

An august bureaucrat gives us August in October

From the folks who brought us bogus "climate models" heavily biased toward global warming (or rather prejudiced against Free Markets and Free Enterprise) comes Flaming October!

The world has never seen such freezing heat - Telegraph:
A surreal scientific blunder last week raised a huge question mark about the temperature records that underpin the worldwide alarm over global warming. On Monday, Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), which is run by Al Gore's chief scientific ally, Dr James Hansen, and is one of four bodies responsible for monitoring global temperatures, announced that last month was the hottest October on record.
Jimmy Hansen and his jimmied up climate records is a prime example of a bureaucrat taking over a taxpayer funded institution to promote their own ideology. There is apparently nothing we can do about this if the individual shows up to work on time and don't take too many sick days or murder their co-workers. I remember this guy saying -- when global warming critics claimed that much foreign temperature data was inaccurate -- that third world readings track with US data so it's all good. Then when his "reformulation" of US data turned out wrong (the 90s were not the warmest decade in the US) he said it tracked with foreign data so he was still right globally even if his claims were wrong locally. 

The author Christopher Booker describes the cause of the latest screw up:
So what explained the anomaly? GISS's computerised temperature maps seemed to show readings across a large part of Russia had been up to 10 degrees higher than normal. But when expert readers of the two leading warming-sceptic blogs, Watts Up With That and Climate Audit, began detailed analysis of the GISS data they made an astonishing discovery. The reason for the freak figures was that scores of temperature records from Russia and elsewhere were not based on October readings at all. Figures from the previous month had simply been carried over and repeated two months running.
The mistakes seem to go one direction -- the direction of giving these folks all sorts of power and spending $45 trillion in a crash program to crash the economy.

Friday, November 14, 2008

Neo-Socialism and the Subprime Paradigm.

Neo-socialists are interested in the acquisition of power, not money. Therefore Neosocs work to make the population resentful of those who appear interested in the acquisition of money. They then use that resentment to acquire power over those interested in money (whose interest can be useful) and everyone else.

The fact that the economy began to tank under a Republican is a godsend to the Neosocs who surround President Elect Obama. So President Obama will do what he says he'll do, not what most on the "center line" of the political highway hope.

Back when everyone was talking $180 bbl oil I said the world has plenty of oil at $60 bbl and if the markets are allowed to function that is where the price will go. So obviously, the markets cannot be allowed to function.

For Obama and the Neosocs, $2 a gallon gas has got to be $5 a gallon gas if their "alternative energy" power grab is going to work. The business of OPEC is raising the price of gas by cutting supply. The Democrat Congress is the most important member of OPEC (see previous post) so look for them to significantly cut future US production. Of course it must be done with plausible deniability. Environmental concerns will stop oil exploration, stop oil shale development and stop new refining capacity. Meanwhile expanded oil use in the rest of the world will be allowed, if not encouraged, through Kyoto style loopholes (it's an antipoverty measure). Taxes and regulations of the oil companies must be greatly expanded in the name of Fairness. In return Big Oil will get -- from the Democrats -- expensive oil and good profits (the Democrats get their cut in the form of taxes). The Neosocs must get the price back on an upward path soon. They don't want their finger prints on "five dollar gas."

The USA as the TVA is part of the Neosoc agenda, and economic distress will provide all the excuse they need to implement it. Look for grandiose public work projects (as broadly defined as possible).

Meanwhile the economy as a whole will be organized into Cartels of Caring. Cartels exist to advantage producers over consumers and cartel community organizers over everyone. Cartels are justified as providing a social good -- even in autocratic Nations. As they spread through our economy they will provide little but social harm. The poor will become poorer (but they will be "helped") and the workers will become Cartel dependent. In fact, economic distress will make the emerging system more stable by making the dependent citizen conservative in the "change adverse" sense. The "change we can believe in" is neosoc "fear of change" in the population as a whole once the neosocs are in charge.

The Cartels of Caring will get a steady stream of income and protection from competition in return for supporting the new social order. In the neosocialist order, management and "Capitalists" will front for the bureaucracy and the Washington Party -- that combination of politicians, top bureaucrats, major media and "public private partnerships" that make up our ruling class. They will be politically dependent clients of the Washington Party. They will be selected for being responsible not in the sense of being competent, but in the sense of taking the blame when things go wrong (and they will go wrong).

Under old style socialism, socialist took the hit when economies collapsed. Under Neo-socialism the "capitalists" become neosoc puppets. They are kept around to take credit for failure rather than provide additional credit to success. Neosocialism operates on the Subprime Paradigm -- where the architects of the mortgage meltdown take charge of the "blame shift" and take over the government. Nice work, if you can get it.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

The Democrat Congress: The most powerful member of OPEC

Pajamas Media » We Can Solve the Financial Crisis by Destroying OPEC
We need to ask ourselves the question: Why has the housing market collapsed? If you want the answer, just follow the money. It’s gone to pay for oil.

Consider: This year, with OPEC-rigged oil prices averaging near $110/barrel, Americans will pay $900 billion for their oil supply, and the world as a whole will pay $3.6 trillion. These petroleum costs are up a factor of ten from what they were in 1999, and represent a huge highly-regressive tax on the world economy. For Americans, the $900 billion oil levy (up from $80 billion in 1999) is equivalent to a 33% increase in income taxes across the board — with sixty percent the sum being paid over in tribute to foreign governments.

To see how this tax can destroy real estate values, it is only necessary to compare expenditures. In 2003, Americans paid $268 billion for new homes, and $197 billion for oil. In 2008, we paid for new homes at an annual rate of $134 billion, and $900 billion for oil. So the increase in our oil expenditures was more than five times as great as the fall in our spending for new homes.


OPEC functions by limiting supply to drive up prices. What is the response of the Democrat Congress to the recent fall in oil prices? They announced they will block oil exploration, not only off shore but on land -- in other words they will keep millions of barrels of oil (every day) off the market.

The most powerful member of OPEC is the Democrat Controlled Congress. They keep more oil off the market (by far) than any other member. And the American people pay through the nose. Why would they do anything to undermine the organization of which they form an important part? If they can find a way to get control of that money rather than sending it to foreigners — then maybe. Still, they will want the money (or more to the point the "power of the purse" and the power of regulation), not affordable fuel. They need expensive fuel to make their alternative future, with them in command in DC, a reality.

What do you call Bankrupting the coal industry? A good start on the road to bankrupting oil.

Monday, November 10, 2008

AP says President Obama to ban Embryonic Stem Cell Research!

My Way News - Obama to use executive orders for immediate impact
WASHINGTON (AP) - President-elect Obama plans to use his executive powers to make an immediate impact when he takes office, perhaps reversing Bush administration policies on stem cell research and domestic drilling for oil and natural gas.
Reversing the Bush administration policies on stems cells research means reinstating the total ban on Federal Funding of embryonic stem cell research which was in place before President Bush changed it (allowing funding for research on existing embryonic stem cell "lines"). Is this what AP means? Probably not.

And they can't mean the second part either. Because Sen. Obama looked right into the electorates eye during the second debate and said "I do not oppose drilling!" Of course the AP and every other reporter knew he was lying to the voters and that was OK because he was lying to the voters and not to news fellows. And so they past over it in silence. And now he's doing so many pirouettes that if you put a drill bit on his shoes he'd be down to 4,000 feet. And what will the media do? Help him spin.

We should look upon the news manipulation of the new administration as a teaching moment. It is an opportunity to show the nation why centralizing power in Washington is a bad idea: Why the Democrat’s “groupism” of the parts hurts the group as a whole. Such instruction requires patience; that’s why I’m not a teacher. Anyways, here’s my take.

President Elect Obama rocketed to the top by opposing the US war in Iraq. There is nothing wrong with that.

So what is wrong with opposing his war on the US economy? The neo-socialist war on free enterprise? Why can’t “save the whales” become “save our trade”? And the machinations of the Carbon Market (which we don’t need) be compared to the worst that an excess of corruption and incompetence ever brought to the Free Market (which punishes the sorts of wretched excess that governments so often reward).

The left opposed the malefactors of great private wealth. We can oppose the malefactors of great bureaucratic power. The left opposed Christian “theocrats” reaching into our homes. We can oppose environmental Gaea-crats reaching into our homes, our bodies and everywhere else we inhabit (and even the areas we don’t).

We can safely oppose trashing an old power network that delivers power cheaply and — if the environmentalist would allow upgrades — reliably, only to replace it with a fantasy one that is expensive and unproven. This is like sending a good $25,000 car to the crusher (forgoing the resale value) to be replaced by a bad $50,000 car that is still on the drawing boards, can’t yet be manufactured and will end up costing 75,000. In fact, it may be exactly like that. It is, in short, a crash program to crash the economy. The only good thing here is that critics won’t have to make anything up or distort the truth when they point this stuff out (they need only persevere through persecution).

I even think being anti the neo-socialists war on the private economy will be patriotic. As the saying goes, “Do the right thing.” What do you think?

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Europe has a Change of Viscera, too

Denis Boyles offers a humorous take on Obamaphile Euros.

 At Long Last Love by Denis Boyles on National Review Online
Americans, especially those on the Left, love to be loved, and there hasn’t been this much of the stuff aimed at the U.S.A. for a long time — just over seven years in fact. The last time Europe erupted in a clamor of amour it was because terrorists were flying airplanes into the World Trade Center. That bout of affection lasted about 48 hours. This love is made to last for weeks, maybe even months, but probably not years. Still, by the standards of the trans-Atlantic marriage, that’s an eternity.

When the internationally esteemed, noble peace prize winning "Great Satan" Jimmy Carter was President -- and our embassy personnel still captives of the Iranian Mullahs -- I was traveling through Asia. I ran across many people on the international left who told me that the Japanese, for instance, hated Americans. I never encountered much overt anti-Americanism myself, but perhaps that is because I come from the "so what?" school.

It was an attitude I developed when traveling in Europe when Nixon was President and I would often find myself talking to leftist -- the riotous "1968ers" I encountered in '70. I remember once they snarkily demanded to know when the US would stop being racist. I said in fifty years (this is almost forty years ago). They got intrigued: why fifty years? I said, "Because most people alive today are going to have to die." Or they would demand that we stop occupying West Germany (We had 300,000 troops there at the time). I'd say, "Sure, we can do that. But West Germany would either double the size of its military or become a satellite of the Soviet Union. Which outcome would you prefer?" Generally speaking, since their pushing anti-American buttons didn't get me upset or apologetic or just generally defensive, they'd just as soon carry on a healthy conversation as go for the cheap thrills.

I think what gives anti-Americanism its charm is that many Americans actually seem to care.  And so I think it will be back.

Friday, November 7, 2008

The World has a Change of Viscera

According to Philip Stephens, "In recent years, the anti-Bushism born of Iraq, Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo has hardened into visceral anti-Americanism." But seems it ain't hardened into concrete and must be made of ice because the blow-torch election of Sen. Obama to the Presidency has melted it. "The election confounds the prevailing image (always something of a distortion) of a nation described only by its arrogance and indifference." Well, good. I'm glad they're confounded, confound it! But is it arrogant to be indifferent? Here's more (FT.com Obama’s victory: a change the world should believe in):
With Dick Cheney, the vice-president, hovering ever present in the wings, few have believed that the [Bush] administration’s motives could be anything but bad, its embrace of engagement anything but tactical. Mr Bush completely lost the benefit of the doubt.

That will change. It will no longer be possible (it should never have been so with Mr Bush) for America’s adversaries to draw moral equivalence between the president of the world’s most powerful democracy and tyrants, despots and terrorists everywhere: Mr Obama as the Great Satan?

In demonstrating the infinite capacity of the US to reinvent itself by rediscovering idealism, Mr Obama robs friend and foe of their alibis.

The way I look at it, anti-Americanism comes in two types: that based in self interest and that based in emotion. Typically, the self interested anti-Americans are using it to manipulate the emotional ones. During this stage it is more their problem than ours. Only when the Demagogues take over does it become ours -- typically because of what they are doing to everyone but us.

There is only one difference between the anti-Americanism of the recent past and of that going forward: When Bush was President, the media cared (or pretended to) and going forward it won't. That is because their interest in anti-Americanism was utilitarian in nature (something to whack Republicans with) and its utility is now gone. In fact it was they who drew the "moral equivalence." The adversaries of America need only repeat it.

Those who need anti-Americanism as a political crutch will continue to use it at the expense of those who need it as an emotional one. We just won't hear much about it. I grant you, this will be an improvement.

Mr. Stephens goes on:

A week ago Moscow’s latest threat to site its missiles on Poland’s borders might have been greeted with a pained shrug: after all, Russia, many in Europe would have said, had been provoked by Mr Bush.

As it was, the sour response of Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, to Mr Obama’s victory spoke to his own failure to grasp the significance of the event. Moscow has precious few friends even now. Henceforth it will find it a lot harder to hide its belligerence behind America’s unpopularity. The same might be said of Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez and one or two others.

There is an important lesson here for Washington’s allies, too. Mr Bush has been an excuse for inaction. Many Europeans have spent the past few years carping from the sidelines: the US has been messing things up everywhere, so why should they contribute anything to global security?

Apparently a new day has dawned and the Russians have hit the snooze button. But not to worry, the Europeans are already making coffee and croissants.

Actually, as his supporters on the left know, President Elect Obama has pledged to kill anti-missile defense. Now when he abandons missile defense (and the radar and missile sites in Poland) it will look like he folded in front of the Russian threat.

I once had a girl friend who explained to me the difference between fashion and style. So let me put it this way: Obama may have fashion. But the Russians, they have style.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

A Gruntled American Speaks -- or rather Writes

We really shouldn't take the future of our country too seriously -- or at least that seems to be the attitude of the electorate. Just kidding. I do feel a bit like one of those Old Testament Prophets, though: Nothing to do now but wait for the locust plagues to show up. Again, just kidding. I do expect a rain of frogs on Saturday, though. OK, more like a light toad shower.

Originally I thought of Kiddington Oh! as the setting for a comic novel (I think the very first post is the very first part). Then I reread it and realized it wasn't funny. Be that as it may. I am toying with another idea for a novel.

See, there's this extended family of bankrupt coal miners. And they strap the mattress to the top of the SUV and borrow some gas money from a rich uncle who works for the government. Or maybe they have one of them stoves strapped to the back that cooks gas from coal to run the SUV. Now their coal cooking SUV spews black soot, and it's a good thing they got carbon credits from their rich uncle because they use them to bribe the enviro-police.

As they travel down the refugee filled roads, they stop at abandoned coal pits to scavenge more fuel. They have to beat off the widows and orphans who make their living clawing coal from the face of the strip mine with their fingers! (And the mine is filling with water so the kids have to dive to get it! And it's freezing! Good thing they're young!). So the family -- basically decent sorts with a few sexual peccadilloes and one potentially explosive sociopath who's just turned sixteen (should it be a girl?) -- end up stealing their coal from the young coal divers because they are desperate for fuel for their coal cooker! And some of the young coal divers might starve as a result if they can't get to where they give out food stamps to the well connected!

But the basically decent family (with the few exceptions I noted) have got to steal the coal from the children because -- you see, they're heading for the new Government work camps that have sprung up in the wind blessed Midwest! There windmill farms are built to send ever more power to Washington! And when the wind ain't blowing, the people get on treadmills because they are like, like, back-up batteries! What do think?

I think I'll call it The Shafts of Coal. No, that's too dark. I know. The Shafts of Lite.

Congratulations to the Democrats and a few predictions.

If doing a splendid job winning the Presidency is proof that you will be a good president, then I think my country, the good 'ol USA, will be in good hands for the next four years. Unfortunately, the one does not necessarily follow the other.

A Democrat friend, to whom I had described the possible downside of an Obama Presidency on a number of occasions (but who voted for him anyway) asked me today if I really thought he'd make a bad President. I said, "If Obama is as pragmatic as he often sounds, he'll be alright." Of course, that's the question: Was Obama fooling the left radicals who promoted him to the nomination? Or was he fooling us?

The Democrat Congress may come back into session this fall. If so they will pass a great big Christmas gift for the voters paid for by the Rich Uncle Collective.

The Christmas package will be tied up with several unpleasant strings -- riders the Democrats will want George Bush to sign into law (not Barack Obama). Possible examples might be the "Fairness Doctrine" (to take down talk radio) and "card check" (to thug up the unions by removing the secret ballot). In this way they can say "The Bush Republicans put in place the Fairness doctrine" (or whatever the item is) and repeat it a thousand times. If they do add poison pills, I hope George Bush has the wisdom to veto the whole $500 Billion stocking stuffer. And tar the Democrat Congress with the trick they will try to pull.

From The Volokh Conspiracy.
Looking for a Post-Election Republican Agenda?:

Here's something I think the vast majority of Republicans/conservatives/libertarians can agree on: holding Obama to this pledge, made to the American public during the third debate: "what I've done throughout this campaign is to propose a net spending cut.... What I want to emphasize ... is that I have been a strong proponent of pay-as- you-go. Every dollar that I've proposed, I've proposed an additional cut so that it matches."

We should remember that the Democrats and the Media considered the Bush Tax Cuts an increase in spending. Back in 2001 and 2003 they would say, "How much can we afford to spend on tax cuts?" So there is a cheap rhetorical out for Obama (but an expensive one for us). The Bush tax cuts expire in 2010. Since the US government was spending on tax cuts, allowing the taxes to increase becomes a spending cut. Extending the Bush Cuts for some tax payers becomes an Obama tax reduction for them (even though their taxes are not reduced -- only not increased). Therefore, the spending cuts in "pay-as-you-go" are actually massive tax increases. The tax cuts are, in the main, merely refraining from raising taxes on some tax payers. I believe the new figure will be couples making less than $120,000.

Mr Bernstein further comments:
it would be wonderful...the Senate and House minority leaders each congratulated Obama, and added, "we look forward to helping President-elect Obama fulfill his promise of a net spending cut."
Unfortunately, if they helped Sen. Obama fulfill his promise they will find themselves supporting tax increases.

In the national security arena, Barack Obama will find himself handicapped by the way he used the Iraq War to gain power by tearing down George Bush and Hillary Clinton over their stands on the war. Having pointed the way, he will fear that others will follow the same route to destroy the Obama Presidency. His first term will be spent avoiding the types of commitments that will lead to this outcome. He will not succeed.

Good luck and God bless.

Monday, November 3, 2008

What do you call Bankrupting Coal? A good start.

A tape of Sen. Obama talking to his campaign staff in San Fran surfaced. These folks man the office at the San Francisco Chronicle.

CBS News
“So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can,” Obama said. “It's just that it will bankrupt them because they're going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that's being emitted.”

An Obama spokesperson said that Obama’s remarks were taken out of context and pointed out that in another part of the interview, Obama said that the idea of eliminating coal plants was “an illusion.”
The "illusion" is that talking about destroying the coal industry and getting elected is a possibility. Actually destroying the coal industry after being elected is the reality, not the illusion. The CBS Obama spokespeople quoting other Obama spokesperson go on:
“The point Obama is making is that we need to transition from coal burning power plants built with old technology to plants built with advanced technologies--and that is exactly the action that will be incentivized under a cap and trade program,” the spokesperson said. “We know that additional work is necessary to develop and deploy these technologies. That is why Obama has argued for a robust funding program for carbon capture and sequestration. It’s strikingly similar to what McCain has said (in fact McCain goes a step further saying he wants to transition completely away from coal).”
The real story is the escalating costs of the Obama plan -- that his energy alternatives will cost trillions of dollars to rate payers. His use of regulation and taxation to ruin industry may start with coal but that is just the beginning. Regulation will stop the use of Nuclear power. Regulation will force the adoption of expensive alternative fuels. Regulation will stop oil drilling.

Folks, I am all for a alternative energy future. What I'm not for is crashing the economy now.

Sunday, November 2, 2008

I come here not to Damn the Coal Industry, but to bury it.

Via Gateway Pundit:
OBAMA TELLS SAN FRANCISCO HE WILL BANKRUPT THE COAL INDUSTRY

When I tell Democrats that Obama's alternative energy future will require seven or eight dollar a gallon gas they just sort of shrug. Tell a coal miner that Obama's alternative energy future will require his mine to shut down and I suspect he'll shrug, too. And even if he does not, his kids probably will. It is a strange election in which a fantasy future of peace and plenty -- "Tom Tomorrowland" -- will win (if you believe the MSM). I call it a crash plan to crash the economy.

As for the voters in my area, here are a few observations I left as a comment at the Belmont Club:

In my last 12 hours of driving around Western Pa and Eastern Ohio I’ve seen two bumper stickers: one McCain, One Obama. I haven’t seen a large number of yard signs. I live in a heavily Democratic area and the Obama signs are not numerous but they have been around for a few weeks. McCain signs have sprouted up in the last few days in “upper working class” areas. You see a lot of McCain signs along the rural roads — a lot of signs but, unfortunately, few voters.

I joke with a lot of Democrat voters about the election. They seem to have proudly returned to their party because of the financial meltdown and the Dems’ reputation (deserved or not) for fighting for the little guy. They even listen to me trash that reputation (with a smile on my face and a lilt in my voice). Their commitment to Obama seems less solid then their pride in the party, though. I’ve had Democrats say to me, “When people get in the booth, who knows?” I tell them they can vote for McCain and still stick with their party. And sometimes I think they’re not sure how their friends will vote for president — or what they might do themselves. They will all be a brick wall down ticket, though.

By the way, they’ve asked me not to have a wig out Wednesday if McCain loses.

I drive through African American neighborhoods, too, and don’t see many Obama signs. Of course he will carry those areas by 98 percent so they might feel yard signs are redundant. Or maybe African Americans will sit out the Civil War the English Profs will wage if the One comes up short one elector. I have not talked politics with any African Americans this go round, nor they with me. But regardless of color or party, people are keeping their politics on the down low.

From what I’ve seen I would not rule out a McCain win: Just the likelihood of it.

To which I'll add that I talked to a small business man who said if he votes his interest he will vote McCain but if he votes the nation's interest he will vote Obama. Now, he is much better off than me (financially, at least) and I ended up explaining where his interest and the nation's coincide -- and sending more power and money to DC is not in the nation's interest. Geez. The Washington Guard Dog Media does it's work well.

But what if voters decide not to pull the lever for Tom Tomorrowland? Then there is this Audio which is just wacky enough to be believed. A McCain landslide? The hosts, Quinn and Rose, have a radio talk show with good ratings in Western Pa and Eastern Ohio (I'm a sometime listener). Still, I can't vouch for the accuracy of the prognosticators involved.

Happy election day and may all sides emerge victorious (that's a McCain win, for the underinformed)!

Saturday, November 1, 2008

120K is the new 250

From Fox news via Instapundit. How Low Can It Go?
For the second time in a week, a prominent Democrat has downgraded Barack Obama's definition of the middle class -- leading Republicans to question whether he'll stick to his promise not to raise taxes on anyone making under $250,000.

The latest hiccup in the campaign message came Friday morning on KOA-AM, when New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson pegged the middle class as those making $120,000 and under.


Now that is change we can beleive in. A few days ago I noted:
On tax increases, his floor has come down from $250,000 to $200,000 in one week. Sen. Biden then knocked it down to $150,000. Let's see, dropping at fifty thousand a week their tax increase floor should be under me by Thanksgiving. In fact my feet feel more firmly planted already.


Yep. I'm going to cash those checks Barack sends me and buy gold.

That Zogby be one good kidder.

DRUDGE:
ZOGBY SATURDAY: Republican John McCain has pulled back within the margin of error... The three-day average holds steady, but McCain outpolled Obama 48% to 47% in Friday, one day, polling. He is beginning to cut into Obama's lead among independents, is now leading among blue collar voters, has strengthened his lead among investors and among men, and is walloping Obama among NASCAR voters. Joe the Plumber may get his license after all...

How can the polls be wrong when they are all over the place?

Friday, October 31, 2008

A McHurry-Cain on the Brain

Kausfiles :
The See-Saw Cuts Both Ways: Republicans have been gaining in the "generic" Congressional ballot, according to The Hill...As someone rooting for an Obama victory coupled with a small Dem majority in Congress, I've worried that in all the last minute confusion the See wouldn't know which way to Saw, given the countervailing possibility that ticket-splitting voters would side with McCain and compensate by voting for Dems in downballot Senate and House races. ... But if the MSM Final Push to Victory. among other factors, really does help produce a big Obama closing surge, that could (perversely!) tip the ticket-splitters' lever against Franken, Martin, etc., no?


If you think Obama is going to win, having more Republicans around to act as a check (and support him in times of national peril -- something the "Obama wing" is unlikely to do) then voting Republican down ticket makes sense.

A few months back I added my twist: What if the late Obama surge (Yes, I saw it coming!) is more media brain farting than a political storm? This is most unlikely to happen, of course. Obama is ahead in every poll. Still, the voters may take a look at the leap they are about to make and decide to stay on this side of the political Chasm. In this case, folks may vote for McCain but knowing he'll loose, vote for the Republican down ticket (instead of splitting their vote). In which case we could have McCain by a nose and a better than expected Republican outcome in Congress.

Yes, one last pleasant dream.

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Who puts the GO in GO-vernment? Barack Does!

Well, I didn't watch Sen. Obama's "advertisement for myself!" because I ain't buying it. Also, I heard consumers will spend less of their own money this Christmas (though likely more of someone else's). So this morning I did a little catching up on what the iO said ("Here's what I'll do!") via a surprising source: The AP.

Obama's prime-time ad skips over budget realities
THE SPIN: "Here's what I'll do. Cut taxes for every working family making less than $200,000 a year. Give businesses a tax credit for every new employee that they hire right here in the U.S. over the next two years and eliminate tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas. Help homeowners who are making a good faith effort to pay their mortgages, by freezing foreclosures for 90 days. And just like after 9-11, we'll provide low-cost loans to help small businesses pay their workers and keep their doors open. "

THE FACTS: His proposals—the tax cuts, the low-cost loans, the $15 billion a year he promises for alternative energy, and more—cost money, and the country could be facing a record $1 trillion deficit next year. Indeed, Obama recently acknowledged—although not in his commercial—that: "The next president will have to scale back his agenda and some of his proposals."

When the iO said, "scale back some of his proposals" he meant John McCain's proposals, not the iO's own proposals -- for instance, there is that whole Pentagon thing which can be turned into affordable housing.

On tax increases, his floor has come down from $250,000 to $200,000 in one week. Sen. Biden then knocked it down to $150,000. Let's see, dropping at fifty thousand a week their tax increase floor should be under me by Thanksgiving.  In fact my feet feel more firmly planted already. I thank whatever gods may be for my Go-vernment -- which goes not just for me, but for you, too! 

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

This looks like France. A landslide.

Via The Corner
Is Team Obama Worried McCain Will Pull It Out?


Don't Let Up, Europhile Obamaniacs. Go to France and get out the vote.

And now that they've invented spell check, even I could do it.

Jules Crittenden » Embarrassment
Yeah, well here’s my advice on that point, Mike. Call yourself a reporter, an editor, a columnist, a commentator, whatever it is you actually do. “Journalist” is a bogus word for people who are trying to make it sound like this wretched business is something exalted, something professional, something that requires arcane, secret knowledge hard come by. All things it never was, as amply demonstrated on a regular basis by some of the best in the business working at some of the finest publications in the nation.


I was talking to a friend about the news "business" a decade or so ago and opined the Columbia school of Journalism graduates were quickly squandering the reputation for reliability that high school drop outs built over the past century.

Monday, October 27, 2008

Sheer Panic: it ain't panty hose.

Nouriel Roubini: I fear the worst is yet to come - Times Online
Dubbed Dr Doom for his gloomy views, this lugubrious disciple of the “dismal science” is now the world’s most in-demand economist. He reckons he is getting about four hours’ sleep a night. Last week he was in Budapest, London, Madrid and New York. Next week he will address Congress in Washington. Do not expect any good news.

Contacted in Madrid on Friday, Roubini said the world economy was “at a breaking point”. He believes the stock markets are now “essentially in free fall” and “we are reaching the point of sheer panic”.

For all his recent predictive success, his critics still urge calm. They charge he is a professional doom-monger who was banging on about recession for years as the economy boomed. Roubini is stung by such charges, dismissing them as “pathetic”.


OK. I know what I'm gonna do. After Obama wins and those government checks start rolling in I am going to cash them and buy gold.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

CNN reports Desperately

Yesterday Democratic friends of mine told me of a CNN report about chaos and back stabbing in the McCain Campaign. They were hoping to get me barking mad, of course, but I took the news with equanimity. I good-naturedly pointed out what lying skunks they are over at CNN (it's not about the truth -- unless the truth works -- it's about furthering the lie and shaping opinion to fit the lie). Then today I read this:

CNN Political Ticker: Palin warns Obama would create nanny state if elected
"Are we hearing what he is saying with 10 days to go?” she asked plaintively. “Are voters hearing what he is saying about his plans for bigger government?”

Asked plaintively. Yep: Now it is chaos and desperation in the campaign rhetoric!

Way to go Z-man! Zero out that poll!

Zogby International
“There is no question that this race continues to tighten and that McCain is finding his message again,” said Pollster John Zogby. “It is after all about the economy and that is how McCain tightened it up the last time. I have said over and over again, when he focuses on extraneous issues, he screws up. In today's single day of polling, it was 49% to 46% in favor of Obama. McCain has moved his own numbers each of the three days and Obama has gone down from 54% to 50% to 49%. I have alluded before to this strange, magnetic pull that brings Obama down to 48% or 49%, a danger zone for him. McCain's gains are among white voters, where he now leads by 12 points, and with men, where he again has a healthy lead. There is still a lot of campaign to go. A lot of campaign to go.”


Just the other day the Zog produced a poll with Obama up 12. Now he is saying it is basically a three point race -- in other words, within the margin of error. This swing occurs in a matter of forty-eight hours. A strange magnetic pull indeed. Talk about spin. From the North Pole toward the South Pole.

Friday, October 24, 2008

Confidence

Political Radar: Palin Guarantees Win in Pennsylvania
ABC News' Imtiyaz Delawala reports: Near the hometown of Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Namath, Republican vice presidential nominee Gov. Sarah Palin guaranteed a come-from-behind victory for the McCain-Palin ticket in Pennsylvania.


She is so sure they will carry the state that she'll wager those ruby red slippers the RNC gave her.

North Pole, South Pole, Times poll, TIPP poll

On Nova (PBS) the other night they described a theory of parallel universes which says anything that can possibly happen will happen. It reminded me of this election and those polls.

IBDeditorials.com: IBD/TIPP Economic, Presidential Election, and Political Polls -- IBD/TIPP Tracking Poll: Day Eleven
McCain has cut into Obama's lead for a second day and is now just 1.1 points behind. The spread was 3.7 Wednesday and 6.0 Tuesday. The Republican is making headway with middle- and working- class voters, and has surged 10 points in two days among those earning between $30,000 and $75,000. He has also gone from an 11-point deficit to a 9-point lead among Catholics.


But the New York Times has Sen. Obama at plus 13 (52-39).

Why are these polls describing two completely different elections? Perhaps the answer can be found among the undecideds. I think all the polls measure "committed voters" accurately. But the Investor Business Daily poll has close 12 percent undecided. If the pollster puts additional pressure on the voter to "decide right now," they break for Obama. This may accurately reflect what they will do on election day, or it may accurately reflect what they do do when talking to a stranger who has their phone number -- give that person the answer that person wants to hear. If they represent a major news organization, 70 perecent of the people will assume the answer is "Obama."

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Which way muse

My Way News - AP presidential poll: Race tightens in final weeks
The poll, which found Obama at 44 percent and McCain at 43 percent, supports what some Republicans and Democrats privately have said in recent days: that the race narrowed after the third debate as GOP-leaning voters drifted home to their party and McCain's "Joe the plumber" analogy struck a chord.

Three weeks ago, an AP-GfK survey found that Obama had surged to a seven-point lead over McCain, lifted by voters who thought the Democrat was better suited to lead the nation through its sudden economic crisis.


Interesting. In the same period that the AP poll swung six points towards McCain, the Zogby poll has swung eight points toward Obama (to Obama +10). They must have swapped call lists or something.

I said a few weeks ago that if McCain pulls a win out we would have to place the entire Main Stream Media and the rest of the Democratic Party on Suicide watch. We might need to add pollsters to the group as well.

Monday, October 20, 2008

A World Crisis of Choice Looms for the US

Someone should tell Joe Biden, "It's the economy, stupid!" But stupid Joe, God bless him, decides he has just got to change the subject from "market meltdown" to "World attacks US when Barry takes over!" This from ABC News:
“Mark my words,” the Democratic vice presidential nominee warned at the second of his two Seattle fundraisers Sunday. “It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We’re about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America. Remember I said it standing here if you don’t remember anything else I said. Watch, we’re gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.”

“I can give you at least four or five scenarios from where it might originate,” Biden said to Emerald City supporters, mentioning the Middle East and Russia as possibilities. “And he’s gonna need help. And the kind of help he’s gonna need is, he’s gonna need you - not financially to help him - we’re gonna need you to use your influence, your influence within the community, to stand with him. Because it’s not gonna be apparent initially, it’s not gonna be apparent that we’re right.”

No Kidding. But what if our judgment tells us you're really wrong? At that point, ain't it patriotic to work with all our heart and all our soul to undermine the policy? You know, like Barack Obama and the war in Iraq. Slow Joe goes on:
"There are gonna be a lot of you who want to go, 'Whoa, wait a minute, yo, whoa, whoa, I don't know about that decision'," Biden continued. "Because if you think the decision is sound when they're made, which I believe you will when they're made, they're not likely to be as popular as they are sound. Because if they're popular, they're probably not sound."

Kinda like the surge in Iraq after the unsound Dem's declared the war there lost.

To sum up what Obama's foreign policy expert said, if America chooses the young and inexperienced Sen. Obama, America will choose a major crisis with potential dire consequences for the nation and the world. Interestingly, Joe isn't asking for patience and support during this anticipated "crisis of choice" from the American people at large -- he's taking that for granted. No, he's asking for support from Obama's own supporters, who worked so hard to undermine the Iraq war. And, given the record, why wouldn't he doubt support would be forthcoming or long lasting?

So according to his future VP, a year from now President Obama could well be trying to Spread the Wealth and fight a World War while his own party abandons him and he has to join the Republicans. Or President Obama could simply capitulate. And Joe Biden can watch it all and say "told ya."

Isn't the better choice not the choose this "Crisis of Choice" in the first place? Why not simply vote for John McCain?

UPDATE: Is Joe stupid like a fox? A different take.

Saturday, October 18, 2008

What did Joe do and when did he do it?

What I want to know about Joe the Plumber is:
  • Did his boss ever blowup the Pentagon?
  • Did he ever do work for a slum lord who defrauded the government?
  • Did that slum lord help him buy his house?
  • Has he ever supped with bank robbers and murderers?
  • Has he lived in a corrupt political environment and never criticized it -- but used it to get ahead?

And by all means, let's have a look at his school records and past alliances.


WBIR.com | Knoxville, TN | McCain speaks with Joe the Plumber
Earlier today, McCain charged that Obama and his campaign have been attacking Wurzelbacher. In fact, Obama and Joe Biden have attacked McCain for portraying Wurzelbacher as representative of most blue-collar workers.

Of course if he a played a blue collar worker on TV he'd support Sen. Obama -- and that would be important. But what's important about Joe is that he asked Sen. Obama to explain an obvious point in his tax plan and the Senator could not do it: instead, he searched in vain for a suitable talking point and potentially screwed the pooch by letting the mask slip. But not to worry, the press will screw the pooch for him.

So the Obama Campaign don't have to attack Joe (though they have). They got the guard dog press to do it for them. After all, the "mainstream press" is just an extension of the Obama Campaign.

Friday, October 17, 2008

Oh the smirk on O's face

Instapundit.com -
WHAT'S WRONG with fighting for plumbers?


Obama Mocks Joe the Plumber, Crowd Laughs

Old Joe has gotten under Sen. Obama's skin. A plumber! "How many plumbers you know making a quarter million a year!?!"

He wants to make a quarter million, O, he does not make it now. How many blue collar guys (and gals) want to make a quarter million? In Ohio I'd say it's everyone who makes less.




Thursday, October 16, 2008

Are they still starving in Ireland?

Former UN chief mulls 'phenomenal' Obama presidency
A US presidential poll victory for Barack Obama would be "phenomenal," former UN chief Kofi Annan said Thursday, adding that whoever wins needs to learn the lessons of the last eight years.

Speaking at a conference on hunger in Ireland, he underlined the need for the United States to work in "partnership" with the rest of the world.
A conference on "hunger in Ireland?" Apparently we have to send food to the Irish -- again. Will they accept Franken food? I guess the lesson of the last eight years was: store grain. We'll need it for the next Eight years.

McCain losses the election yet again!

I only got to see the tail end of the debate -- the part where they are running to be The National Superintendent of Schools. Sen. Obama said that as president he would personally oversee the functioning of the preschool in Walnut Creek, Ohio. Apparently, the Mennonite Vote is still up for grabs.

During the after words afterwards, David Brooks, the PBS token conservative, said that we should just skip right to the Inauguration: Is there a supreme court justice in the House to swear the him in? We'll even accept one from a foreign court. Mark Shields seemed subdued. He wondered what really moves Sen. Obama, he seems so unflappable (what will he be like in a crisis?). I only watched 35 seconds of the after debate fish wrap-up, so I won't claim I'm being accurate (not that I ever do).

Apparently, they don't like that plumber guy -- he's become an effective competitor. He might unstop the election.

Now, back to the Campaign.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

One lumps or two?

WSJ.com:
What Paulson Is Trying to Do: Banks need a capital injection before they take their lumps.

I thought the Feds were just making up money lumps as they go along. You look at a bank's bank account and say, "stick a couple more zeros behind that one, will ya?" Presto change-o. And this before the Socialist take over.

A trillion here. A trillion there. I'm gonna check under my bed: maybe money appeared.

Remember when they washed their hands of Rwanda? Well, now they're done with Darfur.


BBC NEWS |UN hand-washing day
Therese Dooley of Unicef explains how to wash your hands properly.
There. We no longer need to teach reading.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Spaced Out Government

There was a good Nova episode tonight about the Space Shuttle. I remember its gestation back in the early seventies. At first it sounded like a good idea -- a way to lower the cost of getting into orbit. But as they cut back on the size of the Space program after the moon landings, I remember getting into a discussion with a friend who was a physics teacher. I argued that it made no sense to spend a vast sum of money on an expensive new launch system when we were cutting back on the manned space program. It was fast becoming obvious that by the time the shuttle was operational, there would be no where for it to go and no money left to send it there. It seemed to me that we should just use the Saturn V "moon" rocket to put the heavy stuff up and a smaller rocket to put the manned element up.

Around that time NASA got rid of all the specialized jigs and equipment used in making the Saturn V. The conspiracy minded thought it was done so there would be no going back as the Shuttle ate up more and more of the space budget. Perhaps NASA needed to keep the rocket scientists and engineers busy. In any case, the imperative for the shuttle was no longer "space exploration." Apparently massive bureaucracies put in motion tend to keep going that way.


Well, after two space shuttle tragedies -- disasters designed into the system, as Nova pretty much put it -- and gazillions spent, guess what? To replace the Shuttle they'll build a heavy lift vehicle (even resurrecting much of the Saturn V design) as well as a smaller vehicle for putting humans into orbit.

Interestingly, they managed to blame private contractors who "turned the shuttle around" for part of the failure but never explained what it was they did wrong or forgot to do right. In fact, they failed to show any connection with the private contractors at all. This came from the folks who were hands on responsible. It's just a bureaucratic reflex, I guess -- just stupid blind prejudice at work: it's those cost cutting contractors, I tell you! Actually, complacent and sloppy inefficiencies were more likely the cause (and was that an "ozone friendly" insulating foam that fell of the shuttle in large junks during the launches?) .

In the near future our likely next President, Barack Obama, will launch many new and massive Federal Programs. But he does not appear to believe in The Doctrine of Unintended Consequences. Or perhaps he believes the bad consequences -- whether intended or not -- won't show up until he is gone. But the "bads" should be obvious to all non-journalists by 2016.

Friday, October 10, 2008

The Evils of Capitol-ism

The other day an old friend asked , "What are we going to do about that party they got going on down in Washington? It don't matter who you send there!"

Yup. What about affordable government?

What's clearly on Display in our financial crisis are the evils of Capitol-ism.

I've long thought that the Democrat Party, the National Media and the Federal Bureaucracy are knotted together by self interest and a shared belief in their own importance. Republicans, too, can join them in the knot and often do. Today they form their own political party, the Washington Party, that works to move ever more power to the capital and to the "national centers" -- be it information centers (New York, D.C.), financial centers (New York, Chicago), or entertainment (LA). Basically, for the Washington Party, all problems are national and all problems have a national solution -- and they use the media to bring you along. Your kids go to a lousy school? Look to Washington for the answer, not your local community. This is the platform of "The Washington Party."

The ideology of the Washington Party is Capitol-ism. For a Capitol-ist, both state power and economic power are centered on Capitol Hill in Washington DC, where the inhabitants of the corridors of power meet and bargain. Their preferred form of economic organization is the cartel, sometimes organized by government but always controlled by members of the Washington Party. These new Cartels function much like the old ones -- except they focus on shielding mediocrity (by emphasizing credentials over performance) as well as creating abnormally large benefits for the members.

Of course Cartels are illegal, but only when non-members of the Washington party try to organize them. As we "fight" global warming the Washington Party will organize Carbon Cartels that will dominate the entire economy. These will be promoted as life-saving "Cartels of Caring": it is not about screwing you and benefiting them, it is about saving the planet.

All the institutions at the Center of the Washington Party have scandals connected to them where the national "watchdog" media is late to the scene. When they arrive they start tampering with evidence, and then issue reports with mistakes and omissions that point to conclusions that lie in one direction -- a direction favorable to the Washington Party and the system of Cartels it creates.

If there is a problem with the free market the answer is regulation. If their is a problem with the regulations the answer is more regulation. Problems with the additional regulations require yet more additional regulations. It's a one way ratchet -- at least until the whole rickety structure is about to collapse. Then there is a half-assed deregulation, followed by a collapse which is then blamed on the Free Market. In California ten years ago they "deregulated" the electricity market but kept the price controls in place. This was not an example of deregulation. This was an example of stupidity -- or brilliant bureaucratic strategy. When the doo-doo fell into the wind tunnel and the lights went out in California there was someone else with poo-poo on their face.


The Federal Fannie and its spawn, Frantic Freddie are at the Center of the subprime mortgage mess. Congress constructed a Fun House at the corner of Broadway and Wall Street where low showmanship and high finance meet. Fannie and Freddie were the host, and they brought the good faith and credit of the American people in there to play. In those mirrors everyone looked fat and solvent. The Fat and Frantic Feds were the center of the "Cartel of Caring" which screwed the people it was alleged to help and greatly enriched members of the Cartel. Even now rule one is: protect the Washington Cartels.

So naturally it is reported as if the fault were in the private economy. The Mainstream Media is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Washington Party. The Federal Fannie is already sitting on health care -- another Cartel of Caring. They want of feed it a much bigger slice of the pie -- in fact, the whole banana cream pie -- so if you think it is heavy now, just wait.

Belmont Club » Just so
Western civilization is dying a death by a thousand cuts. The quest for perfection has become such an obsession that it is sought even at the cost of basic functionality. A friend who works at big name consulting firm said that so much attention is focused on ensuring compliance — checking off boxes, making sure that everything is gender-friendly, green, non-racist and whatever else — that sound business is almost an afterthought. In this modern world it’s alright to have something that doesn’t work, as long as it’s perfect.

The Heart and Soul of Capitol-ism is "The Caring Cartel." The business of the Cartel is not the general welfare, but the welfare of the Cartel. In the Cartels of Caring the clerks who run them are king. Barney Frank is an alpha clerk. Clerks cut free of their middle class masters ( and resentful of them) now run government, finance and Eduction. They give Western Civilization the soul of a Clerk.

Check the box.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

The Second Presidential Debate

Senators McCain and Obama must have agreed in advance that since they couldn't calm the volatile financial markets, they would try to put them to sleep.

I gave Obama a slight edge at the start and McCain a slight edge at the end. Of course Sen. Obama seems to change his position at will (on off shore oil drilling, for instance) but he is still right, both times! As usual, spending is called investing and tax increases become spending cuts and free money to folks who don't pay taxes is a tax cut. Sacrifice is accepting more from government while insisting someone else pays for it (this is also "living within our means"). The Usual hokum. Obama should win.

Biggest lie: Obama said he would cut more spending then he would add. Granted, he will call his tax increases "spending cuts" (we spent the government's money on tax cuts, remember). Even so, creative math and all, I don't think it is "true."

Goodnight.

Monday, October 6, 2008

Dreaded Secrets -- Revealed!

I often watch "Secrets of the Dead" on PBS. I like the program for what it reveals about Western Intellectuals. One show all but concluded that it really was the Christians who burned down ancient Rome (Christians who were at the same time Jews!).

I first saw the episode that will reprise on Wednesday (Aztec Massacre) in April. It deals with the encounter of the Aztec Empire with "Cortes and the Conquistadors." The program centered on some Spaniards (including women) who were captured -- along with some of the more unruly subjects of the Aztecs -- and sacrificed.

The ritual involved skillfully ripping the heart out of a living human; lifting said heart up to the sky while it is still beating; tossing the heartless (and maybe headless, I forgot to take notes) body down a steep flight of steps; butchering said heartless/headless/discarded body.

Well, I thought we could all come together on this behavior and say "that is just wrong." Liberal and Conservative could finally agree. Marxist intellectual and capitalist Robber Baron, finally, in agreement.

OK, maybe we all know that one special "exception" to the rule -- or two or three -- where ripping out the heart might be understandable (though never condoned). But to do this by the thousands? At what point do we say you've gone from a Civilization that has "a problem" to "A Problem" that has a civilization? I mean, talk about the church militant.

Gee, do I ever lack nuance. First, it was done to keep the sun in the sky and the sun is still up there so they must have done a pretty good job. Plus the Aztecs lacked beasts of burden and their subject people kinda filled that role. And what do you do with an ornery beast of burden? Well, you turn him into a much needed protein supplement. And in a way to encourage the others. So. Sun's in the sky. Maize's in the fields. Pyramid's gettin' built. Capital's kept clean. And all the Spaceships solar powered (sorry, that was Atlantis). Why, times were almost good.

Then Cortes shows up -- a combination entrepreneur and labor organizing thug who's gonna steal your retirement. If only he weren't an entrepreneur but, alas!

At this point the Aztec Priestly caste became the "resistance." The same hat trick performed by the Baathist Party (caste) in Iraq -- an idea promoted by pretty much the same people (read: BBC). What's the evidence the Aztec Priests turned into minutemen? There were Spanish heads on those skull racks. Along with the heads of them new fangled horses (I mean, folks, those equines want to take your jobs).

Well, I concluded that one priestly caste (tenured academia) identifies strongly with another priestly caste. Priest who no doubt bathed more frequently than the on-the-make Spaniards and were more respecting of books and knew the value of a good protein supplement. They knew how to get additional sacrifices from their populations to keep their Temples of Learning up and running. They did not beg for grants, they just took them!

I, on the other hand, saw them as bitter men clinging to their religion and their razor sharp obsidian ceremonial blades and blaming foreigners with their "new ideas" while fearing change.

Meanwhile the Spaniards slip into the role of the Aztecs. And those who rule now can have a certain regard for the problems the Aztecs faced then. I mean, keeping the sun in the sky is thirsty work. And as the sun gets closer, the globe gets hotter. That means more sacrifices to push it back up. And how do you get folks to willingly make them (or unwillingly, if Al Gore's ad campaign don't work)?

Am I being unfair here? Let me think. Nah.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Fear Mongering by the Media does not count.

Dean Baker: The state of the US economy is a direct result of Bush's policies | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
This is the first time in the history of the United States that the president has sought to provoke a financial panic to get legislation passed through Congress. While this has proven to be a successful political strategy - after the House of Representatives finally passed the bank bail-out plan today - it marks yet another low point in American politics.

It was incredibly irresponsible for George Bush to tell the American people on national television that the country could be facing another Great Depression. By contrast, when we actually were in the Great Depression, President Roosevelt said: "We have nothing to fear, but fear itself."
The Media has been telling us we are already in "the second great depression." They need to absolve the Democrat "Fannie enablers" in Congress so the cause of the crisis is "Bush said boo!" and terrified Wall Street. Of course a lot of them Wall Street Fat Cats are Democrats and they do scare easy. Redeploy into T-bills!

But don't listen to Bush. The fundamentals of the economy are actually great. Until tomorrow, when they will want to blame GWB for the rise in unemployment.

That Washington "thing."

The Democrats in Congress organize “Cartels of Caring.” A “Caring” Cartel is at the very center of the Subprime mortgage mess. Its most visible members came in the form of a “big fat Fannie” and its spawn, an adrenalin addled Freddie. This Federal Grendel and his Ma effectively turned the mortgage industry into a government run cartel. Except in this story, Grendel didn’t lose his arm, home buyers and taxpayers lost theirs. It took advantage of home buyers at one end and mortgage instrument buyers at the other — and the entire US in between once the “implicit” guarantee of Freddie and Fannie finally became explicit. They socialized the risk and let speculators hugely profit.

Citizens struggling to make their mortgage payments don’t give money to politicians. Real Estate speculators do.

Cartels are always sold as being good for the public. Their purpose is to steer power and money to their members. The Democrats (but not just the Democrats) combine these two principles to produce “Cartels of Caring.” In the last few weeks we have found out how much “affordable housing” really cost. Ten years from now we will learn the cost of affordable health care — your life, perhaps, but only after your money.

Do you want them to stick their fat Fannies into your health care? In this respect, the “McCain plan” is better since it does give the patients some control. Sen. Obama constructs another “Cartel of Caring,” only this time he invites the insurance companies to join and removes power from the patients. They will construct a system of incentives to over treat the well and hasten the death of the severely ill. This system will not require a Dr. House — a brief bit of grief “consoling” will do. Twelve stages in two minutes. Because we care.

The Main stream Media is another “Cartel of Caring.” They sell themselves as the watch dogs of the American People when they are actually the Guard Dogs of the Washington establishment — and all the Cartels of Caring they create. Hence their Howling at the Moon when Sarah Palin arrived on the scene.

After the election they will want their own position shored up. They are owed that much (and self interest does dictate…)

If you want a movie that most effectively mirrors the current set up in Washington, watch Goodfellows. “Hey, Congressman, I’d like you to meet a friend of mine. Grendel’s a Good Fellow.”

It makes you want to Howl like a Beowulf.