THE NEO ICONOCLAST

The Nature and Origin of Human Rights

2010-04-26T19:37:00.000-04:00

The New GM: Just as Shitty as the Old GM

2010-04-26T19:17:00.000-04:00

GM's new advertising campaign would seem hysterically funny if it wasn't for the fact that they were lying to the American people, and using taxpayer's money to do it. In this commercial they tout the fact (as they see it) that they have repaid the loan given to them by the government five years ahead of schedule. In reality all that they have repaid is $6.7 billion dollars. The rest of the $52 billion went in to bailing them out, and allowed the government to take a large stake in the company. So basically, they repaid that loan of $6.7 billion with taxpayer money received from the sale of their stock to the federal government. Bravo. Wall Street accounting at its best, all used to dupe the American people into thinking that it was actually a good thing to bail them out and that they did right by "repaying" their loans. Sorry, GM. That loan wont be paid in full until the American people see a total of $52 billion, which is most likely not going to happen any time soon. In order for them to repay the rest of that loan, they would need to have an IPO price close to pretty successful companies such as McDonald's or Home Depot's market cap. Not happening. GM looks like it will remain Government Motors for a very long time, remain unprofitable, and all the while dupe the taxpayer into thinking GM is back and better than ever. Still the same shitty old GM.

Everybody Draw Mohammed Day

2010-04-26T02:55:00.000-04:00

Leave it to the creators of South Park, yet again, to cause a stir on the premise of the First Amendment. Comedy Central's blind censorship of their latest episode and their lack of any type of obvious masculine genitalia for giving in to terrorists making threats over the internet has caused a back-lash of great proportions. One political cartoonist has called for May 20th to be recognized as "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day" in order to execute her right to free speech. While she concedes that she never planned for her plan to go viral, it has now taken a life of its own with many bloggers and cartoonists vowing to participate. View the story here.

Excerpt:
After Comedy Central cut a portion of a South Park episode following a death threat from a radical Muslim group, Seattle cartoonist Molly Norris wanted to counter the fear. She has declared May 20th "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day."

Programmed, Categorized and Easily Referenced

2010-04-26T02:04:00.002-04:00

I think it is important, while we rail against Obama and Pelosi and Reid and Obamacare and Stimulus Plans and Big Government as a whole, that we remember that it shouldn't be just Democrats that we rail against. Right now they hold a majority in our government and decide with an iron will the direction of our country. But November will come along, and soon we will all remember how that evil Democratic Party screwed us all and we will move to place Republicans into the government and hail them as our saviors and expect things to get better from there. Some of us will blindly agree with everything that the Republican Party does and act as apologists for that party, but many of us will realize that the regime change that is coming is in fact no regime change at all. The Republicans, should they regain control of the legislature in some way, will in many cases be just as bad or even far worse than the Democrats. Instead of large spending packages devoted to social reform, we will begin to see large spending packages for corporate and military expansion. We will see the same old farm and oil and financial subsidies, the devotion to imperialistic interventions, the subjugation of the Bill of Rights in favor of heavy-handed policy against "terrorists", both foreign and domestic.

It is my great fear, that the epic force that is the Tea Party will begin to disappear should Republicans stage a dramatic come-back this fall, and everything that we have worked so hard to do, to make this government listen to the Will of the People, will disappear as people breathe a great sigh of relief and think things will suddenly get better from there on out.

But what we should do, is have a dramatic change of our definitions on these two parties. We are not Republican or Democrat. We are not liberal or conservative. We are not Big Government or Small Government.

What in fact we are, that divides us on a philosophical, economical and social plane of existence, are INDIVIDUALISTS and COLLECTIVISTS.

We need to realize that the largest parts of both parties, both Republican and Democratic, are limbs of the same creature. They are COLLECTIVISTS. They both believe that it is okay to take money from individuals and disperse it to other groups. They both think that this action is just, somehow, and we allow them to think that. But what we need to do, this November and for years to come, is not blindly vote the bums out, for what we will intentionally do is just vote other bums in and the whole process will begin to repeat itself.

What we need to do is change our definition of who we vote out, and say that they are bums not because they are Democrats, but because they are COLLECTIVISTS and they believe that it is okay to put a group of people, or a corporation, or a whole economic industry before the individual. Who we need to vote in, are not Republicans, for many of them are in fact COLLECTIVISTS in their own way. We need to vote for INDIVIDUALISTS who believe that the single unit of a person is more important than society as a whole, that the rights of the single person are more important than the rights of an artificially-created, arbitrary group of people.

And ultimately, Tea Partiers must realize that the Tea Party itself is not a group, is not a political party and should never be one. They must realize that they are simply INDIVIDUALS who are campaigning for the same thing and that is the recognition of their own individual rights over some unified idea that the Tea Party has become. We must not become shills of a political party. We must not become a political party unto ourselves. We should take heart in the fact that both parties are scared of us and that is because we refuse to be programmed, categorized, and easily referenced into a larger group that they can begin to quantify and manipulate.

That wont mean they wont try to categorize us. We are already racists and rich, white people, and crazy domestic terrorists. But ultimately we must fight back, and every chance we get we must assert that we are INDIVIDUALS.

So please, come November, and even (more importantly) before that as you run to the voting booths during primaries, don't blindly flick that switch for your simple run-of-the-mill Republican just because he isn't a Democrat. Flick the switch for someone who is an INDIVIDUALIST because he isn't a COLLECTIVIST.

Happy Earth Day, libertarians!

2010-04-22T03:11:00.006-04:00

Most people see Earth Day as a liberal, tree-hugger holiday where nutjobs chain themselves up to giant redwoods and place themselves in the way of giant chainsaws threatening to dice up Mother Earth's most valuable resources. I am proud to say that I am a tree-hugger, but I am in no way a liberal. Libertarianism and Earth Day go hand in hand, although I would think that we attack the problems of pollution and rampant resource gobbling a different way. Liberals would like to see big government come in with massive and invasive legislation that would protect the environment at the expense of the common man. The way I see it, it is in fact the other way around. Big government has a habit of handing the keys of the Earth-Destroyer 2000 to gigantic corporations, subsidized by tax-payer money.

The agricultural industry is one of the heaviest subsidized industries in the United States. It is this money that is used to drive the prices of our crops down, mostly corn here in the U.S. Cheap corn that doesn't reflect the natural supply/demand of the market is used to make cheap food. Over half of that unnaturally cheap corn that we grow is used for livestock feed. This unnaturally cheap feedstock is used to feed our cattle, which doesn't have to roam vast areas of grassland for food, and can be kept in unnaturally tiny corrals and fed an unnatural diet that ultimately kills them unnaturally, if they weren't going to be slaughtered any way. That unnatural diet gives rise to an unnatural amount of fat in the animal and also raises the E. coli in their guts to unnatural levels, that can eventually harm consumers who eat this unnatural meat and get unnaturally fat themselves. The unnatural amount of bacteria also winds up in the feces which makes its way into streams and rivers and lakes and can contaminate any crops in the area. It is why sometimes you hear of tomatoes and lettuce giving rise to E. coli outbreaks in the consumers who eat them. And since cattle doesn't have to roam for grass to eat, we can keep so much more of these large animals in tiny unnatural corrals which creates more feces lumped together in one area and can contaminate more land around them with the deadly (unnatural) amounts of bacteria.

The same is true for chickens and pigs. Our meat is made cheap and unhealthy for us by our government. If Michele Obama really wanted to stop obesity in our youth, she would go after these corporate subsidies that create the problem of unhealthy foods in the first place. And by doing so she would also be helping the environment and would allow our farms a more naturally ecological way of growing their crops and livestock. And the livestock would live in better conditions and live a more natural lifestyle. Before they were slaughtered. The fact remains that if libertarians and other champions of small government fight for less corporate welfare, we will stop enabling these multinational corporations from exploiting our land, resources and animals.

But a liberal who believes big government is the answer would say that the FDA needs more power to fight these corporations, that we need more bureaucracies to regulate the industries, that we need legislation that will force companies to comply with environmental standards. It's ironic that government subsidizes the destruction of our environment, and then creates environmental standards that companies need to follow in order to get more subsidies so that they can continue destroying the environment. It is a vicious circle that has no end.

But I digress. As an example of poor government programs at work, I point a big, unnaturally fat finger at the Energy Star program which has a great number of flaws. In short, it gives incentives to consumers to buy products that are supposedly energy efficient, but in many ways are not. In any government program there are loopholes and flaws that turn out to be more hazardous than helpful. Follow this link for a recent article on the Energy Star inefficiencies.

And then there is the oil industry and its obvious effects on our environment. Not only do we subsidize a lot of this industry, but there are also external costs involved. How much have we spent over the course of the last few decades, especially the last few years, on our interests in the Middle East? Sure we were "spreading democracy," as Bush said, but even the most ignorant ten year old can tell you that we were only involved so heavily with Iraq because of its oil reserves. How many billions of dollars have we spent on this war, and how many more billions are we going to spend in the future? All this to keep the oil flowing and to keep it relatively cheap for the American consumer. The oil market that we have now, like the agricultural one, is highly impacted by government involvement, whether it be a Republican or a Democratic administration. It's all the same. Do whatever you can to keep oil prices down so that Americans can buy their SUV's, and corporations can keep funneling subsidized oil into their subsidized industries. If we had never had these subsidies (and our imperialistic interventions over seas) the price of oil would likely be higher. Likely those prices would have risen gradually and our companies may have had the chance to look for alternate resources elsewhere, pouring money into solar and wind and other renewables in order to drive the costs of their energy usage down, maybe using our abundant natural gas reserves in the process as a stepping stone into truly cleaner energy. Instead, what we find ourselves risking, is the chance of a ginormous oil spike if Middle East events take a turn for the worst while we scramble about the world, place flags on ice caps, and drill for whatever drippings of black gold are left in the world. Our country and our industries are not prepared with the necessary infrastructure for a spike in oil. And all the while we devour and destroy our environment using tax-payer money.

So, listen all you fellow tree-huggers out there. If you want to protect the environment and the many different species of flora and fauna living in that environment, the best thing that you can do is end government's forays into the private sector. End corporate welfare. End our endless subsidization of unhealthy and destructive industrial sectors. Stop foreign imperialistic overtures overseas. Allow prices of commodities to fluctuate naturally with supply and demand. Allow man to live with the earth. Mother Earth hates big government too!

How to Identify GMOs

2010-04-22T00:33:00.001-04:00

Any libertarian's struggles and outcries should not only focus on government and politicians, but also on companies that are monopolies and oligopolies, heavily subsidized by the federal government. The agricultural industry is one of these oligopolies where a few companies control the entire market of the United States. This video shows how to identify genetically modified organisms in your produce aisle. I am inclined to go test this out at my nearest supermarket, and heed this girl's advice. Besides, who can resist a pretty farm girl. :)

South Park vs Islam

2010-04-22T00:18:00.001-04:00

For anyone who is a fan of South Park, you know that they are number one in trying to exercise their freedom of speech, whether it is making fun of celebrities (that's right Bono, you're a number two), or politicians, or even religious figures. In the current series of episodes they have struck out again against the idea that the Prophet Muhammad is unassailable and devoid of any type of criticism. In the Islamic world it is considered blasphemous to show the Prophet in any type of picture, painting or drawing, so South Park, who once did show Muhammad without any outcry from Muslim critics, now must hide him inside the costume of a big fluffy bear in order to portray him on T.V.

Well it seems that South Park has once again hit a nerve. They are now the focus of a radical Islamic group that has begun to threaten them. I just find it funny that in the latest episode they showed Buddha doing lines of coke, yet so far I haven't heard of any violent Buddhist radicals threatening to destroy the makers of South Park for the blasphemous depiction of their "Awakened One". Muslims need to chill out, relax, and gain a much needed sense of humor.

Read the story for a laugh.

Greece vs California

2010-04-21T15:02:00.000-04:00

Repeal the 17th Amendment

2010-04-20T17:04:00.000-04:00

There's a lot going on in the nation today, a movement to limit the power of the federal government and bring more liberty back to the individual. Whether you are a Tea Partier, a libertarian, an Austrian economist, a member of the Tenther movement, or are just sick and tired of the big government role we have been subjected to today, we should try to realize where it may have all went wrong. There are lessons in history and the passage of the 17th Amendment may have started our country on the wrong path towards absolute tyranny by the feds over the states. This article by The Free Press is a must read.

Prior to the ratification of the seventeenth amendment of the Constitution of the United States in 1913, senators were appointed by state legislatures. Since then, senators, like representatives, have been directly elected by the voters in their states. Many wonder why this wasn’t always the case, and why the framers of the Constitution did not establish the direct election of senators in the first place. However, as we will see, the reasoning behind having senators appointed by state legislatures was quite simple; it was another check on the growth of the federal government....

Monsanto Monopoly

2010-04-20T14:36:00.000-04:00

This video goes out to my Monsanto-hating friends: a monopoly if I ever saw one, and a company that is starting to finally get much press on the tactics they use to corner the market and make slaves out of small-time farmers.

Tea Party Racism?

2010-04-20T13:27:00.009-04:00

Audit the Fed Banner Bomb

2010-04-19T23:20:00.000-04:00

I just find it absolutely amazing how much support he can get through his grassroots network. If you haven't donated to the banner bomb, and you would like to, please follow the link. Take action!

Ron Paul on Goldman, SEC and Federal Reserve

2010-04-19T23:07:00.003-04:00

I'm Back!

2010-04-19T22:54:00.002-04:00

After a long hiatus, I have decided to come back to blogging. I have neglected it for so long, that I have become complacent in the face of extraordinary world events that have been playing out. The media, and our politicians would both have you believe that everything in this country is going right. Indeed, the market rally from March 2008 until now has been extremely powerful and persistent and is giving fodder for our pundits and politicians in claiming that the crisis is over. But we all know that it isn't. Our country is still on the road to bankruptcy. Our tax code still sucks and is very unjust and unfair. Commodity prices are climbing ever heaven-ward. The dollar is conversely sinking like a stone and is expected to test its lows in the very near future. Housing prices are still flat, bankruptcies and foreclosures are still hammering the American people, alongside an unemployment rate that refuses to come down from its lofty highs (unless you seasonally adjust it, then all is possible). Congress passed a bad medical insurance bill requiring everyone to have insurance, or else. The list goes on and on and on...

We all know that this country is falling down around us. We can all see it in the minutiae of our daily lives. Maybe your family is focused on the fact that schools are closing, state by state. Maybe you are getting increasingly worried about the health of your pension. Maybe you wonder if the Social Security Ponzi Scheme will be around when you retire and if you will actually get back what you paid into it. The focus for each and every individual is different, but it all adds up, melding together into a massive cluster-fuck of problems that joins every American together into a common sense of emotional turmoil: Anger at our politicians, disbelief at the state of our once mighty country, cynicism that nothing changes in the face of great disaster. But at the end of the day, we turn on the television, watch some American Idol, and forget about - just for a moment - the problems facing our families and neighbors.

It is then that apathy sets in, the most disgusting emotional state that ever saw the light of day, a disease that infects many Americans without them even knowing it. I can't do anything about the problems of the world, so why worry? I just want a beer and a baseball game, not complain about things that I can't affect.

So that's what happened to me. That anger, walled off for a good while, decided to break through those formidable barriers created by apathy and decided that it was time to be heard again. I attended my first Tea Party on Tax Day and loved it. The turnout was quite poor here in NYC, Apathy Capital of the World, but I felt I made a difference. I waved my Audit the Fed sign, spoke to like-minded individuals in the movement, interviewed with reporters and tried my best to make my voice heard. And I think it worked. Cars and trucks inching down the street were very interested to see the movement making some noise. They added their own support with the toots and honks of their horns which made the Tea Party crowd cheer louder. It was a vicious infectious circle, and it is my hope that the quest for justice, liberty, fiscal responsibility, and just plain old common sense will start to spread outward in gigantic waves. A shot heard around the world!

My hat goes off to those people making their voices heard every day. I applaud you, envy you and aim to emulate you. I also encourage others to do the same. Email and call your politicians with your complaints and requests. Start your own blog to channel your anger and frustrations. Write your local papers. Join a protest or rally. Make your voices heard, people!

Does Honduras Frighten Obama? You Bet Your Sweet Bippy!

2009-09-21T23:05:00.006-04:00

An incident with great ramifications is unsurprisingly getting very little in the way of news coverage, and that is the constitutional crisis that is now occurring in Honduras. And when the media does cover the crisis they disparagingly label it as a military coup, immediately bringing up images of Central America's violent and unstable past. But this incident has very little in common with these past coups. Instead of a military leader usurping the power of the president to accumulate more power for himself, in this case all three branches of government, along with the military, acted to depose a president who was actively looking to rewrite Honduras' constitution. Law was upheld, and a criminal grab for more power was averted.

President Manuel Zelaya had attempted to set the stage for the writing of a new constitution in order to prepare for his own future reelection, which was not allowed under the current constitution. Zelaya, who models himself after Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, attempted to hold a referendum that would seek to erase this ban on reelection.

Apparently, under Honduras law, a 2/3rds majority is needed in congress in order to amend the constitution, but certain articles are entrenched and unable to be amended. One of those articles that can't under any case be amended is the subject of presidential succession. And it further states that any president who tries to amend the law on term limits must step down from his or her position.

Now this is where the "coup" comes in. President of Congress Roberto Micheletti warned Zelaya that his move to rewrite the constitution was illegal. That's from the legislative branch. Zelaya's own attorney general warned Zelaya that he would face criminal charges if he continued to pursue the referendum. That's from the executive branch. And the Supreme Court put the final nail in the coffin when they declared that the referendum proposed would be unconstitutional. And there you have it from the judicial branch.

If there was any failure of the constitution, it was because it lacked a clear cut way to impeach Zelaya and remove him from power. Impeachment proceedings were started, but lacked any clear direction and went absolutely nowhere.

Here's where the military finally comes in. The armed forces were ordered to storm the presidential mansion, detain President Zelaya, and throw him on a plane to Costa Rica so he could live in exile. Roberto Micheletti became interim president until new elections could be held, at which time he would step down and let democracy resume.

Here's the part that gets me. Just about every nation in the world condemned the "coup" including the United States. The United Nations adopted a resolution calling for Zelaya's reinstatement. Zelaya spent the last few months in Washington trying to get Obama and Hillary Clinton to impose sanctions on Honduras, which they did. What a great thing for Zelaya to do: impose sanctions on his own people. He tried to defy the exile by returning to his country with a few heads of state from foreign nations who support his rule, but was denied access to airspace. And now, finally, after all of that, he has traveled back by land and surprised everybody by showing up in the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa.

My question to everybody, is this. Why has basically every nation condemned the exile of Zelaya? In this case, the constitution of Honduras was upheld. All three branches of government acted to protect the constitution from an unlawful rewriting. If anything, the only thing the constitution lacks is a clear cut way to impeach the president, which could easily be amended by a lawful majority. The military acted, in this case, only as an arm of the congress and an extension of the constitution, to defend the law of the people and protect them from an action that would restrain their liberty. So why has everyone from Obama to Putin, from Chavez to Ahmadinejad, moved to try and have Zelaya reinstated?

Quick answer. Because they are all scared of it happening to them. When a leader abuses a country's constitution he has everything to fear, and each of those above leaders knows what it is like to abuse the law set down by the people. (In the case of Ahmadinejad, he's seen plenty of people take to the streets in protest of his reelection.)

If Micheletti is successful in keeping Zelaya from power, then it only proves to the world that a constitution can work and that not one head of state can escape trying to subvert it. I wish all of America can take Honduras' example to heart. Perhaps one day, we will all be lucky, and Obama will wake up in the night, get thrown on a plane and sent back to Kenya, far far away from the America that he abused. And you know what? We should throw in a certain Bush so Obama can at least have a traveling buddy.

Read the rest of the article HERE.

Honduras Curfew As Zelaya Returns

Mr Zelaya has taken refuge in Brazil's embassy in Tegucigalpa. Many of his supporters later gathered outside.

He said he had crossed mountains and rivers to return to the capital, where he said he was seeking dialogue.

In a televised address, interim leader Roberto Micheletti demanded that Brazil hand over Mr Zelaya to stand trial.

Mr Micheletti said Brazil would be held responsible for any violence.

"A call to the government of Brazil: respect the judicial order against Mr Zelaya and turn him into Honduran authorities," he said....

Paterson To Run For Governor Despite Obama's Protests

2009-09-21T13:19:00.003-04:00

Just who does Obama think he is that he can dictate to a governor whether or not he can run for reelection? That is clear violation of his powers as president. A hundred years ago, any governor that was dictated to by a president would have told that president to shove it where the sun doesn't shine and to mind his own business. Despite his failings, I am glad that Paterson refused to give in to White House pressure. Let the voters decide whether he is due another term, not the White House.

Read the article HERE.

New York Governor Paterson Says He's Still Running

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Embattled New York Governor David Paterson said on Sunday he was still running for office, in the face of reports that President Barack Obama had asked him to withdraw from the 2010 race for fear that he cannot regroup from a series of political setbacks....

Debtor's Revolt

2009-09-17T21:16:00.003-04:00

This is an interesting video of a really pissed off woman who has legitimate gripes against the credit card industry, in this case focused on Bank of America. Ann is not alone in this. People with good credit have watched their interest rates skyrocket. I was told that 25% is now the new norm for people around this country who are in the same position as Ann. And it has nothing to do with riskier debtors accruing higher interest rates. The banks are trying to make up money that they lost already from increasing default rates, and to do that they are jacking up everyone else's rates to try and compensate for the lost revenue. But the only thing that they are accomplishing here is to push more and more people into the risk of default, thereby causing this whole thing to snowball. I applaud Ann in this video. All the major corporations have received taxpayer bailouts. In the environment that this government wants to operate - a Bailout Nation - let Ann and others default. It will only put the banks into that much more trouble. But at least they don't have to worry. Obama, Geithner and Bernanke will come riding in on their white horses with bags of taxpayer money and money created out of thin air to make sure that these banks retain some semblance of solvency. And in this environment, it is the only way that Ann and others like her are going to get the government to bail them out.

I had a battle with Citibank the other day. I had ordered something through Paypal, and accidentally had them debit my bank account rather than charge it on my credit card the way I wanted to. My bank account was low on funds. In the past this hasn't been a problem since Citibank would just dip into my $2000 line of credit that I had with them, their Checking Plus account. I would just pay the interest for using their money, and that was that. But when it happened this time, I was charged an overdraft fee of $10 alongside the interest rate for the credit. This was wholly new, so I decided to investigate, and since I was a customer for a long time and this infraction rarely occurred in the past, I thought that they might reverse the charge. Little did I know that I was going into a heated battle. I told them that I was never notified of the change in their terms, and they told me I was. I told them that little tiny words typed on a tiny slip of paper attached to my statement isn't really notifying me of change. They told me it was. I demanded to speak to a supervisor. The supervisor said the same thing. I demanded to speak to CEO Vikram Pandit. He told me that Mr. Pandit was unavailable. I instructed the man that Citigroup was now a ward of the U.S. government, that their speculation in Mortgage-Backed Securities hadn't paid off and that he and others like him deserved to burn in oblivion along with the rest of Citigroup for ineffectively managing their money. Instead it was my money going to bail them out and now they were getting my money again for a new overdraft fee that they never warned me about. I cursed and railed and wouldn't let the man hang up with me. This went on for a half hour. Finally he hung up with me. So I called and did it all again. Well, I didn't get my measly $10 back. But I got a lot of aggression out and felt better. In the end maybe those people I spoke with went home with a nasty twitch in their left eye from the added stress that I gave them. If so, it was a victory for me! Well, I closed my account with Citigroup and vowed not to ever let any of the bailed out banks get one more dime from me again. Instead I opened up an account with my local branch, Northfield Bank. And in the mean time I am in the process of paying off my Chase credit card and when that is done, I wont ever use it again.

Ann by herself can never hurt such international banks. But the result is ultimately satisfying. To draw a line in the sand and vow never to give one more dime to such a crooked institution, nay, a whole sector of finance, is in itself a worth while reward after being dicked around. And hey, maybe in the end Ann and others like her will have the last laugh.

Put Pressure On The Senate: S. 604

2009-09-16T20:11:00.005-04:00

HR. 1207, the House move to audit the Federal Reserve is likely to pass with the overwhelming support that exists in the lower halls of Congress. But still providing a roadblock is the elitist upper chamber, where the Senate version S. 604, The Federal Reserve Sunshine Act, is likely to be defeated. As of now there are 25 cosponsors to the bill, along with the author, Bernie Sanders, who puts the total at 26.

If your Senator isn't on this list, it means that he or she doesn't care to find out what the Federal Reserve has done with the trillions of YOUR dollars that it dispersed throughout the banking system and around the world. We just want some transparency. Let the truth be known.

Contact your Senator now!

Sponsor: Sen. Bernard Sanders [I-VT]

Cosponsors:

John Barrasso [R-WY]

Robert Bennett [R-UT]

Samuel Brownback [R-KS]

Richard Burr [R-NC]

Benjamin Cardin [D-MD]

Saxby Chambliss [R-GA]

Russell Feingold [D-WI]

Lindsey Graham [R-SC]

Charles Grassley [R-IA]

Blanche Lincoln [D-AR]

John McCain [R-AZ]

Lisa Murkowski [R-AK]

James Risch [R-ID]

David Vitter [R-LA]

Jim Webb [D-VA]

Ron Paul On Morning Joe

2009-09-16T20:07:00.001-04:00

Et tu, Japan?

2009-09-16T18:12:00.003-04:00

Looks like Japan is joining the likes of Russia and China in finding ways to exclude the U.S. Dollar from certain transactions. And like China, they are learning the art of speaking out of both sides of their mouth. Which I guess is only a slight different method than our own government where we have evolved to speak out of our ass.

Read the article HERE.

Japan Hatoyama: Asian community wont exclude dollar.

Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said on Wednesday his vision for an Asian community didn't mean he wanted to diminish the role of the dollar or exclude the influence of the United States from the region.

Hatoyama's comments may do little to ease market jitters about Japan's new government and its stance on the dollar after remarks from newly appointed Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii caused the yen to jump to a seven-month high against the greenback....

Bloomberg To Choke On A Pretzel If Prayers Are Answered.

2009-09-16T17:00:00.005-04:00

Bloomberg has got to go. Dear Lord, I pray that you make Bloomberg choke on a pretzel. Why do I pray that the salty breaded treat gets lodged in the little midget's esophagus, you may ask? Because super-taxation, scandal-laden, nanny-state enforcer Michael Bloomberg is about to embark on another crusade against smoking, and this one will be enforced in outdoor areas. No smoking in parks. No smoking on beaches. Why? Because of the children. Think of the innocent children! They shouldn't be exposed to such awful and terrible behavior.

It's no wonder why our children are such pussies as they grow up. What happened to mothers and fathers being the final authority about what a child is or is not exposed to? Who ever mandated the power for government to control the stimuli that our children encounter as they grow? It's bullshit. BULLSHIT! It is not a health issue. There is absolutely no evidence that second-hand smoke harms. And if you really want to deter children from smoking, having some brown toothed smoker hacking phlegm all over Union Square would be the first impetus that may stop a child from picking up a cigarette.

Prohibition didn't work for alcohol, and it is not going to work for tobacco products either. This is the danger that Bloomberg poses to civil liberties. Just because his personal preference is not to smoke, it doesn't mean that he gets to foster his beliefs and biases onto the people of New York. It is wrong and unconstitutional, and it obviates the idea of personal responsibility. Bloomberg must go!

Now, who wants to dress up as a Disney character and join me for a smoke outside of City Hall?

Read the article HERE.

New York City officials want to ban smoking in cities parks

NEW YORK -- From Coney Island to Central Park, banning smoking at New York City's famous parks and beaches is the next goal of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's anti-tobacco crusade....

Jim Rogers On Future Currency Crisis

2009-09-16T16:27:00.002-04:00

Treasury Demand Being Faked?

2009-09-15T16:34:00.003-04:00

Leave it to the government to invent a whole new way of tallying demand for our debt when the old way may show that there is no demand. Although unconfirmed, the Treasury may be skewing numbers to show that there is more foreign demand for U.S. debt than is actually there. I guess if the truth came out that our credit-worthiness was in doubt, we could kiss our government's trillion dollar spending programs goodbye. Rates would catapult higher and we wouldn't even be able to afford interest payments. They may be able to skew numbers on one side, but on the opposite side of the world our creditors in the form of China and Russia have made it very clear and explicit that they do not trust the U.S. Dollar to act as the world's reserve currency. Our record levels of debt scares them silly, and rightly so.

Read the article HERE.

U.S. Treasury auction changes may overstate indirect bid

NEW YORK, June 24 (Reuters) - Recent changes to the way the U.S. Treasury tallies demand at its bond auctions may be artificially inflating "indirect bids," a category used by investors as a loose proxy for foreign demand....

Dylan Ratigan Echoes Jefferson

2009-09-14T23:01:00.004-04:00

Dylan Ratigan is right about everything that he says in this article. Our government doesn't function anymore, at least at the behest of the American citizen. It functions as an extension of lobbyist power, an arm of Too-Big-To-Fail corporations that feed off the hard-earned money of the common American. Obama has appointed many of the people who are responsible for this mess into prominent positions in his administration. When lobbyists and bankers and corporate execs are placed in control of the country, you better believe that they don't have the best interests for the country as a whole. They are concerned only about their own interests. Remember that when Obama gets up at the podium next time to tell the people that all the opposition that he has received against his health care reform are guided by special interests. He should take a look in the mirror and see who is standing behind HIM. If he is so concerned about special interests working against the government then maybe he should ax Timothy Geithner and Larry Summers, and take a good look at the severe nepotism that Hank Paulson brought to the previous administration.

I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.

-Thomas Jefferson

Read the Dylan Ratigan article HERE.

Americans Have Been Taken Hostage

The American people have been taken hostage to a broken system.

It is a system that remains in place to this day.

A system where bank lobbyists have been spending in record numbers to make sure it stays that way....

To Poke a Sleeping Giant Creditor

2009-09-14T22:37:00.005-04:00

This was definitely not the smartest move of the Obama administration. With all the threats - both veiled and unveiled - coming from China that they are seeking to diversify their reserves away from those held in U.S. Dollars, I just don't see what the purpose of these increased tire tariffs are going to serve but to antagonize someone that should not be antagonized. Trade protectionism was one of the prime events that deepened the Great Depression, and if the U.S. is looking to start a trade war with China, then we should not get mad when they decide that they aren't going to supply us with their surplus money to finance our consumer addiction. Obama should tread very carefully here. It's not wise to bite the hand that feeds.

Read the article HERE.

U.S. tire duties fuel trade tension with China

A U.S. decision to impose special duties on Chinese tires could trigger a host of trade complaints against Chinese products and a backlash from Beijing, creating tensions as Western nations seek China's support at a G20 meeting....

Lessons In Cowardice

2009-09-11T17:15:00.004-04:00

When we remember September 11th we focus on the unnecessary loss of life. We celebrate the bravery of our Fire Department for doing the unthinkable and running into collapsing megaliths to save lives. Heroism reigned that day in spite of the devastating loss.

But despite the bravery, there is another aspect that we should place our focus on, and it is the resulting cowardice of our elected officials and the people of the United States for giving them a blank check to enact whatever laws they wished in order to "protect" us from future attacks. And in the end it is the people's fault for allowing this to happen. It's is the people's base cowardice. We slobbered all over ourselves and believed that more stringent laws were passed to protect ourselves. Out of September 11th the Patriot Act was passed, warrant-less wire-tapping, the Iraq War, torture, Real ID, suspension of Habeas Corpus. Our cowardice let this happen!

When you remember this day, celebrate the firefighters and mourn the dead. But never forget that so much more was lost and can be lost as a direct action of our own gutless poltroonery. Never give up your liberty!

Most civilization is based on cowardice. It's so easy to civilize based on cowardice. You water down the standards which would lead to bravery. You restrain the will. You regulate the appetites. You fence in the horizons. You make a law for every movement. You deny the existence of chaos. You teach even the children to breathe slowly. You tame.
-The God Emperor of Dune.

Dead Pumpkin Children- Our Future?

2009-09-10T00:08:00.013-04:00

A long time ago, during a time period far far away, the British Pound was the world's reserve currency. Then a nasty war occurred that plunged the world into conflict. It was called such epic names as the Great War and the War To End All Wars. It devastated much of Europe and severely weakened Britain's standing in the world. Britain, in order to finance this war was forced to remove itself off the gold standard so that they could freely print money.

On the other side of the world in a magical land called America, filled with fat little pumpkin children and lollipop trees, President Thomas Woodrow Wilson and Treasury Secretary William Gibbs McAdoo were watching events unfold and saw the perilous cliff that the British Pound had placed itself. With just a little positioning, Wilson and his secretary thought, they could offer up the U.S. Dollar as a competing currency for the world's reserves. So, despite the great difficulty required, McAdoo did everything that was possible to keep the American dollar pegged to gold, to make it look appetizing to every other country out there. When the war ended, Britain attempted to take back their status as reserve currency of the world. They put themselves back on the gold standard but at the pre-war price which didn't account for all the monetary inflation that they had caused. This severely hampered their economy and weakened them even further. Wilson and McAdoo congratulated themselves on a job well-done. They had set the U.S. Dollar on a pedestal over every other currency in the world. And although not quite dominant over the Pound yet, they had set the events in motion that would lead to Bretton Woods and U.S. Dollar hegemony.

Now for the scary part of this fairy tale, for not all remained hunky-dory in the magical land of America. For in this magical land of lollipop trees and pumpkin children, a monster was born called the Federal Reserve, and it was in fact President Wilson's own son, spawned in the Demonic Halls of Compromise. This child would eventually become so powerful that no one could control it. It consumed and consumed, devouring toxic assets and bad debt left and right, using the great U.S. Dollar as toilet paper to wipe off its own excretions and effluent. When it ran out of toilet paper it just printed more and more until all the faulty loans had been consumed. But alas, there was now too many dollars in the world, and the other countries of the world looked upon it with scorn. They saw their own dollar reserves and grew skeptical about owning toilet paper as currency and began to seek an alternative to their wealth. Gold was rediscovered. Wads of excess toilet paper were used to buy new reserves of the shiny precious metal, and this incited a wave of exuberance where no one could be duped into holding the dollar any longer.

The magical land of America watched in horror as the dollars came flooding back home, no longer wanted by the world. The lollipop trees crumbled and all the fat little pumpkin children died, suffocated by the green sea of currency that blanketed the land. An evil night befell the kingdom and all that could be heard in the distance was the sound of the monster's flatulence as it continued it's spree of defecation.

Read the real story HERE.

China Raises the Money-Printing Alarm

At a conference in Lake Como, Italy, a leading Chinese economic spokesman—Cheng Siwei—criticized Ben Bernanke’s loose monetary policy. “If they keep printing money to buy bonds it will lead to inflation,” said Cheng, “and after a year or two the dollar will fall hard.” Cheng went on to say that China was diversifying its roughly $700 billion of U.S. foreign-exchange reserves into gold. “Gold is definitely an alternative, but when we buy, the price goes up,” he said. “We have to do it carefully so as not to stimulate the market.”

Poor Leadership Will Get You Nowhere

2009-09-09T22:58:00.007-04:00

There is one piece of the anatomy that is necessary for a person to have in order to succeed in the position of Commander-in-Chief, and that is a body part that President Obama is severely lacking. That piece of anatomy is a backbone, and everything that Obama has done and said up to this point shows that he doesn't have the spine to be President of the United States.

Am I being too harsh with my words? Maybe. But I am not trying to be malicious here. Although I oppose most of his policies because of a difference in ideologies, I'm also not comfortable with the highest position in this country being subverted by the human-equivalent of a jellyfish. There I go again. It's not my goal to be mean. I'm just trying to shine some light on one of the President's chief failures. But it's not mean if it's the truth, right?

Let's tackle this from another direction. If I was one of President Obama's advisers I would sit him down for a pep talk, and I would outline how he acted and reacted to certain key events that occurred during these past few months that would have a serious impact on how he guides policy in the future. The decisions that he has made so far will only weaken a weak leader even further.

1) Health care reform.

Mr. Obama, you are a wonderful speaker, and when you talk about the deficiencies of the health insurers and how a government option is going to help uninsured Americans and lower the price for health care, you make me believe it. Your words can seduce and inspire, but only for the few minutes it takes for rationality and the facts to come flying back into my head. And that's the problem with your words, Mr. Obama. They are short on facts. It's not that I believe that you are lying to me and the rest of the American people. It's just that you speak in romantic generalities and that goes to soothe the fears of Americans for a only a short period of time. Since this debate has raged, you have refused to DEFINE your agenda, allowing critics to make both just and unjust claims against your very own ideas. And it's easy to do when you don't have concrete ideas to unveil to the public. The public becomes scared that things can change for the worse and when you go to reassure them, you speak in those romantic generalities again. It's not enough. What's worse, you backtracked on the very heart of your reform, putting the public option on the chopping block when criticism got too tough on you. And then you put it back on the table when you found that little bone in your back that wants to be a spine one day. Or was that just Pelosi's spine borrowed for the occasion as you came under fire from your own party. It seems to me and the rest of the people that not even YOU have a clear idea how you want health care reform to unfold, and that is what is scaring people the most. Stop being a jellyfish and outline in a clear method that everyone can read what you expect from Congress. Then there can't be any UNJUST criticism of your plan if it is all laid out. There can only be JUST criticism and items that you can refute and debate about.

2) Van Jones.

Mr. Obama, your opponents on the other side of the aisle are going to look into every person's record that you have in your employ, and when they find a crack that they can exploit, they are going to try to widen it into a chasm. Take a lesson from our last president. Bush was dumb as a doorknob, but at least he had a spine in the crooked form of Dick Cheney. No one was booted from that administration without a great fight. Huge injustices were routinely ignored in the face of great outrage and media coverage, and still Bush would not bend on many issues. The man sucked as a president but at least he had goals that were never marginalized by Democratic attacks or public outcries. Mr. Obama, you let one minor functionary go in the form of Van Jones, and it's not going to stop there. He was a kook, sure. But now you've given your opponents a victory and they are going to keep the ball rolling when it comes to scrutinizing those who work for you. Bush would have barely commented, and definitely would not have relented so easy. Get ready for the next round of attacks. If you don't, you are going to watch your administration fall apart one by one.

3) Speech to Students.

This was by far the stupidest issue for both Republicans and Democrats. Mr. Obama, you were set to tell students to work hard and do well for themselves, that by excelling they would be doing their country good. But you let attacks by the opposition get to you again. You let Republicans guide your actions, and maneuvered you into changing your speech and releasing it early to stop any criticism. Such a tiny issue in the whole scheme of things, and you let the Republicans tell you what to do. If you can't even exercise control over what you are going to tell school children, then how are you going to solve such problems as health care, the economy, and foreign policy. If you let yourself be browbeat over such trivialities, then there is no way in hell that you are going to control the conversation on much larger and broader issues that will confront the people of this nation.

Mr. President, please stick up for yourself. It has gotten very embarrassing to see. Nine months and you are caving in left and right. You have no clear cut agenda of your own, no original thinking and no hard-set ideas. All you have are those flowery words that make us swoon, but will not serve to make life for American's any easier in the end. If events keep up this way, you will definitely be a one-term president because you will have let the opposition guide your policy into a ditch. When I criticize your actions, I don't want to feel guilty in the end because I didn't pick on someone my own size. I mean, I am just a tiny blogger after all. I shouldn't feel that way when I talk harshly about the most powerful person in the world.

Now stand straight and tall, puff that chest out and stop bending in the wind. I mean, what are you afraid of? It's just Congress, after all.

Happy Birthday, Paul Volcker!

2009-09-04T02:49:00.009-04:00

I would like to wish former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Adolph Volcker a heartfelt happy birthday. He will turn 82 on Sept. 5 and will have lived from one Great Depression to the next. He was the first and the last truly independent Fed chief, being more devoted to his ideas of monetary policy than to the White House.

Appointed to this position in 1979 by President Carter, Volcker immediately got to work fighting the vicious stagflation of the last decade. Switching the economic philosophy of the Federal Reserve from Keynesian to Monetarism required that he begin to focus solely on the money supply. Unfortunately for Carter, this meant that he was going to have to start raising rates to make money tighter and keep the money aggregates stable, which typically isn't a policy that will get a president reelected when the economy starts to sour. Despite limited protests by Carter, Volcker started his tightening and put the president on the unemployment line with millions of other Americans.

Reagan came to power and promised the American people that good times were ahead of us, and that he would usher in that new age of prosperity. He offered the prospect of shrinking deficits coupled with tax cuts to bring his plan to culmination. When Reagan's "shrinking" deficit turned out to be anything but small, the president's faulty budget plan along with his tax cuts created an inflationary fiscal policy that butted heads with Volcker's recessionary monetary policy. Volcker stood the course, despite a massive outcry from Washington and a threat to limit Fed power if he didn't lighten up on interest rates. In fact, he tightened monetary policy even further in the depths of the 81-82 recession to counteract Reagan's inflationary policies, driving rates north of 20%.

The result was an economic downturn, the harshest we had seen since the Great Depression, with large scale unemployment and numerous bankruptcies. Volcker forcefully drove the U.S. into this downturn, defying two presidents and all of Congress, just to stay true to his goal of ending the run-away inflation of the past decade. He truly was the most powerful person in the world.

Now I don't want to romanticize Paul Volcker, here. No unelected official should have that much power: the power to end presidencies and send Congress into a panic, to turn economies rightside-up and upside-down. But the Federal Reserve was started in 1913 to be independent of the White House, and although it maintained that it was in fact independent, in reality it has always been an extension of the executive branch which will ALWAYS fight for easy money and inflation. Credit must be given to Paul Volcker for being the first and last chairman to actually DO HIS JOB in the near century that the Fed has been in existence, the first and last chairman to actually regulate the currency without being influenced by politics in Washington.

That said, Mr. Volcker, I wish you a happy birthday, and I also express the hope that the power you once wielded will be diminished and eventually destroyed, starting with H.R. 1207 and the move to audit the Fed.

Car For Idiots

2009-09-04T00:03:00.005-04:00

Now, I don't know much about cars. I'll gladly admit my ignorance here. But as someone who is recently in the market for a car (my Mercury Sable has broken down for the 133rd time), I dont think I'll be waiting for the Chevy Volt to come out before I go shopping. Why? Well I don't know many people who would be willing to pay the whopping $40,000 for the car when it comes out, nor do I know many people who may be able to afford it. Sure the government may subsidize it or give the buyers some tax credits, but really, is this the best that GM has to offer? Is this the future of the company that will save it from government control? In the end it will just be a novelty car or a status symbol.

"Look how much I care for the environment, honey. I just put us in debt for the rest of our lives."

"That's alright, schnookums. It's not like we can afford the ARM on our house either, but we did it anyway."

I'm all about finding ways around oil. I think it is very important to ween ourselves off of Mideast oil and just let the region sink into conflict and destroy itself without any American participation. But are electric cars really the way to go? As a renter, I wouldn't know where to plug the darned thing in at night. That sure is going to be a long extension cord leading to my bathroom outlet. And somehow I doubt that our aging grid will be able to handle an influx of electric cars on the street when it can't even handle my air-conditioner.

I think at some point, electric cars could be a swell option. Once we can make one that is cheap enough for average joes to buy. But in the mean time why can't we look into natural gas and liquid coal technology? Those are two resources that the U.S. has an abundance of and would be a nice stepping stone before we made the unbelievable jump to mowing our lawns and putting it in the fuel tank.

So GM, I would like to echo the Audi CEO's sentiments (even though he later retracted it). I'm not going to buy your "Car For Idiots." I'm going to look into a nice little Honda Fit instead, avoid the exorbitant premium and buy a car that is actually fuel efficient. Good luck, GM. You're gonna need it.

Read the article HERE.

Audi President Elaborates on Criticism of Volt

“No one is going to pay a $15,000 premium for a car that competes with a Corolla. So there are not enough idiots who will buy it.”

Those were the words of Johan de Nysschen, president of Audi of America, who recently spoke (quite candidly) to Lawrence Ulrich in MSN Autos about the Chevrolet Volt...

How To Lose Your Sovereignty

2009-09-03T01:00:00.005-04:00

As people may have heard, Iceland is bearing the brunt of the global depression. Unfortunately for the Icelandic people, a population of only 320,000, their banking sector which was nine times the value of their GDP, had fallen into the same easy credit policies as the rest of the western world. When the threat of insolvency loomed, the central bank couldn't bail them out because of how small their bank is compared to the mountain of bad debt acquired by the big three Icelandic financial institutions. To make a long story short, after a serious devaluation of their currency, a plunge in the stock market, and the acquiring of a series of loans from the IMF, Russia, Norway, Sweden, and even the Faroe Islands (that has to be emasculating), we arrive at the point where Iceland is willing to join the European Union and adopt the euro as their currency. Many fear that this is the beginning of their loss of sovereignty, and rightly so. It's the easy way out. Rather than taking their licks for their own financial excesses, they are willing to sell their independence for a quick end to their problems.

Iceland pressed to join euro

By Andrew Ward in Stuttgart

Published: September 3 2009 02:00 | Last updated: September 3 2009 02:00

Joining the euro offers the only “durable solution” to Iceland’s economic problems but the country’s bid to enter the European Union would be a complicated process, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development...

Read the article HERE.

Outhouse

2009-09-03T00:31:00.002-04:00

Count Me In The Failure Caucus

2009-09-02T13:56:00.002-04:00

Here's an article from Slate that lists a bunch of people from economists to politicians who believe the market is going to take another tumble and dubs them the Failure Caucus. Well count me in. There is no way that this economy is fixed despite what the Federal Reserve, the Treasury and the CNBC pundits say. If banks are still in jeopardy and housing has yet to bottom then a recovery CAN NOT happen.

Failure Caucus

Who's rooting for the economy to tank again? These guys.

Most Americans have a lot riding on the success of the government's efforts to pull the U.S. economy out of its ditch: individual investors, bankers, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, Democratic politicians, and taxpayers. A somewhat smaller group has a lot riding on the failure of these efforts....

Read the article HERE.

FDIC in Trouble

2009-09-02T13:45:00.004-04:00

Just add another government agency that just doesn't have the ability to do its job. I know most people in America breathed a sigh of relief when they upped the bank deposit insurance up to $250,000 from $100,000, (I wish I had that much to insure lol) but now that's going to have to be covered by the tax payer. The numbers are amazing. $4.5 trillion in bank deposits to insure and the FDIC only has $10.4 billion in its piggy bank. The 416 troubled banks are worth $300 billion in deposits and the FDIC can't even cover that.

Be careful where you keep your money. Just because it is insured by the government doesn't mean that you will get it back, at least in a timely fashion.

The Coming Deposit Insurance Bailout
Another lesson that federal guarantees aren't free.

Americans are about to re-learn that bank deposit insurance isn't free, even as Washington is doing its best to delay the coming bailout. The banking system and the federal fisc would both be better off in the long run if the political class owned up to the reality....

Read the article HERE.

David Walker Is One Smart Man

2009-08-27T00:34:00.004-04:00

Ok. So I am not much of a Larry Kudlow fan. But for once he has a conversation (instead of a shouting match) with two very smart fellas, one of them being David Walker. Mr. Walker was the the U.S. Comptroller General, basically the chief accountant, from 1998 to 2008 and was also one of the starring "characters" in the documentary I.O.U.S.A. which focused on the extreme budgetary problems our nation is facing. Here he talks about a further decline in the dollar over the next few years and comments on Obama's health care reform, the key point being that you can't reduce health care costs by expanding coverage.

Lies... All LIES!

2009-08-26T21:07:00.011-04:00

Here is Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's interview, courtesy of the WSJ and the Digg community. Scroll down to see the video.

Lie Number 1:

He starts with a commentary on the Federal Reserve Transparency Act and says that "we need to keep politics away from monetary policy," and mentions that we had two centuries of repeated crisis due to the fact that the U.S. had no central bank until 1913. First of all we did have two central banks, each one destroyed by Congress by letting their charter expire without renewing it. Second of all, Geithner acts like after 1913 we have no disasters due to the Federal Reserve coming to save the day. How about the Great Depression, which arrived due to the Fed's inflationary policy of easy credit and an increasing money supply in the 1920's, creating a huge bubble that eventually popped in the crash of '29? And then too late, they decide to cut the money supply, deepening the deflationary spiral already gripping the economy. They do so again in 1936, sending us dipping into another recessionary period until the war breaks out and we ship all our unemployed overseas. How about the inflationary monetary policy that they pursued in the 60's and 70's that led to the coining of a new term: stagflation? The Federal Reserve was very complicit in easing credit to try to cover up a sour economy just to get Nixon elected for a second term. You can thank Chairman Arthur Burns for that weakness. And you can thank Alan Greenspan for the creating the housing bubble that just recently burst in 2006 by lowering rates down to 1%. Now we can watch Helicopter Ben pursue a policy of printing free money and raining dollar bills from the skies. Crisis hasn't stopped because of a Federal Reserve. They have solved nothing, but contributed greatly to every mess in the past century!

Lie 2: The Federal Reserve is independent and you don't want to let monetary policy become political.

Truth is there is a lot of politics at the Federal Reserve, and most of it has to do with collusion with the executive branch. Mariner Eccles was chairman during the Great Depression and WWII and was basically FDR's right hand man. But when he tried to break away from White House policy after the war and attempted to raise interest rates despite warnings from the White House, he was booted from his position in 1948. In 1951 Chairman William McChesney Martin had to negotiate for higher rates with the Treasury Department and only came to a compromise where rates could be pushed up slightly, but not high enough to stop inflation. Arthur Burns colluded with Nixon on the issue of interest rates. And recently Ben Bernanke had to pat himself on the back in Jackson Hole to campaign for his reappointment by Obama.

Lie 3: The loose monetary policy of the early 2000's responsible for the housing bubble was the fault of other countries. Not the U.S.

That is just outright stupid. Every central bank in the world follows closely what the U.S. Federal Reserve is doing and bases policy around U.S. policy. Foreign banks were irrelevant in a U.S. housing market that had gone loony, where prices for homes were rising on a weekly basis due to low interest rates perpetrated by the Federal Reserve.

Lie 4: Goldman Sachs' executives are great statesmen.

I am not even going to dignify a long response to the idea that Goldman Sachs' executives are great public statesmen and servants to some American ideal. I can only bang my head on the desk in front of me. And he says that we should never tolerate people in high government positions who use those positions to benefit private institutions. Isn't that why we are so angry now, Mr. Geithner?

Lie 5: The Obama administration is committed to decreasing the deficit.

The biggest lie of them all. In Geithner's eyes, all the blame falls on the prior administration. Yet he doesn't mention the fact that the stimulus plans, auto maker bailouts, health care reform, cash for clunkers and many, many more spending programs (all Obama's own policies) will only serve to increase our deficit over the course of the next ten years to about 2 trillion dollars or more per year.

In the words of Frau Farbissina:

Lies. All LIES!

Irrationality At Its Best

2009-08-24T03:28:00.003-04:00

Bernanke Tries to Save His Job

2009-08-21T16:15:00.007-04:00

So upon waking this morning to peruse the financial news, I get slapped in the face with this most exaggerated headline on Marketwatch, proclaiming that Bernanke has saved the world.

My immediate response was to snicker, thinking that the headline's boasts were just as inflated as the market in recent months. My second thought was that here is the supposedly "apolitical" Federal Reserve playing politics. It's inevitable and incredibly naive to think that this institution doesn't play around in the realm of politics, and during the Fed's recent meeting in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, the spotlight is on and Bernanke now has to say some wonderful things for the camera, not so he can save the world, but so he can save his own job.

You see, Bernanke's reappointment is coming up soon, and Obama may decide to pick someone else for the role of Fed chairman, perhaps someone who is willing to craft monetary policy that is in line with the White House's own inflationary fiscal policy. Larry Summers, Obama's chief economist, is waiting in the wings to snatch up the lucrative job. And so, Bernanke has to audition for his position, exclaiming all the virtues he has caused to arise in a time of deep recession.

So Bernanke proceeded to grandstand, and spoke about how the Federal Reserve under his leadership acted so wonderfully to mop up the chaos in the banking sector that exploded last September and October with the failure of Lehman Brothers, AIG, Wachovia, and WaMu. And yet he fails to mention even once, what the leading failure was that led us to this point in time, that put our financial sector on the brink of destruction. The Federal Reserve takes full on blame for inflating the housing bubble, that when popped, caused the economy to go into the deepest economic downturn since the Great Depression. Sure there are other factors that have contributed: Repealing Glass-Steagall, failure to enforce regulation upon credit derivatives, and free loans for every deadbeat in America. But by and large, the Federal Reserve's move to slice interest rates down to 1% during the last recession, caused the housing bubble in the first place.

Yes, Bernanke wasn't responsible for that. It was under Alan Greenspan's tenure that such dramatic bubble-making was pursued. But I guess it would be bad form for Bernanke to criticize Alan Greenspan for lowering rates when Bernanke himself has lowered rates down to 0%. Insinuating Alan Greenspan's guilt would only serve to implicate Bernanke in whatever consequences should follow from his move into quantitative easing. And so Bernanke stays mum on that guilt and continues to pump up the results of a "job well done" and continues to pump up the stock market as well. He exacerbates his lies to the public, telling anyone who will listen that the recession is over. This is purely to protect his job, for how can Obama validate replacing Ben Bernanke when the recession has ended and the Fed under his leadership has sucessfully contained the crisis. Right?

All that remains for Bernanke to do, is to keep his fingers crossed behind his back, and hope that nothing untoward creeps out of the financial or housing sectors in the months to follow. At least until he gets reappointed. Only then can he let the mountain begin to crumble again.

Read Bernanke's speech HERE.

The Problem With Health Insurers

2009-08-21T13:37:00.004-04:00

Here's a great opinion piece on the problems within the health insurance industry. Too much government intervention has led to the corporate and monopolistic form of health care that we have today. The author reminds us, that while conservatives are busy fighting against the Democrats' reform plan, they must not forget that there are major problems with how we do health care today. The system is a far cry from perfect.

Read the article HERE.

Timothy P. Carney: Down with the health insurers

By: Timothy P. Carney

Dear conservatives: Health insurance companies are not your friends. Keep opposing a new government-run insurer, a single-payer plan, and new regulations on the HMOs. But grant that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is correct on this: Insurance companies are villains....

Flag@whitehouse.gov Defeated

2009-08-20T20:55:00.004-04:00

It seems that after a lot of complaints from Republicans and repeated attacks from online blogs, the government has closed down their tip-line which was to be used to report people spreading "disinformation" about Obama's health care reform. I don't know what they were thinking, but a president advocating that people should turn in other citizens for their beliefs on health care, whether ill-informed or not, should never have seemed like a good idea in the first place. I'm just glad it's gone.

Read the article HERE.

Hyperinflation Nation-Our Future?

2009-08-20T01:21:00.003-04:00

Hyperin

Peter Schiff Comments On Warren Buffett

2009-08-20T00:11:00.006-04:00

Warren Buffett's recent op-ed piece (you can read that here), warns of a future where a burgeoning debt stokes a burst of inflation. Yet at the same time, he seems to give credit to the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Treasury whose actions will have caused this inflation in the first place. Warren Buffett, you were so close to putting all the pieces together, yet you unfortunately fell far from the mark.

Peter Schiff, an economist and contender for the Senate against Democrat Christopher Dodd, comments about Warren Buffett's op-ed piece and a host of other topics in this interesting video.

U.S. Dollar To Lose Reserve Status

2009-08-19T17:00:00.004-04:00

The U.S. dollar, one of the greatest symbols of all time, not just to Americans, but to every citizen in the world, is about to undergo a loss of prestige so devastating that it will lose the title of the world's reserve currency. The huge decline in the dollar over the last ten years has been the impetus of a rise in commodities that have pushed oil to a high of $150 and gold to $1000. And now, as our politicians continue their irresponsible spending on stimulus packages, bailouts, and health care reform, and the Federal Reserve continues down the path of quantitative easing, we face a budget that will increasingly become unmanageable and therefore unappetizing to those foreign nations that hold dollars as a reserve. Just as the British pound lost that status in the early 1900's, so can and so will the United States.

Read the article HERE.

Pimco Says Dollar to Weaken as Reserve Status Erodes

Aug. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Pacific Investment Management Co., the world’s biggest manager of bond funds, said the dollar will weaken as the U.S. pumps “massive” amounts of money into the economy....

We've Only Just Begun...White Lace And Promises

2009-08-18T01:58:00.004-04:00

While the CNBC pundits, the Obama administration, and Federal Reserve officials promise us nothing but white lace in our future, this op-ed piece on Seeking Alpha tries to show us that the banking crisis has only just begun...

Read the article HERE.

Coming Soon: Banking Crisis of Historic Proportions

With everyone (well, almost everyone - I am one of the lonely skeptics) convinced that we have stepped back from the "edge of the abyss", the title of this article may be viewed as laughable. When you connect the dots, as I will in this article, you will at least stop laughing, and, maybe, realize that we still have a big problem...

The United States of Weimar

2009-08-17T23:16:00.005-04:00

Here's an educational video on the hyperinflation event that plagued Weimar Germany. Sounds eerily familiar to where we stand today. A gigantic debt bubble that can't be serviced. A ballooning financial bubble. An increase in the money supply created by the Federal Reserve's program of quantitative easing that masks an economy that is driving itself into the ground. Dollars printed. Dollars decreasing in value. Commodities rising.

Protect your money by holding precious metals!

A Party of Hypocrites

2009-08-17T16:17:00.006-04:00

As a libertarian, my philosophy closely follows that of "stay out of my wallet and stay out of my bedroom." Democrats will typically stay out of may bedroom, but just love to reach deep into my wallet. Republicans are the opposite, letting me keep my money, but interfering in the private matters of my bedroom based on their version of morality. Both parties are war hawks (although the Democratic party less so) which is against the libertarian ideals of staying out of other nations' business unless they attack first. Both parties are also big deficit spenders, though the Republican party would have you believe that they value a balanced budget much more than their Democratic rivals.

What is a libertarian to do then? Traditionally, libertarians ally themselves with the Republican party, but I find it very hard to do so. The religious right ruins it for me. Their supposed moral superiority which they try to force on every American is as anti-libertarian as creating a socialized system of health care. And the Bill O'Reillies and Rush Limbaughs of the world do nothing but try to fearmonger their listeners into making them think the way that they think. They push an agenda using hate as the tool to get what they want. In addition, Republican hypocrisy of the past eight years allowed Bush to spend whatever he wanted whenever he wanted, and to cut taxes on top of that, leading to huge budgetary problems which are currently being exacerbated by the current administration. But now, suddenly Republicans are fiscal conservatives again, like the past eight years have never happened.

2009 brought Barack Obama to Washington where already there happened to be a Democratic majority in both Houses of Congress. It seemed that Republicans had been beaten, that the Democrats were going to have a blank slate to do whatever it was they wished when they pursued their liberal agenda. But Obama acted too soon. He decided to push for health care reform without getting his own fiscally conservative blue dogs on the same page. Then he offers to drop the public option which has many liberals like Howard Dean up in arms. So it seems, we are seeing the fracturing of the Democratic party so soon after they received almost absolute power in Washington.

I should rejoice right? The Democrats may have very well sown the seeds of their own destruction. Midterm elections will be coming up soon, and the Republicans may very well steal back some seats. Hallelujah!

No. That's not how I feel. I wish the Republican party had been crushed to oblivion. I wish the Rush Limbaughs and the Bill O'Reillies and the Sara Palins had been chased into the wilderness, never to show their faces again. I wish the Democratic party was able to enforce a huge wave of socialistic change that would sweep over America, nationalizing and subsidizing everything in its wake. I wish the religious right would sprint back to their churches and hide in their basements waiting for a Rapture that would never come, while they prayed for God to strike down the Democrats with their abortion and their homosexuality and indecent ways.

Maybe then, after all that was said and done, with the Republican party in great disarray, would the few truly conservative politicians left come to Washington and pick up the pieces of a shattered party and bring it back to its roots. Starting small, they would be able to start amassing a true following of individuals, create a new platform based on fiscal conservatism, smaller government, individual rights, and less intervention over seas. Out of the ashes, something new and fresh can be born.

But as it stands now, we still have the status quo. We have the Republican party just as it was before the Democrats came into power, a party of hypocrites. And while I disagree mightily with everything that Obama has pursued, there is a small piece of me deep inside that wishes him great success in his agenda. As odd as it sounds, only Obama can recreate the Republican party into something new and meaningful, and he can only do that by being successful. If Obama is not sucessful, he will only revitalize a Grand Old Party of Hypocrites.

Here Comes our "Compromise"

2009-08-16T13:40:00.004-04:00

Coming to Americans soon: Your water-down money pit of a health care bill. Now reports are saying that Obama is willing to drop the public option of the health care reform legislation in order to bring more Republicans on board. Democrats can claim victory for trying to fix the problem of unaffordable health care. Republicans can declare victory for stopping the administration from putting through a public option. Both sides can obsolve themselves of wrong-doing when this legislation fails to do a damn thing but cost taxpayers money. Republicans can say that this is the Democrats fault for pushing through with a faulty health plan. Democrats can say this is the Republicans fault for denying the government a bigger role in regulating prices. Everyone in Washington wins. Everyone in America loses. The same old song and dance of American politics in the end.

Never compromise. Not even in the face of Armageddon- Rorschach from the Watchmen Movie

Read the article HERE.

White House appears ready to drop 'public option'

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama's administration signaled on Sunday it is ready to abandon the idea of giving Americans the option of government-run health insurance as part of his ambitious health care proposal....

Nixon "Temporarily" Closes Gold Window

2009-08-16T12:28:00.006-04:00

Yesterday, August 15, was the anniversary of the closing of the gold window by President Nixon. It was the end of the commodity-backed money system that attempted to keep politicians honest about how much of a government spending policy they could pursue. From thenceforth, we would be able to print our money without the constraints of the gold standard. The war in Indochina and the domestic changes of the Great Society created by LBJ had increased the deficit to record amounts. That, coupled with irresponsible monetary policy by the Federal Reserve led to a bout of huge inflation that would engulf the rest of the 1970's, even while unemployment remained high. Arthur Burns was the Fed chairman at this time, appointed by Nixon in 1970 and then threatened by Nixon in 1971 to keep monetary policy relaxed during his reelection campaign. This would temporarily decrease unemployment and generate a false prosperity that would help to land Nixon in the White House for a second term. Both LBJ and Nixon are representatives of the type of politicians that we have with us today. They will do the irresponsible thing for our future, to grant them reelection today. Remember them when you look at our current politicians.

In this video, we see Nixon's faulty reasoning for his "temporary" closing of the gold window. With the increased fiscal irresponsibility of the Kennedy-LBJ idea of lower taxes in addition to higher government spending, we amounted huge deficits. Those large deficits coupled with Nixon's declaration that he was now a "Keynesian" in favor of deficit spending, only added to the budgetary problems of the United States. This bad budget led to a direct pressure on the value of the dollar. As the dollar plummeted, nations abroad, who looked for the stability of the dollar as an international unit of trade, began to worry. If they now converted their devalued dollars to gold, they could quickly exhaust the United States' supply of gold. Nixon blames speculators, when it was the United States' own fault that the dollar was failing. It seems to be the age-old excuse. Whenever you see a politician start to blame speculators, you can be sure that those problems are that politician's own fault.

Bloomberg gearing for a FOURTH term????

2009-08-15T15:15:00.004-04:00

What a douche! On a radio address to NYC, Mayor Bloomberg who recently pushed the City Council so he could gain the ability to run for a third term slips up and mentions plans for what he would try to accomplish in a fourth term. He later swears that he has no intention to run for a fourth term and says that the law will not allow that. Does he think we forgot that the NYC law didn't allow a third term and he had earlier sworn that he had no interest in extending his rule? He can NOT be trusted, this man. Mayor Bloomberg must be evicted from office.

Read the article HERE.

Never Compromise. Not Even In The Face of Armageddon.

2009-08-15T05:05:00.006-04:00

With all the hype by the Democrats about how government-subsidized health care will save the world, coupled along side the severe criticism by many staunch Republicans about how the government is going to kill grandma, we forget that there are people putting out viable solutions to the problem. Yes, there is a problem getting affordable health insurance, and maybe the problem started with government getting involved in the first place.

Look at what federal student loans have done to our education system. Giving a loan to every young man and woman in America has caused the price of going to college to skyrocket. It used to be that a determined person could put themselves through school by waiting tables on the side. Now you would have a hard time paying for just the text books with a part-time job. More demand for something is only going to increase prices. So if government makes it so that everyone in America can attend college, then the price for education is going to rise. So it is with the health insurance industry. If government makes it so that everyone in America is covered, then those prices are going to rise regardless, even if the government is paying the bill. Which is is why a $600 billion dollar proposal by Obama can easily turn into a monster that can only grow to astronomic proportions.

At the Ludwig von Mises institute, a Libertarian think-tank, they have proposed a 4 part solution to fixing healthcare, which unfortunately would never have a chance if it was proposed in the halls of power. Why? Because it would involve making HARD DECISIONS. And as we know, our politicians (both Republican and Democrat) are not in the habit of making hard decisions. They would rather debate things endlessly, and then come up with a middle-ground solution. This solution is called COMPROMISE, which is the most dirtiest and dangerous word in the human language, because it means you have sold part of yourself, your ideology and anything you hold dear, to an idea that you don't believe in. In the end you wind up with a watered down version of a plan that wont fully do what it was originally proposed to do and will cost the taxpayer billions of dollars to implement. Compromise always leads to a monstrous conclusion.

For those who are interested in the hard decisions that would be needed to completely reform healthcare, please follow the below link and learn what the von Mises Institute would do to fix the problem. It is quite an interesting read.

Read the proposal HERE.

Never compromise. Not even in the face of Armageddon- Rorschach from The Watchmen Movie

I Just Flagged Myself. Have You?

2009-08-14T15:36:00.004-04:00

Cash For Clunkers a Real Clunker

2009-08-14T02:25:00.003-04:00

SPIN METER: $3 billion buys not-so-green vehicles

WASHINGTON – Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, the nation's top car salesman in recent weeks, has cited the Obama administration's best-seller list of mostly smaller, fuel-saving cars like the Ford Focus to describe the success of the Cash for Clunkers rebate program.

But what LaHood and other administration officials usually don't mention is that some trucks and sport-utility vehicles that get less than 20 miles per gallon, like the Ford F-150 truck and one version of the Cadillac SRX Crossover, also are being purchased with the new government subsidies. Both are bulky vehicles weighing more than 6,000 pounds when loaded that boast at least 248 horsepower...

Read rest of the article HERE.

Government Bailouts

2009-08-14T02:14:00.005-04:00

Let's just pause to remember the events of the stock market crash last fall, and reflect on how our government acts in times of crisis...

July Foreclosures Hit Record

2009-08-14T01:48:00.005-04:00

The Federal Reserve and the Treasury have been doing exactly what they do best, these past few months. They have been trying to promote the idea that the "recession" is nearing its end and have continued with their Bubble School of Economics view on the market. The amazing 50% rally we have seen in the S&P is a byproduct of their "Goldilocks" spin, a direct result of their cheap, freshly printed money and quantitative easing. While the CNBC pundits and the politicians would have you believe that this is the beginning of the next great bull market in equities, I think the fundamentals show that we still have a long way to go. More foreclosures is going to mean more write-downs on the banks' books at some point, and god knows what destruction can be caused by those worthless credit derivatives that they have amounted in vast sums. Remember the tumultuous events of last fall when Lehman Brother's failed, and the government officials ran around like chickens with their heads cut off to figure out how to contain the counterparty risk? Merrill Lynch, AIG, Wachovia, WaMu, all victims of that mountain of worthless paper. Well it can happen again, and if the housing market continues to crumble, and commercial real estate joins the ranks of suffering sectors of the economy, then I think we can be assured that things are far from over. The most important thing to do is protect your money.

Read the article HERE.

Home foreclosures set another record in July

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. home loans failed at a record pace in July despite ongoing federal and state programs to avoid foreclosures, which have severely strained housing and the economy.

Foreclosure activity jumped 7 percent in July from June and 32 percent from a year earlier as one in every 355 households with a loan got a foreclosure filing, RealtyTrac said on Thursday...

Toxic Assets Still a BIG Problem

2009-08-13T00:13:00.003-04:00

Here's an interesting and informative article that talks about the huge amounts of bad debt on the balance sheets of our banks, that with a stroke of a pen and a change in accounting rules, suddenly disappears. Out of sight, out of mind, right? Well, not so. I have a feeling that the huge lump of dirt the government swept under the rug is still there, and we'll see its effects at some point.

Read it HERE

Excerpt:

Banks’ Toxic Assets Still There: The Accounting Cannot Be Trusted

In other words, much of the improvement we have seen in the banking system, particularly among the big 19 stress-tested banks - such as J.P. Morgan (JPM: 42.21 +0.97 +2.35%), Goldman Sachs (GS: 163.76 +4.54 +2.85%) and U.S. Bank (USB: 22.02 -0.08 -0.36%) - has come from changes in the accounting rules, rather than a change in the fundamental economic value of the securities. There has been some real improvement in the condition of the banks, but that is mostly due to the large round of capital raising in the wake of the stress tests.

Couldn't Have Said It Better Myself

2009-08-12T23:30:00.003-04:00

Watch Mr. Obama liken government subsidized healthcare to the problems with the U.S. Postal Service. I almost shot soda through my nostrils in response to this.

Where did $1.5 Trillion Dollars Go?

2009-08-12T23:13:00.004-04:00

The Fed aint saying, the Government aint cooperating, the Courts aint helping. If anyone out there cares about where the Fed has sent this money, please look up the Federal Reserve Transparency Act (HR 1207), and The Federal Reserve Sunshine Act (S 604) and learn about the issue. There seems to be much support in the House, but it is in the Senate where this act of legislation may fail. Contact your Senators and Representatives and demand that they support auditing the Federal Reserve. In a time when everyone is up in arms over $600 Billion in healthcare reforms, there should be much more outrage directed at the $1.5 Trillion that has disappeared from the hands of the Federal Reserve. All we want is transparency. All we want is to know where that money went.

Health Care Backlash Continues!

2009-08-11T15:40:00.003-04:00

Here we have Democratic Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania fighting back a crowd at a town hall meeting. Obama, Pelosi and the rest of the bunch keep trying to push the idea that these protests against their health care plan are orchestrated by hired thugs from conservative organizations. But the video attached to this article shows what look like normal people to me. They just happen to be pissed at what is going on in this country. It amazes me that this guy has still managed to maintain his position in Washington. This is the same man who started out as a Democrat, switched to the Republican party, only to go back again to the Democratic party, all in response to poll numbers during his elections. He'll bend with the wind and be whoever or whatever you want just to get elected. Then he'll turn his back and try to ram unconstitutional legislation down your throat in gratitude. Wonderful man.

Watch the video HERE.

Health Care Cost

2009-08-10T17:23:00.003-04:00

I seem to have misplaced $700 Billion. Has anyone seen it?

2009-08-09T19:42:00.002-04:00

Where did that bank bailout go? Watchdogs aren't entirely sure.

WASHINGTON — Although hundreds of well-trained eyes are watching over the $700 billion that Congress last year decided to spend bailing out the nation's financial sector, it's still difficult to answer some of the most basic questions about where the money went.

Despite a new oversight panel, a new special inspector general, the existing Government Accountability Office and eight other inspectors general, those charged with minding the store say they don't have all the weapons they need. Ten months into the Troubled Asset Relief Program, some members of Congress say that some oversight of bailout dollars has been so lacking that it's essentially worthless...

Read the rest of the article here.

Peter Schiff vs Chris Dodd?

2009-08-09T18:53:00.004-04:00

Economist Peter Schiff talks about the disastrous state of the economy and his potential bid for the Senate against Chris Dodd.

Mother of all Bums!

2009-08-08T20:12:00.009-04:00

One of the most important things that keeps power away from those who wish to accumulate it is the idea of term limits. After 9/11, then Mayor Rudolph Giuliani wished to seek a third term (only two terms were allowed in NYC), rationalizing that only he could see NYC through the horrible terror attacks. Bloomberg, wishing to achieve that post for himself, derided Giuliani, saying that no one person was indispensable. Yet two terms later and here we have Mike Bloomberg rewriting city law to allow him to run for mayor yet again, saying that only he has the ability to see NYC through these financial crises. Afraid of loosing his power, Mike browbeat the City Council into allowing a third term, which in November he is running for.

Yet despite this obvious quest for more power, and his scandal surrounding the Deutsche Bank Fire, Bloomberg is unleashing his insurmountable war chest to gain reelection. Yet perhaps people have become disgusted enough with Bloomberg that even his money wont be able to buy his way back. Recent polls have shown that his democratic opponent Bill Thompson is gaining some foothold and may become a viable adversary for Mayor Bloomberg.

While I am no advocate of Bill Thompson (He seems too much like a Robin Hood-redistribute-the-wealth type of guy for my likes), I find it even more offensive that Bloomberg has attempted to set himself up as Dictator of New York. Our first responsibility as voters is to throw out the bums, and I am branding Mike Bloomberg, despite his wealth, as the mother of all bums. Power is not meant to be abused, it is meant to be taken away, and I for one will attempt to do my part to take it away from Bloomberg.

I'll worry about Bill Thompson when he becomes the inevitable problem. But something tells me he'll be easier to depose than Mike. Maybe then, we'll have a prospect for mayor who actually cares about this city.

Article: Thompson closing gap on Bloomberg in mayoral race: Poll

Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s lead over City Councilman Tony Avella (D-Bayside) and city Comptroller William Thompson in the bid for the city’s highest office has slimmed, although many city and Queens residents said they still do not know much about either of the mayor’s challengers, according to a new Quinnipiac poll...

Another Crook Gets Away With His Crime

2009-08-07T17:35:00.003-04:00

Well, we can only hope that the voters have the sense to boot Dodd out when the time comes. We can't hope for Justice in the Halls of Corruption, can we?

Committee drops Countrywide probe

The Senate Ethics Committee has dismissed complaints against Sens. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) alleging that they had received special mortgage deals from Countrywide Financial.

Read more: http://tinyurl.com/doddcountrywide

Good luck, Rand!

2009-08-07T02:11:00.001-04:00

Iconoclasts At Work

2009-08-06T21:48:00.006-04:00

It seems to me that there is a strong undercurrent running through this country where many people have become seriously disgruntled at their political leaders. While many politicians in both Houses of Congress are patting themselves on the back for doing what they see as hard work and a job well done, many regular people across America have been taking matters into their own hands to help bring this country back to some semblance of reality.

The issue this time is Obama's health care plan which we CANNOT afford as long as this country's balance sheet lies in disarray. We can thank both George W. Bush and Barrack Obama for exacerbating our national debt to unsustainable levels. Our debt as a percentage of GDP for 2008 is about 70% and is expected to be approximately 90% for 2009. Folks, this is absolutely amazing. We haven’t had this level of debt/GDP since the end of World War II. The debt doubled under W’s presidency and is expected to double again under the current administration, and I think those expectations are being kind to Mr. Obama. Pushing this health care plan forward is a hugely irresponsible move on Obama’s part. Congress, who holds the purse strings, should have squashed this plan before it even left Obama’s lips, but there they are pushing America towards impending disaster like a surging locomotive that has suddenly run out of tracks. They will weaken this country, and ensure that our place in the world is diminished.

To me this health care issue should live or die based solely on affordability. The pundits on TV speak of a MORAL OBLIGATION to the people of America to insure each and every person. The Democrats see it as a sacred right of every man, woman and child. They’ll tax and tax and tax, and redistribute that wealh to cover the cost. And then just for the fun of it, they’ll tax some more. The Republicans are no better. Rather than intelligently debating the gross side-effects of health care reform they continue their FEAR MONGERING by telling anyone who will listen that Obama plans to kill the elderly. Why can’t someone just come forward and say, “Hey look. We’re broke. It ain’t gonna work. Sorry. No dice.”

So it’s left to the citizen to do what is right. We must confront our Senators and Congressmen and threaten their jobs. We must make them listen. We put them in power, now they should listen to public sentiment before they do something stupid. Again!

So, I applaud everyone who has attended those townhall meetings and disrupted their counterproductive speeches. Let them be afraid for once. Let them see people, angry people who are rising up and saying, “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not gonna take it anymore.”

Good job!

Check out the article: http://tinyurl.com/healthcareprotests

To those expecting an economic recovery: Beware!

2009-08-06T02:18:00.003-04:00

Since the March lows in the stock market, the S&P has risen from 666 to 1000. This rally has had commentators on CNBC and elsewhere crowing that we are in the midst of a recovery and are busy trying to get everybody to lose their money by buying into the market. Keep in mind that any positive GDP reports coming out in the near future will only be because of increased government spending from our bottomless pit stimulus program that will have to end sometime. Housing is still on shaky ground as this article shows, and as goes housing, so goes the rest of the market.

About half of U.S. mortgages seen underwater by 2011

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The percentage of U.S. homeowners who owe more than their house is worth will nearly double to 48 percent in 2011 from 26 percent at the end of March, portending another blow to the housing market, Deutsche Bank said on Wednesday.

Home price declines will have their biggest impact on prime "conforming" loans that meet underwriting and size guidelines of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the bank said in a report. Prime conforming loans make up two-thirds of mortgages, and are typically less risky because of stringent requirements.

"We project the next phase of the housing decline will have a far greater impact on prime borrowers," Deutsche analysts Karen Weaver and Ying Shen said in the report....

http://tinyurl.com/n953x5

Get Off That Breadline, Mr. Iconoclast!

2009-08-05T23:35:00.000-04:00

Welcome to my blog! I haven't really decided what this blog should be focused on, but perhaps in creating the title I have created the subject matter for this blog. An iconoclast, in the classic term, is a person who tears down and destroys religious icons, usually during a tumultuous time of religious reform or turmoil. In this day and age, when religion in Western society has been pushed to the backburner, alas, there is little for an iconoclast to do, and he would be relegated to the unemployment lines that crisscross America with his hands spread apart craving his part of the bailout money.

But wait! There is hope for the iconoclast yet! There are plenty of symbols to tear down in this modern 21st century world. They may not be religious, but there seem to be flocks of sheeple crawling on their hands and knees to worship America's two most sacred animals: The Donkey and the Elephant. Long have we cried out for salvation from these two competing forces of animal nature, to save us from the horrors of the world. To represent us in times of need! Every year, we run to the polls and cry out, "Please help us! Please bring justice and prosperity to myself and my family and my friends."

And each year, as a few lucky people are elevated to the highest halls of power by our electorate, they turn back to us and answer our pleas, not with gratitude manifesting itself as a job well done. No. They respond with slaps to our faces as they race to pursue their own agendas and struggle for power amongst themselves, each hoping to gain more influence and more wealth, and therefore more power over the lives of every man, woman, and child.

So, Mr. Iconoclast, leave your unemployment line. Those Elephants and Donkeys need to be torn down and only you and others like you can do it. There will be other symbols you shall encounter, some carrying an even more religious connotation than others. Lying silent behind those white halls of incredible power lies the greatest symbol of all: A Temple that hides not the corruption of elected politicians, but the deviltry associated with our unelected class of priests. There lies the Eccles Building, home of the Federal Reserve, and orchestrator of most of this countries most heinous crimes against society.

Now, I may be a little dramatic here, but the actions of this institution needs to be looked at closer. And maybe, once everyone who once turned a blind eye at this institution begins to examine it with a more critical eye, we can decide what to do with it. Hopefully it will be to abolish it, set restriction upon it, or just flat out destroy it.

Now I leave you with a quote from one of my favorite movies that seems to illustrate this point very well: V for Vendetta.

"A building is a symbol, as is the act of destroying it. Symbols are given power by people. A symbol, in and of itself is powerless, but with enough people behind it, blowing up a building can change the world. "