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Friday, December 26, 2008
Monday, December 22, 2008
Bail Em Out?
Back in 1990, the Government seized the Mustang Ranch brothel in Nevada for tax evasion and, as required by law, tried to run it.They failed and it closed.
Now we are trusting the economy of our country and our banking system to the same nit-wits who couldn't make money running a whore house and selling whiskey.
Friday, December 12, 2008
It's Going to be a Bright Night!
The full moon tonight is the biggest and brightest of the year.
Generally unseen by the average observer, the size and brightness of the full moon ebbs and flows as it circles the earth in an elliptical orbit. Unless you are an astronaut trying to land on the moon I imagine you really don't care or notice. Except tonight!
This full moon will be 14% larger and 30% brighter than the lesser full moons we've seen this year. That's because the moon is at it's Perigee. That's astronomer talk for the closest point in an elliptical orbit. The opposite position, Apogee, is when the moon is at it's furthest point in its less than perfect circle of an orbit.
Here's a side-by-side photo taken of the Apogee and Perigee moons in 2002.
Combining this brighter than usual moon with the higher position of a winter moon should really light up the landscape. And double that if you're lucky enough to have some fresh white snow on the ground. It'll be a good time to bundle up and take a stroll through the neighborhood, looking at the beautiful Christmas decorations and having your way lit by the Perigee Moon!
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
A New World Government?
There's some ominous signs out there that the Obama administration is going to start moving toward a New World Government.
Obama has already said in his book, The Audacity of Hope, “When the world’s sole superpower willingly restrains its power and abides by internationally agreed-upon standards of conduct, it sends a message that these are rules worth following.” And he has appointed one of his top aides, Susan Rice as UN Ambassador and has elevated it to a Cabinet position. So he's already moving toward a more conciliatory and amenable position in the world stage. That in and off itself isn't all bad.
But here comes some disturbing news. Gideon Rachman, writes in a column for Financial Times;
A taste of the ideas doing the rounds in Obama circles is offered by a recent report from the Managing Global Insecurity project, whose small US advisory group includes John Podesta, the man heading Mr Obama’s transition team and Strobe Talbott, the president of the Brookings Institution, from which Ms Rice has just emerged. (Also on the advisory group is Sandy Berger, Clinton's National Security advisor that stole classified docs in his pants and socks to hide Clinton's failures to stop Bin Laden and the terrorists!)
The MGI report argues for the creation of a UN high commissioner for counter-terrorist activity, a legally binding climate-change agreement negotiated under the auspices of the UN and the creation of a 50,000-strong UN peacekeeping force. Once countries had pledged troops to this reserve army, the UN would have first call upon them.
These are the kind of ideas that get people reaching for their rifles in America’s talk-radio heartland. Aware of the political sensitivity of its ideas, the MGI report opts for soothing language. It emphasises the need for American leadership and uses the term, “responsible sovereignty” – when calling for international co-operation – rather than the more radical-sounding phrase favoured in Europe, “shared sovereignty”. It also talks about “global governance” rather than world government.
But some European thinkers think that they recognise what is going on. Jacques Attali, an adviser to President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, argues that: “Global governance is just a euphemism for global government.” As far as he is concerned, some form of global government cannot come too soon. Mr Attali believes that the “core of the international financial crisis is that we have global financial markets and no global rule of law”.
Keep an eye on this, it could quickly gain footing if the world economic crisis worsens.
Obama has already said in his book, The Audacity of Hope, “When the world’s sole superpower willingly restrains its power and abides by internationally agreed-upon standards of conduct, it sends a message that these are rules worth following.” And he has appointed one of his top aides, Susan Rice as UN Ambassador and has elevated it to a Cabinet position. So he's already moving toward a more conciliatory and amenable position in the world stage. That in and off itself isn't all bad.
But here comes some disturbing news. Gideon Rachman, writes in a column for Financial Times;
A taste of the ideas doing the rounds in Obama circles is offered by a recent report from the Managing Global Insecurity project, whose small US advisory group includes John Podesta, the man heading Mr Obama’s transition team and Strobe Talbott, the president of the Brookings Institution, from which Ms Rice has just emerged. (Also on the advisory group is Sandy Berger, Clinton's National Security advisor that stole classified docs in his pants and socks to hide Clinton's failures to stop Bin Laden and the terrorists!)The MGI report argues for the creation of a UN high commissioner for counter-terrorist activity, a legally binding climate-change agreement negotiated under the auspices of the UN and the creation of a 50,000-strong UN peacekeeping force. Once countries had pledged troops to this reserve army, the UN would have first call upon them.
These are the kind of ideas that get people reaching for their rifles in America’s talk-radio heartland. Aware of the political sensitivity of its ideas, the MGI report opts for soothing language. It emphasises the need for American leadership and uses the term, “responsible sovereignty” – when calling for international co-operation – rather than the more radical-sounding phrase favoured in Europe, “shared sovereignty”. It also talks about “global governance” rather than world government.
But some European thinkers think that they recognise what is going on. Jacques Attali, an adviser to President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, argues that: “Global governance is just a euphemism for global government.” As far as he is concerned, some form of global government cannot come too soon. Mr Attali believes that the “core of the international financial crisis is that we have global financial markets and no global rule of law”.
Keep an eye on this, it could quickly gain footing if the world economic crisis worsens.
It's Been a While
For all my loyal followers out there I want to apologize to both of you for not posting in a while. This new venture I'm involved in is taking up way too much of my blogging time. Hopefully I'll be able to get back at the blogging on a more regular basis soon.
In the meantime I really don't have any real updates to post, just a comment or two.
I am really ticked off at the politicians and the inane antics they are doing about saving this industry and that industry. I really feel it's a lot to do about nothing, as that's really what the end result will be.... Nothing! Our economy and the two biggest segments of it, auto and home building, are driven by consumer spending. If there's no spending, no buying, then nothing Congress can do will pull them out of the tailspin they are in. And right now the consumers in America have closed their wallets. They are spending only for the necessities and aren't buying the big ticket items. So builders and auto makers, and the ancillary industries that support them are all going to feel a big pinch for a while.
It won't matter how much the media and Wall Street and the politicians talk about hitting bottom and that things are now coming back. The consumer won't start spending again until they are confident their jobs and income are back on steady ground. And that's not going to happen for months yet. The layoffs and downsizing really has just gotten into full swing right now. I hardly know of any working family that hasn't been affected already or are very worried about their jobs. And as much as I hate to say it.... it's going to get worse before it gets better.
But, all is not gloom and doom. As in any situation there are opportunities that arise in times like these. And there are still a lot of folks employed. What's going to happen now is consumers will come down from the crazy spending spree that they've been on for the last decade or so and will get back to the basics. Who knows, maybe a few more conversations will be had at the dinner table, maybe a book will be read, maybe someone will volunteer at a charity? Stranger things have happened.
On a side note, a couple of sites I like to read have been saying there are a couple of big earthquakes coming in the next few days. They say they should hit around Dec 10 -15 with some major damage from them. They don't give the locations but say that they'll be generally opposite the globe from each other. So if one is in China, then the other will be on the opposite side of globe in, say the US. It's going to be interesting to see how accurate they are in their predictions. They claim that they have accurately predicted earthquakes and other physical occurrences in the past. Let's see how good they are on this one.
In the meantime I really don't have any real updates to post, just a comment or two.
I am really ticked off at the politicians and the inane antics they are doing about saving this industry and that industry. I really feel it's a lot to do about nothing, as that's really what the end result will be.... Nothing! Our economy and the two biggest segments of it, auto and home building, are driven by consumer spending. If there's no spending, no buying, then nothing Congress can do will pull them out of the tailspin they are in. And right now the consumers in America have closed their wallets. They are spending only for the necessities and aren't buying the big ticket items. So builders and auto makers, and the ancillary industries that support them are all going to feel a big pinch for a while.
It won't matter how much the media and Wall Street and the politicians talk about hitting bottom and that things are now coming back. The consumer won't start spending again until they are confident their jobs and income are back on steady ground. And that's not going to happen for months yet. The layoffs and downsizing really has just gotten into full swing right now. I hardly know of any working family that hasn't been affected already or are very worried about their jobs. And as much as I hate to say it.... it's going to get worse before it gets better.
But, all is not gloom and doom. As in any situation there are opportunities that arise in times like these. And there are still a lot of folks employed. What's going to happen now is consumers will come down from the crazy spending spree that they've been on for the last decade or so and will get back to the basics. Who knows, maybe a few more conversations will be had at the dinner table, maybe a book will be read, maybe someone will volunteer at a charity? Stranger things have happened.
On a side note, a couple of sites I like to read have been saying there are a couple of big earthquakes coming in the next few days. They say they should hit around Dec 10 -15 with some major damage from them. They don't give the locations but say that they'll be generally opposite the globe from each other. So if one is in China, then the other will be on the opposite side of globe in, say the US. It's going to be interesting to see how accurate they are in their predictions. They claim that they have accurately predicted earthquakes and other physical occurrences in the past. Let's see how good they are on this one.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Is the Drudge Report the Best Designed Website on the Web?
Is the Drudge Report the best designed website on the web? This person thinks so, and makes a great argument for his case. I have to admit, I'm a Drudge junkie. I check it several times a day and rarely go elsewhere. I don't need to, he has 95% of the sites I want to look at, and I can't remember when I've seen a headline story elsewhere that wasn't on Drudge.
Drudge gets over 3 million unique hits a month, which translates into hundreds of millions of hits a month. Making a nice living for basically a one-man show.
They say the New York Times sets the tone for the news each day, and it may well do that for the MSM. But I dare say that in the Internet era, Drudge has taken that title away.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Friday, November 14, 2008
You Should Know Martin Armstrong
I recently came across an essay by Martin Armstrong, titled, It's Just Time. It's a brilliant treatise about cycles and how they are to be found everywhere, including the economy.
Martin's story is amazing. He's been jailed for 9 years now, the first 7 for contempt of court and is now finishing up a 5 year term after pleading guilty to a white collar crime. The 7 years for contempt of court was the longest served by anyone in the history of the US. Then, after being confined in solitary for days, he finally plead guilty to a charge that the judge used to sentence him, WITHOUT giving him credit for the 7 years already served! The usual time served for his type of crime (and there's serious questions about his true guilt) is 6-8 years. The travesty of injustice in this case is astounding.
Prior to this, Martin was a famed, globe-trotting economic advisor known for his uncanny ability to use his cyclic models to predict, to the day, major turns in the markets. Some of what he says in his essay regarding the conspiracy against him seems at time too extreme to be believable, but the other side is he's been proven over and over again to be correct in his models. So where the truth may lie is up to you to decide.
But read his essay and especially his suggested solution for the economic crisis we're in. Too bad our new administration won't listen to him!
Martin's story is amazing. He's been jailed for 9 years now, the first 7 for contempt of court and is now finishing up a 5 year term after pleading guilty to a white collar crime. The 7 years for contempt of court was the longest served by anyone in the history of the US. Then, after being confined in solitary for days, he finally plead guilty to a charge that the judge used to sentence him, WITHOUT giving him credit for the 7 years already served! The usual time served for his type of crime (and there's serious questions about his true guilt) is 6-8 years. The travesty of injustice in this case is astounding.
Prior to this, Martin was a famed, globe-trotting economic advisor known for his uncanny ability to use his cyclic models to predict, to the day, major turns in the markets. Some of what he says in his essay regarding the conspiracy against him seems at time too extreme to be believable, but the other side is he's been proven over and over again to be correct in his models. So where the truth may lie is up to you to decide.
But read his essay and especially his suggested solution for the economic crisis we're in. Too bad our new administration won't listen to him!
Thursday, November 13, 2008
A Heartwarming Story
Here's a nice story to give you a lift amidst all the negative news you're hearing.
(Ignore how dumb Charlie Gibson looks, that's just the way the video loaded)
Newest Naval Warships
Here are three new ships in the US Navy -
USS REAGAN
Seeing it next to the Arizona Memorial really puts its size into perspective...
USS REAGAN
Seeing it next to the Arizona Memorial really puts its size into perspective...
When the Bridge pipes 'Man the Rail' there is a lot of rail to man on this monster: shoulder to shoulder, around 4.5 acres.
Capability
Top speed exceeds 30 knots, powered by two nuclear reactors that can operate for more than 20 years without refueling
1. Expected to operate in the fleet for about 50 years
2. Carries over 80 combat aircraft
3. Three arresting cables can stop a 28-ton aircraft going 150 miles per hour in less than 400 feet
Size
1. Towers 20 stories above the waterline
2. 1092 feet long; nearly as long as the Empire State Building is tall
3. Flight deck covers 4.5 acres
4. 4 bronze propellers, each 21 feet across, weighing 66,200 pounds
5. 2 rudders, each 29 by 22 feet and weighing 50 tons
6. 4 high speed aircraft elevators, each over 4,000 square feet
Capacity
1. Home to about 6,000 Navy personnel
2. Carries enough food and supplies to operate for 90 days
3. 18,150 meals served daily
4. Distillation plants provide 400,000 gallons of fresh water from sea water daily, enough for 2,000 homes
5. Nearly 30,000 light fixtures and 1,325 miles of cable and wiring 1,400 telephones
6. 14,000 pillowcases and 28,000 sheets
7. Costs the Navy approximately $250,000 per day for pier side operation
8. Costs the Navy approximately $25 million per day for underway operations (Sailor's salaries included).
USS Bill Clinton
The USS William Jefferson Clinton (CVS1) set sail today from its home port of Vancouver, BC. 
The ship is the first of its kind in the Navy and is a standing legacy to President Bill Clinton 'for his foresight in military budget cuts' and his conduct while holding the (formerly dignified) office of President.
The ship is constructed nearly entirely from recycled aluminum and is completely solar powered with a top speed of 5 knots.
It boasts an arsenal comprised of one (unarmed) F14 Tomcat or one (unarmed) F18 Hornet aircraft which, although they cannot be launched on the 100 foot flight deck, form a very menacing presence.
As a standing order there are no firearms allowed on board. This crew, like the crew aboard the USS Jimmy Carter, is specially trained to avoid conflicts and appease any and all enemies of the United States at all costs. An onboard Type One DNC Universal Translator can send out messages of apology in any language to anyone who may find America offensive. The number of apologies are limitless and though some may seem hollow and disingenuous, the Navy advises all apologies will sound very sincere.
In times of conflict, the USS Clinton has orders to seek refuge in Canada.
USS Obama
The latest addition to the fleet is modeled after the USS Clinton
Except it has no weapons or aircraft,and the crew gets paid for not working!!
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
The Election Hasn't Changed America Yet!
It's still seems there's way too much anger and resentment being voiced and written about Obama's election and the election in general. I guess since 50 million voters DIDN'T vote for Obama, some of that's to be expected. Especially if you feel that people voted for Obama without really knowing who or what they voted for, which is how I feel.
But both sides are still way too emotional and angry. It really concerns me. Obama didn't steal the election. While I have no doubt that the Democrats commited a lot of voter fraud, to a much larger degree than the Republicans, and with help from the likes of ACORN, he won with such a large margin that I don't care about that now. He won, more American voters wanted Obama than McCain. It's over. Now let's get on with the business at hand.
I admit I'm a conservative and have almost exclusively voted Republican. And I have written a lot in this blog about Obama and why I felt he was not the right choice for President. But I was defeated and I accept that and will now watch with a wary eye what comes out of Washington. I'm hearing the same from most of the Republicans I know. I'm not hearing hateful, spiteful, vicious things from them. They aren't happy but they aren't mad.
So why is it that even in victory the Democrats remain so bitter and mean-spirited? They are still trashing anyone that hasn't drunk the Obama kool-aid and dares to question anything about Obama or the election. A great case in point is a recent article by Camille Paglia in Salon
Magazine. I've been a fan of hers for years. She's extremely well spoken and while generally is considered a liberal, she has her own mind and doesn't just fall in lock-step with the Democratic or liberal views. If she disagrees, she says so. She's not afraid to speak her mind. I guess what sealed it for me was when she called the feminists out for supporting Clinton in the Lewinsky affair. She had no problem calling them out on their blatant hypocrisy for turning a blind eye to Clinton's obvious abuse of power in his affair.
Her latest article is typical Paglia. Supportive of Obama, yet questioning. Supportive of Palin and dismissive of the poor campaign of McCain. Here's the link to it, I think you'll enjoy it. But after you read it, scroll down to the letters. Keep in mind that Salon is a very lefty magazine, so you'd expect that her support of Palin would raise some hackles. But the vitriolic tone and disdain of Paglia by the readers is amazing and frightening. They just don't tolerate ANY dissension.
And that's what's most disturbing to me about the election. I can accept that my side won't always win and that there are other views on how a country should be governed. And I believe most on my side feel that way. But it seems the majority of the other side doesn't seem to have that attitude. They seem to be totally unaccepting of any dissenting viewpoint. And want to not just express their views, but to silence the other side completely. Now with total control of Congress and the White House, I'm very concerned about the steps they will take to silence us. That's something we all need to pay attention to.
But both sides are still way too emotional and angry. It really concerns me. Obama didn't steal the election. While I have no doubt that the Democrats commited a lot of voter fraud, to a much larger degree than the Republicans, and with help from the likes of ACORN, he won with such a large margin that I don't care about that now. He won, more American voters wanted Obama than McCain. It's over. Now let's get on with the business at hand.
I admit I'm a conservative and have almost exclusively voted Republican. And I have written a lot in this blog about Obama and why I felt he was not the right choice for President. But I was defeated and I accept that and will now watch with a wary eye what comes out of Washington. I'm hearing the same from most of the Republicans I know. I'm not hearing hateful, spiteful, vicious things from them. They aren't happy but they aren't mad.
So why is it that even in victory the Democrats remain so bitter and mean-spirited? They are still trashing anyone that hasn't drunk the Obama kool-aid and dares to question anything about Obama or the election. A great case in point is a recent article by Camille Paglia in Salon
Magazine. I've been a fan of hers for years. She's extremely well spoken and while generally is considered a liberal, she has her own mind and doesn't just fall in lock-step with the Democratic or liberal views. If she disagrees, she says so. She's not afraid to speak her mind. I guess what sealed it for me was when she called the feminists out for supporting Clinton in the Lewinsky affair. She had no problem calling them out on their blatant hypocrisy for turning a blind eye to Clinton's obvious abuse of power in his affair.Her latest article is typical Paglia. Supportive of Obama, yet questioning. Supportive of Palin and dismissive of the poor campaign of McCain. Here's the link to it, I think you'll enjoy it. But after you read it, scroll down to the letters. Keep in mind that Salon is a very lefty magazine, so you'd expect that her support of Palin would raise some hackles. But the vitriolic tone and disdain of Paglia by the readers is amazing and frightening. They just don't tolerate ANY dissension.
And that's what's most disturbing to me about the election. I can accept that my side won't always win and that there are other views on how a country should be governed. And I believe most on my side feel that way. But it seems the majority of the other side doesn't seem to have that attitude. They seem to be totally unaccepting of any dissenting viewpoint. And want to not just express their views, but to silence the other side completely. Now with total control of Congress and the White House, I'm very concerned about the steps they will take to silence us. That's something we all need to pay attention to.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
The End has Come!
Well, not too sure what to say about the Obama win. I guess now that I've had some time to think and contemplate on what it all means I guess the best way to describe my feelings is one of profound sadness. Sure part of my feelings stem from losing. My side lost, so I'm not happy about that. Not any different then when a basketball or football team I'm rooting for loses.
But this sadness is not about losing, it's about the state of America, the condition we're now in and the prospects for our future. It's about the deep deep divide that has grown in America between the two sides and the way it's played out. A telling point is the well publicized threats of riots and demonstrations by Obama supporters if he didn't win. Yet, we lost a bitterly fought race and I sure didn't see any Republicans rioting. It seems the other side has no tolerance for anything but their way, their ideas, their plans and their people. It's their way or the highway. And winning the election is not going to move them to be more inclusive, it's only going to allow them to ram their way down our throats.
The condition we're in now also saddens me. Our great nation is quickly losing stature and influence around the world as the financial crisis widens and deepens. I won't get into the blame game as to why it's happened, there's full blame for all parties with no side less liable for inadequate and poorly timed actions and governance. But the bottom line is that our way of life is seriously threatened and the people in power right now are sorely lacking in the ability and skill to navigate us out of this mess. People were hard on Palin for her supposed lack of experience and skills. But has anyone looked at Pelosi and what she has done and not done in the last 2 years? Has there ever been a more inept and clueless Speaker? Here's a great piece by Neil Cavuto, Business Editor of Fox News asking, "Is anyone doing the math"
And the future isn't too bright either. With this new administration and the consolidation of power in Congress, I expect sweeping legislation and regulations that will over tax, over regulate and over involve the government in our daily lives, to an extent never before seen in our country. And while I take solace in the fact that enough folks will come to their senses in two years during the mid-term elections to swing the power back some, the damage will have been done and we won't ever gain back fully what we've lost. Neal Boortz, a local radio host, has a daily commentary, Nealz Nuze. In it he called this election the "I want my Mommy" election. One in which a majority of Americans have said that they are willing to forfeit a large portion of their freedoms and rights in order for the government to take care of them. The size of that group has grown enough now, thanks in large part to the pandering of the Democrats, to forever influence our country and its direction. And the direction it'll take us is toward less and less freedom and choice in our daily lives. That really saddens me.
But this sadness is not about losing, it's about the state of America, the condition we're now in and the prospects for our future. It's about the deep deep divide that has grown in America between the two sides and the way it's played out. A telling point is the well publicized threats of riots and demonstrations by Obama supporters if he didn't win. Yet, we lost a bitterly fought race and I sure didn't see any Republicans rioting. It seems the other side has no tolerance for anything but their way, their ideas, their plans and their people. It's their way or the highway. And winning the election is not going to move them to be more inclusive, it's only going to allow them to ram their way down our throats.
The condition we're in now also saddens me. Our great nation is quickly losing stature and influence around the world as the financial crisis widens and deepens. I won't get into the blame game as to why it's happened, there's full blame for all parties with no side less liable for inadequate and poorly timed actions and governance. But the bottom line is that our way of life is seriously threatened and the people in power right now are sorely lacking in the ability and skill to navigate us out of this mess. People were hard on Palin for her supposed lack of experience and skills. But has anyone looked at Pelosi and what she has done and not done in the last 2 years? Has there ever been a more inept and clueless Speaker? Here's a great piece by Neil Cavuto, Business Editor of Fox News asking, "Is anyone doing the math"
And the future isn't too bright either. With this new administration and the consolidation of power in Congress, I expect sweeping legislation and regulations that will over tax, over regulate and over involve the government in our daily lives, to an extent never before seen in our country. And while I take solace in the fact that enough folks will come to their senses in two years during the mid-term elections to swing the power back some, the damage will have been done and we won't ever gain back fully what we've lost. Neal Boortz, a local radio host, has a daily commentary, Nealz Nuze. In it he called this election the "I want my Mommy" election. One in which a majority of Americans have said that they are willing to forfeit a large portion of their freedoms and rights in order for the government to take care of them. The size of that group has grown enough now, thanks in large part to the pandering of the Democrats, to forever influence our country and its direction. And the direction it'll take us is toward less and less freedom and choice in our daily lives. That really saddens me.
Monday, November 3, 2008
The End is Near!
Well, tomorrow's the day. I really don't have a good sense of how this will all play out.
My logical self tell me that it's going to be a blow-out for Obama. That there will be a extraordinary turnout of new voters, not usually counted in the polls, that will send him to a 8-10 point victory. That will also include a sweeping victory by the Dems in House and Senate races that will give them 60 Senators and a filibuster proof Senate.
(Maybe that's not my logical self but instead is the worst nightmare I've ever had!)
But my gut tells me that there may be a chance for McCain/Palin. While McCain has conducted one of the worst campaigns in modern history, they are still in the race. They are still close in some polls. Maybe what I envisioned above won't come true, maybe a lot of those new voters won't show up (like they've done in the past) and maybe Obama's true self is finally being seen and understood by enough voters that the race will become close. Who knows?
I know this. I'm tired of the campaign. I'm tired of the constant lying, of the he said, she said, the gotcha politics. I was in NC for the weekend visiting my dad. NC is a battleground state and therefore has a lot more ads being run there than what I see here in GA. It's amazing how low both campaigns go in trying to convince the public to vote for them. I was appalled and saddened, by both sides. Is America truly that stupid, uneducated, so easily swayed and convinced by just seeing a political ad? I'm afraid so.
So, tomorrow I'm going to vote and then go back to work, keeping my head down and will try to stay off of Drudge. I really don't want to follow this election, even if McCain/Palin do pull off a miracle. Nobody will really win in this election. America's lost a good piece of it's soul with this election and I don't think we'll recover from this for a long time. If ever.
My logical self tell me that it's going to be a blow-out for Obama. That there will be a extraordinary turnout of new voters, not usually counted in the polls, that will send him to a 8-10 point victory. That will also include a sweeping victory by the Dems in House and Senate races that will give them 60 Senators and a filibuster proof Senate.
(Maybe that's not my logical self but instead is the worst nightmare I've ever had!)
But my gut tells me that there may be a chance for McCain/Palin. While McCain has conducted one of the worst campaigns in modern history, they are still in the race. They are still close in some polls. Maybe what I envisioned above won't come true, maybe a lot of those new voters won't show up (like they've done in the past) and maybe Obama's true self is finally being seen and understood by enough voters that the race will become close. Who knows?
I know this. I'm tired of the campaign. I'm tired of the constant lying, of the he said, she said, the gotcha politics. I was in NC for the weekend visiting my dad. NC is a battleground state and therefore has a lot more ads being run there than what I see here in GA. It's amazing how low both campaigns go in trying to convince the public to vote for them. I was appalled and saddened, by both sides. Is America truly that stupid, uneducated, so easily swayed and convinced by just seeing a political ad? I'm afraid so.
So, tomorrow I'm going to vote and then go back to work, keeping my head down and will try to stay off of Drudge. I really don't want to follow this election, even if McCain/Palin do pull off a miracle. Nobody will really win in this election. America's lost a good piece of it's soul with this election and I don't think we'll recover from this for a long time. If ever.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Keeping Mentally Fit and Sane
Here's five daily steps to keep yourself mentally fit and sane.
They're from a study in England and have been peer reviewed, so that's saying these are verified, doable, proven, easy steps that will keep you from going bonkers in these turbulent time.
They seem like common sense to me, but I guess not everyone does each of these every day.
Seems like it'd be a good habit to get into.
Steps to Happiness
They're from a study in England and have been peer reviewed, so that's saying these are verified, doable, proven, easy steps that will keep you from going bonkers in these turbulent time.
They seem like common sense to me, but I guess not everyone does each of these every day.
Seems like it'd be a good habit to get into.
Steps to Happiness
- Connect - Developing relationships with family, friends, colleagues and neighbours will enrich your life and bring you support
- Be active - Sports, hobbies such as gardening or dancing, or just a daily stroll will make you feel good and maintain mobility and fitness
- Be curious - Noting the beauty of everyday moments as well as the unusual and reflecting on them helps you to appreciate what matters to you
- Learn - Fixing a bike, learning an instrument, cooking – the challenge and satisfaction brings fun and confidence
- Give - Helping friends and strangers links your happiness to a wider community and is very rewarding
It's Looking Better!
Over the last few days since my last post the markets have simmered down. That's wonderful!
The feared run on the banks hasn't appeared and the likelihood seems less and less each day as the fear and panic surrounding the financial markets has subsided. The jury is still out on what the long-term effect will be to the US economy of the unprecedented steps taken by the Treasury and the Federal Reserve. But in the short-run they have averted an outright panic and collapse.
Right now is seems that the next step will be a slow, but steady decline in the economy as the losses on Wall Street begin to trickle down to Main Street. Already we're seeing the beginning of a contraction as small businesses are closing in the neighborhood shopping centers. Everyone is pulling back, spending less, going less, doing with less, and the exuberant days of endless spending are gone, at least for a while.
The question is how deep and how long will this last? Is it going to be a deep recession? Are we going to see a Depression? My guess (keeping in mind how tuned my prognostication skills are) is that this will be a pretty deep recession that will take a couple of years at least to turn around. And it'll be longer and deeper if Obama, Pelosi and Reid have control.
So, looks like it's safe to deposit some of your cash back in the bank now, although I think it's always a good idea to have some safely stashed away just in case. Keep an eye on what's happening, digging deeper than the pablum given us by the MSM. There's a lot of great sources of info available at your fingertips on the web. Do a little walking with those fingers and stay informed.
The feared run on the banks hasn't appeared and the likelihood seems less and less each day as the fear and panic surrounding the financial markets has subsided. The jury is still out on what the long-term effect will be to the US economy of the unprecedented steps taken by the Treasury and the Federal Reserve. But in the short-run they have averted an outright panic and collapse.
Right now is seems that the next step will be a slow, but steady decline in the economy as the losses on Wall Street begin to trickle down to Main Street. Already we're seeing the beginning of a contraction as small businesses are closing in the neighborhood shopping centers. Everyone is pulling back, spending less, going less, doing with less, and the exuberant days of endless spending are gone, at least for a while.
The question is how deep and how long will this last? Is it going to be a deep recession? Are we going to see a Depression? My guess (keeping in mind how tuned my prognostication skills are) is that this will be a pretty deep recession that will take a couple of years at least to turn around. And it'll be longer and deeper if Obama, Pelosi and Reid have control.
So, looks like it's safe to deposit some of your cash back in the bank now, although I think it's always a good idea to have some safely stashed away just in case. Keep an eye on what's happening, digging deeper than the pablum given us by the MSM. There's a lot of great sources of info available at your fingertips on the web. Do a little walking with those fingers and stay informed.
Friday, October 10, 2008
It's Hard to Believe This Is Happening!
I still find it almost surreal, like the Twilight Zone is playing in the next dimension over, and I keep flipping back and forth between reality and fiction. Except I'm not sure which is which.
Is it reality that the world's financial markets have totally frozen up? That the bankers of the world are so stricken by fear and lack of trust that they are no longer lending, even amongst themselves? Is there no honor amongst thieves?
Is it reality to watch this play out before you on cable tv? To watch 24/7 of nonstop coverage of first this failure and patchup, then that failure and another patchup, and then another failure and a patchup and then another and another and another and another, ad nauseum!
Or is it reality that life amongst most folks, the ones that, unlike me, haven't been paying much attention to the crisis, other than to catch the little snippet here and there. The people that only listen to this politician or that politician scream about the evil rich and how their unbridled greed caused this whole mess, then scream at the TV in agreement that the evil bast**ds need to be punished and there should be a limit on how much they can earn. All the while, not daring to miss a single episode of Dancing With The Stars, or the latest sitcom.
Or is the reality what the conspiracy kooks are saying, that this has been planned all along by the Illuminati, or the Rothchilds, or the Rockefellers, all or part of whom are in cahoots with Bush and his cronies. That this is just part of the plan, that this crisis has all been manufactured by some secret group so as to force the unaware public to accept a New World Order. With a new single currency, and world organizations running the financial institutions, which in effect, gives them rule over the world.
What's REAL???
Man, I don't know. But whether it's all part of a master plan, or just the result of a wild set of crazy circumstances, it sure looks like we're going toward some master, world-wide plan to solve the crisis. The finance ministers of G-7 just so happen to be having a meeting today and on through the weekend in Washington. They'll be joined by the G-20 members later this weekend. Together they account for 90% of the global economy. (All of this is covered in a great piece by Stratfor, a website that covers geopolitical issues and events. You can read the whole piece here.) Was this a coincidence?
There's also starting to be more rumbling that one way for this group to get their hands around the problem and come up with a solution is to call for a Bank Holiday. This was also reported in Bloomberg today, quoting the Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi as saying that the world leaders are thinking about closing the world's financial markets "while they rewrite the rules of international finance".
Wow, 'rewrite the rules of international finance'. That's an ominous statement!!
I think that no matter what reality you think this is, the best thing you can do is prepare yourself. If you haven't already done it, go to the bank or ATM tomorrow and withdraw some cash. How much is up to you and which reality you subscribe to. But don't be caught by this. Monday is conveniently a bank holiday in the states. Columbus day. So that gives them one more day to position themselves to declare the Bank Holiday. I think it's coming. So be prepared. (I have some more thoughts on preparedness in a previous post)
Is it reality that the world's financial markets have totally frozen up? That the bankers of the world are so stricken by fear and lack of trust that they are no longer lending, even amongst themselves? Is there no honor amongst thieves?
Is it reality to watch this play out before you on cable tv? To watch 24/7 of nonstop coverage of first this failure and patchup, then that failure and another patchup, and then another failure and a patchup and then another and another and another and another, ad nauseum!
Or is it reality that life amongst most folks, the ones that, unlike me, haven't been paying much attention to the crisis, other than to catch the little snippet here and there. The people that only listen to this politician or that politician scream about the evil rich and how their unbridled greed caused this whole mess, then scream at the TV in agreement that the evil bast**ds need to be punished and there should be a limit on how much they can earn. All the while, not daring to miss a single episode of Dancing With The Stars, or the latest sitcom.
Or is the reality what the conspiracy kooks are saying, that this has been planned all along by the Illuminati, or the Rothchilds, or the Rockefellers, all or part of whom are in cahoots with Bush and his cronies. That this is just part of the plan, that this crisis has all been manufactured by some secret group so as to force the unaware public to accept a New World Order. With a new single currency, and world organizations running the financial institutions, which in effect, gives them rule over the world.
What's REAL???
Man, I don't know. But whether it's all part of a master plan, or just the result of a wild set of crazy circumstances, it sure looks like we're going toward some master, world-wide plan to solve the crisis. The finance ministers of G-7 just so happen to be having a meeting today and on through the weekend in Washington. They'll be joined by the G-20 members later this weekend. Together they account for 90% of the global economy. (All of this is covered in a great piece by Stratfor, a website that covers geopolitical issues and events. You can read the whole piece here.) Was this a coincidence?
There's also starting to be more rumbling that one way for this group to get their hands around the problem and come up with a solution is to call for a Bank Holiday. This was also reported in Bloomberg today, quoting the Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi as saying that the world leaders are thinking about closing the world's financial markets "while they rewrite the rules of international finance".
Wow, 'rewrite the rules of international finance'. That's an ominous statement!!
I think that no matter what reality you think this is, the best thing you can do is prepare yourself. If you haven't already done it, go to the bank or ATM tomorrow and withdraw some cash. How much is up to you and which reality you subscribe to. But don't be caught by this. Monday is conveniently a bank holiday in the states. Columbus day. So that gives them one more day to position themselves to declare the Bank Holiday. I think it's coming. So be prepared. (I have some more thoughts on preparedness in a previous post)
The Mess Continues
It's early Friday morning and the news continues to be troubling. The Asian markets took it on the chin and are way down. Right now the DJ Futures is off close to 200 which foretells another off day for Wall Street.
The G-7 is meeting in Washington and have a very hard task ahead of them.
The G-7's dilemma is that even after a battery of policy actions, money markets remain gridlocked as banks shun lending to each other for fear they will lose the money or because they need it for their own funding needs. The cost of borrowing dollars for three months yesterday surged to the highest this year.
The U.S. was also weighing a proposal to insure all U.S. bank deposits, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The plan was only at discussion stage and would be aimed at preventing an exodus of cash from financial institutions, the newspaper said. To remove the ceiling on deposit insurance government agencies would need to agree there was systemic risk to the economy, thereby invoking the legal power for action, the Journal reported.
While the Treasury still aims to buy troubled mortgage- backed securities from financial institutions, a direct capital injection would offer more immediate relief by giving banks quick access to funds they could then lend out. Bloomberg, Oct 10, 2008
The G-7 is meeting in Washington and have a very hard task ahead of them.
The G-7's dilemma is that even after a battery of policy actions, money markets remain gridlocked as banks shun lending to each other for fear they will lose the money or because they need it for their own funding needs. The cost of borrowing dollars for three months yesterday surged to the highest this year.
The U.S. was also weighing a proposal to insure all U.S. bank deposits, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The plan was only at discussion stage and would be aimed at preventing an exodus of cash from financial institutions, the newspaper said. To remove the ceiling on deposit insurance government agencies would need to agree there was systemic risk to the economy, thereby invoking the legal power for action, the Journal reported.
While the Treasury still aims to buy troubled mortgage- backed securities from financial institutions, a direct capital injection would offer more immediate relief by giving banks quick access to funds they could then lend out. Bloomberg, Oct 10, 2008
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Oct 7th has come and gone, but the Crisis still Looms
I'm very thankful that, so far, the prognosticators of an Oct 7th calamity have been wrong. Other than a really dicey global financial market, nothing untoward happened at 7:10 UTC on Oct 7th as predicted.So much for the cry of Chicken Little.
But I don't think we're out of the woods yet. While there hasn't been the much feared run on the banks, I don't advise putting your money back into the bank just yet. There's still tremendous turmoil in the market and despite the unprecedented efforts by the Fed and Treasury, the clogged up flow of capital hasn't been released yet. I'm certainly not trying to be gloom and doom here, but the world's markets are walking a very narrow tightrope and just about any unexpected news or another bank or major financial institution failure could start a domino effect that would turn very nasty. So, keep your money safe for a few more days, maybe as one person said, until the end of the month. You certainly won't be missing out on much interest and the peace of mind is worth ten times that much.
While I philosophically oppose the interventions being made into the free market the last few weeks by the Treasury and the Fed, I have to admit that they've done some pretty amazing scrambling. Without their interventions, we'd be in a whole lot worse situation. So, let's just hope that between the world's Central Banks there is enough wisdom and understanding of the immensely complicated and interwoven financial markets to make some wise and timely decisions. Unfortunately, this is one of those times when our very way of life really does depend upon it.
And don't even get me started on how important it is to elect McCain and Palin in 29 days! I hate to imagine the mess we'll be in if Obama, Pelosi and Reid have complete power in Washington!!
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Ok, It's Time to Say It!
I've been noodling about this post for a number of months now. I've started to write it several times but it just didn't seem the right time. I think now is the Right Time.
Some of you reading this will think I've totally lost it, that I'm several cards short of a full deck. Maybe I am. Maybe I'm gullible, easy to sway and convince. There's probably truth in all of the above.
But I'm as serious as a heart attack about this. Something's coming, something is coming soon that's going to be pretty darn bad and it's going to affect everyone of us. Sure you say, what with the Money Crisis we're in it's easy for me to say this today. But while the Money Crisis is surely part of the picture, what I'm talking about is bigger than that.
There's too many parts to this to narrow it down into one simple read. But I've been coming across information for months now about something predicted for the first of October. I haven't been looking for the information, I've not been googling trying to find more info. No, it's just in my normal, looking at this, checking out that, type of reading that I've been coming across increasing amounts of information about a major calamity/event that's to occur in early October. Some said the 7th or 8th. Some said October 14th. But all said early October.
This event will cause a major disruption in our daily lives. How that's going to manifest itself I don't know. I hope it's not a physical event, such as an earthquake, or a man made event such as a terrorist attack. It could just be that the Money Crisis comes to a head and the financial system implodes. Or it may be a combination of some of the above. I wish I could be more exact. But it really doesn't matter what the cause/catalyst is. The main thing is that you take some precautions.
So what does this mean and what should you do. First of all I think you should go to your bank Friday or Saturday, don't wait until Monday, and withdrawal as much cash as you would need to survive for a month or two. If you feel like taking more out, fine. Don't wipe out your 401k's and savings plans based on this crazy prediction, but you should have a goodly amount of cash on hand. Then, without using up all of the cash, go to the grocery and make sure you have enough food and water on hand to last a few weeks. Again, don't break the bank stocking up on food. But have a nice amount of storable food stashed away. Even if I'm wrong about this, you can always eat the food later. So make sure you're getting things you like to eat ;-). Also, keep your car's gas tank as close to full as you can.
I think what we are going to see next week is some type of calamity/event that will cause a closing/run on the banks that will cause them to close for a few days/weeks. That will cause a shortage of food, fuel, etc. It won't be pretty. So don't advertise that you have the supplies. Keep it to yourself. This isn't an end of the world type event, but when our normal way of life is interrupted it will get hairy for a while as people learn to adjust. So just be prepared.
So, by now you probably think I'm crazy! I hope I am. But I sincerely hope you will take my advice and do these few things. I really believe it's worth the effort in these uncertain times. Besides, if I'm wrong you can just put your money back in the bank, eat your food and go drive somewhere. But if I am right, you'll be glad you took the steps.
To give you a sense of some of the info I'm basing this crazy post on, go to these two sites.
This first link is to a transcript of a talk recorded in the last few days. http://www.projectcamelot.net/clif_high_half_past_human_26_sept_2008.html
This is from Project Camelot, a site that's all about getting information out that the MSM won't talk about. It could be total BS, and I do believe some of it is BS. But, overall I find Project Camelot and this particular piece hard to dispute, especially since it's not the first time I've seen this type of prognostication.
The second link is to a companion blog to the person interviewed in the above link. Again, take it with a grain of salt, but I believe there's enough truth there to cause me to write this blog.
http://www.urbansurvival.com/week.htm
Then to tie it all together with the banks, here's a piece from Forbes titled : The Mother of all Bank Runs.
Good luck and may God Bless You.
Some of you reading this will think I've totally lost it, that I'm several cards short of a full deck. Maybe I am. Maybe I'm gullible, easy to sway and convince. There's probably truth in all of the above.
But I'm as serious as a heart attack about this. Something's coming, something is coming soon that's going to be pretty darn bad and it's going to affect everyone of us. Sure you say, what with the Money Crisis we're in it's easy for me to say this today. But while the Money Crisis is surely part of the picture, what I'm talking about is bigger than that.
There's too many parts to this to narrow it down into one simple read. But I've been coming across information for months now about something predicted for the first of October. I haven't been looking for the information, I've not been googling trying to find more info. No, it's just in my normal, looking at this, checking out that, type of reading that I've been coming across increasing amounts of information about a major calamity/event that's to occur in early October. Some said the 7th or 8th. Some said October 14th. But all said early October.
This event will cause a major disruption in our daily lives. How that's going to manifest itself I don't know. I hope it's not a physical event, such as an earthquake, or a man made event such as a terrorist attack. It could just be that the Money Crisis comes to a head and the financial system implodes. Or it may be a combination of some of the above. I wish I could be more exact. But it really doesn't matter what the cause/catalyst is. The main thing is that you take some precautions.
So what does this mean and what should you do. First of all I think you should go to your bank Friday or Saturday, don't wait until Monday, and withdrawal as much cash as you would need to survive for a month or two. If you feel like taking more out, fine. Don't wipe out your 401k's and savings plans based on this crazy prediction, but you should have a goodly amount of cash on hand. Then, without using up all of the cash, go to the grocery and make sure you have enough food and water on hand to last a few weeks. Again, don't break the bank stocking up on food. But have a nice amount of storable food stashed away. Even if I'm wrong about this, you can always eat the food later. So make sure you're getting things you like to eat ;-). Also, keep your car's gas tank as close to full as you can.
I think what we are going to see next week is some type of calamity/event that will cause a closing/run on the banks that will cause them to close for a few days/weeks. That will cause a shortage of food, fuel, etc. It won't be pretty. So don't advertise that you have the supplies. Keep it to yourself. This isn't an end of the world type event, but when our normal way of life is interrupted it will get hairy for a while as people learn to adjust. So just be prepared.
So, by now you probably think I'm crazy! I hope I am. But I sincerely hope you will take my advice and do these few things. I really believe it's worth the effort in these uncertain times. Besides, if I'm wrong you can just put your money back in the bank, eat your food and go drive somewhere. But if I am right, you'll be glad you took the steps.
To give you a sense of some of the info I'm basing this crazy post on, go to these two sites.
This first link is to a transcript of a talk recorded in the last few days. http://www.projectcamelot.net/clif_high_half_past_human_26_sept_2008.html
This is from Project Camelot, a site that's all about getting information out that the MSM won't talk about. It could be total BS, and I do believe some of it is BS. But, overall I find Project Camelot and this particular piece hard to dispute, especially since it's not the first time I've seen this type of prognostication.
The second link is to a companion blog to the person interviewed in the above link. Again, take it with a grain of salt, but I believe there's enough truth there to cause me to write this blog.
http://www.urbansurvival.com/week.htm
Then to tie it all together with the banks, here's a piece from Forbes titled : The Mother of all Bank Runs.
Good luck and may God Bless You.
A Colorful Moon
Here's an enhanced photo of the moon. The natural colors found on the moon have been enhanced (the saturation levels increased) so that you can see what colors are found on the surface of the moon. So much for calling it the "Silvery Moon". What a beautiful place.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Even Bill Clinton admits the Democrats are to Blame for this Mess
Earlier today, Bill Clinton in an interview, in stark contrast to Pelosi's shrill denial of any Democratic complicity in the current Financial Crisis, said the following:
BILL CLINTON:...... I think the responsibility the Democrats have may rest more in resisting any efforts by Republicans in the Congress or by me when I was President to put some standards and tighten up a little on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Well said Bill. The MSM won't say much about this, but there have been numerous attempts to tighten up regulation of Fannie and Freddie for many years. But, along strict party lines, the Democrats have blocked any meaningful reforms of the two GSE's. That can't have anything to do with the fact that Senators Dodd and Obama have been the #1 & #2 recipients of campaign donations from Fannie and Freddie? Nah!
BILL CLINTON:...... I think the responsibility the Democrats have may rest more in resisting any efforts by Republicans in the Congress or by me when I was President to put some standards and tighten up a little on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Well said Bill. The MSM won't say much about this, but there have been numerous attempts to tighten up regulation of Fannie and Freddie for many years. But, along strict party lines, the Democrats have blocked any meaningful reforms of the two GSE's. That can't have anything to do with the fact that Senators Dodd and Obama have been the #1 & #2 recipients of campaign donations from Fannie and Freddie? Nah!
The Media's Bias for Obama is Overboard
Here's a great OpEd from Tony Blankley, Washington Times.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
The mainstream media have gone over the line and are now straight out propagandists for the Obama campaign. While they have been liberal and blinkered in their worldview for decades, in 2007-08 for the first time, the major media are consciously covering for one candidate for president and consciously knifing the other. This is no longer journalism — it is simply propaganda. (The American left-wing version of the Volkischer Beobachter cannot be far behind.) And as a result, we are less than seven weeks away from possibly electing a president who has not been thoroughly and even half way honestly presented to the country by our watchdogs — the press.
The image of Barack Obama that the press has presented is not a fair approximation of the real man. They have consciously ignored whole years in his life, and showed a lack of curiosity about such gaps that bespeaks a lack of journalistic instinct. Thus, the public image of Mr. Obama is of a "Man who never was." I take that phrase from a 1956 movie about a real life WWII British intelligence operation to trick the Germans into thinking the Allies were going to invade Greece, rather than Italy, in 1943. Operation "Mincemeat" involved the acquisition of a human corpse dressed as a Maj. William Martin, R.M. and put into the sea near Spain. Attached to the corpse was a brief-case containing fake letters suggesting that the Allied attack would be against Sardinia and Greece.
To make the operation credible, British intelligence created a fictional life for the corpse — a letter from a lover, tickets to a London theater, all the details of a life — but not the actual life of the dead young man whose corpse was being used. So, too, the man the media has presented to the nation as Mr. Obama is not the real man.
The mainstream media ruthlessly and endlessly repeats any McCain gaffes, while ignoring Obama gaffes. You have to go to weird little Internet sites to see all the stammering and stuttering that Mr. Obama needs before getting out a sentence fragment or two. But all you see on the networks is an eventual one or two clear sentences from Mr. Obama. Nor do you see Mr. Obama's ludicrous gaffe that Iran is a tiny country and no threat to us. Nor his 57 American states gaffe. Nor his forgetting, if he ever knew, that Russia has a veto in the United Nations. Nor his whining and puerile "come on" when he is being challenged. This is the kind of editing one would expect from Goebbels' disciples, not Cronkite's.
More appalling, NBC's "Saturday Night Live" suggested that Gov. Sarah Palin's husband had sex with his own daughters. That scene was written with the assistance of Al Franken, Democratic Party candidate for Senate in Minnesota. Talk about incest.
But worse than all the unfair and distorted reporting and image projecting, is the shocking gaps in Mr. Obama's life that are not reported at all. The major media simply has not reported on Mr. Obama's two years at Columbia University in New York, where, among other things, he lived a mere quarter mile from former terrorist Bill Ayers— after which they both ended up as neighbors and associates in Chicago. Mr. Obama denies more than a passing relationship with Mr. Ayers. Should the media be curious? In only two weeks the media has focused on all the colleges Mrs. Palin has attended, her husband's driving habits 20 years ago and the close criticism of Mrs. Palin's mayoral political opponents. But in two years they haven't bothered to see how close Mr. Obama was with the terrorist Ayers.
Nor have the media paid any serious attention to Mr. Obama's rise in Chicago politics — how did honest Obama rise in the famously sordid Chicago political machine with the full support of Boss Daley? Despite the great — and unflattering details on Mr. Obama's Chicago years presented in David Freddoso's new book, the mainstream media continues to ignore both the facts and the book. It took a British publication, the Economist, to give Mr. Freddoso's book a review with fair comment.
The public image of Mr. Obama as an idealistic, post-race, post-partisan, well-spoken and honest young man with the wisdom and courage befitting a great national leader is a confection spun by a willing conspiracy of Mr. Obama, his publicist David Axelrod and most of the senior editors, producers and reporters of the national media.
Perhaps that is why the National Journal's respected correspondent Stuart Taylor has written that "the media can no longer be trusted to provide accurate and fair campaign reporting and analysis." That conspiracy has not only photo-shopped out all of Mr. Obama's imperfections (and dirtied up his opponent Mr. McCain's image), but it has put most of his questionable history down the memory hole.
The public will be voting based on the idealized image of the man who never was. If he wins, however, we will be governed by the sunken, cynical man Mr. Obama really is. One can only hope that the senior journalists will be judged as harshly for their professional misconduct as Wall Street's leaders currently are for their failings.
Tony Blankley is a syndicated columnist.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
The mainstream media have gone over the line and are now straight out propagandists for the Obama campaign. While they have been liberal and blinkered in their worldview for decades, in 2007-08 for the first time, the major media are consciously covering for one candidate for president and consciously knifing the other. This is no longer journalism — it is simply propaganda. (The American left-wing version of the Volkischer Beobachter cannot be far behind.) And as a result, we are less than seven weeks away from possibly electing a president who has not been thoroughly and even half way honestly presented to the country by our watchdogs — the press.
The image of Barack Obama that the press has presented is not a fair approximation of the real man. They have consciously ignored whole years in his life, and showed a lack of curiosity about such gaps that bespeaks a lack of journalistic instinct. Thus, the public image of Mr. Obama is of a "Man who never was." I take that phrase from a 1956 movie about a real life WWII British intelligence operation to trick the Germans into thinking the Allies were going to invade Greece, rather than Italy, in 1943. Operation "Mincemeat" involved the acquisition of a human corpse dressed as a Maj. William Martin, R.M. and put into the sea near Spain. Attached to the corpse was a brief-case containing fake letters suggesting that the Allied attack would be against Sardinia and Greece.
To make the operation credible, British intelligence created a fictional life for the corpse — a letter from a lover, tickets to a London theater, all the details of a life — but not the actual life of the dead young man whose corpse was being used. So, too, the man the media has presented to the nation as Mr. Obama is not the real man.
The mainstream media ruthlessly and endlessly repeats any McCain gaffes, while ignoring Obama gaffes. You have to go to weird little Internet sites to see all the stammering and stuttering that Mr. Obama needs before getting out a sentence fragment or two. But all you see on the networks is an eventual one or two clear sentences from Mr. Obama. Nor do you see Mr. Obama's ludicrous gaffe that Iran is a tiny country and no threat to us. Nor his 57 American states gaffe. Nor his forgetting, if he ever knew, that Russia has a veto in the United Nations. Nor his whining and puerile "come on" when he is being challenged. This is the kind of editing one would expect from Goebbels' disciples, not Cronkite's.
More appalling, NBC's "Saturday Night Live" suggested that Gov. Sarah Palin's husband had sex with his own daughters. That scene was written with the assistance of Al Franken, Democratic Party candidate for Senate in Minnesota. Talk about incest.
But worse than all the unfair and distorted reporting and image projecting, is the shocking gaps in Mr. Obama's life that are not reported at all. The major media simply has not reported on Mr. Obama's two years at Columbia University in New York, where, among other things, he lived a mere quarter mile from former terrorist Bill Ayers— after which they both ended up as neighbors and associates in Chicago. Mr. Obama denies more than a passing relationship with Mr. Ayers. Should the media be curious? In only two weeks the media has focused on all the colleges Mrs. Palin has attended, her husband's driving habits 20 years ago and the close criticism of Mrs. Palin's mayoral political opponents. But in two years they haven't bothered to see how close Mr. Obama was with the terrorist Ayers.
Nor have the media paid any serious attention to Mr. Obama's rise in Chicago politics — how did honest Obama rise in the famously sordid Chicago political machine with the full support of Boss Daley? Despite the great — and unflattering details on Mr. Obama's Chicago years presented in David Freddoso's new book, the mainstream media continues to ignore both the facts and the book. It took a British publication, the Economist, to give Mr. Freddoso's book a review with fair comment.
The public image of Mr. Obama as an idealistic, post-race, post-partisan, well-spoken and honest young man with the wisdom and courage befitting a great national leader is a confection spun by a willing conspiracy of Mr. Obama, his publicist David Axelrod and most of the senior editors, producers and reporters of the national media.
Perhaps that is why the National Journal's respected correspondent Stuart Taylor has written that "the media can no longer be trusted to provide accurate and fair campaign reporting and analysis." That conspiracy has not only photo-shopped out all of Mr. Obama's imperfections (and dirtied up his opponent Mr. McCain's image), but it has put most of his questionable history down the memory hole.
The public will be voting based on the idealized image of the man who never was. If he wins, however, we will be governed by the sunken, cynical man Mr. Obama really is. One can only hope that the senior journalists will be judged as harshly for their professional misconduct as Wall Street's leaders currently are for their failings.
Tony Blankley is a syndicated columnist.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Not much to say......
Not really sure what to say right now. The massive bailout by the Treasury isn't a great thing, but it's the only thing they can do right now. It's going to be so politicized by the Dems that it may not get done fast enough and may have so many add-ons that it'll end up not doing enough.
The real issue out there are the Credit Default Swaps. They are the big unknown that could really bring down the house of cards. There are Trillions of $ in swaps just sitting out there waiting to explode. It's crazy. It's crazy that supposedly sane, professional, wise businessmen let it get this crazy and so close to collapse. As I've done more reading on the situation I'm even more flabbergasted. Companies were using the Swaps as insurance against bad credit decisions, and the Swaps are nothing more than some unregulated company saying they'll pay you if your credit decision goes bad. But they don't have, never had, didn't think they'd ever have, enough money to pay off the Swap. What a scam.
Well anyway, let's hope the Treasury bailout will come through fast enough and with enough teeth to settle the markets down, or else we're in for a rough ride.
The real issue out there are the Credit Default Swaps. They are the big unknown that could really bring down the house of cards. There are Trillions of $ in swaps just sitting out there waiting to explode. It's crazy. It's crazy that supposedly sane, professional, wise businessmen let it get this crazy and so close to collapse. As I've done more reading on the situation I'm even more flabbergasted. Companies were using the Swaps as insurance against bad credit decisions, and the Swaps are nothing more than some unregulated company saying they'll pay you if your credit decision goes bad. But they don't have, never had, didn't think they'd ever have, enough money to pay off the Swap. What a scam.
Well anyway, let's hope the Treasury bailout will come through fast enough and with enough teeth to settle the markets down, or else we're in for a rough ride.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
This Is Insanity! Again!
Boy, what a ride! America's financial markets are reeling from unprecedented events that just won't stop.
- Bear Sterns is propped up by the Fed.
- Fannie and Freddie are taken over by the Feds.
- Lehman Bros is allowed to fail and go bankrupt. Barclays buys up the pieces.
- Merrill Lynch is sold to Bank of America.
- AIG, the worlds largest insurer is given a bridge loan by the Feds for $85 billion to keep it open.
- The Russian stock market is closed for 2 days due to panic in their market.
- The Fed has had to inject 10's, maybe 100's of billions into the system to keep banks afloat due to liquidity issues as all of the financial institutions are hoarding cash. Same with other foreign central banks throughout the world.
- The two remaining US Investment Banks, Morgan Stanley and Goldmans, despite positive earnings reports and very positive overall positions, see their stock continue to tumble and are looking to merge with someone to help make it through this.
- Gold goes over $850 and Treasury's are flooded as investors seek safe havens.
What does this mean? What's going to happen and when is the bleeding going to stop?
Looks like everyone in the financial markets are running scared right now, with no confidence that the problems, whatever they may be, will be corrected soon. The markets totally depend on confidence and trust and perceptions. Right now the perception is that the popcorn is about to hit the fan.
How deep will this go?
I'm just an uneducated observer, but it looks to me that while there is plenty of cash in the system, with a lot of strong companies and fundamentals that in normal times would bolster the economies, it looks like the market is going to go further downward until they perceive the bottom has been reached. And it ain't going to be pretty.
I don't think there will be runs on banks and the like. But I do think the real estate crisis in America will deepen and will cause a lot of job losses, a lot of homes lost and the accompanying problems.
We'll come out of this, we always will, but now is the time to be a little more cautious and to watch things just a little closer.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
This is Insanity!
My daughter, a second grade teacher at a wonderful elementary school in Atlanta, GA called me the other day on her way home from school. She was really upset and needed to vent her anger and frustration.
She had just heard in a teacher's meeting with the school's administration that her school was being sued by a civil rights group, via the ACLU, for not providing enough bilingual assistance to the Hispanic speaking parents of children at her school.
In other words, they were being sued to force them to go to the expense and trouble of bringing in translators to better communicate with the parents who don't speak English!
When is this insanity going to stop? My daughter was correct in being incensed and upset. Here are illegal immigrants, whose children our tax dollars are used to educate, suing us so that we have to pay to accommodate their unwillingness or inability to learn the language of the country they are living in illegally!
I'm sorry, but this accommodating attitude by our do-good liberal friends, who see no bottom to the barrel of taxpayer money to fund their plans and schemes to make sure NO ONE is ever left out, is going too far. When are we in America going to stand up and shout "Enough is Enough"? When are our politicians going to get the backbone to stand up to the liberals and their supportive media to demand some common sense?
I'll tell you when. When enough of us support and help elect at the grassroots level the type of government servants that understand this and are willing to take the punches necessary to start making change. Change that's truly common sense and for the better. So start learning about you local politicians, especially the ones on the school boards and commissions. That post is as important as the President in both making the change needed to get our country back on the right track and in really teaching our children properly. Choose your representatives well!
She had just heard in a teacher's meeting with the school's administration that her school was being sued by a civil rights group, via the ACLU, for not providing enough bilingual assistance to the Hispanic speaking parents of children at her school.
In other words, they were being sued to force them to go to the expense and trouble of bringing in translators to better communicate with the parents who don't speak English!
When is this insanity going to stop? My daughter was correct in being incensed and upset. Here are illegal immigrants, whose children our tax dollars are used to educate, suing us so that we have to pay to accommodate their unwillingness or inability to learn the language of the country they are living in illegally!
I'm sorry, but this accommodating attitude by our do-good liberal friends, who see no bottom to the barrel of taxpayer money to fund their plans and schemes to make sure NO ONE is ever left out, is going too far. When are we in America going to stand up and shout "Enough is Enough"? When are our politicians going to get the backbone to stand up to the liberals and their supportive media to demand some common sense?
I'll tell you when. When enough of us support and help elect at the grassroots level the type of government servants that understand this and are willing to take the punches necessary to start making change. Change that's truly common sense and for the better. So start learning about you local politicians, especially the ones on the school boards and commissions. That post is as important as the President in both making the change needed to get our country back on the right track and in really teaching our children properly. Choose your representatives well!
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
A Different take on Woodward's "A War Within"
Bob Woodward's new book, his fourth on the Bush presidency, is titled "A War Within", and has as a central premise that Bush didn't lead the Iraqi war effort well, even the Surge. So even though the Surge is seen as a success, Bush is not given any credit for it. Not unusual for the Bush-hating media.
To put the book into perspective, here's a nice opinion piece by William McGurn in the Wall Street Journal. It's nice to see another angle to the story. As always, there are two sides to an argument. Unfortunately, our media generally sees only one side to Bush.
Another thing. You have to wonder why Bush keeps allowing Woodward access to him and the White House after all those things he's written about Bush. Maybe Bush really doesn't have anything to hide and wants to get the information out there, even if it is in the form of a hit piece.
To put the book into perspective, here's a nice opinion piece by William McGurn in the Wall Street Journal. It's nice to see another angle to the story. As always, there are two sides to an argument. Unfortunately, our media generally sees only one side to Bush.
Another thing. You have to wonder why Bush keeps allowing Woodward access to him and the White House after all those things he's written about Bush. Maybe Bush really doesn't have anything to hide and wants to get the information out there, even if it is in the form of a hit piece.
Monday, September 8, 2008
Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Mortgage Mess
The mortgage mess is getting deeper and messier. I'm really not sure where the bottom is and how long before we hit it. The take-over of Fannie and Freddie could be a turning point for the better, but I'm afraid it's really just a short reprieve before we experience a lot more pain. I hate to be pessimistic, it's really not my nature, but it really looks serious.
For those of you trying to get your hands around exactly why we're in this mess, what happened or didn't happen that caused this, here is the best synopsis of the mortgage mess I've seen to date. It's courtesy of a great blog - Trusted Advisor by Charles Green. It was written in Oct 07
We are still in a financial pickle triggered by the subprime mortgage meltdown.
The mess is becoming clearer. What isn't clear is—what the hell happened, and how did we get here in the first place?
First, the present.
Two excellent articles describe the situation as of 2007.
The Wall Street Journal follows the sorry path of a single mortgage, from a truckdriver in Denver who loses his job and condo and turns suicidal, to his mortgage's eventual home in the mutual fund portfolio of a Tennessee financial hotshot gone cold (though probably not suicidal).
Fortune dissects just one of those subprime funds—Goldman Sachs’ GSAMP Trust 2006-S3, a fund of second mortgages—tranche by tranche, detailing the infectious rot of loans gone bad (and defining “tranche” on the way).
At every step these articles read like the Wild West. No controls; no principles; no overview. You can’t help but ask: how did things get this way?
Set the wayback machine to 1995, Sherman.
To a Harvard Business School Press book, The Global Financial System: a Functional Perspective. It is a functional analysis of the financial system by a Who’s Who of financial academia, including Dwight Crane, Kenneth Froot and Robert Merton.
Crane’s Chapter (“The Transfer of Economic Resources”) describes the history of mortgage securitization. Mortgage loans in most countries were historically made by local institutions. This system encouraged risk management—the local S&L knew its borrowers, and owned its loans. It also meant high loan cost, and immobile funds. A low risk, but high cost, system. A classic cottage industry.
Securitization aimed to reduce cost by increasing efficiency—the classic Western formula for economic development. Interestingly, the government—via Fannie Mae and Ginnie Mae—led the way to securitizing mortgages; they set product standards and made guarantees, and became models for private-sector securitization.
Securitization made mortgage lending a national, even global, market. It made more money available, at lower rates, with greater accessibility. It did what it set out to do.
The shift was dramatic. Local savings institutions held 58% of outstanding US mortgages in 1950—that dropped to 15% in 1993. And by 1993, 63% of mortgages were securitized.
But what about risk?
The local model kept risk low through long-term relationships. Lenders knew borrowers personally, over a long time; lenders kept loans for the long-term; and borrowers owned houses for the long-term.
Here is Crane in 1995, explaining why risk management was under control in a securitized world:
In the modern market a) the criteria for loan approval are easily spelled out in terms of appropriate loan-to-value ratios and other variables; b) criteria used for mortgages to be put in the pool are also clearly specified, and c) there is an audit process that checks for compliance. In addition, the issuer of the securities has an incentive to manage the quality of mortgages put into the pool because d) a good reputation allows future deals to be done…[and] e) the buyers have an incentive to maintain the property since they retain ownership.
Fast forward to 2007.
For those of you trying to get your hands around exactly why we're in this mess, what happened or didn't happen that caused this, here is the best synopsis of the mortgage mess I've seen to date. It's courtesy of a great blog - Trusted Advisor by Charles Green. It was written in Oct 07
We are still in a financial pickle triggered by the subprime mortgage meltdown.
The mess is becoming clearer. What isn't clear is—what the hell happened, and how did we get here in the first place?
First, the present.
Two excellent articles describe the situation as of 2007.
The Wall Street Journal follows the sorry path of a single mortgage, from a truckdriver in Denver who loses his job and condo and turns suicidal, to his mortgage's eventual home in the mutual fund portfolio of a Tennessee financial hotshot gone cold (though probably not suicidal).
Fortune dissects just one of those subprime funds—Goldman Sachs’ GSAMP Trust 2006-S3, a fund of second mortgages—tranche by tranche, detailing the infectious rot of loans gone bad (and defining “tranche” on the way).
At every step these articles read like the Wild West. No controls; no principles; no overview. You can’t help but ask: how did things get this way?
Set the wayback machine to 1995, Sherman.
To a Harvard Business School Press book, The Global Financial System: a Functional Perspective. It is a functional analysis of the financial system by a Who’s Who of financial academia, including Dwight Crane, Kenneth Froot and Robert Merton.
Crane’s Chapter (“The Transfer of Economic Resources”) describes the history of mortgage securitization. Mortgage loans in most countries were historically made by local institutions. This system encouraged risk management—the local S&L knew its borrowers, and owned its loans. It also meant high loan cost, and immobile funds. A low risk, but high cost, system. A classic cottage industry.
Securitization aimed to reduce cost by increasing efficiency—the classic Western formula for economic development. Interestingly, the government—via Fannie Mae and Ginnie Mae—led the way to securitizing mortgages; they set product standards and made guarantees, and became models for private-sector securitization.
Securitization made mortgage lending a national, even global, market. It made more money available, at lower rates, with greater accessibility. It did what it set out to do.
The shift was dramatic. Local savings institutions held 58% of outstanding US mortgages in 1950—that dropped to 15% in 1993. And by 1993, 63% of mortgages were securitized.
But what about risk?
The local model kept risk low through long-term relationships. Lenders knew borrowers personally, over a long time; lenders kept loans for the long-term; and borrowers owned houses for the long-term.
Here is Crane in 1995, explaining why risk management was under control in a securitized world:
In the modern market a) the criteria for loan approval are easily spelled out in terms of appropriate loan-to-value ratios and other variables; b) criteria used for mortgages to be put in the pool are also clearly specified, and c) there is an audit process that checks for compliance. In addition, the issuer of the securities has an incentive to manage the quality of mortgages put into the pool because d) a good reputation allows future deals to be done…[and] e) the buyers have an incentive to maintain the property since they retain ownership.
Fast forward to 2007.
- Loan-to-value ratios may have been spelled out, but no one cared—Goldman's GSAMP trust had an average loan-to-value ratios of 99%;
- Criteria for loans to be put in the pool is anything but clear;
- 58% of the mortgages in the GSAMP product were no-doc mortgages. The “audit” process had defaulted to S&P and Moody’s, both of whom were either wildly deluded or denied their responsibility for the role—or both;
- If Goldman’s incentive to manage portfolio quality was its reputation, then its reputation was being priced awfully low. On the other hand, the short-sale bets Goldman (successfully) made against the very sort of subprime mortgage pools it was peddling looks like pretty powerful incentive. Why invest in managing a reputation when you can lay off the risk just by placing a bet against your own team?
- Rather than “maintaining” an owned property, many buyers were in it to flip it.
How far apart had things fallen? The average equity held by the borrowers in Goldman’s GSAMP Trust 2006-S3 was 0.71%. That’s right—the ratio of the loan to the value of the underlying property was 99.29%. Picture you taking out a 99.29% mortgage.
As Fortune puts it:
A total of 93% [of GSAMP] was rated investment grade. That's despite the fact that this issue is backed by second mortgages of dubious quality on homes in which the borrowers (most of whose income and financial assertions weren't vetted by anyone) had less than 1% equity and on which GSAMP couldn't effectively foreclose.
Very possibly so, even given the dislocations; remember the S&L crisis? Mortgage securitization helped replace that mess.
But good grief, couldn’t we have done better? Yes. In retrospect, the system assumed that better information flow would enable trust.
It didn’t happen.
Financial theorists tend to describe capital markets in terms of information. If you can package information, subject it to standards and audits and controls, then you can “trust” it.
That emperor is looking naked. Trust is not about information alone. It is about people, and in particular about people’s relationships to other people.
That’s what made the old system work. For those who think trust is scalable through information alone, the subprime crisis should be sobering food for thought.
Data won't kill trust. But a steady diet of data alone will starve trust soon enough.
The Issue Obama Wishes Would Go Away!
Here's an Ad that Obama doesn't want you to see. And this is one of the crucial pivot points about Obama and what he really believes. If you're serious about voting for Obama, you need to see this first.
End of the World? Or Much Ado about Nothing?
The Large Hadron Collider in Bern, Switzerland is going to be tested this week. There's a lot of noise out there about their tests causing the End of the World because they are going to try to produce mini Black Holes as part of their testing. Could happen, but probably won't. But it makes for nice doomsday fodder for the media. Nothing quite like a nice Mankind is Doomed story!
For those of you not familiar with the LHC and just exactly what it does and what the fuss is all about, here's a cute rap video made by a young lady researcher at the LHC. If science was taught like this in school we'd probably have a few less dropouts!
For those of you not familiar with the LHC and just exactly what it does and what the fuss is all about, here's a cute rap video made by a young lady researcher at the LHC. If science was taught like this in school we'd probably have a few less dropouts!
I couldn't load the video, so here's the link to the Large Hadron Rap!
The Attack Blows up in their Face
Watching the RNC last week and the wonderful story about Sarah Palin, I could only watch in amazement and sometimes anger at the pillaging she was receiving by the liberal bloggers, media and pundits. Their attacks were totally over the top and I didn't think it was just me feeling that way.
Well, today I found a very illuminating article from 'over the pond' about the left's attack and why it's blown up in their face. It's a short read, but one that should be read by any student of politics or human nature. Enjoy it!
Well, today I found a very illuminating article from 'over the pond' about the left's attack and why it's blown up in their face. It's a short read, but one that should be read by any student of politics or human nature. Enjoy it!
Saturday, September 6, 2008
An 'aaah!' Moment
Here's a photo that's sure to bring out the "aaaah's". It was taken by a man in Pennsylvania who noticed the baby fawn on the couch by his dog. Apparently there are a lot of deer in the area and for some reason this deer followed the dog into the house through the doggie door. After he took the photo the man escorted the fawn back outside.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Obama: I Was for Mayors Before I was Against Them
An excerpt from Barack Obama's address to the U.S. Conference of Mayors from June of this year:
You see, back in those days, we weren't just focused on changing federal policies in Washington. And we weren't just focused on changing state policies in Springfield. No, we were focused on the place we knew could actually do the most, the fastest, to make a difference in our community — and that was the Mayor's Office.
It was the Mayor's Office we turned to when we wanted to open a job training center to put people back to work. It was the Mayor's Office we turned to when we wanted to make sure city housing was safe to live in. And it's the Mayors Office that Americans across this country rely on every day.
You may get more than your fair share of the blame sometimes. You may not always be appreciated. But when a disaster strikes — a Katrina, a shooting, or a six-alarm blaze — it's City Hall we lean on, it's City Hall we call first, and City Hall we depend on to get us through tough times. Because whether it's a small town or a big city, the government that people count on most is the one that's closest to the people.
And it's precisely because you're on the front lines in our communities that you know what happens when Washington fails to do its job. It may be easy for some in Washington to remain out of touch with the consequences of the decisions that are made there — but not you.
You know what happens when Washington puts out economic policies that work for Wall Street but not Main Street — because it's your towns and cities that get hit when factories close their doors, and workers lose their jobs, and families lose their homes because of an unscrupulous lender. That's why you need a partner in the White House.
You know what happens when Washington makes promises it doesn't keep and fails to fully fund No Child Left Behind — because it's your teachers who are overburdened, your teachers who aren't getting the support they need, and your teachers who are forced to teach to the test, instead of giving students the skills to compete in our global economy. That's why you need a partner in the White House.
You know what happens when Washington succumbs to petty partisanship and fails to pass comprehensive immigration reform — because it's your communities that are forced to take immigration enforcement into their own hands, your cities' services that are stretched, and your neighborhoods that are seeing rising cultural and economic tensions. That's why you need a partner in the White House.
You know what happens when Washington listens to big oil and gas companies and blocks real energy reform — because it's your budgets that are being pinched by high energy costs, and your schools that are cutting back on textbooks to keep their buses running; it's the lots in your towns and cities that are brownfields. That's why you need a partner in the White House.
And that partner is John McCain and Govenor Palin!
You see, back in those days, we weren't just focused on changing federal policies in Washington. And we weren't just focused on changing state policies in Springfield. No, we were focused on the place we knew could actually do the most, the fastest, to make a difference in our community — and that was the Mayor's Office.
It was the Mayor's Office we turned to when we wanted to open a job training center to put people back to work. It was the Mayor's Office we turned to when we wanted to make sure city housing was safe to live in. And it's the Mayors Office that Americans across this country rely on every day.
You may get more than your fair share of the blame sometimes. You may not always be appreciated. But when a disaster strikes — a Katrina, a shooting, or a six-alarm blaze — it's City Hall we lean on, it's City Hall we call first, and City Hall we depend on to get us through tough times. Because whether it's a small town or a big city, the government that people count on most is the one that's closest to the people.
And it's precisely because you're on the front lines in our communities that you know what happens when Washington fails to do its job. It may be easy for some in Washington to remain out of touch with the consequences of the decisions that are made there — but not you.
You know what happens when Washington puts out economic policies that work for Wall Street but not Main Street — because it's your towns and cities that get hit when factories close their doors, and workers lose their jobs, and families lose their homes because of an unscrupulous lender. That's why you need a partner in the White House.
You know what happens when Washington makes promises it doesn't keep and fails to fully fund No Child Left Behind — because it's your teachers who are overburdened, your teachers who aren't getting the support they need, and your teachers who are forced to teach to the test, instead of giving students the skills to compete in our global economy. That's why you need a partner in the White House.
You know what happens when Washington succumbs to petty partisanship and fails to pass comprehensive immigration reform — because it's your communities that are forced to take immigration enforcement into their own hands, your cities' services that are stretched, and your neighborhoods that are seeing rising cultural and economic tensions. That's why you need a partner in the White House.
You know what happens when Washington listens to big oil and gas companies and blocks real energy reform — because it's your budgets that are being pinched by high energy costs, and your schools that are cutting back on textbooks to keep their buses running; it's the lots in your towns and cities that are brownfields. That's why you need a partner in the White House.
And that partner is John McCain and Govenor Palin!
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
We've Got Ourselves Boxed In!
I came across an insightful but disturbing article on the situation we've gotten ourselves into regarding the resurging Russians and our military focus on the Islamic-extremists. This is from Stratfor, an intelligence gathering organization that spits out analysis of Geo-political issues and events. If you're interested, you can subscribe to a weekly email analysis from them like I did. So far, they're analysis has been pretty right on.
If you don't want to spend the time reading the full article, the Cliff-notes version is that Russia is taking advantage of our stretched military resources to reassert influence over some of their former Soviet Union countries, such as Georgia. They know that we won't/can't pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan to confront them and make them pull back. So we're going to have to sit back and watch the ol' Russian bear start to rumble again and become a thorn in our side for decades.
The article didn't mention this, but I'm saying that this is just one more of a million reasons why we cannot elect that lightweight Obama as President. The Russians would eat his lunch!
If you don't want to spend the time reading the full article, the Cliff-notes version is that Russia is taking advantage of our stretched military resources to reassert influence over some of their former Soviet Union countries, such as Georgia. They know that we won't/can't pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan to confront them and make them pull back. So we're going to have to sit back and watch the ol' Russian bear start to rumble again and become a thorn in our side for decades.
The article didn't mention this, but I'm saying that this is just one more of a million reasons why we cannot elect that lightweight Obama as President. The Russians would eat his lunch!
Thursday, August 28, 2008
I'll be back soon
For those loyal followers of this blog, (and I thank both of you!) I'll have a new post up soon. I've been knee deep in work on a new venture and it's been taking up my blogging time.
But I have a lot I want to post about the current events and to update all of you on some new exciting info I've come across.
So please be patient, and loyal, and I'll have a new post or two this holiday weekend.
But I have a lot I want to post about the current events and to update all of you on some new exciting info I've come across.
So please be patient, and loyal, and I'll have a new post or two this holiday weekend.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Armada build up in Middle East
Something you haven't heard much about in the MSM is the fact that the United States, along with Britain, France and other supportive countries are quietly assembling the largest armada of ships in the Middle East since the start of the Gulf War.
You know what a supercarrier with it's squadrons of strike jets are for. What you may not know is the expeditionary carriers have USMC Harrier jump jets and an assortment of assault and attack helicopters. The Expeditionary Strike Groups have powerful USMC Expeditionary Units with amphibious armor and ground forces trained for operating in shallow waters and in seizures of land assets, such as Qeshm Island (a 50 mile long island off of Bandar Abbas in the Strait of Hormuz and headquarters off the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps)."
Already in the Gulf region from the US are the nuclear supercarriers USS Abraham Lincoln and USS Harry Truman, and the expeditionary carrier USS Peleliu.
You know what a supercarrier with it's squadrons of strike jets are for. What you may not know is the expeditionary carriers have USMC Harrier jump jets and an assortment of assault and attack helicopters. The Expeditionary Strike Groups have powerful USMC Expeditionary Units with amphibious armor and ground forces trained for operating in shallow waters and in seizures of land assets, such as Qeshm Island (a 50 mile long island off of Bandar Abbas in the Strait of Hormuz and headquarters off the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps)." Joining them will be the supercarriers USS Ronald Reagan and USS Theodore Roosevelt and the expeditionary carrier USS Iwo Jima along with the British Royal Navy carrier HMS Ark Royal. The Roosevelt, Iwo Jima and Ark Royal are fresh from the recent Joint Task Force Exercise, Operation Brimstone, a war games exercise in the north Atlantic which was specifically designed to practice a naval blockade against Iran.
So when all is said and done, we'll have 4 supercarrier strike groups, 2 expeditionary carrier strike groups, a British carrier group and an assortment of multinational warships from France, Australia, Pakistan, Britain and others setting up in the Middle East waters, basically surrounding Iran.
This is a major buildup that combined with the activity between Russian and Georgia, is beginning to look ominous.
Monday, August 11, 2008
Something's not right in Georgia
There's more going on in the Caucasus region then we're being told. Why would Georgia, a small nation, decide to bitch slap the Russian bear?
The Georgians had to have known they had no chance militarily against the Russians? They knew that Putin would react! Swiftly and harshly! So what's going on here?
Here are some of the facts:
The Georgians had to have known they had no chance militarily against the Russians? They knew that Putin would react! Swiftly and harshly! So what's going on here?
Here are some of the facts:
- Georgia is a big ally of the US.
- Georgia and the US are trying to get Georgia into NATO
- Putin and the Russians see NATO (in this post cold war era) as a military threat to Russia
- The US and Georgia completed joint military exercises in Georgia just a few days ago
- Russia conducted "anti-terrorist" exercises just across the Georgian border a few day ago
- There is a major oil pipeline going through Georgia that supplies oil to Israel
- Georgia attacked first, going after civilians in the separatist regions that are friendly to Russia.
Those are some weird facts, that don't add up. I really don't have an hypothesis of why this is going down, but it's troubling to me. Somebody pushed somebody into a stupid, losing conflict for some reason that's yet to be seen.
I may be wrong, I hope so, but this doesn't feel like just a passing regional conflict. I think we all should watch it closely to see what develops.
Michael Phelps, Mark Spitz and Bilbo Baggins
If you're not a fan of the Lord of the Rings, then this post probably won't make much sense.
I was watching the Olympics coverage last night and saw an interview of Mark Spitz, the Olympic swimmer whose record of 7 gold medals in a single Olympics is being chased by Michael Phelps in Beijing. For those that may not know much about Mark Spitz (like those that weren't even born when he captured the gold medals in Munich in 1972) he is considered one of the greatest athletes of his time, having won every event he entered in the 1972 Olympics and setting a world record in each. It was an amazing feat, not matched in decades, which makes Phelps attempt to break it that much more captivating.
But despite Spitz's fame in the pool, he unfortunately was also remembered as someone that tried too hard to capitalize on his Olympic fame. Americans are funny, we like a hero, a great 
athlete, but we want them to have some humility, to eat a little of the humble pie. Mark Spitz appeared to have none of that and quickly turned off an admiring nation. His movie-star good looks were loved by the ladies, but he never captured the love and hearts of America. He was too brash, too cocky, he seemed to have the attitude that we should be honored to be in his presence. Of course I never met the man personally, so this may not be his true nature, but given his lack of success in his post-Olympic period, I'm confident many folks agreed with my feeling toward the Olympic champion.
athlete, but we want them to have some humility, to eat a little of the humble pie. Mark Spitz appeared to have none of that and quickly turned off an admiring nation. His movie-star good looks were loved by the ladies, but he never captured the love and hearts of America. He was too brash, too cocky, he seemed to have the attitude that we should be honored to be in his presence. Of course I never met the man personally, so this may not be his true nature, but given his lack of success in his post-Olympic period, I'm confident many folks agreed with my feeling toward the Olympic champion.So seeing him on TV, his iconic black mustache and long hair replaced with short salt & pepper hair and sans a mustache was a little odd. The interviewer was asking him the obvious questions about Phelps quest and how it makes Spitz feel to possibly see his long-standing record fall. Spitz response was interesting. He looked tired, tired of the questions, tired of the notoriety, tired of the burden of being the only man to have won 7 gold medals in a single Olympics. He said he was ready to pass the title on to Phelps. To let him carry the charge now. To deal with the media, the pressure, the demands on his time.
But at the same time he had this underlying tone of never wanting to give up the title, of loving the fame, of having grown old with the comfort, the sense of being special, having something that no one else had. It had defined Mark Spitz, his life, his world and while he knew it was time, that he needed to let it go for the betterment of others, to let someone else carry the flag now, you could see a deep, deep part of him never wanted it to happen. It was noticeable in his eyes.
As an ardent Lord of the Rings fan, it struck me oddly reminiscent of Bilbo Baggins. the hobbit from the Shire, and his relationship with the Ring. Bilbo, having found the Ring deep in the heart
of the Misty Mountains, was forever bound to it and it's mysterious powers. He used it's powers to help him and his friends slay Smaug the Dragon and thus win an immense fortune, which allowed him to return to the Shire a wealthy man. There he led a good life, but was always burdened by the presence of the Ring. He could never escape it's tentacles. He loved it and the pleasures it brought, but also knew there would come a time when he'd have to let it go. It began to weigh heavy on him and he longed to be out from under the power of it.
of the Misty Mountains, was forever bound to it and it's mysterious powers. He used it's powers to help him and his friends slay Smaug the Dragon and thus win an immense fortune, which allowed him to return to the Shire a wealthy man. There he led a good life, but was always burdened by the presence of the Ring. He could never escape it's tentacles. He loved it and the pleasures it brought, but also knew there would come a time when he'd have to let it go. It began to weigh heavy on him and he longed to be out from under the power of it. Thus when Gandalf, the Wizard came and had Bilbo give the Ring to Frodo to be destroyed, he understood this on a logical, outward level. He acknowledged and supported the decision. But when it came time to actually give up the ring, to physically turn it over to Frodo, he couldn't. He fought it and a mean, terrible side of him came out. Only by Gandalf exerting his power and demanding it did he give it up.
That's what I was seeing in Mark Spitz's eyes and tone. He was like Bilbo, knowing it is time to pass his burdensome fame to Phelps, but deep down not ever wanting to let go of it. I find it fascinating how close to Tolkiens tale is the real life drama playing out today.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Lone Survivor
I just finished reading Lone Survivor, the Eyewitness account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heros of SEAL Team 10. Everyone needs to read this to understand and appreciate the sacrifices being made by our young men and women everyday in order that this country can remain free and safe from terror.This is an extremely emotional book as it recounts in excruciating detail the fatal operation in which 3 SEALs were lost in a battle in Afghanistan, along with another 16 SEALs and Rangers who died trying to rescue them. It was the largest loss of life in SEAL history. But it's not just about the battle and the dauntless, heroic actions of the men in battle. It's also about the training and sacrifice and mindset of becoming a SEAL, arguably the most potent Special Ops soldier in the world.
You learn from Marcus Luttrell, the lone survivor of Operation Redwing and the author of the book, all about the famed SEAL boot camp and Hell Week. How men are pushed to their physical, mental and psychological limits in order to select only the best. And how it's the intangible, the unexplainable that separates the ones that make it from the ones that don't.
Some people may be put off by his tone. It's has a bravado tone to it. But this isn't a swaggering show of courage, it's the tone of a highly-trained, confident warrior, sure of his place and his mission. As the ole saying goes, "it ain't bragging if you can do it" And the SEALs can do it!
Enjoy this book and then take a moment to say a prayer for these fine men, some of our country's finest, and the families they left behind.
Here's Marcus Luttrell speaking at a recent NRA convention.
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