Free kibbles

ECONOMY:

On the one year anniversary of TARP passing, we know that TARP was unnecessary and ineffective. The graph in this essay shows that lending was just fine when TARP passed, contrary to what Sec. Paulson told us. Lending didn't start to dry up until after it was passed. I still think TARP was a coup, guaranteeing Obama would win the election (remember that McCain had just taken the lead for the first time in the polls right before this), and part of that coup was transforming our banking sector into a socialist institution. Bush just blindly did what Paulson told him to, like a puppet, and he paved the way for the Obama agenda.

Graph of year to year credit growth shows commercial credit shrunk for the first time since 1974, and it's still shrinking.

Because it was so effective at trashing our economy and ruining lives the first time, Obama to create a new subprime mortgage crisis. Reason calls this insane.

"A former executive of mortgage giant Fannie Mae told a congressional subcommittee that the FHA "appears destined for a taxpayer bailout in the next 24 to 36 months." Commissioner David Stevens had to assure the subcommittee that it would not need help—well, unless there is a "catastrophic home price decline.""

Not insane. Evil.

Michael Moore isn't confused. He just hates freedom.

TAX AND SPEND:

Our budget deficit for last year is officially $1.42 trillion. Do we really need the CBO to tell us our spending is unsustainable? Some people probably still don't believe it. Perspective.

We're all subsidizing the New York Yankees.

FEDERAL RESERVE:

Ben Bernanke wants the Chinese to stop saving money and start spending like us. I have no words.

HEALTH CARE:

The Baucus bill that's already been voted on and passed out of the Senate Finance Committee has finally been written and is 1,502 pages long.

$1 trillion (actually $2 trillion) to cover 5 percent of the population. This isn't correct. The CBO reported that 25 million people would remain without coverage, so that means this supposed health care reform bill will only cover about 3 million people.

Republican plan to halt health care oppression:

"Republicans are demanding a deceleration of the process and moving to define whatever plan that emerges as a combination of Medicare cuts, tax increases, higher insurance premiums and rising overall costs."

In other words, they're going to tell the truth. That's so alien to them, they probably think that's a stroke of genius.

Health insurance providers report that Obamacare could lead to system collapse.

"Their concern: People will buy insurance only when they desperately need it, such as after they're diagnosed with cancer or heart disease."

That's the plan.

Obama is already harming our health care industry.

One way the Baucus bill pays for itself is the hidden cost (off budget) of raiding Social Security funds.

GLOBAL WARMING:

I appreciate Senator Inhofe reminding everybody that tax and trade wouldn't reduce global warming even if global warming existed. Too many Republicans have bought into this global warming fraud.

UK PM Brown says we have 50 days to stop global warming or we're all going to die a horrible, hot death. Remember when I warned that the global warming frauds would up their alarmism to even newer levels of absurdity? That didn't take long. Somebody should teach Brown to read a thermometer.

Hurricane Katrina victims suing big energy companies saying they caused the global warming that create Hurricane Katrina. The court didn't kick this bogus lawsuit out yet.

WAR ON DRUGS:

Obama stops medical marijuana raids. Good for him.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE:

Even though crime has been dropping for 20 years, politicians keep convincing Americans it's going up so they can expand political and prosecutorial power.

POLITICS:

Top Obama adviser tells high schoolers that Mao Tse-tung is her favorite philosopher. I'm sure most of Obama's advisers would agree.

FOREIGN POLICY:

Iran claims Britain and US behind terrorist attack. The problem is, they might be half right. We might well have trained the people who did this. Or this could be pure propaganda.

MISC:

I like the looks of this nook ereader.

Obama subsidizing the purchase of golf carts.

Lostpolitics message board is back up.

Energy Dept. doesn't insure that products with the energy star label actually meet the specification. Underwriters Laboratories doesn't have this problem.

Obama energy adviser advocated forcing radio and TV stations to run ads about global warming and overpopulation. These leftists love using force against others. For our own good, of course.

More evidence that subsidizing college just drives up the price. If you're willing to pay $20 grand a year to send your kid to school, and the government pays $20 grand to send your kid to school, the school will raise the price from $20 grand to $40 grand. Government can't undo the laws of economics. All it can do is pervert them to our detriment.

Internet giants ask government to regulate the internet. This is how it always works. The big corporations always ask government for regulations so they can capture the regulatory agencies and use the regulations to crush their competition and become even bigger. The end result is lower quality goods and services at a higher price and corporations that government declares are too big to fail.

AT&T lobbyist encourages 300,000 AT&T employees to lobby the FCC for rules that favor AT&T. This makes perfect sense because it's in the interest of those employees. What doesn't make sense is giving government our power to regulate telecommunications or anything else because this is the inevitable result.

The government's war on tobacco.

"Back then, America sent its boys to war with a pack of cigarettes as part of a soldier’s daily rations. Today our tobacco policy more closely resembles that of Nazi Germany. Even the U.S. military, which defeated the Axis with cigarettes blazing, announced this summer it was considering a total smoking ban for soldiers."

Ban, ban, ban, ban, ban.