Free kibbles

TAX AND SPEND:

The Democrats are forcing big tax hikes on Americans. No kidding. But I'm happy to see the mainstream media finally pointing this out after they covered it up since the presidential campaign.

Greece is a good reminder of the kind of the poisonous entitlement mentality and fiscal insanity that big government creates and is growing here.

"Civil servants staged a 24-hour strike Thursday against austerity measures and expected job cuts by Greece's crisis-plagued government, and the EU's statistics agency said the country's budget was even worse than previously thought.

The strike disrupted public services, shut down schools and left state hospitals working with emergency staff. Protesters from a Communist-backed trade union blockaded Athens' main port of Piraeus, disrupting ferry services.

Eurostat, meanwhile raised Greece's budget deficit in 2009 to 13.6 percent of gross domestic product from its earlier prediction of 12.9 percent, while the ratio of government debt to GDP stood at 115.1 percent, the second highest in the European Union after Italy.

In comments that are sure to rattle markets, the statistics agency also expressed "a reservation on the quality of the data reported by Greece." It also said Greek's 2009 figures could be revised further, to the tune of 0.3 to 0.5 percentage points of GDP for the deficit and 5 to 7 percentage points of GDP for the debt.

Markets were shocked last fall when the government announced that the previous conservative Greek government had issued misleading financial data for years."

A government lied about its financial situation and economic statistic? You mean that people in government aren't all Mother Theresas or Jesus Christs or Budas? They aren't selfless servants of the people? Who would have ever guessed that people who make a living by using the government's gun to seize money and power from others would be dishonest? I'm shocked.

REGULATION:

Remember when Obama said that he knew nothing about the SEC charges against Goldman-Sachs? It turns out that the CEO of Goldman visited the president and administration he bought and paid for in the White House four times while the SEC was negotiating with Goldman on the charges.

"While Goldman Sachs' lawyers negotiated with the Securities and Exchange Commission over potentially explosive civil fraud charges, Goldman's chief executive visited the White House at least four times.

White House logs show that Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein traveled to Washington for at least two events with President Barack Obama, whose 2008 presidential campaign received $994,795 in donations from Goldman's employees and their relatives. He also met twice with Obama's top economic adviser, Larry Summers.

No evidence has surfaced to suggest that Blankfein or any other Goldman executive raised the SEC case with the president or his aides. SEC Chairwoman Mary Schapiro said in a statement Wednesday that the SEC doesn't coordinate enforcement actions with the White House or other political bodies."

If you believe the subject never game up, Obama's got some land to sell you.

"Meanwhile, however, Goldman is retaining former Obama White House counsel Gregory Craig as a member of its legal team. In addition, when he worked as an investment banker in Chicago a decade ago, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel advised one client who also retained Goldman as an adviser on the same $8.2 billion deal.

Goldman's connections to the White House and the Obama administration are raising eyebrows at a time when Washington and Wall Street are dueling over how to overhaul regulation of the financial world"

This is almost funny. This is the inevitable result of big government. Aristocrats have nothing of value except the power and wealth they seize from us at the point of the government's gun. In order to climb the professional ladder, they have to sell our power and wealth to the highest bidders. The more of our power and wealth they seize, the more they sell it for and the more rich and powerful the buyers - always the biggest corporations - become at our expense. They offer lower quality products at higher prices because they're protected from competition by their political connections. Big government creates big business, monopolies and oligarchies, and they're all swimming in the corruption that's rooted in government taking our wealth and power from us by force.

I have news for Michael Barone - government is always gangster government. It gets worse the bigger government gets, but this isn't a new phenomenon.

"On its face, the complaint seems flimsy. Paulson has since become famous because his firm made billions by betting against mortgage-backed securities. But he wasn't a big name then, and the sophisticated firm buying the CDO must have assumed the seller believed its value would go down.

That's not the only fishy thing about the complaint. Yesterday came the news, undisclosed by the SEC Friday, that the commissioners approved the complaint by a 3-2 party-line vote. Ordinarily, the SEC issues such complaints only when the commissioners unanimously approve.

Fishy thing No. 3: Democrats immediately used the complaint to jam Sen. Christopher Dodd's financial regulation through the Senate."

I'm back to my original prediction that this thing goes away because it's a political stunt. Goldman agreed to be Obama's political tool to pass financial oppression. It's interesting that Barone claims the SEC usually only proceeds on a unanimous vote because I posted this article a couple days ago saying the opposite - that Democrats generally vote for charges while Republicans generally vote against them.

"Chairman Mary Schapiro, who was appointed by President Obama, and the two Democrats on the commission voted to proceed; the two Republicans opposed the move. The commission periodically splits on decisions, with Republicans often more reluctant than Democrats to take companies to court."

I think I misinterpreted periodically to mean usually. In the context of Barone's essay, periodically sounds infrequent. This stunt may have worked to pressure Republicans to compromise.

"At the top of the list is the $50 billion fund that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp could use to pay off creditors of firms identified as systemically risky -- i.e., "too big to fail."

"The Dodd bill," writes Democratic Rep. Brad Sherman, "has unlimited executive bailout authority. That's something Wall Street desperately wants but doesn't dare ask for."

Politically connected creditors would have every reason to assume they'd get favorable treatment. The Dodd bill specifically authorizes the FDIC to treat "creditors similarly situated" differently.

Second, as former Bush administration economist Larry Lindsey points out, the Dodd bill gives the Treasury and the FDIC authority to grant an unlimited number of loan guarantees to "too big to fail" firms. CEOs might want to have receipts for their contributions to Sen. Charles Schumer and the Obama campaign in hand when they apply."

The Dodd bill institutionalizes bailouts. It permanently socializes Wall Street firms losses while allowing them to enjoy profits from irresponsible risk taking. Goldman and other Wall Street firms love these provisions. They don't want the restrictions on risk taking that come with them, but they'll get rid of those as soon as the spotlight is turned somewhere else.

"The Obama Democrats portray the Dodd bill as a brave attempt to clamp tougher regulation on Wall Street. They know that polls show voters strongly reject just about all their programs to expand the size and scope of government, with the conspicuous exception of financial regulation.

Republicans have been accurately attacking the Dodd bill for authorizing bailouts of big Wall Street firms and giving them unfair advantages over small competitors. They might want to add that it authorizes Gangster Government -- the channeling of vast sums from the politically unprotected to the politically connected."

What's so brave about pretending to do what the people want? But it's all a fraud.

EDUCATION:

Teachers unions make it impossible to fire teachers even for sexually abusing students. This is an inaccurate claim. Teachers unions don't make these policies. These policies are agreed to by politicians.

HEALTH CARE:

Obamacare is already over budget and underfunded a month after it passed. Central planners are doomed to fail in all things.

GLOBAL WARMING:

Another fraud claims global warming caused the Iceland volcano.

Climate fraud sues newspapers to retract stories about the climate fraud. Leftists love to use the courts as a weapon against those who disagree with them.

Obama, Kerry and Lindsay Graham push tax and trade in the Senate. Like I keep saying: never let your guard down. Obama won't stop attacking now matter how unpopular and dishonest the agenda item. And Republicans naturally want to join in the assault so they can participate in the looting.

"Last week, David Hand, president of the Royal Statistical Society, acknowledged that “the particular technique they used exaggerated the size of the blade at the end of the hockey stick. Had they used an appropriate technique, the size of the blade of the hockey stick would have been smaller. . . . The change in temperature is not as great over the 20th century compared to the past as suggested by the Mann paper.”"

Another member of the fraud is forced to admit the fraud, yet it continues. I hope Mann is prosecuted along with Jones and Gore.

"Its absurd claim that the Himalayan glaciers could disappear in 25 years (they are hundreds of feet thick, and melting would take hundreds of years), it admitted, was in error. The author responsible for the chapter on Asian climate, Murari Lal, finally ’fessed up that it was there to goad India, which derives water from these ice fields, into agreeing to emissions reductions. "

Another fraud revealed and as always the motive behind the fraud is politics.

"Yes, it has been quite a year. Climategate. The failure in Copenhagen. The EPA issuing an endangerment finding in which the core scientific fact turns out to have been cooked. The IPCC blow-up. And yet Lindsey Graham and President Obama are dead-set on cramming a new global-warming tax down our throats. How they figure to sell this policy in light of what has happened since November is anyone’s guess. Damn the data; full speed ahead!"

They'll sell it by lying. How hard is that to figure out? In the private sector, when somebodies lies to make a profit, it's a crime - fraud. Why do we allow politicians to lie for profit?


Of course recycling is a waste, otherwise it would be profitable. We'll know when recycling becomes better for the environment than making things from scratch because it will become more profitable than making things from scratch. Prices and profits carry information. That's why free markets are so effective any nothing else is.

POLICE STATE:

New York cops seize all bicycles along route President Obama was going to travel with no warning. This is a good way for a terrorist to identify which route the president will travel along. But don't worry, the cops will have an appropriate response to that too: seizing all bikes in public next time.

WAR:

US military launches ultra-secret, unmanned space shuttle. I've never heard of this, but apparently it's been 20 years in development. Boy is it ugly.

POLITICS:

Rod Blagojevich's defense team has subpoened President Obama. Here are the six items showing Obama's corruption that were redacted from the subpoena (but easily unedited).

1. Obama lies about Rezko
2. Obama recommended Valerie Jarret for his senate seat.
3. Quid pro quo offer for Jarret from Obama supporter
4. Obama maintained list of people he wanted to take his senate seat
5. Rahm Emanuel recommended Cheryl Jackson
6. Obama had secret phone call with Blagojovich

All of this is the corruption that is politics as usual in the US.

Boortz finally gets past the slander and asks a pertinent question about Obama's birth certificate.

"Has the State of Hawaii actually released a bona fide copy of a live birth certificate?"

The answer is no. I hope this Arizona House bill becomes law. The Constitution requires that the president be a natural born citizen. Arizona law verifies that requirement for every presidential candidate who wants to be on the Arizona ballot. Every state should do the same. I wonder if the Secretary of State would accept the abbreviated certificate of live birth or require the full birth certificate. I hope it's the latter. I want to know what he's hiding.

The 2010 campaign is shaping up to be a fraud the same as ever. Democrats are pretending to be against Wall Street while they work to pass a bill that will institutionalize Wall Street looting of Americans forever. Republicans are pretending to be against big government as if we have no memory of the the years 2001 through 2009. And you can rest assured that Republicans and Democrats will still be in power when it's all over and government and Wall Street will grow bigger and more powerful as a result. We're the stupidest people in the history of the world. If you want to rein in government and/or Wall Street, libertarians are the only game in town.

Chris Cristie is making cuts in New Jersey government. Good for him. Why did government get that out of control anyway?

Was Chuck Schumer's attack on IndyMac part of a scam to buy up its pieces after bankruptcy for big profits? This is another inevitable result of big government. When government has the power to kill businesses or raise them from the dead, the result can only be massive corruption.

"Financial crises create opportunities. Prudent and discerning entrepreneurs who save their capital for a rainy day are able to acquire assets at firesale prices and put these assets to higher and better uses. Market forces cleanse wasteful malinvestments, innovative business models make existing ones obsolete and the economy roars forward all the stronger for it.

But while market entrepreneurs generally prosper during times of great dislocation, ultimately to the benefit of all participants in the economy, today political entrepreneurs have hijacked the economic system. The politically connected elites have used this downturn to carry out a massive wealth transfer from the people to the public and private sectors, fleecing the middle class for their own enrichment.  In their hypocrisy, the long ago small businesses that grew large because of free markets have helped chain these markets through lobbying for regulations and subsidies to shield themselves from competition and their own errors."

That's it exactly. This article goes on to tie John Paulson, the investor who designed the CDOs at the heart of the Goldman fraud case but who hasn't been touched by the SEC to Democrats in general and Chuck Schumer specifically.

"To review, George Soros and John Paulson are major supporters of the CRL, the ACORN-like group that helped contribute to the financial crisis and whose former principal Eric Stein is now building and set to run the Consumer Financial Protection Agency. Chuck Schumer likely shares the CRL’s agenda and appears to have helped precipitate a run on IndyMac at the same time as the release of the CRL’s critical report on the same bank, a bank that Soros and Paulson were later able to purchase in a sweetheartdeal with the FDIC (though the FDIC has reacted in unprecedented fashion in vehemently denying this claim). Soros and Paulson have been major contributors to Senate Democrats including Schumer and his allies."

Good review. Paying tribute to the king pays off with big dividends.

Like we need a study to prove that tea parties are more peaceful than antiwar protests, but I'll take it. Antiwar protests are almost always violent.

MEDIA:

Judge Napolitano's Freedom watch internet show is moving to the Fox Business Network. That's great news.

Angry Kieth Olberman had MSNBC show on angry Americans cancelled because it showed Olberman being angry.

MISC:

I think about this all the time, but I rarely make this argument in public. I should do that. If we had adopted constitutional government after WWII the Soviet Union would have collapsed in the 60s. Vietnam, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, 9/11 and our subsequent wars would never have happened. We'd already have permanent colonies on the moon. We'd have cured cancer. Average life expectancy would be over 100 years. Big government seizing our money and power by force is what keeps us from excelling like we otherwise would.