Nemo me impune lacessit

No one provokes me with impunity

____________________________________

No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.

Article 1, Section 9, Constitution of the United States

If this is the law of the land...why in a republic (little r) and as republicans, do we allow mere POLITICIANS to the right to use a "title of office" for the rest of their lives as if it were de facto a patent of nobility. Because, as republicans, this should NOT be the case...just saying...

The Vail Spot's Amazon Store

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Obama's Political Career Launch

On October 15, 2011, Bill Ayres admits that Obama's political career was launched with a fund raiser at his house. If you remember, on October 15, 2008, Robert Gibbs following a debate with John McCain, catagorically denied to Chris Matthews during the "spin room" after debate that this event occured.


 


Who is lying? Bill Ayres? Or Robert Gibbs. Why would Ayres lie about something like this? When you take all of the other questionable associations of this president...ones that the MSM refused to cover, it begins to boggle the mind. When is the media going to do their job? They've already begun smearing every single GOP candidate, from Michelle Bachman to Mitt Romney (I'd link, but a simple google serach will give you far more info than I ever could)...that the MSM shows just how deeply in the tank for Obama they are, after all, they refused to cover his pastor of 20 years' inflamatory statements, even though Obama was clearly influenced.

Hat Tip, The BLog Father...

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

The "Super Committee"s Failure...

Here's an interesting video of Chris Chritie, governor of New Jersey commenting on the failure of Obama's "Super Committee."

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Write In Candidates...

I have decided that since I really don't like any of the current crop of GOP candidates for President, I'll write in someone else instead. Either Paul Ryan or Sarah Palin. Since I live in Maryland, it doesn't really matter during the primary season who I vote for, my vote really won't count in the great grand scheme of things. BUT! I would dearly love to send a message to the "elite leadership" of the Republican Party, that I am very deeply unhappy with them and the direction they are taking the party. The time of "going along to get along" ends now. No more bi-partisanship...in other words no more going along with the Democrats and giving them everything they want, withough regards of the consequenses to the country. Every time our Congressional leadership "goes along" with the bi-partisan deals they cut, the [Social] Democrats renig...It's time to send a message to the party, that we the base have had enough.

Mitt Romney

Via Don Surber, the Cartoon of the week.

Friday, November 25, 2011

What Do You Do With A Drunken Pumpkin?

What OWS & The Democrats Really Want

Here is the real message of OWS and the [Social] Democratic Party:



This is what the Liberal left has come down to...they want everyone to be dependent upon what scraps the goverment can give them. That way they can control pretty much every aspect of life. That's called "Liberal Fascism" (i.e. what the National Socialists in Germany and the Fascist Party in Itally wanted to do in the 1930's). Also, it's a book, oddly enough. I'd love to read it, but I can't afford it this year.

Hat Tip Powerline.

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Obama's Kabuki


Via IBD


Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Thick As A Brick

Jethro @ their very best...


Hat Tip:  Moe Lane

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Sen Schumer Blocks Tea Party Debt Commission

Senator Charles Schumer, an early supporter of the Occupy Wall Street groups, blocked the Tea Party Debt Commission from meeting in the Capital building in Washington DC. via The Other McCain , but then, that's what Liberals do when they are afraid of your speech. Do do their damndest to supress it. "Free speech for me, but no for thee." If this was a "political" meeting, then why does Congress allow Congressman Conyers to hold his bull-shit "commission" meetings on Capital building grounds? Yet another intellectually bankrupt Democrat stopping the 1st amendment rights of others.

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Disenchantment With The Won?

Has Chris Mathews lost that "tingle" with the Won? From this interview it sure looks that way. Via Newsalert.com

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Music Video

The Blow -- True Affection Via VodkaPundit

Ron Paul Won't Rule Out 3rd Party Run

Texas Congressman Ron Paul won't rule out third party run. If he does so, he will ensure an Obama second term...which would be disasterous for the country.

Friday, November 18, 2011

It is with regret and unflinching moral certainty

How often do you run across a bond trader, stock broker or financial manager who is...shockingly honest? Most often we hear about the Bernie Madoff's of the world. Here's a letter from the exception to the rule.
Dear Clients, Industry Colleagues and Friends of Barnhardt Capital Management, It is with regret and unflinching moral certainty that I announce that Barnhardt Capital Management has ceased operations. After six years of operating as an independent introducing brokerage, and eight years of employment as a broker before that, I found myself, this morning, for the first time since I was 20 years old, watching the futures and options markets open not as a participant, but as a mere spectator. The reason for my decision to pull the plug was excruciatingly simple: I could no longer tell my clients that their monies and positions were safe in the futures and options markets – because they are not. And this goes not just for my clients, but for every futures and options account in the United States. The entire system has been utterly destroyed by the MF Global collapse. Given this sad reality, I could not in good conscience take one more step as a commodity broker, soliciting trades that I knew were unsafe or holding funds that I knew to be in jeopardy. The futures markets are very highly-leveraged and thus require an exceptionally firm base upon which to function. That base was the sacrosanct segregation of customer funds from clearing firm capital, with additional emergency financial backing provided by the exchanges themselves. Up until a few weeks ago, that base existed, and had worked flawlessly. Firms came and went, with some imploding in spectacular fashion. Whenever a firm failure happened, the customer funds were intact and the exchanges would step in to backstop everything and keep customers 100% liquid – even as their clearing firm collapsed and was quickly replaced by another firm within the system. Everything changed just a few short weeks ago. A firm, led by a crony of the Obama regime, stole all of the non-margined cash held by customers of his firm. Let’s not sugar-coat this or make this crime seem “complex” and “abstract” by drowning ourselves in six-dollar words and uber-technical jargon. Jon Corzine STOLE the customer cash at MF Global. Knowing Jon Corzine, and knowing the abject lawlessness and contempt for humanity of the Marxist Obama regime and its cronies, this is not really a surprise. What was a surprise was the reaction of the exchanges and regulators. Their reaction has been to take a bad situation and make it orders of magnitude worse. Specifically, they froze customers out of their accounts WHILE THE MARKETS CONTINUED TO TRADE, refusing to even allow them to liquidate. This is unfathomable. The risk exposure precedent that has been set is completely intolerable and has destroyed the entire industry paradigm. No informed person can continue to engage these markets, and no moral person can continue to broker or facilitate customer engagement in what is now a massive game of Russian Roulette. I have learned over the last week that MF Global is almost certainly the mere tip of the iceberg. There is massive industry-wide exposure to European sovereign junk debt. While other firms may not be as heavily leveraged as Corzine had MFG leveraged, and it is now thought that MFG’s leverage may have been in excess of 100:1, they are still suicidally leveraged and will likely stand massive, unmeetable collateral calls in the coming days and weeks as Europe inevitably collapses. I now suspect that the reason the Chicago Mercantile Exchange did not immediately step in to backstop the MFG implosion was because they knew and know that if they backstopped MFG, they would then be expected to backstop all of the other firms in the system when the failures began to cascade – and there simply isn’t that much money in the entire system. In short, the problem is a SYSTEMIC problem, not merely isolated to one firm. Perhaps the most ominous dynamic that I have yet heard of in regards to this mess is that of the risk of potential CLAWBACK actions. For those who do not know, “clawback” is the process by which a bankruptcy trustee is legally permitted to re-seize assets that left a bankrupt entity in the time period immediately preceding the entity’s collapse. So, using the MF Global customers as an example, any funds that were withdrawn from MFG accounts in the run-up to the collapse, either because of suspicions the customer may have had about MFG from, say, watching the company’s bond yields rise sharply, or from purely organic day-to-day withdrawls, the bankruptcy trustee COULD initiate action to “clawback” those funds. As a hedge broker, this makes my blood run cold. Generally, as the markets move in favor of a hedge position and equity builds in a client’s account, that excess equity is sent back to the customer who then uses that equity to offset cash market transactions OR to pay down a revolving line of credit. Even the possibility that a customer could be penalized and additionally raped AGAIN via a clawback action after already having their customer funds stolen is simply villainous. While there has been no open indication of clawback actions being initiated by the MF Global trustee, I have been told that it is a possibility. And so, to the very unpleasant crux of the matter. The futures and options markets are no longer viable. It is my recommendation that ALL customers withdraw from all of the markets as soon as possible so that they have the best chance of protecting themselves and their equity. The system is no longer functioning with integrity and is suicidally risk-laden. The rule of law is non-existent, instead replaced with godless, criminal political cronyism. Remember, derivatives contracts are NOT NECESSARY in the commodities markets. The cash commodity itself is the underlying reality and is not dependent on the futures or options markets. Many people seem to have gotten that backwards over the past decades. From Abel the animal husbandman up until the year 1964, there were no cattle futures contracts at all, and no options contracts until 1984, and yet the cash cattle markets got along just fine. Finally, I will not, under any circumstance, consider reforming and re-opening Barnhardt Capital Management, or any other iteration of a brokerage business, until Barack Obama has been removed from office AND the government of the United States has been sufficiently reformed and repopulated so as to engender my total and complete confidence in the government, its adherence to and enforcement of the rule of law, and in its competent and just regulatory oversight of any commodities markets that may reform. So long as the government remains criminal, it would serve no purpose whatsoever to attempt to rebuild the futures industry or my firm, because in a lawless environment, the same thievery and fraud would simply happen again, and the criminals would go unpunished, sheltered by the criminal oligarchy. To my clients, who literally TO THE MAN agreed with my assessment of the situation, and were relieved to be exiting the markets, and many whom I now suspect stayed in the markets as long as they did only out of personal loyalty to me, I can only say thank you for the honor and pleasure of serving you over these last years, with some of my clients having been with me for over twelve years. I will continue to blog at Barnhardt.biz, which will be subtly re-skinned soon, and will continue my cattle marketing consultation business. I will still be here in the office, answering my phones, with the same phone numbers. Alas, my retirement came a few years earlier than I had anticipated, but there was no possible way to continue given the inevitability of the collapse of the global financial markets, the overthrow of our government, and the resulting collapse in the rule of law. As for me, I can only echo the words of David: “This is the Lord’s doing; and it is wonderful in our eyes.” With Best Regards- Ann Barnhardt
Please take the time to hit the link and drop Ann a line. Hopefully, once things are back on an even keel, she'll return to trading.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Congression Budget Office: Stimulus Hurts Growth

According to the CBO, Obama's "stimulus" hurts economic growth in America. Via Newsalert.
No explanation necessary...just watch the video: via Newsalert.com

Obama's Unceasing Hypocrisy, Pt 337

Here's a video that highlights Mr. Obama's hypocrisy when it pertains to executive compensation. Over the past several years he's propounded that American executives who work for companies who received bailout funds were being over-compensated...but, when it comes to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac...crickets
.“Barack Obama has exhorted supporters to object to large bonus payouts at financial institutions that took TARB bailout money. The House Oversight Committee and its chair, Rep. Darrell Issa, want to know why Obama hasn’t objected to the ridiculous levels of compensation at the two largest bailout recipients — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In a new report (embedded below) titled ‘Government-Sponsored Moguls: Executive Compensation at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,’ Issa and the Oversight Committee detail executive compensation at the two GSEs, who — unlike their private-sector counterparts who have either fully repaid or are in the process of repaying their bailout funds — still demand more bailout money from Congress.”
via the blogfather...

Obama: Increasing US Debt Unpatriotic

During the 2008 campaign, candidate Obama called George Bush, "unpatriotic" for increasing the US Debt by $4 trillion dollars over 8 years
...“The problem is, is that the way Bush has done it over the last eight years is to take out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children,” Obama complained, ”driving up our national debt from $5 trillion for the first 42 presidents, [and] number 43 added $4 trillion dollars by his lonesome, so that we now have over $9 trillion of debt that we are going to have now to pay back.”
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/11/17/obama-gop-unpatriotic-for-spending-and-for-not-spending/#ixzz1dxeDQYc7 ...but what does candidate Obama have to say to the hypocrisy of President Obama increasing the federal debt by $6 trillion dollars in under 3 years...crickets...

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Lazy Americans

In yet another first, Barack Obama roundly criticized Americans as lazy...while that in itself isn't a first, doing so before an international audience outside the borders of the United States is...here's a cartoon by Michael Ramirez,

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Fear the Boom & Bust

Here's a humerous video about the differing economic principles of F A Hayek and J M Keynes.
In Fear the Boom and Bust, John Maynard Keynes and F. A. Hayek, two of the great economists of the 20th century, come back to life to attend an economics conference on the economic crisis. Before the conference begins, and at the insistence of Lord Keynes, they go out for a night on the town and sing about why there’s a “boom and bust” cycle in modern economies and good reason to fear it. Get the full lyrics, story and free download of the song in high quality MP3 and AAC files at: http://econstories.tv
as well as this one, via 1389 Blog

Newt Gingrich Gets "It"

There's something that so far, only one of the GOP candidates for President get..."thou shalt not slam another Republican."  Newt gets it:

...and he's the only one. I'm not a support of Mr. Gingrich, nor do I think that he should top the GOP ticket. Would he be an improvement over the current incumbent? Certainly, I would be an enormous improvement over Mr. Obama. That doesn't mean I should top the ticket. On the other hand, I would like to see Newt as the #2...he would then be able to advise the president on "how things work" in the corrupt DC political atmosphere... That being said, I've come to the conclusion that Mitt Romney isn't the one to top the ticket either. His reputation is such, that I believe he would be ObamaLite...and that's not what America needs right now.

USS Constitution is 214 Years Old

On October 21, 2011, the USS Constitution celebrated it's 214 birthday.
BOSTON (Oct. 21, 2011) USS Constitution fires a 17-gun salute toward the United States Coast Guard Station Sector Boston to celebrate its 214th launching day anniversary. Constitution is the world's oldest commissioned warship afloat. She defended the sea lanes against threat from 1797 to 1855, much like the mission of today's Navy. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Kathryn E. Macdonald)

Obama Votes Present on Job Creation

This week Mr. Obama had the opportunity to launch a huge job creating business...instead he voted present.  An oil pipeline is being proposed to extend from Canada to Texas oil refineries.  This  would create thousands of jobs...instead, Mr. Obama, voted present by booting'>http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/editorials/2011/11/obama-votes-present-oil-pipeline">booting the decision on this until 2013.

President Obama faced a tough political decision this  week on the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada. He could order the  State Department to approve it, thus alienating his environmental activist  supporters, or he could kill the pipeline, thus angering his union  allies.

Obama chose to do what he had done 130 times while he  was in the Illinois state Senate. He voted present.

The State Department announced Thursday that it would  begin developing a second, redundant environmental impact statement for the  1,700-mile pipeline that traverses six states on its route from Alberta, Canada,  to Houston, Texas. This buys Obama time well past November 2012. The first  environmental assessment, three years in the works, was completed in August.  This second assessment will take at least as long the first.

This president isn't serious about changing the dire economic situation this country is in.  Instead he's trying to raise a billion dollars so buy the 2012 election.

Obama Says America Is Lazy

While on a foriegn trip to China, The Won tells the world that America is lazy. Here is our head of government telling the world that America sucks... There is something seriously wrong with this picture. Here is a man who really doesn't like our country. He can't stop himself.
President Barack Obama told an international audience that America’s economic difficulties are caused, in part, by laziness, and the cure is more centralized government...In September, Obama told a Florida interviewer that “this is a great country that had gotten a little soft, and we didn’t have that same competitive edge that we needed over the last couple of decades.”
.This is wrong on so many levels. If he wins the election next November, we will deserve everything that happens to us.

Terrorism Is War: Newt Is Right

From last nights debate: Newt is right.

Saturday, November 12, 2011

here's another video...

From Geoff Downs and Trevor Horn...who replaced Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman on the 1980 Yes album "Drama".

Music VIdeo: Song From My Mispent Youth

here is one of my favorite all time songs...

Occupy Wall Street: What Would Friedman Say?

via Legalinssurection:

Now If Only We Had Politicians Like This...

Here's a refreshing voice from the EU Parliament.

Cartoon of the Day: OWS, What the MSM Sees

Occupy Wall Street: A Failure to Communicate

The MSM is making another huge mistake. They are continually presenting the OWS movement in a 'positive' light...while all across the country, there have been rapes (Boston, NY, Baltimore, SF, SD...), murders (SLC, SF), racist rants (NY, LA...etc) and assaults (pretty much all of them)...while over the past two years, the Tea Party has been painted as violent, racist whites who hate poor people...yet, the OWS crowds are demanding that vendors give them free food and drink and get their stores and food cards damaged or destroyed. The vast majority of Americans are peacable, law abiding citizens, who don't look well upon those who want something for nothing. That seems to be what the OWS movement wants. They want a free ride, without having to be resopnsible for their own short-sightedness. At first, they seemed to want forgiveness for taking on massive student loan debt...but not accepting responsibility for studying course work that would lead to a useful career. There are numberless blogs that are responding to this, but here's the deal, if you major in social science, you need to be prepared to work in retail and the hospitality industry. It's that simple. There are very few jobs in the NGO/Government that you are prepared for...and only so many jobs for the thousands of useful idiots who want the "life of Reiily" without having to work hard for it... Capitalism works...while the welfare/regulatory state will eventually bankrupt itself. Just take a hard look at the EU...the PIIGS are bankrupt, and taking down the entire EU with them...that's our fate in a few short years (2015 is my guess). So...quit freeloading and get a damn job.

Wednesday, November 09, 2011

Occupy Wall Street: Anti-Semitic?

then there's this... and this... then this...

Occupy Wall Street: More Violence In Portland

here's video of a man in the OWS Portland Edition, assaulting a film crew.
A citizen uploaded a video to YouTube on Tuesday documenting extended verbal harassment of a KGW news crew as the crew attempted to report from the downtown Occupy Portland encampment during Tuesday’s noon newscast. The video shows a kerchief-wearing man who repeatedly shouts epithets at the crew, and pushes and shoves KGW employees trying to stay between the man and KGW news reporter Art Edwards. News Director Rick Jacobs said KGW employees have been cursed at, pushed and shoved several times during their efforts to cover the Occupy Portland movement. Last week, reporter Art Edwards was seen live on the air being physically pushed and shoved by a masked protester.
Hat Tip: Instapundit

Monday, November 07, 2011

Governor Palin's Speech at the "Restoring America" Tea Party of America Rally in Indianola, Iowa (Video and Transcript)

Here's video and transcript below of Sarah's Speech on Sep 3, 2011....Mickey Kaus says it's the best speech of the year. Thank you, Iowa. Thank you so much. The sign that says, “Thank you, Sarah,” no, I thank you. You are what keeps me going, keeps so many of us going. Your love of country keeps us going. Thank you so much. Iowa, you are good people. You are all good people who are here. Thank you. It is an honor to be in the Heartland sharing this Labor Day weekend with you. And I thank you so much for the invitation, to these organizers who put so much work into all this. It’s so good to see the O4P and C4P people here today. Last night was fun – getting to run into some of you at that restaurant and to see so many different demographics represented and so many different states all across our great nation. We got to gather together last night – different demographics, different political parties even represented – and Todd reminded me as we walked out of that room, he said, “See, we’re not celebrating ‘red America’ or ‘blue America.’ We’re celebrating red, white, and blue America.” So, what brought us here today out in this field? Why aren’t we catching a Cyclones game, or watching the Hawkeyes perhaps, or grilling up some venison and corn-on-the-cob, maybe some caribou with some friends on this Labor Day weekend? What brought us together is a love of country. And we see that America is hurting. We’re not willing to just sit back and watch her demise through some “fundamental transformation” of the greatest country on earth. We’re here to stop that transformation and to begin the restoration of the country that we love. We’re here because America is at a tipping point. America faces a crisis. And it’s not a crisis like perhaps a Midwest summer storm – the kind that moves in and hits hard, but then it moves on. No, this kind will relentlessly rage until we do restore all that is free and good and right about America. It’s not just fear of a double dip recession. And it’s not even the shame of a credit downgrade for the first time in U.S. history. It’s deeper than that. This is a systemic crisis due to failed policies and incompetent leadership. And we’re going to speak truth today. It may be hard-hitting, but we’re going to speak truth today because we need to start talking about what hasn’t worked, and we’re going to start talking about what will work for America. We will talk truth. Now, some of us saw this day coming. It was three years ago on this very day that I spoke at the GOP Convention where I was honored to be able to accept the nomination for vice president that night. And in my speech I asked America: “When the cloud of rhetoric has passed, when the roar of the crowd fades away….what exactly is [Barack Obama’s] plan? What does he actually seek to accomplish after he's done turning back the waters and healing the planet? The answer is to make government bigger, and take more of your money, and give you more orders from Washington, and to reduce the strength of America in a dangerous world.” I spoke of this, but back then it was only my words that you had to go by. Now you have seen the proof yourself. Candidate Obama didn’t have a record while he was in office, but President Obama sure does, and that’s why we’re here today. Candidate Obama pledged to fundamentally transform America. And for all the failures and the broken promises, that’s the one thing he has delivered on. We’ve transformed from a country of hope to one of anxiety. Today, one in five working-age men are out of work. One in seven Americans are on food stamps. Thirty percent of our mortgages are underwater. In parts of Michigan and California, they’re suffering from unemployment numbers that are greater than during the depths of the Great Depression. Barack Obama promised to cut the deficit in half, and instead he turned around and he tripled it. And now our national debt is growing at $3 million a minute. That’s $4.25 billion a day. President Obama, is this what you call “winning the future”? I call it losing – losing our country and with it the American dream. President Obama, these people – these Americans – feel that “fierce urgency of now.” But do you feel it, sir? The Tea Party was borne of this urgency. It’s the same sense of urgency that propelled the Sons of Liberty during the Revolution. It’s the same sense of urgency that propelled the Abolitionists before the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement during the 20th Century. The Tea Party Movement is part of this noble American tradition. This movement isn’t simply a political awakening; it’s an American awakening. And it’s coming from ordinary Americans, not the politicos in the Beltway. No, it’s you who grow our food; you run our small businesses; you teach our children; you fight our wars. We are always proud of America. We love our country in good times and in bad, and we never apologize for America. That is why the far left’s irresponsible and radical policies awakened a sleeping America so that we finally understood what it was that we were about to lose. We were about to lose the blessings of liberty and prosperity. So, the working men and women of this country, you got up off your couch, you came down from the deer stand, you came out of the duck blind, you got off the John Deere, and we took to the streets, and we took to the town halls, and we ended up at the ballot box. And as much as the media wants you to forget this, Tea Party Americans won an electoral victory of historic proportions in November. We the people, we rose up and we rejected the left’s big government agenda. We don’t want it. We can’t afford it. And we are unwilling to pay for it. That victory, remember friends, was only one step in a long march towards saving our country. We sent a new class of leaders to D.C., but immediately the permanent political class tried to co-opt them – because the reality is we are governed by a permanent political class, until we change that. They talk endlessly about cutting government spending, and yet they keep spending more. They talk about massive unsustainable debt, and yet they keep incurring more. They spend, they print, they borrow, they spend more, and then they stick us with the bill. Then they pat their own backs, and they claim that they faced and “solved” the debt crisis that they got us in, but when we were humiliated in front of the world with our country’s first credit downgrade, they promptly went on vacation. No, they don’t feel the same urgency that we do. But why should they? For them business is good; business is very good. Seven of the ten wealthiest counties are suburbs of Washington, D.C. Polls there actually – and usually I say polls, eh, they’re for strippers and cross country skiers – but polls in those parts show that some people there believe that the economy has actually improved. See, there may not be a recession in Georgetown, but there is in the rest of America. Yeah, the permanent political class – they’re doing just fine. Ever notice how so many of them arrive in Washington, D.C. of modest means and then miraculously throughout the years they end up becoming very, very wealthy? Well, it’s because they derive power and their wealth from their access to our money – to taxpayer dollars. They use it to bail out their friends on Wall Street and their corporate cronies, and to reward campaign contributors, and to buy votes via earmarks. There is so much waste. And there is a name for this: It’s called corporate crony capitalism. This is not the capitalism of free men and free markets, of innovation and hard work and ethics, of sacrifice and of risk. No, this is the capitalism of connections and government bailouts and handouts, of waste and influence peddling and corporate welfare. This is the crony capitalism that destroyed Europe’s economies. It’s the collusion of big government and big business and big finance to the detriment of all the rest – to the little guys. It’s a slap in the face to our small business owners – the true entrepreneurs, the job creators accounting for 70% of the jobs in America, it’s you who own these small businesses, you’re the economic engine, but you don’t grease the wheels of government power. So, do you want to know why the permanent political class doesn’t really want to cut any spending? Do you want to know why nothing ever really gets done? It’s because there’s nothing in it for them. They’ve got a lot of mouths to feed – a lot of corporate lobbyists and a lot of special interests that are counting on them to keep the good times and the money rolling along. It doesn’t surprise me. I’ve seen this kind of crony capitalism before. It’s is the same good old boy politics-as-usual that I fought and we defeated in my home state. I took on a corrupt and compromised political class and their backroom dealings with Big Oil. And I can tell you from experience that sudden and relentless reform never sits well with entrenched interests and power-brokers. So, please you must vet a candidate’s record. You must know their ability to successfully reform and actually fix problems that they’re going to claim that they inherited. Real reform never sits well with the entrenched special interests, and that’s why the true voices of reform are so quickly demonized. Look what they say about you. You are concerned civilized citizens and look what they say about you. And just look what happened during the debt-ceiling debate. We’d been given warning after warning that our credit rating would be downgraded if politicians didn’t get serious about tackling the debt and deficit problem. But instead of making the real cuts that are necessary, they used Enron-like accounting gimmicks, and they promised that if they were just allowed to spend trillions more today, they’d cut billions ten years from now. By some magical thinking, they figured they could run up trillion dollar deficits year after year, yet still somehow avoid the unforgiving mathematics that led to the downgrade. Well, they got a rude awakening from the rest of the world, and that’s that even America isn’t “too big to fail.” When we finally did get slapped with that inevitable downgraded, the politicians and the pundits turned around and blamed us – independent commonsense conservatives. We got blamed! They called us un-American and terrorists and suicide bombers and…hobbits…couldn’t understand that one. And what is the President’s answer to this enormous debt problem? It’s just spend more money. Only you can’t call it “spending” now. Now you got to call it “investing.” Don’t call it “spending.” Call it “investing.” It’s kind of like what happens with FEMA and some of these other bureaucratic agencies that don’t really want to refer to our centralized federal government as “government.” Now it’s called the “federal family.” Am I too old to ask to be emancipated? Never thought I’d say it, but I want a divorce. No, the President’s answer to our debt problem is: Incur more debt. Spend more money (only call it “investing”). Make more folks even more reliant on government to supply their every need. This is the antithesis of the pioneering American spirit that empowered the individual to work, to produce, to be able to thrive and succeed with fulfillment and with pride; and that in turn built our free and hope-filled and proud country. He wants to “Win The Future” by “investing” more of your hard-earned money in some harebrained ideas like more solar panels and really fast trains. These are things that venture capitalists will tell you are non-starters, yet he wants to do more of them. We’re flat broke, but he thinks these solar panels and really fast trains are going to magically save us. He’s shouting “all aboard Obama’s bullet train to bankruptcy.” The only future that Barack Obama is trying to win is his own re-election, and he has shown that he’s perfectly willing to mortgage our children’s future to pay for it. And there is proof of this. Just look closely at where all that “green energy” stimulus money is “invested.” See a pattern. The President’s big campaign donors got nice returns for their “investments” in him to the tune of billions of your tax dollars in the form of “green energy” stimulus funds. The technical term for this is “pay-to-play.” Between bailouts for Wall Street cronies and stimulus projects for union bosses’ security and “green energy” giveaways, he took care of his friends. And now they’re on course to raise a billion dollars for his re-election bid so that they can do it all over again. Are you going to let them do it all over again? Are you willing to unite to do all we can to not let them do it again so we can save our country? Now to be fair, some GOP candidates also raised mammoth amounts of cash, and we need to ask them, too: What, if anything, do their donors expect in return for their “investments”? We need to know this because our country can’t afford more trillion-dollar “thank you” notes to campaign backers. It is an important question, and it cuts to the heart of our problem. And I speak from experience in confronting the corruption and the crony capitalism since starting out in public office 20 years ago. I’ve been out-spent in my campaigns two to one, three to one, five to one. (And, by the way, I don’t play that game either of hiring expert political advisors just so they’ll say something nice about me on TV – if you ever wonder. You know how that game’s played too I’m sure.) But the reason is simple: It’s because like you, I’m not for sale. It’s because we believe in the free market. I believe in the free market, and that is why I detest crony capitalism. And Barack Obama has shown us cronyism on steroids. It will lead to our downfall if we don’t stop it now. It’s a root that grows our economic problems. Our unsustainable debt and our high unemployment numbers and a housing market that’s in the tank and a stagnant economy – these are all symptoms. Politicians are so focused on the symptoms and not the disease. We will not solve our economic problems until we confront the cronyism of our President and our permanent political class. So, this is why we must remember that the challenge is not simply to replace Obama in 2012. The real challenge is who and what we will replace him with. It’s not enough to just change up the uniform. If we don’t change the team and the game plan, we won’t save our country. Yes, we need sudden and relentless reform, and that will return power to “We the People.” This, of course, requires deeds, not just words. It’s not good enough for politicians to just be throwing our way some vague generalities, talking about some promises here and there. It’s time that we hold them accountable. It is amazing to me that even some good conservatives run away from being honest and straight up with us about what needs to be done. They don’t want to rock the boat. They can’t hurt future election prospects evidently. They just talk vaguely about cuts and then they move on. They’re too busy saying what they think we want to hear, but instead they should be telling us what needs to be said and what needs to be done. So, let us today in this field have that adult conversation about what needs to be done to restore America. Let’s do that now. In five days time, our President will gift us with yet another speech. In his next speech he’ll reveal his latest new super-duper “jobs plan.” It will have more lofty goals and flowery rhetoric, more illogical economic fantasies and more continued blame and finger-pointing. But listen closely to what he says. All of his “solutions” will revolve around more of the same – more payoffs for his friends and supporters. His “plan” is the same as it’s always been, and that’s grow more government, increase more debt, take and give more of your hard-earned money to special interests. And this is such a problem. But you know what the problems are. We could go on all day about the problems caused by the status quo in Washington. Status quo I think is Latin for “more of the same mess that we’re in.” That status quo won’t work any more. We could go on all day about the problems, but you know them because you live them everyday. So, let’s talk about real solutions. I want to tell you what my plan is. My plan is a bona-fide pro-working man’s plan, and it deals in reality. It deals in the way that the world really works because we must talk about what really works in order to get America back to work. My plan is about empowerment: empowerment of our states, empowerment of our entrepreneurs, most importantly empowerment of you – our hardworking individuals – because I have faith, I have trust, I have respect for you. The way forward is no more politics as usual. We must stop expanding an out-of-control and out-of-touch federal government. This is first: All power not specifically delegated to the federal government by our Constitution is reserved for the states and for we the people. So, let’s enforce the 10th Amendment and devolve powers back locally where the Founders intended them to be. Second, what happened to all those promises about staying committed to repealing the mother of all big government unfunded mandates? We must repeal Obamacare! And rein in burdensome regulations that are a boot on our neck. Get government out of the way. Let the private sector breathe and grow. This will allow the confidence that businesses need in order to expand and hire more people. Third, no more run away debt. We must prioritize and cut. Cancel unused stimulus funds, and have that come to Jesus moment where we own up to the debt challenge that is entitlement reform. See, the reality is we will have entitlement reform; it’s just a matter of how we’re going to get there. We either do it ourselves or the world’s capital markets are going to shove it down our throats, and we’ll have no choice but to reform our entitlement programs. The status quo is no longer an option. Entitlement reform is our duty now, and it must be done in a way that honors our commitment to our esteemed elders today, while keeping faith with future generations. I don’t think anything has irked me more than this nonsense coming from the White House about maybe not sending our seniors their checks. It’s their money! They have paid into Social Security all of their working lives; and for the President to say, “ah, we may not be able to cut their checks,” ah, well, where did all their money go, politicians? It’s like the Commander-in-Chief being willing to throw our military under the bus by threatening that their paychecks may not arrive. But the politicians will still get their checks and their secure retirements, and he’ll still get his posh vacations. Aren’t you just sick to death of those skewed priorities? It’s all backwards. Our seniors and our brave men and women in uniform being used as pawns – I say it’s shameful, and enough is enough. No more. Fourth, it is time for America to become the energy superpower. The real stimulus that we’ve been waiting for is robust and responsible domestic energy production. We have the resources. Affordable and secure energy is the key to any thriving economy, and it must be our foundation. So, I would do the opposite of Obama’s manipulation of U.S. supplies of energy. Drill here, drill now. Let the refineries and the pipelines be built. Stop kowtowing to foreign countries and dictators asking them to ramp up production and industry for us, promising them that we’ll be their greatest customer. No, not when we have the resources here. We need to move on tapping our own God-given natural resources. I promise you that this will bring real job growth, not the politicians’ phony “green jobs” fairy dust sprinkled with wishes and glitter… No, a hardcore all-of-the-above energy policy that builds this indestructible link between made-in-America energy and our prosperity and our security. You know, there are enough large conventional natural resource development projects waiting for government approval that could potentially create more than a million high-paying jobs all across the country. And this is true stimulus. It wouldn’t cost government a dime to allow the private sector to do these. In fact, these projects will generate billions of dollars in revenue. Can you imagine that: a stimulus project that actually helps dig us out of debt instead of digging us further into it! And these are good-paying jobs, and I know that from experience. For years my own family was supported (as Todd worked up on the North Slope) by a good energy sector job. America’s economic revival starts with America’s energy revival. Fifth, we can and we will make America the most attractive country on earth to do business in. Here’s how we’re going to do this. Right now, we have the highest federal corporate income tax rate in the industrialized world. Did you know our rates are higher than China and communist Cuba? This doesn’t generate as much revenue as you would think, though, because many big corporations skirt federal taxes because they have the friends in D.C. who right the rules for the rest of us. This makes us less competitive and restrains our engine of prosperity. Heck, some businesses spend more time trying to figure out how to hide their profits than they do in generating more profits so that they can expand and hire more of us. So, to make America the most attractive and competitive place to do business, to set up shop here and hire people here, to attract capital from all over the globe that will lead to an explosion of growth, instead of chasing industry offshore, I propose to eliminate all federal corporate income tax. And hear me out on this. This is how we create millions of high-paying jobs. This is how we increase opportunity and prosperity for all. But here’s the best part: To balance out any loss of federal revenue from this tax cut, we eliminate corporate welfare and all the loopholes and we eliminate bailouts. This is how we break the back of crony capitalism because it feeds off corporate welfare, which is just socialism for the very rich. We can change all of that. The message then to job-creating corporations is: We’ll unshackle you from the world’s highest federal corporate income tax rate, but you will stand or fall on your own, just like all the rest of us out on main street. See, when we empower the job-creators, our economy will soar; Americans will get back to work. This plan is a first step in a long march towards fundamental restoration of a strong and free market economy. And it represents the kind of real reform that we need. And, folks, it must come from you. It must come from the American people. Real hope is in you. It’s not that hopey-changey “stuff” that we heard about back in 2008. We’ve all learned that. And real hope isn’t in an individual. It’s not in a politician certainly. And that hopey-changey stuff that was put in an individual back when Barack Obama was a candidate – that hopey-changey stuff didn’t create one job in August, did it? That’s the first time that’s happened in the United States since World War II. Real hope comes from you. Real hope comes from realizing that we the people can make the difference. And you don’t need a title to make a difference. We can get this country back on the right track. We can do it by empowering the people and realizing that God has richly blessed this most exceptional nation, and then we do something about that realization. Don’t wait for the permanent political class to reform anything for you. They won’t. They can’t. They can’t even take responsibility for their own actions. Our credit is downgraded, but it’s not their fault. Our economy’s in turmoil, but it’s not his fault. It’s the tsunami in Japan or the Middle East uprising. It’s Irene. It’s those doggone ATM machines. Folks, the truth is Barack Obama is adrift with no plan because his “fundamental transformation” is at odds with everything that made this country great. It doesn’t make sense. He doesn’t make sense. Unbelievably our President declares that he “believes in American Exceptionalism… just as the Greeks believe in Greek Exceptionalism.” Well, the path he has us on will make us just as “exceptional” as Greece, alright – with the debt crisis and the stagnation and the unemployment and uprisings and all. Friends, you are better than that. Our country is better than that. We’ve got to unite. We’ve got to stand together. We can confront the problem and we can achieve lasting reform. And I can tell you from hard-earned experience with bumps and bruises along the way, that the road ahead is not easy. You will be demonized. They’ll mock you. They’ll make things up. They’ll tell you to “go to hell.” But we’ll bite our tongue, we’ll keep it classy, and we won’t respond—as tempting as it is—to anyone who just has such disdain for our free market economy and for individual initiative and responsibility. We won’t say, “No, you go to hell.” No, we won’t say that. You know why we don’t have to say that? Because when we have time-tested truth and logic on our side, we win. And when we refuse to retreat because we know that our children’s future is at stake, we win. No, the road isn’t easy, but it’s nothing compared to the suffering and sacrifice of those who came before us. A few weeks ago, after my visit to the Iowa State Fair, I took my daughter Piper and my niece McKinley with us to the World War I Liberty Memorial in Kansas City. And standing in the rain, reading the inscriptions on the Memorial about the honor in one’s dedication to God and country, I thought of all those young patriots who suffered and died so far from home. And revering our vets there with the next generation by my side, there was such clarity – clarity in our calling, patriotic Constitutionalists. We have a duty not just to the living, but also to those who came and died before us and to the generations yet to be born. Our freedom was purchased by millions of men now long-forgotten throughout history who charged the bayonets, and they charged the cannons; they knew they were going to die, but it was worth it for them sacrificing for future generations’ freedom. They’re the ones who prayed in the trenches and suffered in the P.O.W. camps. They gave their lives so that we could be here today. You and I are blessed to be “born the heirs of freedom.” As President John F. Kennedy said, “We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution.” We are the heirs of those who froze with Washington at Valley Forge and who held the line at Gettysburg, who freed the slaves to close a shameful chapter, and who carved a nation out of the wilderness. We are the sons and daughters of those who stormed the beaches of Normandy and raised the flag at Iwo Jima and made America the strongest, the most prosperous, the greatest nation on earth forever in mankind’s history – the greatest, most exceptional nation. America, we will always endure. We will always come through. We will never give up. We shall endure because we live by that moral strength that we call grace. Because though we’ve often skirted a precipice, a Providential Hand has always guided us to a better future. So, let us seek that Hand once more. Our Ronald Reagan said, “If we ever forget that we are one nation under God, we will be a nation gone under.” Yes, He shed his grace on thee, America! We will not squander what we have been given! We will fight for freedom. We will fight for America. We are at the tipping point. United we must stand. And we shall nobly save, not meanly lose, this last best hope on earth. So, God bless you, Iowa! God bless the United States of America!

A Brief History of the Democratic Party

Here's a excellent video on Democratic Party histoory...

Occupy Wall Street: The Real Difference Twixt OWS & The Tea Party

While reading a post on instapundit last night,
I saw this comment (all emphasis is mine, Ed.): “Democratic commentator Bob Beckel recently compared the disparity between the Tea Party’s treatment by local governments and the Occupiers’ to one person getting a better deal on a car than another. Imagine an America where basic equalities and a God-given right to public self-expression are reduced to clearance-sale status, depending on the agenda and whims of the ‘bosses’ on duty at a given time.” That example — government as used-car salesman — captures both the ethos and the performance of Beckel and his ilk. The truth is, these people get a pass because, as client groups of the Democratic Party, they’re exempt from the enforcement of the law. This may make people who aren’t so favored wonder why they should pay taxes to, or obey the commands of, a system that doesn’t follow the law itself. Well: Why should they? Where’s the legitimacy?
That's the real problem. Neither the MSM nor the Democratic Party controlled municipalities are holding the OWS "movement" to the same level of responsibility that they have held the Tea Party to...when nearly 1,000,000 people showed up in Washington DC for the largest Tea Party rally, not one rape occured...yet in the past 6 weeks, dozens have happened in New York's Zuccotti Park. It's so bad, they've had to erect a "women's tent."
Zuccotti Park, the home of the "Occupy Wall Street" protesters, is so overrun by sexual predators attacking women in the night that organizers felt compelled to set up a female-only sleeping tent to keep the attackers away. The large, metal-framed "safety tent" -- which will be guarded by an all-female patrol -- can accommodate as many as 18 people and also will be used during the day for women-only meetings, organizers said Friday. "This is all about safety in numbers," according to Becky Wartell, 24, a protester from Portland, Maine. The safety measure came amid a terrifying spree of sexual assaults -- including an alleged rape -- in the Zuccotti Park camp.
Because the OWS "protesters" are a Democratic client, they are permitted to act in any manner they desire. For all the ranting the MSM did about the Tea Party movement...I've come to the firm opinion that it was all about liberals projecting their thoughts and desires and actions on what they would do in similar situations...and that's whats actually occuring now all accross the country. If the Tea Party movement had acted in the horribly irresponsible and lawless manner that the OWS "movement" is, the MSM would be shrieking for it to be suppressed in the most violent manner...

Sunday, November 06, 2011

Occupy Wall Street: Democrats Storm Troopers? Or Media Hypocirisy In Action?

If you pay attention to the liberal media...the Tea Party movement was filled with rage and violence...yet none actually occured, except against Tea Party supporters. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPQjnPhIvDo http://rightwingnews.com/uncategorized/update-sacramento-union-thug-attacks-tea-party-er-and-lies-to-local-tv/ http://thestir.cafemom.com/in_the_news/125773/union_thugs_destroy_private_property http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTXBOgPCh9w While in the OWS "movement" violence, rape and sexual assault are rampant. http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7107890#editor/target=post;postID=855747416721706187 http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2011/11/03/BACM1LQ5FU.DTL&object=%2Fc%2Fpictures%2F2011%2F11%2F03%2Fba-occupy02_0504484216.jpg http://www.theblaze.com/stories/violent-vid-occupy-protesters-caught-in-morning-brawl/ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2049137/Occupy-Wall-Street-Violence-erupts-police-clash-protesters.html http://gothamist.com/2011/11/05/occupy_wall_street_erects_women-onl.php http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2057370/Occupy-Wall-Street-kitchen-worker-charged-sex-abuse-suspected-rape-protester.html http://www.theblaze.com/stories/teenager-claims-she-was-raped-at-the-occupy-cleveland-protest/ http://www.theblaze.com/stories/emotional-interview-alleged-occupy-baltimore-rape-victim-says-activists-refused-to-help/ http://conhomeusa.typepad.com/therepublican/2011/11/raping-civilization-occupy-wall-street-attacks-social-norms.html ...as something of a historian, the OWS movement seems a hell of a lot like what the NAZI's and communists were doing in the 1920's as they battled for control of Germany in the Weimar Republic era. This picture series is especially aliterative of this. Are we watching the rise of the (Social) Democratic party's new storm troopers? If you take in the possibility that the OWS movement is being bankrolled by a number of leftist organizations, this is a distinct possibility. More importantly, is how the media is portraying OWS versus how they portrayed the Tea Party Movement. Here in a nutshell is how it's being presented by the MSM
I know I'm not the only one who's noticed this hypocrisy in action. These people are demanding in part, that their massive student loans be forgiven...my answer is rather blunt---HELL NO! If you're stupid enough to get a degree in psychology (which prepares you to flip burgers) or in anything that has the word "studies" in it, and you paid highly inflated tuition rates for it, you deserve what you've done to yourself but I digress... Media coverage of the two movements, one a true grass roots movement, and the other an astro-turfed insta-movement is very telling. The media is attempting to divert attention away from the disaster that Mr. Obama's policies have inflicted upon America. That's the main difference.

Saturday, November 05, 2011

Newt In 2012?

While I am unabashedly NOT a support of Newt Gingrich...he's turning into the only adult in the room in the GOP field right now. So far, he's the only candidate who refuses to figuratively attack any of his fellow candidates. That alone, in my opinion has risen his stock. Here's video via Le-gal In-sur-rec-tion of his speech in Iowa yesterday that got the only standing ovation. It may be, that he ends up on the ticket of whoever wins, as the VP candidate...that wouldn't be a bad thing, at this point. He would make a hell of an attack dog, wouldn't he?

OWS Violence in Washington, DC

The real face of OWS in Washington, DC..

Friday, November 04, 2011

Nancy Pelosi's Conflict of Interest

Here's video of Nancy Pelosi trying to defend her conflict of interest in introducing "credit card reform" after she was given preferential treatment in a stock offering by VISA.

How to end Illegal Immigration

There is constant argument on how to eliminate the huge problem we have with illegal immigrants in this country.  This post stems from a comment on made on a Daily Caller article.  You want to end illegal immigration?   There are five simple steps to do so:

1. One year manadatory jail term and $10,000.00 fine for each illegal worker who is found in your employment.
2. Revoke business license for 1 year for each illegal worker who is found in your employ
3. On third violation...sieze all property owned by that company...
4. Eliminate the "anchor baby" citizenship loophole...by stating that those children born to parents who are here illegally do not have citizenship.
5. Eliminate ALL federal funding to municipalities and counties that are "santuary" areas. (If you don't wish to enforce federal laws...then you don't get federal dollars.).

Those five simple steps would eliminate any and all insentives for hiring illegal workers.

Thursday, November 03, 2011

Graph That Sinks Obama

Here's a very simple graph that very well could sink Obama's reelection campaign...but only if enough of us on the right side of the political spectrum get the message out.  After all, the MSM is in the tank for Obama and has been from the very start.  Does anyone believe that POLITICO.com would have published an unsourced story that could hurt Obama....????


Just one simple graph that not just argues against his failed economic agenda, but absolutely shouts down his arguments for his "jobs plan" which is only a smaller version of the "stimulus" that wasn't.

The "Debt Commision"

from a reader...
Dear Alan, Alan Simpson, Senator from Wyoming , Co-Chair of Obama's deficit commission, calls senior citizens the Greediest Generation as he compared "Social Security" to a Milk Cow with 310 million teats. Here's a response in a letter from PATTY MYERS in Montana ... I think she is a little ticked off! She also tells it like it is! "Hey Alan, let's get a few things straight.. 
1. As a career politician, you have been on the public dole for FIFTY YEARS.  
2. I have been paying Social Security taxes for 48 YEARS (since I was 15 years old. I am now 63).  
3 My Social Security payments, and those of millions of other Americans, were safely tucked away in an interest bearing account for decades until you political pukes decided to raid the account and give OUR money to a bunch of zero ambition losers in return for votes, thus bankrupting the system and turning Social Security into a Ponzi scheme that would have made Bernie Madoff proud..  
4. Recently, just like Lucy & Charlie Brown, you and your ilk pulled the proverbial football away from millions of American seniors nearing retirement and moved the goalposts for full retirement from age 65 to age 67. NOW, you and your shill commission is proposing to move the goalposts YET AGAIN.  
5. I, and millions of other Americans, have been paying into Medicare from Day One, and now you morons propose to change the rules of the game. Why? Because you idiots mismanaged other parts of the economy to such an extent that you need to steal money from Medicare to pay the bills.  
6. I, and millions of other Americans, have been paying income taxes our entire lives, and now you propose to increase our taxes yet again.  
Why? Because you incompetent bastards spent our money so profligately that you just kept on spending even after you ran out of money.
Now, you come to the American taxpayers and say you need more to pay off YOUR debt. To add insult to injury, you label us "greedy" for calling "bullshit" on your incompetence.  
Well, Captain Bullshit, I have a few questions for YOU.  
1. How much money have you earned from the American taxpayers during your pathetic 50-year political career?  
2. At what age did you retire from your pathetic political career, and how much are you receiving in annual retirement benefits from the American taxpayers? 
3. How much do you pay for YOUR government provided health insurance?  
4. What cuts in YOUR retirement and healthcare benefits are you proposing in your disgusting deficit reduction proposal, or, as usual, have you exempted yourself and your political cronies?  
It is you, Captain Bullshit, and your political co-conspirators called Congress who are the"greedy" ones. It is you and your fellow nutcases who have bankrupted America and stolen the American dream from millions of loyal, patriotic taxpayers. And for what? Votes. That's right, sir. You and yours have bankrupted America for the sole purpose of advancing your pathetic political careers. You know it, we know it, and you know that we know it. And you can take that to the bank, youmiserable son of a bitch.
Rather eloquent, I'd say.

Wednesday, November 02, 2011

High Speed Photography

From Linda...superb high speed photography: