The Ryan Girl...

...forget the Obama girl, we have the Ryan girl. She can do the math;




Something neither Obama nor Biden can do...

via Instapundit.

Proving Media Bias

Tim Groseclose of Prager University has developed a formula to statistically, how mainstream media outlets are biased.  Here's the video.




Furthermore, he has a test that will give you your "Political Quotient", or where you stand on a scale of 1-100, 0 being far right conservative, most America's stand right in the centre at 50...where do you stand?   I'm fairly moderate, politically, since I'm far more libertarian than conservative but my PQ in this test is far right conservative,

Here’s my PQ: 0.6
Politicians with similar PQs are:
Michele Bachmann (R-Minn, 2007-09) PQ=-4.1
James DeMint (R-S.C. 1999-2009) PQ=5.1
This is because fiscally, I would like to see the size and scope of the federal government rolled back by a 50-70%.  Reduce the federal departments to Defense, Treasurey, Commerce, Justice and Transportation (because of the NTSB, and a couple of other effective agencies).  Terminate all those sucking off Uncle Sam's hind tit, and forcing them out into the work force...to do something productive.  Essentiall, I firmly believe most of the functions that the federal goverment has usurped, more properly, belong to the responsibility of the various states.

This stems from the wording of the 10th Amendment of the US Constitution:

Amendment X

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

That's pretty straight forward wording.  If it's not specifically permitted to the federal government by the Constitution, those powers are reserved to the states and the people...That's my main opposition to National Health Care...if a state (like Massachusetts) desires to build a state health care system, they have every right to do so, and they can require their citizens to participate in that system...much like buying auto insurance if you own a car. 

But, I strenuously object to the federal government usurping that power to itself...as current law stands, under legal precedent, the federal government require everyon to purchase a GM car...that's a fair reading of the US Supreme Court's recent ruling on ObamaCare being legal under the "commerce clause" of the Bill of Rights...

Think about that for a moment...but I digress.  This is about media bias.  You can't read a newspaper, or watch TV news without being bombarded by the bias of JournoList members. POLITICO.com is unashamedly a propaganda arm of the Obama administration...with the NY Times/LA Times and WaPo not far away...

Via The BlogFather...

And So It Begins...

Many people have been suspicious about how serious the GOP leadership in Congress would be a fiscal conservatism in the coming session that starts in January.  Many feared that since this leadership was in place during the period of 2002-2006 when the GOP began to act  like "Democrat Lite", they would merely continue those policies that led to giving the Speaker's Gavel to Nancy Pelosi.  Fear no more...it will happen.

Tim Cavanaugh of Reason.com is reporting that the ranking GOP members have sent a letter to presumptive Speaker of the House, John Boehner, that purports to lend support to Spencer Bachus. 

As I noted Thursday, Spencer Bachus has supported the majority of the most fiscally unsound, expensive and destructive pieces of legislation that have come before him in the past ten years -- including but not limited to Medicare Part D, the 2008 farm bill (a $300 billion million monstrosity that passed over President Bush's veto), and most importantly the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act that produced the $700 billion TARP.

This is the crap that gave us $5,000,000,000,000.00 in new debt over the past four years.  That more than 1/3 of our entire national debt.  But, it gets worse,

Bachus is not just an out of control spender. He is directly implicated in the most important domestic failure of the last decade: the refusal to rein in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac during the fight over the 2005 Federal Housing Finance Reform. This bill had the potential to impose tighter financial restrictions on Fannie and Freddie, turn off their direct line to taxpayer support, and allow the Federal Housing Finance Agency (then known as the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight) to take a much stronger role in regulating the GSEs. During negotiations over this bill, Bachus:

• opposed an amendment by Ron Paul that would have eliminated Fannie and Freddie's ability to borrow from the Treasury;
• opposed an amendment by Scott Garrett (R-NJ) to strike the increase in the Conforming Loan Limit for the GSEs;
• opposed an amendment by Former Rep. Jim Leach (R-IA) to strengthen the minimum capital requirements for Fannie and Freddie;
• and opposed an amendment by Ed Royce (R-California) authorizing the FHFA to limit the portfolios of Fannie and Freddie based on the systemic threat they posed.

 ...The rejection of these sensible restrictions on the GSEs meant that the House version of the bill ended up substantially weaker than the Senate version, and the bill never made it to reconciliation. By 2005 the housing bubble was already topping out, but three more years of mischief might have been avoided if Bachus and the House Democrats had been serious about regulating the GSEs -- both of which subsequently went bust and had to be rescued by Treasury. Fannie and Freddie continue to cost us billions of dollars every month in bailout money.

 

 

But this is not the end of Bachus' trail of economic destruction. In February 2008, after the disinflation of American real estate had begun and the credit unwind was in full swing, Bachus decided that Fannie and Freddie (which at this point had only six months left to live) should drastically expand their portfolios of bad and doubtful mortgage debt. So he voted for the Recovery Rebates and Economic Stimulus for the American People Act -- a $117 billion pig that upped the GSEs' conforming loan limit to $729,750. Assuming a 20 percent down payment, this means the government was now redefining an average home as one costing close to a million dollars -- at a time when real estate values were two years into a decline that still shows no signs of ending.

His chief rival isn't much better.  Ed Royce of California (now there's the home of some "fine" fiscal conservatives!  That state just elected an entire slate of new "even MORE of the same" free spending politicians).  Supported pretty much all of the above points.

If John Boehner is serious about fiscal conservatism, which many including myself doubt, the only way to dispel such doubts is to appoint men and women to chair the major committees who are serious about it.  What makes this so troubling, is that the senior members of all the subcommittees are in support of Mr. Bachus.

Bloomberg, The Hill and Wall Street Journal all say deputy ranking HFSC member Randy Neugebauer (Texas) signed on, along with prospective subcommittee heads Jeb Hensarling (Texas; sucommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit), Scott Garrett (New Jersey; Capital Markets, Insurance and Government-Sponsored Enterprises), Shelly Moore Capito (West Virginia; Housing and Community Opportunity), Paul, Judy Biggert (Illinois; Oversight and Investigations) and Gary Miller (California; International Monetary Policy and Trade).Of this crew, Hensarling, Garrett, Moore Capito and Paul are to varying degrees improvements, while Miller and Biggert are stinkers.

We The People need to let Mr. Boehner know that on this past Tuesday, we only voted in the GOP majority in the House because WE are serious about fiscal responsibility and reigning in the out of control spending of Congress.  More of the same will not be tolerated.

Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac Fire Thei Inspector Generals

The Huffington Post is reporting that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have fired their Inspector Generals. This will effectively prevent ANY investigation into the activities that led up to the collapse of the American financial institutions.

The ruling came in response to a request from the Federal Housing Finance Agency itself -- which means that a federal agency essentially succeeded in getting rid of its own inspector general. The FHFA is home to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Home Loan Banks, which are jointly responsible for purchasing or guaranteeing more than 80 percent of new mortgages issued since the middle of 2008, according to FHFA numbers.

Basically, the government asked the Justice Dept to rule...and of course they did, just the way they should...to cover up any possible misdeeds.

Rasmussen "Trust" Poll Out

Rasmussen hasn't published the poll officially, but it's available on their By The Numbers page. But what is surprising, or maybe not so, is that it's very ugly for Democrats. Basically the "Most Ethical Congress" ever's chickens are coming home to roost.

October 2009 September 2009
Issue................Dem GOP Diff Dem GOP Diff Shift
Health Care......40% 46% (6) 44% 44% - (6)
Education.........38% 43% (5) 45% 40% 5 (10)
Social Security..37% 45% (8) 43% 41% 2 (10)
Abortion...........35% 47% (12) 37% 44% (7) (5)
Economy...........35% 49% (14) 39% 47% (8) (6)
Taxes................35% 50% (15) 40% 48% (8) (7)
Iraq..................31% 50% (19) 37% 47% (10) (9)
Nat’l Security....31% 54% (23) 39% 51% (12) (11)
Gov’t Ethics......29% 33% (4) 34% 35% (1) (3)
Immigration.....33% 40% (7) 33% 45% (12) 5

Take a close look, the GOP leads in 9 of the 10 entries. That's a huge shift from last year, when NO ONE the GOP lead in no categories. It's only taken 9 months of "hope and change" to show the country that the change the Donk's want isn't what the country wants. To quote Mo Lane on his blog,

Does the Democratic Party feel like demonizing their opponents on health care rationing some more? – because I think that the GOP can somehow manage to find the strength to keep bearing up under the Democrats’ scorn.

I'm not quite that optimistic, but it's only take a few months of unified government under the Blue Banner to show the country that this isn't the right direction either. Hopefully, the GOP will pull their head out of the sand and start running Fiscally Conservative candidates for public office, not just at the national level, but at the local level as well. I don't think they'll learn from the mistakes of the past 8 years (i.e. forgetting they are the party of fiscal responsibility) but "hope" springs eternal.