The Meltdown

So everybody has been affected by the meltdown, at least everybody with either a mortgage or investments in the stock market. And we all wonder, "what is the root cause?" I believe one gentleman from a financial forum I read pins it to the special interest lobby of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac:

Fannie [Mae] and Freddie [Mac] had such powerful lobbyists that no attempt to reform or regulate Fannie and Freddie could make it through Congress. In all fairness, there were a number of Republican Senators and Congressman who have been sounding the alarm for at least 15 years. They knew it was only a matter of time before the taxpayer would have to bail them out. They were voices crying in the wilderness. There was no way to stop such large special interests. Fannie and Freddie spent tens of millions of dollars lobbying congress. Is there something inherently wrong with that? Government sponsored enterprises spending millions to lobby the government?

So, who were the lamebrains obstructing reform?

Since 1989, 534 individual legislators recieved money from Fannie and Freddie. Who recieved the most? Chris Dodd, Democrat from Connecticut, Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee and the Senator who had a couple of special arrangements with Countrywide, Fannies biggest customer. Who was second in line? A newcomer, who had only been in congress for three years, the junior Senator from Illinois, Barack Obama, who now blames Bush for the problem, and says he's going to run a different kind if Washington, free of special interests. There's a sucker born every minute.

Change you can believe in? So long as you believe, "The more things change, the more they stay the same".

The Speech

I didn't see Sarah Palin speak last night, but many blogs and newspapers couldn't stop talking about it. So I did something I rarely do, I read the speech.

Read it.

She SHOULD be our next vice president in 2008.

She SHOULD be our president in 2012.

I won' t say I'm in love, but bloody hell, where have the Republicans been hiding her and are there any more principled people like her in the party who will lead it?

Stuff - mainly news

The NY Times must be wishing for a Ministry of Truth and the Memory Hole (see George Orwell's 1984)so we mere mortals wouldn't be able to see what they said in 2006 and 2007 and what they were forced to report in 2008.

Stories on Sarah Palin and why the Democrats are going nuts with her selection for VP.
Here
here
here and here.

Parties not ideas die

The Republican party is said to be out of ideas and is looking at a defeat in the November elections.

However, the ideas of Conservative thought are alive and well and when implemented, seem to work.

Now how do we get the party to adopt the ideas that work and thus win elections to IMPLEMENT the ideas that the party campaigned on.

How did we get so lucky?

Well if your a Republican that is. Times of London (not necessarily a Republican friendly paper) has an interesting article about the Democratic primary.

May Obama and Clinton continue their primary fight and may they decide to fight in a take no prisoner manner.

Nader verses the Democrats

Ralph Nader is running for president again and PA Democrats are angry. In 1992, Democrats were happy when Ross Perot ran because if he had stayed out, Bill Clinton would not have won.

In 2000, the Democrats were angry with Nader because if he had not run, George W Bush would not have won.

Its funny to see people claim to want freedom as long as it won't hurt their election chances. Maybe some rich Republican should subsidize Nader so he can run again and again and again.

Politicians and car companies

Obama is saying one thing and doing another. If Clinton or McCain tried this, it would be all over the news. Obama will learn this can hurt him, if not now then in the general election.

Superdelegates

Last night my wife asked me why the Democrats have superdelegates. I couldn't really giver her an answer, because it made no sense why they have them.

Well today, Geraldine Ferraro wrote a nice op-ed in the NY Times explaining why the Democrats have superdelegates.

Its so the leaders of the party can set the rules and tell the little people what they should be doing. Go read the article and see for yourselves, it was so the elected members of Congress and others can set policy, platform and decide nominations when two or more candidates have a similar number of delegates. This is supposed to help prevent infighting in the Party so it will have a better chance in the general elections. Basically, its the smoke filled rooms, but the party bosses are the members of Congress, Governors and former presidents and vice presidents.

It would be nice to see the Democratic Convention be as exciting as the 1860 convention was in Charleston SC.

Election News

Rick Moran has a suggestion to anyone who is trying to defeat Obama. Lay off the stupid conspiracy theories that he is a secret Muslim or if elected Obama will turn the US into the next Saudi Arabia in terms of religion.

Truer words have not been spoken. There are reasons to oppose the election of Obama, his father being a Muslim and having kin in Kenya are not reasons and Republicans (and Clinton supporters) would do well to remember that.

Mark Steyn on the collapse of Hillary Clinton. Very good article.

Obama and the Second Amendment

The good Senator Obama and Democratic hopeful is on record as a lawmaker who has restricted gun rights with the intent to allow only to those firearms pertaining to hunting and target shooting. Nowhere does he mention any support for handguns or semi-automatic weapons for any other purpose. In fact, the Democratic senator is involved in several organizations to disarm America. His position statement is filed under "Sportsmen" (click on link and find it in the linked PDF) and it is telling (emphasis mine):

Millions of hunters own and use guns each year. Millions more participate in a variety of shooting sports such as sporting clays, skeet, target, and trap shooting that may not necessarily involve hunting. As a former constitutional law professor, Barack Obama understands and believes in the constitutional right of Americans to bear arms. He will protect the rights of hunters and other law-abiding Americans to purchase, own, transport, and use guns for the purposes of hunting and target shooting.

If we remember correctly, the Second Amendment was the right of the citizenry to bear arms for the purposes of defense, not just hunting and target shooting. Obama himself notes that he "did not grow up hunting and fishing", so his familiarity with guns may be only academic, and not practical.

But is that all? Even if we were to grant that types of firearms could be classified as "state approved" or "state disapproved", it makes no logical sense to suggest state approval would lesson any category of crime or make the public safer. A gun is a gun is a gun.

What the anti-gun lobby pushes for in such seemingly conciliatory words is a slow war of attrition. Win by slowly eroding the enemy's position. I suggest should the law of the land restrict ownership to hunting longarms and target pistols, the next logical step for the anti-gun lobby would be to remove even these rights as well towards the ultimate goal of zero firearms altogether. After all, how can you restrict the use of a shotgun to skeet shooting? It's the operator; not the instrument. It's a slippery slope, my friends, and the government cannot legislate intent as much as it thinks that it can.

Senator Obama's mealy mouthed "position" is a thinly guised attempt to fool some into thinking he supports the Second Amendment and thus garner their support for his election. True, all candidates will attempt to posture, but only Obama would take away our guns.

(H/T: Bob Owens at Pajamas)

Presidential Election 2008

First, Michelle Obama's comments and the reaction to them.

Second, if the tables were reversed, and Clinton had won 10 primaries in a row, would there be a chorus calling for Obama to drop out for the good of the party? So why is Clinton getting a pass on this?

Rally around McCain??

From David Frum's Diary:

The Times' McCain Story
The New York Times may have just done for John McCain what he has not been able to do for himself: unite the Republican voting base behind him. The note of complaint in the Drudge headline - "Now that he's won the nomination ..." may gain an echo on talk radio and on Fox. Nothing like being attacked by the ultimate enemy - the detested liberal media!

And yet .. if the story is true, isn't it a huge and appalling problem? (Allegedly) delivering government favors to a woman one is (allegedly) sleeping with? Pretty bad, in my book.

So before we rally round - how about a reality check? Is the story true? Is it part of a pattern of behavior? These are things voters are entitled to know, and the Times was not wrong to investigate.

Who should be McCain's VP choice??

Well a lot of names have been mentioned. Here is another one. J. C Watts. He's conservative both on social and fiscal issues, he has been elected to congress several times and he is currently available.

It would be interesting choice but he would need a very thick skin because of all the names liberals would call him, an African-American, for being on the Republican ticket.

But does McCain think he needs to reach out to the conservative base or does he think they have no where else to go and will vote for him regardless? Well from reading blogs and comments, a lot of conservatives are seriously thinking about staying home, not voting for president or voting for the Democratic nominee.

The problems with the Democratic party

Will the groups supporting Obama and Clinton tear the Democratic Party apart? Jim Geraghty has some interesting thoughts on the matter. Its also interesting to read a conservative columnist write about the problems the Democratic party is having with its interest groups.

Obama in a Nutshell

Blackfive went and saw the newest fad in politics:

...Obama is a rockstar and there are a whole lot of people who just want a fresh face, who sounds good and makes them feel good...People were ear to ear and just watch the 18,000 eyes raised to the big screen when the Will.i.am "Yes we can" video plays. That is a powerful force people and it transcends facts.

Politics and the MTV generation have become one, sadly American discourse has devolved to 30 second TV spots and three minute rock videos. We will reap what we sow, people. We will reap what we sow.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Obama Would Define Patriotism for You

Hat tip to the Instapundit for a pointer to a blog by the National Association of Manufacturers concerning an interview with Sherrod Brown, a Democratic senator. Money quote:

I've talked to Barack a lot about his Patriot Corporation Act,which is not trade per se, but it's certainly part of the economic package around globalization...basically it says that if you play by the rules, if you pay decent wages, health benefits, pension; do your production here; don't resist unionization on neutral card check, then you will be designated a "Patriot Corporation" and you will get tax advantages and some [preference] on government contracts.

Folks, this is about a quarter-step towards nationalization of industry; although it's not outright control, it appears that through legislation, the government will mandate corporate activity and means of conducting business. How far will we go before price controls and regulation start making their rounds?

Powered by ScribeFire.

Che and Obama?

Well, at least Obama's supporters seem to find Che a fashion statement for their offices. Cute. Blackfive has the rundown.

Of course, Obama doesn't personally t choose who votes or campaigns for him, but it does say something about the man. Doesn't it?

Powered by ScribeFire.

Back to work and blogging

Was off work on Thurs and Friday and didn't even feel like blogging those days, was just nice to relax at home. Instead of separate posts today, the few stories I want to share are all in one post.
Presidential Elections:
The presidential election continues. Can McCain win? John Fund at the WSJ thinks its possible.

The Mayor of Toledo is trying to take the spotlight off Berkley for its treatment of the Marines by focusing it on his city. The City Council is appalled and have called on the Mayor to apologize.

On a slow news day we find the States of Ohio and Kentucky are fighting over a ROCK that was on the bottom of the Ohio River between the two states. This isn't like a cross town rivals, were talking about the Legislatures are getting involved and even comments by public officials as a raid to get the rock have been mentioned. And politicians wonder why the public thinks they are fools and wish they would all go away.

Have a good week.

Super Tuesday

Well I'm 0 for 2 in the primary. I liked Thompson and he dropped out. I reluctantly supported Romney because I DO NOT like McCain or Huckabee. And after Tuesday, it is likely McCain will be the Republican nominee for President.

I'm not sure what I'll do in November.

This is a free bit of news to all politicians looking for campaign donations. My picks lose. If you want to win, have your opponent get my support and the rest of the electorate will support you. This is offered free of charge so no need to call or mail me.

Magic Pens??

From the article:

poll workers told incredulous voters—including one spouse of an election judge—that the stylus used for touch-screen voting was actually an inkless pen to fill out paper ballots.

One question is how do the poll workers know whose ballots were not marked? How can it call the voters back? I thought we had a secret ballot in this country.