Economy, Politics

What's Wrong With This 'Bailout' Bill?

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This bill had a lot of bi-partisan support. It also had a significant number of bi-partisan non-support. Just not enough to defeat it. My representative, Rep. Jeff Miller (R-FL) voted NO on both opportunities, last Monday and yesterday, when the bill was fast-tracked to the President’s desk, who signed it into law. Miller has proven to me that he is the kind of Republican, a real conservative, that we need more of in Congress. So kudos to him. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) also voted NO on the senate version. Good for him. Then there is Sen. Mel Martinez (R-FL) and former head of the RNC. Martinez voted for it. No surprise there. Regarding this bill, I have two objections to it.

1) It is unconstitutional based solely on the preamble of it:

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Promote the general welfare does not mean insure the general welfare, and, there is no liberty when it is usurped by the government.

2) By its actions, the bill totally socializes the financial industry of the country. Whether, like Bush says, the bill will save us from a financial crisis is besides the point. The right solution would be one that does not socialize the entire economy and still solves the problem.

That we are supposed to have confidence, that the same people that created this problem can fix it in a matter of a week, if I may quote a famous politician, ‘requires a suspension of disbelief.’ Congress, President Bush, and Secretary Paulson have behaved more like used car salesmen than statesmen. No disrespect to used car salesmen.

I don’t have a solution. I’m not that smart. But I do know that going the socialist route is not the correct route. Manipulating the market made the problem. Now, manipulating the market and putting taxpayers on the hook is supposed to fix it? I don’t think so. The answer lies somewhere in letting some companies fail and/or reorganize and/or renegotiate their currently worthless paper, and not allow mortgages to be ’securitized.’

What do you think?

2008 Election, Media, Politics

The Media Is Big Loser In VP Debate

To make a judgment about every horse race, you always want to know ‘who won?’. But in the context of last night’s vice-presidential debate, it is also relevant to know ‘who lost?’. And in this case, you have to say that the mainstream media lost, BIG TIME.

Leading up to the debate, NBC’s political director Chuck Todd called the debate and the race as already over. That Gov. Sarah Palin lost the debate and McCain lost the race even before last night’s debate started. They characterized the debate as if, to use a boxing analogy, Sen. Joe Biden would win the match in the first minute of round one in a 15 round fight. Well, if you saw the debate last night, you have to agree that the fight went the distance. And if anyone got so much as a black eye, it was the 35 year defending champion Joe Biden. But in terms of this debate, a draw is a win for Palin.

Based on all the media hype leading up to the debate, you could come away feeling that Palin won only because she didn’t lose in the first round.

It does not take much to confirm the notion that 2008 is the year that journalism died. All one needed to do is to watch last night’s debate analysis on MSNBC immediately following the debate. Remember when journalism consisted of reporting what happened? The lineup on MSNBC last night took shots at Gov. Palin on ‘what she didn’t say.’ It looked like they tried to do in round sixteen what Joe Biden could not do in the first fifteen.

Uncategorized

Time-Warner, I Got Your Video 'Right Here!'

Here’s the video that Time-Warner had pulled from YouTube yesterday, claiming some sort of copyright violation. Maybe its really because they are in the tank for the Obama campaign? The video recounts the economic mess we are in today and the major players that created it, all Democrats. But don’t take my word for it. Please see for yourself.

2008 Election, Politics

The Video Democrats Don’t Want You To See

It’s not only the video that Democrats in Washington don’t want you to see. Apparently it’s also the video that the mainstream media doesn’t want you to see either. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have to come here or on YouTube to see it.

related links:

Uncategorized

aSide Order

Here’s a sign of progress on the Afghanistan front. The Taliban leader Mullah Omar is offering a safe exit if we would just go home. Even radical Islamists believe in ‘hail marys.’

‘Reconsider your wrong decision of wrong occupation, and seek a safe exit to withdraw your forces,’ said the message, which the Taliban said came from Omar.

Darn if this doesn’t take ‘big brother’ to a whole new level. Have to admit, the company has a good sales pitch to municipalities. Use our product and get more taxes.

A new high-tech aerial photography system that can spot an illegal porch from 5,000 feet is being marketed to tax assessors as a way to grow revenue.

And

A fire chief can look at the image of a house and the nearest fire hydrant and know exactly how much hose to run. A police chief can mark the distance between his sniper and a dangerous man with a gun, or map out where a car chase is headed.

Aircraft accidents from September of 2001.

Uncategorized

Why Pointing Fingers Instead Of Investigations?

Speaker Nancy Pelosi went into the House vote today by shoring up, or so she thought, the finger pointing of Republicans and the Bush administration. It turned out to be a preamble to failure. Perhaps she knew that she didn’t have enough Democrats to vote for the bailout either because the bill could have passed without a single Republican vote. Remembering Enron, you can bet the ranch that if any Republican could be held responsible that there would already have been investigations launched. I’m not certain, but maybe someone is holding Henry Waxman hostage somewhere?

All her finger pointing is meant to be a distraction from who is really to blame for the economic meltdown. Her Party. Everyone agrees that it was the result of bad mortgages. But no one seems willing to find out how we got there. For Chris Dodd and Barney Frank, there is good reason that Democrats don’t want to look too deep into the problem. They’re hoping to skate from responsibility by blaming it all on Bush and, as Pelosi called it today, runaway and unregulated economic policies. And they hope to get Obama elected before the American people find out the extent of his participation in it. To look at Obama today, he is acting as if he was an innocent bystander while the problem just snuck up on us.

Fact is, Sen. Barack Obama played no small part in contributing to the problem. And his fellow Democrats not only contributed to the problem, they started it, they made it worse, and they fought Republicans against any attempt at regulation reforms that could have prevented the situation that we find ourselves in today.

related links: What Caused The Economic Crisis? | ACORN And Sen. Barack Obama’s Economic Crisis

2008 Election, Media, Politics

Obama's Debate 'Words, Just Words'

During the first Presidential debate last Friday night, Sen. Barack Obama made two powerful points that seemed to make some points for him and against Sen. John McCain. One was his ‘me too’ response to what McCain said about a bracelet he wears from a fallen soldier. The other was that Dr. Henry Kissinger, a McCain adviser, supported his view that the U.S. president should meet with Iran’s president and other rogue dictators without preconditions.

His dance about Henry Kissinger’s advice was deceptive, if not simply indicative of a candidate loose with the facts. But don’t expect the mainstream media to set the record straight.

Here is a quote from Dr. Kissinger immediately after the debate about Obama’s remark.

‘Senator McCain is right. I would not recommend the next President of the United States engage in talks with Iran at the Presidential level. My views on this issue are entirely compatible with the views of my friend Senator John McCain. We do not agree on everything, but we do agree that any negotiations with Iran must be geared to reality.’

The bracelet issue is really not much of an issue, except for the fact that Obama was asked by the family not to bring up their son’s name or use it in speeches and debates. The father and mother, since divorced, have both confirmed that point.

All that can be said about it with any certitude now is that Obama showed the world how deep his commitment to that soldier was when he didn’t even know his name. And, that for a man wanting to be Commander in Chief, he can not be trusted to keep his word to the mother of a fallen soldier.

For the mother’s part, she is an Obama supporter. She is reported to have said that Obama’s mention of her son on Friday was appropriate because he was responding after Sen. John McCain said a soldier’s mother gave him a bracelet.

2008 Election, Immigration, Judiciary, Media, Politics

ACORN And Sen. Barack Obama's Economic Crisis

Before getting interested in politics, the mention of the word acorn conjured up images of squirrels for me. Now that ACORN is an acronym, Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, it conjures up images of socialist squirrels of the human kind. And front and center in ACORN is the Democrat(ic) party’s candidate for president, Sen. Barack Obama from Illinois.

Rather than have 100 percent of any recovery realized by reselling these mortgages going to either retiring the national debt or being returned to the people whose money they used (that would be you and I), or a combination of the two, the original bailout plan was to give 20 percent of it to ACORN. This was a major objection of the Republicans in the House. Which also explains to me, why they were kept out of the process.

Now that ACORN is front and center in the minds of those that are paying attention to the current financial crisis, we all need to know why, for Democrats, they are front and center in the proposed bailout, especially since they are instrumental in creating the problem in the first place.

Continue reading ACORN And Sen. Barack Obama's Economic Crisis →

Politics

What Caused The Economic Crisis?

Excellent video that traces the current economic crisis to its origin. Its real origin, as opposed to what Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-MA) says was the origin. There’s a good political (for him) reason he doesn’t go ALL the way back. The seed for this failure was planted by the peanut farmer and Nobel Peace Prize recipient, former President Jimmy Carter.

This video moves along at a pretty good clip, so if you want to get a look at some of the screenshots that are shown, have your mouse pointer ready on the pause button.

Thanks to Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) for distribution of this video.

Continue reading What Caused The Economic Crisis? →

2008 Election, Politics, Race Relations

Alcee Hastings (D-FL) Uses Race Card On Jewish Group

Are you beginning to see that the antics of the racist Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama’s pastor for over 20 years, is not so much of an isolated incident as Democrats would have you believe? On Wednesday, speaking to the National Jewish Democratic Council, a group that applied pressure to disinvite Gov. Palin from an anti-Iran rally in New York, the Democratic congressman said . . .

‘anybody toting guns and stripping moose don’t care too much about what they do with Jews and blacks.’

And he follows it up with this statement . . .

‘If Sarah Palin isn’t enough of a reason for you to get over whatever your problem is with Barack Obama, then you damn well had better pay attention.’

He will be criticized, of course, for his racist and bigoted comments. But it is obvious that what we are seeing is Hastings simply following the lead of his candidate who said to a democrat audience, without any substantiation, predicting that John McCain and his Republican allies will try to scare them.

“Nobody thinks that Bush and McCain have a real answer to the challenges we face. So what they’re going to try to do is make you scared of me,” Obama said. “You know, he’s not patriotic enough, he’s got a funny name, you know, he doesn’t look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills.”

Then there’s this quote which I heard him say, ‘And oh, did I mention, he’s Black?’ Do you think that the Obama campaign can win an election by using such despicable tactics? Apparently, they think that they can.

Belly up to the counter. Politics are on the menu and Ross is on the grill.