Video: On The Economic Crisis

You may have to pause a few times, it moves kinda fast. Just Watch:

About This Economic Crisis

I have been pretty silent about this whole mess. I have been keeping a close eye on it though.

I don't know much about the inner workings of the economy. I will be the first to admit that. But I can't shake the feeling that throwing that much money into this idea would be a step toward socialism.

I am a firm believer in capitalism, and this is definitely not capitalism at work. I find it hard to believe that so many people are willing to "throw capitalism under the bus". (I hate that saying, and that is the first time I have used it. But I hate a lot of what I have been hearing the last couple of days, so it seems appropriate.) I am also upset that all these "smart" people can come up with is this.

One important aspect that we are not hearing enough about is who is really at fault. I know, I know it's Bush's fault. He is the president after all. Let's face it, this all boils down to congress. Year after year of terrible laws have brought this to a head. Now these same people are going to work to solve the problem they created. How screwed up is that?

I am not going to pretend like I know the answer here. The best analysis I have heard so far was from Rush yesterday. He suggested a suspension of the capital gains tax for a few years to give investors the incentives to put money into the market. Like I said before, I will always err on the side of capitalism.

As far as the debate goes, I think McCain will be there. I disagree with it. If a plan is not in place I think he should stand his ground and stay in Washington. But then again, I am not in a battle to win the presidency.

Please let me know your thoughts on this whole deal. I need all the opinions I can get on this on.

Worried About The Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Crisis? Bush Was Worried About It 5 Years Ago.

The democrats keep blaming Bush for the economy. Want to get a glimpse at who is truly at fault? Read this:

The credit crisis and the lack of oversight over government-subsidized lenders like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac occurred on the watch of George Bush, and many blame his economic team for their lack of oversight in the collapse. Barack Obama has made this point one of his major campaign themes, arguing that John McCain would provide more of the same failures that Bush did. However, what many do not recall is that Bush wanted to tighten oversight with a new regulatory board for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and other government recipients for the express purpose of addressing bad loan practices — and Democrats blocked it.

The New York Times reported this five years ago:

The Bush administration today recommended the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago.

Hey Barack, Have You Ever Heard Of The Logan Act?

Probably not:

Barack Obama's White House campaign angrily denied Monday a report that he had secretly urged the Iraqis to postpone a deal to withdraw US troops until after November's election.

In the New York Post, conservative Iranian-born columnist Amir Taheri quoted Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari as saying the Democrat made the demand when he visited Baghdad in July, while publicly demanding an early withdrawal.

"He asked why we were not prepared to delay an agreement until after the US elections and the formation of a new administration in Washington," Zebari said in an interview, according to Taheri.

OK, I know that is just a smear from the Iraqi Foreign Minister, right? Wrong:

But Obama's national security spokeswoman Wendy Morigi said Taheri's article bore "as much resemblance to the truth as a McCain campaign commercial."

In fact, Obama had told the Iraqis that they should not rush through a "Strategic Framework Agreement" governing the future of US forces until after President George W. Bush leaves office, she said.

In the face of resistance from Bush, the Democrat has long said that any such agreement must be reviewed by the US Congress as it would tie a future administration's hands on Iraq.

So, it's just another lie (emphasis mine). Then in the next line(once again, emphasis mine) Barack's national security spokeswoman informs us that it was not a lie. He asked them to delay an agreement until after the elections. Oh, I'm sorry, till after Bush leaves office. Which coincidentally is after the elections.

The text of the Logan Act:

§ 953. Private correspondence with foreign governments.

Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.

This section shall not abridge the right of a citizen to apply himself, or his agent, to any foreign government, or the agents thereof, for redress of any injury which he may have sustained from such government or any of its agents or subjects.

The authority to conduct foreign affairs has to come from the Executive branch. I am pretty sure Barack did not have President Bush's permission to do this. This law has never been enforced, but it is a felony. And Obama's foreign policy spokeswoman just informed us that he is guilty. And he did it for no other reason than to advance his own political ambitions. This is truly shameful.

Mike Gravel On Palin

The interview was on Pacifica Radio. They brought him on to slam Palin. You can tell the interviewer is upset that he spends the entire time defending her.

H/T: Atlas Shrugs

Another McCain Rumor; I Hope!

But with McCain, you never know:

Do it.

I for one can easily retract my support and wait out the 2012 Palin candidacy.

The bill would open up a tiny little smidgen of space on the Outer Continental Shelf for oil and gas exploration — just enough that Democrats who vote for it can claim to be pro-drilling, neutralizing one of the Republicans’ most energizing issues going into the November elections. But the benefits of the bill’s meager drilling provisions would be negated (and then some) by $30 billion in tax hikes on U.S. oil companies, placing our own domestic producers at an additional disadvantage compared to their overseas competitors. In exchange for very little new supply, these companies would pay higher taxes related to the crucial activities of exploration and refinery-capacity expansion. To nobody’s great surprise, the industry is not eager to accept this trade.

...

Perfect. A "drilling" bill which does not actually permit drilling -- thus ending all possibility of expanded drilling in the future. The Democrats will say, correctly, "Well, we voted for a 'drilling bill' last time and supplies did not rise and prices did not fall. So isn't our precious ecosystem more important than expanded drilling, which has been proven not to work?"

It's better to have no bill at all than a phony one which dishonesty "proves" there's simply no point to drilling more American oil.

There are a large number of people that believe this is just the McCain camp trying to throw Obama off. The same way he did when allowing people to think he was going to pick Lieberman for VP. I certainly hope so.

It took me a long time to even consider voting for McCain. I must admit, the Palin pick was what finally brought me to decide to pull the lever for him. If this turns out to be true, he can stick that lever where the sun don't shine.

Follow the link above for Ace of Spade's take and contact info for the RNC.

To Republicans: Let's Keep Our Eye On The Ball!

I think that way too much attention is being given to this "lipstick on a pig thing". What did he mean when he said it? Who knows? Should he have said it? Probably not. But I have heard people on both sides of the isle use this phrase. Deep down I would hope that a man running for president would not reduce themselves to such a level. But we are talking about a democrat here. And not just any democrat, an ultra-liberal one. So who knows?

I think the McCain campaign responded well to it:


That is all that needs to be done.

Barak Obama is weak on so many issues. These need to be the talking points. I hope that this type of thing will tone down over the next couple of months. I doubt it will though. This actually helps Obama more than it hurts him. So he will try to keep it going as long as he can.

Let me explain. Obama knows that his positions on the issues are completely ass-backwards from that of the majority of Americans. That is why his whole campaign has been run in a way as to prevent him from discussing what really matters, the issues. The central theme of his whole campaign seems to be "America sucks, and we need to fix it", we need to "CHANGE". Of course, he does not want to discuss how this change should occur. We are to "HOPE" that he will change it for the better.

Let us take a brief look at his idea of change:

Raise taxes by trillions and trillions of dollars. Oh, he don't want to tax you "poor" people. Just the fat cats. You know, the one that signs your paycheck. He won't raise your taxes, just prevent you from getting raises and reduce the amount of bonus checks. Not to mention the increased cost of the products these companies provide.

Expand government control of our lives. They have no problem complaining about how screwed up the government is. Then he wants to increase the size and scope of government. Whether it be schools, health care, entitlements, etc... he wants more control.

He wants to gut the military. Bill Clinton started the process and he would like to go ahead and bring the military to it's knees.

I could go on and on for days, but you get the picture. As long as he can keep the mudslinging going on, he does not have to discuss the real important things.

McCain has to acknowledge smears such as these. But he cannot fall into the trap that Obama is laying. Keep the issues front and center in this election.

Does Palin Lack Guts?

Hell no:

Campaign and network officials had said on Sunday that her first television interview would be a sit-down with Charles Gibson of ABC’s “World News.”

But it turns out that she is spending much of Thursday and Friday with Gibson — at the ceremony in Fairbanks, Alaska, and at her home in Wasilla, Alaska.

Campaign aides said the anchorman will get extensive, repeated access to Palin throughout her first trip home since becoming the nominee.

“ABC News will have plenty of time to question her and examine her and spend time with her,” a campaign official said. “They’ll do multiple interviews over two days. No topics are off-limits – there are no ground rules. There’s tons of time to talk to her about every topic.”

How refreshing to see a VP candidate that is willing to do this kind of thing. Once again the McCain campaign has allows the democrats to help their cause. The dems, including Biden have been suggesting that McCain and Co. are scared to allow her to do interviews. Well this shines a light on how worried the McCain campaign are.

Is The Left Concerned About Palin?

Their first reaction to the news that Palin was going to be McCain's running mate was one of joy. They loved that McCain had picked a women from Alaska that was not very well known. Those warm and fuzzy feelings soon disappeared when she spoke at the convention. The countries introduction to the Mayor of Wasi..., oh I'm sorry, the Governor of Alaska slapped them in the face. And they are scared.

Need proof? What do the left do when they are threatened? They attack. The attacks do not have to contain one shred of fact, as long as they are attacking.

Mr. Martin from the blog Explorations has put together a list of debunked smears coming from the left here. He is going to update as they come up, so check it from time to time.

A few examples:

1. Yes, she is Governor of Alaska. No, she’s not the Lieutenant Governor. No, she’s not currently Mayor of Wasilla. Yes, she was Mayor of Wasilla, some years ago.
2. Yes, as Governor of Alaska, she’s the Commander in Chief of the Alaska National Guard. And yes, her professional military subordinate is quite impressed with her in that role.
3. And yes, the New York Times says the job of Governor of Alaska is one of the harder, and more powerful, jobs in state government.
4. Yes, there are people in Alaska who think she’s too liberal.
5. Yes, she did giggle when someone called Lyda Green a “bitch.” Yes, Lyda Green is a cancer survivor. Yes, it was the same Lyda Green who tried to force a scheduling conflict that would make Palin miss her son’s high school graduation. Yes, this would also be the Lyda Green who complained no one had asked her about Palin during the vetting process.

There are 71 as of now. I'd say the lefties are pissing their pant.

Class

One side has it. The other side does not. During the Democratic Convention there were no protesters screaming out during the speeches. Sure there were some outside the convention hall. But that is were the protests stayed. Of course, McCain did pay for an ad to air that night. This is class:


What does Obama do on the night of McCain's speech? He goes on The O'Reilly Factor to take away from the Republican Convention. I have heard a lot of people complain on the talk shows about O'Reilly. They do not think he should have given Obama the chance. There is one problem with that. Obama would only agree to come on the show if they aired it last night. I have heard O'Reilly say many times that Obama was welcome on his show any time. O'Reilly has practically been begging him to come on for over a year. He knew it was his only chance, and if he refused the left would use it as political fodder to attack him.

I would also like to steer you to a great post by Ace Of Spades. It is a great post and should be read in it's entirety. Ace does not pull any punches and will use some colorful language, but he is dead on the money as to how the left thinks:

There are a couple of interesting things here. First of all, why are all the Democrats so shocked she gave a partisan, cutting, attack dog speech? She is the Vice Presidential candidate; that is the VP's job, after all. Did they think she wouldn't take on that traditional job because she's a woman? Did they think she just wanted to talk about babies 'n bakin' cookies? Did they really believe their own horseshit that a governor who took on her own party and left it weeping on the floor was a bubbleheaded cupcake and couldn't act tough and canny like a man?

If so, shame on them. Not for the sexism. I don't care much about that. For the stupidity. For the ten-thousandth example of liberals cocooning themselves in their own little fantasy world, not allowing a single outside criticism or internal note of doubt to violate their soft, warm fragile little nests.

She's a governor, I repeat again, morons. She achieved the greatest state elected office and has run the state so well she has an 80% popularity rate and has even Democrats hoping she'll lose, just so she'll come back and serve out her term!

What exactly were you expecting? I'm reminded of Chris Rock becoming furiously angry at whites who say "Colin Powell speaks so welllll, he speaks so wellllll....!"

"He's an educated fuckin' man!" Rock screams. "What ignorant fuckin' shit did you expect to come out of his mouth? 'I'ze a-gonna be Prez-mo-dent! ?'"

My words exactly, liberals. She's an educated woman of high achievement. Tell me-- "What ignorant fuckin' shit did you expect to come out of her mouth?!"

Read the rest at the link. It is great.

Sarah Palin Has Proven To Be Cool Under Pressure

She gave a great speech last night. Of course the MSM was quick to point out that she did not write it. That is true. I ask you; how many of them write their own speech? That is right, none.

How did she prove to be cool under pressure? Check this out:

Halfway through Sarah Palin's speech tonight at the RNC, people following the speech noticed she was deviating from the prepared text.

According to sources close to the McCain campaign, the teleprompter continued scrolling during applause breaks. As a result, half way through the speech, the speech had scrolled significantly from where Governor Palin was in the speech....

The same thing happened while Rudy was giving his speech. A few minutes into his speech I noticed Rudy freak a little. Quite frankly, it was probably a good thing. During the first few minutes of his speech he did not look good. But when he started just talking to the crowd, he gave a wonderful speech.

As far as Palin goes, I saw no change in the way she delivered her speech. You have to admit, she was standing on the biggest stage of her life. She had to be a little nervous. Then she had to "wing" her speech. And she delivered wonderfully.

What happens when Obama's teleprompter goes down?:

Fred At The Convention

At about 4:15 he gives a detailed description of McCain's time in Vietnam. It is amazing:

A New Blog

A young friend of my son has started up a new blog. He is just getting started, but I told him I would give my readers a little nudge. It can be found here.

Check it from time to time, and give him some suggestions in the comments. We need to encourage or young people (especially conservatives) to stay active.

Biden Is In Trouble

I can't wait to see him debate Palin. Go here and listen to her speak about oil.

She is definitely not a Washington insider. And Hillbilly White Trash has an interesting fact up about her experience here.