Oh, The naiveté of it all

What does this mean? We are giving Tehran til the end of the year to come up with a Nuclear Weapon. Obama is continuing the footwork of Clinton and Bush

President Barack Obama suggested that Iran may have some right to nuclear energy _ provided it proves by the end of the year that its aspirations are peaceful.
In a BBC interview broadcast Tuesday, he also restated plans to pursue direct diplomacy with Tehran to encourage it set aside any ambitions for nuclear weapons it might harbor.

Iran has insisted its nuclear program is aimed at generating electricity. But the U.S. and other Western governments accuse Tehran of seeking atomic weapons.
“What I do believe is that Iran has legitimate energy concerns, legitimate aspirations,” Obama said, adding that the international community also “has a very real interest” in preventing a nuclear arms race.

The president has indicated a willingness to seek deeper international sanctions against Tehran if it does not respond positively to U.S. attempts to open negotiations on its nuclear program. Obama has said Tehran has until the end of the year to show it wants to engage with Washington.

100 days, 1,360 days to go oh my!

I have never known someone who loves the limelight as much as Obama does. This guy seems to be on television about every week. In fact, he has caused American Idol to change its airing night during his last two press conferences. He was on again last night on American Idol night, but American Idol was not postponed. I realize Barack Hussein Obama (who is mad I said Hussein?) is America's and Europe's Idol, but I would prefer to watch the original American Idol on Fox not the George Soros created American Idol Barack Obama.

With baited breath, Americans sit in anticipation to see their American idol bloviate about how he is saving the world and parting the red seas. Obama enters the room as the press sits with gaping mouths wide-open. The reporters know they are sitting in front of greatness. A deafening silence permeates the room as the press awaits the master's voice. Barack Obama makes a short speech and then begins to take questions. The rejoinder of each question posed to the "one" took an average of ten minutes. I wonder how he did on timed tests in high school – probably not very well. My guess is by the time he finished one question, the rest of the class was done. He once again enlightens us to the fact that he closed Guantanamo Bay but he neglects to tell us that he has no idea what to with the detainees. He tried to off-load them on his trip to Europe because he believed the Europeans would not only shower him with praise but they would acquiesce to his demands. They did shower him with praise, but they offered little. France offers to take one detainee, Spain offers to take six. Beyond that, Europe gave nothing. So what to do - we will probably give the rest of the detainee's citizenship, ask them not to be bad, and send them on their ways. Obama was then asked if the influenza outbreak would cause him to close the borders. He hummed and hawed, and then said he can't do that. I mean – "come on" Had he done that it would be more difficult to grant the illegal Mexicans citizenship, and he needs them to completely obliterate the Republican Party.

I loved his response on torture. Let me make this perfectly clear, waterboarding is torture. Somehow I don't think he convinced many people, because it was the only question where there were follow-up questions. Did you not hear me; waterboarding violates our ideals and our values. I could care less if it might save tens of thousands of lives, I will not use waterboarding, we are better than that. I would rather you die than to violate my ideals. The Field Manual allows me to yell at the prisoners, so that is what I will do.He stamps his feet a few times in hopes we believe him. He might have to waterboard us to get us to really believe him. Okay, so I used artistic license with what he said. I was reading between the lines. Obama says we could have gotten the information by other means, but how does he know that? The CIA memos state exactly the opposite. George Tenet and other intelligence officials all say that we could not have obtained the information any other way. Who cares anyway? The fact is we gathered the necessary information to stop attacks and save lives, and that is the issue. Obama also admitted to the fact that there were additional documents to which Dick Cheney had referred that showed the efficacy of enhanced interrogation methods, but he would not talk about them because they were still classified – so much for Obama's transparency. Transparency is good only if it shows how evil the United States is. He then moves on to Britain.

It was interesting that he invoked the name of Winston Churchill as his example of a reason not to torture. Barack Obama unceremoniously returned a bust of Winston Churchill to the British that was given to President Bush from Tony Blair after the attacks of 9/11. Britain also used extremely tough interrogation methods against the IRA. Britain's Special Air Service, (SAS) is a feared organization by terrorists. I am not sure where he is getting his information, but Britain was not a very good example.

Barack Obama says he will not have a rubber-stamp senate. Huh? I beg to differ. Both houses of congress had just passed a 3.5 trillion dollar budget which amounted to broad support for his healthcare plan and climate change bills – sounds like a rubber stamp to me.

And then with a straight face, the president said this:

And -- and that's why I'm always amused when I hear these, you know, criticisms of, "Oh, you know, Obama wants to grow government." No. I would love a nice, lean portfolio to deal with, but that's not the hand that's been dealt us".

Does he actually think people are going to believe that?

Barack Obama still continues the myth that he won't continue with Bush's eight years of failed policies. Bush's tax cuts spurred the economy after the dot-com crash and 9/11. What didn't work was the corruption and greed of those involved with the housing crisis and his excessive spending. The excessive spending is what Obama wants to continue. So, Obama takes what didn't work from Bush and puts it on steroids.

Of course, then we have to ask ourselves, if Barack Obama says that he is not going back to the failed policies of the Bush Administration, is he not reverting back to the failed anti-terrorist polices that were pre 9/11.

Obama says he will reduce the deficit in half in the middle of his first term. My question is how? In the dot-com bubble, investors said valuations no longer mattered – the bubble popped. In the housing crisis, seemingly intelligent people said housing prices will always go up (including my brother). They were wrong – the bubble popped. In today's scenario, it appears we can just print money without any consequences, but history is a guide. Argentina has tried it, Germany has tried it, and the list goes on. It will cause hyperinflation.

I thought I would jot down of few notes on Barack Obama's first 100 days. And, Just to show that I am not totally against everything Barack Obama has done, I have bolded the items which I think are good or semi-good.

1. Obama spends one trillion dollars on a stimulus bill that he says will create 2 to 3 million jobs. Joe Biden says there is 25% chance we will get it wrong. The first quarter of this year, the economy retracted 6.1%. How is the stimulus package working again? No bother - it's still Bush's fault.
   
   1. The Stimulus Bill contains a "Buy American Provision" clause, and the EU threatens to retaliate.
      
   2. Obama says there is no pork in the bill, but the entire bill is pork. It is a Democratic wish list put together months before Barack Obama was president by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.
      
   3. Barack Obama promised congress and the voters five days to read the bill. They reneged on their promise, and rammed down our throats the 778 page, pork-laden monstrosity that no one read in less than 40 hours. This was his call for transparency.
      
2. The Spending bill contains 9,000 earmarks. Barack Obama tries to justify it and says it was unfinished business from the Bush administration. Fails to remember the definition of veto.
   
3. Obama talked of change but begins to appoint all Clinton retreads.
   
4. Janet Napolitano is appointed secretary of homeland security and issues a propagaganda hit piece on the rise of Right Wing Extremism. The belief now is that right wing extremism is more dangerous than Radical Islam.
   
5. Hillary Clinton is appointed Secretary of State.
   
6. Barack Obama appoints Tim Geithner as treasury secretary even though he neglected to pay $34,000 in self-employment taxes plus $8,000 in interest giving him the name turbo tax Geithner, but then other appointments who failed to pay taxes begin to come out of the woodwork, Nancy Kellefer, nominated to a top budget post who has a tax lien on her DC home, and Tom Daschle nominated for secretary of state who failed to pay $140,000 in back taxes and interest (he withdrew his name). There were others I can't recall. Moral: If you want Democrats to pay their taxes, appoint them to a position in the administration.
   
7. Obama campaigned against lobbyists, but it came to light that Tom Daschle was a lobbyist. Obama tries to excuse his lobbying saying he wasn't a registered lobbyist. Of course, he was paid two million dollars by a lobbying firm. Obama exempted another high profile lobbyist named William Lynn as the number two man at the Pentagon.
   
8. Governor Bill Richardson was to be appointed commerce secretary but he withdrew his name after it was discovered the Grand Jury was looking into him because a major California company was making major political contributions for his political activities. We are to wonder once again about Barack Obama's vetting process.
   
9. Eric Holder is appointed attorney general. He is notorious for being soft on crime. He does not believe individuals have the right to bear arms.
   
10. Mercedes Marquez is appointed as Assistant Secretary for Community Planning and Development. Marquez was willing to pay Norma Wong a former legislator from Hawaii thousands of dollars to a Zen Buddhist Priest for training sessions in Zen Buddhism. Mercedes became a high priestess. Marquez was alleged to have purchased a condominium for herself and her partner that her department financed. She spent 5 million dollars on a computer for her department she later threw away.
    
11. Barack Obama reveals his middle class tax cut (for 95% of the people.) It amounts to 13 dollars a paycheck to be reduced to eight dollars in January. Of course, those who live in California find out that the tax rebate will be reduced to -0-or less when the terminator increases fees and taxes on just about everything in his attempt to counter profligate spending by the California legislature.
    
12. Barack Obama says he opposes the Fairness Doctrine, but there is speculation he might just call it something else.
    
13. Barack Obama snubs the Prime Minister of England Gordon Brown when he gives the Prime Minister a set of DVDs of 25 classic American movies. The Prime Minister gives Obama a pen holder fashioned from the oak timber of HMS Gannet, a navy vessel that served on anti-slavery missions off Africa. Obama was also given a framed commissioning paper for the HMS Resolute, a Royal Navy ship that came to symbolize British-American goodwill when it was rescued by the U.S. from icebergs and given to Queen Victoria. It is the sister ship of the HMS Gannet.
    
14. On their trip to England, Barack Obama apparently didn't learn his lesson. The narcissist Obama gives Queen Elizabeth an Ipod filled with his speeches. Now she can hear how Obama intends to part the seas.
    
15. Barack Obama authorizes the use of lethal force in the death of three pirates by Navy Seals who kidnapped the crew of an American Vessel.
    
16. Barack Obama supports Bush's use of wiretapping.
    
17. Barack Obama follows through on one of his campaign pledges by decimating our military.
    
18. Ben Bernanke appears on 60 minutes to tell voters how fast the government is printing money.
    
19. Obama travels to Europe as an apologist for the United States, and effectively convinces the continent that we do indeed torture. He comes back with virtually nothing. In the same trip, he says Turkey should be part of the European Union. This angers French Prime Minister Sarkozy. Adding Turkey would add 70 million Muslims to the EU which the EU can ill-afford. Sarkozy begins to doubt Obama's leadership, and effectively tells him to butt out of EU's affairs.
    
20. Barack Obama continues his trip to Latin America where he cozies up to Hugo Chavez and Daniel Ortega. Chavez gives him an anti-American book and Ortega spews out a 50 minute anti-American diatribe, and Barack's answer is that he was glad he was only three years old when it happened.
    
21. Barack Obama begins withdrawal of Iraqi forces, and to the consternation of the far-left, sends troops to Afghanistan.
    
22. The idiocy of Barack Obama's appointment of Timothy Geithner was proven when Geithner announced his non-economic plan for financial institutions. Investors were waiting on pins and needles to hear his economic plan, but when he had no specifics of what he was intending to do, the market immediately dropped 200 points.
    
23. Radical Leftist activist Rosa Brooks is appointed as a top advisor in the Pentagon with access to top military secrets.
    
24. Jeffrey Immelt, the CEO that has driven GE into the ground, and who has continuously done business with Iran, was appointed as a top economic advisor to Barack Obama's team. General Electric is poised to garner millions of dollars from Obama's stimulus package for green energy at a time when General Electric is flailing. NBC and MSNBC owned by General Electric has been a mouthpiece for Barack Obama. Barack Obama and Jeffrey Immelt are definitely in bed together.
    
25. CIA memos are released detailing enhanced interrogation methods and the efficacy of the program. He does not release additional documents that proved how effective these interrogation methods were. The release of these documents demoralizes the CIA. He states that he is going to succumb to ACLU's demand by releasing photos of detainee abuse at Guantanamo Bay to further show how evil the United States is. It is discovered that Nancy Pelosi and other top Democrats knew about the enhanced interrogation methods including waterboarding.
    
26. In less than two days, Barack Obama wavered from he wouldn't prosecute agents of the CIA to he would leave it open for prosecutions back to he wouldn't prosecute.
    
27. To top off his 100 days, Barack Obama decided to scare the daylights out of New Yorkers by flying a 747 with two jets near the twin towers at a low altitude at a cost to taxpayers of more than $300,000. I think there is more to the story than we are being told.
    

What is next ---

1. Cap and trade that will dramatically increase energy prices
   
2. Nationalized health care which will dramatically reduce the quality of care. We will also see rationed care.
   
3. More spending
   
4. Inflation
   

I only have this to say - It sure feels a lot longer than 100 days, but no - we have 1,360 more days of this lunacy assuming its only four years.

Now where are the counter voices and leadership of the Republican Party? Where is Ronnie?

The Bush Pardons – who is missing?

The following are the Bush Pardons?

• —Leslie Owen Collier of Charleston, Mo., who pleaded guilty in 1995 to unlawfully killing three bald eagles in southeast Missouri. He improperly used pesticide in hamburger meat to kill coyotes, but ended up killing many other animals, including the bald eagles. Collier, who was convicted for unauthorized use of a pesticide and violating the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, was sentenced Feb. 2, 1996, in the Eastern District of Missouri.
  
• —Milton Kirk Cordes of Rapid City, S.D. Cordes was convicted of conspiracy to violate the Lacey Act, which prohibits importation into the country of wildlife taken in violation of conservation laws.
  
• —Richard Culpepper of Mahomet, Ill., who was convicted of making false statements to the federal government.
  
• —Brenda Jean Dolenz-Helmer of Fort Worth, Texas, convicted of concealing knowledge of a crime. Dolenz-Helmer, the daughter of a Dallas doctor accused of medical insurance fraud, was convicted in connection with the doctor's case. She was sentenced Dec. 31, 1998, in the Northern District of Texas to four year's probation with the special condition of 600 hours of community service and a $10,000 fine.
  
• —Andrew Foster Harley of Falls Church, Va. Harley was convicted of wrongful use and distribution of marijuana and cocaine during a general court martial at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo.
  
• —Obie Gene Helton of Rossville, Ga., whose offense was unauthorized acquisition of food stamps.
  
• —Carey C. Hice Sr. of Travelers Rest, S.C., who was convicted of income tax evasion.
  
• —Geneva Yvonne Hogg of Jacksonville, Fla., convicted of bank embezzlement.
  
• —William Hoyle McCright Jr. of Midland, Texas, who was convicted of bank fraud.
  
• —Paul Julian McCurdy of Sulphur, Okla., who was sentenced for misapplication of bank funds.
  

—Robert Earl Mohon Jr. of Grant, Ala., who was convicted of conspiracy to distribute marijuana.

Daniel Figh Pue III of Conroe, Texas, convicted of illegal treatment, storage and disposal of hazardous waste without a permit. Ronald Alan Mohrhoff of Los Angeles, who was convicted for unlawful use of a telephone in a narcotics felony. —Orion Lynn Vick of White Hall, Ark., who was convicted of aiding and abetting the theft of government property

What about Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean? Jailed for trying to protect our borders and now used as political pawns in the immigration debate.

The Coming Economic Tsunami

This is the one analysis I hope I am wrong.

I am part of the investor class. I have 32% of my portfolio invested in equities. The last time I was invested this low in equities was right before the dot-com crash. In the near future, money market funds will be yielding a scant 1%-2%, but I have decided to take a cautious approach in preserving capital rather than trying to risk principle because I foresee treacherous waters ahead. There are several reasons why I have decided to reduce my exposure in equities. I enumerate these below.

1. 
   The uncertainty in the elections – If the economy continues to deteriorate, the Democrats could take the white house and gain even more control of both the house and the senate. This is the Democrat's election to lose, and so far, they are doing their best to try and lose it. But, this will probably be the highest turnout ever in an election season, and that does not bode well for Republicans. Moreover, even with the schism among the ranks of the Democrats, Democrats still have the fire in the belly to win back the white house. That fire does not exist among much of the Republican base. Should Republicans lose the White House, I predict Obama, not Hillary will win. This is troublesome to say the least. Obama is further left than Hillary if that is possible. Read my post here Obama Revealed. Obama has promised to raise taxes on virtually everyone. Capital gains, dividends, wages for anyone earning more than 75,000 dollars a year are all fair game. His socialized health care is just the tip of the iceberg with Obama. An Obama presidency will mirror that of another inept president, Jimmy Carter. A perusal of Barack Obama's book Dreams From My Father shows how clueless Barack is on the economy. In this current election cycle, Obama wants to increase our taxes at a time our economy is teetering on the brink.
   

   
    

2. The energy crisis and the so-called alternative energies – At the beginning of the Bush presidency, a gallon of gas was under $2.00 a gallon, it is now approaching $4.00 with no end in sight. Can you see gasoline going to 10.00 dollars a gallon? I can. We are held hostage by OPEC and the other oil producing nations, and our government is complicit in our dependence on foreign oil. We refuse to drill in Anwar because of lobbyists like the Sierra club and other environmental groups. The Bakken formation in Western North Dakota may hold up to 400 billion to 500 billion barrels of oil. The arctic refuge, a pin-prick of a waste land, is estimated to have 16 billion barrels of oil. Imagine how many jobs drilling for this oil would create, and imagine how all this would help us become energy independent. Our politicians would rather sit on their hands while they think of new ways to screw the American public.
   

   
    

   The entire world laughs at us because we refuse to drill for our own oil. In the same vein, global warming alarmists led by its high priest Al Gore fly around in private jets screaming we are all going to die. At the same time, they refuse to build any nuclear plants, the cleanest form of nuclear power. Instead we continue to build coal plants the chief contributor of CO2, and the single biggest air polluter in the U.S... There are 600 coal plants in the U.S. and more are continuously being constructed. France is more than 85% run on nuclear power. The two biggest myths of nuclear power are that it is dangerous and it produces copious amounts of nuclear waste we do not know what to do with. Click here for more about the myths on nuclear power.
   

   
    

   Natural gas is currently the most viable source of alternative energy we have, and the infrastructure is already in place, but because of our reticence in building nuclear plants, we use this natural gas to heat our homes, etc. If nuclear power were to become the new source of energy, natural gas could be diverted into alternative fuel for vehicles. It is viable, inexpensive, and clean.
   

   If I haven't convinced you yet that this country is run by morons or if you are still under the illusion the environmental movement is a good thing, consider the energy and security act of 2007. You should have noticed the effects of this act by now if you do any type of grocery shopping. Have you noticed the price of eggs? meat? grain? The stated purpose of this act is to to move the United States toward greater energy independence and security, to increase the production of clean renewable fuels, to protect consumers, to increase the efficiency of products, buildings, and vehicles, to promote research on and deploy greenhouse gas capture and storage options, and to improve the energy performance of the Federal Government, and for other purposes. This bill was passed by both the house and senate and signed by president Bush and could have been easily something done by our enemies to further impede our economic growth. It mandates the use of biofuels including corn ethanol. Large subsidies of course are given to producers of ethanol. Imagine the corn lobbyists involved here. This has raised the price of grain, beef, poultry, eggs or any other dairy products. Anything that uses corn oil or by-products of corn will increase in price. Ethanol from corn is a hoax.
   

   Corn ethanol contains water, which can cause damage to one's automobile. Ethanol is 30% less efficient than gasoline. Ethanol subsidies are about $1.05 to $1.38 a gallon. There is a 54 cent a gallon tariff on the much more efficient ethanol made from sugar cane produced by Brazil. How is that for protectionism?
   

   The ethanol hoax is the biggest corruption scandal by both the politicians and the ethanol lobbyists in decades. Guess what is coming next? Global warming cap and trade schemes, and any other form of global warming scheme that will increase the cost of living on the promise of removing C02 from the atmosphere, a so-called pollutant responsible for the soon to come demise of the human race. It seems that Al Gore might be capable of causing more economic damage to the world's economy than he could have done as president.
   

   Maybe we as humans should walk around with a muzzle around our face since we breathe out C02. We could all look like trained pit-bulls.
   

   According to the pro-corn-ethanol US Dept. of Agriculture, 2006 ethanol production was enough for 1.5% oil independence, and by 2017, we will max out at 3.7%.
   This energy bill did not even mention nuclear power. Below is an estimated cost of one gallon of corn ethanol.
   

Cost For A Gallon Of Corn Ethanol
Corn Ethanol Futures Market quote for January 2007 Delivery	$2.49
Add cost of transporting, storing and blending corn ethanol	$0.28
Added cost of making gasoline that can be blended with corn ethanol	$0.09
Add cost of subsidies paid to blender	$0.51
Total Direct Costs per Gallon	$3.37
Added cost from waste	$0.40
Added cost from damage to infrastructure and user's engine	$0.06
Total Indirect Costs per Gallon	$0.46
Added cost of lost energy	$1.27
Added cost of food (American family of four)	$1.79
Total Social Costs	$3.06
Total Cost of Corn Ethanol @ 85% Blend	$6.89 source: Ronald R Cook, the cultural economist

Since you need 30% more ethanol than gas, the cost of ethanol would approach nearly ten dollars.

  3.

The subprime crisis – I do not believe we have seen the end of the subprime debacle. In fact we may only be half way through the process. We have seen how the impact of this subprime debacle has started to trickle into other areas of the economy. Democrat pundits have tried to put the blame on Bush, but that is a bit stretching it. The blame should be directed towards greedy buyers who could not afford the payments, (buyers hoped the increase in equity in real estate would bail them out) and greedy lenders who would lend money to any "Dead Man Walking." We were headed on a collision course. Banks would lend money, securitize these loans and off load them to the nearest buyer. One of my strategies in buying stocks is to buy good stocks when everyone is fleeing from them. This is how value funds work. I bought several bank stocks after the initial subprime shock to the markets. I think I was premature. They are all under water and may be for some time. Live and learn. Bear Sterns may only be the tip of the iceberg.

Whitney Tilson, head of Tilson Funds says this:
 

We've been very bearish on housing for a number of years, but after all of the recent terrible news, we had thought that we might be in the 6^th or 7^th inning of this unfolding debacle and perhaps it might be time to start buying some of the stocks that have been obliterated, in anticipation of a bottom and then recovery. But then we were introduced recently to the CEO of Amherst Securities Group L.P. www.asglp.com, Sean Dobson, who has collected extensive data on every mortgage that was securitized in the United States this decade. He was kind enough to share some of his data with us, which shows that we are still in the early innings of the bursting of the housing bubble. Believe it or not, as bad as things have been to date, we have only seen the tip of the iceberg: an enormous wave of defaults, foreclosures and auctions is about the hit the United States. We believe it will get so bad that large-scale federal government intervention is likely

Of course, why stop there? Car delinquencies will be the next frontier. Beyond that there may be additional companies besides Bear Sterns waiting on the sidelines with distressed debt ready to go into forclosure. The Economist warns of a pending Armageddon with the rise of corporate bankruptcies.

 4.

The devaluation of the dollar – We currently face a conundrum. How do we continue to say we are a world power when our dollar is the laughing stock of the world? Our dollar continues to devalue on a daily basis. I have heard pundits say that a devalued dollar is good for the economy because it makes our exports cheaper. If devaluing our dollar were a good thing, then Argentina would be a rich country. The Swiss franc is currently 1 to 1. In the 1970s, it was 4 to 1. The Canadian dollar is now below the U.S. dollar, first time in history. The U.S. dollar is weakening our credibility abroad, and it will ultimately end in our downfall.

The reason for this devaluation is twofold. The current administration is spending us into oblivion. In the first six years of Bush's administration, not a single bill was vetoed. There has never been a president in history that has spent so freely especially during wartime. The Iraq war is only 3%-4% of current GDP. This is small relative to the overall budget and past wars. The Medicare prescription drug plan was a huge expenditure that we could ill-afford. But, it became law anyway. Secondly, the government sees no problem in printing money we cannot back. Lowering interest rates is the equivalent of printing money. Lowering the interest rate is achieved by increasing the money supply, (i.e.: printing money) and selling it cheaply to financial institutions. This is no different than the third world printing money it cannot back. Raising and decreasing rates can be a way to manage the economy, control inflation, etc. but there comes a point of diminishing returns. Our dollar becomes worth less, and countries look elsewhere to invest, and hyperinflation (just like in third world countries) ensues. Where are we headed?

Conclusion – The economy cannot take much more. When Bush first became president, he saved the country from going into recession by lowering taxes. But Bush continued to spend. In addition, his prosecution of the Iraq war remained suspect. Bush is responsible for the loss of both houses of congress, and if Republicans lose the election, he will be responsible for that too. Half of the US population seems to be an electorate bordering on the delusional. This half of the electorate looks to two radical leftists to lead this country out of our economic woes and out of Iraq. The populist policies of both Obama and Hillary are "cut and run" from Iraq, cut defense, raise taxes, and socialize health care all of which will doom this economy and weaken our security even further. John McCain has climbed onto the global warming band wagon too, but at least he will cut taxes. If there is one person who we can believe will control spending, John McCain is the man.

McCain also recognizes we are still at war with Islamic terrorism while Obama wants to play kumbaya.

We are currently in a state of economic paralysis. Osama Bin Laden doesn't need to take down our economy when our politicians, Democrats and Republicans alike seem to be doing a great job by themselves.

We need a president with probity who believes in a free market system, low taxes and the willingness to enact policies that encourage businesses to thrive. We need a president who will stand for building nuclear power plants and drilling for oil instead of any run-of-the-mill politician who succumbs to the environmental and biofuel lobbies.

I hope I am wrong with my analysis, but I see we are led by inept politicians who seem bent on destroying this economy by plunging us into a black hole of green nonsense with unparalleled recklessness. I hope this nation survives, but one has to wonder.

 

Bush's last State of the Union address January 2008

It wasn't so much the content of Bush's state of the Union that was revealing. It was the reaction of the audience. "No New taxes!"



This is what the Democrats want to retreat from. It doesn't matter what success there is in Iraq, the Democrats still preach defeatism.



The Democrats also did not stand up when President Bush asked to extend the FISA overseas wiretapping this Friday.

This should be a warning to all. Democrats in power will mean higher taxes for all and less security. To see what this FISA vote means, read Jed Babba in Human Events FISA cloture vote failed Monday.

This should be a reminder to all. San Jose police in a sting operation uncovered IED bombs that could be detonated using cell phones. It was called operation meltdown.

Pete Stark Stark Raving Mad - or a Contiuation of the Bush Derangement Syndrome

This lunatic happens to represent my area. I have gone to one of his town hall meetings, and they are love fests with all the liberals in the area. Of course, What do you expect from a town that is 90% liberal.

Pete Stark needs to go, but he is entrenched as deep as Kennedy is in Massachussets.

This has always been Pete Stark's modus operandi.

Flood his switchboard with phone calls 510-494-1388 (fremont) 202-225-5065 (Washington)

Interesting tidbit - Stark voted against the original S-CHIP bill, before he voted for this current S-CHIP bill which Bush rightly vetoed which began Stark's tirade. Sound familiar - I voted against it before I voted for it. He isn't partisan on the issue is he?

God help us all. This is what we have to expect if the liberals retake power.

The libs and Bush derangement syndrome

In my post "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." I wrote,

The Democrats carp about our civil liberties, they carp about the patriot act, they carp about wiretapping and they carp about anything that will help against the war with Radical Islam. I would rather have my civil liberties a bit curtailed for a little bit of safety. Of course, No liberal can ever point to anything different that has prevented them from doing what they did before 9/11. In other words, big brother is not watching anymore now than it was then. Google keeps records of anyone who enters anything into its search engine with the corresponding ISP address. You visit porn sites, Google will know about it. You visit hate sites, Google will know about it, Google knows what you look at and its advertisement is target specific. By knowing the sites you visit, Google can target its advertising to specific markets. The majority of sites you visit will generate small software programs in your computer called cookies. Most are innocuous, but some track sites you visits. In effect anyone who uses the Internet is being monitored by third party entities more than any government entity, but liberals continue to use the Internet, and you never hear them carp about their civil liberties being abused by Google or any other third party.

.

Well, in today's news we find this about Yahoo.

Callahan testified that in the case of Chinese dissident Shi Tao, Yahoo did not know who the e-mail address belonged to or why the Chinese police were seeking the information.

The information Yahoo gave the government - including an IP address, log-on history and contents of e-mails - helped the Chinese track down and arrest Shi, a dissident who used a pseudonym to post information about a government crackdown on Chinese media. Shi posted the information on an overseas Web site, Democracy Forum.

At the time Callahan testified about the case in February 2006, Chinese police had written Yahoo that they sought evidence about Shi in a case in which he was suspected of "illegally providing state secrets to foreign entities," according to documents released in July by the Dui Hua Foundation, a San Francisco-based human rights group.

Yahoo officials said that Callahan did not try to mislead the committee, and that he did not know that a Chinese lawyer working for a Yahoo subsidiary had been notified of the police's "state secrets" complaint against Shi.

"This issue revolves around a genuine disagreement with the committee over the information provided," Tracy Schmaler, Yahoo's spokeswoman in Washington, said. "We had hoped that we could work with the committee to have an open and constructive dialogue about the complicated nature of doing business in China."

Yahoo and other Internet companies have said that when police in China or other countries seek information on users, it's difficult to distinguish between legitimate law enforcement requests and cases of political persecution.

Shi is now serving a 10-year prison sentence for "divulging state secrets abroad," which human rights groups say means he was criticizing the government. Shi has appealed the verdict and is also seeking damages in a U.S. court against Yahoo and its Hong Kong-based subsidiary

I have yet to hear the libs complain about invasion of privacy with Yahoo, but yet libs will continue to click away at their keyboards knowing full well they are being watched, and Yahoo or Google will know every click heretofore.

There could be only one answer to this folly, and that is "Bush Derangement Syndrome."

Make sure to get innoculated so you are not infected.

The Petraeus Report . . . What now?

"The greatest argument against a Democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter." - Churchill

Moveon.org’s new advertisement against General Petraeus in the New York Times, and the Democrat party’s reticence to speak out against it demonstrate two things 1) The far left is now part of the mainstream within the Democratic party and 2) The Democrat’s have but one interest - to lose the war in Iraq. Their silence speaks volumes. With no proof to the contrary, the left’s attack on General Petraeus is unremitting.
Whatever the cost, whatever the price, the left will do whatever it takes to remove Bush from power. There can only be two reasons why the Democrats have not publicly condemned the ad, either because they fear Moveon.org (Moveon.org has become a major power house among the Democratic party) or they agree with the ad. The left’s vitriol has grown to such extremes that like usual, it puts our nation in peril.

The New York Times stock price has hit a new 52 week low. Today’s price is $20.78. Moveon.org received an ad which retails at just under $170,000 for under $70,000. The New York Time’s bread and butter, its advertising revenue has been sharply declining for years. Investors are the best gauge as to what’s happening at the newspaper. Investors understand that the New York Times has been complicit in trying to cause the downfall of Bush regardless of the cost to the American people. I think this latest move in allowing the printing of this advertisement by moveon.org will have a deleterious effect on the newspaper.

General Petraeus, a four star general, is probably the most credible source of the war. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Petraeus . This is a man of integrity and principle. In an interview with Fox News yesterday, the interviewer asked about moveon.org’s ad, and as the straightforward man Petraeus is, he explained that no one but he and other principals involved in the surge knew what was on the report. He had to go through the chain of command for collaboration and statistics, but the White House had not seen any part of the report. Benjamin Franklin once said, “Three can keep a secret only if two are dead,” and that would certainly be true with Petraeus’ report with all the collaborative efforts needed from his chain of command. But then again, with the left everything is a conspiracy.

It was the left who said we needed a change of course in Iraq. Bush’s one error is his reluctance to fire incompetence. General Petraeus should have been in charge from the beginning. We changed course in Iraq, and when there is success, (even I doubted if the surge would have any impact), the left goes insane. The Democrats cannot stand any success, and now their true colors are showing.

Not only that, General Petraeus was confirmed by 81 votes in the Senate. 18 cowards just did not bother to show up and vote. 18 of them who are so concerned with the war could just not be bothered. But, General Petraeus was confirmed by the Democrats in the Senate, and now these same Democrats do not support his actions, because they know if they lose this battle, they may lose the White House. I still think Hillary Clinton will be the next president (God forbid!), but they may overplay their hand.

So what is left? (note: that is not a pun on words) The political situation is still a mess. The government is corrupt. But, it is evident from all sources that the surge is working. Islam’s goal, as a political entity, is to grow its hegemony over the entire world where Sharia law is the law of the land. This must not happen. If we lose in Iraq. The consequences will be disastrous. If the Democrats succeed in their push to lose the war, Iran, its surrogates and Al-Queda will grow in ferocity and become the power in the Middle East. Bush’s legacy will ultimately rise or fall on the success or failure in Iraq. There have been a lot with which I disagree in Bush’s handling of the war. I don’t necessarily agree that Democracy will work in Iraq, because Democracy as a political system is anathema to Islam. If, however, Iraq becomes a stable force and an ally in the Middle East, the benefits to the United States will be enormous. So, as Americans, we should unite and hope this experiment works, because there is a lot at stake.

Just a side note: When Cindy Sheehan says she is going to retire, why doesn't she keep her word and do just that - retire preferably to Venezuela.

The Republican party torn asunder?

In a complete about face, Bush is now trying to appease the left by embracing the myth of global warming

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=azDnIuQABog8&refer=worldwide

Should I say Hello Arnold?

And Al Gore must be correct, he says that there is a consensus among scientists on Global Warming. Read here Nasa's top scientist Michael Griffin questons Global Warming http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=3229696&page=1 Oh no! That is like questioning the second coming to the Global Warming religious fanatics. What heresy! Will Griffin be fired from Nasa? Sounds like a consensus to me.

What is going on here? Ok, Bush got the economy going by decreasing taxes, he correctly and steadfastly fights the war on terror - congratulations, but...

1) His prosecution of the war has been dubious at best. He fights the war as if we are playing tiddly winks. The benefit of the doubt always goes to the terrorist.

2) He lambasts his base for being against a massive amnesty plan. He thinks his base is full of idiots. if you put lipstick on a pig, it is still a pig. He says trust the government to secure the borders - we've done that. He is offering the Mexican-Americans citizenship, and what do they do, they boo Miss USA. Bush is destroying the Republican party. Any proposal by Kennedy and La Raza should be suspect anyway. Imagine a party of White Americans called, "The Race." Even the New York Times reported Bush's disdain for his own Republican party -

President Bush today accused opponents of his proposed immigration measure of fear-mongering to defeat it in Congress, and took on his own conservative political base as he did so.
“If you want to scare the American people, what you say is the bill’s an amnesty bill,” Mr. Bush said this afternoon at a training center for border enforcement agents located in this town in Georgia’s southeastern corner. “That’s empty political rhetoric, trying to frighten our citizens.”

This amnesty bill is our answer to 9/11?


3) He signs into law a massive medicare drug plan when medicare is already going bankrupt.

4) He signs the McCain-Feingold finance reform bill which has turned out to be a bonanza for the left, the corrupt George Soros and moveon.org.

5) His loyalty to those who work for him is so strong, he refuses to fire anyone who proves to be incompetent (i.e. Mineta)

6) His spending has been out of control (even without Iraq). Reagan tripled the deficit, but Reagan's purpose was to bankrupt the Soviet Union which he successfully did. There is no point to Bush's spending.

I believe that going to war with Iraq was a necessary evil. To this day, I believe there were WMDs in Iraq. Hussein had eight months to get rid of them, and even if he didn't have them, the plans were there to reconstitute them.

Mr President, there is a reason your poll numbers are low. Get it through your head, the left will always hate you. What is next? - A private screening of Michael Moore's Movie Sicko.

We need someone to give back the power to the people and return us to the conservative movement from whence we began.

Today's wallstreet journal opinion piece by Peggy Noonan is a must read.

http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/pnoonan/?id=110010148

In part Noonan writes

What conservatives and Republicans must recognize is that the White House has broken with them. What President Bush is doing, and has been doing for some time, is sundering a great political coalition. This is sad, and it holds implications not only for one political party but for the American future

I have a liberal friend who always says, "Bush is an idiot!!" Was she right? My fear is Bush has opened such a wide chasm, the Democrats will regain the white house and then we will all be in trouble.

Mr. President, if the Democrats win in 2008, it will be your fault. You are a neo-liberal, and you have abandoned conservative values.