Monday, September 22. 2008
 Insider info from last night: forget the polls - Obama's internal polling data is not encouraging. Evaluate his behavior in that context. They do not know what to do. And watch for the McCain ads this coming week. They are going to stress the truth about Obama, unless I have been wrongly informed. That's why we are seeing this kind of junk.
And a note to McCain, who made a fool of himself last week talking about the banking mess: When you don't know what you're talking about - shut up. Palin drawing ginormous crowds. Something interesting about the fact that you can put a regular, normal, practical, wholesome American lady up on a podium, and people go nuts. Maybe America is saner than I sometimes think. Biden and Obama say it's patriotic to want to pay more taxes. Tiger has some ideas for those who don't have the money to display this sort of enthusiastic patriotism. Fred Barnes: The GOP brand is looking better. Maybe so, but it doesn't deserve it. How Fannie and Freddie blew it for all of us. Don't forget - they are government agencies, and now they are govt agencies who have confiscated my equity in those businesses and placed it in their own account. Rightly or wrongly, that is what they did, and I got screwed by buying government agency securities. Fool me once... Paul Krugman discovers the hazard of inviting audience participation. Guess what? Canadians hate their ""health care system," but they are trapped in it, just like so many Americans are trapped in their public schools. Monopolies are bad things - but they usually get there via successful competition. But government monopolies are very bad things, and maintain failure forever on the backs of the taxpayers. France bans internet wine advertising
Sunday, September 21. 2008
The media have done only a fair-to-middlin' job of creating the impression that Obama's main personal and political contacts have been people other than Ayers and Dohrne and Rev. Wright and Tony Rezko, but if he has any other pals or close associates, I've never heard of them. Does he have any? On the other hand, the media has done an excellent job keeping Obama's growing-up mentor and surrogate father Frank Marshall Davis in the closet. Obama may have learned his Alinsky from books, but he grew up at the feet of his red-diaper Mother... and Davis. (As I understand the story, Obama's Kenyan/Moslem father knocked up Obama's single mother, married her in Hawaii to make the kid legit - despite having a wife or wives in Africa - and then hit the road.) Those are the reasons that I am not convinced it's paranoid to have Manchurian Candidate thoughts about Obama. Maybe it's hysterical and fear-mongering - but who really knows this guy Obama, besides his wife? Who is in a position to deny it? Did a single person who has known him personally witness to his real self, to his character, at the Dem convention? Or anywhere else? No. Isn't that odd? Most 40+ year-old guys have at least one colleague and friend who has known them and has worked with them over many years, played sports with them, hunted or hiked or rock-climbed or sailed or fished with them, confided in them, gotten half-drunk with them, smoked late-night cigars with them, prayed with them, done projects with them - and who can credibly witness publicly to their character, depth, collegiality, work ethic, hobbies and interests, habits, struggles, intelligence and perceptiveness, personality, and core beliefs. Who speaks for Obama besides Obama, and a few Hollywood airheads? I realize I know very little about this guy, nor does anybody else. He's a media-made icon. He is a Mystery Man, a blank slate, unless you look carefully for the facts the media never mentions. Here's an Accuracy in Media piece on Frank Davis, with the AP's efforts to minimize the relevance of the relationship. Davis' reported homosexuality and pornographic avocation may be irrelevant, but his committment to Communism is not. At any rate, it's not what you would call an American Story.
Saturday, September 20. 2008
 The debate about halting short-selling. Bad medicine but it's a bad disease. More good stuff on short-selling from Megan.
Put down the sick and elderly. They are just too expensive and unattractive - and they drool. It's called Ethics. Indeed, it is Scientific Ethics, entirely rational and Utilitarian. AKA evil. A similar argument could be made against the blind, the deaf, the crippled and the foolish. Why Obama is wrong about Al Qaida. Congress stunned by Bernanke warnings. What a mess those marginal mortgages created. Of course, everybody knew they would be a problem eventually - but not this big. Blame Congress for requiring banks to issue those mortgages, and blame the banks for buying too many of those rotten mortgage derivatives with their enticing yields and their phony triple-A ratings. Do not expect neutral reporting any more. Q&O. My view: reporters now pick and choose when to be "neutral;" strangely neutral about Jihadists, highly biased about American politics. For reporters and regular folks too: Learn all the tricks at Camp Obama. Is this creepy, or am I old-fashioned?
Friday, September 19. 2008
How has Alaska been doing? Does Biden lose the Catholic vote for Obama? Wife Quiz: Are you sexually confident? The Tahiri story still avoided by the MSM. Nobody ever heard of the Logan Act? Palin on Hannity: Partial transcript "Believe this," you alumni. Powerline Does Bill Clinton support Obama? Kinda sorta. Real answer: No. 30 years of "climate change" erased. I guess we should be glad, but I'd like it a bit warmer. Only Obama has the power to fix this solar system cooling mess: HMM: Sounds like the opening of a science-fiction thriller: "NASA will hold a media teleconference Tuesday, Sept. 23, at 12:30 p.m. EDT, to discuss data from the joint NASA and European Space Agency Ulysses mission that reveals the sun's solar wind is at a 50-year low. The sun's current state could result in changing conditions in the solar system." (Via Watts Up With That).
Thursday, September 18. 2008
 Obama turns mean. Mocks McCain. Dem team cheers market turmoil. It's sick out there.
Hillary supporter Trump endorses McCain. As does Bert Prelutsky, in an amusing manner. How the Dems blocked Bush's efforts to heal Fannie and Freddie in 2003. Congress today: We don't know what to do. Resisting climate orthodoxy. h/t, Englishman What a market panic looks like. I don't see Warren Buffet panicking. I see him shopping for deals. These rare times are the best for picking things up cheap. It's a good time to have some cash to put to work. A quote via Powerline: The Washington and New York elites hate Sarah Palin. They, and especially the feminist “leaders” among them, are like the old factory owners in the pre-union days. They fear that the little people are rising up against them, and they must stop this. They are now the establishment, and like all establishments they protect themselves. Sarah Palin may or may not be our next vice president. But if she is not, she will be remembered for one great thing – that for a single moment the “flyover people,” those often ignored and sneered at, felt they had a champion, and they felt that one of their own had made it.
Non-citizen voting? Is that Constitutional? Via Insty: MEGAN MCARDLE: "I knew that rent controls have frozen a great deal of New York's housing stock, but I had no idea how much." Related item here.
Darn right. Rent control drives out the middle class.
How will Wall St. turmoil affect Main St? It will make borrowing more difficult. It's all explained by Steven (Freakonomics) Levitt in the NYT today.
From Ed Driscoll, on the smiting of God, and hurricanes and the like, with guest appearances by Michael Moore and others:
Wednesday, September 17. 2008
 Why Bernanke decided to lend to AIG - to avoid a world-wide collapse of lending and a possible Depression.
Related: the 8th paragraph gives a good description of credit default swaps, along with other good explanations for the AIG problem. They spent 5 hours frantically trying to find a strategy to refute Zebari's statement. It doesn't take 5 hrs. to tell the truth. Amazon to sell wine. Women don't do logic. That's what the Feminists say. Dems thrilled by bank failures, ugly markets. Where does the US stand in terms of economic freedom? Bush: Drilling Bill is a hoax. Sure sounds like it. They just want to say they did something. Political cover to fool the uninformed. ACORN is up to its old tricks. Speaking of tricks, isn't hacking Palin's email a crime? I think it is. The hatred of this fine lady is patently insane, but I think she can take it. I hope the FBI is on this, today. Got balls? Why the Palins are attractive to the Heartland. It's the testosterone. Obama is the most Conservative candidate we've seen in years. He wants to go back to the 1930s. McCain intends to win. It's a scandal! Quote from RCP (h/t, Viking) The enduring scandal of the McCain campaign is that it wants to win. The press had hoped for a harmless, nostalgic loser like Bob Dole in 1996. In a column excoriating Republicans for historically launching successful attacks against Democratic presidential candidates in August, Time columnist Joe Klein excepted Bob Dole -- not mentioning that Dole had been eviscerated by Clinton negative ads before August ever arrived.
Ace loses it re Andrew Sullivan. Ace, buddy, not to worry. Nobody reads Sullivan anymore unless they are looking for an easy fisking target. His comments were interesting once upon a time, in his youth, but he has been erratic and wacked for years now.
I am under 45 years old,
I love the outdoors,
I hunt,
I am a Republican reformer,
I have taken on the Republican establishment,
I have many kids,
I have the VP spot on the ticket with less than 2 years in the governor's office.
Continue reading "Who am I?"
From the US Department of Homeland Security Leadership Journal, Sept. 16, 2008: Last week, the nation marked the seventh anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in solemn fashion, focusing on memorials and reflection, rather than on point scoring. Too bad Richard Clarke couldn’t manage to do the same. Clarke, the official in charge of antiterrorism efforts before 9/11, commemorated the anniversary of the attacks by publishing a finger-pointing screed in U.S. News and World Report. Clarke’s argument went something like the following: Here we are, seven years after 9/11. We haven’t been attacked. But we could be. Al Qaeda still exists, Bin Laden remains at large, and terrorists still commit terrorism. We’re backsliding, and no safer now then we were then. On the home front, our borders are still porous, we’re still not screening people, and security grants are too much about pork and not enough about real risk. Clarke is mostly wrong. In fact, we are safer today than we were seven years ago. We haven’t been attacked since 9/11 in part because we have destroyed al Qaeda’s headquarters, enhanced our intelligence assets across the globe, captured and killed terrorists on nearly every continent, and partnered with our allies on information sharing and other security-related efforts. Today, al Qaeda no longer has a state sponsor. Contrary to Clarke’s claims, most of its original leadership has been captured or killed. It is losing in Iraq -- thanks to the surge and to the Awakening movement among the Sunni tribes--and its savage attacks on innocents have reduced its popularity there and across the Muslim world. Muslim scholars and clerics are increasingly condemning its beliefs and behavior as a desecration of Islam. This progress has come because we abandoned the practice of treating terrorism solely as a criminal matter – exactly the kind of September 10 policy that Clarke celebrates in his article. Closer to home, the Department of Homeland Security has made clear progress that belies Clarke’s claims. At the border that Clarke thinks is so porous, DHS has built hundreds of miles of fence and will double the size of the Border Patrol. We’ve also deployed fingerprint-based screening and radiation portal monitors at all of our border entry points. To protect against a repeat attack, DHS has built nearly two dozen layers of security into our aviation system, and it has developed comprehensive security plans for other critical infrastructure. Clarke claims that the executive branch has proved incapable of managing new terrorism programs to success. Tell that to US-VISIT – a massive government IT project that compares fingerprints of travelers to a database of millions and does it in 30 seconds for officials all across the country and the world. We got it up and running from scratch, despite the doubters. And it’s so successful that we’re expanding it to collect all ten prints and to compare them to prints found in terrorist safe houses around the world. We’ve done all that since Dick Clarke left government – and without a word of support from him. Despite his claims of backsliding, it’s DHS that has been battling complacency, and Clarke who seems to have been sitting on the sidelines. We’re the ones who’ve been fighting for the carefully targeted, risk-based homeland security grants he favors. It’s Congress that has added billions and made them less risk-based. Has Clarke criticized Congress or praised DHS for our risk based approach? If so, I missed it. On our southern border, DHS’s fence-building and increased border enforcement have been hampered by local NIMBY (“not-in-my-backyard”) forces and advocates for illegal immigration. Did Dick Clarke speak out against them? Not so I’ve noticed. To secure our northern border, we’re implementing tougher document standards, and we were ready to require all travelers to produce a passport or passport-equivalent by the end of this year. Where was Dick Clarke when Congress decided to push back that deadline to mid-2009? I don’t remember an op-ed then complaining about how porous this would make our Canadian border. Clarke says that terrorists who look European have been trained by al Qaeda and may have European Union passports and clean identities unknown to intelligence agencies. He thinks such people could enter the United States almost as easily as did the 9/11 hijackers. It’s indeed true that during Dick Clarke’s tenure, Europeans could come to the US without any opportunity to screen them before they were in the air. As of this January, though, no foreign travelers other than Canadians will be able to come to the US without supplying -- in advance -- the information we need to screen them. At last, we’ll have the time and information we need to investigate risky travelers (and to prepare a rude surprise for terrorists who try this route). That’s all happened since Dick Clarke left government, and without any support from him. There’s no question that Dick Clarke contributed to strengthening our national security, but his recent assertions are not only incorrect, they disrespect the work of many national security professionals he once called colleagues. That is indeed unfortunate. Stewart Baker Assistant Secretary for Policy
 AIG was too big to fail, but Jonah Goldberg wonders.
WSJ: The resilience of American finance Conservatism=racism and sexism From The Hill, with my comments in parentheses: Pelosi (D-Calif.) ripped President Bush’s “mismanagement” of the economy and a lack of regulation that led to the current situation. (How does a President manage a free-market economy?)
“I think the American people have had it with this situation where the middle-income people in our country are not protected from the ramifications of the risk-taking and the greed of these financial institutions,” Pelosi told MSNBC. (Multi-millionaire Pelosi means people hate to lose money in the markets)
When asked whether the Democrats “deserve some responsibility” regarding the economic crisis, Pelosi responded: “No.” (Bush does, Congress doesn't. Right.)
Afghanistan is getting bumpy, and the Petraeus approach doesn't work there. Bitch Magazine wants your help. How about a government rescue? Hayward at Weekly Standard thinks Palin could be a Truman. A quote: The establishment is affronted by the idea that an ordinary hockey mom--a mere citizen--might be just as capable of running the country as a long-time member of the Council on Foreign Relations. This closed-shop attitude is exactly what both Jefferson and Adams set themselves against; they wanted a republic where talent and public spirit would find easy access to the establishment.
Tuesday, September 16. 2008
Many businesses fail every day, and that's the way it ought to be. Otherwise, we would still have buggy whip factories in New York City. In Capitalism, failure is not a dirty word. In fact, failures reveal the success of the way things work. While McCain and Obama seek to grab news space by blaming someone or something for the Wall Street business failures, I do not. Businesses come and go, from bait shops to corner lunchrooms to investment banks to car manufacturers. I feel badly for folks who lose their jobs, but otherwise I feel good about the creative destruction that Capitalism provides space for. Business is all about calculated risk: in the end, what profit rewards is risk, regardless of the product. These investment banks were gambling to stay alive in a changing world, and made bad bets. Competition is what hones businesses - and they eventually fall if they cannot keep up or adapt - or behave imprudently, or encounter bad luck. I deal with many business people in my work, and it is my conclusion that the biggest obstacle to business creation, and thus capital creation and job creation and wealth creation, is the government. Note that the biggest screw-ups of the year, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, were government agencies. So much for government's role in the financial industry: it inevitably becomes politicized, mediocratized, and corrupted - as with any government involvement in any industry. Few people in government could figure out how to run a candy shop, much less a complex enterprise. Otherwise, they'd be doing it. Related: Tyler Cowen on how regulation made the problems worse. Also on how the hedge funds manage risk better than the investment banks. Also related: How the Dems supported the sub-prime fiasco. Follow the money. And the banks were all too eager to play that game - as long as there were buyers for the junk. A game of musical chairs, as in all bubbles.
VDH on Obamamania - the insane kind Moonbattery on Sarah Palin: ...she is the Anti-Obama: not some slick package disguising a bogus ideology, but a real person. The reason establishment journalists in their condescending phoniness hate her with such sputtering ferocity is that she is us, miraculously poised to dethrone the elite. So much for the Democrat pose of representing the people.
Related, Powerline has a good summary of how the NYT has abused its authority in its coverage of the candidates Related, from an Insty reader: Even here on the UWS you find people who are wavering or are going with McCain. Not the therapists or the ones who read The Nation, and hardly a majority, but plenty of level-headed professionals and so forth. Now extrapolate that phenomenon to the white ethnic (and Oriental) 'hoods in the outer boroughs, then further out to the construction worker, cop, and fireman types on Long Island, Rockland County, etc. Then look at the historical voting patterns of upstate. In play? Closer than anyone thinks, that's for sure.
If Obama loses the election, will it be blamed on racism or on the stupidity of the voters? Of course, it could be something else: Might it not also be true that Barack Obama’s brand of effete, "Democratic" and "elitist" politics just doesn’t sell with the same intensity on America’s first Western frontier as it seems to do on the two coasts and among those in less independent states who look government first for an answer to their hardships? Al Gore’s sure didn’t and John Kerry’s didn’t either. Organization and lectures from self-righteous and indignant Ohio politicians notwithstanding, perhaps Ohioans just don’t like politicians who are taken with the idea that they are better suited than the people to decide what the people ought to do.
Related: Jules discusses the old Beer Factor McCain responds to the reports of Obama's secret undermining our policy in Iraq. We will see whether this is true. Obama abandons his hope and change, decides on a partisan attack approach. Kaus: Outrage at McCain is a loser's game Biden: Vote for Obama because he's black! Does that mean we should vote for Biden because he's white? Obama second largest beneficiary of Fannie and Freddie funds Mark Steyn refers back to his June post. A quote from it: "'Heal the planet'? Is this guy nuts?" To be honest I prefer a republic whose citizenry can muster no greater enthusiasm for their candidate than "stilted cheers" to one in which the crowd wants to hoist the nominee onto their shoulders for promising to lower ocean levels within his first term. As for coming together "to remake this great nation," if it's so great, why do we have to remake it? A few months back, just after the New Hampshire primary, a Canadian reader of mine – John Gross of Quebec – sent me an all-purpose stump speech for the 2008 campaign: "My friends, we live in the greatest nation in the history of the world. I hope you'll join with me as we try to change it."
Monday, September 15. 2008
Best, clearest summary I have seen yet. The article basically claims that the investment banks are an obsolete business model.
 Finish your peas? Who ever made up the idea that vegetables are "healthy," anyway? There's no medical evidence for that at all. Now, too many vegetables shrink your brain. Soup, wine, meat, potatoes and bread is what people need. And pie. OK, maybe an occasional apple, or veggie sauteed in olive oil and garlic - but only for the taste.
Will Obama be scrutinized next? Don't hold your breath. Big-taxer Charlie Rangel in more tax ethics messes. Typical Lib: wants you to pay the taxes, not him. Other WS firms getting the jitters. Ike uncovers Civil War ship in Alabama The War on Poverty is won, and it's over. How UC rigs its admissions process. Their last plan gave them too many Vietnamese. How to master Photoshop in one week. h/t, Insty Brits agree to Sharia law courts. They are insane, suicidal, and pathetically weak. Is Obama an effete pencil-necked weakling? Classical. Or, as John Brummett puts it: Barack Obama has turned into Michael Dukakis, John Kerry and Al Gore. Sarah Palin has turned into Ronald Reagan. C of E apologizes to... Darwin! I'm sure Chuck is grateful. Save the New York Sun! The NYT is deeply concerned about Todd Palin's influence on Sarah. That's funny, they endorsed Hillary. Is the NYT fooling anybody? Why feminists hate Sarah Palin. WSJ. Right. Modern feminism isn't about women's freedom, it's about advancing Socialism. The movement was hijacked. What do Community Organizers do? Tiger. It's not a real job, that's for sure. The Obama story you aren't hearing on the news. The MSM has his back. Related: Obama tried to slow exit of troops from Iraq. Jill Greenberg: Sick or sociopathic? Or both? Seems to have neither integrity nor conscience.
Indeed they are, and they don't mind putting their cards on the table. Quite a remarkable development, really. And the further they go with this, the more they have at stake and the more outlandish their behavior. However, the Repubs are used to this headwind. They have dealt with it since that "dumb, inarticulate" Eisenhower ran against "smart, sophisticated" Adlai Stevenson. Stevenson had a metrosexual taste in ties, like Obama. What's that about?
Sunday, September 14. 2008
 From Insty:
ERIC S. RAYMOND: Timing the Entitlements Crash. "The fundamental problem is that income-transfer programs (and the interest service on the debt purchased to keep them running) are spending wealth in higher volumes than the economy can actually generate, and demand for that spending is rising faster than the economy is growing. Thus, raising tax rates is no longer a way out, if it ever was." Remember, if something can't go on forever, then it won't.
Mainstream? This is truly ugly, and desperate. Sarah is bad for your mental health. How to cover a Palin rally. McCain's campaign and the OODA loop Paglia and David Thompson on Palin. If you like Michigan's economy, you'll love Obama's. Obama's big blunder. Does the idea of American exceptionalism sum up this election? The economy pessimists are driven by politics, not facts What's the oldest item in this campaign? Obama's ideas Mankiw: How come so many libs don't give to charity Sowell begins his The Vision of the Left thus: Conservatives, as well as liberals, would undoubtedly be happier living in the kind of world envisioned by the left.
Read the whole thing.
If you are a black conservative, would you consider voting for Obama anyway? Or if you are a white guy or gal, try imagining being an American black guy or gal and ask yourself whether you would vote for Obama, even if you disagreed with many of his basic assumptions, and even if you had some doubts about his preparation for the job. I would be interested in our readers' comments.
The Pope: "The presence of Christian values is fundamental for the survival of our nations" Sipp: My favorite tools. ABC edited the Palin interview to make her look bad. It didn't work. The press is so nuts about Obama it's weird. They are blinded, and failing at their job. Insty found a report of the WaPo's covert re-write. Related: Palin was right. There are 3 Bush Doctrines, and none of them clearly defined. But, may I ask again, why is this election about Palin instead of the goofy Joe Biden, who they have hidden in a closet? Well, back to the charming Palin. Besides banning books, killing defenseless animals, wanting to bomb Russia, loving God too much, and having two heads, she also sleeps with teenage boys. People do ignore how sexist the attacks on her have been, from the photo-shopped junk to the "How can you have a job when you have kids?" Most Americans have figured out how to do that, for better or worse. Real Americans love the gal, partly because she's not a condescending elite who imagines that she is better than you. As we said yesterday, making fun of McCain's POW injuries is a lousy stragegy. Show me your wounds first. How fast things change. Dems are now scared. It could all change again, though.
Saturday, September 13. 2008
What Clinton might have told Barack: "It's not about you," and other things. Such as "I am very busy this fall." How autistic kids do not communicate. Classical Why can't McCain use a keyboard? Because the Viet Cong broke his arms so many times in so many places. Can't tie his shoes or comb his hair either, for the same reason. Two supposed Constitutional prof candidates, with supporters who don't like the Constitution. What gives? Schoolkid caught with exposed blade! 30-life, in my opinion. Help! Call Dr. Bliss. Or the UN. It's the global crisis of Post-Vacation Syndrome. Classic liberal: Biden gives $369/year to charity. That sums it all up. I give far more than that, with far less income and no perks. Is Congress competitive this year? Soul deadness at Columbia When journalistic malpractice becomes precedent. Yesterday's WaPo example is unbelievable. EU Referendum takes a closer look at those "world wants Obama" polls Obama is the hedge fund candidate
|
