Did Ted Cruz Really Win Every County in Maine?

The Boston Globe and 2 local papers didn't give him a chance. He didn't win a single county in Massachussetts 4 days earlier. Did Cruz really win EVERY county in Maine?

By Cruz Camp's Own Admission, Heidi Should Be Thoroughly Vetted

The head of the Ted Cruz campaign has said Heidi is Ted's closest adviser. The FEC violations involve her current employer. No personal attacks, just a necessary professional evaluation of Heidi Cruz's role in the Cruz Crew.

How Ted Cruz Can Stop Immigration Abuse NOW!

As a self-described "constitutional expert" Canadian born Cruz could do us all a great service to stop illegal immigration by simply answer 4 teeny weeny questions...

The Complete Concordance of Cruz Corruption, Deceptions and Lies

Reagan was attacked by the Establishment, but people LIKED him. Cruz on the other hand is despised by mild mannered Huckabee and "sealed lips" George W. There is a reason. Here is an (almost) complete compendium of Cruz lies.

Why Isn't Anyone Discussing the SCOTUS Ruling on Natural Born Citizen?

There is a lie being told that "Natural Born Citizen" is not defined anywhere in the Constitution. That's True. What's Not True is that it is NOT settled by the Supreme Court. (It has)

Why I'm Happy To (Now) Be A Texan

In honor of @pmbasse, a descendant of one of the original 300 Texas settlers, I want to tell you WHY I LOVE TEXAS. As they say, I wasn't born here but I got here as soon as I could. And for me that was 3 times.

Ted Cruz Takes More Wall Street Money than Hillary Clinton

When you see who REALLY is running Ted's campaign, you realize how "inside" this pretend outsider is. The top CIA, Goldman Sachs executives are LITERALLY running his campaign.

The PolitiJim Twitter FF List

The most rewarding and frustrating experience on Twitter has to be the concept of Follow Friday. I have a solution. See where PolitiJim gets his news, and twinteraction from.

Monday, October 31, 2011

POLITIJIM skewers POLITICO on NEW CAIN INCONSISTENCIES ARTICLE

Politico is now saying there is "dramatic" differences in Cain's accounts primarily resting on his use one time of a "settlement" and later as an "agreement." You can read the unbelievable assertion here - but please - don't click unless you absolutely have to. Why give these guys any more attention?

Here was my reply to them earlier tonight:

I think the Politico should ban itself from running anymore stories about Herman Cain until either they produce the alleged injured party and/or give the complete details of exactly what is alleged.

To say today in interviews that the charges were NOT overtly sexual - and then say they wouldn't give specifics leads me to believe the Politico is just trying to create more traffic without any substance.

Still waiting by the way for the Politico's coverage of:

- Obama failing eVerify with his false CT SSN

- Sheriff Joe Arpaio's inquiry into Obama's eligiblity and his request to see the original birth certificate

- Both Mr. and Mrs. Obama's failure to have their law license renwed

- Unexplained gaps in Obama's history including the inability to produce ANY transcripts from college or university

- Alleged sexual misconduct by Barack Obama with a gay lover who was killed

- Admission by William Ayers he wrote Mr. Obama's biography

- Employment of STANLEY ANN DURHAM by Tim Geitner's father

- Conflict of University of Washington transcripts showing STANLEY ANN DURHAM was attending classes in Washington at the same time she supposedly was giving birth to Barack Obama

...tell you what. You give serious reporting to 3 of these things and I'll listen to what you have to say about any of the candidates..

The Halloween Quandary for Christians

drac43i

I got this email from my gorgeous, amazing, wonderful daughter this morning (she is my only daughter by the way so don’t think I make the reference in comparison to an ugly, mundane, woeful one).  And I want to share it and comment after:

Friends & Family,
Perhaps I'm reading too much of Paul's letters in the Bible or too much of Francis Chan's amazing book about Hell, but I felt strongly this morning that I needed to send this e-mail. I think Paul would have sent it himself if he lived in these times, in fact.
Most of you know that I've never been a big fan of Halloween. My "reasons" were an aversion to dressing up, I don't like much candy, the tendency to faint at the sight of blood, a nausea that came into view when I saw gore, and so on, so forth. But it wasn't until this year in a MasterLife Bible Study that has changed my life that someone brought up the real reason I should not treat Halloween as a "holiday" to be celebrated.

The origins of the holiday are rooted in Paganism, we know this. It's a dark holiday. My Bible says to shine a LIGHT among men. It tells me to LAY ASIDE the deeds of darkness, to put on the shield of LIGHT. It tells me that those who engage in darkness... do not know Christ.

Carol Kornacki.   Google her.  She was a witch. She has a lot to say about what Halloween is.  And you know what really, truly convicts me?

Witches, wiccans, satanists... say that Halloween is one of their high holy days. They LOVE IT that they do not celebrate any Christian holiday ... but we, as Christians, delight in one of theirs.

I am taking a stand for Christ.

No longer will I stay silent for my God on Halloween.
Look it up. Do your own research. Enlighten yourself.

If you celebrate this holiday and have a relationship with Christ, I urge you to take it up with Him. He will direct your paths and lead you to His desires if you ask Him.

Love you all and I wish you a happy Monday.
clip_image001stinamarie

I must admit this hasn’t been a clean and easy answer for me.  I don’t personally celebrate Halloween, but I have only the fondest memories of it when I was a child.  I have very close Christian friends that celebrate it without reservation and I don’t condemn them.    I have gone back and forth on the issue MANY times – oddly, rebelling against how it is perceived by my CHRISTIAN friends.

To those who celebrate it with great joy, I feel such a nausea in my stomach, knowing that people who TRULY worship and submit to the Lord of Death and horror would think I condone it.

To those who act like the stereotypical puritan Amish who act like grabbing a handful of candy corn at the office is equivalent to child sacrifice, I want to scream knowing Christ has purchased my freedom from every form of sin and I don’t have to be fearful of EVERYTHING.  I even have Christian friends who won’t celebrate Christmas because a) Christ was probably born in Sept/Oct (true), Christmas was implemented in place of a pagan holiday (true) and the adoption of Christmas trees actually had their genesis in the worship of demons in trees by the Druids (also true).  But to these people I want to pour eggnog over their heads, tar them with Christmas sprinkles and throw them into a fire ant hill.  Am I the only one?

Saint Paul, whom Stina mentions, had to deal with something somewhat similar.  Some new Christians were buying meat from sacrifices to idols offered up at local pagan temples.  It was cheaper than other meat at the market and also likely higher quality.  Good deal, right?

Paul said that’s right!  It’s just meat for Christ’s sake (he may not have said ‘Christ sake’) and there is no God except Jehovah (or Yaweh).  No biggie!

But, he also knew that some less spiritually mature people might take it as endorsement of the worship of the idol itself saying, “Well I saw Billy Graham at a Halloween party so he must not really think ghosts and demons are real!”  Or worse, “…he must think it’s ok to read horoscopes, go to mediums and practice spells.”  IT IS ON THIS that Paul elaborates.  From a great Christian site:

In 1 Corinthians 8:4-13, Paul clarifies the teaching on this subject. First, he says that eating meat offered to an idol is not immoral, because “an idol is nothing at all.” An idol is an inanimate object. “Food,” he says, “does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.” The meat itself is amoral. However, there is more to consider, namely the brother with a weak conscience. Some believers, especially those with a background of idol worship, were still very sensitive concerning this issue and considered it morally wrong to eat meat sacrificed to idols. Under no circumstances, Paul says, should a believer encourage another believer to violate his conscience. To the pure, all things are pure (Titus 1:15), but to one with a weak conscience, meat taken from pagan temples was spiritually defiled. It would be better never to eat meat again than to cause a believer to sin against his conscience.

“HALLOWEEN” literally means the “eve” of “All Saints Day” – a day to celebrate Christians.  It comes from the real event of those who practice witchcraft and hate God the Father who tried their best to desecrate God’s children.  Think “Occupy Wall Street” rapists, defecators and Nazi’s doing their worst the night before Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Honor” gathering.  If you were a Patriot – you certainly wouldn’t give ANY credibility to this group – even if it was 1/2 price Margarita’s and Martini’s during Happy Hour.

There ARE a lot of mixed messages out there and those who don’t know Christ – maybe even don’t know He is REAL, as is satan – might be looking to see how you handle it.  You ARE a role model. So please use good judgment.

I know there are a lot of churches that have a ‘Harvest Festival’ or whatever but really?  Unless you TRULY are a farmer, the only thing you’ve “harvested” lately is a blood sample with your doctor. For me, rather than curse the darkness, I’d point out the problems I have with it (as I’ve done here), but also celebrate the freedom and joy Christ has given.  Why don’t we just RECLAIM OUR OWN HOLIDAY?  Really!  So….

HAPPY ALL SAINTS DAY EVERYONE!

All-Saints-Day And for those still doubting there are REAL witches and warlocks:

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Godfather Politics Is Whacked


I'm a HUGE fan of Godfather Politics. So much so I urge you to subscribe and get it delivered to your inbox like I do.  Like every conservative site, they have a slant and although unhidden, it's as rich and meaty as a NY pepperoni slice with extra gouda.  But.  (In fact, big Marlon Brando Butt...)

They ran a piece today called, "Don't Be Surprised if Obama Wins."  The primary assertion is that the GOP is already screwed because, with the economy in the tank, Obama is still over 40% approval and none of our candidates are inspiring or have enough "fight" to win in 2012.

At risk of having a contract put on me - Godfather, you're frickin' crazy!  First, it is important to note popular approvals are very different from registered voters and turn out.  Secondly, over half of the voters can't name a SINGLE GOP candidate!  A "generic" Republican trounces Obama who can't get above 50% in a poll of most Americans who aren't even paying attention!  To me this explains how even Perry suffers against Barack the Magic Dem'crat (45-38) since most voters couldn't pick him out of a line up of Aggie Assistant Coaches.  As we've seen in the GOP primary people have a "perception" that easily (and violently) changes once they pay attention.  The Perry plummet, Bachmann bomb and Trump tumble all occurred when we actually observed the candidate of prospect perform, then fail to impress. 

This happens to us all the time in real life.  I couldn't wait to have a Land Rover as my first luxury car.  I finally could afford it and had picked the color and interior.  Then I drove one.  Honestly, the cab of a CAT tractor was more comfortable.  And even IT has a bigger back seat.  I then "settled" on a QX.  I was shocked when others fawned over it since I never saw it is an Escalade or Lexus type image.  Why should we be surprised that most Americans haven't looked much deeper than a 30 second clip on ABC Nightly News?

Do you realize that Obama ONLY won with 53% of the popular vote in 2008 against a weaker candidate than Romney, Cain or Gingrich?  And it was even closer in the electoral college.  If McCain had won Ohio he very likely would have won the whole thing.

In 2012 at least 4 swing states now have fairly popular GOP Governors who have been singing a conservative carol since 2010. (Including WI and OH no less).  And Dick Morris points out that in 2012 the black vote rose from 11 pct to 13 pct due to the novelty of the first black President and the endless hype in MSM and liberal media.  Now, even at urban radio stations, there is open disappointment in "The One" which AT LEAST Will depress the turnout back to 11% and maybe less.  If Cain runs and shaves another 2 % or 3% nothing else matters.  Obama won't have the votes.

The Latino vote he won 75/25 is now down to low 40's in approval and the young vote is the same.  if EITHER one of this whole true a year from now, he'll be Chicago's problem to deal with again. (The subject for a WHOLE other blog.)

Frankly, I am more concerned with either a Clinton nomination or the declaration of a dictatorship by D'Oh-bama.  And those are both very, very far fetched for someone who has done his best to illegally gain more power by the minute.

The weakest candidate we have right now is likely Perry and that only from his debate performances.  And while registering an underwhelming 2.2 on the Ronald Reagan Richter scale, he has the ability to raise cash and expose every voter to slick commercials 20 times per episode of Glee, OZ and Piers Morgan.  And (thank God) he has the best media team of all the candidates as witnessed by his stunning Global Mitt Warming ad embedded in this paragraph.  We already know Republican voters aren't going to vote for anyone else.  If GOP voters aren't motivated by the petrifying fear of another four years of Obama are problems are much deeper than candidate "pizzazz" or persuasiveness.  I probably agree much more along the thoughts of Rush Limbaugh that the economy is SO bad, we have a chance to elect a serious conservative instead of one who will just perpetuate the current corrupt system.

ronald_reagan-2 Godfather, you asked at the end of your article to "help prove you wrong."  I'll go farther.  I'm calling you out.  MAN UP, and GO MATTRESS!  We are CONSERVATIVES.  I don't frickin' care if Santorum is the nominee and he blows buggers on Obama during the debate.  The LAST person I expected to give me some linguine spine'd lament is the Goombah of gonads.  We will win this thing if we have to hold neighborhood debates to educate people on how GREAT this United States Constitution is and why capitalism will again unlock the power of the greatest people on earth.  US.  AMERICANS.

I will admit, this week was tough for me. I haven't watched Beck since he left FOX News but did Monday.  He's already cashed it in.  Doesn't care who gets elected.  He's basically all, "just by a pistol and start storing freeze dried soup in your basement."  Well some patriot of valor, integrity and fearlessness he turned to be.  Thank God for the Human Events video from the Hillsdale College President and the speech last week by Tom McClintock.  If anyone had a right to be popping the equivalent of Dan Quayle Quaaludes its the conservative representative from a state that re-elected a far left liberal who failed miserably and who has all but ensured their bankruptcy through a communist California cabal.  But what does Tom the Tea Party Caucus Representative say?

The last election, despite its dramatic results, only changed one half of one third of the decision making apparatus of the federal government. ...The good news is that (another election) is coming, and the economy is very dynamic.  For good or ill, it responds rapidly to changes in public policy....I have great faith in ... the judgment of our people when they are paying rapt attention to events – as they now are – and in the resilience of a free economy.

Two years from now- I believe we will be able not just to tell our children what it feels like when it is morning again in America – but to be able to show them.
Read the whole speech here.

Now if I guy like that, who is seeing stuff in his Budget Committee he can't even tell us, and lives on an island of rampant mindless liberalism, is optimistic for our future - I expect nothing less from the Godfather.

Leaders don't whine, they find a way to win.  WE have faith in the "53%."  Including you.

I Do Not Like Green Libs and Rham



This GREAT one from my friend @PolarCoug made me repost.  Very, very good:


I am Bam.

I am Bam.
Bam I am.

That Bam-I-am!
That Bam-I-am!
I do not like
that Bam-I-am!

Do you like
green libs and Rham?

I do not like them,
Bam-I-am.
I do not like
green libs and Rham.

Would you like them
on Wall Street?

I would not like them
on Wall Street.
I would not like them
eating meat.
I do not like
green libs and Rham.
I do not like them,
Bam-I-am.

Would you like them
in the House?
Would you like them
as your spouse?

I do not like them
in the House.
I do not like them
as my spouse.
I do not like them
on Wall Street.
I do not like them
eating meat.
I do not like green libs and Rham.
I do not like them, Bam-I-am.

Would you like them
as a Weiner?

Would you like them
for your deener?

Not as a Weiner.
Not as my deener.
Not in the House.
Not as my spouse.
I would not like them Barney Frank.
I would not like them they smell rank.
I would not like green libs and Rham.
I do not like them, Bam-I-am.

Would you? Could you?
With Joe Biden?
Like them! Like them!
Mouth be widen.

I would not,
could not,
with Joe Biden.

You may like libs.
You will see.
You may like libs
Eat a pea!

...and it keeps going!!  Please check out the whole post here.

Friday, October 28, 2011

Principles of Plenty - Rep Tom McClintock

When I lived in California I was first thrilled, then appalled by the run of Arnold Schwarzenegger for Governor.  A little known Orange County Congressman named Tom McClintock challenged him and fascinated me by espousing deeply felt, conservative principles without fear of being called heartless, a racist or a shill for the rich.  I honestly didn't have an idea of how bad Ahhhnold would become, but I remember being heartbroken at the State of Ronald Reagan not electing a warrior who could set the State on a severely needed corrective course.

I was overjoyed when the McClintock camp began sending me video and audio clips for this blog.  I wasn't going to use this because you damn MTV'd thrill seekers wouldn't get past this paragraph with an animated gif or Youtube vid.  But with a lack of "grown up" talk by no one but Newt - I felt it was important to share.  IT IS A VERITABLE GRADUATE COURSE IN CONSERVATIVE STUDIES spelling out how the real world works - and how insane the current approach has been. (Forgive me for using my own emphasis and illustrations Congressman!)

You may just breathe a bit easier knowing there are McClintock's out there - and working away in Washington.  It is a nothing less than an indictment on the incumbent, and a call to a conservative crusade for the courageous - who dare.

"Principles of Plenty"
Speech by Congressman McClintock given to the California Independent Automobile Dealers Association

We are in the third year of policies predicated on the assumption that if Government just injects enough money into the economy, it can jump start consumer spending and therefore, economic growth.  For three years, this administration has squandered more than a trillion dollars of the nation’s wealth in pursuit of this assumption.  In so doing, it has incurred a debt greater than that acquired by this nation from the first day of the George Washington administration to the last day of the George H.W. Bush administration.  It has cost our nation its triple-A credit rating and it now threatens to bankrupt our country.

And not only have its policies not worked, but they have needlessly prolonged and deepened our economic suffering.

These policies have not worked because they CANNOT work.  Government cannot inject a single dollar into the economy until it has first taken that dollar out of the very same economy.  It is true that if I take a dollar from Peter and give it to Paul, Paul’s going to have an extra dollar to spend.  He is going to take that dollar into a local shop – maybe a car dealership – and buy something.  The shopkeeper is going to order more inventory, the manufacturer is going to order more resources, and that dollar will, indeed, ripple through the economy.
The problem is that they completely ignore the other half of the equation – Peter now has one LESS dollar to spend in that very same economy – one less dollar to ripple along. 

In some ways, this is counter-intuitive, because we can SEE the job that is saved or created when the government puts that dollar back into the economy.  What we can’t see as clearly are the jobs that are destroyed or prevented from forming because government has first taken that dollar OUT of the economy.  After all, you can’t see something that doesn’t exist.  But we do see those millions of lost jobs in a chronic unemployment rate and a stagnating economy.  Much of the money for this folly is borrowed – as if somehow that has no detriment to the current economy.  But where does that borrowed money come from?  It doesn't magically materialize as a gift from the future – it comes from the same capital pool that would otherwise have been available to loan to small businesses seeking to expand, or to home buyers seeking to re-enter the housing market or to consumers seeking to make consumer purchases. 

We all know from our personal experience, that when you borrow money, the people you borrow it from generally like for you to pay it back. In fact, in my experience, they insist on it.  Thus, as a matter of inescapable reality, if you live beyond your means today, you will have to live below your means tomorrow.   That is the tomorrow that we are creating for our posterity.  In a very real sense, we are witnessing the biggest inter-generational transfer of wealth in our nation’s history, deliberately impoverishing our children and grandchildren to pay for our own folly.  Economists tell us that income transfers always, ever, and in all cases will produce zero economic growth in theory.  In practice, such income transfers net to much LESS than zero economic growth – because we are transferring huge amounts of capital from investments that would have been made by investors calculated strictly on economic return to politicians calculated strictly on political return.
Government cannot create jobs, because government cannot create wealth. 
Government can transfer jobs from the productive sector to the government sector by taking capital from one and giving it to the other.  It can transfer jobs from losers to winners in the market by taking capital from one and giving it to another.

Solyndra, for example, created 1,100 jobs as it was raking in a half-billion dollars of taxpayer money.  Eleven hundred jobs for half a billion dollars.  That was $450,000 for every job.  Of course, when the money ran out, those 1,100 Solyndra jobs ran out too – and at the end of the day we are a half-billion dollars poorer as a nation and those same people are once again out of work.  And Solyndra is not alone.  Evergreen Solar, a stimulus contract recipient, declared bankruptcy in May.  Spectra Watt, a stimulus contract recipient, declared bankruptcy in August.  EVP Solar declared bankruptcy in February.  BP solar and Solon North America both closed major facilities.  I don’t know how many millions of dollars each of them took out of job formation.  I know this: the government claimed it was saving or creating jobs with this money.  Now the money is gone and so are the jobs.

Allow me to give you another example, closer to home: “Cash for Clunkers,” the $3 billion program to pay people to buy new cars and to destroy the used cars.  How did that one work out?  Economists at Edmunds.com asked that very question.  And they discovered that of the 690,000 cars sold under “Cash for Clunkers,” 565,000 sales would have happened anyway.  That means that the taxpayers ended up paying $24,000 for every genuine sale it actually “stimulated.”  It gets worse.  All that the program accomplished was to entice people to move up their purchase decisions by a few months – which then caused below-normal sales in the months that followed.

In other words, Congress spent $3 billion creating a car bubble.

And by destroying 690,000 used cars, they artificially drove prices higher for the hundreds of thousands of lower-income buyers who would have otherwise purchased those cars, along with all the transactions that would have created.
It was recently calculated that if the economy had taken the same path as it did after Ronald Reagan inherited even worse unemployment from Jimmy Carter, 15 million more Americans would be working today and per capita income would be $4,000 higher than it is today.

Government cannot create jobs. But it can create the conditions in which jobs either flourish or whither. It is freedom and freedom only that creates jobs.
It works the same whether it’s a multi-million dollar business deal or simply purchasing a cup of coffee.  What happens in that transaction?

When I hand you a dollar for a cup of coffee – I’m telling you that your cup of coffee is worth more to me than my dollar.  And at the very same time, you’re telling me that my dollar is worth more to you than your cup of coffee.  We make that exchange, and both of us go away richer than we were – both of us go away with something of greater value than we brought.  But now suppose some third party butts its nose into this transaction.  “The coffee must be served between 100 and 130 degrees; it must be in a biodegradable container; condiments must be available within ten feet of the point of sale, it must be covered if it is to be consumed more than 25 feet from the point of sale or the point of condiment dispensing, whichever is farther,” and on and on.  Every one of these restrictions will reduce the value of that transaction for one or both parties until the value is gone and the transaction no longer takes place. 

Freedom creates jobs: the ability of two individuals to make exchanges that benefit both.  When that freedom is suffocated by an avalanche of regulations, jobs disappear.  That’s what we’re watching in real time: thousands of pages of new regulations from Obamacare, from Dodd-Frank, from the EPA stifling American jobs.
The congressional budget office estimates that Obamacare by itself will cost the economy a net loss of 800,000 jobs and the Medicare actuary estimates it will cost us $300 billion more than we would otherwise spend. 
A few weeks ago, the Natural Resources committee received testimony that just by getting out of the way and opening up American oil and gas resources to development, the government could generate 700,000 jobs and $600 billion of revenues to the national treasury, along with $60 billion to state governments. Repeal Obamacare and open up American oil and gas resources – there’s 1.5 million jobs right there – not only does that not cost the government a penny – it saves consumers $300 billion in health care costs and generates $660 billion of state and federal tax revenues without raising taxes.
Repeal Obamacare and open up American oil and gas resources – there’s 1.5 million jobs right there
It’s no secret why business isn’t expanding – just ask a businessman.  They’re scared to death of the additional taxes and regulations they may be facing in the next few years and are pulling back to see what happens.  Ask bankers why they’re not lending and you’ll hear the same answer.  And the real danger is this:
History offers us not a single example of a nation that has ever spent and borrowed and taxed its way to economic prosperity.  But it offers us many, many examples of nations that have spent and borrowed and taxed their way to economic ruin and bankruptcy.
And today, history is screaming this warning at us: “Nations that bankrupt themselves aren’t around very long.”  Because before you can provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty – you have to be able to pay for them – and the ability of our nation to do so is now coming into grave question.

Here’s the good news, and there’s a lot of it.

We know how to revive an economy – because we’ve done it many times before.  When people say this is the worst economy since the depression, I remember a time when we not only had double-digit unemployment but double-digit inflation, mile-long lines around gas stations and interest rates at 21 ½ percent.  Maybe we don’t remember those times as vividly because they didn’t last very long.  That was the end of the Carter administration.  We had just elected Ronald Reagan.  Ronald Reagan diagnosed the nation’s problems very differently than the current administration.  In his inaugural address, Reagan declared, “In this economic crisis, government is not the solution to our problems, government IS the problem.  He reduced the tax and regulatory burdens that were crushing the economy and produced one of the biggest economic expansions in American history.

Lauren Bacall & Harry Truman
There wasn’t anything new in this.  John F. Kennedy did the same thing in the early 1960’s, with the same result.  Warren Harding did the same thing in the early 1920’s, with the same result.  In 1945, Harry S. Truman abolished the excess profits tax.  He slashed federal income taxes.  In Fiscal Year 1946, Truman cut federal spending from $85 billion to $30 billion in a single year.  He fired ten million federal employees.  (It was called war demobilization).  The Keynesians at the time predicted 25 percent unemployment and a second great depression.  Instead, we had the post-war economic boom that produced unprecedented prosperity for America’s middle and working classes.

When Bill Clinton received an election drubbing in 1994, he proclaimed that “the era of big government is over.”  He reduced federal spending by a miraculous three percent of GDP.  He attacked entitlement spending and abolished the open-ended welfare system of the time.  He signed what amounted to the biggest capital gains tax cut in American history.  He turned in the only four budget surpluses in 40 years and produced a prolonged era of economic expansion.

Clinton was followed by George W. Bush.  Bush increased federal spending by a full 2 percent of GDP.  He approved the biggest expansion of entitlement spending since the Great Society.  He turned in record budget deficits and began the era of stimulus spending in the spring of 2008 that was supposed to jump-start the economy. And he presided over an unprecedented era of government intervention in the housing and financial markets that created the massive housing bubble and the bailouts that followed.  That’s the flip-side.  We also know what doesn’t work.  The problem is, that’s what we keep doing.

Herbert Hoover responded to the recession of 1929 with massive government intervention, starting with the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, a steep tax on some 20,000 imported items.  He increased federal spending by 60 percent in just four years.  He increased federal income taxes from 25 percent to 63 percent. 
And he managed to turn the recession of 1929 into the depression of the 1930’s. 

Franklin Roosevelt simply doubled down and amplified on those mistakes.  After nearly a decade of Keynesian experiments with massive deficits and unprecedented stimulus spending, unemployment stubbornly hovered above 17 percent. 

Henry Morgenthau
On May 9, 1939, Roosevelt’s Treasury Secretary, Henry Morgenthau, made an anguished and heart-felt admission during a meeting with Democratic Members of the House Ways and Means Committee.  He said, “No gentlemen, we have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work.  And I have just one interest, and if I am wrong as far as I am concerned, somebody else can have my job. I want to see this country prosperous.  I want to see people get a job.  I want to see people get enough to eat.  We have never made good on our promises ... I say after eight years of this Administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started ... And an enormous debt to boot!"

Benjamin Franklin once observed that experience keeps a dear school but fools will learn in no other.  The last few years in Washington have proved that there are some people who can’t even learn from experience. Fortunately, the American people have learned, and from the decisions they made last year and will make again next year, we may yet avert the tragedy of another Treasury Secretary admitting mistakes that cost America a completely avoidable decade of distress.

I agree with President Obama on one thing: 13 months is a long time to wait for relief.  But unless and until he reverses his policies, I’m afraid that’s the immediate future for our country.

The last thing we should do is to take his advice and massively increase taxes on 88 percent of small business net income – which is at the core of his so-called jobs bill – at just the time when we’re depending on small businesses to produce 2/3 of the new jobs in this economy.  To massively raise their taxes and expect them to respond with an explosion of new jobs is simply insane. 
Lincoln put it best when he said, “the voters are everything.  If the voters get their backsides too close to the fire, they’ll just have to sit on the blisters a while.”

It’s a painful experience – but it’s a learning experience.  And at the end of that process, we emerge sadder and wiser.  And that’s what we must constantly bear in mind – that our nation hasn’t been struck down by some mysterious act of God.  These are all acts of government and are fully within our power as a people to change.

We have already seen the results of that awakening last November in one of the greatest watershed elections in American history.  In that single night, the nation saw a net shift of 63 U.S. House seats from Democrat to Republican, 6 U.S. Senate seats, 19 state legislatures, 6 governors and more than 680 state legislative seats.

But, for some very good reasons, our constitutional system is specifically designed NOT to turn on a single election, but on a series of elections.  The last election, despite its dramatic results, only changed one half of one third of the decision making apparatus of the federal government. The next election is 13 months away, and upon the outcome of that election depends the future of our nation and the prosperity of our people.

The good news is that that day is coming, and the economy is very dynamic.  For good or ill, it responds rapidly to changes in public policy.  So I must tell you that I cannot offer you a great deal of optimism over the next year, because of the policies now in place.  I think it will be difficult.  But I have great faith in our political institutions, in the judgment of our people when they are paying rapt attention to events – as they now are – and in the resilience of a free economy.

Two years from now- I believe we will be able not just to tell our children what it feels like when it is morning again in America – but to be able to show them.
 


Wall Street Worker to OCCUPY: We'll take YOUR jobs

Original pic here
I have no idea if this is real or not.  I got it from a tweet from my good friend @Jenevalynn forwarded to me from @AdamsBaldwin:
It opens:
We are Wall Street.  It's our job to make money.  ...I didn't hear America complaining when the market was roaring to 14,000 and everyone's 401K doubled every 3 years.  Just lie gambling, its not a problem until you lose.
Then the gauntlet is laid:
Go ahead and continue to take us down, but you're only going to hurt yourselves.  What's going to happen when we can't find jobs on the Street anymore?  Guess what: We're going to take yours.  We get up at 5am & work til 10pm or later.  We're used to not getting up to pee when we have a position.  We don't take an hour or more for a lunch break.  We don't demand a union.  We don't retire at 50 with a pension. We eat what we kill, and when the only thing left to eat is on your dinner plates, we'll eat that.
It’s kind of like the “I’m mad as hell as I’m not going to take it anymore!” They specifically seem to want to target teachers which I suppose are a huge contingent of the unions participating in Occupy Wall Street:
Do you really think that we are incapable of teaching 3rd graders and doing landscaping?  We're going to take your cushy jobs with tenure and 4 months off a year and while just like you that we are so-o-o-o underpaid for building the youth of America.  Say goodbye to your overtime and double time and a half.  I'll be hitting grounders to the high school baseball team for $5k extra a summer, thank you very much.
The point is made the money for their jobs comes from the money Wall Street wealthy spend:
No more free rides on our backs.  we're going to landscape our own back yards, wash our cars with a garden hose in our driveways.  Our money was your money.  You spent it.  When our money dries up, so does yours.
It closes address the threats by Obama and the DNC spokespeople who seem to want to take away their jobs:
...it's really going to hurt like hell for them when our fat a**es land directly on the middle class of America and knock them to the bottom.  We aren't dinosaurs.  We are smarter and more vicious than that, and we are going to survive.  The question is, now that Obama & his administration are making Joe Mainstreet our food supply...will he?  and will they?
Again, I have no idea if it is a real letter.  But many of the points are very true.  View the whole letter here.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

NEW UNHINGED MOB: Occupy Wrigley

The headline, "Sandberg Reportedly Spotted on Michigan Avenue" today confirmed to me that indeed, Cubs hysteria knows no bounds.  Never mind that Ryne Sandberg LIVES in Chicago, the fans interviewed by the Trib didn't actually talk or confirm it was Sandberg but "they are 99% sure."

I will say that in listening to the Theo Epstein press conference, my natural Cubbie optimism was put on steroids like Sylvester Stallone preparing for the next RAMBO movie.  (why make an analogy referring to corked bat boy at such a joyous time as this, right?)

Indeed optimism has reappeared from the garlic banishment called "this season" to invade the ivy, Waverland and bring a twinkle to the eye of Ernie's statue.  If Cub management decided to have a Theo exhibition next week, I have no doubt that 20,000 would show up just to start picking season ticket selections to put on their Christmas Wishlist.

As bad as we were before, hiring an executive that took a perennial looser like Boston to not just one but two World Series has us all fantasizing worse than a "no sex before marriage" athlete on his wedding night.  Can you even believe that ESPN's Michel Wilbon asked Mr. Epstein on PTI if he would reach out to Steve Bartman, the infamous 2003 scapegoat blamed for keeping the Cubs 5 outs from their first World Series appearance since the Noah and the Flood.  HE IS STILL A CUBS FAN FOR GOSH SAKES!  (Uhhh Mr. Michael Wilbon Professional Sports Analyst?  You do realize he has NOTHING to do with Cub team, the Cub players, the Cub farm system…right?)

I'll admit, even I, a sane, level headed, mature, analytical PolitiJim (why are you laughing so hard?), began experiencing butterflies in my stomach during the Epstein press conference the way I'm sure a 12 year old girl feels at a Justin Bieber concert.  Man crush indeed.  But I did begin to come a bit back toward reality when I realized the sighting of Sandberg brought up the same emotions I had as a kid on Christmas Eve when Tom Skilling sees Santa on radar.

Can you really blame us for being a little bit happy?  (I told you never to bring up Andy McPhail, Lou Pinella or the Chicago Tribune spending spree again!)  And honestly, if the Cubs announced the firing of Quade, even I wouldn't be upset with Barack Obama declaring the rest of the week a national holiday.  But hiring Ryno on top of that!??  Be still my cubbie heart.

But alas - this is what it means to be a Cub Fan.  And Cubs = hope.  Whether it is ever realized or not.

Go crazy, Cub Fans, Go.



Occupy Oakland - The George Orwell Version from Van Jones


I hope you appreciate that I get this sh*t so you don't have to.  But it is important to track what they are doing to be better prepared.  This is an email from the Van Jones organization (he is still informally involved  believe since they have a link to his background and current positions.):

Jean Quan: Stop the Violence
Call on Oakland Mayor Jean Quan to end the violence now.

Oakland police brutality
Dear Jim,

Last night, downtown Oakland resembled a war zone. The Ella Baker Center is appalled at the City of Oakland's violent response to peaceful protestors. Speak up now against the violence.

Pete, from Oakland, age 31, was one of the many folks injured while exercising his freedom of speech. "I felt it was ridiculous that the City raided the Occupy Oakland camp in the middle of the night using violent tactics. Right when people tell you to shut up is the moment to stand up and speak. That is why I marched in downtown Oakland last night."

Pete heard the police give a 5 minute dispersal warning. He was surrounded by other protestors - he saw nothing thrown at the cops, no violence, and no destruction of property. He joined others chanting, "Who are you protecting? We are the 99%!" Without further warning, the police began launching canisters. Pete turned to walk away when he felt something hit his ankle, heard a loud noise, and saw a huge flash of light. A friendly stranger helped him get medical assistance for his ankle which remains bruised and injured today.

Pete remains resolved to continue to stand up for the Occupy movement's right to be heard and to resist further threats of violence.  "I can't believe Oakland would take that level of aggression against people doing nothing threatening. I still can't believe it. But I will go back. This is our city, I hella love Oakland, and I am going to fight to protect our freedoms."

Pete's is just one story of Occupy Oakland's attack from the City and the police. Join us now in denouncing the violence and demanding the immediate release of any Occupiers.

This is not the end of Occupy Oakland. Or of political activism in Oakland. In fact, it is just the beginning. Right now, the Mayor and Police Department should apologize and change their course. But tomorrow, they should join us all in fighting for the 99%.

The Ella Baker Center Team
Ella Baker Center for Human Rights
www.ellabakercenter.org | 510.428.3939
1970 Broadway, Suite 450 | Oakland, CA | 94612

So they were just peacefully protesting and without notice the facist, police state that is Oakland California just time-warped back to 1964, right?  Not quite.  This from the UK Guardian:
City chiefs said they had told protesters last Thursday to cease camping and cooking at the plaza. More warnings were issued on Friday and Monday.
Oakland's mayor, Jean Quan, said in a statement that the city had maintained daily communication with the protesters and thanked those who "peacefully complied with city officials".
She added: "Over the last week it was apparent that neither the demonstrators nor the city could maintain safe or sanitary conditions, or control the ongoing vandalism."
Now the story is getting caught up in whether police used "flash bang grenades" to disperse the crowds.  An Iraq veteran is also in critical condition from being hit with something in the head, and of course the Occupy protesters  are screaming at "police brutality."

Glenn Beck just covered in his Occupy Wall Street expose on Monday (free here by the way and worth watching), that this has been planned all along.  Many have noted MSNBC nearly calling for a "Kent State" moment.  Also that the disinformation campaign would ultimately use military types to turn against their government.  All of this was before the Oakland incident.


As I reported in an update to my "Is this the Obama Crime Plan" article, an undercover long time Democrat explains that these forces will try to use race as the trumping factor to make this movement important.  With that in mind, note the continuing argument in the Guardian despite the fact that the Occupy crowd was largely NON-black:
My colleague Paul Harris writes that "the Oakland police department (OPD) has long been one of the most controversial urban law enforcement agencies in America" – with a string of high-profile criminal and brutality allegations going back decades.
Paul Harris
It is also tough turf to police. Oakland is a city that has suffered from considerable urban blight, gang problems and drug issues. It is a historic centre of black American culture and radical black politics, having given birth to the Black Panther movement in the 1960s. There have been persistent reports of police criminality and abuse, especially aimed at the city's black population, where community activists say low-level police harassment is a fact of life. Latest census figures show black people make up the biggest single ethnic group in Oakland at 27.3%, with white people at 25.9% and Hispanics at 25.4%.
Despite having almost the same size populations in the city, however, white people account for only 16% of OPD vehicle stops, and 6.7% of motorists searched. Black people in Oakland, by contrast, account for a whopping 48% of vehicle stops, and 65.8% of motorists searched.
So after watching Beck, reading my article and the Ulsterman report are you finally convinced this is an orchestrated attempt to create chaos and civil unrest so that Obama can suspend freedoms?

Normal, law abiding people have to wonder, if the police tell you that you are unlawfully gathered, give you nearly a week to disperse and then move in in force - should we show any sympathy to those who refuse to obey the law?  And moreover, why would they NOT disperse?  Are they looking for trouble?

That bandwagon beckons.

*****************UPDATE***********
From Big Government:

Radicals Leading #OccupyChicago to #OccupyCityHall Under Investigation by FBI for Terror Links

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