Category Archives: Uncategorized

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Pelosi, NRA & Herseth-Sandlin

Cory over at Madville Times, and on the KELO Blog is crowing about the NRA endorsing Stephanie’s re-election. It would be one thing if he thought that this was a positive thing, but the reality is somewhat less (or more, depending on viewpoint) than this.

I know it’s tough to make the leap, but really Cory, no one has given the NRA, or for that matter the GOP itself the right to confer an imprimatur of political orthodoxy for the conservative/libertarian movement. Therefore, exercising my own reformationist judgment, the NRA has proven itself unworthy of support and membership. With my membership up this fall, it will become a thing of the past, in favor of the Gun Owners of America, which is more consistent in it’s analysis of political ramifications, like the support that H-S has faithfully rendered for the Speakership Regime of SanFran Nan Pelosi. That, in and of itself is, IMHO, enough to render Herseth-Sandlin unsatisfactory as South Dakota’s sole Congressional member.

In spite of Cory’s crowing about the NRA endorsement (to attempt to give us a bad moment), and his moaning at other times about H-S making SOME votes that his progressive/liberal sensibility finds distasteful, note that in spite of such occasional discomfort, something, including presumably the prospect of continued support for Pelosi, leads Cory to continue to support H-S’s re-election, in spite of his expressed unhappiness.

For similar reasons, if one opposes the continuation of the Pelosi order of business in the House, then there is no reason to vote for H-S, no matter what occasional gestures she makes towards traditional South Dakota values.

So, Will You be Voting for Nancy Pelosi?

In light of all the recent news about Democrat candidates running as John Birchers, I felt is was finally time to call their bluff. We are in a very good position to take back the House, but there is some polling evidence that some of the red district blue dog frauds are still hanging in there. Keep in mind that there are 70 Dems in R rated districts. A handful of them are doing relatively well because they try to block out their party label, run against the liberal platform, attack their Republican opponent from the right, or tout endorsements from the NRA and Chamber of Commerce.

I think we need to start a campaign to call the offices of these clowns and demand that they go on record whether they would vote for Pelosi or Hoyer to be Speaker….We are sick of these frauds who trash Pelosi at home, but then vote for the liberal leadership, committee chairmen, and Democrat Rules Committee members who ensure passage of all the legislation that they claim to detest. However, if we can get them on record as declining to take a stand (that’s what most will do) we can help their opponents expose their fraudulent claims of being conservative.

From another source, this video shows H-S dodging this issue during an appearance. (H/T to South Dakota War College)

That above header hits the nail on the head. IMHO, that’s a key point to keep in mind when voting, whether early or on election day. Personally, I would no more vote for Pelosi than I would B.O., or for that matter, Herseth-Sandlin.

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Judge: Obamascare Lawsuit Continues

Judge disses Dems’ ‘Alice in Wonderland’ health defense

A federal judge in Florida on Thursday said he will allow some of the lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the health care law to proceed — and criticized Democrats for making an “Alice in Wonderland” argument to defend the law.

U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson allowed two major counts to proceed: the states’ challenge to the controversial requirement that nearly all Americans buy insurance and a required expansion of the Medicaid program.

In his ruling, Vinson criticized Democrats for seeking to have it both ways when it comes to defending the mandate to buy insurance. During the legislative debate, Republicans chastised the proposal as a new tax on the middle class. Obama defended the payment as a penalty and not a tax, but the Justice Department has argued that legally, it’s a tax.

“Congress should not be permitted to secure and cast politically difficult votes on controversial legislation by deliberately calling something one thing, after which the defenders of that legislation take an “Alice-in-Wonderland” tack and argue in court that Congress really meant something else entirely, thereby circumventing the safeguard that exists to keep their broad power in check,” he wrote.

Vinson ruled that it’s a penalty, not a tax, and must be defended under the Commerce Clause and not Congress’s taxing authority.

A Dec. 16 trial date is planned in the lawsuit, brought by 20 state attorneys general and governors. Many legal experts expect it to end up before the U.S. Supreme Court.

This could be B.O.’s Schechter case [A.L.A. Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States, 295 U.S. 495 (1935) that poked a stick in the spokes of the NRA (NOT the National Rifle Association!) and effectively gutted the early phase of the so-called New Deal of FDR.]

One can hope for an outcome that would clamp down of B.O.’s latest iteration of the progressive worship of bureaucracy and centralization of power as expressed by Obamascare.

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“…for a mess of pottage?”

This one from the Argus Loser made it onto Drudge.

The right to vote freely is taken as one of the fundamental rights resulting from the fact of birth as a citizen. This is true even more so for those who are Native Americans…which makes this sort of report even sadder than it otherwise would be.

Pairing food, early-vote rallies raises legal risks

Democrats in South Dakota are holding three early-vote rallies on reservations this week that will feature “feeds” to attract potential voters.

That activity continues a long tradition of pairing food with voter rallies in areas of the state where Democrats garner as much as 95 percent of the vote.

The obvious inference is that the Rez vote is for sale for a meal (cheaper than buying other media access no doubt). Sort of brings to mind to mind the Biblical story of Esau selling his birthright to Jacob for a mess of pottage.

UPDATE:
S.D. Republican Party asks for investigation into Democratic early-voting events

Lawyers for the South Dakota Republican Party have asked Attorney General Marty Jackley and U.S. Attorney Brendan Johnson to investigate whether early-voting events sponsored by state Democrats on three Indian reservations violate state law.

At issue is whether the events, which includes “feeds,” break a state law that prohibits anyone from offering something of “value” in exchange for voting. Secretary of State Chris Nelson said this week that those events can be legal, if done in the right context.

Republican Chairman Bob Gray accused Democrats of playing “old tricks” to gin up votes. The executive director of the Democratic Party insists the events are not violating state law.

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B.O.’s Environmental Economic Wrecking Plan

EPA Estimates Its Greenhouse Gas Restrictions Would Reduce Global Temperature by No More Than 0.006 of a Degree in 90 Years

Tough new rules proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency restricting greenhouse gas emissions would reduce the global mean temperature by only 0.006 to 0.0015 of a degree Celsius by the year 2100, according to the EPA’s analysis.

THAT’s saving the planet?

The authors cite the EPA’s own staff to show that greenhouse gas regulations, which would require major sources of CO2 (carbon dioxide) to obtain permits and limit their output, could seriously harm the economy if implemented.

“It is clear throughout the country, PSD (Prevention of Significant Deterioration) permit issuance would be unable to keep up with the flood of incoming applications, resulting in delays, at the outset, that would be at least a decade or longer, and that would only grow worse over time as each year, the number of new permit applications would exceed permitting authority resources for that year.” the EPA wrote in the Federal Register on June 3.

Lest you think SD would not be seriously and negatively affected since it’s not a heavy industrial state, among other proposed regulatory issues are some that specifically target rural areas (dust standards, animal CO2, etc.)

Other proposed EPA regulations include:
— pending regulations on emissions from industrial and commercial boilers which the Republican staff says are stringent enough to make some factories shutter rather than become compliant, and risking 798,000 jobs;
— higher emissions standards for cement plants, which involves 15,000 jobs;
— and increased National Ambient Air Quality Standards for the amount of ground-level ozone to 60 parts per billion, which the EPA estimates could cost $19 billion to $90 billion to implement.

Top House Republicans have formed the Rural America Solutions Group aimed at working on issue that effect agricultural areas of the country, and held a forum Wednesday on what they termed “the EPA’s Assault on Rural America.”

They heard from witnesses representing the beef and cattle industry, farmers, coal workers, and others affected by the many new and proposed regulations laid out in the report.

At the forum, Rep. Frank Lucas (R-Okla.) said, “In many instances, the EPA is overreaching its authority. Instead of operating within the law, EPA believes it can dictate to Congress that legislation needs to be passed for more government authority. And if Congress doesn’t act, it threatens to regulate anyway. Every day, the EPA seems to demonstrate how vastly disconnected it is to the folks who feed us.”

Republicans invited EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to attend the forum, but she did not appear, nor did she send a representative.

All this for a alleged small fraction of one degree over a century? There is another issue at play here…and it’s NOT climate change. Can you say P-O-W-E-R, D-O-M-I-N-A-N-C-E, and C-O-N-T-R-O-L?

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D.C. Times Notes SD Race

GOP could take bite out of Blue Dogs

Across the country, Blue Dog Democrats — whose 54 members represent more than one-fifth of their party’s 255-seat majority and many of the country’s most contested swing districts — find themselves squarely in the cross hairs….

The Blue Dogs facing tough re-election fights include three of the coalition’s four-member leadership team: Mr. Shuler; Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin of South Dakota, who is co-chairman for administration; and Rep. Baron P. Hill of Indiana, co-chairman for policy.

The fiscal conservatives, many of whom voted against health care reform and Mr. Obama’s $814 billion stimulus program, are running ads distancing themselves from unpopular national party figures, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and the president.

Ads are one thing…the reality is that none have campaigned on a pledge to oppose the re-selection of House Squeaker San Fran Nan Pelosi, noted in the article as an issue being highlighted by Kristi Noem in her reace for South Dakota’s at-large seat:

Another top Blue Dog fighting for her job is South Dakota’s Mrs. Herseth Sandlin, who clings to a slim polling edge over Republican state lawmaker Kristi Noem for the state’s lone House seat after trailing all summer.

Mrs. Herseth Sandlin began pulling ahead of her Republican opponent after airing an ad touting her opposition to the health care legislation.

Ms. Noem does not even mention her opponent by name in many of her campaign spots but goes right after Mrs. Pelosi.

“Unlike my opponent,” she promises voters, “my first vote won’t be to make Nancy Pelosi speaker.”

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Obamanomics Digest

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A number of items all of which are indicative of the underachievement characterizing Obamanomics:

Jobs, jobs, jobs: missing in action.
Private sector sheds 39,000 jobs in September

Private employers unexpectedly cut 39,000 jobs in September after an upwardly revised gain of 10,000 in August, a report by a payrolls processor showed on Wednesday.

That’s OK. Consumer spending will keep things going…right? Ooops!
Middle Class Slams Brakes on Spending

Middle-class Americans made their deepest spending cuts in more than two decades, slashing spending on such discretionary items as restaurant meals and alcohol during the recession.

Households in the middle fifth of the population sliced their average annual spending to $41,150 in 2009, the Labor Department said Tuesday in its annual spending breakdown. That was down 3.1% from 2007 and 3.5% from 2008, the steepest one-year drop since records began in 1984. The drop came even as those households’ after-tax income remained relatively stable over the two years, at an average $45,199.

Looks like folks thing the prudent thing to do given current conditions is to hold onto more cash for…who knows what the B.O. administration will do next…but that’s OK, the poor are doing better now under Obamanomics. Aren’t they?

Meanwhile, the poorest Americans spent more as prices for necessities like food and rental housing climbed. Spending rose 5.6% from 2007 to 2009 for the poorest fifth of consumers, the most of any other income group, despite a 5.5% drop in after-tax income to an average $9,956 a household. In some cases, elderly people and others with low incomes dipped into savings or relied on credit to get by.

“What you’re looking at here is people at the bottom trying to hang on,” said Timothy Smeeding, public affairs professor and director of the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. “You can’t go below a certain level.”

Expenses up, income down. How’d that “Summer of Recovery” thing turn out? Apparently not so hot, which leads to…:

Food Stamp Recipients at Record 41.8 Million Americans in July, U.S. Says

The number of Americans receiving food stamps rose to a record 41.8 million in July as the jobless rate hovered near a 27-year high, the government said.

Recipients of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program subsidies for food purchases jumped 18 percent from a year earlier and increased 1.4 percent from June, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said today in a statement on its website. Participation has set records for 20 straight months.

Unemployment in September may have reached 9.7 percent, according to a Bloomberg News survey of analysts in advance of the release of last month’s rate on Oct. 8. Unemployment was 9.6 percent in July, near levels last seen in 1983.

A bit of a time lag to compile the stats, but the picture is unmistakable.
But hey, at least the TARP and other bailouts have the big financial guys looking up now…or not.

Goldman Sachs Says U.S. Economy May Be `Fairly Bad’

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said the U.S. economy is likely to be “fairly bad” or “very bad” over the next six to nine months.

“We see two main scenarios,” analysts led by Jan Hatzius, the New York-based chief U.S. economist at the company, wrote in an e-mail to clients. “A fairly bad one in which the economy grows at a 1 1/2 percent to 2 percent rate through the middle of next year and the unemployment rate rises moderately to 10 percent, and a very bad one in which the economy returns to an outright recession.”

Doesn’t look like the financial capital of the world will lead us out of the economic mire, either:

New Yorkers’ Income Falls for 1st Time in 70 Years+

The recession put a 3.1 percent dent in the personal incomes of New York state residents, who endured their first full-year decline in more than 70 years, according to a report released Tuesday.

Paychecks or net earnings tumbled 5.4 percent, while dividends, interest and rent slid 8.4 percent, to a grand total of nearly $908 billion, the state comptroller’s report said.

Not only did New Yorkers’ personal incomes fall “almost twice” as much as they did in the nation as a whole, but they have yet to recover to pre-recession levels, Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said.

The drop occurred even though the job-destroying recession was milder in New York than in the rest of the country.

Hmmm 70 years. That goes back to 1940, just before WW-II finally bailed the country out of the Great Depression.

Meanwhile, it’s 27 days until election day….

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Believe it, or don’t…

Obama tells UN leaders world has dodged depression

The Chief hopes this is right but…skepticism remains.

President Barack Obama is calling on world leaders to support new efforts to bring about peace in the Mideast,…

Ah, yes…peace in the mid-east. Of course with Ham-ass and the Hezballers still dedicated to the total destruction of Israel, this remains problematic, at best. As far as B.O.’s fulminations on the topic…the phrase “poor situational awareness” comes to mind…unless of course, he is a crypto anti-semite who looks forward to a “final solution” to the problem of Israel.

…while declaring the global economy has been “pulled back from the brink of a depression.”

Hmmm. If you put $1 with that it would get you a can of pop, but the Chief would submit that the jury is still out on this one. There hasn’t been any flood of coverage on Greece, Spain, Ireland, Italy, etc. correcting their out of kilter financial and economic blues. Anecdotally, a friend who 2 months ago went to Brazil to take on an engineering exploration job with Petrobras, the Brazilian national oil company (with was just given $2B by the Obamacrats for exploration) was released and sent packing as part of a 25% workforce reduction.

Yep! Things are looking up all over. (At least Germany and Russia are looking up… but they ruthlessly cut deficits and stimulus spending. Russia’s 13% flat tax is doing wonders for getting things going economically in the post-Soviet era.)

Obama, visiting the United Nations where world leaders are gathered, says “America has joined with nations around the world to spur growth and renewed demand that could restart job creation.”

One supposes that maybe he’s talking about stuff like the money paid to Brazil to create jobs in their oil industry, along with a similar $2B payment to Mexico to expand THEIR drilling in the Gulf (while our drilling is halted? WTF!?)

That statement DOES make sense if the policy he has in mind is to CUT the US economy, in order to support a global redistribution of jobs in the interest of international social justice, or some such ideology. (Nah…surely not Obama?)

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SD Job Losses Projected from B.O. Tax Hikes

This is a fairly serious article on the economic impact of the Obamunist program of tax hikes that are planned for us. In the words of the Warren Zevon song: “It ain’t too pretty at all.”

Obama Tax Hikes: The Economic and Fiscal Effects

Since 1996, Congress after Congress has voted to lighten the tax burden on Americans. The current Congress will decide this fall whether to continue this policy or to significantly raise personal income taxes. President Obama has advanced a plan that reverses the long-standing successful policy: The President and his supporters are calling for tax increases, primarily on upper-income taxpayers and businesses— including small businesses, the primary job creators in the country. Those who will be most burdened if this plan becomes law are the millions of Americans just starting their economic lives and the millions more trying to find work after the worst recession in 60 years. The rest, whose lives are affected by the investments and business decisions of those taxpayers in the high-income classes, will share the burden. No income earner will be unscathed.

…or, to carry the lyrical comparison a bit farther with Rod Stewart’s “Every picture tells a story, don’t it?”:


Click on image for larger version.)

So…South Dakota looks to take a hit from all this…estimate job losses from this tax hike of 1820-2320 jobs lost per year, from 2011 through 2020. Oh, joy.

There are a lot more gory details in the article, on how these tax increases are NOT the way to grow the economy, but they ARE a dandy way of the Washington “progressive” establishment to increase its power over us.

At least if taxes are raised, they can be cut again…eventually…perhaps not until after 2012.

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Orwellian Editing by B.O.

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Revisionist Recitation: Obama Omits ‘Creator’ While Quoting Declaration

Towards the end of a speech on September 15 to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, Obama began quoting the famous “rights” line from the founding document. But partway through, he omitted where those rights come from: a Creator.

The line is supposed to read: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

But Obama’s recitation left out an important part: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are crated equal. [Long Pause] Endowed with certain inalienable [sic] rights: life and liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

So what’s the big deal about? If our unalienable rights (as stated in the Declaration…not inalienable as stated by the alleged Constitutional scholar) do not come from the Creator, then they come from where? Inevitably from the organization of the state, and if that’s the case, amen to the rights, for what the state gives, the state can take away!

In the first 126 words of the Declaration, there are 5 fundamental principles that are the underpinnings of the American republic:
– there is a Creator
– He gives us unalienable rights
– there is a moral law that governs man
– government exist to protect the rights He gives
– below the God-given rights, rule is by the consent of the governed

All of those are dependent on the rights obtained from the Creator: what the Creator gives, no man, nor no human agency can take away. In the world of B.O. that would never do…then the transformational change we can {had better) believe in (or else!) could never happen.

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Presidential Disingenuity

This is the latest example of B.O.’s continuing disingenuous criticism of Republican “obstructionism”. Frankly the Chief is really tired of hearing this sort of attack…like the GOP should roll-over and rubber stamp whatever he proclaims as being The Truth.

Obama: GOP Holding Tax Cuts “Hostage”
President Urges Congress to Approve Extension of Middle Class Tax Cuts from Bush Era for Families Making Less Than $250,000

President Obama is applauding two Republican senators who voted for a small business bill and says he’d welcome that kind of cooperation on the divisive issue of extending tax cuts for the middle class.

Mr. Obama thanked Republicans George Voinovich of Ohio and George LeMieux of Florida for voting to move the bill closer to final passage. Speaking in the Rose Garden after a Cabinet meeting Wednesday, Mr. Obama urged lawmakers to approve an extension of Bush-era tax cuts for middle class families making less than $250,000 a year.

After praising these two Republocratic Demmicans for being properly submissive to the proclaimed will of The One, B.O. went on with one of his favorite complaints against the opposition:

Mr. Obama says Republicans should stop holding those tax cuts “hostage.”

This was originally, and continues to be one of the most puzzling political statements one can ever encounter. Let’s do some simple arithmetic.

The House of Representatives currently contains 434 members (with one vacant seat). This is comprised of 256 Democrats, and 178 Republicans. The Senate seats are currently held by 57 Democrats, 41 Republicans, and 2 Independents. Even without using a calculator or computer, it is readily apparent that there are significantly more Democrats than Republicans in both houses.

After careful examination of my trusty pocket Constitution, I see nothing there that prevents majority rule from operating in either of the houses of Congress. If President B.O.’s halo of political glory is not enough to persuade even his own party members from supporting his often ill-conceived legislative and policy initiatives, then what reason does he have to blame the GOP? All he needs to do is to have his partisan legislative satraps drum up enough loyal Democrats and he would be able to pass anything he wanted…oh, yeah, enough loyal Democrats to support his agenda…not any more.

In the case at hand the bone of contention concerns whether or not to kill the so-called Bush tax-cuts, which is worth commenting on in itself:

“They want to hold these middle class tax cuts hostage until they get an additional tax cut for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans,” Mr. Obama said. “We simply can’t afford that.”

This statement, on its face, is false. According to B.O. he so called wealthy are those with $250K or more of income. While the Chief concedes that that certainly seems to be greatly more than he has had the chance to appreciate in his life, it must be recognized that a significant number of small businesses that are not incorporated are included in this group, and pay income tax on their legal BUSINESS as legal INDIVIDUALS.

Given the continued stubborn lack of employment to respond as predicted to the massive Keynesian bout of trillion dollar stimuli, throwing a de facto tax increase onto these small businesses, that historically create the most jobs, is the LAST thing needed to help relieve unemployment. Also of dubious veracity is the shot about affording this tax cut, ignoring the dynamic that repeatedly increases net government revenue as marginal tax rates are reduced…but why quibble with reality, when there’s an need for some way invent another political stick to flail the opposition in response to diving poll numbers and fading electoral hopes.

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T.A.N.S.T.A.A.F.L.

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(If necessary see this link on TANSTAAFL.)

Received via an e-mail newsletter, and shamelessly forwarded for your edification. (IMHO Walter Williams is EXCELLENT!)

Something for Nothing
By Walter E. Williams

Perhaps the most difficult economic lesson is that we live in a world of scarcity and everything has a cost. Scarcity exists whenever human wants exceed the means to satisfy those wants. For example, Rolls-Royce produces less than 4,000 cars a year but it’s a safe bet that more than 4,000 of the Earth’s 6.5 billion people want a Rolls-Royce. That means Rolls-Royces are scarce. But it’s not just Rolls-Royces that are scarce. It’s clothing, food, land and most anything a human would want. There’s not enough to meet every single want.

Scarcity means there’s no free lunch. Having more of one thing requires having less of another. You might say, “Williams, that’s where you’re wrong. Someone gave me this newspaper and I’m reading your column for free!” Not true. If you weren’t spending time reading my column, you might have spent the time reading something else, chatting with your wife or children, or going out for a jog. You’re reading my column for a zero price but you’re not doing so at zero cost. You have to sacrifice something. There are zero-price services such as “free libraries,” “free public schools,” “free transportation” and free whatever. It doesn’t mean that costs are not being borne by somebody. [emphasis added]

The vision of getting something for nothing, or getting something that someone else has to pay for, explains why so many Americans are duped by politicians. A congressional hoax that’s flourished for seven decades is the Social Security hoax that half of the Social Security tax (6.2 percent) is paid by employers, the other half (6.2 percent) paid by employees. The law says that if you are self-employed, you get to pay both halves. The fact of the matter is whether you’re self-employed or not, you pay both halves of the Social Security tax that totals 12.4 percent. Let’s look at it.

Suppose you hire me and our agreed-upon weekly salary is $500. From that $500, you’re going to deduct $31 as my share of the Social Security tax and you’re going to add $31 as the so-called employer’s share, sending a total of $62 to the IRS. Here’s the question: What is the weekly cost for you to hire me? I hope you answered $531.

The next question is: In order to make hiring me profitable, what must be the minimum dollar value of my contribution to your total output? If you said $531, go to the head of the class because if the value of my contribution to total output is only our agreed-upon salary of $500, you’re making losses hiring me and you’re going to be out of business soon. Therefore, if I am producing $531 worth of value per week, it is I who’s paying the so-called employer as well as the employee share. The reason why Congress created the fiction of the employer share was to deceive us into thinking that we’re paying fewer taxes than we in fact are.

By the way, all those other nonwage benefits that a worker receives are in fact paid for by the worker such as health insurance, retirement benefits and childcare services. Without these nonwage benefits, money wages would be higher. During WWII, Congress imposed wage and price controls making it illegal for companies to compete for employees by offering higher wages. That’s when we saw many companies start to offer nonwage benefits, such as health insurance, as a means of competing for employees.

Nonwage benefits turn out to be good for the employee because, for the most part, he pays no taxes on them. In other words, if the employer paid the worker the cash value of, say, health insurance as wages, the worker would have to pay income taxes on it and then go out and buy health insurance.

The bottom line lesson is that if you think you’re getting something for nothing, or somebody else is paying for something you receive, you’d better give it another look. [emphasis added]

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Don’t Let it Bug You

Cockroaches could help combat MRSA and E.coli

Cockroaches and locusts contain powerful antibiotic molecules in their brains that could be used to develop new treatments against MRSA and E-coli, scientists have discovered.

Scientists at Nottingham University found that the insects, which are widely reviled for their dirty image, could actually be more of a health benefit than a health risk.

They have identified up to nine different molecules in the tissues of cockroaches and locusts that are toxic to bacteria and they hope will pave the way for new treatments for multi-drug resistant bacterial infections.

Who would have guessed?

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THIS is Change that we can REALLY use!

As usual…another case of the London Telegraph going where no US mainstream media has dared to venture.

Obama could kill fossil fuels overnight with a nuclear dash for thorium

If Barack Obama were to marshal America’s vast scientific and strategic resources behind a new Manhattan Project, he might reasonably hope to reinvent the global energy landscape and sketch an end to our dependence on fossil fuels within three to five years.

What’s not to like about this one? Well, it IS kind of disconcerting to be in a position to [potentially] supporting an Obama initiative…but then again, it hasn’t happened yet, and since it depends on the other (technological) n-word (nuclear), the Chief is willing to be that B.O. will be no more likely to adopt this than he would be to embrace the original n-word.

There is no certain bet in nuclear physics but work by Nobel laureate Carlo Rubbia at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) on the use of thorium as a cheap, clean and safe alternative to uranium in reactors may be the magic bullet we have all been hoping for, though we have barely begun to crack the potential of solar power.

Dr Rubbia says a tonne of the silvery metal – named after the Norse god of thunder, who also gave us Thor’s day or Thursday – produces as much energy as 200 tonnes of uranium, or 3,500,000 tonnes of coal. A mere fistful would light London for a week.

Thorium eats its own hazardous waste. It can even scavenge the plutonium left by uranium reactors, acting as an eco-cleaner. “It’s the Big One,” said Kirk Sorensen, a former NASA rocket engineer and now chief nuclear technologist at Teledyne Brown Engineering.

“Once you start looking more closely, it blows your mind away. You can run civilisation on thorium for hundreds of thousands of years, and it’s essentially free. You don’t have to deal with uranium cartels,” he said.

Ooops. What would happen to the “uranium cartels”, to say nothing of the vast, wealthy, and dare one say influential oil iindustry? Anyone else think there may just be a BIT of opposition to this from those locations? (I’m just saying…you know?) As an object lesson in support of this observation:

You might have thought that thorium reactors were the answer to every dream but when CERN went to the European Commission for development funds in 1999-2000, they were rebuffed.

Brussels turned to its technical experts, who happened to be French because the French dominate the EU’s nuclear industry. “They didn’t want competition because they had made a huge investment in the old technology,” he said.

C’est la vie.

After explaining some of the technical aspects of thorium energy, and the prospects of at least one privately financed effort underway (in Norway), the piece from the Telegraph concludes:

Nuclear power could become routine and unthreatening. But first there is the barrier of establishment prejudice.

When Hungarian scientists led by Leo Szilard tried to alert Washington in late 1939 that the Nazis were working on an atomic bomb, they were brushed off with disbelief. Albert Einstein interceded through the Belgian queen mother, eventually getting a personal envoy into the Oval Office.

Roosevelt initially fobbed him off. He listened more closely at a second meeting over breakfast the next day, then made up his mind within minutes. “This needs action,” he told his military aide. It was the birth of the Manhattan Project. As a result, the US had an atomic weapon early enough to deter Stalin from going too far in Europe.

The global energy crunch needs equal “action”. If it works, Manhattan II could restore American optimism and strategic leadership at a stroke: if not, it is a boost for US science and surely a more fruitful way to pull the US out of perma-slump than scattershot stimulus.[Emphasis added]

Even better, team up with China and do it together, for all our sakes.

The Chief concurs.

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Thoughts to Consider

“I’m 63 and I’m Tired” by Robert A. Hall

This was received from an e-mail correspondent. A bit of checking verified the source and provenance. Although it’s been out there for a while, IMHO this is unfortunately a pretty good summary of a lot of what’s going on these days, so I offer it for your possible edification:

I’m 63. Except for one semester in college when jobs were scarce and a six-month period when I was between jobs, but job-hunting every day, I’ve worked, hard, since I was 18. Despite some health challenges, I still put in 50-hour weeks, and haven’t called in sick in seven or eight years. I make a good salary, but I didn’t inherit my job or my income, and I worked to get where I am. Given the economy, there’s no retirement in sight, and I’m tired. Very tired.

I’m tired of being told that I have to “spread the wealth” to people who don’t have my work ethic. I’m tired of being told the government will take the money I earned, by force if necessary, and give it to people too lazy to earn it.

I’m tired of being told that I have to pay more taxes to “keep people in their homes.” Sure, if they lost their jobs or got sick, I’m willing to help. But if they bought McMansions at three times the price of our paid-off, $250,000 condo, on one-third of my salary, then let the left-wing Congress-critters who passed Fannie and Freddie and the Community Reinvestment Act that created the bubble help them with their own money.

I’m tired of being told that I have to pay more taxes to “keep people in their homes.” Sure, if they lost their jobs or got sick, I’m willing to help. But if they bought McMansions at three times the price of our paid-off, $250,000 condo, on one-third of my salary, then let the left-wing Congress-critters who passed Fannie and Freddie and the Community Reinvestment Act that created the bubble help them with their own money.

I’m tired of being told how bad America is by left-wing millionaires like Michael Moore, George Soros and Hollywood Entertainers who live in luxury because of the opportunities America offers. In thirty years, if they get their way, the United States will have the economy of Zimbabwe , the freedom of the press of China , the crime and violence of Mexico , the tolerance for Christian people of Iran , and the freedom of speech of Venezuela .

I’m tired of being told that Islam is a “Religion of Peace,” when every day I can read dozens of stories of Muslim men killing their sisters, wives and daughters for their family “honor”; of Muslims rioting over some slight offense; of Muslims murdering Christian and Jews because they aren’t “believers”; of Muslims burning schools for girls; of Muslims stoning teenage rape victims to death for “adultery”; of Muslims mutilating the genitals of little girls; all in the name of Allah, because the Qur’an and Shari’a law tells them to.

I’m tired of being told that “race doesn’t matter” in the post-racial world of Obama, when it’s all that matters in affirmative action jobs, lower college admission and graduation standards for minorities (harming them the most), government contract set-asides, tolerance for the ghetto culture of violence and fatherless children that hurts minorities more than anyone, and in the appointment of U.S. Senators from Illinois.

I think it’s very cool that we have a black president and that a black child is doing her homework at the desk where Lincoln wrote the Emancipation Proclamation. I just wish the black president was Condi Rice, or someone who believes more in freedom and the individual and less arrogantly of an all-knowing government.

I’m tired of a news media that thinks Bush’s fund-raising and inaugural expenses were obscene, but that think Obama’s, at triple the cost, were wonderful; that thinks Bush exercising daily was a waste of presidential time, but Obama exercising is a great example for the public to control weight and stress; that picked over every line of Bush’s military records, but never demanded that Kerry release his; that slammed Palin, with two years as governor, for being too inexperienced for VP, but touted Obama with three years as senator as potentially the best president ever. Wonder why people are dropping their subscriptions or switching to Fox News? Get a clue. I didn’t vote for Bush in 2000, but the media and Kerry drove me to his camp in 2004.

I’m tired of being told that out of “tolerance for other cultures” we must let Saudi Arabia use our oil money to fund mosques and madrassa Islamic schools to preach hate in America , while no American group is allowed to fund a church, synagogue or religious school in Saudi Arabia to teach love and tolerance.

I’m tired of being told I must lower my living standard to fight global warming, which no one is allowed to debate. My wife and I live in a two-bedroom apartment and carpool together five miles to our jobs. We also own a three-bedroom condo where our daughter and granddaughter live. Our carbon footprint is about 5% of Al Gore’s, and if you’re greener than Gore, you’re green enough.

I’m tired of being told that drug addicts have a disease, and I must help support and treat them, and pay for the damage they do. Did a giant germ rush out of a dark alley, grab them, and stuff white powder up their noses while they tried to fight it off?  I damn sure think druggies chose to take drugs. And I’m tired of harassment from cool people treating me like a freak when I tell them I never tried marijuana.

I’m tired of illegal aliens being called “undocumented workers,” especially the ones who aren’t working, but are living on welfare or crime. What’s next? Calling drug dealers, “Undocumented Pharmacists”? And, no, I’m not against Hispanics. Most of them are Catholic, and it’s been a few hundred years since Catholics wanted to kill me for my religion. I’m willing to fast track for citizenship any Hispanic person, who can speak English, doesn’t have a criminal record and who is self-supporting without family on welfare, or who serves honorably for three years in our military…. Those are the citizens we need.

I’m tired of latte liberals and journalists, who would never wear the uniform of the Republic themselves, trashing our military. They and their kids can sit at home, never having to make split-second decisions under life and death circumstances, and bad mouth better people than themselves. Do bad things happen in war? You bet. Do our troops sometimes misbehave? Sure. Does this compare with the atrocities that were the policy of our enemies for the last fifty years and still are? Not even close. So here’s the deal. I’ll let myself be subjected to all the humiliation and abuse that was heaped on terrorists at Abu Ghraib or Gitmo, and the critics can let themselves be subject to captivity by the Muslims, who tortured and beheaded Daniel Pearl in Pakistan, or the Muslims who tortured and murdered Marine Lt. Col. William Higgins in Lebanon, or the Muslims who ran the blood-spattered Al Qaeda torture rooms our

troops found in Iraq, or the Muslims who cut off the heads of schoolgirls in Indonesia, because the girls were Christian. Then we’ll compare notes. British and American soldiers are the only troops in history that civilians came to for help and handouts, instead of hiding from in fear.

I’m tired of people telling me that their party has a corner on virtue and the other party has a corner on corruption. Read the papers; bums are bipartisan. And I’m tired of people telling me we need bipartisanship. I live in Illinois , where the “Illinois Combine” of Democrats has worked to loot the public for years. Not to mention the tax cheats in Obama’s cabinet.

I’m tired of hearing wealthy athletes, entertainers and politicians of both parties talking about innocent mistakes, stupid mistakes or youthful mistakes, when we all know they think their only mistake was getting caught. I’m tired of people with a sense of entitlement, rich or poor.

Speaking of poor, I’m tired of hearing people with air-conditioned homes, color TVs and two cars called poor. The majority of Americans didn’t have that in 1970, but we didn’t know we were “poor.” The poverty pimps have to keep changing the definition of poor to keep the dollars flowing.

I’m real tired of people who don’t take responsibility for their lives and actions. I’m tired of hearing them blame the government, or discrimination or big-whatever for their problems.

Yes, I’m damn tired. But I’m also glad to be 63. Because, mostly, I’m not going to have to see the world these people are making. I’m just sorry for my granddaughter.

Robert A. Hall is a Marine Vietnam veteran who served five terms in the Massachusetts State Senate.

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Mortgage Sanity Outbreak Across the Pond

Bank plans to cap risky mortgages

What a RADICAL concept: tightening up on mortgages to prevent bubbles, defaults, etc. Shocking! This is the way it used to be done here too, before the rigging of Fanny May by the Pelosi/Frank/Dodd team to push home purchasing whether or not the “customer” could afford it – at ANY rate. Result: claims of helping the poor, but actually resulting in the continuing housing market bust.

Mortgage lending would be “capped” to stop borrowers taking out risky loans under radical Bank of England plans to prevent a repeat of the credit crisis, a senior official has disclosed.

Charlie Bean, the Bank’s Deputy Governor, said “direct constraints” may be needed to restrict access to credit, and that homebuyers could be forced to put down sizeable deposits before being granted a mortgage by their banks or building societies. This would mean that prospective buyers would have to put down between 10 per cent and 25 per cent of a property’s purchase price as a deposit before being able to obtain a loan.

It is the first time that a senior official has indicated that the Bank may intervene directly with new rules on so-called “loan to value ratios” to stop risky lending.

No signs of sanity on this side of the pond, with more noises in Washington about MORE easy money to “stimulate” the housing market. When will they ever learn?

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Maybe we DON’T need NASA to go to Space

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Copenhagen Suborbitals prepare to launch first private rocket, astronaut into space

WANT to go to space?

You could pay millions to get on board someone else’s [Russia’s] spacecraft as a tourist, spend six years at uni garnering the relevant NASA qualifications [not these days, with the shuttle program having it’s death rattle and no replacement in sight], or hitch-hike aboard the next alien construction fleet that passes through.

Or you could just build your own.

Yankee ingenuity? Uh…not quite…

A group of engineers in Denmark are preparing to do just that – launch a home-built rocket, along with a human passenger, more than 100km into the sky.

Dubbed HEAT1X, the rocket will be launched from a floating barge in the sea just outside the Danish border, 12 nautical miles from shore.

And it will be towed out there by a submarine built by one of the men behind the rocket project.

Home-brew submarine?…Not a narrow range of interests! At this rate soon DENMARK will have a more active native manned spaceflight program than the US!?

Good for them, shame on us.

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al Arabiya Boss: No Ground Zero Mosque

The Majority of Muslims Do Not Want or Need a Mosque Near Ground Zero

SUMMARY:

In an August 16, 2010 column in the London daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, ‘Abd Al-Rahman Al-Rashed, Al-Arabiya TV director-general and the paper’s former editor, criticized President Obama for supporting the construction of the Cordoba House mosque at Ground Zero in New York. He stated that it would be unwise to construct a mosque at that location, saying that no practicing Muslims live in the area, and that the mosque would become a focal point for both the supporters of terrorism and the champions of Islamophobia. Therefore, he argued, it would be preferable for Obama to throw his support behind issues that are of real concern for the Muslims, such as promoting Middle East peace.

For the full text of these remarks, follow the above link to the translation.

One must suppose that even NBC/MSNBC/Mayor Bloomberg would refrain from accusing al-Rashed of being prejudiced against Islam.

In light of B.O.’s quasi-endorsement of the project, his position is demonstrated to be beyond reason.

This being the case, the interesting question is what motivates his continued devotion to poking the American people in the eye on this issue (along with many other previous ones).

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Alternate Realities from the Border

Who do you believe, the Sheriff or the Obama myrmidon?

Napolitano: Now with ‘enough’ border resources, time to reform

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on Friday said the administration has “enough” resources to secure the border now that President Obama signed into law a $600 million border security spending bill, and she said Congress must now act on a larger overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws.

“This is what we asked for. And of course, what we asked for was what we thought would be enough,” Ms. Napolitano told reporters…

If you believe that, I have some reasonably priced tropical beachfront for you here in Moody County, South Dakota!

…Ms. Napolitano said the border is already secure enough that it should not be used by critics to “preclude discussions about immigration reform.”

SECURE ENOUGH? For who? The Mexican drug cartels? Hezbollah? Donkey Party libs looking for cheap votes? Corporate types looking for cheap labor? Or all of the above? (That last one makes too much sense.)

Meanwhile, the process of the loss of territorial sovereignty continues in Arizona:

Arizona Sheriff: Border Patrol Has Retreated from Parts of Border Because It’s ‘Too Dangerous’

Sheriff Larry Dever of Cochise County, Ariz., one of four Arizona counties contiguous with the U.S-Mexico border, said Friday that the U.S. Border Patrol has pulled back from parts of the border in his and neighboring counties because manning those areas has become too dangerous.

“And you frankly have Border Patrolmen–and I know this from talking to Border Patrol agents—who will not allow their agents to work on the border because it is too dangerous,” Dever told CNSNews.com in a videotaped interview. “Now what kind of message is that for crying out loud?”

What kind of message? One that has to include the fact that Napolitano has her head deeply implanted in a location where the sun never shines.

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Germany Stiffs Obamanomics; Gets it Right!

From that media stronghold of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy (VRWC) – the NY Times:

Defying Others, Germany Finds Economic Success

QUESTION: How to grow your economy? Germany seems to have figured something out:

Germany has sparred with its European partners over how to respond to the financial crisis, argued with the United States over the benefits of stimulus versus austerity, and defiantly pursued its own vision of how to keep its economy strong.

Statistics released Friday buttress Germany’s view that it had the formula right all along. The government on Friday announced quarter-on-quarter economic growth of 2.2 percent, Germany’s best performance since reunification 20 years ago — and equivalent to a nearly 9 percent annual rate if growth were that robust all year.

The strong growth figures will also bolster the conviction here that German workers and companies in recent years made the short-term sacrifices necessary for long-term success that Germany’s European partners did not. And it will reinforce the widespread conviction among policy makers that they handled the financial crisis and the painful recession that followed it far better than the United States, which, they never hesitate to remind, brought the world into this crisis.

ANSWER: In short, to help the economy, go in the opposite direction to Obamanomics.

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Rasmussen: Daugaard, Noem Still Ahead

Election 2010: South Dakota Governor

Support for Republican Dennis Daugaard has jumped to its highest level yet in South Dakota’s gubernatorial race.

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in the state finds Daugaard, the current lieutenant governor, leading Heidepriem by better than two-to-one, 59% to 27%. Four percent (4%) prefer some other candidate, and 10% are undecided.

Last month, Daugaard led Heidepriem 52% to 35%.
Daugaard in the lead is no big surprise…this margin…and the change since last month show that the Donkey Party candidate is failing to get any traction.

Meanwhile, Rasmussen also notes that GOP challenger Kristi Noem is running strongly against incumbent Stephanie Herseth:

Election 2010: South Dakota House of Representatives

Republican Kristi Noem again passes the 50% mark of support this month against incumbent Democrat Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin in the race for South Dakota’s only House seat.

The latest Rasmussen Reports statewide telephone survey of Likely Voters shows Noem picking up 51% support against Herseth-Sandlin, who receives 42% of the vote. Three percent (3%) prefer some other candidate in the race, and five percent (5%) are undecided.

One supposes that Stephanie won’t be bringing in House Squeeker Pelosi, or the Great Pretender himself to turn things around.

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Multiples of 8 Legs, However You Say It

On a lighter note:

Having observed in passing the references in the MSM to “Paul the Octopus” predicting the World Cup outcome, this item from an e-mail correspondent caught my attention for some reason. (Maybe because it makes more sense that what’s coming out of Congress and the White House these days!)

Let’s say you are swimming in the ocean and you see some 8-legged cephalopods. You say to your friend, “Hey, I saw a group of octopuses” and your friend says, “Hey, you’re an ignorant slob. You saw a group of octopi.” So, is it octopuses or octopi?

Well, octopus first showed up in the English language in the mid 1700’s. It was given the standard English plural, octopuses. There was a movement afoot at the time to make English less irregular by making it more like Latin, which is nice and even and predictable. So, these grammarians took a bunch of the Latin-based words in English that end in “us” like octopus, and gave them classical Latin plural endings. Enter octopi, the “correct” plural of octopus. There’s one problem. Octopus isn’t Latin. It’s in fact, ultimately from Greek. That’s OK. Some smarter grammarians figured this out and gave octopus the Greek ending it needed, and hence we have octopodes, which is pretty rare and appears only in British English. They all forgot one thing. Whenever a word from a foreign language enters English, it becomes an English word and it’s inflected just like other English words. So, octopuses was just fine.

So what does this mean for you? If you say octopuses, you can continue to do so without fearing that you are an ignorant slob. If you say octopi you can continue to do so. But, realize you have no grounds to tell the people who say octopuses that they are ignorant slobs. And if you say octopodes, you’d better be prepared to deliver this spiel at a moment’s notice, and with a British accent.

(From “Ask the Editor”, Merriam-Webster.com)

So, where does “Octopussy” fit into this scheme of things? Must be a problem for 007 to solve!

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It Can’t Happen Here…Can It?

Chief’s Preface: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” – George Santayana

A view from the land of Oz, “down under”:

Sun Could Set Suddenly on Superpower as Debt Bites

Question:

We have been raised to think of the historical process as an essentially cyclical one. We naturally tend to assume that in our own time, too, history will move cyclically, and slowly.

Yet what if history is not cyclical and slow-moving but arhythmic, at times almost stationary, but also capable of accelerating suddenly, like a sports car? What if collapse does not arrive over a number of centuries but comes suddenly, like a thief in the night?

Concept:

Great powers and empires are complex systems, which means their construction more resembles a termite hill than an Egyptian pyramid. They operate somewhere between order and disorder, on “the edge of chaos”, in the phrase of the computer scientist Christopher Langton.

Such systems can appear to operate quite stably for some time; they seem to be in equilibrium but are, in fact, constantly adapting.

But there comes a moment when complex systems “go critical”. A very small trigger can set off a phase transition from a benign equilibrium to a crisis. Complex systems share certain characteristics. A small input to such a system can produce huge, often unanticipated changes, what scientists call the amplifier effect.

Application:

Empires exhibit many of the characteristics of other complex adaptive systems, including the tendency to move from stability to instability quite suddenly. But this fact is rarely recognised because of our addiction to cyclical theories of history.
What are the implications for the US today? The most obvious point is that imperial falls are associated with fiscal crises: sharp imbalances between revenues and expenditures, and the mounting cost of servicing a mountain of public debt.

Think of Spain in the 17th century: already by 1543 nearly two-thirds of ordinary revenue was going on interest on the juros, the loans by which the Habsburg monarchy financed itself.

Or think of France in the 18th century: between 1751 and 1788, the eve of Revolution, interest and amortisation payments rose from just over a quarter of tax revenue to 62 per cent.

Finally, consider Britain in the 20th century. Its real problems came after 1945, when a substantial proportion of its now immense debt burden was in foreign hands. Of the pound stg. 21 billion national debt at the end of the war, about pound stg. 3.4bn was owed to foreign creditors, equivalent to about a third of gross domestic product.

Go to the linked article for the gory details on our current circumstances that lead to a harrowing conclusion:

For now, the world still expects the US to muddle through, eventually confronting its problems when, as Churchill famously said, all the alternatives have been exhausted. With the sovereign debt crisis in Europe combining with growing fears of a deflationary double-dip recession, bond yields are at historic lows….

We should be so blessed!

Australia’s post-war foreign policy has been, in essence, to be a committed ally of the US.

But what if the sudden waning of American power that I fear brings to an abrupt end the era of US hegemony in the Asia-Pacific region? Are we ready for such a dramatic change in the global balance of power?

Judging by what I have heard here since I arrived last Friday, the answer is no. Australians are simply not thinking about such things.

A favourite phrase of this great country is “No dramas”. But dramas lie ahead as the nasty fiscal arithmetic of imperial decline drives yet another great power over the edge of chaos.

Hopefully more of us will start to remember a few inconvenient historical facts in time to make a difference.

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SD Jobs Doing Well…Sunbelt States: Not So Hot!

Boom Turns to Bust

South Dakota is one of the states that is weathering the unemployment storm quite well, thank you!

How the mighty have fallen.

Nevada, California, and Florida have the nation’s weakest economies, according to a midyear review of state employment trends by Portfolio.com and bizjournals. That’s a stunning reversal from half a decade ago. Nevada and Florida finished first and second, respectively, in 2005’s midyear review. California was a respectable 11th.

But this year’s study puts Nevada in 51st place, dead last among the 50 states and the District of Columbia. California (50th) and Florida (49th) are barely a step ahead.

On the other hand…

Surprises can also be found at the top of the new midyear standings. Tiny North Dakota enjoys the nation’s strongest economy at the moment, and Alaska holds second place, according to the Portfolio.com/bizjournals rankings….

But the severity of the economic recession has been tempered in states with affordable housing, especially those in the heartland that stretches from the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian border. Six of the top 10 states are located within that broad belt, including North Dakota (first place), Texas (third), South Dakota (fourth), Nebraska (sixth), Louisiana (seventh), and Utah (10th)

Not too shabby.

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Federal Legal Precedence Dead?…or, Dixie’s Spirit Still Lives!

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Oakland allows industrial-scale marijuana farms

Oakland’s City Council late Tuesday adopted regulations permitting industrial-scale marijuana farms, a plan that some small farmers argued would squeeze them out of the industry they helped to build.

It looks like the only argument in Oakland is whether or not the corporate dopers will crowd out the small-time family dopers. (I know that sounds weird, but there it is!)

I REALLY don’t get this one! (And no, I am not arguing here one way or the other about Bob Newland’s Favorite Issue. That’s a whole other discussion.)

As far as I know the Federal drug laws are still on the books, and are still (sort of?) being enforced…at least the DEA hasn’t been abolished yet, as far as I know.

SO…Arizona is sued by DoJ for having the unforgivable nerve to presume to pass a law on immigration that mirrors the Federal laws, and is slapped down for doing so. They are acting IN SUPPORT of the Federal legislation.

Meanwhile, Oakland, and other locations, are actively promoting the direct VIOLATION of Federal laws withing their jurisdiction, with no Federal action in response?

Can you say N-U-L-L-I-F-I-C-A-T-I-O-N? Wasn’t there a rather sharpish discussion on that topic from the 1830’s until 1865 when the issue was supposed to have been disposed of? If not, perhaps the spirit of J.C. Calhoun and the other proto-Confederates of his day is truly alive and well and lurking under a hempen shroud.

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Possible States of War

Obama lawsuit invites fortified state militia
Constitution leaves room for Arizona to secure border

OK. The Feds are challenging Arizona’s mild attempt to reinstate some semblance of enforcement to laws put in place, but subsequently not enforced by them. This of course is on the grounds that the states cannot act to enforce Federal law. This proposition raises some points of interest.

Does this mean that states (and localities) then must also not enforce any state or local laws against illegal drug trafficking, possession, or use, all of which are against Federal law also? Also, what then about localities and states that have licensed and tolerate businesses whose entire existence is in violation of Federal laws–specifically the so-called “medical marijuana” trade? According to common law wouldn’t this de-facto administrative annulment of Federal law establish a precedent for similar de-facto state and/or local administrative annulment of other Federal laws?

If this is the case then there is no basis for the Federal suit opposing Arizona’s willingness to take on part of the neglected task of the Feds to enforce their own laws. If it is NOT the case, then the Federal government is directly violating the equal protection of the Constitution by arbitrarily choosing to selectively enforce SOME of its laws while simultaneously ignoring others! (Just wondering, you know?)

Meanwhile, to get back to the point of the above cited and linked op-ed is that even if Arizona is NOT upheld by the court system, it is far from helpless in the face of the ongoing Mexican invasion…Arizona still has some options, ones that are fully allowable under some rather specific terms of the Constitution:

(Uff da!  Here’s that pesky 2nd Amendment rearing it’s head again!)

…Arizona can form and expand its own state militia. Such forces were common when our nation was founded, and the Second Amendment recognizes that a “well-regulated Militia” is “necessary to the security of a free State.”  In short, Arizona and other states can raise and arm their own military forces. But, for what purpose can such forces legally act?

(Ooops! Not JUST the 2nd Amendment at work.)

The Constitution is informative here. In Article IV, Section 4, the federal government is required to “protect each [state] against Invasion; and [on request of the state government] against domestic Violence.” As St. George Tucker noted, this provision guards against “the possibility of an undue partiality in the federal government,” for example a “sectional” president who might, for political reasons, decline to protect states in a certain region. Today the federal government, at the direction of the president, has declined to carry out its duty under Article IV. Leaving aside its other possible consequences, this intentional failure to protect Arizona raises the question of what action the state is now entitled to take under the Constitution.
[emphasis added]

Yes, what indeed CAN Arizona (and by extension any other state) do in this case?

This brings us to Article I, Section 10, Clause 3, which provides that “No State shall, without the Consent of Congress … engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay.

Did you catch that? States MAY go to war under some circumstances WITHOUT “the Consent of Congress”!

“So, the militias organized and armed by a state may go to war when the state has been invaded or is in imminent danger. This is clear under Article I, and plainly justified when the federal government has deliberately failed to protect against invasion as required by Article IV. As Joseph Story explains in his treatise on the Constitution, the prohibition against states engaging in war is “wisely” limited by “exceptions sufficient for the safety of the states, and NOT justly open to the objection of being dangerous to the Union.”

So, the concluding summary from the piece:

At the time of our nation’s founding, the states surrendered certain limited powers to the federal government. Logically, foremost among the enumerated powers delegated to the new central authority were those relating to foreign affairs, including the war powers. But the states were prudent; they had a logical concern that if the federal government should fail in its duty to protect them from “invasion” or “imminent danger,” perhaps for reasons of political “partiality,” then the states should have a robust right to defend themselves, including by armed force. And so they do.

Hmmmm. Federal government “fails in its duty to protect”…for reasons of political “partiality”…? Sounds sort of familiar, somehow.

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Stickin’ It to Wall Street…or Main Street?

…send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.
– John Donne

Finance Overhaul Casts Long Shadow on the Plains

So…you think that the recently passed financial reform bill is going to righteously stick it to those high-rollin’ Wall Street finance dudes? Not likely.

The impact may hit a lot closer to home than you might have thought:

Farmer Jim Kreutz uses derivatives to soften the blow should the price of feed corn drop before harvest. His brother-in-law, feedlot owner Jon Reeson, turns to them to hedge the price of his steer. The local farmers’ co-op uses derivatives to finance fixed-price diesel for truckers who carry cattle to slaughter. And the packing plant employs derivatives to stabilize costs from natural gas to foreign currencies.

Far from Wall Street, President Barack Obama’s financial regulatory overhaul, which may pass Congress as early as Thursday, will leave tracks across the wide-open landscape of American industry.

Designed to fix problems that helped cause the financial crisis, the bill will touch storefront check cashiers, city governments, small manufacturers, home buyers and credit bureaus, attesting to the sweeping nature of the legislation, the broadest revamp of finance rules since the 1930s.

Historically, the more that government gets involved in the market, the worse things get. (Remember, most of the the alleged negative effects of the free market are really the product of business and/or regulatory arrangements that have hindered the free market’s operation.)

I get a bad feeling about this one.

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NASA Chief Moons the Space Program

Three items relating to this piece of total Obamamaniacal insanity:

NASA Chief: Next Frontier Better Relations With Muslim World

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a recent interview that his “foremost” mission as the head of America’s space exploration agency is to improve relations with the Muslim world.

Though international diplomacy would seem well outside NASA’s orbit, Bolden said in an interview with Al Jazeera that strengthening those ties was among the top tasks President Obama assigned him. He said better interaction with the Muslim world would ultimately advance space travel.

I could have thought that the foremost mission of the chief administrator of NASA was to…(maybe?) administer what little is left of our space program?

Silly me! But at least My opinion shared in good company:

Former NASA Director Says Muslim Outreach Push ‘Deeply Flawed’

The former head of NASA on Tuesday described as “deeply flawed” the idea that the space exploration agency’s priority should be outreach to Muslim countries, after current Administrator Charles Bolden made that assertion in an interview last month.

“NASA … represents the best of America. Its purpose is not to inspire Muslims or any other cultural entity,” Michael Griffin, who served as NASA administrator during the latter half of the Bush administration, told FoxNews.com.

At least somebody is stills sane!

Griffin said Tuesday that collaboration with other countries, including Muslim nations, is welcome and should be encouraged — but that it would be a mistake to prioritize that over NASA’s “fundamental mission” of space exploration.

“If by doing great things, people are inspired, well then that’s wonderful,” Griffin said. “If you get it in the wrong order … it becomes an empty shell.”

Griffin added: “That is exactly what is in danger of happening.”

He also said that while welcome, Muslim-nation cooperation is not vital for U.S. advancements in space exploration. “There is no technology they have that we need,” Griffin said.

Dang! Does this mean that we won’t be able to use camels on Mars after all?

The former administrator stressed that any criticism should be directed at Obama, not Bolden, since NASA merely carries out policy.

That last bit hits the nail on the head. This rot begins at the top!


Allah’s final frontier
NASA races to reach the crescent moon
This editorial comment from the D.C. Times makes a decidedly non-PC but true observation:

The Muslim world has nothing to offer the United States as a space-faring nation. If anything, America should be discouraging Middle East space programs. Iran has the most advanced space initiative in the region and claimed to have launched a satellite in February. It’s a short step from putting satellites in space to being able to do the same with warheads. Given that Iran is on the verge of nuclear-weapons capability, the upbeat message from NASA seems ill-advised

It doesn’t take rocket science to figure this out…but hey, nobody except B.O. and his KoolAid crew could mistake Bolden for having any real understanding of non-pharmaceutical experience of space.

In addition, there is an explanation why Islam may be in need of some technological strokes:

Islam’s meager contribution to human technological advancement is no accident. In his new book “The Closing of the Muslim Mind,” former Voice of America director Robert Reilly describes the brief flourishing of intellectualism in Muslim Spain 1,000 years ago before it was brutally suppressed by religious extremists. They imposed a continuing Islamic orthodoxy that is hostile to rational thought and to the scientific method. According to this view, the only knowledge required for human existence is contained in the Koran and the life and sayings of Muhammad. Pursuing any knowledge beyond that is at best a waste of time, at worst a capital offense. Classical books of knowledge were burned, the few Muslim philosophers and scientists were banished and the stage was set for centuries of scientific decline. The small number of discoveries credited to that part of the world since the Middle Ages came principally from conquered peoples.

Where is JFK now that we REALLY need him!

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Obamanomics: Truth and Consequences

Firstly, this item from that noted mouthpiece of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy (VRWC)…the New York Times?

A Market Forecast That Says ‘Take Cover’

WITH the stock market lurching again, plenty of investors are nervous, and some are downright bearish. Then there’s Robert Prechter, the market forecaster and social theorist, who is in another league entirely.

Mr. Prechter is convinced that we have entered a market decline of staggering proportions — perhaps the biggest of the last 300 years.

In a series of phone conversations and e-mail exchanges last week, he said that no other forecaster was likely to accept his reasoning, which is based on his version of the Elliott Wave theory — a technical approach to market analysis that he embraces with evangelical fervor.

Originating in the writings of Ralph Nelson Elliott, an obscure accountant who found repetitive patterns, or “fractals,” in the stock market of the 1930s and ’40s, the theory suggests that an epic downswing is under way, Mr. Prechter said. But he argued that even skeptical investors should take his advice seriously.

“I’m saying: ‘Winter is coming. Buy a coat,’ ” he said. “Other people are advising people to stay naked. If I’m wrong, you’re not hurt. If they’re wrong, you’re dead. It’s pretty benign advice to opt for safety for a while.”

This article is really worth the read, and some thought. Even when they present an opponent to Prechter’s view…well…he sort of agrees too:

Over the next several years Mr. Acampora expects an “old normal market,” characterized by relatively short-lived swings that will provide many opportunities for smart investors — one that resembles the markets of the 1960s and 70s. “I’ve lived through it,” he said.

Like Mr. Prechter, he is a past president of the Market Technicians Association, the leading organization of technical market analysts, and he said that his colleague has done “some very good work.” But Mr. Acampora doesn’t agree with Mr. Prechter’s long-term theories, either intellectually or emotionally.

Hmmmm. Doesn’t agree with him EMOTIONALLY? WTF does THAT have to do with it?

The “mathematics don’t work,” Mr. Acampora said, because such a big decline would imply that individual stocks would need to trade at unrealistically low levels.

The logic here is very interesting. First, “The mathematics don’t work…” Why not? “BECAUSE such a big decline would imply that individual stocks would need to trade at unrealistically low levels.” (Like GM and GE, etc. trading for a few dollars a share in ’33?) Since when does the production of a mathematical result serve as the criteria to determine whether the mathematics “works”? He’s essentially stating that the math doesn’t work out because it gives an answer that he doesn’t like. This attitude is further amplified by the following statement:

Furthermore, he said, “I don’t want to agree with him, because if he’s right, we’ve basically got to go to the mountains with a gun and some soup cans, because it’s all over.”

Then he concludes:

“Still, on a “near-term” basis, he said, “We’re probably saying the same thing.”


Oops! Remember…THAT’s presented as an opposing view to Prechter!

At least the view from across the pond in the UK is better…right? Well, not exactly…it sounds more like the favorite observation of the robot character Marvin from Doug Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: “It’s all so depressing.”

With the US trapped in depression, this really is starting to feel like 1932

The US workforce shrank by 652,000 in June, one of the sharpest contractions ever. The rate of hourly earnings fell 0.1pc. Wages are flirting with deflation.

“The economy is still in the gravitational pull of the Great Recession,” said Robert Reich, former US labour secretary. “All the booster rockets for getting us “Home sales are down. Retail sales are down. Factory orders in May suffered their biggest tumble since March of last year. So what are we doing about it? Less than nothing,” he said.

Read on for more of the gory details. Maybe the robot has it right after all.

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Checks and balances at work

Obama and Supreme Court may be on collision course

The president’s agenda on healthcare and financial regulations sets the stage for a clash with the Supreme Court’s conservative majority.

There’s a lot more text in the article that amplifies the point…in the Chief’s humble opinion, the Constitution is functioning as designed – to slow down and limit the scope of what the government can and should be doing.

Perhaps B.O. will get the point that there is more to Constitutional governance than Executive Orders, rubber-stamp Congressional actions, and the proliferation of “Czars”.

Nah. Probably not.