YAHOO NEWS reports that the major Democratic candidates addressed the Democratic National Committee.  Bill Richardson, Barak Obama, and John Edwards not only outlined their plans for America, but leveled criticism at their own party.  They also outlined the dangers of electing a Democrat to the presidency.

Bill Richardson:

"Look at the last twelve months. Not only are we still in Iraq, we still have the failure called No Child Left Behind. We still have 9 million children with no health insurance. We're still allowing this president to thumb his nose at the Bill of Rights. We're slipping into a recession," Richardson said. "And we can't even reject an attorney general who refuses to condemn torture."

Mr. Richardson, we are still in Iraq because your party demanded that the war be fought in a politically correct manner instead of all out warfare.  We are still there because your party criticized the administrations handling of insurgents and handcuffed the troops.  There is no problem with No Child Left Behind.  You are just spouting the NEA talking points.  NEA cares not about children; they only care about the rights and benefits of teachers.  Health insurance is a product, an intangible consumer product.  It is not a right nor is it an entitlement.  It is a choice, a free choice for people to make.  The Democrats are against free choice except in very narrow and limited circumstances.  We are slipping into a recession because markets- all markets go up and down.  Artificially keeping markets up is a recipe for economic disaster.  The attorney general never refused to condemn torture.  He just refused to condemn one practice which is debatable.

John Edwards:

Edwards, true to his two-Americas message and his attack on special interests, blamed Republicans and Democrats for isolating Washington from the rest of the country.

"The American people are on the outside," he said. "And on the other side, on the inside, are the powerful, the well-connected and the very wealthy. ... The truth is that it's not just Republicans who built this wall. Democrats helped."

Two Americas?  This is treason and sedition.  There is only one America.  I do agree with his position that the parties have isolated the rest of the country, but the Democrats are way guiltier.  The real rub is his statement about the powerful and the wealthy.  I guess he excludes himself, a man of power, connections, and significant wealth, from the equation.  Everyone but him is the problem.

His real threat is that we must sacrifice to make this country better.  Sacrifice is a code word for higher taxes on all Americans.  We must pay for the waste, fraud, and malfeasance they will create.

Obama was rather tepid and only made remarks on strategy.

These people are a real threat to our pocket books, our children, and the choices we make regarding our own money. 

SAJAK ON CELEB ENDORSEMENTS

If any group of citizens is uniquely unqualified to tell someone else how to vote, it's those of us who live in the sheltered, privileged arena of celebrityhood. It's one thing to buy an ab machine because Chuck Norris recommends it (he's in good shape, isn't he?) or a grill because George Foreman's name is on it (he's a great guy, so it must be a great grill!), but the idea of choosing the Leader of the Free World based on the advice of someone who lives in the cloistered world of stardom seems a bit loony to me.

I suppose anything that gets people engaged in the political process is a good thing, but the idea that a gold record, a top-ten TV show or an Oscar translates into some sort of political wisdom doesn't make much sense to me. Trust me, one's view of the world isn't any clearer from the back seat of a limo. Pat Sajak [Human Events]

NEW YORK TIMES LOSING $$$$$$$$

The New York Times, AKA the tired gray old lady, is having hard times.  Their circulation is down, their advertising is down and now they will be laying off reporters, clerks, and secretaries and eliminating some positions.  This according to Editor and Publisher.  Bank of America has dropped their rating of the New York Times to sell.  This according to Reuters.  It is about time and overdue.  The NYT is one of the worst, least credible newspapers in the world.  It is biased, elitist, and dishonest.  There are only two good uses for the NYT, fish wrap and floor covering for puppies.  They should just cease operations.

NEW PC LABEL

FORMER INMATES.  Get on board folks, the gray tired old lady, the New York Times, has injected a new political correct term into the lexicon; former inmates.  They used to be called ex-convicts.  Now they are former inmates.  First it was the illegal alien- undocumented worker change, now this.  What other political correct labels will they dream up next?  Is it any wonder why they are going bankrupt?

THE THREE KINGS

Not the Magi.  The three kings listed are Gore, Kennedy, and Kerry.  According to the article, these are the three top people the Democratic candidates will seek endorsements from.  They have a strong appeal to the Democratic base, they have powerful fund raising abilities, and they are still power houses in their own rights.  If at least two do not endorse Hillary Clinton, her campaign may be doomed.  Of course if they decide to get in the game, it could be interesting; a moonbat, a leftover rich hippie, and a drunk.

The Democrats are not just in a race for the White House.  They want to dominate the legislature too, creating a large one party majority in government.  This would eliminate any political debate on issues and allow for a government to rule by mandate.  The President and the Legislature would not run the government, the Democratic Party would.  Democrats are more loyal to their party platform and ideology than Republicans.  For the Democrats, it is of the party, by the party, for the party.

The last few times the Democrats wielded such power we were inundated with programs that turned into financial fiascos and failures.  It started with Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  It worsened with Lyndon Baines Johnson and went regressively down hill with Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.  We are still paying the price for the social and social engineering failures of the Roosevelt and Johnson administrations.  The entitlement programs that these two implemented helped no one.  They only financed failing programs, some of which are still in place today; and we are still financing them.

If the Democrats regain power, the Middle Class will suffer.  We will be stuck in a perpetual rut, just like people on welfare were for generations; born in poverty, live in poverty, die in poverty.  That was the war on poverty.  The Liberal war on the Middle Class is more insidious.  They will stop us from becoming more prosperous and hopefully for some of us, achieving wealth.  They detest the wealthy, even though many of them are wealthy themselves.

The average American wants to achieve.  They want to prosper and define their prosperity.  To some it is living a comfortable life in economic security, to others it is the quest for the holy grail of riches.  This is what freedom is all about.  No one wants to regress and sets out to live a life of poverty.  The Democrats believe in punishing success and achievement.  There is no reward system built into their platform.  There is no incentive.  To achieve a modicum of success and wealth is to be punished through regressive taxation and to be vilified in the media.  Democrats do not believe in upward mobility. 

Imagine this for a moment.  You are a working person, bringing home a pay check, paying your bills, and lamenting that during some times of the year there is more month and the end of the money.  All forms of taxes eat into your income; sales taxes, increasing property taxes, higher taxes on things you use everyday, etc.  The Democrat plan to raise taxes on the wealthy sounds good to you, right?  Let them pay more, they have it, they can afford it and it will not hurt them.  One day, you get an epiphany.  You discover and invent a widget that turns into the hottest product on earth.  All of a sudden you are now the wealthy.  You are now the enemy.  You now have a target on your back and the Democrats are aiming a big financial gun at you.

If this seems far fetched, you are dead wrong.  Throughout modern history, most inventions, innovations, and new wealth were created out of the Middle Class.  That is right.  Historically the Middle Class created ideas and products that made some of us wealthy.  Just one example will suffice.  There was a man who owned a small five and dime store.  He worked hard, expanded his business, had a few ideas on a new way of doing retail business.  He eventually created a behemoth that has done more to eliminate poverty and create jobs- according to prominent economists- than the U.S. Government.  His name was Sam Walton.  His creation- Wal-Mart.  Wal-Mart is villified daily and is the enemy in many Democratic Legislative quarters. 

The Middle Class are the innovators.  We not only created the products and ideas, we created the subsequent jobs that were a result of our ideas.  We are the enemy.  If taxing the wealthy into oblivion is the plan, then there is no incentive to create, innovate, invent, new products, ideas, and technologies.  There is no incentive create new wealth.  In effect, taxing the wealthy higher is a tax on the Middle Class.  A tax that will keep us right where we are, stuck in a rut, working until we retire or die, never rising above our station.  Just like the Democratic War on Poverty did to poor people.  The Democrats call this progressive.  I call it oppressive.

There is quite a bit of polling going on and arguments over whose polls are scientific and with merit and whose are not.  In my humble opinion, most polls, especially their results, are fraudulent.  The people who run them are charlatans.  You cannot poll a small sample of people and use that to extrapolate a result for the whole population, especially if the questions are skewed.

The late columnist, Mike Royko, had the best take on election polls.  They are useless and worthless.  There is only one poll that counts and that is the polling booth.  The election results are the only real poll.

I constantly talk to people; all kinds of people.  I find it fascinating that only a very few are hardcore political junkies with an ax to grind.  The rest have real, pressing concerns that impact their lives and futures.  They are being ignored.  I do not hear people hating the President.  I hear them worrying about whether they will be able to afford higher health insurance premiums.  I do not hear anti-war sentiment.  People tell me that filling the car up- even the econo-box- is costly.

People do not even discuss the Clintons or Obamas.  They worry about the rising cost of milk.  They care not that Giuliani was so great after 9/11.  They are worried about whether they will be downsized or their jobs will be exported out of the country.

I never hear the average person complain about Wal-Mart.  They shop there.  They could care less about unions and most tell that their unions are useless anyway.  People do not care about the mortgage crisis.  They care that their property taxes, thus their monthly payments, are going up in order to finance more failures in local governments.

What I hear the most of is people being fed up with politicians of all stripes.  They no longer believe them.  Politicians, those in office and those running have lost credibility with the American people. 

I have come to the conclusion from my own poll- talking to real people- that there are only a few issues that they really care about; it is not gays, abortion, religion, or entitlements.  People want to be self reliant, self determined, and protect what little individual freedom they have left.  They want the opportunity to define their prosperity and achieve it.  People want lower taxes and less government spending on foolish projects that benefit no one except those producing those projects.  People want common sense government- one they can understand and is transparent.

Maybe if the candidates and the elected officials talked to real people- the people who they are supposed to represent, they might get a handle on the real problems instead of the manufactured ones.  Better yet, maybe it is time for ordinary people to start running for office.  Like the Founding Fathers envisioned.

In today’s Chicago Sun Times, Jesse Jackson, in his quest for the Holy Grail of relevancy, is bemoaning the fact that Democrats are ignoring the pseudo plight of Blacks.  They are not addressing their concerns.  He asserts that there is a catastrophic crisis in the so called Black community.  Mr. thinks and believes that Blacks are separate from the rest of America; a separate nation.

Mr. Jackson seems to forget history.  Real history, not the revisionist history he and others of his ilk have written or believe.  Who caused the plight of Blacks?  Who instituted the racist welfare and entitlement schemes that guaranteed that Blacks and others in poverty would remain in poverty in perpetuity?   Who foisted housing projects that did nothing but breed the destruction of the social fabric and crime?  Who is responsible?  White Liberal racist Democrats.  Racist?  Only racists could conceive of a nefarious plot to keep Black people poor for generations.  Only racists could conceive of a scheme to build housing projects to keep Black people contained; I like to refer to them as the urban plantations.  Only racists could dream up situations that break up and destroy families- no dads in the house if you want that welfare check.

Prior to the Black welfare state, there was a burgeoning Black middle class in most urban areas; businessmen, doctors, lawyers, and other professionals.  Just like other ethnic and urban neighborhoods, business was local.  The racist welfare scam destroyed that great Black middle class and created the ghettos and poverty ridden areas we have today.  Racist welfare created the dope problem that festers to this day; selling drugs versus opening legitimate business concerns.

All of this done by Mr. Jackson’s friendly racist Liberal White Democrats.  I guess he wants more.  He wants to suck up to these racists, get more entitlements, keep people in a constant state of poverty, and retain his relevance.  It is the politics of poverty.  Middle class and upper class Blacks pay him little heed.  If it were not for poverty he would succumb to the trash heap of ignominy. 

As to his fallacy of Blacks being arrested, charged, convicted, and imprisoned more than others, he ignores the real numbers.  The numbers that the MSM will not publish.  In urban areas with large Black and Hispanic populations, those two groups commit the majority of crimes.  It is only natural that if a group commits the majority of crimes than that group is targeted by law enforcement and charged, convicted, and imprisoned.  To answer the question on so many minds; why are so many Black men in prison?  Because so many Black men were convicted of crimes they committed.

Mr. Jackson, like John Edwards, is a member of the seditious and traitorous Two America group.  It is time to admit some things Jesse.  It is time to suck it up like an adult.  You are no longer relevant.  You no longer matter.  You have allied yourself with the racists you supposedly detest and now you are paying the price; irrelevance. 

People are no longer stupid.  Even uneducated people are somewhat politically astute.  People have hopes and dreams.  They seek out self defined prosperity.  They do not need a store front political preacher to lead them.  They only have to look in the mirror and to see the solution to their problems. 

Oprah on tour!  Oprah Winfrey, one of the wealthiest, most popular, and most powerful women in media and the country is on the stump for Barak Obama.  There was great press about Bill Clinton using his popularity to stump for Hillary.  Now there is a real competition.  Oprah Winfrey is way more popular than Bill Clinton is and ever was.  She came out for Obama a while back, but now her actively campaigning for him is a shot in the arm.  If Oprah puts her popularity and money into the game Obama can only surge.  Hillary is now in trouble.  Real trouble. 

I am not touting Obama.  I am a Republican after all.  However, I am overjoyed that the Clinton crime family finally is finally getting its comeuppance.  Now if the reports and rumors about corruption in her campaign financing can be proven, we may see a jail sentence.  She may even look good in prison orange. 

Trent Lott is resigning from the Senate.  Good Riddins!  Trent Lott supported amnesty for ILLEGAL ALIENS, he has been a supporter of the Fairness Doctrine- never read the First Amendment- he has treated his constituency like dirt, and he has treated the public interest and the public coffers with disdain and contempt.  He is no Republican.  He is a pseudo-conservative, and he will not be missed.  Good bye, good riddins, oh, and the worst of luck in starting your lobbying firm in a shameless attempt to make big bucks.  Hope you go bankrupt.

OBAMA VS CLINTON

DES MOINES, Iowa---- Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama intensified the bickering Sunday over their competing health plans, reflecting the crucial stakes as Iowa's leadoff caucuses in early January approach.

Clinton said Obama's proposal was ''crafted for politics'' and the latest example of his shifting policy positions. Obama said much the same of her approach.

Obama has a better idea for health care than Clinton ever had.  If it was up to Hillary Clinton, many people would die instead of receiving health care.  Obama has stated repeatedly that he wants the American people to have the same health care that the U.S. Congress and U.S. Senate has.

What is left out of all of this is the nefarious scheme that the Democrats have concocted to push Universal Health Care down our throats.  It is called the squeeze play.  Since senior citizens already have health care and children are being covered more and more, the people in the middle, the rest of us, will be squeezed into accepting government or government sanctioned mandatory health care.  Soon, we will have no choices in our personal lives and decisions. 

Politicians are not serious about health care.  The federal government has not allowed new medical schools to be built, even though there is a shortage of doctors, especially specialists.  They refuse to regulate the medical field, allowing it to regulate itself.  They over regulate the pharmaceutical industry, driving up the cost of drugs, especially life saving drugs.

Question, would you trust any politician- Liberal or Conservative, Democrat or Republican, to govern your health care- the most important decision you make for yourself and your family?

Protecting Your Children in Cyberspace

This policy is included in its entirety in Appendix I in the book version.

The following are excerpts from ACLU Policy 4, with emphasis added:

(a) "The ACLU opposes any restraint on the right to create, publish or distribute materials to adults . . . on the basis of obscenity . . ."

(b) "Laws which punish the distribution or exposure of such materials [i.e. including obscenity] to minors violate the First Amendment . . ."

(d) "The ACLU believes that . . . all limitations of expression on the ground of obscenity . . . are unconstitutional."

(g) "The ACLU opposes on First Amendment grounds laws that restrict the production and distribution of any . . . materials even when some of the producers of those materials are punishable under criminal law." [This describes child pornography.]

The ACLU's official position on pornography reveals their underlying agenda with respect to filtering or blocking pornography in schools and libraries.   

(Emphasis mine)

I am really glad to see that the ACLU is on the forefront in protecting our children from being victimized.  Of course they would feel this way since one of their own was arrested for down loading child pornography.

It is time for the public to put an end to this criminal organization.  It is time for lawyers with morals and ethics to say enough; the ACLU must die.  It is time to also publicly create a boycott of donations to the ACLU.  Their non-profit status must be pulled and they should be investigated.  This is nothing more than a group of lawyers who are running a continuing criminal enterprise.  It is the ABA Organized crime Family.

"The only thing that really matters is whether people are better off when you stop your labors than when you started, whether your country is moving in the right direction, whether children have a better chance to live their dreams, whether the world is more peaceful, prosperous and cooperative."

So said Bill Clinton on a campaign stop for his wife in Iowa.  He was touting his alleged achievements to promote his wife’s candidacy.  I guess he just cannot stop lying.  The Clinton presidency is remarkable for one glaring aspect; he accomplished absolutely nothing in eight years.  Let us take his comments apart:

Were the people better off when he left than when he started?  He instituted the largest middle class tax increase in history.  He took more disposable income out of our pockets.  How could we have been better off?  When you take money away from working people they cannot be better off.  Due to his tax increases, the prosperity of the Reagan presidency started slipping.  George Bush inherited a recipe for disaster and a major recession.  He immediately lowered taxes, reviving the economy.

Was our country moving in the right direction?  Bill Clinton gutted intelligence spending putting us ten years behind.  His foreign policy was a major disaster and he left the next president to clean up the mess.  During his presidency diversity, multi-culturalism, political correctness, secular humanism, and secular progressivism were implemented and almost made the policy of the land.  We are suffering from his “right direction” today in the loss of our valued and cherished traditions and culture.

Did our children have a better chance to live their dreams?  No!  He did nothing to secure the economic future of the country.  He did nothing to see to it that the children of that generation would be able to pursue prosperity.  He did nothing but try to give entitlements to people; a proven way to crush dreams.  Do the erosion of our traditions; he even took away Christmas and Santa Claus.  Bill Clinton was nothing more than a grinch. 

Ah, the last big lie.  Was the world more peaceful, prosperous, and cooperative?  Let’s see, he did nothing to stop Bin Laden- even though he had all the intelligence to do so.  We know what happened there.  He did nothing to Sadaam Hussein for violating the UN protocols.  We are in Iraq because of Bill Clinton’s failures.  Do we really care about the prosperity of the rest of the world when he damaged our prosperity here at home through the use of regressive and oppressive regulatory agencies to stifle the growth of business and wealth?  As to cooperation, he did nothing to solve any major problems during his tenure.  We were the laughing stock of the world while he was president.  No one would take his foreign policy initiatives seriously.  He only believed in talking.  He was all talk and no action.

So, to sum up, we were not better off when he left office, we were not more prosperous, peaceful, and our kid’s dreams were shattered.  Bill Clinton’s whole life has been one big glorious, brilliant lie.  Sadly, too many people believe him.

It is time to bring some tactical sanity into the campaign process versus the ideological insanity that is going to plague the GOP in the upcoming election.  I fully realize that what I am going to promote is apostasy and heretical to the far right base of the party- they are no better than the ideological far left of the Democrats and just as dangerous. 

I am talking tactics here, not ideology.  Tactics win elections- ask Bill Clinton- not philosophical ideas, theories, or righteous indignation against some group or practice.  If we are to win in 2008 we need to put past prevailing practices behind us and use common sense tactics.  Let the Left use ideology and get hammered. 

Here are my propositions to win in 2008:

• Get off the abortion train wreck.  Look, the far Christian right is keeping this issue alive and there is not one Republican candidate that takes it seriously.  Oh, they give lip service to get endorsements, but the issue will guarantee a loss.  Fifty percent of the voters are women and they are going to vote in large numbers this time out.  Let us be conservative here and state they are divided fifty- fifty on the issue.  Why would you want to anger and alienate twenty five percent of the voting population over an issue that is dead until the Supreme Court decides to revisit it- probably in the next hundred years.  The best tactic is to stay neutral and let the Democrats have the lead on the issue.

• Taxation will be the big issue.  The Democrats have already prepared their talking points to make raising taxes palatable.  They will convince us it is for our own good and we need certain programs “for the children”.  Use good old fashioned economic sense.  Prove them wrong and then demonstrate how cutting the budget by one third will harm no one- except some Democratic programs- and actually strengthen the government.  Promote a real, across the board tax cut that will benefit all taxpayers.

• National Security is our strong point.  Tell us how you plan to protect the country and our interests abroad.  Give us your strategy for defending our interests and how it will be in the interest of our country to implement it.  Forget about the other countries and what they think.  The average American does not care about France, Germany, or Saudi Arabia or what they think of us.

• Promote unbridled capitalism, open and free trade, and the correction of the severe trade imbalance with foreign nations.  This is what is going to create jobs for Americans.  Outline how you will work to provide an infrastructure that promotes capitalism, business, and economic growth while tearing down the obstacles that government has erected to impede such growth.  Promote an overhaul of our draconian and conflicting regulatory agencies.  Use easy to understand language to relate the benefits of deregulation. 

• Immigration proved to be this year’s eight hundred pound gorilla.  We want secure borders, we do not want any plan that will provide amnesty, and we want enforcement; deportations, mass deportations if necessary.  Other countries enforce their immigration laws against people from all countries, we should be no different.

• Promote the idea of a Presidential Executive order that all business conducted by and through the Federal government, including elections, will be conducted in English only.  This will finally get the ball rolling to pass a Federal English only provision in the law.

• Be ruthless in exposing the hypocrisy, contradictions, and flaws in the opposition’s ideology, programs, and policies.  Point out their failures since the 1960s.  Be ruthless in demonstrating how the opposition believes in collective rights versus individual rights and how we will lose our freedoms if they are elected.  Be ruthless in pointing out their sad record on national defense.  Be ruthless in defending our policies and programs, especially the economic.

• Health care is the complex hydra that is causing much angst amongst the population.  There is only one cure for the problem.  The insurance industry has to be better regulated, the health industry has to come under government auspices, instead of self regulation, and there must be some type of tort reform, except in catastrophic cases.  None of this can be accomplished easily or quickly.  You must have a plan to accomplish some of this.  It must be understandable and easily implemented.  People fear that which they do not understand.

• Social Security is the don’t ask, don’t tell killer.  This is a no brainer.  Promote an executive order that will prohibit the Federal Government from borrowing or appropriating any money from Social Security.  Set up a schedule to pay back all money owed to the system.  Place Social Security in a separate account that is off the Federal budget and cannot be touched.  Overhaul the SSI system to eliminate fraud and define handicap in one simple term; physically incapable of working.

• Be positive and upbeat about the future.  We do not really care about the past.  Outline your plans for making the country and the people better off in the future than we are today, not yesterday.  Study the tactics of Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton.  They won because they were open, friendly, had an affinity for people, and were able to communicate their ideas.

Contrary to what you are led to believe by over rated polls, the American people are only concerned about a few things; the most important things to them.  Economic growth, which protects and expands employment, and, creates prosperity, is the important issue.  This allows people to rise up the income and class ladder.  People want to feel secure in their employment and future job prospects, their ability to provide a home for themselves- owned or leased- with out being dependent upon the whims of others, be able to feed and clothe their families, and have disposable income to spend, waste, invest, or save as they see fit.  We want to be self reliant, self determined, and be responsible for ourselves. 

Let the Radicals and Extremists live in their own little narrow minded worlds.  We have a country to run here.  People have their own beliefs and ideas.  They do not need elected officials preaching to them, about morals and ethics.  That is what churches and parents are for.  This election is too important to blow over some litmus test issues, ideological theories, or pandering to a small, insignificant base.  Your appeal should be to as wide a base of voters as possible.  Every vote counts.  Run like it.

I keep reading about the doom and gloom regarding the economy.  Yet, there was a tremendous build up to Black Friday.  I now read that the stores were packed and people were buying.  Not only that, but people were traveling distances to shop; using up that expensive gasoline.

I can only surmise that there are one or two things at play.  One, that the economy is not doing all that bad.  People have disposable income and are spending it.  They may also have available credit and can afford to pay the bills when they come due.  There are probably those who save for the holidays and spend that money judiciously so it will have no real impact on there lives.

Two, people have not learned their lessons about the rampant use and abuse of credit cards in their quest to have or buy the newest and finest of products.  The low price sales add fuel to their consumption, in that, they can purchase more.  Conspicuous consumption is one of the evils bedeviling the economy.  The easy availability of consumer credit makes people greedy for products and consumer items.

I personally think that it is a combination of the two.  People are employed- 96+% at last count.  They have confidence in their employment or their ability to seek other employment.  People are also confident in their future prospects regarding income.  The availability of credit and its use, while worrisome, is not a problem for most people. 

Consumer confidence, while not at an all time high, is still there.  Now, I do not need any polls or economic studies to form this opinion.  I just troll the stores and parking lots.  In many places it takes longer to find a parking place than to make the purchase and check out.  I see what people are buying and they are not necessities.

People are also gearing up for entertaining this holiday season.  I see many people purchasing various household items used for just that purpose.  This will lead to more food and beverage purchases too.

People are confident.  The housing market crash has had a minor effect on most.  It may even be a boon, since houses and mortgages may be harder to come by, home owners, instead of trading up, may spend some of their money.  Since housing prices are down, people can buy more house for less money and trade up, with income left over for other things.

The doom and gloom sayers hate this.  They are against any type of consumer confidence as it proves them wrong; year after year after year. 

IDIOTOCRACY

Paul Krugman, in his NYT editorial posits that the current housing slump was caused by Wall Street greed and socially destructive decisions of the investment banks; especially in the area of executive compensation.  Of course Mr. Krugman would not complain one iota if editorial columnists were paid as much as CEOs.  It would be right and fair, even though columnists produce nothing, create nothing, and provide no employment for others.

He whines about the suffering of shareholders and the people who obtained sub-prime and other mortgage products that they allegedly did not understand.  The borrowers were people who knew they could not afford a house or people who tried to buy more than they could afford.  Only in an idiotocracy do we make victims out of people who should be responsible for their own actions.  Only in an idiotocracy do we blame the government for the actions of its citizens.

Mr. Krugman then goes on to blame the usual suspect when anything goes wrong; the government.  He seems to believe that the government should step in and regulate corporate governance; tell corporations how to run their boards and how much to pay their executives is my guess.  He also would like executives to return their hefty salaries if the companies they run lose money. 

Mr. Krugman, the New York Times is bleeding red.  The bleeding is caused by poor reporting, editorials disguised as front page journalism, poor management, and a severe lack of talent.  Are you and your fellow reporters going to give back some of your salaries, as you are the cause of poor profits?  Is your illustrious leader, Punch Sulzberger going to give back his salary for hiring talentless writers?

Of course, Mr. Krugman ignores the main cause of the housing crunch; people who bought homes that they should never have bought and people who bought more home than they should have been able to afford.  It was the disease of greed.  These people are just as guilty as those who provided the various mortgage products.  Add to this the fact that many of these people used credit cards to finance the purchases to furnish the homes, plus their car payments, and you did have a recipe for disaster. 

Of course, in an idiotocracy, one never blames the people who cause the problem.  This is not politically correct.  In an indiotocracy, we must have poor victims who did not understand what they were doing.  Mr. Krugman also does not blame the realtors or the mortgage brokers who sold these products.  They advertise in the Times, you see.  Can’t bite the hand that feeds you. 

There is enough blame to go around.  The very last thing we need is more government interference in the marketplace.  It only causes more problems and solves nothing.  We especially do not need any corporate plan initiated by John Edwards; evidently Mr. Krugman is enamored with the candidate’s idiotology. 

Like all other market crises, this one will correct itself.  That is what markets are supposed to do.  They need no artificial help from the government or anyone else.  I thought I read somewhere that Mr. Krugman was an economist; socialist economist maybe?

This week, U.S. Congressman Danny Davis was stopped by Chicago Police while driving some friends home and issued a citation for driving left of center.  Congressman Davis is Black.  He immediately claimed he was a victim of racial profiling-“driving while black”.  He filed a formal complaint against the two white police officers who stopped and cited him.  He states that he informed the officers that he was a US Congressman.

I read and viewed several of the media reports and interviews with the Congressman regarding this incident.  Much is left out of these reports and the media never question certain facts surrounding the incident.  They basically gave Rep. Davis an outlet to voice his disingenuous and dishonest complaint.

FACT: Congressman Davis, a Black man, was driving through an all Black neighborhood; a neighborhood that has been all Black for many years. 

It is inconceivable and highly improbable that a Black man, driving through a Black neighborhood and commits a traffic violation is the victim of racial profiling.

FACT: Congressman Davis stated that he had never heard of driving left of center and was not aware it is illegal.

How did the Congressman ever get a driver’s license?  Just common sense would tell you that you do not drive left of center- the opposite lane of traffic.

FACT: Congressman Davis stated that the officers were very professional and he was treated in a professional manner. 

This flies in the face of logic.  How can he formally complain of being singled out for being Black- unprofessional conduct- and them claim the officers were professional.

FACT: The Congressman states he informed the officer that he was a Congressman.

Isn’t it unethical to use your elected position to get out of a law violation?  Can a formal complaint be filed with the Ethics Committee?

None of the media outlets mentioned these facts or questioned the veracity of Congressman Davis.  There was even one live report from the scene.  Not one mention that the neighborhood was all Black.  No one questioned the fact the Congressman claims to have not been aware that driving left of center was wrong.  No one questioned how officers can be professional and be accused of a racial offense at the same time.  No one asked the Congressman why he mentioned his position when he realized he was getting a citation.

There are two grave offenses here.  One is the offense of omission of facts by the media.  The other is the egregious, disingenuous, dishonest, and unethical behavior of a Congressman.  This is not a case of racial profiling.  This is not a case of racism.  This is a case of an egotistical U.S. Congressman getting upset because he, a servant of the people, was treated like every other ordinary citizen who commits a traffic violation; the poor Congressman received a citation.

Representative Davis is a Democrat.  Honesty, integrity, and ethics are antipodal to Democrats.

THOMAS JEFFERSON vs. TODAY’S MSM

Though journalism as we know it didn’t exist when the First Amendment was written, today’s reporters don’t hesitate to make the case for their importance by citing a famous Thomas Jefferson quote. Steve Boriss contends that mainstream news is the opposite of what the third president thought it should be.

… he thought that the single most important role for newspapers was to serve as a “fence” to prevent government from encroaching on individual rights.

The article is an excellent comparison of Jefferson’s view of what the media should be and an excellent critique of today’s modern media. 

The only rights that the media are really concerned about is their own right to print whatever they want.  They have taken the concept of individual rights and cloaked themselves in it.  They, as a group, have the right to free expression.  They are professionals, you see.  They care not about individual expression.

ART PUSSIES

OK, it’s vulgar.  It is not my title, but the title of the Advice Goddess, Amy Alkon’s column.  It is about cowardice.  Just so you know.

MEOWWWWWWWWW THE CLAWS ARE OUT

I am not a big Maureen Dowd fan, but she is not a big Hillary Clinton fan.

Now, it is time to finish the prep for my Thanksgiving Dinner. 

GORE'S BIG KACHINGO

Asked why he is combining his environmental advocacy work with a profit motives, Gore — who is already an advisor to Google and a director at Apple Inc. — told Fortune: “We all believe the market must play a central role.”

Is it just me and my over developed olfactory sense, or is the stench of hypocrisy and corruption wafting through the environment, polluting the air we breath and our minds?