Minnesota Economists Debunk Myths About the Financial Crisis

The alarm bells sounded back in September and October of this year concerning the supposed 'freeze-up' of the financial system, rung by US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke, and others, had some significant results. For one thing, they handed the white house to the Democrats and enabled them to increase their majorities in congress. They also spread news about an 'imminent' recession across the country, causing people to cut back on consumer spending.

Now we learn from three economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis that three of the main claims made by Paulson are false. You can see a copy of the paper written by Chari, Christiano, and Kehoe here.

The three falsehoods include:


1. Bank lending to nonfinancial corporations and individuals has declined sharply.

There is no evidence of any decrease at all.


2. Interbank lending is essentially nonexistent.

There was no decrease in the aggregate amount of interbank loans.

3. Commercial paper issuance by nonfinancial corporations has declined sharply, and rates have risen to unprecedented levels.

There was no decrease in the levels of commercial paper issuance by nonfinancial corporations, nor did the interest rates change at all.

This is typical of the kind of nonsense that comes out of Washington. Bush was a fool to appoint the Keynesian Bernanke to be Federal Reserve Board Chairman. And he needs someone to be secretary of the Treasury who can look at the issues in a calm and dispassionate manner. Not someone like Paulson who has made hundreds of millions on Wall Street in recent years.

Obama Defers to Bush, for Now, on Gaza Crisis

During the presidential campaign, how many times did we hear something like "We must restore the USA's credibility with the world" from 0bama or one of his surrogates in the lamestream media? But now that His Holiness is about to take the reigns of power, he has to start making the difficult decisions that Bush had to make concerning foreign policy. Now even his lackeys at the New York Times are admitting that the 0-man is letting Bush handle such matters:

Since his election, Mr. Obama has said little specific about his foreign policy — in contrast to more expansive remarks about the economy. He and his advisers have deferred questions — critics could say, ducked them — by saying that until Jan. 20, only President Bush would speak for the nation as president and commander in chief. “The fact is that there is only one president at a time,” David Axelrod, Mr. Obama’s senior adviser, told CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday, reiterating a phrase that has become a mantra of the transition. “And that president now is George Bush.”
Mr. Obama, vacationing in Hawaii, talked to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Saturday. “But the Bush administration has to speak for America now,” Mr. Axelrod said. “And it wouldn’t be appropriate for me to opine on these matters.” As the fighting in Gaza shows, however, events in the world do not necessarily wait for Inauguration Day in the United States.

So when are you going to start showing some leadership, Mr. Wonderful? Are you going to wait until January 20, or will it take even longer than that?

The 'Scientific Consensus' on Global Warming

From the blog Urgent Agenda, we read a letter from Frank Tipler, mathematical physicist at Tulane. Here are a few excerpts:

As regards global warming, my view is essentially the same as yours: Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) is a scam, with no basis in science.

It is obvious that anthropogenic global warming is not science at all, because a scientific theory makes non-obvious predictions which are then compared with observations that the average person can check for himself. As we both know from our own observations, AGW theory has spectacularly failed to do this. The theory has predicted steadily increasing global temperatures, and this has been refuted by experience. NOW the global warmers claim that the Earth will enter a cooling period. In other words, whether the ice caps melt, or expand --- whatever happens --- the AGW theorists claim it confirms their theory. A perfect example of a pseudo-science like astrology.

I emphasized in point (2) that the average person has to be able to check the observations. I emphasize this because I no longer trust "scientists" to report observations correctly. I think the data is adjusted to confirm, as far as possible, AGW. We've seen many recent cases where the data was cooked in climate studies. In one case, Hanson and company claimed that October 2008 was the warmest October on record. Watts looked at the data, and discovered that Hanson and company had used September's temperatures for Russia rather than October's. I'm not surprised to learn that September is hotter than October in the Northern hemisphere.

And the most disturbing part:

AGW supporters are also bringing back the Inquisition, where the power of the state is used to silence one's scientific opponents. The case of Bjorn Lomborg is illustrative. Lomborg is a tenured professor of mathematics in Denmark. Shortly after his book, "The Skeptical Environmentalist," was published by Cambridge University Press, Lomborg was charged and convicted (later reversed) of scientific fraud for being critical of the "consensus" view on AGW and other environmental questions. Had the conviction been upheld, Lomborg would have been fired.

I find it very disturbing that part of the Danish Inquisition's case against Lomborg was written by John Holdren, Obama's new science advisor. Holdren has recently written that people like Lomborg are "dangerous." I think it is people like Holdren who are dangerous, because they are willing to use state power to silence their scientific opponents.

As bad as 0bama is, there wasn't much to choose from in the recent presidential election. McCain has also fallen for this nonsense.

Aren't Those Israelis Awful?

The Palestinians in Gaza have been throwing rockets and mortar shells at them for several months now. And now those evil Israelis have the nerve to shoot back.

And all of you leftists and muslims who think the Israelis are so terrible for defending themselves, please try an experiment some time. Get a gun and open fire on a hunter or some guy at a firing range or sporting clays course. See how he responds.

Likewise, all you scumbags in Sinn Fein/IRA who wonder why the protestants in Northern Ireland formed their own paramilitary groups and fought back.

If the Palestinians want to avoid any future attacks, they may do so by simply refraining from launching any more rockets.

Lucianne Lays an Egg

I often enjoy reading Lucianne.com. The articles posted there are often useful to anti-leftist like me, and the comments usually give good insights.

The moderators of the site are another matter altogether. They act in a bizarre fashion, deleting some articles for no apparent reason and getting all bent out of shape if someone doesn't post in just the right manner. This even though it's almost impossible to discern what is acceptable to them and what is not. I have mostly given up on trying to post anything there.

This morning, the moderators outdid themselves. There was an interesting link in the "Must Reads" section about Caroline Kennedy's attempt to get appointed to the US Senate:

So I clicked on the link to read the article and the comments. And look what the L.com moderator did:

Put the M Back in MTV

Oh horrors! MTV's ratings dropped 23% over the fourth quarter. To combat this, they are planning 16 new reality shows:

In trying to keep its hold on young and fickle audiences, MTV over the decades has undergone some fundamental programming shifts, but never before on this scale.
The cabler's recent ratings declines include a 23% fourth-quarter drop in its core demo of 12- to 34-year-olds. So MTV is embarking on a major programming overhaul, with 16 new unscripted series over the next 4½ months.
The series come from high-profile producers including Sean Combs, Matt Stone & Trey Parker, Donald Trump and Nick Lachey. And they represent a major thematic shift for the channel -- more toward the meta-scripted reality of MTV's "The Hills," one of the cabler's few success stories these days.
While MTV pioneered reality series with 1992's "The Real World," that genre has become ubiquitous, so the network is offering a slate that avoids the backbiting and bitchery of most nonfiction fare.

If I may be so bold, try SHOWING SOME MUSIC VIDEOS. Or at least experiment and try alternating an hour of videos with an hour of your Real World/Road Rules/Jackass stuff.

Kathleen Parker Brainfarts Again

The presidential was concluded six weeks ago, with a decisive victory for 0bama. But for some bizarre reason, a number of people can't get over the fact that Sarah Palin had the gall to run for vice-president. I mean, how could anyone with a college degree from the University of Idaho possibly think they are qualified to be president? The mind boggles. Only someone with degrees from Columbia and Harvard (Carolyn Kennedy, Barack 0bama) or Princeton and Harvard (Michelle Obama) or Wellesley and Yale (Hillary Clinton) could possibly have the gravitas to be president.

One of the people who are still venting their anger against the usurper Palin is Kathleen Parker, writing for the Washington Post:

Palin's demonstrated lack of basic knowledge, her intellectual incuriosity, her inability to articulate ideas or even simple thoughts all combined to create an impression of not-quite-there.

Dropping the sarcasm, I am going to try to explain to Kathleen why she gets an "impression of not-quite-there" from Sarah Palin. No one knows everything, nor even more than a tiny fragment of the knowledge that the six billion people of the world possess. However, many politicians like to pretend that they have all the answers (a certain gentleman from Chicago comes to mind) and by doing so, they acquire a veneer of phoniness.

Sarah has not adopted that phoniness. But simpletons like Kathleen interpret Sarah's intellectual honesty as "not-quite-there". Some of the interviews she undertook such as those conducted by Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric were designed specifically to exploit her honesty and try to embarass her to the maximum degree possible.

Kathleen, many of us in the Republican party would greatly appreciate it if you would quit pretending to be a Republican and join the Democrats where you belong. You're no more Republican than Teddy Kennedy.

The Worst Possible Pick for Secretary of State

We have heard for some time about how Bill Clinton's raised a half billion from various places. Now we learn where it came from:

Former President Bill Clinton has raised more than $500 million for his charitable foundation from foreign governments, including Saudi Arabia, and an international who's who of royal families, corporate barons, philanthropic foundations, entertainment personalities, Democratic donors and longtime friends of the Clinton family, according to a list of donors made public for the first time this morning.

Lifting a veil of secrecy aggressively protected by the former president, the William J. Clinton Foundation disclosed a 2,922-page list of more than 200,000 benefactors as part of an accord with President-elect Barack Obama that allows Clinton's wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), to become secretary of state.
Among the multimillion-dollar donors -- whose identities have remained anonymous for more than a decade -- are several foreign states, multinational corporations and international business moguls. They represent a thicket of potential conflicts of interest that Hillary Clinton must avoid should the Senate approve Obama's nomination to make her the nation's top diplomat.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Australian government's overseas aid program and a Dominican Republic government agency that fights AIDS each gave between $10 million and $25 million to the Clinton Foundation, a nonprofit that financed Bill Clinton's presidential library in Little Rock, Ark., and funds charitable efforts to fight poverty and chronic global health problems.

So our prospective Secretary of State is beholden to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. A repressive regime that spawned 15 of the 9/11 highjackers. Why is Hillary even being considered for Secretary of State? She has no business being a senator either.

Suppression of Free Speech in Scotland

Watch what you say in the UK. If its not PC, you can get in trouble with the law:

A Rangers fan has been given two years probation and a football banning order for singing the 'Famine Song'.
William Walls, 20, was found guilty of breach of the peace, aggravated by religious and racial prejudice, at Kilmarnock District Court.
The offence was committed at Rangers' away match at Kilmarnock on 9 November.
Rangers have asked fans to not to sing the song, which refers to events that killed an estimated one million people in Ireland in the 1840s.
Speaking after sentence, Kilmarnock District Procurator Fiscal, Les Brown, said: "The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service takes all instances of racism and bigotry very seriously.
"We will prosecute in court all offences which are aggravated by racial or religious prejudice.

We got our problems here in the USA. But for the moment, I am still glad I live here. We have our first and second amendments. The second guarantees the first.

But there are many on the left who would like to take our freedoms away. One of them is about to be sworn in as president.

The Joys of Illegal Immigration

Those of you who favor amnesty for illegal aliens should read about Marcos Velasquez-Morales:

A Dale County man who pleaded guilty to raping a 9-year-old girl was sentenced to a full 18 years in prison, according to authorities. Marcos Velasquez-Morales, 31, of Level Plains, was charged July 30 with first-degree rape after authorities said he lived with the victim’s mother. He was sentenced by Dale County Circuit Judge P.B. McLauchlin on Dec. 15, according to the Dale County Sheriff’s Office. According to a press release from the Dale County Sheriff’s Office, Morales was an illegal alien from Mexico. He had been deported once from the U.S. in 2003, according to Immigration and Customs officials.

During the political battles of the summer of 2007, many of the advocates wanted to extend amnesty even to illegals who had been convicted of felonies and those who had ignored previous deportation orders.

It doesn't take a genius to realize that someone who breaks the immigration laws would also be likely to break other laws. But that's apparently too much to ask of the open borders advocates.

And in the mean time, that 9 year old girl, who should be playing with Barbies or wondering what to wear to her friend's birthday party, has something much more serious to deal with. And she has those of you who have looked the other way while millions of criminals have flooded into our country to thank.

Two Headlines

From AP science writer Seth Borenstein: Obama left with little time to curb global warming

WASHINGTON – When Bill Clinton took office in 1993, global warming was a slow-moving environmental problem that was easy to ignore. Now it is a ticking time bomb that President-elect Barack Obama can't avoid.
Since Clinton's inauguration, summer Arctic sea ice has lost the equivalent of Alaska, California and Texas. The 10 hottest years on record have occurred since Clinton's second inauguration. Global warming is accelerating. Time is close to running out, and Obama knows it.
"The time for delay is over; the time for denial is over," he said on Tuesday after meeting with former Vice President Al Gore, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for his work on global warming. "We all believe what the scientists have been telling us for years now that this is a matter of urgency and national security and it has to be dealt with in a serious way."

From Kevin Roth, Lead Meteorologist, the Weather Channel: Bitter Cold Grips Much of the Country

An arctic cold front plows eastward through the Great Lakes, Ohio Valley and middle Mississippi Valley Monday.
Relatively warm temperatures ahead of the cold front in the 30s and 40s allow the precipitation to fall as rain. However, once the cold front pushes through temperatures take a dramatic tumble into the 20s changing the rain to freezing rain, sleet and snow. Thankfully there should not be too much moisture left once the cold air is rushing in so any wintry precipitation should be light with only spotty accumulations of an inch or less anticipated.
Bitter arctic air combined with blustery winds behind the front should produce wind chill readings in the -30 to -50 degree category Monday morning. The winds should diminish as the day progresses, but temperatures will have a very tough time climbing. High temperatures should remain below zero across all of North Dakota and South Dakota and over all but southeast Minnesota.

Hmmmmmmm......

The Tragedy of Cults

There is an interesting article in yesterday's WSJ about the massacre at Jonestown, Guyana that occurred 30 years ago.

Jim Jones was a marxist. And like all of his kind, he treated human beings like cattle, to be slaughtered at will. Although on a smaller scale, the carnage he wrought was similar to the mass homicides carried out by Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, and more recently Mugabe.

The cult of 0bama is eerily reminiscent of the cult of Jim Jones. The simpletons who support 0bama think he will solve all their problems and will follow him blindly.

0bama's marxist leanings and his associations with terrorists William Ayers, Bernadine Dohrn, and Rita O'Hare make one even more uneasy. Likewise his appointment of Eric Holder as US Attorney General. Holder was involved in the pardon of 16 FALN terrorists.

We are coming upon some very scary times.

0bama Advisor Does an About-Face

David Axelrod, one of His Highnesses chief advisors, last month claimed that 0bama spoke with Illinois Governor Blagojevich about the president-elect's replacement in the senate. That was a natural thing for the two politicians to do, and very believable.

But now that Blagojevich has been arrested for allegedly trying to sell the senate seat to the highest bidder, Axelrod has changed his tune:

Ax was 'mistaken' and Al Gore was ignored Posted December 9, 2008 8 :57 PM
David Axelrod sent a statement out this evening via Obama transition team spokesperson Jen Psaki saying he was “mistaken.” Here are the entire two sentences of the statement:
“I was mistaken when I told an interviewer last month that the President-elect has spoken directly to Governor Blagojevich about the Senate vacancy. They did not then or at any time discuss the subject.”

Yeah, sure.

What State is This?

You'd never guess it. This is southeastern Colorado at the Kansas border. No mountains here. It loooks just like the adjoining part of Kansas. Flat and featureless.

If it were up to our federal government, the entire country would look like this.

Terrorist Bernadine Dohrn Teaches 'Torture' at Northwestern

In order to understand how unrepentant terrorists like William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn can become esteemed members of the faculty of prestigious universities, you must first understand the nature of the people who run these fine universities. Many if not most of them are capable of similar depravity. I learned this first-hand when trying to deal with Kristen Murtaugh, who is the Vice-President of Folorida Atlantic University's Jupiter campus. That woman is a sociopath.

I took a look at Bernadine's profile on Northwestern's website, and found something really amusing:

She writes and lectures on international human rights law, torture, juvenile justice and extreme sentencing of youth, family violence and school law.

Every good terrorist should know how to carry out, and teach others how to torture their victims. We read before how Bernadine admired the brutal Tate-Labianca murders:

"Dig it! First they killed those pigs, then they ate dinner in the same room with them. They even shoved a fork into the victim's stomach! Wild!"

Animal Rights Wackos Criticize Sale of Reindeer Meat

In spite of the fact that the Sami, the people of northern Scandinavia, have been living off reindeer for centuries, some PETA-types in England are criticizing the sale of their meat:

Ikea has been accused of condoning cruelty to animals by selling salami made from Santa's four-legged sleigh-pullers, reindeer.
Unlike a traditional reindeer hunt, modern ranchers buzz over the animals in helicopters, herd them with snowmobiles and truck them hundreds of miles, causing them mental and physical stress.
Around 70 per cent of Swedish reindeer slaughtered are calves, which means they die without seeing snow, claims the animal welfare group Viva!.
Ikea sells 130g of reindeer salami for £1.75 and 100g of reindeer slices for £2.25 in its Swedish food hall, which features other national dishes such as rye bread, meatballs, and almond cake.
Viva!, a vegetarian campaign group based in Bristol, said: "We are calling on the company to withdraw sales of the meat, due to the cruel exploitation these wild animals suffer at the hands of hunters."
Viva! has already persuaded supermarkets not to stock kangaroo and other exotic meats which can be reared and killed in ways that would be illegal in the UK.
In a letter to Ikea, it cited evidence from a study by Uppsala University in Sweden in 2005 that found reindeer hunting caused "considerable physical and mental stress".

Rocky, Daphne, and I are going back to Kansas this weekend to cause considerable physical and mental stress to some pheasant roosters.

The Ass-Backwards Big 12

The Big 12 South has the best teams in college football this year, and the stupidest rules. Here we have the University of Oklahoma and the University of Texas. Both of them have identical 7-1 conference records and 11-1 overall records. The only difference is, UT beat OU 45 - 35 at a neutral site. So who gets to represent the Big 12 South in the Big 12 championship game?

The mind boggles.

How Did This Happen?

By now, everyone has heard of the tragic terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India:

Pieced together from interviews with dozens of witnesses and officials, this account of the three days of the battle for Mumbai shows just how a small but ruthless group of skilled militants, attacking multiple targets in quick succession, managed to bring one of the world's largest cities to its knees. The human toll -- currently at 174 fatalities, including nine terrorists -- was exacerbated by the Indian authorities' lack of preparedness for such a major attack. But the chain of events also points to just how vulnerable any major city can be to this type of urban warfare.

Of course, the knee-jerk reaction from the left will be something like "we need more restrictions on gun ownership". But that won't do any good in India because all private ownership of guns is already outlawed there. Of course, even if that were not the case, it is unlikely that suicide terrorists would obey any gun control laws, but thats too difficult for the left to understand.

The terrorists were so successful in creating mayhem because they attacked a victim disarmament zone. What India, and the rest of the world need to do is allow private citizens to defend themselves with firearms. If the citizens had been properly armed, then the terrorists would only have been able to kill ten or twenty people before they got theirs, not 174. More likely, the attack would not have happened in the first place.

Attacks like these can only be successful in victime disarmament zones.

UK Police Arresting Opposition MPs

Notice how the debate on immigration in the UK and elsewhere reaches hysterical levels when the UK Labour government has arrested the shadow immigration minister.

The police used a Whitehall whistleblower to try to lure Conservative frontbencher Damian Green into incriminating himself, it was claimed last night.
The Mail on Sunday understands that the Shadow Immigration Minister, who was controversially arrested for allegedly leaking information embarrassing to the Government, may have been the victim of an entrapment plot.
However, the allegations were firmly denied by Scotland Yard last night.
Senior Westminster sources believe that police tried to persuade the alleged whistleblower, Home Office aide Christopher Galley, to call Mr Green.
The civil servant made contact with the MP on more than one occasion, but Mr Green declined to be drawn into conversation.
The sources say they suspect Mr Galley's calls - made soon after his own arrest 11 days ago - were being secretly monitored by the police in an attempt to gather evidence against Mr Green.
The claims come as The Mail on Sunday reveals shocking details about the affair, including:
• Mr Green was arrested in a car park - in full view of the public - near to his home in Kent.
• Mr Galley was arrested in a 5.50am dawn raid and is now being accommodated in a Home Office 'safe house' to prevent him talking to the media.
• It was alleged that police intercepted Mr Green's mobile phone messages after Mr Galley's arrest.

We're probably not far from that here. We have already seen how a McCain supporter in Philadelphia was arrested just for wearing a McCain/Palin shirt on election night. I'm sure his Highness 0bama will want to silence His critics.

Happy Thanksgiving

We might as well enjoy the holiday while we still can. The left will probably try to outlaw it as insensitive to turkeys.

Why Eat Ham?

I may be the only one in the world who feels this way. I do NOT like to eat ham. Why do so many people find it appetizing to eat a pig's butt?

Housing Prices in Free-Fall

Well, duh. When you get to the point in some markets where most people can not afford a little 3-2 tract house, it should be obvious that real estate prices are too high and due for a correction. From the Wall Street Journal:

WASHINGTON--Sales of existing homes fell in October as the faltering economy kept buyers on the sidelines even as prices dropped by the most since records began.
Home resales declined by 3.1% to a 4.98 million annual rate from a 5.14 million annual pace during September, the National Association of Realtors said Monday.

"Many potential home buyers appear to have withdrawn from the market due to the stock market collapse and deteriorating economic conditions," NAR economist Lawrence Yun said.
Some sales of existing homes were linked to foreclosures.
"Part of the market-clearing process is that homes in foreclosure must be sold, so the fact that this is occurring is good," MFR Inc.'s Joshua Shapiro wrote in an analysis of the NAR data. "Still, it certainly depresses prices, and there are plenty more foreclosed (or soon to be foreclosed) homes in the pipeline."

The median home price plunged 11.3% to $183,300 in October from $206,700 a year earlier. That was the largest tumble since NAR records began in 1968.

Back during the Clinton recession (2000 - 2001) I recall wondering out loud in my classes why real estate prices were increasing during a downturn. Now we know why: excessively lax lending standards promoted by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac prompted many people to buy more house than they could afford. During previous recessions, real estate prices fell, sometimes considerably.

So will real estate prices go up or down during the 0bama recession (2008 - ?). My guess is that even His Oneness won't be able to bring them back up any time soon.

Post-Mortem on the Election (Part II)

In spite of all the hype about this being an historic election with an enormous turnout, Brendan Miniter via Protein Wisdom tips us off to some seldom-reported facts about the election. Here are the vote totals for the state of Ohio for both 2004 and 2008:

2004:

Bush 2,859,764
Kerry 2,741,165

2008:

0bama 2,708,685
McCain 2,501,855

While winning Ohio, 0bama got about 33,000 fewer votes in 2008 than Kerry did in 2004. McCain got about 240,000 fewer votes in 2008 than Bush did in 2004.

What can be concluded from this:

(1) Many Republican voters stayed home or voted for a third party. McCain turned off many people when he opposed Bush's tax cuts, when he sponsored 'campaign finance reform' legislation that had the effect of stifling free speech, and when he supported the foolish attempt to give amnesty to illegal aliens in 2007.

(2) In spite of all his difficulties, McCain was actually leading 0bama in the national polls up until the Wall Street meltdown and the ridiculous bailout that he supported. From the Real Clear Politics averages:

0bama led in the polls all summer
McCain picked Sarah Palin to be his running mate on August 29
September 6: 0bama led McCain by 2.4%
September 7: McCain led by 1%
September 8: McCain led by 2.9%
September 15: Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy, the next day Henry Paulson asked for a federal bailout for the remaining securities firms
McCain lost his lead on September 17, when the polls were tied
0bama led by 1.8% on September 18, and maintained his lead thereafter until the election

Many Republican voters were disgusted by the bailout and stayed home.

(3) In spite of all the leftwing attacks and nonsense about Sarah Palin, she was a net plus for the ticket. This can be easily seen from the large bump in the polls that McCain received after the Republican convention. She may have been the only one who prevented 0bama from winning by a landslide.

The 0-bomb Market

It only took Barack 16 days to lower the DJIA by 21.5%

I think Fergie must have had His Oneness in mind when she wrote this song:






"How come every time you come around, my London, London bridge wanna go down?"

Lunacy in South Texas

This is too bizarre to make up. VP Dick Cheney is under indictment in Willacy county, Texas because of his investment in Vanguard Group:

McALLEN, Texas — A South Texas grand jury has indicted Vice President Dick Cheney and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on state charges related to the alleged abuse of prisoners in Willacy County's federal detention centers.
The indictment, which had not yet been signed by the presiding judge, was one of seven released Tuesday in a county that has been a source of bizarre legal and political battles in recent years. Another of the indictments named a state senator on charges of profiting from his position.
Willacy County District Attorney Juan Angel Guerra himself had been under indictment for more than a year and half before a judge dismissed the indictments last month. This flurry of charges came in the twilight of Guerra's tenure, which ends this year after nearly two decades in office. He lost convincingly in a Democratic primary in March.
Cheney's indictment on a charge of engaging in an organized criminal activity criticizes the vice president's investment in the Vanguard Group, which holds interests in the private prison companies running the federal detention centers. It accuses Cheney of a conflict of interest and "at least misdemeanor assaults" on detainees because of his link to the prison companies.

I got some money at Vanguard too. It's a popular place to get well-managed, no-load mutual funds. Will I be next to be indicted?

Her Thighness to be Secretary of State

As much as I despise the president-to-be, he had one thing going for him: he beat the most disgustingly corrupt and patronizing politician in all the USA and saved us from having her as president.

Now president zero is about to throw away his only redeeming quality. I predict he will regret it. She has no positive foreign policy experience whatsoever. Her 'accomplishments' consist of lying about what she did in Northern Ireland and in Kosovo.

And I predict that 0bama will soon regret his selection. Hillary and Bill will be constantly trying to upstage him and will stab him in the back and undermine his administration in a heartbeat if it furthers their narrow little interests.

I'm Back

Sorry about the lack of recent postings. I'm back after another great pheasant hunt. Those big red birds can be quite a challenge, even with awesome dogs like mine.

Ayers: "Obama and I were Neighbors, Family Friends"

In spite of Obama's lame denials that his association with Ayers was limited, we now hear the truth from the horse's mouth:

Ayers -- who did not respond to requests for comment -- summarized his relationship with Obama: "[W]e had served together on the board of a foundation, knew one another as neighbors and family friends, held an initial fund-raiser at my house, where I'd made a small donation to his earliest political campaign."

And of course, Ayers is unhappy about all the negative attention he has received:

Ayers describes phone threats and hate e-mail he received during the campaign, and he bemoans Obama's guilt by association.

Well, William, do you think that those people who worked in the US Capitol, the Pentagon, the judge whose house you tried to bomb, and the police in the stations you tried to bomb may have been a little upset and intimidated too? Or how about that young woman you kidnapped and gang-raped? Do you think she might have been a bit unhappy about that?

What goes around comes around.

Some more gems of wisdom from the washed-up terrorist:

"The more serious point is that Obama was asked once more to defend something that ought to be at the very heart of democracy: the importance of talking to many people in this complicated and wildly diverse society, of listening with the possibility of learning something new, of speaking with the possibility of persuading or influencing others. ... In a robust and sophisticated democracy, political leaders, indeed, all of us, would seek out ways to talk with many people who hold dissenting, even radical, ideas."

So what did Barack learn by talking to you? How to rape women? How to murder innocent people?

The Obamarket

Keep the change, Barack.

0bama's Support of the IRA

I posted a couple days ago about 0bama's photo-op with IRA terrorists. Thanks to Kate at SDA, the post got a lot of views and a lot of comments. Some of the commenters claim that just because their Chosen One had his photo taken with two known terrorists didn't mean that he was 'associating' with them, nor suppporting them.

But my friends in Ulster have sent me links to news articles that show that The Messiah has indeed given moral support to the IRA. First from Sinn Fein publication An Phoblacht:

US Democratic Party Presedential candidate Barack Obama is backing Judge Peter Cory’s call for an independent inquiry into the 1989 killing of Belfast human rights solicitor Pat Finucane.

In response to lobbying by the Irish American Unity Conference (IAUC) and the Ancient Order of Hiberians (AOH) a spokesperson for the Obama campaign stated that, “Senator Obama believes there should be an independent, public inquiry as Judge Cory recommended”.

As part of their lobbying the groups outlined the view that in “the past the role of the security forces in Northern Ireland, both the Royal Ulster Constabulary and the British Army, has been involved in a ‘Dirty War’.

So what is so bad about calling for an inquiry? First of all, 0bama makes no mention of the fact that Finucane was not merely a 'human rights solicitor'. He was an IRA terrorist. The men who killed Finucane were members of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), one of the protestant groups that arose during the Troubles in order to defend themselves against the attempted genocide of protestants in Northern Ireland by the IRA. One of the men, William Stobie, was also killed.

And above all, there has been no investigation into the murder of thousands of Irish protestants by the IRA. Many innocent people were killed by the likes of Pat Finucane, Rita O'Hare, Gerry Adams, and Martin McGuinness. If Finucane's death should be investigated, how about the protestants who were murdered?

For an accurate analysis of the situation, read this post from the FAIR website:

Obama backs IRA mans family

Thursday, 09 October 2008

How many more times do the innocent victims of IRA terrorism have to listen to the pathetic and uneducated rants of dumb assed Americans. Now I certainly don't want to paint all Americans with the same brush but it seems that the USA as a whole has more than its fare share of idiots who feel knowledgeable enough to speak on Northern Ireland when in fact they are simply churning out statements based on nothing more than propaganda. The latest dumb ass to join this long line is no other than presidential hopeful Senator Barack Obama who has backed the family of murdered IRA man Pat Finucane.

Finucane was an IRA man and of that there is no doubt, he oiled the wheels of a terrorist group helping them to sustain a murderous campaign of terror. Its nothing but a disgrace that Obama should back the Finucane family when hundreds of innocent victims are left with no hope of an inquiry or any hope of justice especially when one considers that Finucane himself was a terrorist.

Barack Obama obviously doesn't know anything about Finucane, does he know what Sean O'Callaghan former Chief of Staff of the IRA said " Pat Finucane was firstly an IRA volunteer of some seniority and secondly a solicitor who mostly represented IRA prisoners or the families of IRA volunteers. I speak from personal knowledge. I first met Pat Finucane in 1980 at a high-level IRA finance meeting in Letterkenny in the Irish Republic. Also present were Gerry Adams, Pat Doherty, Tom Cahill, Gerry Fitzgerald and several other people".

If Obama didn't know this then he should keep his mouth shut about matters he knows nothing about, if he did know then Americans can possibly look forward to having a president who sympathizes with certain terrorists.

The poster may not have been aware of 0bama's support of Ayers, Dohrn, and Khalidi. That's exactly what we have got: A soon-to-be president who sympathizes with known terrorists.

0bama Aides Leak Details of Meeting with Bush

If His Holiness wants a smooth transition, he would do well to shut his aides up. Bush doesn't like having private conversations leaked to the press:

WASHINGTON — The struggling auto industry was thrust into the middle of a political standoff between the White House and Democrats on Monday as President-elect Barack Obama urged President Bush in a meeting at the White House to support immediate emergency aid.

Mr. Bush indicated at the meeting that he might support some aid and a broader economic stimulus package if Mr. Obama and Congressional Democrats dropped their opposition to a free-trade agreement with Colombia, a measure for which Mr. Bush has long fought, people familiar with the discussion said.
The Bush administration, which has presided over a major intervention in the financial industry, has balked at allowing the automakers to tap into the $700 billion bailout fund, despite warnings last week that General Motors might not survive the year.
Mr. Obama and Congressional Democratic leaders say the bailout law authorizes the administration to extend assistance.
Mr. Obama went into his post-election meeting with Mr. Bush on Monday primed to urge him to support emergency aid to the auto industry, advisers to Mr. Obama said. But Democrats also indicate that neither Mr. Obama nor Congressional leaders are inclined to concede the Colombia pact to Mr. Bush, and may decide to wait until Mr. Obama assumes power on Jan. 20.

Should Republicans 'Move On'?

Devo commented on my post about 0bama's affection for IRA terrorists:

It's over...you lost...move on!

We can't move on, Devo. We still have to live in the USA with an unqualified, terrorist-loving socialist for president.

I will move on January 20, 2013 when Sarah Palin is sworn in as president.

Gorelick for Attorney General?

Stuff like this is too bizarre to even make up. Only in the world of Democrat party politics can something like this even be considered. According to the New York Times, the 0bamanation is considering Jamie Gorelick for Attorney General.

This is the same Jamie Gorelick who:

(1) While working at the Justice department during the Clinton administration, set up the wall between the intelligence and criminal justice functions that made it possible for Mohammed Atta and the other 9/11 terrorists to operate with impunity in the USA.

(2) Then went to work for Fannie Mae as Vice-Chairman, where she earned $26 million over just six years while falsifying accounting records in order to maximize her bonuses. Fannie Mae, you will recall, had recently been taken over by the federal government and must be bailed out by the taxpayers to the tune of $200 billion.

(3) Received a sweetheart deal from Countrywide Financial Corp. while she was vice-chairman of Fannie Mae.

(4) Is currently representing Duke University, that is being sued by the former lacrosse team players for its role in framing the young men with false charges of rape.

So if Jamie becomes attorney general, what future catastrophes will she cause?

Man Arrested In Philadelphia for Wearing McCain/Palin T-Shirt

Is this just a taste of things to come? The left have historically shown gross intolerance for people who don't agree with their ideas. Will the 0bama administration use the power of the federal government to stifle dissent?

Hat tip, the real Barack 0bama.

0bama Pals Around with IRA Terrorists

Most of us are well aware of 0bama's connections with domestic terrorists William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn. And also of his connection with Palestinian terrorist Rashid Khalidi. The above picture, taken approximately one year ago, shows that he also 'pals around' with IRA terrorists Rita O'Hare and Gerry Adams.

This photo was reported by the Irish Times on November 6 of this year (subscription required).

A PHOTOGRAPH showing US president-elect Barack Obama with an IRA fugitive wanted over the attempted murder of a British soldier has emerged.

Yesterday Sinn Fein released the picture of Senator Obama with party president Gerry Adams and general secretary Rita O’Hare, one of the most prominent ‘on the runs’.

It was taken about a year ago when Mr Adams was in Washington DC holding private meetings with members of Congress.

The Belfast woman has been wanted in Britain and Northern Ireland since being charged with the attempted murder of a soldier in her native city in 1971.

She was shot and seriously wounded in the incident.

After being granted bail she fled to the Republic, where she served three years for trying to smuggle material into a jail holding IRA prisoners.

The 64-year-old has been prominent in the US for the past decade as a Sinn Fein representative.

She is ineligible for a regular visa because of the outstanding warrant but holds a special visa that requires her to notify the authorities for any travel across the US.

Last month Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin accused Senator Obama of associating with terrorists.

She claimed he had been “palling around” with a former member of the Weather Underground, a US-based militant group that opposed the Vietnam war in the 1960s.

Why are we giving sanctuary to this scumbag? She should be extradited to the UK to face justice.

So what next, will we see Barack's smiling face in a group photo with bin Laden and al-Zawahiri?

Welcome SDA readers. I hope you can stick around and read a few of my other posts. I have a particular interest in Northern Ireland and in exposing the true nature of Sinn Fein/IRA.

Ever See a Dog Chase a Bus?

And you wonder if the pooch has given any thought to what he would do with the bus if he caught it. Thats what a poster on lucianne.com recently had to say about 0bama's election to the presidency:

Reply 21 - Posted by: Tom Kilbride, 11/9/2008 9:47:07 AM
Methinks 'Bama is like the dog that caught the Greyhound bus

Say what you will about W and McCain, and I won't argue with you too much. But at least both of them have significant experience in government, and both have experience in the military. 0bama is clueless about military matters, except for what Ayers and Dohrn may have taught him about bomb making. 0bama's experience in government is limited and primarily consists of making speeches and voting 'present' on controversial issues. He doesn't have a clue about making deals and communicating with decision makers behind closed doors. Those are the things that are necessary to get things done.

0bama Plans to Carry Out Global Warming Lunacy

Being a leftist, His Oneness is a moonbat. It is not surprising that he would act out his fantasies concerning the global warming myth. From the WaPo, we read that The Chosen One wants to clear the way for more regulations on the auto industry:

The president-elect has said, for example, that he intends to quickly reverse the Bush administration's decision last December to deny California the authority to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from automobiles. "Effectively tackling global warming demands bold and innovative solutions, and given the failure of this administration to act, California should be allowed to pioneer," Obama said in January.

Before the election, Obama told others that he favors declaring that carbon dioxide emissions are endangering human welfare, following an EPA task force recommendation last December that Bush and his aides shunned in order to protect the utility and auto industries.

That's just what the auto industry doesn't need right now. More onerous regulations. Especially ridiculous ones that would have no effect.

No more McCains

No more Bushies

No more RINOs who claim to be Republicans yet act like Democrats

Sarah Palin for President in 2012

Another Third World Thug Congratulates 0bama

One of the worst dictators in the world, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe has hailed the election of 0bama:

ZIMBABWE — HARARE - President Robert Mugabe has congratulated Barack Obama on his historic election as the United States' first black President, with Zimbabwe's main opposition MDC also congratulating the US President-elect.

Mugabe's attack dog, George Charamba issued a statement attributed to Mugabe stating that "small and developing countries" looked forward to working with Obama.

"As the Government and people of Zimbabwe join you in celebrating this event in the history of the USA, I take this opportunity to assure you Mr President-elect that the Government of the Republic of Zimbabwe remains ready to engage your government in any desirable endeavour to improve our bilateral relations," Mugabe's statement said.
"Mr President-elect, the challenges that now lie ahead of you are enormous and those of us in the small and developing countries cherish the hope of working with your administration as we pursue our programmes and policies to develop our societies in the global context of socio-economic interaction," the congratulatory message added.

Not only many Americans, but also many Africans expect The Messiah to solve all their problems. More likely 0bama will end up making the USA more like Africa than vice-versa.

Post-Mortem on the Election (Part 1)

Beginning a series of essays on what went wrong with the election. How the greatest country on earth ended up with a smooth-talking, terrorist-loving, racist and socialist.

McCain was a terrible choice for nominee. He advocated policies that were absolutely unacceptable to the vast majority of Republicans, such as the proposed amnesty for illegal aliens. And yet, somehow he managed to win the nomination. Both Thompson and Giuliani would have been better choices but both of them ran ineffective campaigns that were knocked out quite early in the primary season.

As I have said before, it is ridiculous that we continue to allow the voters of Iowa and New Hampshire to choose the nominee for the entire country. The primary schedule should be changed so that everyone votes at the same time, or the order of voting should be rotated. Given the fact that both Iowa and New Hampshire went for 0bama in the general election, a good argument could be made for putting them LAST, not first.

Apparently what happened in the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primaries was many Democrats and Independents crossed over to vote for McCain. This practice should be prohibited and only registered Republicans should be allowed to vote in the primaries and caucuses. This will help us avoid the ludicrous situation we had this year of having a nominee that many Republicans did not care to support.

The notion that Sarah Palin was in any way responsible for the defeat of the Republican ticket is absolutely false. I am certain that almost anyone who had problems with her being VP would have voted for 0bama in any event, no matter who McCain had picked for running mate. Sarah was the only one who gave McCain a chance to win the election. Had he picked someone else, it would have been a landslide similar to 1984 or 1972. I will talk more about Sarah in a subsequent post.

In spite of all the blather about an "historically high turnout" the combined popular vote for 0bama and McCain was 122.6 million, only slightly higher than the combined vote for Bush and Kerry in 2004 of 121.1 million. McCain's problem was that he only got 57.3 million votes as compared with Bush who got 62.0 million in 2004. Of this 4.7 million decrease, how many switched their votes from Republican to Democrat as compared with how many former Republican voters simply stayed home? Good question. If McCain had not picked Sarah, I likely would have not bothered to vote either.

Step #1 to future victories in presidential elections: Nominate someone who will be strongly supported by most Republicans.