What’s the difference between a rabid, senselessly-violent pit bull and a hockey mom?

The pit bull is most likely a Democrat who will try to commit his/her outrages behind the cover of a fraudulent (or just-plain risible) claim of equivalence.

Not as snappy as “lipstick?”  Sorry.  I don’t have a speechwriter.

It’s no secret; I mix it up with a lot of the local leftybloggers. 

In most cases, it’s fairly good-natured stuff; it’s business, not personal.  I respect those of them that can write – Jeff Rosenberg and the former members of the late New Patriot kolkhoz, among a few others; some of them return the favor. 

 With others – most of them, in fact – we leave each other in splendid isolation.

Of course, some leftybloggers are a bunch of hysterical nutslaps.  These specimens take their dim, context-challenged whacks at me, and in return – in the rare cases when I can be bothered – I demolish whatever passes for their “points” between 5:30 and 5:35 AM, and then go have a bowl of oatmeal and put the laundry in the dryer.  I almost feel bad – I feel like I’m picking on the retarded kid, almost.  But it’s gotta be done.

Anyway, that’s been the pattern for a while now; the occasional nod, the broad ignore, the occasional gleeful pelting with rhetorical rocks and garbage.  Lather, rinse, repeat.

But there’s a new wrinkle on the horizon.

A few months back, I noted that there’d been long-standing rumors around Saint Paul that Senator and Mrs. Coleman had an “unconventional” marriage.  I wrote “It’s been an open secret forever in Saint Paul and Minnesota politics; Norm and his wife have a rather unconventional marriage”

And apparently more than a few leftybloggers have taken that offhanded mention – of a Saint Paul rumor – as some sort of unimpeachable source on the subject (example).  Of course, they blitzed on the context, not only of the “quote”, but of the post from which it came, which was to hammer on Fast Eddie Schultz’s boundless hypocrisy. 

So while I’m flattered (koff koff) to be considered a definitive, unimpeachable source on the subject, the simple fact is – I’m not.  I reported on a rumor that’d been rattling around my town for a while.  That is all.

So let me break this down for those of you who might have missed the blazingly obvious; the only fact that matters is that Senator and Mrs. Coleman are still married.

Look – I’m all about traditional marriage.  And let’s face it; if there were the faintest impetus to split, it’s not like being divorced is a barrier to anyone in this day and age; Rudy Giuliani and his admittedly colorful marital history were serious contenders for the presidency (indeed, in some ways a better contender than the one we got).  And yet, whatever the truth behind their marriage is (and once again let’s be clear here – its none of your damn business, and mine either, and if you ever, even once, said that the nation needed to “move on” during the Clinton Administration, you really need to “move on” yourself, and right now), they are together after a bazillion years. 

And that’s pretty cool.

Of course, Al and Franny Franken have also been married forever, and that, too, is a wonderful thing.

The difference, of course, is that Franken represents a party that piddles on the family.  I’m not talking the hoary “family values” cliches left over from the eighties – I don’t care that Franken wrote for Playboy, and that he cusses when he does his speaking engagements.  I don’t even care so much about gay marriage – I oppose it on religious grounds, but support civil unions – and while I believe that kids’ development is best served by hetero parents (because kids need male and female parents, all other things being equal), I also think adoptive gay parents are a better option for kids than, say, a single parent.

But the Democrat party piddles on the family in many more subtle ways than that.  It is utterly beholden to the teachers’ unions, and that union has done more than most forces in our lives to undercut the family and trivialize parents.  Hollywood (of which Franken is a part) plays its role as well.  And the stresses caused to middle-class families by relentless taxation do nobody any good – to say nothing of the catastrophic role that liberal politics have played on economically-disadvantaged families, especially African-American ones.

So as a general rule, Republican candidates are better for families than Democrat ones, no matter what their personal lives might be.

I said might.  Again, none of your damn business – but the Coleman marriage, unlike about half of the marriages in our society, has lasted. 

So all of you leftybloggers who are using me as a source on the subject of Coleman’s marriage?  Make sure you update your coverage to include this last, binding bit.  If you don’t, you’ll be guilty of wantonly selective quoting; you’ll be called on it. 

I can say that; apparently, I’m the authoritah.

Tomorrow is the big finale! Join the Northern Alliance and AM1280 for the debate-watching party of the season!

AM1280 The Patriot is hosting a debate viewing party at Trocadero in Minneapolis (it’s right by the Monte Carlo, on Third Avenue at First Street North) for the final debate, a week from tonight!  Join the NARN – I’m one of ’em – for an evening of fun and politics!

We’ll have free appetizers and a cash bar (and let me tell you – nobody does appetizers like Trocadero!). The debate goes from 8pm CST to 9:30pm CST and doors will open at 7:30pm-ish.

Admission is free – but please RSVP at the handy AM1280 RSVP Page so we can plan accordingly.

Sign on up and join us tomorrow night.  And stay tuned for details about the Patriot’s election-night coverage!

We’ll see you there!

I never had anything to do with Tom Petters.  I’ve certainly never met the guy.  But I don’t think I’d have liked him much.

When you meet a person in a bar, or on a date, or wherever, you can usually get a pretty fair sense of what that person’s about via all sorts of little cues; their body language, the way they pick their words, the way they spell things, the way the respond (or not) to questions, the tone and manner in which they speak, their eye contact, and a million other little telltale signs most of us have internalized after a lifetime of dealing with people.

Companies are the same.  In my years of working – especially in my years as a contractor, where I’d sometimes be with three or four different companies in a year, with months of interviewing, and researching companies, and interviewing some more – I like to think I’ve developed a pretty keen sense of how a company is when I get a first impression.  Of course, at various times in my life, I’ve had to just get a damn job, now, and so I’ve taken jobs where that little sense in the back of my head told me that there was something about the people I’d interviewed that wasn’t quite right.  That little sense was always right.

And of course, I’ve walked away from job opportunities when that little sense was insistent enough (and other opportunities were available, naturally). 

Over the years, I’ve interviewed with two Petters group subsidiaries – I’m not going to name names.  And both times, that little voice in the back of my head said “RUN AWAY“.  The gist I got both times was the same feeling you get when a salesman is pitching you on a very dubious proposition; he’s pouring his heart into it, but it just doesn’t add up.  In both cases, there was a sense of – to coin a phrase – frantic sleaziness about the operation that set my internal “warning meter” to jackhammer.  I left both interviews with no intention of coming back for a second.  If presenting a frantically-sleazy veneer to interviewees was a tactic to weed out less-than-enthusiastic possible recruits – well, it worked.  Twice. 

And judging by this kind of story, I’m glad:

I’m trying to get official confirmation, but two previously credible sources tell me that GreatWater Media, part of Tom Petters’ empire, was shuttered today. All employees — I think we’re talking about three dozen folks — were terminated…When the acquisition was announced July 17, Petters officials told MMG employees they would not be paid for the previous three weeks. After stories appeared in MinnPost and the Star Tribune, Petters relented — offering 38 rehired workers “retention bonuses” equal to three weeks pay…according to one laid-off worker’s spouse, it was never paid and now won’t be.

Even worse, the spouse says workers won’t be paid for the past three weeks at GreatWater Media — meaning they’ve lost six weeks worth of pay overall.

Yick.

In the interest of fairness, I’ll add that I do have friends who have worked in various corners of Petters’ former empire, and had good experiences.  I’ve also worked with “alumni” of Petters’ empire who carried the frantic sleaziness with them to their next jobs.

Conclusion?  There is none – except that that little voice in the back of your head can be a very useful thing. 

So your 401K is a mess.  Join the club; it sucks.

Imagine how much worse it’d be if, instead of a messed-up 401K, you were dealing with not being able to get water that wouldn’t give you or your kids cholera.

A friend of mine has been involved in starting a charity to help people in Ethiopia and Malawi to drill water wells.  Clean water isn’t only essential for mixing a great cocktail – it’s essential for the rest of your life, as well. 

So by all means, pitch in if you can. 

Chris Dodd, lefty demigogue extraordinaire, has been out front attacking the big bad capitalists and the “appetite for risk” that he holds put us in this jam.

Naturally, he not only benefitted handsomely from that same risk – he benefitted from my loathsome mortage paper-holder and one of the key offenders, Countrywide.

Former Countrywide Financial loan officer Robert Feinberg says Mr. Dodd knowingly saved thousands of dollars on his refinancing of two properties in 2003 as part of a special program the California mortgage company had for the influential. He also says he has internal company documents that prove Mr. Dodd knew he was getting preferential treatment as a friend of Angelo Mozilo, Countrywide’s then-CEO.

That a “Friends of Angelo” program existed is not in dispute. It was crucial to the boom that Countrywide enjoyed before its fortunes turned. While most of the company was aggressively lending to risky borrowers and off-loading those mortgages in bulk to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Mr. Feinberg’s department was charged with making sure those who could influence Fannie and Freddie’s appetite for risk were sufficiently buttered up. As a Banking Committee bigshot, Mr. Dodd was perfectly placed to be buttered.

Is it too late to bring back public flogging?

The blast walls that criscrossed Baghdad to contain car bombs and other terrorist acts are starting to come down:

“They protected against car bombs and drive-by attacks,” said Adnan, 39, a vegetable seller in the once violent neighborhood of Dora, who argues that the walls now block the markets and the commerce that Baghdad needs to thrive. “Now it is safe.”

The slow dismantling of the concrete walls is the most visible sign of a fundamental change here in the Iraqi capital. The American surge strategy, which increased the number of United States troops and contributed to stability here, is drawing to a close. And a transition is under way to the almost inevitable American drawdown in 2009.

There are now more than 148,000 United States troops in Iraq, down from the peak of around 170,000 a year ago, and President Bush has accepted the military’s recommendation to remove 8,000 more by February.

It sure is a good thing for the Democrats that the economy tanked before this news could get out, isn’t it?

Dow Jones Up Over 900 Points.

Biggest Rally in 70 Years

Dow Jumps 938 Points after Historic Weekend

What does this mean?

It means something and nothing all at the same time.

One day does not a trend make.

But at least it doesn’t suck.

Stay tuned to Shot in the Dark for more of this detailed and inspiring analysis.

Ed Matthews – GOP-endorsed candidate for the Fourth CD – is debating Betty McCollum tonight. 

Get to Ed’s site, and get the details.

It was Thursday, October 13, 1988. 

My roommate?  Still drugged out of his mind.

Me?  Didn’t care.

As I got ready to go to New York in just a couple of days, I had another couple of contacts to work.

I’d called a station in White Plains, somewhere up north of the Bronx.  The guy sounded like he was seriously trying to manage expectations – “White Plains is the most expensive place in the world to live, and I’m not going to pay a whole lot” was his constant refrain – but he was interested in talking. 

And today, I talked with a guy who was starting up a very interesting talk network proposition.  It was going to be based out of Manhattan, and he sounded thrilled that I was going to be in town to talk.

So I had four appointments for interviews.

The trip was shaping up nicely. 

I worked at Wallaby’s bar in Columbia Heights.  “But not for long“, I thought, a genuine spring coming back to my step for the first time since…

…well, since I could remember.

Four days ’til takeoff.

The Washington Post is already deconstructing the financial crisis, and looking for the upside. That being, we will learn our lesson and be better for it in the long run. It’s a pretty good forensic analysis but Fareed Zakaria got a couple things wrong…really wrong.

Since the 1980s, Americans have consumed more than they produced and have made up the difference by borrowing. Two decades of easy money and innovative financial products meant that virtually anyone could borrow any amount for any purpose. Household debt ballooned from $680 billion in 1974 to $14 trillion today. The average household has 13 credit cards, and 40 percent of these carry a balance, up from 6 percent in 1970.

This is all true, but I don’t know one person that has thirteen credit cards.

But the average American’s behavior was virtuous compared with government behavior. Every city, county and state has wanted to preserve its proliferating operations yet not raise taxes. How to square this circle? By borrowing, using ever more elaborate financial instruments.

True also. When do we get to the part however, where the two combined forces. Where government decided that home ownership, and getting a loan to make it so, was no longer the American dream? That in the interest of “fairness” it was a right; no matter what your income or credit history was.

If there is a lesson to be taken from this crisis, it’s an old rule:There is no free lunch. Now, debt is not a bad thing. Used responsibly, it is at the heart of modern capitalism. But hiding mountains of debt in complex instruments is an invitation to irresponsible behavior.

Okay, I’m still with you.

In the short term, governments must take on more debts and obligations to resolve the crisis. But that doesn’t mean we should stimulate the economy with more tax cuts, as some economists advocate. That would only keep the party going artificially. A far better stimulus would be to expedite major infrastructure and energy projects, which are investments, not consumption,and have a different effect on fiscal fortunes.

…as some economists advocate? Silly economists. Don’t listen to them. Keep the party going artificially? Like the longest and most robust period of economic prosperity ever in the history of America? That was a party? No. It was real and it was brought on by Ronald Reagan’s disdain for ever-larger government and economic growth spurred by tax relief.

…and let’s not forget…one benefit of Ronald Regan’s leadership: revenues to the federal government increased dramatically. Revenues that could be used to pay for those goverment functions that are necessary and practical; revenues that could be used to pay down our debt. Back then we had true fiscal leadership in the White House. It’s been a while.

A far better stimulus would be to expedite major infrastructure and energy projects, which are investments, not consumption, and have a different effect on fiscal fortunes.

Them’s some big words. I love it when a liberal calls government spending an “investment” and hides it among the big words – prose not unlike the financial derivative instruments he (rightfully) lambastes a few sentences ago.

The U.S. economy remains extremely dynamic. Even now, the most surprising data continue to be how resilient the economy has been through the recent shocks. That will not last if the panic persists, but the economy’s underlying virtues would help it recover quickly from a recession.

Underlying virtues..extremely dynamic..resilient? Sounds like our economy is fundamentally sound. You best be careful there…that sounds like you agree with John McCain. That could cost you your paycheck where you work.

The Fed, White House and congress are almost out of options. Pelosi’s proposed stimulus is more of the same and will only contribute to the length and depth of whatever course this crisis is bound to take. The only option – the only proven option – is to cut taxes and allow the free enterprise system – led by small business – to grow us out of this predicament.

John Kline has been, for a couple of terms now, the Minnesota Second District rep in Congress.  He’s a reliable and solid conservative, and therefore I support him unabashedly and without reservation. While I believe that “endorsing” a candidate would make me sound like a pretentious fop (I’m a blogger, not an institution of any importance at all), I actively encourage anyone who lives in MNCD2 to vote for Kline as many times as you are legally able. 

Not to say Kline’s perfect – no politician is, and indeed none should ever try to be. 

One of his most controversial votes was for the bailout bill.  It’s a vote about which I’m of two minds.  On the one hand, it does continue the national trend of socializing risk and privatizing gain; it will take the sting out of making stupid decisions for financial institutions; it is (or will be, without immense vigilance on the part of the people and their representatives) a socialization of the credit market.  To a free-marketeer, the concept is noxious.

But I also agree with King; this is different from previous downturns in that it’s a meltdown in credit, not liquidity; without credit, the dip and the recovery will be much longer, much more difficult, and much more painful.  So while I’m as dogmatic a free-marketeer as anyone, I can go along with the notion that government can try to spread a net over the abyss – provided that is combined with fanatical vigilance as the recovery gathers to make sure that the nationalization is reversed, and that we don’t repeat the mistakes that led us here.  (This will require a huge leap in the economic and financial literacy of the American people, which will in return require a Republican administration).

Kevin Masrud, however, has taken umbrage at Kline’s support of the bailout bill, and is mounting a conservative Republican write-in campaign against Kline in response.  He appeared with King Banaian on NARN III “The Final Word” yesterday. 

On the one hand, I’m going to continue to support Kline in the coming election (for what little it’s worth; I live in the Fourth district).

I also believe that conservatives should fight like hell to (to use the metaphor I’ve been beating to death for the past year) “pull the party to the right” in the big tug of war I described in this piece, all the way through the caucuses and primaries – and then forgive whatever transgressions against pure Hayekian conservative orthodoxy the candidate holds onto, realize that “the best we can do” is better than “the next worst we can do” come November, and close ranks behind the candidate.  It’s why I support the likes of Tim Pawlenty, Norm Coleman, and John McCain – none of whom are as conservative as I am or as I’d like to see in their offices in an ideal world, but each of which are light-years better than Roger Moe, Mike Hatch, Fritz Mondale, Al Franken and Barack Obama. 

The discriminating reader will note that the caucuses were in February, and the primaries were last month. 

True. 

And the bailout bill came after both. 

The timing of Mr. Masrud’s quixotic campaign is both unavoidable and unfortunate.  Given my tepid, conditional support for the bailout and my otherwise-unabashed support of Rep. Kline, who is absolutely correct on a formidable majority of issues and tepidly (I believe) correct on this one, I’d much rather Mr. Masrud had waited until after the election…

…when i would unreservedly support his push to drive Kline, and all elected representatives, to the right on all financial legislation, up to and including the 2010 caucus and primary season.  This is an effort that can not end in 22 days; it is an effort whose urgency needs to redouble after the election, and to do it again after inauguration day, when the orcs will likely really be at the gates.

UPDATE:  Brain fade.  It was Kevin Masrud, not Jeffrey Williams, challenging Kline.  Blah.

NRO’s Kevin Williamson notes that independents think the media has been unfair to Governor Palin (emphases added):

Strong majorities of the public say the press has been fair to John McCain, Barack Obama and Joe Biden. But fewer than four-in-ten (38%) say the press has been fair to Sarah Palin. Many more believe the press has been too tough on Palin (38%) than say it has been too easy (21%).

While opinions about Palin coverage are highly partisan, many independents share the view that the press has been too tough on the Alaska governor. Among independents, 41% say the press has been too hard on Palin, 20% say the press has been too easy and 36% say the press has been fair. Republicans overwhelmingly believe the press has been too hard on Palin (63%). Just 7% say the press has been too easy on her. Nearly one-in-five Democrats (18%) agree that coverage of Palin has been too tough.

Williamson reprises a question I asked in the past week or so: 

This brings up a question: Why do conservatives still feel the need to go through the dinosaur media? If you really want to talk ideas and policy, Rush Limbaugh’s show is probably the best forum, if you can get on. Rush doesn’t have a lot of guests, but when he does he gives them a chance to actually articulate their ideas in a developed way. If you’re looking for a place where substantive conservative ideas can get a hearing, there’s talk radio, the better blogs, Glenn Beck, NR/NRO, the Wall Street Journal, Investor’s Business Daily, &c. It’s not so much that these outlets are conservative-friendly, but that they’re interested in ideas. The Wall Street Journal is not going to ask a lot of “If you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be?” questions, or game-show inquiries about the deputy fisheries minister of Hoogivsastan. Treating the fossil media as though they were still the only — or the main — game in town only serves to prop them up and to diminish conservatives’ ability to get a hearing for our ideas.

It would be much more interesting to hear Governor Palin spend an hour with Glenn Reynolds than with Katie Couric.

And the Northern Alliance (Volume II, the Headliners) is certainly a contender, too.

As Williamson notes, it’s time for conservatives to start playing to the few media strengths we have.

Texas starts counting their dead voters:

Linda Kay Hill, a homemaker and Louisiana native, died Aug. 2, 2006, of a heart attack, her husband recalled, and is buried at Houston Memorial Gardens in Pearland. But Harris County voter records indicate she –- or someone using her identity –- cast a ballot in the November election that year. Linda Hill of Woodwick Street voted in person on Election Day, records show.

She is among the more than 4,000 people whose names are listed both on Harris County’s voter rolls and also in a federal database of death records, a Texas Watchdog analysis has found.

And dozens of those people, like Linda Hill, have apparently cast ballots from beyond the grave, records since 2004 show. One expert says the number of deceased names used to cast ballots may be higher than what Texas Watchdog’s analysis found.

Instances of dead voters’ names being used to cast ballots were most frequent in three elections, the November 2004 general election, the November 2006 general election and the March 2008 Democratic primary, the analysis found.

So on the one hand, you have Democrats whinging about electronic voting machines, and continuously yammering about the 2000 election which, by any rational measure, was crazy but legal – basically, trying to subvert confidence in the system…

…while they actively work to flood the system with counterfeit voters.

The findings come as the group ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, has faced scrutiny in multiple states for allegedly improper voter registrations — including players for the Dallas Cowboys, not in the Lone Star State, but in Nevada. The group’s Nevada offices were raided by state officials earlier this week.

That’s as officials in at least six states may have improperly removed tens of thousands of voters from the rolls or prevented them from registering, the New York Times reported Wednesday.

I used the word “Counterfeit” advisedly:

“This is subverting the ballot,” said John Fund, a Wall Street Journal columnist and author of Stealing Elections: How Voter Fraud Threatens Our Democracy. “Just like you counterfeit dollars, we take it seriously, if you counterfeit votes we should take it equally seriously, and we should punish people seriously for trying to subvert democracy.”

That law will never pass, of course; way too many people from one of those parties are actively profiting from that subversion.

Or so it’s starting to look.

Noooo, nooooo – of course our vacation plans in Omaha have nothing to do with this story.

 Frustrated parents are dumping their teenagers at Nebraska hospitals — even crossing state lines to do it — and the state Legislature has scheduled a special hearing to try to stem the tide…Nebraska’s “safe haven” law, intended to allow parents to anonymously hand over an infant to a hospital without being prosecuted, isn’t working out as planned.

Of the 17 children relinquished since the law took effect in July, only four are younger than 10…On Tuesday, a 14-year-old girl from Council Bluffs, Iowa, was abandoned at Creighton University Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska, just across the Missouri River from Council Bluffs…”The few situations we’ve seen so far demonstrate the need for a change in Nebraska’s safe haven law,” Gov. Dave Heineman said in a statement Monday. “In the coming legislative session, I will advocate for changes that put the focus back on protecting an infant in danger. That should be our priority.”

All 50 states have safe haven laws, but only Nebraska’s lacks an age limit.

 No, leave your IPod in Saint Paul.  Really.

(Via Ed)

(more…)

Click for Larger Size

In the process of reading The Other 90% by Ken Cooper I came across a vignette about Art Tatum, a man that overcame seemingly insurmountable physical challenges and triumphed as one of the world’s foremost jazz pianists.

Born in Ohio in 1909, Tatum suffered from blindness in one eye; partial in the other.

Blessed with an extraordinary ear for music and largely self-taught, Tatum layed his hands on a player piano one day and while it played his fingers grasped the movement of the keys. He learned to play the piano and repetition lead to mastery. This despite his blissful ignorance of the fact that player pianos at the time played as though two pianists and four hands were at the keyboard.

When you listen to his work, the range, tempo and touch he exhibits leaves you unable to imagine one man’s fingers dancing with such pace and perfection. Other artists of the 1930’s called his performances “impossible.”

Ironically…

“Art Tatum’s incredibly fast playing style requires a level of precision beyond the capabilities of conventional player piano systems,” said John Q. Walker, founder of Zenph Studios

In fact, watching a player piano perform probably his most representative work “Tiger Rag,” reveals an amazingly complex range of keystrokes and leaves one wondering how any one artist could play the song.

Videos of his performances, rare as they are, reveal an exceedingly calm but rapid command of the keys. I don’t know much about jazz, so I poked around the web, looking for tidbits on this remarkable artist and was inspired by his ability to overcome, to produce such a large volume of work and to inspire other artists.

Sources:

Wikipedia

Duke University

NPR

Just three days until the final Presidential Debate!

Join the Northern Alliance and AM1280 for the debate-watching party of the season!

AM1280 The Patriot is hosting a debate viewing party at Trocadero in Minneapolis (it’s right by the Monte Carlo, on Third Avenue at First Street North) for the final debate, a week from tonight!  Join the NARN – I’m one of ’em – for an evening of fun and politics!

We’ll have free appetizers and a cash bar (and let me tell you – nobody does appetizers like Trocadero!). The debate goes from 8pm CST to 9:30pm CST and doors will open at 7:30pm-ish.

Admission is free – but please RSVP at the handy AM1280 RSVP Page so we can plan accordingly.  The Veep debate was just about a sell-out – don’t miss it!

Sign on up and join us the coming Wednesday, the 15th.

And stay tuned for details about the Patriot’s election-night coverage!

We’ll see you there!

I’d just like to take a moment to send my best wishes to Pianomomsicle and Pianohusbandsicle on the arrival of Cadence Rae:

 She is 8 lbs and 5 oz; 20 inches long; and 14.25 inches around the head!  Mom, Baby, Dad, and big brother are all well!  However, I am sure once Cadence learns to crawl, big brother will be less well.

I’m a couple days late on this, but I’m way behind in my blog reading.

Welcome, Cadence!

Barack Obama’s explanation of his tax plans if elected is instrumental in illustrating the thin line between lying and nondisclosure. His plan to raise taxes on those that employ a great many of his constituents is a failure to realize the benefit of economic lessons learned. It is also proof of his gross economic illiteracy.

His “Tax Cuts for 95% of Americans” ploy, given the fact that 40% of Americans don’t pay taxes defies basic mathematics. The idea that those above $250K represent the Nation’s upper crust defies the imagination.

Being subject to lower taxes will not be relevant to middle-class American families if their breadwinners lose their jobs. Half of America’s workforce draws a paycheck from small business owners. Further burdening these businesses, especially in challenging times like these, will serve only to harm those that Obama professes to be the messiah they’ve been waiting for. In fact, they will suffer the most.

Make no mistake. We are in a recession.

We need small businesses to do what they have done in most every previous recession. Grow. Hire. Invest. Small business has lead us out of tough times in the past, and if given the chance, will do so this time as well. Unfortunately, in the face of this recession, the American voter, in a twisted manipulation of cause and effect, has been lured into thinking that a Democrat is the answer. They will be dead wrong.

It is a sad commentary that the only upside to the current political tide for business owners and investors, and those that benefit from their success, is that an Obama Administration will be another Carter administration. Maybe worse. In this scenario, voters will awaken to the stark postmortem reality that a vote for a true conservative is a vote for economic prosperity.

In all fairness, Republicans deserve this predicament even if it is the American people that will suffer the most. Opportunities for true reform and fiscal restraint were squandered. President Bush has been one of the most fiscally liberal Presidents in modern times; and he’s a Republican.

The fact remains however, that raising taxes and spending any time in the next eight years, given the economic turmoil that we have just begun to suffer, is the polar opposite of what should be prescribed.

Our nation is amidst a time of unprecedented vulnerability. To think that a liberal majority can somehow resist the temptation to push their socialist agenda, even given the catastrophic consequences it will have for our nation, is a pipe dream.

We are on the precipice of total economic collapse as our system unwinds from a forty year super-cycle of growing consumer and national debt brought on by liberal economic policy and the inability of conservatives to exhibit the leadership to countermand its effects. Barack Obama has been consistently aligned with those that planted the seeds of this crisis while John McCain has been one of only a few voices of caution when leading indicators appeared on the horizon.

Do we face another Great Depression? It’s hard to say with certainty. Given our precarious economic status and the near certainty that liberals will gain unfettered control of fiscal policy, there is cause for concern. Great concern.

In the last Great Depression, fiscal policy was exactly wrong, albeit in hindsight. As the economy weakened, the Fed actually increased rates. The President resisted even short-term deficit spending. Unemployment was higher than it is now.

In this case, the Fed has little more it can do. Deficit spending has been the norm for years. We have a ten trillion dollar national debt; closer to thirty if you count future obligations. Interest rates are already close to the bottom.

The only lever left is to lower taxes and allow the free enterprise system to rescue us via the creation of new jobs and wage growth, which will drive consumerism and investment. Even that takes time. Time we may not have. Ronald Regan’s efforts took more than a year to take effect.

Consider this: lowering taxes and incentives to allow the free enterprise system to pull us out of the grasp of recession; does this sound likely given the trend in the affiliation of our elected officials?

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

The Dow Sends a Message to Obama, Carter, Clinton, Dodd, Raines, Frank and the rest of our nation’s liberal social engineering geniuses:

(It’s a Contest!)

Mrs. Roosh and I visited Manhattan last week for a quick getaway and this is my favorite photo.

How many Nationally Known Brand Names and/or Logos Appear in this photo?

If you are the closest winner Mrs. Roosh will buy you a cocktail at the AM1280 The Patriot Presidential Debate Party, Oct. 15th at Trocadero. Click the photo for the larger version required to find them all.

Hint: Many appear multiple times, each appearance counts; reflections count as well.

Congrats to BillC: I’m up to 19 individually, at least 34 including duplicates and reflections.

Click on the Pic for the Large Version of the Key…Click “Read the rest of this entry…” for the list.

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Financial system events of late provide only a glimpse of the worldwide economic collapse that will be brought on by a capitulation of global equity markets if Barack Obama realizes a successful Presidential bid and unleashes the full faith and credit of the Socialist Party. In anticipation, American automotive enthusiasts are encouraged to recalibrate their choice of daily conveyance.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the Citroen 2CV.

The 2CV celebrates its 60th birthday during the Paris Motor Show, on 7 October 2008. To celebrate the event, Hermes has designed a made-to-measure outfit that highlights the vehicle’s ever-friendly and generous forms.

The 1989 2CV 6 Spécial, repainted in brown, gains a natural leather trim on the door facings, interior rearview mirror, gear knob, steering wheel and driver’s sun visor. For an even more elegant finish, the two seats are upholstered in Hermès grey-beige cotton canvas and natural leather. As a finishing touch, the bonnet and interior trim at the rear of the vehicle also feature Hermès cotton canvas.

Like the Automobile that marked the other end of America’s industrial and economic world dominance, Henry Ford’s Model T, the 2CV is available in any color you like. As long as, in this case, it is brown.

Exhilarating is one word that one might imagine could possibly come to mind considering the power under the bonnet. The little engine that could, a SOHC 602cc Twin, breathes easy through a twin-choke carburetor and churns out an adequate 29 horsepower at 6,750 rpm. The 2CV’s 5.3 Gallon gas tank allows for a full week’s ration!

Need to put on the binders? Sturdy drum brakes in the rear, and in a generous government factory upgrade since 1981, you’ll enjoy disc brakes in the front.

A comfortable but durable rear bench will allow for catnaps between your day job, wherewith you feed your children and pay the rent on your government-owned town home and your night job wherewith you pay your United Nations Income Tax, Grocery Loans and Global Warming Assessment.

Savor the nostalgia of a vehicle introduced to the world in 1948; your very own piece of history! Enroll now for subsidized 96-month financing offers and neighborhood Carshare Agreements via government lottery selection.

Citroen. The Car The People have been Waiting For^®