Rep.Jesse Jackson Jr. Under Federal Investigation

Clarence Page - When the news came out that Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. was under federal investigation, I found myself hoping in an odd Chicago-style sort of way that he was indeed guilty. I would hate to see the system punish an innocent man.

And, guilty or not, he already is being punished in the court of public opinion without being formally accused of anything.

His latest headache came Tuesday when the Chicago Sun-Times dropped a bombshell: Indian-American fund-raiser Raghuveer Nayak of suburban Oak Brook, Ill., had told federal authorities that Jackson personally directed him to offer then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich millions in campaign cash in return for President Barack Obama's former Illinois Senate seat, the newspaper said.

Jackson has denied similar allegations since they first surfaced in a federal criminal complaint against Blagojevich in late 2008.

Jackson said little more until a WLS-AM radio interview on Oct. 17 in which he acknowledged a meeting with Nayak on Oct. 28, 2008. But part of the conversation was in a foreign language, he said, and "I did not participate in any of that part of the conversation, nor do I even remember hearing it."

Jackson, now considering a run to replace Mayor Richard M. Daley, who recently announced he will not run again, still appeared to have his political viability intact. After all, this is Illinois, where getting things done politically is not unlike dealing with Afghanistan's tribal warlords. You have to choose your allies carefully, and heaven help you if you have to be held responsible for everything they say they are doing in your name -- especially if they are speaking a language you don't speak so good.

But the newspaper report also dropped another bombshell: Nayak told authorities he paid for two airline trips at Jackson's request for a "social acquaintance" identified as Giovana Huidobro, a blonde hostess at a Washington, D.C., cigar bar and restaurant.

As if comparisons to Blagojevich weren't bad enough, Jackson now was being compared to Tiger Woods, too.
Suddenly attempts by media folks, including me, to reach Jackson were politely rebuffed. "The reference to a social acquaintance is a private and personal matter between me and my wife that was handled some time ago," he said in a statement. "I ask that you respect our privacy." Very well. But don't expect the same respect from the House ethics committee investigators. The alleged flights could be a violation of House rules.

So, with all that in mind, I hope the young Jackson is guilty of something. Otherwise tons of public indignation are going to waste, along with pieces of his once-promising political reputation.

Jackson is damaged more severely by something he has tried for years to escape: unfavorable comparisons to his father, the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson.

But don't count the congressman out yet. A mayoral run has become a mission improbable for him, but not impossible. First he needs to clear the air of the many questions that still hang over him, including his own reasons for running. Voters are understandably suspicious these days of candidates who seem too eager to win the job.

Bishop Eddie Long's: Alleged Victim Speaks "Jamal Parris"

Jamal Parris, 23, spoke on camera about the alleged sex crimes committed against him by Atlanta-area Bishop Eddie Long.

ABC News reports that a journalist from a Fox News affiliate confronted Parris outside of a Colorado grocery store, and heard from the alleged victim these shocking words:

"I cannot get his voice out of my head. I cannot forget the smell of his cologne...I'm not able to take enough showers to wipe the smell of him off of my body."

Parris is one of four young men who have filed suit against the megachurch Bishop, who is outspokenly anti-homosexual and known for preaching abstinence. The first lawsuits were filed last week, alleging that Bishop Long used money, cars, and travel to entice or coerce the men into sex. The alleged victims were 17 or 18 years old at the time of the abuse.

Parris's lawsuit alleges that Long "used Holy Scripture to justify and support the sexual activity."

Long adamantly denies the accusations against him.

71% Of Republican Voters Back the Tea Party Movement

Protein Wisdom - Nearly three-quarters of Republican voters identify themselves as supporters of the tea party movement, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll.

The 71 percent of Republicans who count themselves among the tea party faithful had a lot of good things to say about the grasroots conservative movement, and overall there are several indicators that show growing support for it.

Twenty-seven percent of all those surveyed count themselves as part of the tea party movement, compared to 61 percent who do not.

The tea party has emerged as a potent force in American politics and a center of gravity within the Republican Party, with a large majority of Republicans showing an affinity for the movement that has repeatedly bucked the GOP leadership this year, a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll has found.

In the survey, 71% of Republicans described themselves as tea-party supporters, saying they had a favorable image of the movement or hoped tea- party candidates would do well in the Nov. 2 elections.

Already, the tea-party movement has helped to oust a number of incumbents and candidates backed by party leaders in this year’s GOP primaries amid complaints that they lacked commitment to small-government principles. The poll findings suggest that the rising influence of the movement, with its push to cut spending and oppose the Democratic agenda, will drive the GOP to become more conservative and less willing to seek common ground on policy.

“These are essentially conservative Republicans who are very ticked-off people,” said Republican pollster Bill McInturff, who conducted the survey with Democratic pollster Peter Hart.

If the Republicans win control of the House or Senate this fall, Mr. McInturff added, the survey shows “enormous amounts about how limited the interest is going to be in those new majorities to try to seek negotiation with the president or the Democratic leadership.” The poll found that tea-party supporters make up one-third of the voters most likely to cast ballots in November’s midterm elections. This showed the movement “isn’t a small little segment, but it is a huge part of what’s driving 2010,” Mr. Hart said.

The survey also found growing energy among some core Democratic voting blocs, such as African-Americans and Hispanics—a tightening that is common as an election draws closer, according to pollsters.

A viable, motivated, growing movement with classical liberalism as it’s core — it took forty years, but I can think of no more convincing referendum on a dysfunctional one party regime than this. Or, for that matter, on that regime’s malignant socialist bent, openly championed by the Democrats and passively aided by Republicans.

U.S. Senate In Play: Blumenthal 49, McMahon 46 in Connecticut

Allahpundit - Propelled by Connecticut likely voters who say they are “angry” with government, former wrestling executive Linda McMahon, the Republican U.S. Senate candidate, is closing in on Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, the Democrat, and now trails just 49 – 46 percent, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.

This compares to a 51 – 45 percent Blumenthal lead in a September 14 likely voter survey by the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University poll, conducted by live interviewers…

The 33 percent of likely voters who say they are “angry” with the federal government support McMahon 78 – 20 percent.

She’s turned Blumenthal’s lead among independents into a 49/44 lead of her own, but she’s getting crushed among women — a common phenomenon for women Republican candidates, actually — and, worryingly, she’s winning the GOP vote only 80/16. Blumenthal, by contrast, takes Democrats 89/9. If her numbers among her own base were the same as his, this would either be a dead heat or she’d be up by a point or two. Maybe the next round of polls will show that; the momentum in this race is, after all, entirely in one direction. The big question is whether that 16 percent of Republicans who are sticking with Bloomy for now are doing so because they’re Castle-esque moderates who won’t vote for a mostly conservative candidate like McMahon or because they’re a bit spooked by her WWE pedigree and aren’t quite ready to take her seriously yet. If it’s the latter, we should see a bunch of them start to flip into her column soon now that she’s proved she has a chance at winning. If it’s the former, uh oh. Either way, consider this a rough metric for how blue a state needs to be this year for the Democratic nominee to have a chance at winning. Obama took Connecticut by 23 points two years ago, and now state attorney general Dick Blumenthal is within the margin of error — against a pro-wrestling impresario. When The One said he’d bring about Change, he wasn’t kidding.

Meanwhile, in West Virginia, John Raese suddenly leads newly minted ObamaCare skeptic Joe Manchin by two points. Why is that a big deal when PPP already showed Raese leading by three? Because this is a Rasmussen poll and, to date, Ras has had Manchin with a steady lead of five or six points among likely voters. In fact, just nine short days ago, his lead was seven points. Now this. Wave-tastic. Exit question: Which Democratic candidates in other states are going to suffer as the DSCC abandons them in order to pour money into Connecticut and West Virginia? Bye bye, Kendrick Meek!

Bishop Eddie Long Crimes Against The Church

Cynthina Tucker - I’ve never been a fan of “Bishop” Eddie Long, who, among other self-aggrandizing moves, has flouted Baptist practice by naming himself a bishop. I have detested his gay-bashing and loathed his narcissistic lifestyle. I’ve doubted the theology of his “prosperity” ministry.

Nothing more aptly describes the way that New Birth Missionary Baptist Church has become a cult of personality — not Jesus Christ’s personality, but Eddie Long’s — than the responses by Long and a few of his congregants to allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation.

In a sermon carried live by TV cameras yesterday, Long very dramatically told his congregation he is “under attack.” From the WaPo:

“Please hear this: I have been accused. I’m under attack. I want you to know that I am not a perfect man, but this thing I’m gon’ fight,” said Long, who also preached a short sermon on surviving painful times.

“I feel like David against Goliath, but I’ve got five rocks, and I haven’t thrown one yet,” the bishop said to roaring applause as he dropped his microphone on the pulpit with a thud, took his wife Vanessa’s hand and left the stage.

If Long were going to compare himself to a Biblical character, he should have chosen Goliath.

Then there was this quote from one of Long’s parishoners:

“The devil always tries to attack the kingdom, but we know that victory is ahead,” said Ian Waite, who has been a member of the church for six years. “We will fight it on our knees with prayer and fasting.

“He’s not a perfect man, but God will fight on his behalf. . . . If it ends up being true, we have to be there on his behalf. He’s just human. In life, we have failure and downfalls, but God will see you through.”

I’m sorry, but New Birth is not “the kingdom.”

We don’t yet know whether Long is guilty of sexual abuse, but it’s clear that he’s guilty of perverting the Gospel.

Linda McMahon ( R-Cand, CT-Sen) Within five points of Richard Blumenthal

Democrat Richard Blumenthal now holds just a five-point lead over Republican Linda McMahon in Connecticut’s race for the U.S. Senate.

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in the state finds Blumenthal with 50% support and McMahon with 45% when leaners are included. One percent (1%) favor some other candidate, and three percent (3%) are undecided. To see survey questions, click here.

The race remains Leans Democrat in the Rasmussen Reports Election 2010 Senate Balance of Power rankings.

This is the closest the race has been since May when the New York Times detailed in an article how Blumenthal has been embellishing his military record in public statements over the years.

This statewide telephone survey of 500 Likely Voters in Connecticut was conducted on September 9, 2010 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/-4.5 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

Bishop Eddie Long Scandal Could Grow Outside Of Spencer And Legrande

The Bishop Eddie Long scandal (photos below) added Spencer LeGrande as a new plaintiff on Friday; but by all indications, the scandal could add more possible plaintiffs next week. While the Bishop Eddie Long scandal may have started with the assertion of only two men, that quickly changed, adding a third by midweek. That prompted the counsel for all three men to indicate she had received phone calls of multiple alleged victims that may still come forward. Within forty eight hours of those assertions, counsel added yet another plaintiff: Spencer LeGrande.

With all four complaints detailing an inner order of alleged coercion and deception, the Spiritual Sons, the question remains how many men were in the order from which this scandal is developing. Multiple plaintiffs’ complaints have indicated that Spiritual Sons each learned they weren’t the only alleged victims. Plaintiffs spoke to other men allegedly traumatized by the conduct of Bishop Eddie Long.

With a case growing from two to four plaintiffs in just two days, that could very much change next week.

And yet, when you line up all the complaints next to each other, they indicate a certain type of male that Bishop Eddie Long would allegedly target. His alleged conduct would start by introductions to males at roughly at age 15. When they were 16 or 17, Bishop Eddie Long would allegedly be already kissing them on the lips. And by age 18, he was already allegedly succeeding in getting them in bed for relations.

The type of men coming forward for the most part all shared similarities as teens. They came from homes without father figures, without a car for them to drive, without great amounts of money. All the items that the plaintiffs claimed they lacked, Bishop Eddie Long is accused of inserting himself into. Free cars, free cash, free room and board were among the items Bishop Eddie Long is accused of using to create a stronghold over the boys.

Plaintiffs: Jamal Parris, Maurice Robinson and Anthony Flagg

But emotionally, Bishop Eddie Long is accused of terrorizing the men by portraying himself as their replacement father. “Defendant Long held on to Plaintiff LeGrande and assured him “I got you”, “I will be your dad” ” says the LeGrande complaint. “Defendant Long demanded Plaintiff LeGande call him often”.

But unlike any normal father, Bishop Eddie Long is accused of getting his “sons” into bed for his personal gratification, stalking them, controlling their lives, even changing their lives. “Defendant Long would become angry if Plaintiff LeGrande failed to call Plaintiff Long on a frequent basis.” “Defendant Long told Plaintiff LeGrande to call him “Dad” “.

For LeGrande, Bishop Eddie Long was making alleged advances by age 17. And yet, the stronghold allegedly didn’t stop there. The plaintiffs accuse Bishop Eddie Long of not fostering their lives but changing them so that he could get what he wanted. Spencer LeGrande, like the other boys, claims he had girlfriends, or possible girlfriends, and that Bishop Eddie Long told him to get rid of them, blocked him from seeing girls.

Bishop Eddie Long is accused of also not letting his “sons” go to college and pursue athlete careers at the institutions of their choice so that he could house them at a facility and continue his alleged conduct in their beds.

“Defendant Long told Plaintiff LeGrande that he expected Plaintiff LeGrande to go to school … and have no girlfriends….Plaintiff LeGrande abandoned his plans to pursue a collegiate basketball career and applied to Beluah [to prepare to enter the ministry]. …Defendant LeGrande would engage in intimate … contact with Plaintff LeGrande at the Harvell House.”

Bishop Eddie Long has denied any wrongdoing.

ACORN Affiliate SEIU Found Helping Rampant Voter Fraud

Doug Ross Journal - A group of concerned Texas citizens unwittingly discovered rampant vote fraud during the 2008 election, apparently orchestrated by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

“The first thing we started to do was look at houses with more than six voters in them" Engelbrecht said, because those houses were the most likely to have fraudulent registrations attached to them. "Most voting districts had 1,800 if they were Republican and 2,400 of these houses if they were Democratic... But we came across one with 24,000, and that was where we started looking."

It was Houston's poorest and predominantly black district, which has led some to accuse the group of targeting poor black areas. But Engelbrecht rejects that, saying, "It had nothing to do with politics. It was just the numbers.”

...“Vacant lots had several voters registered on them. An eight-bed halfway house had more than 40 voters registered at its address,” Engelbrecht said. “We then decided to look at who was registering the voters."

Their work paid off. Two weeks ago the Harris County voter registrar took their work and the findings of his own investigation and handed them over to both the Texas secretary of state’s office and the Harris County district attorney.

Most of the findings focused on a group called Houston Votes, a voter registration group headed by Steve Caddle, who also works for the Service Employees International Union. Among the findings were that only 1,793 of the 25,000 registrations the group submitted appeared to be valid. The other registrations included one of a woman who registered six times in the same day; registrations of non-citizens; so many applications from one Houston Voters collector in one day that it was deemed to be beyond human capability; and 1,597 registrations that named the same person multiple times, often with different signatures...


I find it almost stupefying to have discovered that some of my neighbors support the modern Democrat Party, seeing as how it's mostly funded by public sector union bosses, illegal immigration front groups, trial lawyers, and George Soros-style America-haters.

Bishop Eddie Long Must Step Down Right Now

Roland S. Martin - The power of any pastor over his or her parishioners is derived from their "calling" to minister the Gospel from God, or as some call it, the anointing by the Holy Spirit. But the role of a pastor -- the Bible speaks to being a shepherd of a flock -- also comes from the belief that it is their moral standing as the earthly representative of God to lead their congregations spiritually.

If you read the writings of Paul in 1 Timothy 3 (New International Version), he offers the following instructions: "Here is a trustworthy saying: If anyone sets his heart on being an overseer, he desires a noble task. Now the overseer must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect. (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God's church)...He must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil's trap."

As we witness the salacious and troubling sex allegations leveled this week against Atlanta megachurch pastor Bishop Eddie L. Long, it is clear that many are confused to hear four young men come forward and allege that the man of the cloth, the husband and father, sexually coerced them and used the power of his prophetic position to engage in sex with them.

It is even more shocking considering Long has preached with conviction against homosexuality and gay marriage.

The details outlined in three lawsuits -- a fourth man stepped forward on Friday -- have rocked the Christian community. Bishop Long isn't just a preacher with a storefront church. He oversees a massive 240-acre complex in Lithonia, Georgia, just outside of Atlanta, a congregation of 25,000 members, schools, and an international ministry that is seen on TBN, Daystar, The Word Network and online. He is widely respected as a strong man of God who ministers annually to fellow pastors, men, youth and a mega women's conference.

His influence is tremendous and far reaching, even in the areas of education and politics in Georgia.

With all that said, and I fully understand that he has vigorously denied the allegations, there is no doubt in my mind that for the sake of the church, Long and his family, he needs to remove himself from the pulpit as the leader of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in order for the issue to be resolved to its conclusion.

In an interview with me on Thursday on the Tom Joyner Morning Show, Long's attorney, Craig Gillen, said his client would speak for the first time on Sunday at 11 a.m. and address the issue before his congregation.

While I disagree with waiting five days since the allegations were revealed -- if someone accused me of doing this and I know in my heart I didn't do it, I would be screaming from the top of Georgia's Stone Mountain -- Long first and foremost owes an explanation to his personal family, and then his church family.

If he does indeed stand before the New Birth family, Long should be honest and forthright, not mince words or engage in double talk. And after whatever he says, he should take it upon himself to "sit himself down."

In the Christian church, when a pastor is accused of wrongdoing, going through a divorce or violating the biblical call to be above "reproach," the senior pastor orders them to be "sat down." That means they don't carry out their ministerial duties. The point is to protect the integrity of the Word of God, as well as to allow that pastor to get his or her affairs in order.

As the leader of New Birth, there is no human authority above Long. But he has a heavenly father that he has to answer to, and he must not allow his personal travails to interfere with the good and expansive works of the church. Souls still need to be saved, people still need to be healed, the sick still must be cared for, and the naked clothed.

Yet I also hope that when Long speaks, he does one of two things: If in his mind and heart he has done no wrong, he will launch a vigorous defense of his name and integrity and vow with every fiber in his body to fight the charges, even if that means spending every dime he has and not settle the lawsuits.

But if he is guilty of what is alleged, I pray that Long doesn't stand before his church as its spiritual father and continue the charade of saying "I didn't do it" and tear into his accusers. God, Long and those young men know what took place, and as someone who has listened to many of his sermons and read his books, Long has often talked about the need for Christians, especially men, to be accountable for their actions and confess their sins.

If guilty, and if he truly cares about his enormous flock, he will stand before them and admit to the error of his ways, and not put them through more pain and heartache. He is a charismatic pastor who has always been known to preach an uncompromising Word, unwilling to say what folks want to hear, but instead, what they need to hear.

Bishop Long, your congregation and the world don't want to hear excuses. They don't want ambiguity.

Your motto at New Birth for years has been "Taking Authority." This is the time for you to live that credo out before your flock, no matter what the outcome will be.

"Obama Team Uses FlimFlammery To Inflate Job Numbers"

Protein Wisdom - Good news: that stimulus money that went to create “green jobs”? It worked!

– That is, if by “green jobs” you mean “jobs that administration officials have decided retroactively to designate as green, regardless of whether or not they have a lick to do with combating ‘global climate disruption.’”

So, win-win.

Which reminds me: after a year of hard work, I finally hit 500lb on the bench press this morning. It took a lot of protein and, frankly, a degree of mental toughness I never knew I had in me.

That, and the strategic decision to go ahead and call 175lbs “500″.

Obama's World: State Unemployment Gets Worse In 27 States

The national unemployment rate may have only ticked up slightly in August, but on a state-by-state basis, the jobs picture continues to look a lot more grim in places like Nevada, Michigan and California.

A total of 27 states reported higher unemployment rates in August, nearly double the 14 that saw increases in July, the Labor Department said in its monthly report on state unemployment Tuesday.

While the rate remained at 9.6% for the country as a whole, Nevada, Michigan and California have consistently racked up rates above 12%.

Nevada had the worst rate for the fourth month in a row, at a record high of 14.4%, up from 14.3% in July. Michigan followed with 13.1% unemployment, unchanged from the prior rate, and California was third with a 12.4% rate, an increase from 12.3% in July.

After Kentucky and Georgia joined the list, 13 states had unemployment rates above 10% in August, as opposed to 11 the previous month.

The jobless rates fell in 13 states, as opposed to 18 that saw decreases in July. Ten states and the District of Columbia had no rate change.

North Dakota remained the state with the lowest unemployment, posting a 3.7% rate, followed by South Dakota with 4.5% and Nebraska with 4.6%.

Paladino Within 6 points of the Unbeatable Cuomo In NY

Ed Morrissey - Could the Tea Party wave crash as far into Democratic strongholds as the governor’s mansion in New York? Until now, businessman Carl Paladino has been more of a human-interest story than a threat to Andrew Cuomo in his quest for his father’s old position as Governor. The New York Daily News reports that a new Quinnipiac poll shows that Paladino has transformed from a sideshow to a contender (via Jammie Wearing Fool):

Flame-throwing Republican Carl Paladino is within striking distance of overtaking longtime gubernatorial frontrunner Andrew Cuomo, a shocking new poll finds.

Among likely voters, the Democrat Cuomo has a paltry 49% to 43% lead over Paladino, the blowhard Buffalo businessman who won a shocking and decisive victory last week in the GOP primary, the Quinnipiac University poll finds.

Quinnipiac’s findings are in stark contrast to a Rasmussen Reports poll released Monday that showed Cuomo with a more robust 54% to 38% lead.

Cuomo “might be a victim of his own excess,” Quinnipiac pollster Maurice Carroll said. “Politicians and polls have depicted him so relentlessly as a sure thing that he might be a victim of the ‘throw the bums out’ attitude that hits incumbents in this angry year.”

Paladino famously says that the way to clean up Albany is with a baseball bat and not a broom. He may be hitting a home run with New York voters, whom most analysts had more or less written out of the big conservative wave that appears to be breaking across the US. Cuomo was too impressive a candidate, and Republicans too disorganized and with unknowns on the ballot, to make a dent in the Empire State this year. At least with Quinnipiac, those voters may have other ideas after all.

It’s still an uphill climb. Paladino will need a much bigger split among independents than his current 49/43 lead in order to overcome the Democratic registration advantage. He could help matters by getting the 13% of Republicans who are moving to Cuomo; Paladino gets 8% of Democrats, but he’s not likely to get much more than that. Republican Rick Lazio is still on the ballot in the Conservative Party slot as well, which complicates matters — but since neither Quinnipiac nor Rasmussen polled with Lazio as an option, it’s hard to say how much. The real question for Democrats will be turnout, and whether the likely-voter models used by the two pollsters will accurately predict the enthusiasm building on the Right.

This could have an effect on down-ticket races as well. Until now, New York Republicans and conservatives may have been forgiven for having somewhat less enthusiasm in this election as is seen in other states with less daunting odds. If Republicans get excited about Paladino, they may not quite carry him to victory, but the force of that enthusiasm will reverberate in close Congressional races throughout the state.

Congratulations, Barry: Obamacare Means No Insurance For Kids

Patterico - The book that helped me understand economics was “Basic Economics” by Thomas Sowell. One of his main points is that government intervention almost always has unintended consequences. Take rent control, for example. It sounds great (from the standpoint of renters) to have the government control prices so that they will be affordable. Problem is, it’s not so great for the landlords, and due to the law of supply and demand, housing shortages result. What was intended as a boon for renters often turns out to be a burden on people seeking housing.

So what do you think might happen if you sought to make health insurance more widely available for children — by simply mandating that companies with child-only policies make those policies available to children with pre-existing conditions?

You cheated and looked at the headline, didn’t you?

Some of the country’s most prominent health insurance companies have decided to stop offering new child-only plans, rather than comply with rules in the new health-care law that will require such plans to start accepting children with preexisting medical conditions after Sept. 23.

Welcome to the Law of Unintended Consequences, Barry.

Well. Unintended, by the chuckleheads who wrote the law? Sure. Unexpected by those of us who warned against such a law? No.

[S]upporters of the new health-care law complain that the change amounts to an end run around one of the most prized consumer protections.

“We’re just days away from a new era when insurance companies must stop denying coverage to kids just because they are sick, and now some of the biggest changed their minds,” Ethan Rome, executive director of Health Care for America Now, an advocacy group, said in a statement. “[It] is immoral, and to blame their appalling behavior on the new law is patently dishonest.”

No, Ethan, what is patently dishonest — or simply stupid, if there must be an alternative — is to ignore the fact that the new law caused this. They were told they couldn’t raise rates. What did you expect them to do? Lose money to comply with your sense of right and wrong?

Remedial economics all around!

It would be laughable if it didn’t exact an actual human toll.

52% Of Voters Says Their Views Are More Like Palin's Than Obama's

Ian Lazaran - With the exception of Fox News, nobody in the media will cite this poll because it's Rasmussen. The Democrat Party and the media take a selective approach with Rasmussen. They'll cite him when they like what he shows while ignoring him when they don't like what he shows. They won't cite this Rasmussen poll because they won't like what it shows:

Fifty-two percent (52%) of Likely U.S. Voters say their own views are closer to Sarah Palin’s than they are to President Obama’s, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

Just 40% say their views are closer to the president’s than to those of the former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential candidate.

Eighty-four percent (84%) of Republicans and 59% of voters not affiliated with either major party say their views are more like Palin’s. Eighty-one percent (81%) of Democrats say they think more like the president.

Voters are fairly evenly divided in their views of Palin. Forty-eight percent (48%) view her favorably, while 49% hold an unfavorable opinion of her. This includes 21% with a Very Favorable view and 31% with a Very Unfavorable one. This marks little change from last November when Palin was on a national tour to promote her book, “Going Rogue.”

However, 76% of Republicans and 52% of unaffiliated voters now hold a favorable opinion of Palin....

Palin’s endorsement has been seen as critical in upset Republican Senate Primary wins in Alaska, Delaware and South Carolina, helping to mobilize Tea Party voters in those states and other races this election cycle.

Sixty-three percent (63%) of Republicans think Palin is good for their party, but 60% if Democrats disagree. Unaffiliated voters by a 41% to 36% margin see Palin as good for the GOP.

Among all voters, 40% say Palin is good for Republicans, while 39% say she’s bad for the party. Twenty percent (20%) are undecided.


In case you were wondering whether Rasmussen had a pro-Palin bias in the past, the answer to that question is no. The Alaska poll it conducted in October of 2008 found her favorable rating in the state at 63%. The 2008 Alaska exit poll of actual voters found her approval rating at 73%.

In any event, here are the crosstabs:

Whose views are closer to your own? Palin/Obama

Overall: 52/40
Male: 55/37
Female: 48/43
White: 58/35
Black: 5/87
GOP: 84/9
DEM: 14/81
INDY: 59/27
Conservative: 80/12
Moderate: 28/61
Liberal: 14/85



Update by Doug: (h/t RefudiateObama2012) Scott Rasmussen and Doug Schoen, co-authors of the recently released Mad as Hell, sat down for an interview with Jamie Weinstein of the The Daily Caller. One of the questions asked was who they thought would be the most formidable Republican candidate to challenge Obama in 2012:


6. Who do you think would be the best Republican candidate to challenge Obama in 2012?

I do not know now who the best candidate to challenge President Obama is. I can tell you that just based on this year’s primary season, the strongest candidate in the Republican primaries will almost certainly be Sarah Palin.

Christine O' Donnell's Sunday Cancellations Could Be A Palin Inspired Move

Riehl World View - Sarah Palin made an interesting comment in her recent Iowa speech. It leaves me wondering if she's had more than a brief congratulatory phone call with Christine O'Donnell. We all know how Palin's early national television exposure turned out.

Palin gave no hint of her plans beyond this fall. Asked after her speech when she planned on returning to Iowa, which holds the nation's first presidential caucus in 2012, she said soon. She quickly added, however, that she wants to get to Delaware very soon and start knocking on doors.

Without knowing more, or what's really in Christine O'Donnell's mind, or behind her fall strategy, it's possible to see a scenario in which O'Donnell's cancellation of two Sunday news shows was actually the right and a smart political move.

WASHINGTON – Tea party favorite Christine O'Donnell, whose Republican primary upset in Delaware's Senate race shocked the GOP, canceled appearances Sunday on two national news shows. O'Donnell had been set to appear on "Face the Nation" on CBS and "Fox News Sunday."

Christine O'Donnell has raised well over 1 million dollars since her primary win over Mike Castle. Her current stated goal on her website is 2 million dollars. Her opponent, Leftist Chris Coons, has been reported to have raised about $125 k. Exposure on the Sunday talk show circuit is good exposure for raising money nationally. O'Donnell already has that. She's not running for Vice President, as Palin was, and the people she needs to convince she'd make a good Senator all live in one small state, Delaware.

For her to win, her race has to focus on Leftist Chris Coons and Obama's Leftist policies that have not been working, while leaving a majority of the country dissatisfied with both Obama and the Democrats.

Given that Bill Maher is already doing his own personal and rather hypocritical oppo research dump on her, using his own show's decade old archives to do it, it's unlikely that the Sunday shows were going to want to focus on the topcis that work to O'Donnell's advantage.

While understanding how critics might justifiably point to the cancenllations as bad news, or a bad move for O'Donnell, when one stops to look at the overall dynamics, it's also possible to see a scenario in which they represent a very smart move. We're going to have to wait and see what happens next to actually know which scenario proves true in the end.

Has Sarah Palin Saved Republican Party?

Doug Brady - A thoughtful article by Paul Goldman with the above title appears in today's Washington Post. Many beltway Republicans have been trashing Tea Party candidates and those who support them such as Governor Palin and Jim DeMint. Karl Rove and Charles Krauthammer are only the most recent examples. These insurgent candidates, claim the beltway denizens, have hurt the Republican's chances to regain control of Congress in November.

Apparently the thought of competitive primaries in which the lowly "commoners" are given a real choice is abhorrent to the DC elites. But America is still a democracy, not an aristocracy. Slow Joe Scarborough, in one of his typically loud and obtuse statements at MSDNC, summed up beltway sentiment toward Tea Party candidate successes when he proclaimed "I blame Sarah Palin" for...well, something.

The general thrust of the establishment's argument, when you boil it down, is that the Republican Party would be in peachy shape if not for the unwashed Tea Party rebels. In other words, the Republican Party needs Governor Palin and the Tea Party rabble with whom she associates like I need a stone in my shoe. In his piece, Goldman looks at the influence of the Tea Party movement on the Republican primaries in a far different light.

What if, Goldman ponders, Governor Palin had encouraged Tea Party candidates to take the third party route instead of competing in Republican Primaries? She certainly could have. Throughout the summer and fall of 2009 when the Tea Party movement was coming together, many thought that's exactly what they would do. If they had, how would the Republican Party be expected to fare in the November mid-terms? Dismally, I suspect.

A recent CBS poll pegged Republican Congressional Approval at 20%. To be sure, the sampling methodology employed by CBS was laughably biased in favor of Democrats, but even Rasmussen finds that 75% of Republican voters believe their GOP representatives in Washington are out of touch. And yet the GOP is enjoying record leads in the generic ballot and enthusiasm gap. Indeed at the moment it's conventional wisdom that Republicans will sweep to huge, perhaps historic, victories in November. What explains this contradiction?

Goldman argues that it's in large part due to Governor Palin's decision to encourage Tea Party candidates and other restless conservatives to remain within the Republican Party via competitive primaries and not take the third party route. Given the state of the Republican Party, particularly in Washington, Goldman has an excellent point, although I think the late 1970s provide a better analogy than the 1912 analogy Goldman uses. All of the energy and enthusiasm on the Republican side is with the insurgent candidates, not the establishment (who are doing little more than riding the wave generated by the insurgents).

In the 1970s when beltway Republicans had similarly lost their way, Reagan followed the same approach. Reagan understood then as Palin understands now that the best way to revitalize the conservative movement and return America to its constitutional roots is to retake and reform what should be the home of conservatives: the Republican Party. After the sweeping Democrat victories of 2006 and 2008 (as in 1974 and 1976), there was talk that the Republican Party may become extinct and go the way of the Whigs. Not anymore.

The inescapable conclusion is that rather than "blaming" Governor Palin for upsetting the GOP apple cart, the GOP should be thanking her. By encouraging Tea Party candidates to compete from within the party rather than from without, the party has been infused with energy and excitement that was unimaginable less than two years ago. Sure, some establishment feathers have been ruffled, but they needed to be. Ironically, Governor Palin may well have saved the party that has yet to fully accept her.

Excerpts from Goldman's article follow:

Delaware Republicans have proved it: Sarah Palin is the best asset the GOP has right now.

There has been a lot of carping about Republicans' prospects for November since Palin-backed candidate Christine O'Donnell defeated longtime Delaware officeholder Mike Castle for the Republican Senate nomination Tuesday. But contrary to conventional wisdom, the 2008 vice presidential nominee has kept the party strong. How? She has kept the Tea Party faithful inside the GOP tent. Had she instead encouraged these disillusioned voters to mount third-party challenges across the 2010 general-election ballot, dozens of Democratic incumbents, not to mention challengers, would be smiling like Woodrow Wilson in 1912.

[...]

Consider: If Newt Gingrich or Glenn Beck held Palin's political clout, they might very well have used this power to encourage independent conservative challenges, figuring the resulting GOP chaos would redound to their benefit. Palin rejected this course, even though it probably would have been in her political interest.

Consider also that Palin has received no credit for being loyal to a party establishment that continues to treat her with maximum low regard. Americans have never sent to the White House an individual rejected four years earlier as a vice presidential nominee. So it is doubtful that Palin stuck with the GOP because she hoped to be rewarded with the chance to lead it in 2012. Think about it: A lesser person would have opted for payback, not party.

That the GOP establishment fails to appreciate the debt it owes her is reflective of the elitist outlook that is contributing to Tea Party activism nationwide.

[...]

Simply put, Palin started as Tonto but has become the Lone Ranger. Instead of fading out last summer, she remained strong and stood by her party. She has become a bridge between the old Republican guard and the growing right-wing dissatisfaction with not just Democrats but also Republican officeholders. Palin's ability to advocate for using the GOP, not a third party, to channel this angst has allowed Republican voter anger to boil, yet not boil over.

Should Republicans run up the score in November, Sarah Palin will deserve a lot of credit she will never get.


I'm not as pessimistic as Goldman on that last point. If, as expected, the GOP has a big night on November 2nd Governor Palin will get (and deserve) a huge amount of the credit. The GOP establishment and their candidate may try to diminish her role, but their ability to pull the wool over our eyes is long gone (along with the candidacies of Dede Scozzafava and Mike Castle). The Republican Establishment may not appreciate or understand the debt they owe her, but the rest of us do. Read Goldman's entire article here. It's not without the obligatory Washington Post snark, but surprisingly fair for the Post.

Foreclosures Rise; Repossessions Set Record

CNBC -US foreclosure activity rose in August from the previous month, and banks and lenders took ownership from homeowners at a record pace, according to a new report released Thursday.

Bank repossessions, often the final step in the foreclosure process after a home fails to sell at auction, increased about 3 percent from the month before to 95,364, a record high. At the same time the number of properties that received default notices—the first step in the foreclosure process—decreased 1 percent from a month ago and fell 30 percent from a year ago, a sign that lenders are focusing on their backlog of foreclosure inventory before tackling new distressed loans, according to foreclosure listing website RealtyTrac, which released the report.

Overall, foreclosure fillings rose 4.18 percent in August from the previous month, and were down 5.48 percent from a year ago. In all, 338,836 properties were in the foreclosure process. One in 381 U.S. households received a foreclosure notice in August. (Foreclosure notices are defined as a default notice, auction sale notice or bank repossession.)

“There is a buildup in delinquent loans that are not in foreclosure,” said Rick Sharga, senior vice president of RealtyTrac, adding that banks and lenders are slowing the process to avoid a drop in home prices. “It’s a managed slowdown more than anything else,” he said.

“The underlining conditions haven’t improved,” Sharga added, referring to high unemployment and falling home prices in certain markets.

The ten states with the highest foreclosure rates were little changed from the previous month, according to the RealtyTrac report. For the 44th straight month, Nevada had the highest foreclosure rate in the country with one in every 84 properties in the state getting a foreclosure notice. (Nevada also has the highest unemployment in the country.)

Florida ranked second with one in every 155 households receiving a notice, followed by Arizona (one in 165 households), California (one in 194 households) and Idaho (one in every 220 households.) (See the full list in our slideshow.)

Vermont had the lowest rate, with one in every 18,389 properties receiving a foreclosure notice.

The RealtyTrac report comes a day after the Mortgage Bankers Association reported that demand for home loans fell even though mortgage rates were at record lows. Also on Wednesday, real estate website Trulia.com reported that homeowners nationally slashed more than $29 billion from their asking prices in August, as they tried to lure buyers stalled by unemployment

Establishmen Republicans Are Just As Bad As The Democrats

Cassy Fiano - Last night, as conservatives predicted and establishment Republicans feared, Christine O’Donnell defeated Mike Castle in Delaware’s GOP primary. And predictably, establishment Republicans are throwing a gigantic temper tantrum in response. Mike Castle is refusing to endorse O’Donnell. Karl Rove is bitterly complaining (video here), pointing out inanities to try to discredit her like… the “fact” that she took too long to pay off her college bills? (Um, hate to point it out to you Karl, but I think there’s a lot of Americans who can sympathize with that.) It’s been rumored that the NRSC is refusing to back her. And the GOP is blaming her win for losing the chance to take back the Senate in November… although, as Ed Morrissey points out, just last week they were trying to keep expectations of taking back the House (let alone the Senate!) down.

Like I said, the GOP establishment is throwing a giant temper tantrum. And it’s quite frankly disgusting.

There’s a lesson to be learned here. And the lesson is that the establishment Republicans are by and large no better than the Democrats. Karl Rove got one thing right, and it’s applicable to most of the RINOs getting voted out of office right now: voters last night were voting more against Mike Castle’s liberal voting record (cap and trade, DISCLOSE) than they were voting for Christine O’Donnell. And that’s exactly the point. Politicians in Washington have become completely infatuated with the power they think they hold. Instead of seeing themselves for what they are — public servants elected by their constituents — they have gotten this deluded notion into their heads that they own the seats they hold in Congress, regardless of whether voters still want them there or not. Arlen Specter switched parties, Charlie Crist is running as an independent and bashing GOP principles he claimed to hold just months ago, Lisa Murkowski is debating a write-in campaign, and Mike Castle is refusing to back Christine O’Donnell. What will it take for them to get the message that WE make the decision? Voters are the ones who choose who they want to represent them, not the beltway establishment. We don’t make the choice that the NRSC wants us to make, and the NRSC sulks.

The establishment talking point is that O’Donnell cannot win in Delaware because she is too extreme. Well, that may very well be true. But she’d have a much better chance if the establishment would rally behind her than if they played right into the hands of the Democrats. And that’s what they’re doing right now. If Mike Castle had won last night, conservatives would have grudgingly held their noses and stood behind him in order to keep the Democrats from keeping another seat in the Senate. When the situation is reversed, there’s no such sense of unity from the GOP establishment. It’s all take for them and no give, and voters are fed up.

For years, Republicans in Congress have gotten selfish and lazy. They ignored what their constituents wanted from them, they got tone-deaf, and they turned themselves into the Democrat-lite party. Conservative principles? There’s no home for them right now in the Republican party, and so Republican voters are forcing a change. They’re bringing in new blood and they’re sending a message to the RINOs left standing: adapt or die. If voters wanted spend-happy fat cats that are indistinguishable from Democrats, they would have voted Mike Castle in again. Charlie Crist wouldn’t have been trailing Marco Rubio in all of the polls. Arlen Specter wouldn’t have had to leave the party with his tail tucked between his legs. Voters have spoken, they’re making their voices heard, and Republicans are angry about it. What does that tell you?

This is about much more than just Christine O’Donnell. This is a fight for the soul of the Republican party. This election season has shown that there is a change coming, like it or not, and the response from the GOP has said everything that needs to be said. The GOP doesn’t respect their constituents anymore than the Democrats do. These primaries aren’t just anti-Democrat, although Democrats will inevitably take the worst of it. It’s anti-incumbent, because most of the incumbents have come to see themselves as some sort of holier-than-thou royalty who deserves a seat in Congress for life. They act in their own interests only, regardless of what is best for the country or what voters want, and Democrats do not have a monopoly on that. Establishment Republicans are just as bad, and voters are fed up.

A change is coming. The lesson to Republicans is clear. Will they be willing to learn and change? If not, the purge will just keep coming. Adapt or die.

Jim DeMint: I'm Thankful For Sarah Palin

Conservatives4Palin - Mark Levin asked Jim DeMint what he thought about Charles Krauthammer's remarks on his radio show last night. DeMint has endorsed Christine O'Donnell.

DeMint talks about Palin at around 3:30 -

O'Donnell Leads Castle 47-44: Levin Calls Pattterico an "Idiot"

Patterico's Pontifications - It looks like there’s a real possibility of a major upset in the Delaware Senate primary on Tuesday night, with insurgent conservative Christine O’Donnell leading longtime Congressman and Governor Mike Castle 47-44. That 3 point lead is well within the poll’s margin of error.

Meanwhile, Dan Riehl is raising questions about Mike Castle’s record. I’m happy to pass along those concerns . . . for what they’re worth.

Dan also jumps into a dispute between the PowerLine guys and Mark Levin. It looks like a full-on war between the “real conservatives” and anyone with the temerity to question them.

Count me out of the war (for now) — but I will say this. There are people who have devoted themselves to the conservative cause for years. I count the PowerLine guys in that group. I sure as hell would not casually place them in the “traitor” category — and I don’t really care what Dan Riehl or Mark Levin say. People with years of solid conservative blogging deserve some credit for their years of solid conservative blogging.

Some conservatives apparently don’t want to put our reputations behind someone who appears to be a liar. I’m sure as shootin’ not going to jump down their throats for that.

Again: I’m not eager to jump into this fight. Then again, if someone wants to drag me into it, I know how to fight back. Fairly warned be thee, say I.

UPDATE: You know, I finally read through Levin’s Facebook post, and Paul Mirengoff’s post that Levin distorts. I am ready to jump into the war.

Levin’s post is packed with mischaracterizations. Just chock full of them. Expressed with the dripping arrogance of someone who apparently feels that, because he is better known than Mirengoff, he is entitled to say whatever he feels like about him — and the facts be damned.

I suppose caring about the facts probably makes me an inauthentic conservative in Mark Levin’s eyes. I don’t care. I’ll go with the facts, every time.

Every time.

UPDATE: I see Levin just called me an “idiot.” I won’t descend to Levin’s namecalling. Again, I will stick with the facts:

PowerLine supported Toomey, contrary to Levin’s original assertion. In the end, they did not support Harriet Miers, contrary to Levin’s original assertion. Levin said Graham is Mirengoff’s “brand of Republican.” That was flatly false. Mirengoff criticizes Graham constantly. Levin said “Mirengoff starts from the proposition that long-time Republican officials deserve re-election.” That assertion is unsupported and false.

Note well: my focus was the facts, and the way Levin distorted them — and now he is coming after me personally. This is reflective of the tactics of the left that Matt Lewis notes are being used against anyone who doesn’t toe the line.

Levin says he has written about these issues since. That’s nice. However, his original piece — the one with all the distortions — remains uncorrected.

I will note only that my concern was, and always will be, with the facts. If that makes me an “idiot” in Mark Levin’s eyes, I don’t want to be “smart.”

UPDATE: Levin calls me other names too, of course, such as “jackass” and the like. The one I find most interesting is “just another loser with a keyboard.” Levin claims superiority to me because he has written a book and I haven’t, and he is on the radio while I am not. Apparently bloggers who hold famous radio guys accountable for their distortions are just losers in pajamas.

Where have I heard this line of argument before? Oh, that’s right: from our betters in Big Media.

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

41 Obama White House Aides Owe IRS $831,000 In Taxes

L.A. Times - Over the years a lot of suspicion has built up across the country about Washington and its population of opportunistic transients coming to see themselves as a special kind of person, somehow above average working Americans who don't labor down in that monument-strewn former swamp.

Well, finally, an end to all those undocumented doubts. Thanks to some diligent digging by the Washington Post, those suspicions can at last be put to rest.

They're correct. Accurate. Dead-on. Laser-guided. On target. Bingo-bango. As clear as it's always seemed to those Americans who don't feel special entitlements and do meet their government obligations.

We now know that federal employees across the nation owe fully $1 billion in back taxes to the Internal Revenue Service.

As in, 1,000 times one million dollars. All this political jabber about giving middle-class ...

... Americans a tax cut. Thousands of feds have been giving themselves one all along -- unofficially. And these tax scofflaws include more than three dozen folks who work for the president with that newly decorated Oval Office.
The Post's T.W. Farnum did some research and found that out of the total sum, just 638 workers on Capitol Hill owe the IRS $9.3 million in back taxes. As in, overdue. The IRS gets stiffed by the legislative body that controls its budget. How Washington works.

Now, back taxes have been a problem for the Obama-Biden administration. You may recall early on that Tom Daschle was the president's top pick to run the Health and Human Services Department. But it turned out the former Democratic senator, who was un-elected from South Dakota in 2004, owed something like $120,000 to the IRS for things from his subsequent benefactor that he just forgot to pay taxes on. You know how that is. $120G's here or there. So he dropped out.

And then we learned this guy Timothy Geithner owed something like $42,000 in back taxes and penalties to the IRS, which is one of the agencies that he'd be in charge of as secretary of the Treasury. The fine fellow who's supposed to know about handling everyone else's money. In the end this was excused by Washington's bipartisan CYA culture as one of those inadvertent accidental oversights that somehow never seem to happen on the side of paying too much taxes.

And under Geithner's expert guidance the U.S. economy has been, well, wow! Just look at it.

Privacy laws prevent release of individual tax delinquents' names. But we do know that as of the end of 2009, 41 people inside Obama's very own White House owe the government they're allegedly running a total of $831,055 in back taxes. That would cover a lot of special chocolate desserts in the White House Mess.

In the House of Representatives, 421 people owe a total $6,524,892. In the Senate, 217 owe $2,774,836. In the IRS' parent department, Treasury, 1,204 owe $7,670,814. At the Labor Department, where Secretary Hilda Solis' husband had some back-tax problems before her confirmation, 463 owe $7,481,463. Eighty-one workers for the Federal Reserve System's board of governors owe $1,076,733.

Over at the Justice Department, which is so busy enforcing other laws and suing Arizona, 1,971 employees still owe $14,350,152 in overdue taxes.

Then, we come to the Department of Homeland Security, which is run by Janet Napolitano, the former governor of Arizona who preferred to call terrorist acts "man-caused disasters." Homeland Security is keeping all of us safe by ensuring that a Dutch tourist is aboard every inbound international flight to thwart any would-be bomber with explosives in his underpants.

Within that department, there reside 4,856 people who owe the tax agency a whopping total of $37,012,174.

Burning Mad

Greyhawk - So, maybe they won't burn a Koran. Or maybe they will. Or maybe Fred Phelps will.

The whole thing's a story I was going to stay out of. But I got an email from a friend in Afghanistan who's a long way down the totem pole from General Petraeus, and thought I'd share.

Burning the Koran is going to fuck us all up over here. REALLY bad idea. Unless what you're trying to do is cause a mess. Be prepared for some serious shit that we over here seriously don't need. Not kidding.

And yes, the Afghans are aware and waiting to see what happens. No, they are not happy. Yes, it does matter. No, I'm not kidding and I've not gone native. All humor aside, it is important and not a single person is going to do anything to stop them from costing lives. My honest appraisal is that it will cost lives and turn people who take this very seriously against us. Needlessly.

So, there you have the thoughts of a guy who's actually engaged in defending freedom from extremists - at risk of life and limb. Personally I consider that at least as worthwhile as the opinions of those who enjoy the fruits of his labors, or are hypothetically willing to join the fight as demonstrated by their courageous typings on the innernets.

Meanwhile...

Daily brief: Quran burning protests sweep Afghanistan

Thousands of enraged Afghans and Pakistanis protested a small evangelical church's plans, currently on hold, to burn Qurans on September 11 by burning American flags and chanting "Death to Christians" (BBC, Pajhwok, AP, AFP, Post). Insurgents have reportedly handed out pamphlets in some areas of Afghanistan comparing the Quran burning to Draw Muhammad Day earlier this year, and a Pakistani Taliban commander in South Waziristan said his group is telling people the planned Quran burning is on par with drone strikes (ABC, Newsweek). Thousands of Afghans hurled rocks at a small NATO base in the northeastern province of Badakhshan in protest, and according to the head of UNAMA Staffan de Mistura the country-wide protests could delay Afghan parliamentary elections, scheduled for September 18 (AFP, AP, Reuters, Tolo).

Rep. Ron Paul Hints At 2012 Presidential Campaign

Steve Watson - Texas Congressman Ron Paul has hinted that he is strongly considering another Presidential run in 2012.

Paul, who previously ran for the Republican nomination in 2008 and under the Libertarian Party in 1988, told an interviewer that “It’s something I think about every single day,”.

The Congressman’s comments came during an interview with his former House colleague, Bob Bauman, legal counsel for The Sovereign Society – an independent investment advisory group.

Paul said it would “be a tough decision”, but that he believes the American people are ready to embrace a new political direction.

The comments have not been picked by by mainstream media sources as of yet.

The Congressman has previously downplayed rumours of another Presidential campaign, saying it is unlikely. However, following a string of successes in recent surveys and straw polls, including victory in the Conservative Political Action Conference’s (CPAC) presidential straw poll, it seems Paul is now reconsidering his earlier statements.

Paul’s comments add weight to more recent rumblings that he may once again pick up the presidential campaign mantle in 2012. Earlier this year the Congressman’s wife, Carol, stated “If you would ask him now he would probably say ‘no’, but he did say…things are happening so quickly and fast in our country, if we’re at a crisis period and they need someone…with the knowledge he has…then he would do it.”

Jesse Benton, Senior VP of Paul’s advocacy group Campaign for Liberty, has said of the prospective run: “If the decision had to be made today, it would be ‘no’, but he is considering it very strongly and there is a decent likelihood that he will. A lot of it depends on things going on in his personal life and also what’s going on in the country.”

At the height of Paul’s 2008 campaign, dubbed the Ron Paul Revolution by supporters, the Congressman smashed the all-time record for political donations on one day, beating John Kerry’s previous effort as he hauled in over $6 million dollars during a 24-hour period that coincided with the 234th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party.

Indeed, as we have continuously highlighted, The Tea Party movement, originally Libertarian in origin, grew out of this trend of honouring the anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. An event held in 2006 was repeated in 2007 with the Ron Paul Money bomb, and the movement evolved from there over the following three years.

As part of an effort to encourage Ron Paul to run for president in 2012, a Tea Party moneybomb has been set up with the aim of repeating those previous successes. The goal of The Ron Paul Tea Party is to have 100,000 people donate $100 each on December 16, 2010 to kick off Paul’s 2012 presidential bid, should he decide to run.

Infowars’ Alex Jones has personally pledged support to the Draft Ron Paul movement, noting that Paul is the only candidate who will inject real issues into an otherwise sterile debate format and that everything he has been warning the American people about for decades is coming into fruition as we approach 2012.

Whether neocon and corporate Republicans like it or not, Ron Paul has had and continues to have a far reaching impact upon the direction of the party. Every rare intelligible thing that Sarah Palin has said regarding limited government, fiscal economic policy and the restoration of freedom is taken straight from the Ron Paul handbook.

The core difference between Paul and Palin is that the Congressman has built a real grass roots following over the course of several decades. Paul is the real deal, while Palin, Romney, McCain and Gingrich, on the other hand are all neocons at the core, supporting the invasion and occupation of sovereign nations in step with the grossly bloated empire building military industrial complex. Never pandering to the crowds, Paul has consistently hammered home this key difference.

Of the current crop of possible 2012 GOP presidential candidates, Ron Paul is once again the only one truly in step with the majority anti-war, anti-big government sentiment in America.

The Texas Congressman has also been instrumental in leading a grass roots revolt against the real culprits behind the economic collapse, the Federal Reserve, introducing a bill to audit the private organization which has received widespread support from both Republicans and Democrats but has been fought at every turn by elitists in Washington.

If you thought the impact of the Ron Paul Revolution in 2007 and 2008 was damaging to the new world order agenda, then imagine what kind of momentum could be built up over the next few years as we head towards 2012, which globalists have marked down as a key juncture by which they want their global feudalist system firmly in place.

It almost seems like fate that the Congressman should lead the mass resistance to the globalist agenda at this crucial time in history, and we implore him to take on that hefty responsibility while guaranteeing that the grass roots will rally behind him with a ferocity never before seen in recent political times.

America Held Hostage - 559

Legal Insurrection - I took yesterday off from blogging, and of course the big news broke that the Pastor in Florida was not going to set the world on fire (we think, not sure, he'll let us know for sure eventually) this Saturday by burning a load of Korans on the lawn in front of his church..

Just another example of how we are held hostage when our foreign policy becomes a means of satisfying some deep psychological need to be forgiven and liked.

When the desire to be liked by people who never will like us is the policy, we are hostages to irresponsible people like:

* The Florida Pastor who knew what the reaction would be to his stunt, and thereby got his 15 minutes of fame to such an extent that the President and Defense Secretary had to beg him to stop; and
* The Cordoba House Imam who has made the fear of violence part of his media strategy, and who, even before that, got his 15 minutes of fame to such an extent that the President and Mayor had to beg him to keep going..

Our nation now is held hostage to every kook with a match and every huckster who knows how to play the Islamophobia card.

I'd rather be respected than liked, and right now in the world, we are neither. We're just hostages.

What If They Gave A Quran Burniing And Nobody Came

Just One Minute - President Obama follows Sarah Palin's lead in condemning the Quran burning slated for Sept 11.

Left unremarked in the Times coverage - just what is the culpability and responsibility of the media in covering this stunt? The church hosting the Quran bonfire has all of fifty members and is not anyone's idea of mainstream. Why are these Quran crackpots being given a platform to hold our national security hostage and endanger our troops?

OK, part of the answer is that this started as a lovely opportunity for the liberal media to bash some crazed righties. Fun's fun, but if the media is so worried about this, they might wonder why they feel obliged to cover it. Will CNN be broadcasting live from the bonfire? I bet they will. But if fifty people gathered to demand a look at Obama's birth certificate (or Kerry's military records!), they would be ignored as crazy but not incendiary. Or, closer to home, this is the same media that refused to publish the Mohammed cartoons that started riots in Europe. Deep-sixing stories that don't fit their narrative is what these people do for a living - why not bury this one?

Some crackpot dreamed up a stunt that the liberal media loved, and now they don't know how to get off the tiger. Well done.

FWIW, my recollection is that many sports broadcasters have a policy of cutting away from the field when some fool of a "fan" runs onto it, in order not to reward that misbehavior with attention. A similar judgment would be appropriate here.

L.A. Thugs Riot at LAPD Station After Police Shooting Of Immigrant Manuel Jamines

Hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets for the second night in a row in downtown Los Angeles Tuesday night to protest the police shooting of a Guatemalan immigrant.

Outraged Angelinos threw rocks, eggs and bottles at a police station, and 22 were arrested, but police said the busts were primarily for failure to disperse and unlawful assembly.

Officers responded to the demonstrators by firing at least two rounds of nonlethal foam projectiles, Officer Karen Rayner told The Associated Press.

The clash occurred after a late afternoon press conference where Police Chief Charlie Beck pleaded for calm and said the department would thoroughly investigate the Sunday shooting.

Beck also said only 40 seconds went by between the time the cops made contact with the victim, Manuel Jamines, and the moment when the police officer shot him twice.

On Sunday afternoon, bicycle police were alerted that Jamines, 37, was allegedly threatening pedestrians with a knife. When they arrived, cops ordered him to put drop the blade. When he refused, he was shot dead.

The shooting sparked demonstrations on Monday night near MacArthur Park, a busy neighborhood populated with many Central American immigrants. Angry protestors threw rocks and bottles at police, injuring three officers.

Beck said three cops involved in the shooting have been temporarily reassigned. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa advised residents not to resort to violence.

"We need to calm the waters," he said.
Neighbors and family said Jamines had a wife and three children in Guatemala. He came to the U.S. six years ago to find work as a laborer. They said Jamines was a friendly, hardworking man, who was drunk at the time of the shooting but not dangerous, and didn’t understand what the officers were saying.

"Killing a drunk isn’t right," said the victim’s cousin, Juan Jaminez.

A cook who knew Jamines, agreed. "The officer who did this should be subject to discipline.

Liberal Corporate Media Ignore Widespread Health Problems On Gulf Coast

If you listen to Thad Allen, Obama’s point man on the BP oil gusher, we’re over the hump. On the weekend the former Coast Guard commander said the well no longer poses a threat to the Gulf and crews will now begin the last few remaining operations needed to abandon the well this week.

In short, Obama gets to declare another mission accomplished.

The problem has been lurking in the Gulf since the first days of the BP oil spill and now has the potential ignite a disaster unlike any this country has ever seen.

However, here is what Allen and the corporate media are not talking about — residents along the Gulf Coast are sick from the effects of the oil gusher.

“The harm dealt by this silent enemy is beginning to creep into the lives of those living and working in the Gulf. The problem has been lurking in the Gulf since the first days of the BP oil spill and now has the potential ignite a disaster unlike any this country has ever seen,” reports Project Gulf Impact, an organization of citizen journalists who are doing what the corporate media refuses to do. “The residents of the Gulf of Mexico are entering a crisis whose scope cannot be calculated. Several symptoms have been reported, from subtle to severe: skin rashes and infections, upper respiratory burning, congestion and cough, headaches, nausea, vomiting, and neurological symptoms including short-term memory loss and coordination problems. These health problems, if acknowledged at all, are mis-diagnosed, buried, and mis-attributed.”

In August, chemist Bob Naman tested the waters off Orange Beach, Alabama, and found they tested positive for the dangerous neurotoxin pesticide 2-butoxyethanol, the main ingredient of Corexit 9527A.

Months ago we were told by the government this version of Corexit was no longer in use.

Mr. Naman apparently made a mistake by making his findings public. He was subsequently threatened by BP. “I am not certain the reason or nature of the threats or whether they were financial or physical threats, but given the sudden rash of untimely deaths of those with damaging knowledge about BP I would not take any threats from BP lightly,” Alexander Higgins wrote on August 24.

On September 1, Infowars.com carried a story about a swimming pool in Homosassa, Florida, testing positive for the Corexit 9527A marker 2-butoxyethanol. Samples were tested by Robert Naman, the thorn in BP’s side. The story was ignored by the corporate media.

For BP and the Obama administration, scrubbing the oil gusher and its untold number of victims from the front page is more important than the health of people along the Gulf coast. The Democrats want the oil gusher to go away because of the political damage it will inflict on them during the mid-term elections this November. Republicans want it to go away because they are covering BP’s back. Illness and misery will not be allowed to interrupt the political dog and pony show.

On September 18, 2001, then EPA administrator Christie Whitman announced the air at Ground Zero was safe to breathe. Experts estimate that as many as 40,000 people breathed noxious pollution, including dust, in the wake of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.

But the afflicted — including heroic first responders — should not expect help from the government.

The James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2009 would provide medical monitoring to those exposed to toxins, increase treatment at specialized centers for those afflicted by toxins and reopen a compensation fund to provide for the economic loss of victims. It was characterized as another Obama entitlement program by the GOP House leadership, who vowed to defeat the legislation.

If the massive poisoning of the people of the Gulf is ever exposed, we can expect a similar response on the part of the government.

President Obama Plans To Cut Social Security Next Year

Lawrence Hunter - President Obama is playing “Watch the Birdie” with Americans over the age of 50, diverting their attention with handouts and scare tactics to hide in plain sight the enormous damage his policies are doing to the retirement safety net.

First it was Medicare. The ObamaCare legislation drops a few free goodies like breadcrumbs in front of Medicare recipients (such as free diagnostics and annual checkups) to draw their attention away from the enormous cuts in Medicare being used to help pay the freight for the new national healthcare system. Additionally, the White House has engineered a full-blown propaganda campaign, coordinated with the AARP, to deceive Medicare recipients and baby boomers about the magnitude and the implications of the $575 billion in Medicare cuts being used to help pay for ObamaCare. Even more deceitfully, using TV icon Andy Griffith in a taxpayer-funded TV ad to talk about how happy days are here again, the Obama Administration and its mouthpiece AARP are attempting to hoodwink people over the age of 50 about the inherent healthcare rationing sown into the very fabric of ObamaCare.

Medicare’s own Chief Actuary has already publicly reported that the Medicare payment rates for the doctors and hospitals serving retirees will be cut by 30 percent during the next three years. The details buried in the Medicare Trustees report reveal that still further Medicare cuts adopted in the ObamaCare legislation add up altogether to $818 billion during the first 10 years of full implementation, and $3.223 trillion during the first 20 years, just for Medicare’s hospital program (Part A, HI). Counting the cuts for Medicare physician reimbursement under the Part-B program brings the grand total in Medicare cuts to $1.048 trillion during the first full 10 years, and $4.95 trillion during the first 20 years.

Now the president is coming after Social Security.

In his Saturday radio address on August 14, President Obama revealed he is already moving on to cut Social Security.

But again, he is playing "Watch the Birdie," this time using scare tactics rather than sweeteners.

In that address, he denounced the idea of solving Social Security’s problems by allowing young workers the freedom to voluntarily choose to save and invest some of their taxes in their own personal retirement accounts, an option federal employees already enjoy. The president rejects fixing the Bernie-Madoff Ponzi scheme currently used to finance Social Security with some form of personal accounts to begin pre-funding Social Security with real saving and investment. Instead, he rails about “privatization,” an incendiary (and false) characterization of voluntary personal retirement accounts intended to scare the bejeebers out of the American people.

"President Obama thinks Americans over the age of 50 are stupid and can be demagogued with false claims about their benefits."

President Obama knows that all these account proposals affect only younger workers and do not touch the benefits of today’s retirees or the baby boom generation soon to retire. Moreover, congressional proposals for voluntary personal accounts have maintained the safety net of Social Security, guaranteeing that workers would get at least as much as Social Security promises now.

But President Obama thinks Americans over the age of 50 are stupid and can be demagogued with false claims about their benefits. The far-left faction in the Democratic Party just can’t stand the idea of workers and retirees supporting themselves more through the private sector. They call that “privatization,” which means too much filthy capitalism for their tastes.

So the question remains: What is the president up to?

How does he propose to solve Social Security’s long-term financial crisis, which even his own Presidential Debt Commission realizes is real? Without some form of real saving and investment for workers to begin prefunding their retirement, the only alternatives remaining are to raise payroll taxes or cut benefits—and that is precisely what President Obama’s Debt Commission is planning.

One might think raising payroll taxes is out because President Obama pledged over and over to get elected that he would not raise taxes on anyone making less than $250,000 a year. If he refuses even to consider personal accounts as inconsistent with his socialist ideology, he will never be able to deliver on that promise.

As to benefit cuts, this is exactly what the Presidential Debt Commission is plotting to reveal right after the November election. Former Sen. Alan Simpson, co-chairman of the Commission, tipped the Commission’s hand recently when he described Social Security as a “milk cow with 300 million tits.”

Leaks indicate that among the options being considered are delaying the retirement age (sounds like a panacea to bureaucratic pencil pushers who never did a day of hard labor in their lives), changing the basic benefit formula to reduce future benefits, and delaying or slashing COLAs.

Apparently, President Obama’s concept of spreading the wealth includes sacking both the Medicare and Social Security systems on which America’s retirees have come to rely. That’s some progressive vision of “fiscal responsibility:” Put seniors out in the cold and into an early grave

Liberal Media:Two-Thirds Of New Yorkers Are Racist And Bigots

Jim Treacher - Hey, that’s not me saying it. Talk to The Paper of Record:

Two-thirds of New York City residents want a planned Muslim community center and mosque to be relocated to a less controversial site farther away from ground zero in Lower Manhattan, including many who describe themselves as supporters of the project, according to a New York Times poll.

The poll indicates that support for the 13-story complex, which organizers said would promote moderate Islam and interfaith dialogue, is tepid in its hometown…

67 percent said that while Muslims had a right to construct the center near ground zero, they should find a different site.

Which, as we all know, is un-American and mean and bad. It states quite clearly in the U.S. Constitution that you can say whatever you want unless you disagree with people who matter more than you do. The people who matter think that it’s a great idea and that you should shut up. So why are you still talking? Why do you hate America?

Speaking of people who matter, nobody matters more than President Barack Obama. And if you thought 9/11 caused you problems, get a load of this:

Every year it’s a challenge for the White House: how to commemorate the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. This year is especially awkward, given the controversy around President Barack Obama’s remarks in support of an Islamic cultural center and mosque planned for a neighborhood near ground zero in lower Manhattan.

The White House has not yet announced the president’s plans for next week, though a source familiar with the matter was doubtful Obama would travel to New York.

Why would he want to? If the New York Times is to be believed — and it is, you redneck — two out of every three people in that place are subhuman hatemongers. Plus, they’d probably just ask if he’s a Muslim, which is a horrible accusation even though there’d be nothing wrong with it if he was.

By the way, whatever happened to that wave of anti-Muslim hate crimes? It was just getting started, and then everybody stopped talking about it. Why the coverup?


Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2010/09/03/two-thirds-of-new-yorkers-are-racist-xenophobic-bigots/#ixzz0yV94i6T0

United States Path To Collapse

NIA - The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission today held hearings with former Lehman Brothers Chairman Dick Fuld. They are trying to figure out why Lehman Brothers was allowed to collapse, with the belief that the failure of Lehman Brothers caused the financial crisis of 2008. The truth is, the failure of Lehman Brothers was a result of the crisis and allowing them to fail was the only correct decision the government made during the crisis.

The pain that was felt after the collapse of Lehman Brothers is nothing compared to the pain that will come when we begin to feel the effects of bailing out the rest of Wall Street. U.S. second quarter GDP growth was revised down on Friday from 2.4% to 1.6%. In order to get this 1.6% GDP growth, the U.S. government had to spend $3.7 trillion on bailouts, stimulus bills, the buying of mortgage backed securities, and other commitments.

General Motors reported today that their August deliveries fell 25% from one year ago to 185,176 vehicles. The U.S. government used "cash for clunkers" to buy GDP growth in 2009, but that growth stole from future automobile sales. NIA believes that GM's sales decline is a sign that the U.S. will likely see a sharp contraction in GDP beginning in the third-quarter, which will lead to the Federal Reserve implementing the mother of all quantitative easing and cause a massive sell off in the U.S. dollar.

Christina Romer, outgoing Chairwoman of Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, today called for more government spending and less taxes as a way to bring down unemployment. The combination of more government spending and less taxes equals massive inflation, but this represents the state of mind in Washington today. Inflation is still the last thing on their minds because they don't see it yet.

Even though we might not see massive across the board price inflation at this time, gold and silver prices have been surging ever since NIA released its article "Gold and Silver Capitulation is Near" on July 28th. Gold is very close to breaking its all time nominal high of $1,264.90 per ounce set during June and silver is getting ready to test the critical $20-$21 per ounce resistance level.

Rising gold and silver prices indicate that the U.S. is headed for an explosion in budget deficits that will rise far beyond what it can pay for through borrowing. Leading Chinese economists are now calling Japanese debt less risky than U.S. debt and with the Japanese savings rate in decline, the U.S. will soon have nobody left to borrow from. The only option will be monetization and already the Federal Reserve is getting ready to buy $10 billion to $30 billion per month in U.S. treasuries to keep its balance sheet at inflated levels.

There are now 50 million Americans on Medicaid, with annual Medicaid costs rising 36% over the past two years to $273 billion. The recently enacted health care bill will add 16 million more Americans to Medicaid beginning in 2014, but the U.S. government will likely go bust by then. It is impossible to have an economic recovery when jobless benefits are encouraging Americans to stay unemployed. U.S. unemployment insurance spending has nearly quadrupled since 2007 to $160 billion annually. Even food stamp costs have surged 80% over the past two years to $70 billion annually.

Once Americans get used to receiving and relying on government entitlement programs, it is hard to wean them off of them. NIA has been hearing reports from members with friends who say they will only "come out of retirement" if they can find a job that pays $25 per hour or more, because with anything less it wouldn't be worth losing their jobless and food stamp benefits. Americans expect to receive their jobless benefits forever and we are sure Obama will continue to extend them leading up to the 2012 election.

There are now countless warning signs all around us on a daily basis that the U.S. is headed for a complete societal collapse. NIA received an overwhelming response from its members when we asked you to submit any signs you see that a societal collapse is near. The response we received was so strong that we are now beginning to produce a documentary about America's upcoming collapse of society. The documentary will be over an hour long and we are hoping to release it by the end of October. It will go beyond the economic facts and statistics that were discussed in 'Meltup' and help expose the upcoming collapse from a real life perspective. NIA believes this documentary will appeal to a very mainstream audience and help open up the world's eyes to the truth about the path this country is on.

America: Death By Globalism

Paul Craig Roberts - Have economists made themselves irrelevant? If you have any doubts, have a look at the current issue of the magazine, International Economy, a slick endorsed by former Federal Reserve chairmen Paul Volcker and Alan Greenspan, by Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the European Central Bank, by former Secretary of State George Shultz, and by the New York Times and Washington Post, both of which declare the magazine to be “ahead of the curve.

The main feature of the current issue is “The Great Stimulus Debate.” Is the Obama fiscal stimulus helping the economy or hindering it?

Princeton economics professor and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman and Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi represent the Keynesian view that government deficit spending is needed to lift the economy out of recession. Zandi declares that thanks to the fiscal stimulus, “The economy has made enormous progress since early 2009,” an opinion shared by the President’s Council of Economic Advisors and the Congressional Budget Office.

The opposite view, associated with Harvard economics professor Robert Barro and with European economists, such as Francesco Giavazzi and Marco Pagano and the European Central Bank, is that government budget surpluses achieved by cutting government spending spur the economy by reducing the ratio of debt to Gross Domestic Product. This is the “let them eat cake school of economics.”

Barro says that fiscal stimulus has no effect, because people anticipate the future tax increases implied by government deficits and increase their personal savings to offset the added government debt. Giavazzi and Pagano reason that since fiscal stimulus does not expand the economy, fiscal austerity consisting of higher taxes and reduced government spending could be the cure for unemployment.

If one overlooks the real world and the need of life for sustenance, one can become engrossed in this debate. However, the minute one looks out the window upon the world, one realizes that cutting Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, and housing subsidies when 15 million Americans have lost jobs, medical coverage, and homes is a certain path to death by starvation, curable diseases, and exposure, and the loss of the productive labor inputs from 15 million people. Although some proponents of this anti-Keynesian policy deny that it results in social upheaval, Gerald Celente’s observation is closer to the mark: “When people have nothing left to lose, they lose it.”

The Krugman Keynesian school is just as deluded. Neither side in “The Great Stimulus Debate” has a clue that the problem for the U.S. is that a large chunk of U.S. GDP and the jobs, incomes, and careers associated with it, have been moved offshore and given to Chinese, Indians, and others with low wage rates. Profits have soared on Wall Street, while job prospects for the middle class have been eliminated.

The offshoring of American jobs resulted from (1) Wall Street pressures for “higher shareholder returns,” that is, for more profits, and from (2) no-think economists, such as the ones engaged in the debate over fiscal stimulus, who mistakenly associated globalism with free trade instead of with its antithesis–the pursuit of lowest factor cost abroad or absolute advantage, the opposite of comparative advantage, which is the basis for free trade theory. Even Krugman, who has some credentials as a trade theorist has fallen for the equation of globalism with free trade.

As economists assume, incorrectly according to the latest trade theory by Ralph Gomory and William Baumol, that free trade is always mutually beneficial, economists have failed to examine the devastatingly harmful effects of offshoring. The more intelligent among them who point it out are dismissed as “protectionists.”

The reason fiscal stimulus cannot rescue the U.S. economy has nothing to do with the difference between Barro and Krugman. It has to do with the fact that a large percentage of high-productivity, high-value-added jobs and the middle class incomes and careers associated with them have been given to foreigners. What used to be U.S. GDP is now Chinese, Indian, and other country GDP.

When the jobs have been shipped overseas, fiscal stimulus does not call workers back to work in order to meet the rising consumer demand. If fiscal stimulus has any effect, it

stimulates employment in China and India.

The “let them eat cake school” is equally off the mark. As investment, research, development, etc., have been moved offshore, cutting entitlements simply drives the domestic population deeper in the ground. Americans cannot pay their mortgages, car payments, tuition, utility bills, or for that matter, any bill, based on Chinese and Indian pay scales. Therefore, Americans are priced out of the labor market and become dependencies of the federal budget. “Fiscal consolidation” means writing off large numbers of humans.

During the Great Depression, many wage and salary earners were new members of the labor force arriving from family farms, where many parents and grandparents still supported themselves. When their city jobs disappeared, many could return to the farm.

Today farming is in the hands of agri-business. There are no farms to which the unemployed can return.

The “let them eat cake school” never mentions the one point in its favor. The U.S., with all its huffed up power and importance, depends on the U.S. dollar as reserve currency. It is this role of the dollar that allows America to pay for its imports in its own currency.

For a country whose trade is as unbalanced as America’s, this privilege is what keeps the country afloat.

The threats to the dollar’s role are the budget and trade deficits. Both are so large and have accumulated for so long that the prospect of making good on them has evaporated. As I have written for a number of years, the U.S. is so dependent on the dollar as reserve currency that it must have as its main policy goal to preserve that role.

Otherwise, the U.S., an import-dependent country, will be unable to pay for its excess of imports over its exports.

“Fiscal consolidation,” the new term for austerity, could save the dollar. However, unless starvation, homelessness and social upheaval are the goals, the austerity must fall on the military budget. America cannot afford its multi-trillion dollar wars that serve only to enrich those invested in the armaments industries. The U.S. cannot afford the neoconservative dream of world hegemony and a conquered Middle East open to Israeli colonization.

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Is anyone surprised that not a single proponent of the “let them eat cake school” mentions cutting military spending? Entitlements, despite the fact that they are paid for by earmarked taxes and have been in surplus since the Reagan administration, are always what economists put on the chopping bloc.

Where do the two schools stand on inflation vs. deflation? We don’t have to worry. Martin Feldstein, one of America’s pre-eminent economist says: “The good news is that investors should worry about neither.” His explanation epitomizes the insouciance of American economists.

Feldstein says that there cannot be inflation because of the high rate of unemployment and the low rate of capacity utilization. Thus, “there is little upward pressure on wages and prices in the United States.” Moreover, “the recent rise in the value of the dollar relative to the euro and British pound helps by reducing import costs.”

As for deflation, no risk there either. The huge deficits prevent deflation, “so the good news is that the possibility of significant inflation or deflation during the next few years is low on the list of economic risks faced by the U.S. economy and by financial investors.”

What we have in front of us is an unaware economics profession. There may be some initial period of deflation as stock and housing prices decline with the economy, which is headed down and not up. The deflation will be short lived, because as the government’s deficit rises with the declining economy, the prospect of financing a $2 trillion annual deficit evaporates once individual investors have completed their flight from the stock market into “safe” government bonds, once the hyped Greek, Spanish, and Irish crises have driven investors out of euros into dollars, and once the banks’ excess reserves created by the bailout have been used up in the purchase of Treasuries.

Then what finances the deficit? Don’t look for an answer from either side of The Great Stimulus Debate. They haven’t a clue despite the fact that the answer is obvious.

The Federal Reserve will monetize the federal government deficit. The result will be high inflation, possibly hyper-inflation and high unemployment simultaneously.

The no-think economics establishment has no policy response for economic armageddon, assuming they are even capable of recognizing it.

Economists who have spent their professional lives rationalizing “globalism” as good for America have no idea of the disaster that they have wrought.