Herseth Gives up interest in Governor and Senate?

Today, Stephanie Herseth breaks with her Blue Dog Democrat pledge to "pay as you go" in Washington, DC. by voting for the $819 billion economic stimulus package. This is going to be a very unpopular vote in South Dakota, regardless of the money coming back home.

Reading the political tea leaves, Stephanie has decided to stay in the House for at least the next couple elections. This vote goes against everything she said she believes in as a member of the moderate Blue Dog Democrat caucus, so it is telling Democrat party loyalty comes first. I would anticipate her gaining more prominent positions in the Democrat party in order to rise in leadership in the House.

The votes are only going to get more and more difficult for Stephanie in the next couple years. 

Mark today's date on the calendar as the high water mark on Stephanie's popularity.

Global Warming is a Hoax

The sky is falling. The sky is falling. Carbon dioxide is causing global warming.

But is it, really? What happens if the science behind this liberal agenda is a hoax. What happens if it is nothing more than a giant Ponzi scheme, just like Bernard Madoff's investment scheme.

Read this article about how global warming got its start. It is worth your time.

Democrat Propaganda--Better than Goebbels

I recently received this video in my email inbox from a Republican friend of mine. He thought how wonderful this music video called "Born Again American" was.

Watch it here.

It sounds so wonderful. Just some nice people singing a song about how much they love America. The song title sounds great too. It really pulls on the heart strings of "born again Christians" by talking about "Born Again Americans."

But my antennae went way up when the lyrics slipped into some rant about "equality" and how it was "my bible and my BILL of RIGHTS." Sounds so good. But this is Democrat propaganda with an agenda.

So just who was the creator of this beautiful pro Christian hymn? None other than Norman Lear, the creator of the liberal political action group, People for the American Way. Norman Lear, an atheist Jew, is a secular humanist whose aim is for the complete separation of Church and State by destroying the foundation of our country, our Christian values. 

People for the American Way lists their primary focus to promote the lifestyle and acceptance of gays, lesbians and transsexuals. 

This song is sheer propaganda masking a more nefarious agenda, to end Christianity in America and America as we know her. 

Joseph Goebbels would be proud of this effort.

Democrat Political Contributions are Tax Deductible!

Have you ever wondered exactly how Democrats have become so politically viable over the last six years? In 1994, I thought the Democrat Party was dead. Oh, how I was wrong.

This is the story of how they have done it.

It is common knowledge the Democrat Party is collection of special interest groups claiming to be unfairly treated in one way or another. Teachers unions represent the underpaid teachers. Labor unions represent the oppressed workers. Black Leaders such as Jesse Jackson stoke the fires of racism to represent black minorities. Feminist groups, such as NARAL, fight against the bondage and suppression of women and their choices. Farmers Union represents the little farmers. Environment groups, like Greenpeace and the Sierra Club, fight big business in order to protect the planet that is burning up. Trial lawyers aren't victims, but they do represent those that got taken advantage of (or not). Through groups like AARP, they have made senior citizens into a voting bloc for government entitlements. Finally they represent (read: exploit) the poor through community activist organizations like ACORN, who are funded through government grants. Although they can't collect dues from homeless people, they are willing to buy their vote.

All in all, the Democrat Party is made up of victims, plain and simple. And in each case, Democrats promise them more money.

The Republican Party, on the other hand, is represented by ideas, a set of common principles. Regardless of who you are, we believe that everyone can be successful through the implementation of these principles. 

1. Always spend less than you make.

2. Always save for a rainy day.

3. Work harder, longer and faster than the person next to you.

4. Don't complain. Redouble your efforts.

5. Live your personal life by treating all people as if they were your father, mother, sister or brother.

6. Your personal actions should not impose financial obligations on others. This is immoral.

6.5 Government should never endorse immoral behavior.

7. A government big enough to give you what you want is large enough to take everything you have.

8. Nothing is free. If something is free, there is no freedom.

9. Do everything to the best of your ability.

10. Everything needs to make sense. If it sounds too good to be true, it is.

11. Live your life as if you were chosen by God, whether or not you believe God exists.

12. Competition is critical for progress and growth. Winning should be honored, not vilified. Losers should be encouraged to do better, not subsidized.

13. Government will continue to grow until it becomes so big it collapses. This is the natural progression. The only hope is to restrain growth as long as possible.

14. An orderly society exists only in the presence of the rule of law. Punishment is the teeth of the rule of law. There are two reasons people don't follow the law. Either the law is immoral, or the deterrent is not strong enough.

I think that pretty much sums up the philosophy of the Republican Party. It applies to everyone, no matter what special interest group you are in. 

But back to my story of how the Democrats came back to power.

For several generations, political parties were strong, and the Republican Party raised a lot of money, much more than the Democrats. This was because large donors could give large chunks to the party and this could be split up in any way the party decided. Since many businesses leaned Republican, ample money was raised.

But along came Senator John McCain.

His campaign finance reform, called McCain Feingold, eliminated the Republican and Democrat parties from raising large chunks of money called soft money. They now needed to raise all of their money in $2000 increments, with no anonymity. The size of the parties shrank drastically and with it the advantage of the Republican Party.

One of the Republican rules of government is that for every good intention there is a host of unintended consequences. In this case, Democrats empowered their special interest groups to become their party organization. The actual Democrat Party really is nothing but a shell of an organization, but their special interest groups, such as MoveOn.org, Sierra Club, Environmental Working Group, NARAL, Unions and many others have become a very powerful (and often illegal), partisan force, often times by collecting tax deductible contributions from their contributors for political purposes. 

Some have suggested that up to $1 billion was spent by Democrat front groups in the last election. Much of this money comes from less than 10 people. The largest and most notorious is George Soros, a billionaire with a criminal past, and who has made part of his fortune by manipulating financial markets.

I want to repeat something for you. The Democrat Party front groups raise their money and it is tax deductible (even for George Soros). In essence, you can help get Democrats elected and write off your donation on your taxes. 

Now you are ready to read this alarming story by Senator Jim Inhofe, (R-OK). He outlines how this whole sham works, and if you follow politics, you need to read this article.

Banking Industry needs $3.5 Trillion

The American Banking System is on the brink of collapse and in need of $3.5 trillion in order to survive. 

So if you are feeling good about Barrack Obama becoming President, read this story and you should sober you right up...

If that wasn't enough to make you believe in stock market going to lower levels, read this article about England going bankrupt. I wonder if the market priced in that?

When Will Economy Recover?

Do you really think spending $1 trillion (that we don't have) is going to get our economy moving again? 

Not a chance. It actually adds to the problem.

Do you really think that increasing productivity is going to help?

Not a chance. Unless you find a way to produce something in this country for a profit.

Do you really think increasing consumer spending (through tax cuts for people that don't pay taxes) is going to help? 

Impossible. You can't get people to spend money that was created out of thin air without having some serious long term problems.

The solution is to come to an agreement on a direction for the country. We need to solve our systemic problems in a whole host of areas.

Energy. Health Care. Banking. Retail. Manufacturing. Auto Industry. Airline Industry. Wall Street. State and Local Government.

There isn't one of these industries or organizations that has a business model that works in the free market. Not one works within an economic model where the consumer pays the true market value of the product.

Every one of these areas requires subsidies in order to survive. Until these are economically sustainable, there isn't a chance for our economy to recover.

Going into long term debt is not really going to help...

Torture Video Sparks Debate

I came about this video, 'Torturing Democracy,' from someone who really believes President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney deserve to face a war crimes tribunal.

See it here.

It is worth the mental journey to watch the video and understand the torture arguments as this film lays out. By no means is it a fair documentary, as it only gives one side of the story, and only one side of the results, that forced cooperation, or as they call it, "torture" is very, very bad.

I hear from many who argue the "America is Good" argument, that torture brings down the American ideal. I guess I just don't know what rock they are living under. I wonder if they think about how we gather intelligence, how many people are killed by assassins associated with clandestine services of the United States government or our allies. I wonder if they really think America doesn't do some bad things to people once in a while.

I am certain that none of them have read any Vince Flynn novels. They should. I wonder if they would cheer when Mitch Rapp, the undercover CIA agent protagonist, uses several versions of forced cooperations to get timely information out of reluctant antagonists? After reading a few Flynn novels, I am more tempted to believe in the necessity of Mitch Rapp than the evils of "Torturing Democracy." 

But I only wish there was room under that rock for more of us so that more of us can be free from terror.

Study Needed...How Many South Dakotans Receive Government Checks?

I have heard statistics that indicate over half of South Dakotans receive a government issued check throughout the year (without including tax refunds). I have also heard that South Dakota receives $4 from the Federal Government for every $1 we pay in taxes.

I would like to verify these statistics.

I have verified that less than half of the people in South Dakota actually are in the non-government related workforce. When you subtract out the number of children and retired people, the labor force is 446,000 (2005 SD Labor Department). Of this number, 15,000 people are unemployed and 76,000 work for some level of government, bringing the number of non government workers at 355,000 in the private sector. With the total population of South Dakota around 790,000, 45% of our people are working in the private sector.

If you subtract out the 33,000 people deriving income from farms, we could assume they, too, receive government subsidies, so 322,000 don't receive government checks. 

Many people, though working, receive money from the government in forms of government aid, food stamps, section 8 housing, reduced school lunches, Medicaid, reduced school loans, grants and other government subsidies.

The purpose of my inquiry is to determine the actual number of people that don't receive a dime from the Federal Government. These are the people that are frustrated about the size of the government. These are the people who are really paying for the our government programs. To these people, I would like to say thank you!

Those receiving money from the government are becoming more and more compromised when it comes to reducing the size of government. Once there are more than half of the voters reliant on government spending, our country ceases to be free.

Stock Market Forward Thinking?

I am tired of hearing the "market" has "priced in" all of the bad news for the next 16 month.

Stock markets are speculative in nature and rely on investor confidence for price appreciation. In order for the market to go up, more investors must believe the stock market has "priced in" forward economic news than believe even more bad information is on the horizon. 

So exactly what information has the stock market priced in? Unemployment at 8%, 9% or 10%? Just two months ago, worst case scenarios showed unemployment projections were 8%. Meanwhile, the Dow has gone up 1500 points during that time period. Now, two months later, some predictions are reaching into the 10-11% range. If the market doesn't go down accordingly, does it mean that the market "priced in" higher unemployment rates at the higher values? It doesn't seem plausible.

When further banks fail and the FDIC bails them out, has the market "priced in" this change? Every analyst has suggested more bank failures in 2009. But has the market figured in the government bailout of FDIC into their future projections?

When the first of many AAA rated municipal bonds default in late 2009, has the market "priced in" this new information? Or has it already priced in the Federal Government bailing out these cities and states at the expense of our great, great grandchildren's lifetime earnings?

When consumers begin to default on their unsecured debt such as credit cards and installment loans, has the market priced in this market event? 

When the Big Three auto makers eventually fail; when the government takes over their health care costs; when the airline industry requires a bailout; when billions of dollars is spent on alternative fuels; when the health care system is socialized; when the dollar is no longer the world currency of international trade; when government spends 50% more than the taxes collected for 3 years in a row; when an entire system built on cheap money shifts to a system built on free market interest rates; when the average tax rate of income tax payers is at 60% of earnings, and the economy continues to falter into 2011, has the market priced this in? Again, I don't think so.

Not only have I lost all confidence in the market, but I have lost all confidence in the ability of "smart people" in Washington and Wall Street to get us out of this mess.

Here is a three part video series by the Wall Street Journal. It documents the beginning, the middle and the end of Wall Street as we know it. Pay special attention to the predictions of Wall Street executives. For those who think they can predict when this system will recover, we must just recognize that this market is extraordinarily unstable.

I have also been told by money managers that at the height of pessimism, is the bottom of the market. Not to be a pessimist, I believe the best investment in the next 5 years, is on the next great country that embraces conservative values and real, free market capitalism without the death grip of social engineering around it's neck. 

RIP America.

2009

A $1 Trillion Stimulus Package?

Imagine the types of crazy ideas being proposed to fund with a promised $1 trillion in new government spending. 

Well, you don't have to any more, here is just a small list of one 167 person town...$375 million

Karl Rove Strikes Back on Fannie and Freddie

Ahh, Karl Rove knocks it out of the park with a simple explanation of the housing mess, and the myth of the Bush Administration's "deregulation" agenda. Rove names names and points to continued resistance of reform of Freddie and Fannie as the culprits.

Read the article here.

The graph of the amount of money spent by lobbying by Freddie and Fannie are here.

Abstinence Only Education

Yesterday I read all about how abstinence education was a problem. See a typical news article here.

Here is the other side.

Turns out there is a political agenda to the media..

An Amazing Article On Those That Predicted Financial Collapse

I'm 38 years old. I have worked in Washington, DC. I have been fired by several corporations. I have been a political outsider. I have been accused of fighting a system in nearly every segment of my life. 

I have been unhappily predicting ruin for entirely too long in my life. I have seen greed, corruption, and compromise destroy the ideals of my friends and peers. Some have even destroyed their lives. Others have become wealthy beyond their wildest dreams. Many people have thought I was nuts challenging the way things were.

But this article summarizes the problems with politics, government, and corporate greed. The people who run large organizations, who donate large amounts of money to politicians, who control the money of the economy have brought our country to the brink of disaster.

I am equally convinced that this same destruction is planned for the Federal Government. There are too many people in government who will say anything to get elected, to commit debt to generations of our children's children, and to look the other way when they see calamity headed in America's direction.

It is time to stand up and fight for America, not our own special interests. If every voter looks to what will help them, politicians will continue to destroy America. It is time to use this financial crisis as a wake up call to voters. Don't let this happen to our government. We can not spend money we don't have. We can no longer take common sense out of public policy. We must live within our means. 

And we must hold our political leaders accountable.

New York Times Gets It Right Again On Financial Crisis

Regardless of what I think of the political agenda of the New York Times, their financial pages are filled with thorough, insightful analysis of the financial crisis.

Here is another example of the problems with Wall Street and it's relationship with Washington.

When politicians, regulators and bureaucrats in Washington are dependent on Wall Street for campaign contributions and seek the high dollar jobs on the other side of the political revolving door, the separate interests of the two parties merge into one. This is a systemic problem that needs to be changed.

There are two serious articles in this series and each deserve a careful read. Washington is broken and needs to be fixed.

Health Care Crisis or Government Crisis

Today I sat in on a Barrack Obama Transition Team Health Care Crisis Panel. The set up was a farce as it outlined the problems in health care.

1. 45 million uninsured

2. Millions more "just a pink slip away" from being uninsured

3. Health Care costs rising uncontrollably

Ironically, the panel was organized by Drug Company representatives. The discussion weaved from tort reform, reducing administrative costs by implementing a medical records card, baby boomers retiring and government paying for over 75 million Americans' health insurance, socialized medicine, doctors salaries, catastrophic insurance in combination of medical savings accounts, price lists for medicine, VA health care, and many other topics.

But as I listened (and voiced my anti-socialist opposition), I realized that this is the very problem with government: this is really how government works. People who really don't know the big picture sit down at desks in Washington and start writing a bill to "fix" a problem. By the time all of the issues of the problem are resolved, thousands of pages of rules and regulations are created. These regulations become so large and complex, the efficiency of the system resembles that of a Russian factory farm in the 1980's.

After talking for an hour, I discovered the solution. Fix government and chances are you may actually fix the health care crisis. 

People need to pay for their own insurance and it should be the law that they pay for it. 

If people can't afford Cadillac insurance, they shouldn't be able to receive Cadillac health care. Businesses offering Cadillac insurance, and not making money need to offer Hyundai insurance. 

Drugs mask the symptoms of a problem they don't fix the problem.

American drug companies are becoming an agent for socialized medicine, in which we are subsidizing bad behavior and other nations in which they "negotiate" significantly lower prices for drugs. There are two ways to address this issue. First, place taxes on American drugs sold overseas and tariffs on drugs coming into the country in order to reverse the subsidizing of socialized medicine countries.

Specialty doctor salaries are out of control.

If doctors are being paid $1 million or more per year to perform their services, and there is a monopoly to control the number of specialists, we need to break the monopoly and increase the number of doctors or increase competition by making doctors advertise their prices for the services they provide.

Cash payers with only catastrophic insurance (such as me) shouldn't subsidize anybody.

The idea that someone who pays cash immediately for a service provided, and being punished for it by paying 50% more, is ridiculous. More people should be paying their own bills, not less. Too many people are going to the doctor and too many people are taking drugs that they wouldn't otherwise take if they had to pay for them themselves. In order to get this under control, the majority of costs must be paid for by the user of the services.

The government pays the health care for too many Americans, not too few. 

As unpopular as this is, health care is not a right. We can delude ourselves that America is the richest country in the world. We are not. America is bankrupt! Any government subsidy should only be provided to those who are physically incapable of producing any product or providing any service. If a check is written, that check should have to be repaid by work off that debt by working at the minimum wage rate, limited to 60 hours per week. I am quite sure this would reduce the number of participants in the government relief programs. We have a need for a lot of day care providers, nursing assistants, parks that need to be cleaned and government building bathrooms that need to be scrubbed. 

Social Security and Medicare is a Ponzi scheme, not an investment account.

It is a pay as you go system. There is no trust fund or lock box. These are a lie by politicians who want to get elected. People retiring and living off the government for 24 years is a system impossible to maintain. It is a shame politicians have not been truthful with the American people. Robert Madoff is more credible than our politicians.

Social Engineering Gone Bad

Imagine if one could set aside the laws of physics and suddenly, government officials declared simple tap water would replace gasoline. No more need for Middle East oil.

As preposterous as that would be, democrat lawmakers tried to do just that in the housing and mortgage market as they tried to suspend the laws of common sense and give loans to people that had limited or poor credit and lacked sufficient amount of savings to actually buy a house. 

This article shows how government social engineering fails. Just because government wills it, it doesn't make it so. 

Hispanic home ownership lagged behind other population segments. In an effort to make these numbers equal, government programs were created to encourage lenders to target hispanics, creating a loan program that didn't require any money down, along with lower lending standards.

The result, extraordinary loan foreclosures. Politicians will blame it on greedy subprime lenders, but the real problem is social engineering. 

What are the chances of politicians talking about turning water into oil as the culprit? Not a chance...

This should be our new President

Every once in a while, there comes along a person that just makes sense...and tells it like it is...

Here is a New York City firefighter telling some conspiracy theorist off.

So we have a firefighter in New York City for President and Joe the Plumber for Congress in Ohio. They would have my vote.