Rick Santelli; Chicago Tea Party; CNBC

Here is the video from CNBC last week when Rick Santelli started what may turn out to be the next phase in the conservative revolution. I saved the video here because Youtube videos have a habit of disappearing. Bookmark this page and save this video, if you have the technology.



The MSM/DNC has spent the past few days trying to repudiate Santelli and trying to force Santelli to recant in a fashion reminiscent of the Stalinist show trials of the 1930's. The MSM/DNC does not realize that most Americans already know what Santelli is talking about. Santelli has merely given voice to the silent majority.

Ronald Reagan; 1961; socialized medicine; gradual approach

Here is a 3 part (ten minute total) recording of a speech from Ronald Reagan in 1961, in which he warned of the gradual approach to socialism and national health care.


part I

part II

part III

I include this here in case these disappear from Youtube.

Tim Geithner tax cheat stamp

h/t Where's the Change

Check out "Where's the Change" for an idea on how to register our displeasure at Tim Geithner's hypocrisy.

Yahoo predictions for 15 companies

Yahoo Finance predicts that 15 companies might not survive 2009:


Rite Aid - RAD

Clair's Stores

Chrysler

Dollar Thrifty Automative Group - DTG

Realogy

Station Casinos

Loehmann's Capital Corp.

Sbarro

Six Flags - SIX

Blockbuster - BBI

Krispy Kreme - KKD

Landry's Restaurants - LNY

Sirius Satellite Radio - SIRI

Trump Entertainment Resorts Holdings - TRMP

BearingPoint - BGPT


I have no knowledge of these companies aside from what the article says, but it will be interesting to see whether the predictions turn out to be true.

Porkulus bill; What was the hurry?

There is a reason that the administration was in such a hurry to pass the 787 billion dollar porkulus bill (aside from the fact that Democrats don't know the difference between a million, a billion and a trillion), even though no congressman had time to read the actual bill. I think Thomas Sowell got it right this week:

The great sense of urgency of the Obama administration to get legislation to authorize slow-moving spending projects may seem inconsistent. But the urgency is real, even if the reasons given are not. The worst case scenario for the administration would be to have the economy begin to recover on its own before this massive spending bill is passed, reducing their chances of creating the kind of politically directed economy they want.

Note that retail sales and jobless numbers this week showed slight improvement and began to present a more ambiguous picture of the economy, despite MSM/DNC spin regarding those numbers.

In the world of the MSM/DNC, the economy is all about the numbers. If the numbers are good, then the economy is good, even if the U.S. destroys its own industrial base in order to placate union demands or environmentalist religious doctrine [e.g. 1970's through 2008]. At some point, the numbers will turn around so that the economy will once again appear strong. If that turnaround occurs before Obama can impose one party rule and censor his critics, then he will be unable to accomplish these goals. If the numbers turn around after Obama signs Porkulus legislation, then Obama will take credit for something that was happening anyway.
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update - Sunday - 2-15-09

My theory here has been supported by Obama's weekend vacation, after which he will sign the bill on Tuesday:

The push to get the bill through before the holiday weekend was so frantic, members of Congress didn't have a chance to read all 1,071 pages of the document before they could vote.

NY Post 2-15-09

If the bill is so urgently needed, Obama would have signed the bill on Friday night and started printing money right away to pay for it. But Obama has what he wanted. What he wanted was not "stimulus" for the economy, but the tools to impose tyranny. He can take his time now.

Quote of the day - Kevin O'Brien - Cleveland Plain Dealer

If all goes as scheduled -- and barring an exquisitely timed meteor strike on Washington, D.C., it will -- on a holiday formerly dedicated exclusively to the president who saved the union in hopes of "a new birth of freedom," the president we have today will sign freedom's death warrant.

............

The deeper problem is two-fold: This bill will do almost nothing to ease the current financial crisis and, far worse than that, it tightens the federal government's fist on the future of education, energy research, industrial policy and especially health care. And all without so much consideration as a congressional committee hearing.

Kevin O'Brien - Cleveland Plain Dealer - 2-12-09

Quote of the day - Steve Czaban

If we need to spend 1 trillion dollars to rescue the economy, wouldn't spending 2 trillion dollars work even better?

sportscaster and radio host Steve Czaban - 2-9-09

Phony criticism of Obama; whitewash journalism; Red Decade

Now that the luster has started to wear off of the Obama cult of personality (at least temporarily), we can expect "journalists" from the MSM/DNC to pretend to criticize the administration so as to appear fair. I wrote of this tactic in the list of bias categories in 2005:

14. Whitewash/Softball criticism of leftist public figures. Whenever the MSM/DNC is forced to acknowledge some scandal that reflects badly on one of their own, MSM/DNC pretends to investigate and criticize for all of the wrong reasons. The CBS/Rathergate report criticized CBS for trying to be first instead of for biased reporting. Some MSM/DNC spokesman eventually were forced to criticize Bill Clinton for committing adultery and lying instead of for trading high tech ICMB delivery systems to China. MSM/DNC hacks grudgingly admitted that Jimmy Carter was "naive" "inexperienced" or "lacked savvy" instead of pointing out his real fault - nearly losing the cold war. These softball whitewashes provide cover for the real crimes/faults of those on the left. They are the equivalent of the getaway driver throwing some of the robbery loot out the window to distract the pursuing police. We should rarely expect a real investigation from the MSM/DNC about one of their own. And we should never let the MSM/DNC investigation cause us to hold back our own criticism.

This tactic is as old as the leftists' support for Stalin during the 1930's. As Eugene Lyons wrote (of leftist Louis Fischer) in 1941:

If occasionally he [Fischer] implied that there were stains on Soviet perfection, it only served to fortify his standing as a neutral commentator. Once he suggested cautiously in an article that Joseph Stalin could be wrong. For months thereafter he boasted of that feat of daring, while waiting for the lightning to strike.

Red Decade, p. 116 (1971 edition)

Today's "journalists" have not yet reached the level of bravery of Louis Fischer.

250,000

I finally received my 250,000th visit today. The quarter millionth visitor is from Kernersville, North Carolina. I can't tell what referred him to this site, but he reviewed the CNBC prediction for U.S. hyperinflation.

Obama cabinet nominee tax issues; Tom Daschle; Tim Geithner, Nancy Killefer, Hilda Solis; Porkulus

I have lost count of the number of Obama nominees that have been caught failing to report and/or pay taxes. Daschle, Geithner, Nancy Killefer, Hilda Solis are the names I remember. [Commerce secretary designate Bill Richardson withdrew because of a Blagojevich-like problem in New Mexico.] Upon the nomination being made public, all of these people suddenly paid their taxes.

Powerline commented on a supposedly positive result from these scandals:

Still, there is always a silver lining. One good thing about electing a Democrat as President is that, as he nominates fellow Democrats to senior positions in the Executive Branch, millions of dollars in unpaid tax liabilities come to light and are belatedly paid to the IRS, with interest. It is, perhaps, the most tangible advantage of electing Democrats to office.

Michelle Malkin posts more details.

I am not sure that I agree that the payment of these taxes is a good thing. We have seen how the federal government will spend the money. Free market principles would tell us that it is better for the Democrat cabinet nominees to keep the money and spend it themselves according to their own desires.

Would you rather that that the money be spent on (1) alchohol, adultery, prostitutes, illegal drugs, pornography, illegal campaign activities, etc. or on (2) honey insurance, fish barriers, green schools, walking trails, STD's and ACORN? While some of these categories are overlapping, your choice of where the money should be spent will determine whether you think it is best that Obama's cabinet nominees have finally paid their taxes.

Mark Steyn made a valid point yesterday:

The bloated nonstimulus and the undertaxed nominees are part of the same story. I'm with Tom Daschle: I understand why he had no desire to toss another six-figure sum into the great sucking maw of the federal Treasury. Who knows better than a senator who's voted for every tax increase to cross his desk that all this dough is entirely wasted? Tom and Tim Geithner and Charlie Rangel and all the rest are right: They can do more good with the money than the United States government can. I only wish they followed the logic of their behavior and recognized that what works for them would also work for every other citizen. Instead, they insist that the sole solution to our woes is a record-setting wasteful government spending spree.

Even though it is good to point out the hypocrisy of the Democrat nominees, we should not forget that we are opposed to taxation on principle. The Porkulus bill is a perfect example of why we are opposed to taxation.

Runaway inflation; Marc Faber; porkulus

Click on this CNBC item to see how the porkulus bill could trigger rampant inflation:

The US risks being hit by Zimbabwe-style hyperinflation and there are signs that the world's biggest economy risks turning into a banana republic, Marc Faber, author of the Gloom, Doom & Boom report, told CNBC's "Asia Squawk Box."

The risk of inflation is caused by Federal spending and the resulting squeeze on credit markets:

Asked whether the US risked being faced with 200 percent inflation, Faber answered: "Well, not yet. Not yet. But I think eventually. If I look at government debt in the US, and debt in general, I think the only way they will not default physically on their debt is to inflate."
The Federal Reserve's policy of printing money and the government's intervention in the economy might undermine the US's economic and political clout, Faber warned.
"Well, I wrote two years ago a report entitled 'Is America becoming a banana republic?' And there are some features that characterize banana republics- totalitarian states, very strong government intervention into the economy, and the polarization of wealth," he said.

The predictions I have repeated on this site have an unhappy habit of coming true, so it might be a good idea to do a little preparation.

See previous - April 2007 - the bubble is about to burst.
March 2007 - real estate bubble - equity.
May 2007 - Boomsday

Quote of the day - Mark Steyn - Obama porkulus bill

Jesus took a handful of loaves and two fish and fed 5,000 people. Barack wants to take a trillion pieces of pork and feed it to a handful of Democratic Party interest groups.

Mark Steyn - February 6, 2009

The cult of Obama worship; The Red Decade; Eugene Lyons

In 1941, Eugene Lyons wrote The Red Decade, a description of American liberal Soviet worship during the 1930's. American leftists would travel to Russia, ignore the mass oppression and starvation that appeared plainly before their eyes and report back to the U.S. in glowing terms about conditions in Stalin's Russia. The Soviet government could do no wrong in their eyes:

I do not believe I am exaggerating the element of self-delusion in the process. I lived in Russia, close to its grim realities, precisely in the years when the strange Russia-worship overcame so many Americans. At the height of the tourist invasion, in the early 'thirties, as many as 85 per cent of the foreign hordes were from the United States. I watched literally thousands of my countrymen prostate themselves at the shrines of their new inspiration.

. . . . I heard them exclaim in hushed wonder over marvels that existed only in their quivering imaginations. I saw them stiffen in desperate resistance at the first contact with doubt. I watched them move like somnambulists among the food queues and horrors of a throttled and policed population, clapping their hands in glee over the lovely "sacrifices."

The Red Decade, p. 93 [1971 printing]

If this sounds familiar, it should. There is little difference between the dupes of the 1930's and today's "journalists," in whose eyes Obama can do no wrong.