Strongly Recommended Readings

First and foremost is this analysis by an Illinois professor of why and how Americans are being alienated by an alien administration. 

Other recent writings worth reading (not in any particular order of preference) are:

This important description of our nation's current cultural war, the outcome of which will determine whether we are going to continue as a free people enjoying the fruits of free enterprise or succumb to the false promises of European style security with its stagnant uniformity. 

Two pieces about the current administration. First, this one, by the always insightful Peggy Noonan, pointing out the difference between expectations for, and what we are seeing demonstrated about the competence of the government. And then there is this analytical essay about how the Chicago gang occupying the White House is seeking to gain political strength by stimulating and exploiting racial differences and enmities.

This account of the Constitution and the Dollar.

Finally, there is this troublesome piece about how the statists, who have cast aside the concept of limited government and are not satisfied with having gained dominance over the health care, financial, and automobile industries, are in hot pursuit of the ability to control the internet.

Hey There, Wanna Buy a Bridge

For anyone out there who believes the story put out by the White House, after months of stonewalling, about its offering a job to  Joe Sestak if  would get out of the Pennsylvania primary race in which he went on to defeat Arlen Specter and became the Democrat candidate for the U.S. Senate, I'd like to do a deal or any number of deals with you for a bridge or anything else you'd like to buy from me.

After months of delay the Obama administration investigated and -- surprise, surprise -- cleared itself of any wrongdoing, and put out a simple and obviously concocted explanation. They of course needed the time to get all the participants in line to support the ludicrous cover story they spewed out for public consumption. The nerve that the Obamatists displayed by trying to get by with this while maintaining a straight face -- at least in public -- is awesome.

Is this a great country or what? Anyone who buys the obviously fabricated explanation is one of the people that P. T. Barnum was talking about when he observed that there's a sucker born every minute.

IRS Alert

The report and comment immediately preceding (and appearing right below) this one was accessed several times by a computer or computers at Internal Revenue Service offices in Kansas City within less than two hours of being posted.

You can sleep well tonight knowing that the IRS is awake . . . and apparently on high alert for anything that might threaten what they preposterously persist in claiming is a voluntary tax system (and please ignore the ever swelling horde of  enforcement agents). Clearly, anything that makes Americans pause to consider whether it is wise to continue cooperating with a system that has become an arbitrary and predatory monster that plays favorites is such a threat.

Could an audit be headed down the pike?

We'll keep you informed.

Who Is Luke Brugnara?

He's just an ordinary guy . . . like Tim Geithner, Charles Rangel, Tom Daschle, et al. Like them, Luke, a San Francisco businessman, failed to accurately report and pay income taxes.

But Mr. Brugnara is not Tim Geithner, Charles Rangel, Tom Daschle, or another member of the nation's privileged political elite.

Mr. Geithner was rewarded for his tax foibles by being named Secretary of the Treasury (which, among other things, administers our tax laws).

Mr. Rangel is a member of the U.S. House of Reprehensibles and continues to serve, believe it or not, as chairman of that body's Ways and Means Committee, which writes and oversees the Treasury's administration of our tax laws.

Mr. Daschle, formerly a member of the U.S. Senate and a leader of the Democrats in that body, was nominated by our current president to be Secretary of Health and Human Services. But, because his tax shenanigans came to light at an awkward time, he had to withdraw from consideration for that position and settle for a cushy slot in a big global law firm.

Not having the benefit of membership in the political insiders' club, Mr. Brugnara on Monday, May 24, was sentenced to 2.5 years in federal prison and ordered to pay the taxes that he owes by U.S. District Judge William Alsup.

Neither the honorable Judge Alsup (who, not so incidentally, gets his handsome salary from the public treasury, funded with and dependent on tax revenues) nor the San Francisco Chronicle report on Mr. Brugnara's sentencing appear to have noted, let alone to have any qualms about the disparate treatment of tax transgressors or the reason for the disparities.

The episode is but another in a series that prove the truth of the observation voiced years ago by Leona Helmsley that "only the little people pay taxes." Largely because she spoke that truth, Leona Helmsley also was sentenced to prison.

Good Question With; No Good Answer

No Simple Cobbler from Connecticut

In 1776 -- not the year but the wonderful musical play depicting the events in that year  that culminated in the adoption of the Declaration of Independence -- Roger Sherman begs off being named to the committee responsible for drafting the Declaration by singing these words:

I cannot write with any style 

Or proper etiquette.

I don't know a preposition 

From a predicate.

I am just a simple cobbler 

From Connecticut.

Indeed. But a simple cobbler sufficiently esteemed by his real world contemporaries for  his common sense, good will, industry, and virtue to be selected by them to represent Connecticut as a member of the state's delegation to the Second Continental Congress.

Although those who comprised that Congress recognized and often spoke and wrote that self government depends upon a virtuous citizenry, Connecticut currently is bereft of such virtue. In its place we see the calculated duplicity of the ambitious political careerist Richard Blumenthal, renowned primarily for his sharp elbows, relentless pursuit of self aggrandizing  publicity, and lies.

Even though he admitted -- only during the past week after being publicly exposed -- that he falsely claimed to be a Vietnam War combat veteran (as well as other resume enhancing credentials), Connecticut Democrats chose him as their U.S. Senate candidate. The Obama White House also is supporting Mr. Blumenthal's candidacy.

Mr. Blumenthal, currently Connecticut's attorney general, says he "misspoke" when he repeatedly made the false claims. He shrugs off suggestions that his prevarications may reflect a disqualifying character flaw by claiming he merely "misplaced a few words."

Connecticut, how could you? Just look at the photographs of the man accompanying the relevant articles to which links are provided below. His image is a caricature of rapacious ambition. Like his record, it is neither adorned nor softened by the slightest hint of integrity or scruples. Julius Caesar would have spotted the lean and hungry look instantly. Note the hard eyes, constantly on the lookout for the main chance for a big political score.  

Perhaps Mr. Blumenthal's support is due to his suitability to replace the corrupt Christopher Dodd as a true representative of Connecticut, and to fit in well with the other contemptible charlatans sitting in the U.S. Capitol's upper house. Or perhaps it his status as an alum of Ivy League Institutions, where he presumably did learn how to write with style and proper etiquette, as well as the difference between a preposition and a predicate. That he did not learn virtue is clear and understandable as that has long been disparaged in, and banished from those elite institutions.

For more about the contemptible Mr. Blumenthal see the May 19 post that appears below under the title Euphemisms and Misuse Debase the Language . . . and More, and/or this report, and/or this essay,  and/or this earlier one.

Simple virtuous cobblers obviously have become extinct in Connecticut . . . and we all are the poorer for, and endangered by their absence.

Life Is Beautiful on Federal Gravy Train

It's not just enjoying unshakable job security and benefits and pay exceeding anything available in the private sector.

There isn't even any need for a Get Out of Jail Free card.

Why?

Well, according to this report, federal employees skate by without being held accountable or having to answer for using government credit cards for personal expenses, conduct for which individuals in the private sector would be prosecuted.

A True Representative Responds to Highly Inappropriate and Offensive Meddling by Rude Guest from Mexico

History Repeating Itself?

Ordinary people and not elite scholars or philosophers led the way in America's original revolution, according to a couple of recent history books. A review of these books, which can be accessed by clicking here, shows that people very much like those participating in our current tea parties made up the vanguard of the American Revolution in the 18th Century.

How Ridiculous Can Things Get?

It's like watching the Mad Hatter address Congress to have the president of Mexico, a country with abundant natural resources but clearly incapable of governing or sustaining itself, stand at the podium in the U.S. Capitol and arrogantly lecture Americans on laws that we should and should not enact.

Thanks but no thanks.

Mexico's president would use his time to better advantage by staying home and finding ways to (i) rein in his country's extraordinarily violent criminal gangs, (ii) end the widespread corruption that is endemic at every level of government in Mexico, and (iii) free his country's economy so that it can utilize the nation's natural riches for the benefit of its people. Then, perhaps, Mexico could free itself from its dependency on money sent back to the country by emigrants who have fled the country to be able to earn livelihoods. 

Except for the Democrat members of the U.S. Congress, who appear eager to replicate Mexico here, Americans have no patience for getting advice about anything from the leader of a potentially rich nation so beset with economic and social problems that it has to export those problems to us. 

The Really Big Spill

Which one is more obscene?

Euphemisms and Misuse Debase the Language . . . and More

"A few misplaced word."

That's how Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut's attorney general who is running for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by the contemptible Christopher Dodd, described and tried to explain his repeatedly having falsely claimed to have served in the Vietnam War. According to even The Wall Street Journal, normally a stickler for properly using the English language, Blumenthal admitted "to wrongly saying he served in Vietnam."

The plain and simple truth is that Mr. Blumenthal lied. His lie was not accidental. It was deliberate and calculated, and it was repeated by Mr. Blumenthal a good many times. He is a liar.

Why is the simple fact not stated  honestly in a blunt, honest, proper, and straightforward way?

Instead, Mr. Blumenthal gets away with referring  to his "record of service." And it goes largely unreported that his voluntary service as a Marines reservist ensured that he would not be sent to Vietnam. Similarly, his record of earlier actions to avoid serving in Vietnam receive scant, if any, notice. 

The English language is a wonderful tool for conveying facts and ideas in blunt, honest, proper, and straightforward ways. Yet we are being subjected to its employment to evade a simple and unmistakable fact. Why?

I submit that the blunt truth goes to the character of Connecticut's top law enforcement officer and the leading candidate for one of the state's two U.S. Senate seats.  More importantly, what does it say about the character of Connecticut's voters, who, after having repeatedly chosen the contemptible Mr. Dodd as their senator, were preparing -- and still appear to be prepared -- to choose a similar character to replace him? 

The blunt, honest, proper, and straightforward truths about the corruption that we have permitted to permeate America's current public life may be too painful to face. Consequently, the language is being debased -- corrupted, if you will -- to mask the ugly truth . . . and thus to facilitate the continuing debasement and corruption of our institutions.

States Apart

The governors of California and Texas are jogging with their dogs when a coyote jumps out and starts to attack their dogs.  Financial analysis follows:

California:

1. Governor starts to intervene and then realizes he should stop; the coyote is doing what is natural.

2. Calls animal control. Animal control captures coyote and spends $200 testing it for diseases and $500 relocating it.

3. State has veterinarian collect dead dog  and spends $200 testing it for diseases.
 
4. Governor goes to hospital and spends $3,500 getting checked for diseases from the coyote and getting bite wound bandaged.

5. Running trail gets shut down for six months while wildlife services conduct a $100,000 survey to make sure the area is clear of dangerous animals.

6. State spends $50,000 to start a coyote awareness program for people who live in the area.

7. State legislature spends $2 million investigating how to better handle rabies and how to possibly eradicate it.
 
8. Governor’s security agent fired for not stopping the attack and letting the governor try to intervene.

9. State spends $75,000 to train new security agent

10. PETA protests the relocation of the coyote.

Texas:

1. Governor dispatches the coyote with a single .45 caliber round costing $1.23,  and he and his dog continue their run.

Wonder why California is Broke ? ? ? ?

Astute and Relevant Historical Observations

Remember democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.

. . . John Adams, letter to John Taylor, 1814

[D]emocracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security, or the rights of property; and have, in general, been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.

. . . James Madison, Federalist No. 10, 1787 

A Glimmer From the Dim Bulbs

Report under the headline Congress Reins In Its Perk For Travel in the Friday, May 14, 2010, edition of The Wall Street Journal:

WASHINGTON - House leaders are revamping the rules for lawmakers and aides who travel overseas on official government business, forbidding them to fly in business class on shorter trips, use taxpayer funds to buy gifts, or pocket unspent cash, among other changes.

Heretofore, these things all have been standard and accepted practices that caused no embarrassment or shame among those who engaged in them. So why the change?

It would be good to be able to imagine that a smidgen of integrity has emerged among the Reprehensibles, but that is not the case.

The fact is that a bit of reality, occasioned by their instinct for self perpetuation in their cushy positions at the public trough, has entered their  collective consciousness -- note the word consciousness rather than conscience, the latter being something totally lacking among them. They have become aware that they are despised by all but somewhere around ten percent of the nation's citizens.

It being an election year, they would like to do something about that . . . though not too much, as is shown by a paragraph farther down in the same report:

. . . the rules don't require lawmakers to disclose some of the biggest costs of such trips, including travel by military plane, which can double or triple the total costs.

The full report can be seen here and it is well worth reading. It outlines what the rules don't prohibit, some of the outrageous things that still are permitted, and some of the excessive ways our reprenhensibles live large at the expense of ordinary taxpaying Americans.

A Smidgeon of Truth About the Charade

Even habitual fibbers occasionally say sometimes say something that is true. Thus our President this week described what occurred in the course of a congressional hearing as a "ridiculous spectacle."

However the prevaricator-in-chief didn't tell the whole truth: Congressional hearings all are meaningless charades. They uniformly are put on for dissemination by the complicit media for two purposes.

The primary purpose is to provide a stage upon which select reprehensibles from the House and/or sanctimonious swine from the United States Sty (a.k.a. the house of gasbags) can puff themselves up in poses displaying moral outrage, righteousness, and indignation, and drone on with self serving and self praising rhetoric that they hope will get some positive attention from their constituents. 

The secondary purpose is to convince the gullible of something the performing producers want the populous to believe.

Nothing comes out at any of the hearings that is not known before they take place. The whole ridiculous spectacle always is entirely orchestrated ahead of time. No minds are changed by what takes place and the only votes that are changed are those cast by the reprehensibles and/or swine who in the course of any given performance become so besotted by booze, boredom, sleep, confusion, or some combination of any number of the foregoing that they vote in unintended ways.

A Professional's Rejoinder

The preceding post (which appears immediately below this one) has elicited obviously valid criticism from and by a very delightful acquaintance who happens to be a former or semi-retired call girl. She prefers the semi-retired term because, she says, she currently remains active though solely on a pro bono basis with a very limited number of select individuals on special occasions.

In any case, the lady responded to the item by objecting that it unfairly demeans an honest profession that has enabled her to live well and achieve independence and financial security at a relatively early age. Furthermore, she points out, her work never hurt anyone and made her clients happy, giving them joy and satisfaction as well pleasure.

Can any politician truthfully make a similar claim?

Really . . . no foolin'.

P.S.  It is worth noting that the above-mentioned criticism preceded receipt of the priceless comment and recommendation with respect to, and appearing farther below under the title A Modest Proposal for Change in the Interest of Accuracy.

Oh Yeah, a Bipartisan Gang of Whores to Study and Fix Some Problem

When a political office holder wants to do something that is unpopular but is unwilling to pay the political price for pushing it he or she appoints a bipartisan commission to study the matter and come up with recommendations with respect to it.

The commission members are carefully selected whores from both parties. They know and are known to be willing to do what is expected of them: Go through the motions, gravely recommend, and steadfastly take the heat for what the office holder who named them wanted to do from the outset.

That's how we're going to get a value added or other new or increased taxes.

Government is Good, Government Is Great

Decrying the widening public distrust of, and disdain for the government, the White House's current tenant recently gave a speech about all the good things that the government does.

Prominently mentioned were the roads on which we travel . . . but the sadly deteriorated condition of those roads somehow went unmentioned.

That omission though was a relatively minor one. 

A brief and cursory look at our federal government's record in recent years shows that is not just a pitiful helpless, profligate, and wasteful entity but also one that regularly fails in the performance of its principal purpose and is a clear and present danger to the country's citizens.

Just a few years back our drug warriors targeted a tiny aircraft in Latin America and had it shot down. The little Cessna was carrying an American missionary and her young daughter. Both were killed.

Shortly thereafter, federal agents in Idaho killed the unarmed wife of Randy Weaver. She was shot in the head as she stood in the doorway of her home, carrying her infant child. The shooter was an FBI sniper who was reputed to be capable of hitting a quarter at a far great range than the shot with which he killed the young mother. Through a wondrous example of legal legerdemain, the government was able to rescue its sterling marksman from Idaho's criminal justice system and any other accountability.

These episodes escaped widespread notice and the feds even were able to persuade much of the public -- though apparently not Timothy McVeigh -- that the 70 plus men, women, and children whom they a few years later gassed and incinerated at Waco, Texas, brought that massacre on themselves.

But people began to notice when the government consistently failed to deliver on its solemn pledge to bring to justice those who murdered Americans in a wave  of attacks around the world, and those attacks and failures culminated in 9/11 . . . and that failure of the government to discharge its primary duty -- the protection of the country and its people -- was too spectacular to escape notice.

The response of the government was to reorganize, creating a larger and more complicated bureaucracy that is too lacking in initiative, innovation and imagination, as well as over staffed, muscle bound, and inflexible, to be effective. 

More recent onslaughts are making the statists' worst fears come true. The onslaughts that failed -- from that of the would-be shoe bomber to that of the Detroit bound underwear bomb wearer to the effort of the Time Square smoldering SUV doofus -- did so only because of the ineptitude of the attacker and/or the alert responsive actions of of ordinary citizens. In each instance, the government stirred itself into action only after the fact. As a police officer friend observed, "the Homeland Security people are like the guys who after the shooting stops go out onto the battlefield and bayonet the wounded."

Our government leaders even work themselves (together with their media and academic satraps) get hip deep in hysteria, working themselves  into frenzies, when a state steps in as Arizona has to fill the dangerous gap created by the feds longstanding failure to protect the nation's borders, allowing drug traffickers and whoever else wishes to do so to enter  and spread mayhem through the country.

Unless and until the government can do Job 1 -- adequately protecting the country and its people -- it deserves to be viewed with distrust, disdain, and even loathing. Until then it should minimize the diversion of time, effort, and resources to peripheral matters . . . and we should be spared lectures by those living large at the public trough about all those peripheral and supposedly good things they are doing with the enormous amounts of money they extract from the country's productive private citizens and businesses.

A Challenge Prompted by Codger's Advantage

This morning's newspapers carried reports about gargantuan increases in the San Francisco Bay Area's bridge tolls that will take effect on July 1.

Being an old -- pardon the expression -- fart, I remember the solemn pledges that were made when construction of the bridges was proposed. Modest tolls would pay off the bonds that were sold to finance the construction. No tolls would be charged and use of the bridges would be free once the bonds were paid off.

Prompting this challenge: Tell me about the temporary government fee, charge, tax, etc., that actually ended when and as promised at the time it was instituted.

Spending Cut Sought by Obama

It's true, even though it's being kept quiet. The President has found a way to cut spending . . . and he is pushing for it.

He wants to cut back on pay increases that have been in the works for members of the armed forces -- the men and women who go into harm's way, putting their lives on the line, to protect the country and its citizens.

With the number of people on the government payroll and their pay rates escalating at a record pace, the Prez wants to cut back on pay raises for the troops . . . and he is so modest that he is going about his efforts to do so very quietly and unobtrusively. His efforts have hardly been noticed by the fringe (formerly mainstream) media.

A Modest Proposal for Change in the Interest of Accuracy

Not sure when members of the political class decided that the title Mister or one its feminine equivalents wasn't good enough for them and instituted the use of the term The Honorable as the proper title to be used to  address them. Thus, the squeaker of the House of Reprehensibles now is supposed to be addressed -- believe it or not -- as The Hon. Nancy Pelosi. The Hon. Harry Reid? The Hon. Eric Holder?

What a collection of hoots that is !  ! ! !

It's probably a good idea to address holders of public offices differently than ordinary citizens. In most cases they don't deserve Mr., Mrs., Miss, or Ms.  But honorable ? ? ? ?  Come on now.

In the interest of accuracy, I suggest The Contemptible.  The Con. Nancy Pelosi . . . that has a nice ring to it and it's certainly far more accurate than  . . . . Nope, can't bring myself to use the old form of address anymore.  

Let's not get locked in though. Let office holders earn their way up from being called a contemptible to the titles by which ordinary citizens address one another. But except as individual office holders earn the right to be treated as ordinary citizens, they all should be recognized and addressed as the contemptibles they are.

Let's all use the new and accurate form of address for members of the political class going forward.

Upper Deck Passengers Call for Shared Sacrifices by Thee and Me

La Belle Michelle has just addressed a graduating class with advice to its members to brace themselves for coming hardships while New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman is writing the rest of us must cut back on our life styles for the benefit of future generations. The calls for what the political class and its lackeys refer to as "shared sacrifices" keep coming . . . and they're coming with ever increasing urgency, frequency, and stridency.

Guess who is not sharing.

That's right, the people issuing the calls, who also happen to be the people who charted, participated in, and got rich from the excesses that destroyed our economy.

All one has to know about how the sharing is occurring and will continue to occur is to look at the pay raises that were taken by the members of the House of Reprehensibles and the United States Sty and doled out by them (along with some hefty bonuses to their chosen minions at the same time that they were denying any increase in Social Security retirement benefits this year and in the foreseeable future. And don't try holding your breath until you see many of the fat cat executive officers of our big banks taking cuts in their salaries and bonuses. 

Make no mistake about it, shared sacrifices means privation for the rest of us so that the fat cats can continue to live large at our expense. In fact, we ought to practice bending over and grabbing out ankles as they're getting ready to stick us with an economy crippling energy and value added taxes to finance their profligate spending. 

Pitchforks and torches anyone?

Damaging Science

Faux scientists are endangering the scientific world. They are doing this in numerous areas by using their credentials to buttress quasi-religious political agendas. This has been taking place most notably -- though by no means exclusively --  in the climate field, where there has been money to be made in copious quantities by supporting the global warming hustle.

The danger in this is that in the political arena, things are cyclical, constantly changing. When the tables again turn and a new gangs of thieves and charlatans replaces the present ones, the currently trendy scientists also will be discarded. Recent revelations about the rigged data the faux scientists used to support the global warming alarmists will pale in comparison to the scorn and ridicule that will follow full investigations and hearings. Consequently, the credibility of scientists and science generally inevitably will take a big hit.

This will be deserved not because the assertions made by the propounders of the alarmist data may have been or were wrong but because of their claim that the science was "settled." Those making that claim expose themselves as faux scientists by doing so. In true science nothing is ever settled; everything is subject to constant questions, doubt, scrutiny, and reexamination.

     

Our Government is Devout

Critics who claim the government is devoted to secularism are wrong. The monster is constantly in prayer at the  Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Debt Renewal.

Out of the Mouths of . . . .

"A few days ago, I was having breakfast with my wife, my 91-year-old mother-in-law and daughters, 17 and 13. On TV there was a news report about the financial situation in Greece. Out of the blue, my 13-year-old said, 'This is going to be us pretty soon.' I almost dropped my fork. This is an eighth-grader. "

. . . Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty

Quoted by Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson

Another (Worth the Time) View of the Greatest Generation

It's All the Same

The Latest In Newspeak

Letter From an Arizona Lawmaker

I'm Arizona State Senator Sylvia Allen. I want to explain SB 1070 which I voted for and was just signed by Governor Jan Brewer. Rancher Rob Krantz was murdered by the drug cartel on his ranch a month ago. I participated in a senate hearing two weeks ago on the border violence, here is just some of the highlights from those who testified.

The people who live within 60 to 80 miles of the Arizona/Mexico Border have for years been terrorized and have pleaded for help to stop the daily invasion of humans who cross their property . One Rancher testified that 300 to 1200 people a DAY come across his ranch vandalizing his property, stealing his vehicles and property, cutting down his fences, and leaving trash. In the last two years he has found 17 dead bodies and two Koran bibles.

Another rancher testified that daily drugs are brought across his ranch in a military operation. A point man with a machine gun goes in front, 1/2 mile behind are the guards fully armed, 1/2 mile behind them are the drugs, behind the drugs 1/2 mile are more guards. These people are violent and they will kill anyone who gets in the way. This was not the only rancher we heard that day that talked about the drug trains.

One man told of two illegal's who came upon his property one shot in the back and the other in the arm by the drug runners who had forced them to carry the drugs and then shot them. Daily they listen to gun fire during the night it is not safe to leave his family alone on the ranch and they can't leave the ranch for fear of nothing being left when they come back.

The border patrol is not on the border. They have set up 60 miles away with check points that do nothing to stop the invasion. They are not allowed to use force in stopping anyone who is entering. They run around chasing them, if they get their hands on them then they can take them back across the border.

Federal prisons have over 35% illegal's and 20% of Arizona prisons are filled with illegal's. In the last few years 80% of our law enforcement that have been killed or wounded have been by an illegal.

The majority of people coming now are people we need to be worried about. The ranchers told us that they have seen a change in the people coming they are not just those who are looking for work and a better life.

The Federal Government has refused for years to do anything to help the border states . We have been over run and once they are here we have the burden of funding state services that they use. Education cost have been over a billion dollars. The healthcare cost billions of dollars. Our State is broke, $3.5 billion deficit and we have many serious decisions to make. One is that we do not have the money to care for any who are not here legally. It has to stop.

The border can be secured. We have the technology we have the ability to stop this invasion. We must know who is coming and they must come in an organized manner legally so that we can assimilate them into our population and protect the sovereignty of our country. We are a nation of laws. We have a responsibility to protect our citizens and to protect the integrity of our country and the government which we live under.

I would give amnesty today to many, but here is the problem, we dare not do this until the Border is secure. It will do no good to forgive them because thousands will come behind them and we will be over run to the point that there will no longer be the United States of America but a North American Union of open borders. I ask you what form of government will we live under? How long will it be before we will be just like Mexico , Canada or any of the other Central American or South American countries? We have already lost our language, everything must be printed in Spanish also. We have already lost our history it is no longer taught in our schools. And we have lost our borders.

The leftist media has distorted what SB 1070 will do. It is not going to set up a Nazi Germany . Are you kidding. The ACLU and the leftist courts will do everything to protect those who are here illegally, but it was an effort to try and stop illegal's from setting up businesses, and employment, and receiving state services and give the ability to local law enforcement when there is probable cause like a traffic stop to determine if they are here legally. Federal law is very clear if you are here on a visa you must have your papers on you at all times. That is the law. In Arizona all you need to show you are a legal citizen is a driver license, MVD identification card, Native American Card, or a Military ID. This is what you need to vote, get a hunting license, etc.. So nothing new has been added to this law. No one is going to be stopped walking down the street etc... The Socialist who are in power in DC are angry because we dare try and do something and that something the Socialist wants us to do is just let them come. They want the "Transformation" to continue.

Maybe it is too late to save America . Maybe we are not worthy of freedom anymore. But as an elected official I must try to do what I can to protect our Constitutional Republic . Living in America is not a right just because you can walk across the border. Being an American is a responsibility and it comes by respecting and upholding the Constitution the law of our land which says what you must do to be a citizen of this country. Freedom is not free.

Hey Buddy, Can You Spare Another Multibillion Big Bank Bailout or Two . . . or Three . . . or . . . .

Quite apart from the bailout provisions is the big leg up that the proposed financial regulation reform legislation on which Congress is working would give outfits like Goldman Sachs, Citibank, JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, etc., against any of their smaller competitors and any possible startup competitors in the future.

The big guys that dominate any industry always like regulations, and the more regulations and the greater and more complex the regulatory burdens, the better they like them.

The cost of complying with regulations is disproportionally greater for small entities than for large ones. Compliance costs vary very little with the size of the regulated entities. They all have to pay roughly equal numbers of dollars to comply with the same regulations. But for the largest entities the number of dollars is an easily borne percentage of their resources while for their smaller competitors the nonproductive expenditure of  the same number of dollars can be crippling or even ruinous.

In addition, history conclusively demonstrates that regulatory agencies invariably becomes captives of and subservient to the dominant entities in the industries for which they supposedly are responsible.

And then too, there are the bailout aspects of the proposed legislation. These provisions will guarantee the continuation of a system in which management is rewarded very handsomely for placing and winning large bets, Winning big of course requires high odds which in turn mean the bets have to be risky ones. It the bets don't win, the managers will depart with their previously garnered wealth and a new management team will be installed to begin the process again. The taxpayers -- like hamsters that have to keep the wheels in their cages spinning -- again, as always, will be left to make good on the losses.

If you like this picture, support the "reform" legislation that is being fashioned.

Mindless Beat Goes On

Sunday's San Francisco Chronicle included an article about the blessings of Thailand that contained the following statement:

. . . the Red Shirts . . . are roughly similar to Democrats . . . .  It's a crude comparison but the Red Shirts are poor and working class populists . . . .

Your not so humble blogger responded to the author of the article with an e-mail that, among other things, stated:

I was particularly fascinated by the analogy of the Thai Red Shirts to our Democrats as "poor and working-class populists." I assume you had in mind and were referring to such simple folks as FDR, the Kennedys, Al Gore, John Kerry, the Hon. John Edwards, Nancy Pelosi, Jay Rockefeller, Jon Corzine, George Soros, Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, the Hollywood intellectuals, as well as the crowd of former lobbyists and Goldman Sachs alumni now populating our nation's current administration. Good to see myths being perpetuated at every opportunity.

Moronic Media

As a former 'ink-stained wretch' -- that's what newspapermen were called in the early days of television news -- I take little joy in noting a recent report from the Audit Bureau of Circulation (which is the outfit that provides advertisers with information on how many people are getting particular newspapers).

During the six months between October 2009 and March 2010, circulation of the nation's major daily papers continued to plummet.

My major hometown newspaper, the San Francisco Chronicle, was down 22.7% weekdays and 19.3% Sundays from the same six-month period a year earlier. The Chronicle ranks 24th among the nation's daily newspapers.

Results for some of the other large newspapers for, and as compared to the same periods were:

No.5:  Washington Post -- down 13.1% weekdays and 8.2% Sundays.

No. 4:  Los Angeles Times -- down 14.7% weekdays and 7.6% Sundays.

No. 3:  New York Times -- down 8.5% weekdays and 5.2% Sundays.

No. 2:  USA Today -- down 13.6% weekdays (no Sunday edition).

No. 1:  Wall Street Journal -- UP 0.5% weekdays (no Sunday edition), the only one of the country's 25 largest papers to show an increase.

Nationally, circulation was down 8.7% on weekdays and 6.5% on Sundays.

From a financial standpoint the situation is even bleaker than the above numbers indicate. The remaining readership is older. Younger people -- the potential consumers/customers advertisers are most interested in reaching -- are less likely to be buying newspapers. Furthermore, most of the papers are retaining and even increasing circulation on the fringes of their metropolitan centers, outside their shopping core areas, and, therefore, the loss of readership is concentrated in the area from which advertisers can expect to draw customers.

The geniuses running the papers blame the loss of their audience on factors such as price increases and competition from free online content. It never seems to occur to them that their transformation from media striving to fairly and objectively disseminate information about the world to propaganda outlets with partisan and/or ideological agendas might have anything to do with their plight. For example, large numbers of people participate in or are sympathetic toward the Tea Party movement that is routine disparaged by the media -- and this includes the major broadcast networks that are experiencing a similar downward spiral. Do the publishers and broadcasters really think the people they routinely attack and the relatives, friends, and neighbors of these people are going to flock to buy their product. Duh ! ! ! !  Other examples include the routinely expressed media disdain for Arizona's legally enacted effort to alleviate the mayhem inflicted on its citizens on a daily basis by hordes of illegal immigrants and the charges of racism hurled by the same media at that effort's supporters, who make up an overwhelming majority of the nation's population (and potential newspaper consumers). Double Duhhh ! ! ! !

During my newspapering days we endeavored to provide our readers with fair, honest, and objective information that would enable them to understand their world. To the extent that we has a secondary mission, it was as one observer put it, "to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." Today's media functions as a giant megaphone for the ruling class, trying to sell to the afflicted their betters' world view and instructions on how it is proper for the afflicted to think, act, and live.

The Disdain Our 'Leaders' Have for Us

This weekend brought two wonder pieces that clearly show the contempt in which American citizens outside the power structure are held by those who inhabit and thrive within it.

First, there is this piece by the estimable Mark Steyn pointing out how unfounded charges of racism are hurled and used in efforts to keep everyone toeing the line prescribed by the Democan and Republicrat aristocraps.

And then there is this one by the admirably clear headed and unfailingly lucid Peggy Noon on the increasingly dangerous gulf between our rulers and those of us whom they purport and are endeavoring to rule.

Are Citizens As Gullible As the Overlords Believe?

Our oligarchs' positions and statements about illegal immigration demonstrate that they have gained a new level of confidence that they can get us to believe anything.

For example, they're now in the process of fashioning new legislative proposals to grant amnesty, under the guise of a path to citizenship, to immigrants already in the country. Supposedly, the amnesty/path will be available only after our borders are secured to prevent more illegals from coming in. Hah ! ! ! !  That's a knee slapping howler that assumes everybody has forgotten that a very similar deal was made once before. It resulted in the legitimization of a lot of illegal immigrants. Not a single effort was made to secure the borders and the flood of illegals swelled. 

Similarly, our rapacious Congress repeatedly has gotten tax increases in exchange for promises to cut spending. They always got their tax increases but somehow never got around to any spending cuts. Now, they say, border security will come first. But who will determine if or when the borders are secure, and how will they do that?  Even if the answers to these questions seem satisfactory, how can we be confident they will not be changed.

The only way to avoid being snookered is to avoid omnibus comprehensive legislation on any subject. Do not accept promises or enactment of necessary or desirable provisions linked to anything the oligarchs want. Such linkages always lead only to the oligarchs getting their way at the expense of the rest of us. 

As for immigration, enforce our existing laws and do whatever else is necessary to stop the flood of illegal entrants. Then get the illegals who are here to deport themselves. That can be done easily by denying them employment, which can be accomplished by simply transforming them from the least costly to the most costly workers any employer can hire. All that need be done to do this is to compel every employer to supply with its tax return the name and social security number of every employee whose compensation is being taken as deduction, and then deny the deductions for employees whose names and social security numbers don't match -- a simple computer software matching program.

Getting back to our overlords' assumption about our gullibility, take a look at the brouhaha over Arizona's efforts to control the onslaught of illegal immigrants that is transforming much of the state into a dangerous battleground.  The federal government, which has done and is doing nothing to stop the onslaught, is decrying Arizona's efforts to protect its citizens. Were the feds unable to secure the borders only because of a lack of resources to do so, would one not expect them to welcome Arizona's assistance in doing so? How come then are the feds demanding free passes and compassion for the illegals while showing none and doing nothing for their citizen victims?

Breaking News

Somali  Pirates Say They Are Subsidiary of Goldman Sachs
 
Could  Make Prosecution Difficult, Experts Say

 NORFOLK,  VIRGINIA  (API  World News) –  Eleven indicted Somali pirates dropped a bombshell in a U.S. court today,  revealing that their entire piracy operation is a subsidiary of banking giant  Goldman Sachs.

There  was an audible gasp in the courtroom when the leader of the pirates announced,  “We are doing God’s work.  We work for Lloyd Blankfein.”

The  pirate, who said he earned a bonus of $48 million in dubloons last year,  elaborated on the nature of the Somalis’ work for Goldman, explaining that the  pirates forcibly attacked ships that Goldman had already shorted.

“We  were functioning as investment bankers, only every day was casual Friday,” the  pirate said.

The  pirate acknowledged that they merged their operations with Goldman in late  2008 to take advantage of the more relaxed regulations governing bankers as  opposed to pirates, “plus to get our share of the bailout money.”

In  the aftermath of the shocking revelations, government prosecutors were  scrambling to see if they still had a case against the Somali pirates, who  would now be treated as bankers in the eyes of the law.

“There are lots of  laws that could bring these guys down if they were, in fact, pirates,” one  government source said.  “But if they’re bankers, our hands are  tied.”