Barney Frank's Career Change

Congressman Barney Frank, the truly Reprehensible Demorat from Massachusetts, today announced that he will not run for reelection next year.  

Word on the street has is that (i) he is opting for one of the open athletic coaching jobs at Penn State or Syracuse, and (ii) other members of Congress are looking forward to resuming use of the showers in the U.S. Capitol's bathrooms.

20-Year-Olds: Then and Now

More Evidence of Fraud by Climate Alarmists

Climategate scientists DID collude with government officials to hide research that didn't fit their apocalyptic global warming. See the evidence in this new report.

Best Scientific Theory of All Time

The scientific theory I like best is that the rings of Saturn are composed entirely of lost airline baggage.

Stark Truth About Our Arcane Tax Rules and Why They Are An Inescapable Labyrinth

As followers of this blog are aware, General Electric was able to avoid having to pay any taxes on the more than $14 billion that it earned in 2010. Its approximately 57,000 page tax return claimed and took advantage of many -- but by no means all -- of the tens upon tens of thousands of credits, exemptions, deferrals, and special deals unavailable to, and mostly unknown by most American and smaller business enterprises. 

Only the very big and powerful qualify for such deals. They can and do hire the high priced lobbyists who get the obscure breaks enacted into the nation's tax laws and regulations, and the equally expensive legal and accounting experts who know about their existence and how to take advantage of, and use them.

Don't expect Congress to change the system or to simplify it. Its complexity serves the interests of the lawmakers in two ways.

First, it is the stock in trade of our politicians. In exchanges for campaign contributions and many other favors they enact multiple obscure provisions to benefit their rich and powerful supporters as well as cudgels to punish their foes, or they authorize their bureaucratic minions to do so. In addition, they swap supporting votes with their fellow lawmakers to do the same.

Second, the magnitude and complexity of the entire structure, the overall system, makes individual amendments of, and additions to it too insignificant to notice. It thus shields what is being done from public notice even though the cumulative effect of such minutiae has created and is inexorably expanding a monstrosity.

To expect our "public servants" to give up this stock in their perfidious trade is about as realistic as expecting one's local supermarket to forgo the food business.

Fictional Phone Call With Truely Revealing Message

Hi. This is the President. Is Senator Lieberman in?   

Not today, Sir. This is Yom Kippur.      

Well, hello, Yom. Can I leave a message?

This Says It All

Everything one needs to know about our government and system of taxation is that bailout recipient General Electric reported earnings in excess of $14 billion in 2010. It paid no federal taxes on that income as GE filed an approximately 57,000 page return showing a tax obligation of zero . . . yeah, zip zero . . . nothing . . . nada.

Hey there fellow tax paying suckers, how about that?  How about them apples? How cool is that? Is this a great country or what?

Miserable Options

With the possible exception of Herman Cain, each of the pathetic politicians seeking to be elected to the presidency next year has demonstrated, in his or her own way, unworthiness and unfitness for the office.

None of the pitiful crowd is as reprehensible as the clod who currently occupies the White House -- when, that is, he is not sumptuously globe trotting, vacationing, or out on some swank golf course. However, we again are reduced to trying to choose the least objectionable of the various candidates -- the one likely to inflict the least damage on us and the country.

Concentrating Financial Power

The government on Friday seized and shut down two more small banks, further increasing the market share and concentrating the financial power of the major monopolistic financial institutions that have been favored and buttressed with bailout funds.

While the Occupy crowd is highly objectionable in many ways, its members are on to something in recognizing that things have gone very wrong in the U.S.

The big and powerful get taxpayer money funneled to them through the public treasury and/or by having it printed for them by the Federal Reserve. Lesser institutions and individuals are left to fend for themselves and if they don't go belly up they are forced to pay for the whole shebang.

The fat cats have a good thing going with socialism for the rich, the big, the powerful, and the politically well connected, and free enterprise privation for everyone else.

Has this become a great nation or what?

Brisk Breezes of Wyoming

No Wonder Our Slimey Overlords Hate Sarah Palin: They Recognize Her As a Real Threat to Their Pillaging Privileges

With millionaires making up almost half of the congress, it's not surprising that the legislators do little or nothing for, or even understand ordinary Americans.

And how, one might ask, did so many dim bulb politicians get so rich while supposedly serving the public? 

They did, and are continuing to do so by engaging in practices that would land their constituents in a penitentiary. Although they're mostly lackwits, the scumbags have contrived ways to take care of themselves and one another. Their extraordinarily profitable shady practices are protected by exemptions they have enacted for themselves from laws they've imposed on the rest of us.

Of course the brazen pols and their lackeys  take every opportunity to besmirch, demean, demonize, and seek to destroy Sarah Palin, an ordinary citizen who has had, and rejected opportunities to join the oligarchy -- the layer of scum at the top of the nation's political rain barrel. Furthermore and even worse, with reports such as this one, Ms. Palin is providing a look behind, if not  destroying, the curtain behind which the nation's shameless ruling class corruptly wheels and deals to serve itself. Such exposure threatens the pols' ability to continue to conduct business as usual -- in accordance with what has come to be a gangster like modus operandi.  

Ms. Palin is particularly terrifying to, and loathed by the overlords because of her demonstrated ability to connect with huge numbers of American citizens.  She is clearly explaining how what used to be the peoples' government has been transformed into a cosa nostra kind of an institution. It sucks the life blood from everything it touches for the exclusive benefit of the godfathers who control it and their minions.  Expounding that reality has the potential for rousing the common rabble to undertake corrective actions.

Given the depth and pervasiveness of the corruption of our institutions, effective corrective actions might well necessitate going beyond the ballot box. Even tar and feathers might not suffice. An increasing number of awakening citizen are stating that their ire is past that point and that they now are very close to gallows and guillotine angry.

Dim Bulbs Inside the Beltway Actually 'Think' Like This

While they are capable of exercising some real ingenuity in coming up with a more palatable name, the idea of halting their spending spree will never occur to, or be entertained by them.

D.C. View of Taxpayers

Displaying Judicial Ethics

Bipartisan Political Perfidy

The senior political reporter at a newspaper for which I was beginning to  work as a cub decades ago told me that a politician is a creature who would sell his mother into slavery for a vote. Nothing that I have seen, heard, or otherwise observed in the many years since then has given me any reason to doubt the accuracy of his description.

Two recent actions -- one by our Demorat president and the other by Republicon congressmen -- support the veteran newman's characterization of the political species:

First, there is the disservice of workers employed in the private sector, most of whom belong to unions that support him, by President Obama as described in this report.

Not to be outdone though, congressional Republicons are trying to help bestow more goodies on those who participated in creating and sustaining the real estate house of cards that took down the nation's economy when it collapsed . . . and, as is spelled out in this account, they're doing so sneakily, hoping that their unprincipled actions will escape notice by conservatives upon whose support they depend.

In each instance the duplicity is a result of pols endeavoring to ride two horses at the same time. Mr. Obama is throwing his unionized workers under the bus to avoid antagonizing environmental extremist activists. The Rublicons in congress are ignoring Tea Party adherents to act at the behest of real estate lobbyists. 

Were he around today my veteran newsman mentor probably would describe a politician as someone who would regret not having more than one mother to sell into slavery.

Best Election Commentary To Date

 

I haven't left my house in days.
I watch the news channels incessantly.
All the news stories are about the election;
All the commercials are for Viagra and Cialis.
Election - erection - election - erection
- - - either way we're getting screwed!

. . . Bette Midler.

Newt Nails It

As an American I am not so shocked  that

Obama was given the Nobel Peace Prize 

without any accomplishments to his name, 

 because America gave him 

the White House based

on the same credentials.

Presidential Pace Car

Economizing?

President Obama cut $4 billion from his administrative budget, but will spend the money on other programs. I swear, if Obama were in a sinking boat, he'd drill a hole to let the water run out.

. . . Former senator Fred Thompson

Gems of Insightful Wisdom

Don't miss today's postings by Lee Rodgers.  To reach his blog, click here.

Cynical President Fumbles and Punts Economic Football

     President Obama’s announcement that he will delay a decision on approval of the Keystone Pipeline until after the 2012 election typifies his feckless presidency. Torn between the need to create jobs, reduce the cost of energy and get our economy going on one hand, and the emotional biases of his environmentalist base on the other, Obama punted. I assume that if and when the time comes–post-election–Obama will do what he has wanted to do all along, and kill the pipeline.
     We have written about Keystone a number of times. In this post, we quoted a study that concluded the pipeline would moderate the price of oil and create between 250,000 and 553,000 permanent American jobs.
     If China does indeed replace the United States as the world’s pre-eminent economic power, the foolishness of American voters in electing Barack Obama president will be a major contributing factor.

. . . John Hinderaker in Powerline

 Comment:  Isn't the mantra that we can't wait for congress to act on jobs being chanted repeatedly by this very same hypocritical narcissist who, for his personal political purposes, now is kicking the economic/jobs can down the field?

Eric Holder's All Purpose Defense

Shameless Journalice Shield Loathsome 'Leaders'

America's community organizer-in-chief and his equally repugnant French counterpart recently exchanged disparaging comments about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which is hardly surprising as they must be enraged by the truth-telling Bibi's intellectual and moral superiority.

The dwarfish characters who harbor delusions of adequacy and lead the U.S. and French governments were oblivious to the fact that they were talking into open microphones and that their snide conversation was overheard by a bevy of journalice.

No matter though. The media shills didn't deem it necessary to report the shared mindset clearly reflected by what the pathetic faux leaders said to one another. The information came to light only because it was posted on an obscure French website, as is made clear by this account.

U.S. Tax Dollars, Infrastructure Projects Creating Jobs . . . for Chinese in China

Voracious and Insatiable

From The Wall Street Journal:

Fannie Mae said it would seek $7.8 billion more in U.S. government assistance after posting a wider loss in the third quarter as the housing market's troubles continued.
The Washington-based mortgage finance company on Tuesday posted a net loss of $5.1 billion in the third quarter, compared with a year-ago loss of $1.3 billion. It was the 16th loss in the past 17 quarters for the company, which nearly failed more three years ago and has been kept on government life support ever since.

The request for aid from the Treasury Department includes $2.5 billion to cover required quarterly dividends . . . .

. . . and at the same time, the Journal reported this: 

WASHINGTON—U.S. lawmakers are seeking to rein in pay for executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage-finance giants that remain on taxpayer life support, nearly two years after the government approved the firms' compensation arrangements.

The firms' continued losses, largely the result of loans that they guaranteed as the housing boom turned to bust, have resurrected calls from Republicans and Democrats to scrap the multimillion-dollar pay deals.

Their top executives received nearly $13 million in cash awards granted at the start of 2011 based on regulators' assessment of corporate and individual performance goals.

 Comment: Their performance must be measured by their perpetual ability to consume an ever increasing number of taxpayer dollars.

21st Century Fugitive Slave Act

Uppity individuals deemed by the progressive-liberal-democrat plantation's owners to belong on their plantation risk personal destruction if they dare to:

*  Express views out of line with the plantation's orthodoxy,

*  Seek public office as conservatives, and

*  Connect, or evidence the potential for connecting effectively with a significant number of their fellow citizens.

Such undisciplined fugitive slaves will be set upon and, until ruined or silenced, they will be savaged unrelentingly by the popular press and its journalice functioning as the plantation's enforcers and shills.

Enforcement of this modern counterpart of the Fugitive Slave Acts has reached a new level of efficiency in the stereotypical onslaught being directed at Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain -- a plantation defying black man being accused of making unwanted sexual advances toward a bevy of white women. What could be more damning or racist?

The attacks are overwhelming and well orchestrated, having been rehearsed in a limited and less sophisticated way when another conservative black man, Clarence Thomas, was nominated for the U.S. Supreme Court seat that he now occupies and more recently when Sarah Palin -- who, as woman, belonged in the plantation's kitchen -- had the effrontery to seek national office.

The startling aspect of the current spectacle is the contrast between (i) the alacrity with which the media is pursuing the sexually based accusations against Mr. Cain, and (ii)  how the same journalice endeavored to avoid reporting anything about the White House peccadilloes of Blow Job Bill Clinton or the credible accusations by a reputable businesswoman that he had raped her in Arkansas.  

The fourth estate and its denizens no longer have either scruples or any capacity for shame.

As for the accusations against Mr. Cain, their context and dubious nature are spelled out in this report as well as this one.

P.S.  Similar repugnant efforts now are being directed at Marco Rubio, who is viewed by all of the Republican presidential candidates as a running mate.  His being on the ticket would pose a threat to the leftists cabal by pealing away a significant number of Hispanic votes to which Democrats of course are entitled. Any such threat escaping from the plantation has to be targeted for demolition.

The Green Thing

In the queue at the store  the other day, the cashier told an older woman that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment.

The woman apologized to him and explained, "We didn't have the green thing back in my day."

The clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment."

He was right -- our generation didn't have the green thing in its day.

Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled. But we didn't have the green thing back in our day.

We walked up stairs, because we didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks. But she was right. We didn't have the green thing in our day.

Back then, we washed the baby's diapers because we didn't have the throw-away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts -- wind and solar power really did dry the clothes. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that old lady is right; we didn't have the green thing back in our day.

Back then, we had a radio, in the house -- not a TV in every room. If and when we got a TV it had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember  them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana . In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us.  When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used a wadded up old newspaper to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.  Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But she's right; we didn't have the green thing back then.

We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull we replaced the blades. But we didn't have the green thing back  then.

Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space to find the nearest pizza joint.

But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the green thing back then?

Please share this with another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conservation from a  young person.

Remember:  Don't make old People mad.

We don't like being old in the first place, so it doesn't take much to piss us off.

Rewards of Clean Living

Fabulous Entertainment from Days Gone By

 

James Cagney and Bob Hope at a Friar's Club Meeting back when actors were real performers.
 
 At the time of this performance, Hope was 52 and Cagney was 56. For the young folks, here is something you probably have never seen before and, unfortunately, you may never see again.  For the older folks, this is the best of the best, and we had it for many years! 
 This is a side of these two entertainers you rarely ever saw but it shows their enormous talent. 
 Bob Hope, one of the best of the comedians, and Jimmy Cagney, mostly cast as the bad guy/gangster in movies.

An Exemplary But Unfortunately Unfollowed Leader

Harry Truman was a different kind of President. He probably made as many, if not more important decisions regarding our nation's history as any of the 42 presidents who preceded him. However, a measure of his greatness may rest on what he did after he left the White House.

The only asset he had when he died was the house he lived in, which was in Independence Missouri . His wife had inherited the house from her mother and father and other than their years in the White House, they lived their entire lives there.

When he retired from office in 1952 his income was a U.S. Army pension reported to have been $13,507.72 a year. Congress, noting that he was paying for his stamps and personally licking them, granted him an 'allowance' and, later, a retroactive pension of $25,000 per year.

After President Eisenhower was inaugurated, Harry and Bess drove home to Missouri by themselves. There was no Secret Service following them.

When offered corporate positions at large salaries, he declined, stating, "You don't want me. You want the office of the President, and that doesn't belong to me. It belongs to the American people and it's not for sale."

Even later, on May 6, 1971, when Congress was preparing to award him the Medal of Honor on his 87th birthday, he refused to accept it, writing, "I don't consider that I have done anything which should be the reason for any award, Congressional or otherwise."

As president he paid for all of his own travel expenses and food.

Modern politicians have found a new level of success in cashing in on the Presidency, resulting in untold wealth. Today, many in Congress also have found a way to become quite wealthy while enjoying the fruits of their offices. Political offices are now for sale (cf. Illinois ).

Good old Harry Truman was correct when he observed, "My choices in life were either to be a piano player in a whore house or a politician. And to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference!

I say dig him up and clone him!

A Bit of Truth

While millions of Americans are victims of unemployment, the government's own Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the number of federal employees has grown 12 percent since the official start of the recession in December 2007.

Clearly, the trend of an ever-expanding government is toward turning the private sector and its workers into serfs working to support a privileged government-employed hierarchy.

. . . from http://www.radiorodgers.com/

Sage Advice for Our Time

Observation U.S. Is Confirming

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

Halloween Trick or Treat at the White House

Obama wanted people to like his Halloween costume, so he went as himself from 2008.