Clunk! The sound a billion dollars makes

In my youth a guy or gal would buy a new car with a three year loan. In the period between one day and six months after the final loan payment said vehicle would officially become a beater, to wit: a clunker. It was easy to tell it was a clunker because all of the metal below the glassline would rust away and be left in piles on the driveway. We used to think this was kind of a problem and longed for the day when our Kaiser, Ford, Chevy, or Plymouth would last forever. Or at least four years. It was during the Cold War and four years might be longer than forever, by the way.

In the import car era the vehicles last much longer. Market competition did that-- not government edicts. Loans are typically five years in length and cars easily hold up for ten years. Are we happy now?

No.

Cars apparently are too well made now. When people got worried about their financial futures last year they decided they could hang on to their older vehicles for a bit longer and new car sales fell to levels most observers believe is unsustainable in the long term. Enter Congress to solve this "problem" of cars being too durable. Cash For Clunkers was designed to take tax payer money and buy up $1 Billion worth of America's used cars. Those clunkers were, by law, destined to be crushed and shredded. Many of these vehicles are quite serviceable-- in fact, they had to be running and licensed/ insured to even qualify for the $4,500 government voucher. In a free marketplace without this government intrusion the cars and trucks would have been traded in for their market value at some point and re-sold to people with less ability or willingness to pay for a more expensive vehicle. At some future date they would have been salvaged for their reliable parts.

But in "DC World" where One Trillion Dollars is flipped like a nickel, a used car buyout costing $1 Billion isn't the end of the world. Certainly it has a better payoff than the "stimulus" pork project dollar for dollar. Still... can you imagine the Founders being told that somewhere in the US Constitution there was found a provision allowing the federal government levying taxes on the public in order to buy up used carriages and older horses so that the horse and carriage industry might be invigorated?

Of course, like the days of rusted out clunkers, those days where horsebleep was called horsebleep are way behind us. Cash For Clunkers shot through the billski in less than a week and is seen as a huge success that should be expanded.

Is there any limit to how DC will tinker in the once free market. Is there even a political party with the will to stop this craziness?

Make Mine A Palmetto Porter

It takes a lot to screw up a beer blast, and yet the current administration appears to have done just that before the first cap pops. The WSJ has the sad details here.

Of course Lordy O could have served any of a gazillion fine craft-brewed beers from all around the USA. But most of those brews come from small businesses and O is right in the middle of trying to crush all of those folks with higher taxes, onerous regulations, and health insurance mandates. So that might have been a problem too.

My bigger problem with the whole "Beer Summit" is this-- if Lord Obama had texted his old pal "Skip" Gates and asked him to come over to the White House for an afternoon of chin-stroking, and tut-tutting about racist America do you think he'd have served beer?

I doubt it. Beer came into the picture because these two academic Marxists are also entertaining a working-class guy. It's a bit offensive. Then again, you can learn a lot about a President by the beer he drinks. Bud Light. Sounds about right.

My My My

This headline about golfer Mike Weir (slow down when you say that, pardner) is a real, um, head-scratcher.

Here at Monkeydarts we wish Mr. Weir well.

h/t: James Taranto at WSJ Online: BOTWT

The Sound Of One RINO Crying

Sen. George Voinovich, who elected not to run for re-election due to a terminal case of Rinoitus Senatitus, gave an interview to the newspaper in Columbus, Ohio and said some positively loopy things. Among them, when asked what ails the Republican Party, this is what Georgie the V came up with:

“We got too many Jim DeMints (R-S.C.) and Tom Coburns (R-Ok.). It’s the southerners. They get on TV and go 'errrr, errrrr.' People hear them and say, ‘These people, they’re southerners. The party’s being taken over by southerners. What they hell they got to do with Ohio?’ ”

Wow. Let's unpack that mess. First, to The Dispatch, the "S" is capitalized in Southerners. You got it wrong three times. As for the Senator's statement, I know many Ohioans and find them to be a generally likable sort. I think it's extremely disrespectful for their Senator to characterize them as a bunch of bigoted degenerates who make political decisions based on bias towards the accent of another region of the United States. Senator Voinovich owes his Ohio brethren an apology for making them sound like a bunch of knuckle-dragging idiots. Or, maybe by "people" he meant New Yorkers, New Englanders, New Jersey ex-pats, and the like. In which case...

And, finally Senator, the correct grammar is, "We have too many" and "what in the hell". I'll let it slide though since you're gettin' kinda slow in your dotage. In any event, you can't swing a Louisville Slugger around the South without hitting somebody who has moved here from the North. We run into folks almost every day who've fled Ohio. (Check that-- EVERY day.) In fact, they all seem to have left Ohio in the years that George was either Governor or Senator.

Hmmmmmm.......

7 Arrested

7 alleged domestic terrorists were arrested in Raleigh, NC.

excerpt:

All but one of the defendants are American citizens. Sherifi, a native of Kosovo, is living in the United States legally.
All seven men are charged with conspiring to provide support to terrorists and conspiring to murder, kidnap, maim and injure people abroad. Each is expected to have a detention hearing this week. Until then, they are being held without bond.

The complete story is here.

JihadWatch has the indictment as well.

In The Dark But Gettin' Ever Dimmer

The gang over at Big Hollywood directed me to Variety magazine today. I used to subscribe to and actually read Variety as part of my work duties in olden times. (Yikes!) So I figured it might be funny to see what they had to snark about Governor Palin's bye-bye speech.

Having worked in Hollywood I find it amusing to see how little the troops there know about most of the USA. This Variety column did not disappoint. But far better are the comments after--- the first one was so dead solid perfect I wish I'd written it.

Here are excerpts from the clueless column:

July 26 Sarah Palin's Attack on Twig-like Hollywood Starlets
Sarah Palin's farewell address as Alaska governor contained the standard conservative targets of big government, the media and Hollywood, but it's the latter where Palin forged new ground.
She didn't just attack the industry elite, but the wafer-thin starlet elite who embrace vegetarianism and have age-defying figures.
Her comments came about halfway through her speech, when she warned the state's residents of Hollywood's penchant for targeting Second Amendment gun rights.
"You are going to see anti-hunting, anti-second amendment circuses from Hollywood," she said. "And here's how they do it. They use these delicate, tiny, very talented celebrity starlets. They use Alaska as a fund-raising tool for their anti-Second Amendment causes." The crowd clapped.
Then came the line that got one of her biggest cheers. "By the way, Hollywood needs to know. We eat, therefore we hunt."

......

... perhaps Palin's motives were some kind of ingenious populism: the very same checkout counter magazines that have hounded her family also routinely obsess about celebrity weight loss and gain. In other words, stir up the resentment among anyone who's ever tried and failed to obtain unobtainable physiques.
She did spend a greater portion of her speech talking about energy, one of her signature issues, as well as criticisms of the federal stimulus package. But like her pre-Independence Day bombshell announcement that she was resigning, there were parts of this speech that were just incoherent, a stream-of-consciousness recitation of her accomplishments and resentments as if she were posting it on Twitter.
Take this part, in which she addresses the state's tradition of independence and living off the land:
"We would roll up our sleeves and we would diligently sow and reap. And we can still do this, to carve wealth out of the wilderness, and make our living out of the water, with strong hands and innovative minds, now with smarter technology. It is what our first people and our parents did. It worked, because they worked."

Palin thrives on being unpolished, but even that is of little help it you can't understand what you are saying. Her persona came through at the Republican National Convention, in what was regarded as her best speech on the national stage, but that was a fully scripted endeavor.
More problematic is the fact that she is leaving office period. Again, she cast her reasons for departing the governorship early as a desire not to play it "politics as usual" and bide her time as a lame duck. It's an argument that can just as easily be twisted the other way, that your very status as a lame duck makes you more valuable, because you are more likely to make decisions without reelection considerations. In a Republican primary, that will be held against her, from Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota in particular. He's a likely presidential candidate in 2012 and also a lame duck governor. But he remains in office.

"We eat, therefore we hunt" was an amusing line --- something you can envision on a bumper sticker. But if it is a higher office she is seeking, campaigns aren't won or lost based on the support or opposition to Hollywood, as much attention as the industry gets when it makes a foray into the political arena.

Before I could even point out how coherent and sane the "incoherent" passage was, others beat me to it. Take a look:

Comments

I'm afraid that this writer's own intelligence is to be questioned here. That sentence that seemed so elusive to him or here made perfect sense to me. But then again, like Governor Palin, my IQ is higher than the average turnip in California.
Actually it was a rather good restating of Fredrick Jackson Turner's Westward Expansionist theory of history.

But since the writer's intellect and education seems to be rather limited, like much of Hollywood, let me explain it in simple terms for you. I promise to try and keep the words small:
"We would roll up our sleeves and we would diligently sow and reap."
In past, people worked hard on family farms, and in other industries. They made plans, worked toward them and profited from that hard work.

"And we can still do this, to carve wealth out of the wilderness, and make our living out of the water, with strong hands and innovative minds, now with smarter technology."
People (that is people in fly-over country who feed the rest of you wastes of oxygen) can and still do this. They find new areas of need, and find a way to fill those needs. They work at sea, and on the land. They work hard, and they work smart, and they use the new technology (I'm hoping this word isn't too big for you) to make the work more profitable.

"It is what our first people and our parents did. It worked, because they worked."
This is what the first pioneers did, and what our past generations did. They were successful because of their hard work and their dedication.

What she is saying is that same spirit is still alive today in the farms and fields, factories, and small business across America. Those people are still working and they are the people that matter, because they are the people who pay the bills for the country- not the brain dead little starlets who spout off at the mouth about subjects they are unqualified to give an opinion on.
I suggest next time you avoid political thought. It is obviously too difficult for you. Next time just drink your kool ade and think of 0bama. You seem incapable of grasping much else.
Posted by: Asatruteacher July 26, 2009 at 09:56 PM

....

And this is why many Americans are pissed off. You guys don't get it! When your homes, jobs and family security are in danger WE DON'T NEED FANCY POLISHED SPEECHES-JUST THE FACTS. This whole article was about style not substance. And what was so hard to understand?! WORK! That was the point of her speech. Our country wasn't built on savvy politicians and shiny suits. It was built on the backs of hard workers. This is why I'm ashamed to be a New Yorker. You guys from the two left coasts are elitist snobs and you're the ones out of touch! Keep tring to figure Palin out, all the while your golden President with the perfect teleprompter speeches will keep on tumbling down the polls because of his FAILED POLICIES THAT YOU VOYED FOR. When your energy bills, grocery receipts, taxes, insurance skyrocket, you only have yourself to blame because Palin warned you. OBAMA IS A FAILURE-THAT'S A FACT.
Posted by: LisaBK July 26, 2009 at 10:27 PM

....

Asatruteacher - thank you. The paragraph in question was perfectly clear to me as well, but the notion of "working" may be an alien concept to those whose primary occupation is playing make-believe on TV.
Posted by: J R July 26, 2009 at 10:53 PM

....

what she is saying is pretty darn clear to me. but when the only "rolling up your sleeves" your used to is when you are purchasing your lattes from starbucks, I can see how you missed the point.
Posted by: sharise parviz July 27, 2009 at 04:18 AM

....

If this isn't EXACTLY the same type of snobbish, snarky, pseudo-intelligent hackery that Sarah and most conservatives have been fighting against for years then I don't know what is. It still floors me just how much the majority of people in entertainment and the press just don't get it.
Amazing.
Posted by: Tim Hathaway of NC July 27, 2009 at 06:12 AM

....

Theodore Levitt once wrote a business masterpiece, "Marketing Myopia." It describes how the railroad industry thought it was in the railroad business instead of the broader transportation business.
I suspect that B-school students may now be writing something similar to that about the entertainment/news industry's myopia about most of the rest of America.
Based on polling that shows the entertainment/news industry's credibility declining I would have to say that it is headed for a brick wall obscured by its own brand of marketing myopia.
You people just don't get it. So many twigs in your industry, and I don't just refer to the so-called "talent," seem to think that success in pretending (which is really what acting is all about) and the adulation heaped by limited minds automatically translates into a carte blanche to waltz into the limelight and opine on complex issues.
Enough already. Go back to pretending and leave complex issues to those who have actually spent adequate time to understand and manage them.
Posted by: Maggio July 27, 2009 at 06:24 AM
....

The article was worthless but the comments are pure gold.

Posted by: Frazetta_girl July 27, 2009 at 07:36 AM

They don't get it. And they never will.

I am so happy I got out of there while I could still think straight.

On Waterloo

Polling done after the big Wednesday night dog and pony show does not look good for Lordy O.

Rasmussen sez he's under 50% approval now and in danger of no longer being The One but rather being just another one.

---------------------------------------

Waterloo

Performed by Stonewall Jackson

Written by Wilkin/J.D. Loudermilk

Cedarwood Publ. Co.

Waterloo, Waterloo

Where will you meet your Waterloo?

Every puppy has its day

Everybody has to pay

Everybody has to meet his Waterloo

Now old Adam was the first in history

With an apple he was tempted and deceived

Just for spite the devil made him take a bite

And that's where old Adam met his Waterloo

Little General Napoleon of France

Tried to conquer the world but lost his pants

Met defeat known as Bonaparte's retreat

And that's when Napoleon met his Waterloo

Now a feller whose darling proved untrue

Took her life but he lost his too

Now he swings where the little birdie sings

And that's where Tom Dooley met his Waterloo

Waterloo, Waterloo

Where will you meet your Waterloo?

Every puppy has its day

Everybody has to pay

Everybody has to meet his Waterloo

How To Increase Unemployment

When the Democrats took over both houses of Congress in 2007 they pushed through a series of annual increases in the federal minimum wage. Lest he appear hard-hearted, the compassionate George W. Bush signed this into law.

Such a bill has zero effect in the Northeast, West Coast, and the heavily unionized states of the Midwest where state minimum wage laws are already higher than the federal law. It was, to be as clear as Lord Obama always says he's trying to be, an attack on right-to-work states-- predominately in the South. It was a successful attempt to make it more expensive to do business in a region that has been doing far better economically than the states with higher wages.

I'll set aside the idea of whether the federal government has any right setting wage floors in, say, Georgia. Instead, let's focus on a salient point from the argument against a higher minimum wage: It leads to higher unemployment among people least able to afford losing a job. The Dems answer is always the same-- despite the fact that it has always been true, this time it will be different, better, and glorious. So, lets see... what has happened to unemployment rates in this 24 month period that the minimum wage has been driven up? I don't think I have to point it out. Not even to Slow Joe Biden.

So today the final stage of this 41% minimum wage increase disaster goes into effect and even the very liberal Metrolina Disturber (part of the floundering McClatchey syndicate) has to at least consider the odd notion that raising an employer's biggest cost area by 41% in 24 months might be a job killer. One item from the article illustrates the issue in real world terms:

“We're already experiencing a decrease in sales because of the economy,” said Tommy Haddock, president of Tri-Arc Food Systems, the largest franchise of Charlotte-based Bojangles' system, with locations from the Triangle to southern Virginia. “When you have an increase in costs with a decrease in sales, it's a double whammy.”

Annual expenses at Tri-Arc, which employs about 2,100 at 40 restaurants, will rise by $1.2 million because of the new minimum wage, Haddock said. The company raised prices by about 3 percent across the board to help offset, though not completely cover, the higher expense...

My guess is that, after increasing the cost of my delicious Bojangle's chicken, biscuits, and sweet tea, Tri-Arc will need to let people go. Absorbing $1.2 Million in new costs with no gain in productivity during a time of zero inflation across a business of just 40 restaurants is a prescription for failure. Tri-Arc won't fail, but the new federal minimum wage increase will fail many of the people who the Democrats swear they were trying to help.

Kotkin on Blue Man Decline

We're always interested in the topic of how and where people choose to live in America and the outlook for cities, suburbs, ex-urban areas, and rural locales. Joel Kotkin is a clear-eyed observer of trends in this area. He sees things as they are-- not necessarily as he'd like them to be.

Yesterday he posted an interesting article at The American-- The Blue State Meltdown and the collapse of the Chicago Model. It takes more than a minute to read but is well worth it if you are interested in the subject.

Excerpt:

...while state and local budget crises have extended to some red states, the most severe fiscal and economic basket cases largely are concentrated in places such as New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Oregon, and, perhaps most vividly of all, California. The last three have among the highest unemployment rates in the country; all the aforementioned are deeply in debt and have been forced to impose employee cutbacks and higher taxes almost certain to blunt a strong recovery.
The East Coast–dominated media, of course, wants to claim that we have reached “the twilight” of Sunbelt growth. This observation seems a bit premature. Instead, traditional red-state strongholds such as the Dakotas, Idaho, Texas, Utah, and North Carolina, dominated the list of fastest-growing regions recently compiled for Forbes by my colleagues at http://www.newgeography.com/.
When the recovery comes, job growth also is most likely to resurge first in the red states, while the blue states continue to lag behind. For reasons as diverse as regulatory policy, aging infrastructure, and high levels of taxation, blue states continue to be more susceptible to recessions than their red counterparts.

------

These demographic and economic trends will have a long-term political impact. The net in-migration states—almost all of them red—will gain new representatives in Congress after the next census while New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and perhaps even California could see their delegations shrink.
In fact, amidst the Blue Man’s current political ascendency, the devolutionary process is likely to continue. Its roots are very deep, and will prove more difficult to reverse than media and policy claques suggest. In historic terms, blue states’ relative decline represents one of the greatest shifts of political and economic power since the Civil War.

-----

Check out this recent piece from Kotkin as well. Right after the last election he posted Sundown for California, a cold-eyed look at the pathologies that are dragging under the state where we lived from 1988-2005.

The Polarizing President

Perusing the last week's worth of Rasmussen Reports polling on our president we find...

-- 36% of men strongly disapprove of his performance while 26% strongly approve

-- 63% of Republicans strongly disapprove while 58% of Democrats strongly approve

-- 97% of blacks approve while just 41% of whites

Overall Lord O's approval index stands at -6 with more strong disapproval than strong approval 35% to 29%

The overall number is 51% approve/ 47% disapprove. Weak enough after just 6 months that the markets have rallied.

Pretty Pictures

I'm trying to decide which Michael Ramirez cartoon about Obamacare I like the best.

The one with the blimp....

or the one with Lord O's economic advisor....

Dr. O Will See You Now, Boomer

Erick Erickson at RedState.com reports on a part of the Obamacare plan in the House. It ain't pretty:

Section 1233 of H.R. 3200. The section, titled “Advanced Care Planning Consultation” requires senior citizens to meet at least every 5 years with a doctor or nurse practitioner to discuss dying with dignity.
The section requires that they talk to their doctor, not a lawyer, about living wills, durable healthcare powers of attorney, hospice, etc. Given the progressive intelligentsia already being on the record in favor of euthanizing the elderly, it is no small leap to see where the Democrats are headed with this.
Legally forcing senior citizens to have “death with dignity schedules every few years is just another way to say the government wants to make sure seniors know it is time to commit suicide to save the system money.
And saving any medical system through encouraged deaths of the elderly or unborn is not a medical system worth having.

Erick also links to the bill so you can see what they're up to. As Lordy O's numbers slide he'll try to get this monster passed quicker. Every day that his subjects have to find out what he has in store for us makes it harder for him to get his hands on everyone's medical care.

Market Rally

Several people have asked me in the past week how the stock market can be rallying while Lord Obama is pushing hard for Cap&Tax and Government-run medicine.

The answer comes in two parts:

1. Obama's approval numbers are falling and, more importantly, the market calculates that he'll get neither of these killer programs through before the end of 2009.

2. The federal reserve has flooded the system with money and interest rates are incredibly low. The old adage, "Don't fight the fed" is in play. If Obamanomics was ascendant the fed's monetary policy wouldn't matter much-- the market would be falling apart. But with his fiscal policy under strong pressure, monetary policy is key.

OK. But many people listen to the media and hear how persuasive Lord O is at selling his disastrous plans and don't believe that he'll fail to get these things through a Congress with huge Democrat majorities. Perhaps, but look at Intrade. Intrade allows people around the world to trade futures on events-- elections, terror attacks, the bombing of Iran and so forth. Intrade traders currently put the prospects of a Cap & Tax bill passing before the end of 2009 at just 25%. They put the passage of a health care reform bill in 2009 (which doesn't necessarily even include a "public" option) at 45%.

Does this mean all of the problems Obama has brought us will go away? Hardly. But a good market trader knows what a good farmer knows: make money while the sun shines. That good wheat field could be ruined by a hailstorm soon.

40 Years Ago

40 years ago Admiral Edward "Teddy" Kennedy of the S.S. Oldsmobile killed a young lady.

To this day he's never told the truth about that night-- at least in public.

To this day the dinosaur media treats him as a great man.

To this day his political party is in awe of his greatness-- the "Liberal Lion" of the U.S. Senate.

Soon he will meet the Creator and here on Earth we'll be subjected to weeks of glowing tribute to the "great" man who left Mary Jo Kopechne behind, suffocating in his Oldsmobile as it filled with water.

Tweetwatch

Here's something from Gov. Palin's Twitter site overnight, cleaned up slightly from Twitterish writing:

Great day w/bear management wildlife biologists; much to see in wild territory incl amazing creatures w/mama bears' ... raw instinct to protect & provide for her young; She sees danger?She brazenly rises up on strong hind legs, growls Don't Touch My Cubs & the species survives

Mama bear doesn't look 2 anyone else 2 hand her anything; biologists say she works harder than males, is provider/protector for the future

Yes it was another outstanding day in AK seeing things the rest of America should see;applicable life lessons we're blessed to see firsthand.

And...

Planning inauguration w/LtGov in 10 days, Frbanks. W/same cabinet, same positive pro-AK agenda it's all good, consistent success bc everyone elected is replaceable; Ak WILL progress! + side benefit=10 dys til less politically correct twitters fly frm my fingertps outside State site

Green Outside, Red Inside

Check out another source of laffs: Hope n' Change Cartoons.

Stick to Basketball

Such was the odd camera angle that one could watch Lord O's first pitch from St. Louis last night on TV and not get a clear look at the fact that he throws like a, um, er, uh.... well, you decide. (O's rainbow, short-hopper appears at around :24 of that clip.)

It seems pretty clear that FOX Sports knew he couldn't throw a baseball. They shot it oddly and then replayed only close-ups of him. Later he told the two mutts in the broadcast booth that he had practiced his throwing in the back yard at the White House. Wow, that made it even worse, pal. Hopefully he didn't step in Michelle's recession garden or she'll throw her $6,000 purse at him!

So what? So... nothing. Except now I can understand why he bowled a sub-40 game during the campaign.

More importantly, Curtis Granderson got the big hit of the night and scored the winning run for the AL.

Vacation Aggravation

It was time for a vacation from toil and strife. Time for a few days away from trading stocks and tapping out blog posts. Perhaps my communications provider sensed this when they cut all phone and Internet service to Monkeydarts Plantation last Friday.

Tuesday afternoon the service technician admitted that one of his co-workers had made some big mistakes last week. He meant well, apparently, when he disconnected service willy-nilly for several homes. Luckily, the company was lightning quick in their response and got everything up and running again in 98 hours. It would have taken 97 hours and 59 minutes except the tech had to reconnect two whole wires thus adding an extra minute.

I don't want to mention the company in question, but their initials are a-t-t.

On the bright side, four days without Internet allows a family to really get closer together-- like the good old days when after a full day of chores Ma, Pa and the brood would gather on the porch and talk and sing folk songs about how this land belongs to you and me. And we did exactly that-- in a more modern sense.

We watched more satellite TV.

They Never Learn

Actual AP headline today:

House Dems look at taxing the rich for health care

Headline you'll never see after the above happens:

"Rich" close businesses and fire 14.8 million employees

Instead, the dinosaur media will call for more "stimulus" to save the few remaining non-government jobs.

Like a Dog On a Bone

In mid-June we referred to an extraordinary moment-- the head of the CIA slandering a former VP of the US. Now Pelosi, through her loyal lackeys who want to hang on to their committee chairs, has been able to make progress on her dopey "the CIA lied to me" claim from wayback when.

If SanFranNan pursued freedom & liberty the way she fights her grudge battles the world would be a nicer place.

Meanwhile, Panetta is a chump.

Oops

At least it wasn't Gorge Blush's White House.

Rasmussen Reports

Obama's approval is at its lowest. His approval index has fallen 35 points since January 22nd and is now -5.

Rasmussen's findings are here.

Wrong Way

While Lord Obama has addressed the economic downturn with enormous spending programs and demands for dramatically higher taxes, in Germany Angela Merkel took another path. Merkel eschewed massive spending of money that had to be borrowed or printed. She has proposed the course of action that Ronald Reagan used to launch America out of our post-Carter tougher times: lower marginal tax rates.

So what? Well, while we're seeing that the fabled "green shoots" have been hit by a dose of Round-Up, Germany is seeing something different:

German factory orders jump
May orders rose 4.4% from April,
the 3rd straight gain and the biggest
since June ’07, the gov’t said. Domestic
orders rose 3.9%, while orders
from abroad rose by 5.2%. The
data raised hopes that Europe’s No.
1 economy could soon emerge from
its deepest recession sinceWWII.

Many people pretend that Obama is in waters where no ship-of-state has ever ventured. They applaud his efforts at navigating without a map. Hogwash. (Or, as Governor Palin said yesterday, "Bull crap!")

The stock market correction of 1929 was turned into a world wide depression that lasted a decade by FDR's government programs. Confronting a mess created by Nixon/Ford/Carter President Reagan slowed spending and cut tax rates leading to a 25 year boom. If he had employed the FDR model we would have had a depression. The boom years that GWB ushered in in October 2003 didn't stop until the markets saw the inevitability of an Obama presidency about a year ago.

It isn't that Lord O is in uncharted waters. The problem is that he's Capt. Wrongway Peachfuzz.

On To Washington

There were around 1,500 "Tea Party" protests on July 4th. Most Americans are probably unaware that this happened and that upwards of a million people took to the streets all across the country-- just as they did on April 15th. They'd be aware, perhaps, if there wasn't an ongoing celebration of a child molester taking place on TV "news". (I just found out that the small Ohio town where I was raised, population 17,000, had over a thousand attend their "Tea Party" Saturday! I'm so proud of that little 'burg!)

Those of you who have attended one of these events are aware that the Republican Party takes nearly as much grief as the Obama Party does from the speakers and the assembled masses.

This will likely be the case on September 12th when the National Taxpayer Protest movement goes to Washington DC. A million people at 1,000 to 1,500 rallies across the country can be ignored, I guess. What about a like amount coming to Washington, DC?

Something is going on in America. A significant number of citizens are beyond fed-up with DC's tax, borrow, and spend domestic governance and sickened by the spectacle of our leaders dancing with dictators on the international stage. And, many people who vote for Republicans are tired of a Party that says, "Me too, but slower and cheaper." Instead of "Hell, no!"

September 12th. Washington, DC. The National Taxpayer Protest. Could it be that April 15th and July 4th were just a warm-up?

Anatomy of a Downdraft

Most folks don't watch stock market futures or the second-by-second tick of the tape as part of their normal day. I do. It goes with the job. Let me describe an interesting thing I saw today.

The futures were up this AM indicating a slight uptick would be coming at the 9:30 AM EDT opening. This was a positive development for anyone long equities because the indexes are fighting to stay above support at the 50 day moving average (NASDAQ) and the 200 day moving average generally.

At about 8:01AM I noticed that the futures had reversed and were now indicating a lower open.

"What data was released at 8AM that spooked the markets?" I asked an associate. Query was met with shrug.

We couldn't figure it out... until I noticed that a wire report had moved around that time that showed an Obama economic adviser urging A SECOND PORKULUS PLAN! Then, late in the morning's trade a report ran that stated that Obama his own self hasn't ruled out A SECOND PORKULUS PLAN! The indexes sold off harder and broke under support levels.

At some point traders will realize that there is no appetite among Democrats on Capitol Hill for a suicide pact with Lord Obama. Maybe. But, on first blush, the White House damaged the markets on a very sensitive trading day-- just a day before earnings reports start coming out.

Elections Have Consequences

In case you haven't noticed... our country has sided fully against the people of Honduras and backs the president they ousted-- a Chavez, Castro clone.

The US media, including FNC, insists on pretending this was a military coup. Clearly the United States is no longer the beacon of freedom and liberty in the world.

Pictured above, L-R: Castro, Zelaya, Chavez. Missing from the team picture, Ortega & Obama.

Terror Under The Peach

In Cherokee County, our neighbor to the west, a serial killer is at-large. Five are dead. The description of the suspected murderer and his vehicle are very clear. We hope this ends well-- and quickly.

Story here.

UPDATE: Police in North Carolina have returned fire at the serial killer and killed him. The murders took place a short drive to our west in Cherokee County, SC and the murderer was killed around 3AM last night a few miles to our north in Gaston County, NC. People in our area are breathing easier now and thanking an alert citizen and law enforcement officers.

July 4th Salvo

One of the things that drove supporters crazy about George W. Bush was his reluctance to fight back against all sorts of lunatic rhetoric directed at him. He saw the Presidency as a position from which one does not descend to engage in fisticuffs with critics.

As Governor Palin exits her state job in Alaska she shows that her nature is, um, somewhat different. In the 24 hours after her announcement a great deal of unresearched speculation went out over the air and Internet. Her attorney has told an Alaskan left wing blogger, The NYTimes, MSNBC, The WashPost and Puffington Host that they are on notice and will be subject to legal action for defamation. The four page letter is here.

Some people called her a "quitter."

Amusing.

Imagine for a moment that you knew you could make in one night, giving a 45 minute speech in Houston, what you made in an entire year as governor. Now imagine that, when your children are attacked by pundits and comedians you can make such speech actionable as a private citizen. You might not win any lawsuits, but then the lefties who have filed more than a dozen harassing suits against you in the past year haven't won either. The payback might be too sweet and way too lucrative to pass up.

Is she running for president? Probably. Some day. But first it's time for fun and profit. Lots of profit. There are opinion-shapers in America who make many millions a year through radio, books, TV, and speeches. None of them would take the pay cut to run for public office. Sarah Palin found herself on the other side of that equation: working for chump change when there are tens of millions of dollars on the table.

No Lame Duck For Her

We went looking for freedom this Independence Day weekend and this afternoon Liberty appeared.

I'm surprised that some people on TV this afternoon don't think she just started her 2012 campaign.

Now back to the national celebration of a child molester.

A Puzzled Nation

Have a great Independence Day. Look for liberty this weekend. It seems to be missing.

Crowds No Show For Slow Joe

Eventually even the best comedy acts go stale and the crowds turn away. It looks like The Slow Joe Show has passed the point of no return.

Wednesday Ol' Hair Plugs took his jocularity to Erie, PA and fewer than 100 souls showed up to sample the hilarity. When an entertainment starved community like Erie yawns it must be time for the hapless 2nd banana to work out some fresh, new material.

Here's Slow Joe doing his famous ambidextrous proctologist bit.

It used to kill.

Now?

Not so much.

Ramirez Sez...

Editorial cartoon great, Michael Ramirez, gets it exactly right.

Ramirez is found on the pages of Investors Business Daily. IBD editorials are found here, for non-subscribers.

UPDATE: The Canada Free Press on why most Americans are in the dark about what's happening in Honduras.