Democrats in their own words

Maybe the most important nine minutes of video you'll ever watch.

DUI checkpoint

Tonight's Hamilton County DUI checkpoint will be in Roselawn on Reading Road near Seymour.

Friday Funny - Mike Leach's Tips on Dating

Where do you buy gold?

I've had many a client, family, friend ask me, Is there a local place (Cincinnati, OH) where you can walk in and purchase/sell gold at current market price (obviously with a commission related to the sale)?

Most people refer me to coin dealers, pawn shops, jewelers and these places are all willing to sell you gold at the current market price and will be more than willing to buy it back at about 10-20% of the current price and rip you off.

I'm looking for a place like a brokerage house for commodity metals gold, silver, etc.

Given that bunch of NCC stock I bought at $5/share (thinking it was at rock bottom) dropped $3 a share in about an hour this morning, I'm thinking gold as well.

If you know of one, please let me know in the comment section.

Blame it on Bush

For those who want to blame this current financial calamity on Bush, read this article from the NY Times in 1999.

Money quote from the piece.....

In moving, even tentatively, into this new area of lending, Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any difficulties during flush economic times. But the government-subsidized corporation may run into trouble in an economic downturn, prompting a government rescue similar to that of the savings and loan industry in the 1980's.

''From the perspective of many people, including me, this is another thrift industry growing up around us,'' said Peter Wallison a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. ''If they fail, the government will have to step up and bail them out the way it stepped up and bailed out the thrift industry.''

Was this guy Nostradamus? I guess Bush should have fixed the problem as Governor of Texas.

Making every vote count

From the Party of "making every vote count"....

State Sen. Rosalind Kurita, who had her 19-vote primary victory overturned by Democratic Party officials last week, has filed a federal lawsuit asking that she be named the party nominee for the seat.

Kurita, represented by an Indiana attorney known for representing conservative causes, filed the complaint late Wednesday against every member of the state Democratic Party executive committee, which ruled her Aug. 7 primary victory over Tim Barnes “incurably uncertain.”

County party officials subsequently voted overwhelmingly to name Barnes as the nominee.

The lawsuit argues that the state party violated her due process rights when it invalidated the primary result, and asks that she be put on the general election ballot as the Democratic candidate. The suit also seeks to strike down the state law that governs contested primary results.

Does Jennifer Brunner run their elections too.

More....

Obamamania - Catch it

Are democrats patriotic?

Various musings from Bert Prelutsky

I’m certain that by this time most people have seen the photos of the American flags that were left for the trash collector after the Democratic convention in Denver. Even though I have a flag outside my front door and hate to think of a flag, the symbol of a nation that inspired my two sets of grandparents to travel 7,000 miles so I could be fortunate enough to be born an American, I wasn’t as troubled by the photos as I would have been if they’d been misused after the Republican convention. Liberals, after all, are always insisting that they’re as patriotic as conservatives, but I don’t believe it. If they were, they’d respect the military far more than they do, they wouldn’t nominate someone like Barack Obama and they certainly wouldn’t keep saying how much America is despised around the world, while ignoring the fact that it’s a badge of honor to be despised by the likes of Russia, China, Iran, Yemen, North Korea, Venezuela and the PLO. They would also acknowledge that there must be a darn good reason why millions of people who weren’t as lucky as we were to be born in America are, literally in some cases, dying to come here.

So, when I see that the Democrats disrespected the flags, I understood that to them the flags were only cheap props like the balloons, the bunting, the confetti and those corny Greek columns. The real problem isn’t that the left trashed a few flags, but that they keep trashing the country.

More.....

Can we see your papers?

There will be a DUI checkpoint in Warren County tonight.

As soon as we have a time and a place, we'll post it.

Update....

The DUI checkpoint will be at the corner of US RT 22 & 48; right in my neck of the woods.

In addition, the Ohio Patrol announced a checkpoint for Saturday night in Hamilton County.

Thought of the day II

This week, Gordon's been in and out of seminars for his CPA education requirements. I was interested in a course titled "Branding Ohio for Economic Growth". Sounded like a winner.

Now, if you're trying to convince people that your state is pro business and do things like host a seminar titled "Branding Ohio for Economic Growth", I think it would be a good thing for someone to actually show up.

I think it's also a good thing to not have a presenter (from ODOT) in a concurrent session saying "we're not out to punish Ohio businesses we're out to get non Ohio businesses".

Thought of the Day

This weekend when the 0-3 Browns meet the 0-3 Bengals you won't have to watch the game. You'll be able to smell it.

Update.....

From Lance's Blog

Is it true the Ohio Lottery is sponsoring the game this weekend? After all, someone's got to win, might as well be you.

Another earmark run amok

I wonder when the national media will vet this...

A $100,000 state grant for a botanic garden in Englewood that then-state Sen. Barack Obama awarded in 2001 to a group headed by a onetime campaign volunteer is now under investigation by the Illinois attorney general amid new questions, prompted by Chicago Sun-Times reports, about whether the money might have been misspent.

The garden was never built. And now state records obtained by the Sun-Times show $65,000 of the grant money went to the wife of Kenny B. Smith, the Obama 2000 congressional campaign volunteer who heads the Chicago Better Housing Association, which was in charge of the project for the blighted South Side neighborhood.

Smith wrote another $20,000 in grant-related checks to K.D. Contractors, a construction company that his wife, Karen D. Smith, created five months after work on the garden was supposed to have begun, records show. K.D. is no longer in business.

I guess we now know what a community organizer does....

video here (HT Bizzyblog)

The law of unintended consequences

Investor's Business Daily on the history of the mortgage loan debacle....

While President Carter in 1977 signed the Community Reinvestment Act, which pushed Fannie and Freddie to aggressively lend to minority communities, it was Clinton who supercharged the process. After entering office in 1993, he extensively rewrote Fannie's and Freddie's rules.

In so doing, he turned the two quasi-private, mortgage-funding firms into a semi-nationalized monopoly that dispensed cash to markets, made loans to large Democratic voting blocs and handed favors, jobs and money to political allies. This potent mix led inevitably to corruption and the Fannie-Freddie collapse.

Despite warnings of trouble at Fannie and Freddie, in 1994 Clinton unveiled his National Homeownership Strategy, which broadened the CRA in ways Congress never intended.

Addressing the National Association of Realtors that year, Clinton bluntly told the group that "more Americans should own their own homes." He meant it.

Clinton saw homeownership as a way to open the door for blacks and other minorities to enter the middle class.

Though well-intended, the problem was that Congress was about to change hands, from the Democrats to the Republicans. Rather than submit legislation that the GOP-led Congress was almost sure to reject, Clinton ordered Robert Rubin's Treasury Department to rewrite the rules in 1995.

The rewrite, as City Journal noted back in 2000, "made getting a satisfactory CRA rating harder." Banks were given strict new numerical quotas and measures for the level of "diversity" in their loan portfolios. Getting a good CRA rating was key for a bank that wanted to expand or merge with another.

The law of unintended consequences. Now we have an entire population of people who not only not own their own homes anymore but have a crappy credit rating to go with it.

Obama supporters meet

Obama supporters Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Jodie Evans met today in New York to exchange recipes or decide how best to kill American troops....

Jodi Evans, a founder of the radical anti-war group Code Pink and "bundler" for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, met with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Wednesday.

“It’s rare for a head of state to take time during an official U.N. visit to meet with the peace community, especially in a situation where the host government—represented by the Bush administration—is so hostile,” Evans said in a statement. “The fact that the meeting took place and was so positive is, in itself, a major step forward.”

During the Democratic primary Obama came under fire from both his Democratic and Republican foes for promising to meet with Ahmadinejad “without preconditions” if he became president. At the meeting Evans and fellow Code Pink founder Medea Benjamin offered Ahmadinejad a plan to build a “peace park” in Tehran and invest funds in Iranian businesses “that produce green and sustainable products, such as bicycles.” Evans signed on to become a “bundler” for Obama’s presidential campaign last June. As a bundler, she has pledged to raise at least $50,000 for his campaign.

No word yet on how much Mahmoud's kicked in to the Obama campaign.

We trust these guys to manage this mess?

It's hard to imagine how anyone can find a way to entrust this congress to handle this on going financial mess when we get this.....

The government paid more than $1 billion in questionable Medicare claims for medical supplies that showed little relation to a patient's condition, including blood glucose strips for sexual impotence and special diabetic shoes for leg amputees, congressional investigators say.

Billions more in taxpayer dollars may have been wasted over the last decade because the government-run health program for the elderly and disabled paid out claims with blank or invalid diagnosis codes, such as a "?" or "zzzzz." Medicare officials say even smiley-face icons could have been accepted.

More.....

Follow the money

While all of us hard working tax stiffs get to bail out the bad mortgages of ding dongs, derelicts and douche bags, it's nice to see where all of our hard earned money is heading.

The WSJ with a piece on who benefited from this scandal. If it looks like a lot of democrats on this list, you would be correct.

Who Will He Vote For - #65

A man arrested for driving under the influence in West Virginia got himself into a lot more trouble later at the police station.

Jose Cruz was pulled over Monday night on Route 60 in South Charleston for driving with his headlights off. He was subsequently arrested after failing a series of sobriety tests, according to WSAZ TV in Charleston.

During fingerprinting, Cruz then allegedly moved closer to one of the officers and passed gas, the station reported. In the complaint, the investigating officer wrote that police noticed a "very strong" odor.

When will this be vetted?

From the NY Times IN 2003.

The Bush administration today recommended the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago.

Under the plan, disclosed at a Congressional hearing today, a new agency would be created within the Treasury Department to assume supervision of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored companies that are the two largest players in the mortgage lending industry.

The new agency would have the authority, which now rests with Congress, to set one of the two capital-reserve requirements for the companies. It would exercise authority over any new lines of business. And it would determine whether the two are adequately managing the risks of their ballooning portfolios.

The plan is an acknowledgment by the administration that oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- which together have issued more than $1.5 trillion in outstanding debt -- is broken. A report by outside investigators in July concluded that Freddie Mac manipulated its accounting to mislead investors, and critics have said Fannie Mae does not adequately hedge against rising interest rates.

HT Powerline

More Obama-Ayers connection

Tony Blankley on the media's cover up of all things Obama especially his relationship with Ayers..... at Columbia University.

But worse than all the unfair and distorted reporting and image projecting are the shocking gaps in Obama's life that are not reported at all. The major media simply have not reported on Obama's two years at New York's Columbia University, where, among other things, he lived a mere quarter-mile from former terrorist Bill Ayers. Later, they both ended up as neighbors and associates in Chicago. Obama denies more than a passing relationship with Ayers. Should the media be curious? In only two weeks, the media have focused on all the colleges Gov. Palin has attended, her husband's driving habits 20 years ago, and the close criticism of the political opponents Gov. Palin had when she was mayor of Wasilla, Alaska.

But in two years, they haven't bothered to see how close Obama was with the terrorist Ayers.

Nor have the media paid any serious attention to Obama's rise in Chicago politics. How did honest Obama rise in the famously sordid Chicago political machine with the full support of Boss Daley? Despite the great -- and unflattering -- details on Obama's Chicago years presented in David Freddoso's new book on Obama, the mainstream media continue to ignore both the facts and the book. It took a British publication, The Economist, to give Freddoso's book a review with fair comment.

More....

Life in "Progress" City

So what's it like to go grocery shopping in that bastion of "progressive" life, Berkeley CA?

The produce emporium -- one of the nation's most renowned retailers of exotic fruits and vegetables -- creates its own bad behavior. Kamikaze shoppers crash down crowded aisles without eye contact or apology for fender-benders. So many customers weren't waiting to pay before digging in that management imposed the ultimate deterrent: Those caught sampling without buying will be banned for life -- no reprieves, no excuses. (Not even "I forgot to take my medication.")

Raphael Breines, who was ejected last year for eating on the premises, said he couldn't decide between two types of apricots, so he sampled both. Security stopped him in the parking lot.

"They treated me like a thief," said the 37-year-old park planner, who was photographed and required to sign a no-trespass agreement. "Technically I was stealing, but I wasn't trying to hide anything. I was just deciding which type of apricot to buy."

Breines, a longtime customer, sent an apology letter, asking to be reinstated. His request was denied.

Store manager Larry Evans says the policy is a fair response to doctors, lawyers and college professors who help themselves to bags of cookies, nuts and vitamins, stick their fingers in pies and guzzle from bottles of sake, assuming the rules don't apply to them.

"There's a sense of entitlement to this town," Evans said. "People think, 'If I want to do it, I'll do it, just try and stop me.' "

More.....

I guess that's evidence of global warming

From CNN....

Scientists have noticed increasing reports of starving Arctic polar bears attacking and feeding on one another in recent years. In one documented 2004 incident in northern Alaska, a male bear broke into a female's den and killed her.

So you're telling me that we can prove man made global warming because one crazy polar bear killed another four years ago.

Maybe he was a Jeffrey Dahmer type polar bear.

By the way the score to the global warming challenge Warm 279- cold 263

Thought of the Day

So congress wants congressional oversight on the firms being bailed out of the sub prime mortgage mess?

Is this the same oversight which has resulted in a combined 40 TRILLION dollar unfunded liability in the social security and medicare trust funds? The size of 6000 Enron's

Maybe the same oversight which resulted in a 400 billion dollar bailout of Fannie and Freddie? The size of 20 Enron's.

Excuse me if I'm skeptical.

Obamamania - Catch it

Joe Biden on Renewables and Coal in Maumee, OH

HT Paindealer

Blue State - No Jobs

For some unknown reason New Jersey is looking for companies to come there and actually employ people.....

With Wall Street in a meltdown, the Corzine administration is working feverishly to find ways to generate jobs in Jersey.

How to create jobs? Simple. Just compile a list of everything the Democrats have been doing. Then do the exact opposite.

In 2001, Jim McGreevey was elected promising, "I will not raise our income taxes. I will not raise our sales taxes."

So instead he raised corporate taxes. And then he raised income taxes. And then Jon Corzine took over to complete the trifecta by raising the sales tax. Meanwhile, property taxes continued to rise. And the Democrats also cut off development in what could be the wealthiest part of the state with the Highlands Act.

And now the Democrats want new jobs. Good for them, but jobs require job sites. Where will those new workers work?

The other evening I participated in a panel discussion on that topic hosted by the New Jersey chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties. These guys are the big developers, the crude capitalists who were scorned until recently as the despoilers of the planet and the spreaders of sprawl.

All of a sudden, they're the good guys again. The governor is meeting with them and other business leaders to figure out how to generate jobs to make up for those lost when Wall Street giants like Lehman Brothers went bankrupt.

One developer in the audience was Joe Morris, who specializes in cleaning up brownfields sites in places like Perth Amboy and replacing the pollution with commercial properties.

"The business climate in this state is just toxic," Morris told me. "We have no idea how to retain tenants in this state."

This begins with the attitude of state regulators - "They could be nice and respectful, but they're just arrogant" - but it goes way beyond that.

Perhaps the low point occurred in July. It was already obvious by then that we were in an economic downturn. But instead of creating incentives for new business, the Democrats passed a new tax on development that was unprecedented in American history.

More....

Obamamania - catch it

HT Ms. Underestimated

Red State - Blue State

Finally, some folks in the main stream media are starting to pick up on the differences between Red State and Blue State economics.

From the NY Post..... (HT Bizzyblog)

After a tough week on Wall Street and in Washington, it's important to point out that all economic troubles are not created equal. And it is the red states that are better prepared to weather the crisis.

In Texas, Florida and Arizona, life doesn't seem so grim. As Phil Gramm and Mike Solon noted in a Sept. 13 Wall Street Journal column, those three large states gained 1.7 million, 1.4 million, and 600,000 jobs, respectively, from 1996-2006. That's one-third of all US jobs during that period. The states also had per-capita income growth that far outpaced the national averages.

Most other red states have done either fairly well or very well. Friday morning's Labor Department report shows at least 15 states that went for Bush in 2004 had seasonally adjusted August unemployment rates below 5%: Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

But if you're looking for economic struggles, visit the blue states.

Begin with big kahuna California, which gave John Kerry a 10% margin in 2004. The now-misnamed Golden State, with its Democrat-dominated legislature and might-as-well-be-a-Democrat governor, had an August unemployment rate of 7.7%, up from just 5.5%, and over 400,000 more unemployed workers, in 12 months. Yet Arnold Schwarzenegger rejects the idea of offshore drilling, and the jobs it will create.

Then head east to Michigan (unemployment: 8.9%; 12-month job loss: 70,000). Things have gone from bad to very bad during the tenure of Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm, with the help of a too-compliant GOP legislature. Wolverine State defenders point to its "unique" auto industry problems. Baloney - Gramm and Solon noted that while Michigan lost 83,000 auto-sector jobs in the past 15 years, eight Southeastern states, all of which went for Bush in 2004, gained 91,000.

Move on to Ohio (7.4% unemployment). Though it went for Bush in 2004, state government has mostly acted blue since the mid-1990s, thanks to alleged GOP governors George Voinovich and Bob Taft. The Buckeye State moved from pseudo-red to largely blue in 2006, electing a Democratic governor, who has been aided and abetted by a mostly complacent GOP legislature.

What's so "progressive" about a crappy economy?

Being charitable

As I noted in an earlier post, the democrats have found religion! They've even set up a 527 political group called Matthew 25 network.org to prove their compassion for the poor.

Maybe this group can talk to their leaders.

First, you've got Joe Biden who takes care of the "one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' " by giving a whopping 400 bucks a year to charity (or donating all the money he finds in his car's ash tray which ever is less).

Second, they can talk to The Messiah himself, who has literally done nothing for his half brother George Obama despite having earned over $4 million the past couple of years. George Obama lives in a Kenyan slum on $1.00 a month despite having earned over $4 million the past couple of years.

Dinesh D'Dousa, is having a fund drive for George...

The reporter for "The Nation" thought he had me cornered when he asked, "Are you doing this to embarrass Barack Obama?" To which I answered, "Absolutely. He deserves to be embarrassed." The reporter went on to ask me: since when have you developed this great interest in African poverty? I responded that I had only very little interest in African poverty. I happen to come from a very poor country, India, so my philanthropic work is directed there. I only took up the George Obama cause when I heard what a jerk and a hypocrite Barack Obama is being about his sibling. One Obamoron emailed me to say, "Why don't you use your money to help your own impoverished relatives in India?" The answer is that my relatives don't live in huts!

Here are some donor comments which I'll be forwarding to George along with the funds. "This is for the poor brother long forgotten." “A brother is a terrible thing to waste.” "I wish I had a brother, or even a step-brother. George is not my relative and not my race or religion but I still want to contribute to his welfare." "When Obama said that not taking care of the least of our brothers is our greatest moral failure, who knew that he was talking literally about the least of his brothers?" "I never thought I'd be writing a check to anyone named Obama, but I do want to be a true Christian and help this man in his shameful situation." "I'd send more, but I make $9.10 per hour." "I'm unemployed, but I can spare $5 for the Obama Compassion Fund."

I hear a lot from atheists, but interestingly no self-identified atheist contributed a penny. This seems in keeping with sociologist Arthur Brooks’ data showing that secular people are much less generous, both with money and time, than religious people. As Brooks might have predicted, most of my donations came from self-identified Christians, some of them in difficult circumstances themselves. Thanks to this generosity, Barack Obama's half-brother can look forward to the prospect of a better life. George Obama, start packing.

This is just wrong

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced their nominees for the Hall.

Last year, after inducting America's favorite Hep C carrier, Madonna, I was ready to call the Hall irrelevant. Not it's official.....

CLEVELAND - Run-D.M.C. could "Walk This Way" into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The 1980s rap act, along with Metallica and the Stooges are among the nine nominees for next year's hall of fame class, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation announced Monday.

The other nominees are guitarist Jeff Beck, singer Wanda Jackson, Little Anthony and the Imperials, War, Bobby Womack, and disco and R&B group Chic, the only nominee back from last year's ballot.

The five leading vote-getters will be announced in January and inducted April 4, 2009, in Cleveland.

I don't have a problem with Metallica. In my mind, they meet the criteria for induction; they added something to the genre of rock and roll music and generally considered the band who resurected metal music. But Run DMC, who's contribution to the genre was a cover of an Aerosmith song?

In addition, the Hall's going to consider Jeff Beck over Stevie Ray Vaughn? Run DMC over Tupac?

War over Average White Band?

Still, no Rush?

Chic?

This is a joke.

Who would Jesus vote for?

Along the lines of my post in December (Who would Jesus Endorse?), it appears that we need a reminder as to who Jesus actually was.

First, I'm guessing (since I'm not God or Obama) but I don't think Jesus would even vote, let alone pick a candidate. Jesus was about our salvation and our relationship with God, independent of what political party was in power.

Second, remember who Jesus had the most problems with? The religious types. Pharisees, I believe. Most of them upset that Jesus wouldn't save them from the tyranny of the Romans.

So I'm thinking that Jesus probably wouldn't file a ballot in this election.

None the less, I find it hilarious that democrats are trying to seize on the religious right quoting the only Bible scripture they seem to know, Matthew 25:40.

"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

No where in this passage does this imply that the government implement a program for each of us to take care of his brother. In fact, most of the Bible is intended to be a guide book for our personal relationship with God, not a road map for government guidance.

In addition, using democrat logic, where's the separation of church and state so many democrats live and die on?

I think religion is important that it helps identify the moral framework candidates live and govern by. But I'm kind of tired of campaigns trying to manipulate our individual religious experience for their gain. So stop it.

Obama smears

Surprise! It looks as though many of the smears about Palin have direct and indirect relationships with the Obama Campaign.

I wonder when the media will vet this?

The Jawa Report

Obama scares the old folks

Ruth Marcus, Liberal - Washington Post, on Obamamania's scare tactics of old folks...

Obama has been furthest out of line, however, on Social Security, stooping to the kind of scare tactics he once derided.

"If my opponent had his way, the millions of Floridians who rely on it would have had their Social Security tied up in the stock market this week," Obama said Saturday as he campaigned in that retiree-heavy state. "Millions of families would've been scrambling to figure out how to give their mothers and fathers, their grandmothers and grandfathers, the secure retirement that every American deserves."

This is simply false -- even leaving aside the incendiary language about "privatizing" Social Security. As the invaluable FactCheck.org noted, the private account plan suggested by President Bush and backed by McCain would not have applied to anyone born before 1950. It would not have changed benefits by a single penny for current retirees like the nice Florida folks that Obama was trying to rile up. The sensible notion was that workers at or near retirement age should be able to rely on promised benefits and should not be subject to the vicissitudes of short-term market fluctuations.

More....

They can't avoid history

A Newsweek piece that sounds a lot like old Gordon right here.

How could this possibly be? Surely, anxious Democrats have told themselves, only a nefarious plot could have gotten us here. The Republicans cannot win this election on the issues, they reason, so they have set out to win it the way they always do—by distraction, division and lies. They will paint Democrats as out-of-touch elitists on the wrong side of the culture war, and a country that doesn't know better will accept their fabrication whole hog. The only way to win this election is to beat the Republicans at their own game. This is the way it works in modern presidential politics: Democrats run on ideas and issues, Republicans run on Karl Rove.

But this paranoid view, that Roveism alone wins campaigns for the GOP, cannot fully explain a simple reality: for 40 years, Republicans have won the presidency more often than not. The GOP has won seven of the past 10 presidential elections. Republican candidates have won more than 400 electoral votes in four separate elections (Richard Nixon's re-election in 1972, Ronald Reagan's wins in 1980 and 1984 and George H.W. Bush's victory in 1988), while the Democrats' best showings came in 1992 and 1996, when Bill Clinton won 370 and 379 electoral votes, respectively. Jimmy Carter is the only Democratic presidential candidate in 44 years to win 50 percent of the popular vote. If this phenomenal Republican record is thanks only to the dirty tricks of Karl Rove (or Lee Atwater, or Richard Nixon before him), then surely our political system is so easily subverted by treachery that a revolution is required.

It is not. History shows that the modern Republican Party has had more going for it than just Karl Rove: for 40 years, it has been the conservative party in an essentially conservative nation. In this era, Democrats have managed to win the White House only when they have presented themselves as centrist stewards of the center-right consensus. They have lost when they let Republicans get under their skin.

Ideas have always done more for the modern Republican Party than critics on the left would care to admit. It is true that Nixon, a paranoid cynic convinced that only ruthlessness could win him the White House, was the first president of this center-right era. But he won the White House in 1968 and again in 1972 because he offered an effective alternative to the New Deal consensus that government could help mankind be its better self—a consensus that had been discredited by the decline of the postwar boom, the failure of Lyndon Johnson's Great Society and an American military defeat. Nixon's ruthlessness, laid bare in Watergate, unmade his presidency, but did not make it. George H.W. Bush won the White House not because of the tawdry Willie Horton ad but because he convinced the country he was the only candidate ready to be president in an unknown post-cold-war world. George W. Bush won the White House not simply by Swift-Boating John Kerry but by convincing voters that only Bush could keep them safe.

Global Warming Challenge Update

The score through 9/21/08

Warm - 277
Cool - 262

Just a coincidence?

Tom over at bizzyblog has a great round up of unemployment numbers by metro areas; especially those in Ohio and Michigan.

Question for you progressives? How is it that unemployment in red areas is somewhat moderate yet in nearly every area that's "blue" has extraordinarily high unemployment? Does this just happen to be a coincidence? Is it a targeted unemployment conspiracy perpetrated by Bushies? Maybe just maybe it's a fact that democratic policies make it very unattractive for businesses to locate there?

Seriously, if you wanted to drop say, a billion dollars in a manufacturing plant would you build it in Flint MI (unemployment rate of 12.3%)? Or might you drop it in a state that's actually business friendly?

How is it that all the areas where democrats rule are havens for unemployment?

What's so "progressive" about not having a job?

Who will they vote for? #61

Watch this video and ask yourself the question.

Who will the people on here vote for?

The Change promised by The Messiah, Obamamania?

The Change offered by the Maverick, McCain?

Congressional oversight

The IBD with a great breakdown on the current financial crisis....

Can Congress just walk away from a problem it helped create? Maybe, maybe not.

There's now some talk of a grand deal between the Treasury, the Fed and Congress for a "permanent" solution: creating a government agency to buy up all the bad subprime debt, just like the Resolution Trust Corp. did with bad real estate in the 1980s and 1990s.

Already, the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve are spending hundreds of billions of dollars to keep the subprime crisis from crashing the world economy. The collapse of twin mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, along with the failures of Lehman Bros., Bear Stearns and insurer AIG, expose taxpayers to more than $1 trillion in liabilities.

Until now, Congress has been surprisingly passive. As Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid put it, "no one knows what to do" right now.

Funny, since it was a Democrat-led Congress that helped cause the problems in the first place.

More.....

In addition, you can read my personal experience with the Community Reinvestment Act and the law of unintended consequences.