ABC argues that one of Barack Obama’s critical campaign advantages is the enthusiasm of his supporters. “Though McCain’s supporters have become more enthusiastic about the Republican nominee, he still suffers from an enthusiasm gap. Sixty-one percent of Obama supporters are enthusiastic about their candidate … forty-seven percent say the same of McCain.” This is no small edge. In sports, war and politics, victory often goes to the side that is the most committed. Obama understands the enthusiasm of his supporters and is determined to use it. He recently told them:
“I need you to go out and talk to your friends and talk to your neighbors. I want you to talk to them whether they are independent or whether they are Republican. I want you to argue with them and get in their face,” he said.
It was an exhortation which sounded eerily like Al Pacino’s famous motivational “Inches” speech on in the movie “Any Given Sunday”. On that occasion, Pacino portraying a football coach, explained to his team the critical importance of going all-out. A team that was prepared to pull out the stops would prevail over one that was held back by reservations. “On this team, we fight for that inch. On this team, we tear ourselves, and everyone around us to pieces for that inch. … I’ll tell you this: in any fight it is the guy who is willing to die who is going to win that inch.” Obama’s “in your face speech”, while less dramatic, conveyed the same message: show no mercy, take no prisoners; give no quarter. You’re going to make me President of the United States and nobody’s going to stop us.
Jim Treacher, watching Obama’s “Action Wire” supporters silence radio programs critical of the candidate is stunned by what he seems to regard as a shout-down. He was unprepared for the game of “inches”, unready for the meaning of “get in their face”.
In today’s Chicago Tribune, the Obama camp responds to nitpicky concerns about their attempts to shut down radio shows that might say things they don’t like, via their “Obama Action Wires”:
“The Action Wire serves as a means of arming our supporters with the facts to take on those who spread lies about Barack Obama and respond forcefully with the truth, whether it’s an author passing off fiction as biography, a Web site spreading baseless conspiracy theories or a TV station airing an ad that makes demonstrably false claims,” said Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt.
Having listened to the previous Milt Rosenberg show with Stanley Kurtz that got “Action-Wired” (which is available here), I can tell you what this translates to:
“We’ll provide a page of talking points for you to spout at the host and his guest. Just read it from your screen. Unfortunately, we’re unable to provide you with the necessary brainpower to keep up when the host asks you to explain the reasoning behind ‘your’ opinion, or poses any other question that isn’t found in our script.
“But that isn’t the point anyway. We just want to tie up their phone lines with thousands of angry calls, both to intimidate them and to prevent people with legitimate questions from getting through. Yes We Can… Shout Down All Blasphemers.”
This is not free speech. This is not “people expressing their opinion.” This is people expressing Obama’s opinion. This is a powerful politician arrogantly abusing that power to try to silence his critics, without even bothering to hide behind Media Matters or Kos, because he knows he can get away with it. This is wrong.
But hey, it works, insofar as it goes. “Wrong” isn’t an argument that works a lot in Chicago politics. Why should Treacher expect it to work anywhere else? Morality is an expensive business in politics. It was proved doubly expensive in war. In the rustic infancy of signals intelligence, some US policy makers were aghast at the idea intercepting confidential correspondence: that was blackguardly and low. Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson said, “Gentleman do not read each other’s mail.”
in the early months of Herbert Hoover’s Administration, Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson was presented with a small batch of Japanese telegrams that had been deciphered by a highly secret American code-breaking organization known as the Black Chamber. Appalled at the invasion of another nation’s private communications, Stimson immediately cut off funding to the cryptologists with the admonition ”Gentleman do not read each other’s mail.”
Events on December 7, 1941 showed Stimson’s scruples were expensive and they were subsequently abandoned. By August, 1945 the US was atomic-bombing Japan and razing its cities with firebombs. But it won. The gradual increase in the savagery with which the 2008 Presidential campaign is being conducted may establish, once and for all, that as in gridiron football, there are no prizes for a good loser. One may need a court-order to read al-Qaeda’s mail. But Obama’s supporters — the ones without the “enthusiasm gap” — need none to read a woman’s mail: Sarah Palin’s. Hot Air explains the details to its readers how Palin’s Yahoo account was attacked and how the attackers congratulated themselves.
I mentioned an infamous group of hackers whose Internet bulletin board was the gathering place for those who bragged about and publicized the Sarah Palin private e-mail hacking. A tech-savvy reader who monitors the hackers’ site e-mailed me a detailed explanation of how it went down, who was responsible, and how someone with a conscience warned a friend of the Palin family of the crime (language warning):
This in reality is what the “enthusiasm gap” means. And whether or not Obama intends it, this is what “get in their face” amounts to. Closing the “enthusiasm gap” is likely to be just as ugly. Balance in politics is often achieved in the same way it is effected in thuggery. If someone’s face looks a little lopsided from a black eye, restore symmetry by blackening the other. The question is whether McCain’s supporters — whether or not he intends it — will follow Stimson’s spirit about what gentlemen may or may not do, or whether they’ll remember an adage that Richard Daley would be familiar with: don’t get mad. Get even.
Update:
I should say that Jim Treacher wrote a wonderful post, whose points I agree with. I cynical irony sometimes in argument and this, I guess, is one of my more ham-handed moments. “Why should Treacher expect it to work anywhere else?” is a phrase I could have expressed as “but sometimes doing the wrong thing is expedient.”
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246 Comments
1. Tuduri:This is just a few steps from physical confrontations to silence critcs like the Nazi brownshirts or the government organized gangs in Cuba who hound and beat dissidents.
Sep 18, 2008 - 12:29 pm 2. Eggplant:Tuduri said:
“This is just a few steps from physical confrontations to silence critcs like the Nazi brownshirts or the government organized gangs in Cuba who hound and beat dissidents.”
We are so screwed if the Messiah and his moonbat legions take over the government.
Wake up people! We’re sleep walking off of a cliff.
Sep 18, 2008 - 12:44 pm 3. Sports News » Blog Archive » Enthused:[...] Belmont Club added an interesting post on EnthusedHere’s a small excerptIn sports, war and politics, victory often goes to the side that is the most committed…. [...]
Sep 18, 2008 - 12:45 pm 4. Michael B:“Enthused” would be among the kindest of terms to describe the guile, the overt and more subtle forms of mendacity, the vipers and venomists, in the MSM and in the Obama campaign as well that has evidenced itself.
But it reflects a source of power, of force in the world, and one that will have effect, that is having an effect. The question that remains is how that force will be challenged – with adequate and commensurate levels of counter-force and sophistication, or in some inadequate, naive or some other misconceived sense. Time will tell whether or not certain polities, certain contingents are awake, and additionally are up to the task, the very real work that needs to be first envisioned and then accomplished.
The game is on.
Sep 18, 2008 - 12:48 pm 5. filbert:This is exactly how history teaches that democracies become dictatorships.
One side discovers that strong-arm tactics work, and the opponents don’t (or can’t) oppose those tactics effectively.
Can the world survive an American descent into the depths of Chicago Machine-style Third-World political thuggery?
Sep 18, 2008 - 1:04 pm 6. wretchard:One sign that Obama isn’t a real organizer, as he claims, is his ignorance of the “radicalization moment”. This the psychological moment every organizer against a totalitarianism aims for. It’s the exact second the mask comes off and the truncheon comes down.
Back in the anti-Marcos days it was the instant when a leader who thought he’d be respected for his grey hairs was kicked in the groin; when people who were minding their own business were stopped at checkpoints and shaved, by grinning thugs, until they had the “New Society” haircut. For the Filipino upper class the radicalization moment came when Ninoy Aquino was shot dead on an airport apron. Then the scales fell from their eyes and they saw Ferdinand Marcos for the first time.
The unbridled campaign of disinformation and bullying is creating tens of thousands of radicalization moments and Obama will pay for this. But he won’t pay for it until someone — probably not McCain — comes along and creates its dual: the Empowerment Moment. The Empowerment Moment is the instant when you realize you can strike back at your tormentors. People have glimpsed it before. When Buckhead took down Dan Rather, for example. But it doesn’t happen by accident. An Empowerment Moment is the result of thousands of radicalization moments parsed through discussion and reflection. That’s what the Anbar Awakening was. But where is the Petraeus of politics?
Sep 18, 2008 - 1:07 pm 7. Nomenklatura:I’m not sure the ‘angry black guy’ thing is really the best card for Obama to play over and over again during the last several weeks of the campaign. Sort of tramples over his positioning and message up to this point.
It’s kind of revealing though that this is all he has, as soon as the media spotlight turns towards someone else.
There’s a certain ‘Wile E. Coyote’ feel to this election, in that the collapse of a coherent leftist ideology several years ago has left both parties fighting furiously over a conflict neither of them really believe is relevant. It’s like the floor is no longer there. This is becoming the purest ‘culture versus culture’ presidential election I think I’ve ever seen.
In a sense this is reasonable. Nobody knows what the challenges will be for the next President, and nobody has an adequate program. Whoever it is will have to make it up as he goes along. All there is left to vote for is what kind of person will make the decisions. For most people that means in some sense ’somebody like me’. This makes it an excellent year to be running a female VP who is a good communicator.
Sep 18, 2008 - 1:09 pm 8. Toad:Hmmmmmm, well the problem with using illegal or immoral tactics on your political opposition is that at some point reprisal elevates everything to violence, possibly civil war.
Sep 18, 2008 - 1:11 pm 9. Jack Okie:After all if your cause justifies lying then doesn’t it also justify assasination? Will not your opposition see this coming and jump straight to the armed action to beat you to the punch.
My sense is that the conservative side is no longer willing to just stand there and wring their hands. I think from now on, especially after the Palin hysteria, conservatives are ready to escalate just as far as the Obots want to take it.
Sep 18, 2008 - 1:12 pm 10. Roderick Reilly:Yeah, yeah, “enthused” my ass.
They can be “enthused” all they want, but guess what? Their “enthusiasm” is pissing a whole bunch of us off. What matters is whether our anger is greater or lesser than their “enthusiasm” come Nov. 4.
Oh, and nobody gets “in my face” and expects to convince me to join their side.
At times, Obama revelas himself to be a punk in designer suits. I have no patience or use for punks or bullies, and I’m voting come November. What about the rest of you?
Sep 18, 2008 - 1:12 pm 11. wretchard:Hmmmmmm, well the problem with using illegal or immoral tactics on your political opposition is that at some point reprisal elevates everything to violence
And this is precisely why leadership is important. Outrage has to be channeled in licit, but effective ways. When people get angry the challenge is to direct that anger constructively and not let it run riot. However, I am unsure whether traditional politicians, who are used to working in committees and at cocktail parties, have the skills to do that. But times change, and so do the challenges of leadership.
Sep 18, 2008 - 1:20 pm 12. enscout:The left has had to disguise who they are in order to get elected and maintain their power base. Slick Willie was the master of this approach. With the MSM & their naive listeners it has been a successful ruse in the US for forty years.
But Obama is just over the top and unpolished & now those in the press are having to expose their bias to protect him. He lacks the finesse & experience to game the system.
The classic overreach…maybe.
Sep 18, 2008 - 1:27 pm 13. Konyok:In American politics this dynamic can be hinted at, but never, ever be made explicit. The ultimate lever in our presidential politics is the voting machine. Our military, security and intelligence agencies, and civic organizations just don’t have the expertise or institutional culture to intervene in the political process. (Not so with our media, but … ) Unlike countries like the Philippines, our politics is not bounded by questions like “What will the army do?” The very perception of such terroristic bullying and the chaos that lies beyond it would give Obama the worst electoral defeat in modern times.
Recreate68’s meager turnout in Denver clearly shows that enthusiasm on the left is not boundless. They certainly have developed some alarmingly totalitarian impulses, but it seems that most people have a fine sense of just how far they can take it. The left has “people power” fantasies, but lacks the objective grievances to take the risks.
Of course, a close election decided by challenged recounts could unleash the Carmagnole …
Sep 18, 2008 - 1:54 pm 14. whiskey:Barring some sort of massive terrorist attack, I think Obama has won this election, based on the economy and the voters desire to punish Republicans (even though the crisis has Democratic origins).
Obama is up by 4, in the Gallup polls. Women are turning against Palin since she’s been convincingly painted as “low class” and women are status-obsessed (particularly younger ones).
It looks like a convincing Obama win in November, with a Democratic Congress.
However, the push-back is to do exactly what Republicans did to Clinton — investigate Obama for seedy, corrupt dealings. Whitewater plus. With an extra added investigation into taking money from the Saudis, Hamas, Hezbollah (which by the way, are all true). Hamstring Obama, paint him and the Dems as both corrupt and bought by Muslim terrorist money, and push for impeachment AND conviction.
That was how Dems brought Nixon down, it was how Clinton was hamstrung, and the way to deal with Obama.
But clearly, barring any Terrorist atrocity and demands for surrender, Obama will be the next “One.” The economy and McCain’s lack of any ability to push back (Media control by “the One” makes an McCain message impossible) makes it a fait accompli.
I’m sure Obama will over-reach as well, with Obama Corps, gun confiscations, reparations for slavery, and so on. Biden feels low taxes are unpatriotic, so everyone knows they will be socked for taxes.
Sep 18, 2008 - 2:00 pm 15. Jim Treacher:Silly me.
Sep 18, 2008 - 2:04 pm 16. NahnCee:I’ve been thinking that this “get in their face” exhortation is the Left’s version of “taking it to the street”. Slowly, slowly they are edging over the line between legal and illegal without noticing that that’s what they’re doing.
Jill Greenberg’s theft and photoshopping of McCain’s picture is very likely illegal. She thought was was merely causing a stir.
The hacking of Palin’s e-mail is definitely illegal. The left see it as merely an attempt to uncover whatever she’s hiding, which they are absolutely certain she is hiding something.
Pretty much everything Code Pink has done for the past few years is illegal if you consider that trespassing and physical intimidation are against the law. But Code Pink has been supported by (among others) the Berkeley City Council so that very very few of the Pinker’s have ever had to accept responsibility for their actions.
Anti-abortionists ran amok up to and including killing doctors until they were reined in by new laws *and* thrown in jail.
I think the BDS types are, simply, nuts about EVERYthing and are firmly convinced that they have every right to annoy the rest of us with whatever dirty tricks their beady little brains can come up with. It’ll be interesting if it ever comes to the point where a neocon gun owner goes after an e-mail hacker to settle things one on one. I’d be inclined to acquit.
I’m also wondering what the ratio of loud moonbats is, if there’s really that many of them is KosKidz land to get in our faces. Or if a small percentage of lunatics have managed to mask the fact of their numbers because they can be extremely loud by using their computers and their self-dialing phones to magnify their efforts.
In any case, I think it’s time for “the system” to start cracking down on these people and throwing them in jail where they can explain their politics to their Black Muslim cellmates. (And in the case of Jill Greenberg, send her skanky ass back to Canada.)
Because if they’re allowed to continue their downward spiral into frothing hysteria, there *will* be blood in the streets.
Sep 18, 2008 - 2:09 pm 17. enscout:Jim Treacher:
A rhetorical question…
Sep 18, 2008 - 2:14 pm 18. Clioman:Socialist ends. Chicago means. Pray for the Republic.
Sep 18, 2008 - 2:21 pm 19. Cannoneer No. 4:Death Before Dishonor
There will be blood.
Some of us are mad as hell and we’re not going to take it any more.
Stay out of my face if you value yours.
Sep 18, 2008 - 2:25 pm 20. Jim Treacher:Silly me.
Sep 18, 2008 - 2:26 pm 21. ash:Just one of many examples:
“White privilege is being able to have a husband who was a member of an extremist political party that wants your state to secede from the Union, and whose motto was “Alaska first,” and no one questions your patriotism or that of your family, while if you’re black and your spouse merely fails to come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home with her kids on the first day of school, people immediately think she’s being disrespectful. ”
http://www.redroom.com/blog/tim-wise/this-your-nation-white-privilege
Sep 18, 2008 - 2:32 pm 22. wretchard:But clearly, barring any Terrorist atrocity and demands for surrender, Obama will be the next “One.” The economy and McCain’s lack of any ability to push back (Media control by “the One” makes an McCain message impossible) makes it a fait accompli.
There is a difference between “lack of ability” and “unwillingness”. Obama isn’t going to cut McCain any slack; isn’t going to play by another person’s idea of the rules. On November 5, saying “you weren’t a gentleman” isn’t going to keep Obama from taking office.
Sep 18, 2008 - 2:33 pm 23. Brock:The difference between politics and gridiron football (or war) is that Obama is not just fighting against McCain, he is also fighting for the US electorate. Not reading people’s mail in war gets people killed, but reading people’s mail in politics (or breaking into the Watergate Hotel) will get you thrown out on your ass.
I can think of no surer way of losing this election than making sure that every angry liberal “gets in the face” of one or two undecided voters between now and Novemebr. That’ll cause many to vote for McCain simply out out of spite.
Lastly, I must say that Obama does not deliver negative lines nearly as well as inspirational ones. When he’s “the One” he leads, but when he’s making weak accusations against McCain, weakly delivered, it’s Obama that looks weak and desperate. That perception will not help him.
Sep 18, 2008 - 2:40 pm 24. Konyok:One pertinent question is: “Which inches?”
As a former resident of the Hanoi Hilton, John McCain learned how to resist existential “in your face.”
His “The One” ad demonstrated that he is quite capable of unconventional tactics. He has managed to unnerve Obama and will continue to do so. I think that the geezer is saving his best tricks for the last.
Sep 18, 2008 - 2:47 pm 25. enscout:Jim Treacher:
)
Sep 18, 2008 - 2:47 pm 26. Subotai Bahadur:Whiskey,
I think you are making an assumption here. Given the nature of the Obama campaign, its on the ground allies, and the cooption of the media; on what basis do you believe that a campaign of investigations of Obama would be allowed. We can see now that neither the law nor the Constitution will restrain the Democrats once they have both Congress and the White House. Politics can be defined as a set of rules to determine the allocation of a society’s power and resources in a way such as to avoid recourse to the ultimate determinant; brute force. We are seeing that rules mean nothing to them. Which in the end will mean only one recourse if tyranny is to be avoided.
“Be Thou then firmly Resolved; Duty is as heavy as a Mountain, and Death is as light as a Feather.”
Sep 18, 2008 - 2:51 pm 27. whiskey:Brock — that only happens to REPUBLICANS. Recall that the Media controls the debate. Thus, if Obama’s people or he himself authorized a break-in, “the One” would face no consequences.
Good points Wretchard, McCain is also unwilling, to play the Wright card, the Ayers card, the Muslim card, the terrorist money card, and much else. He’d rather have the good opinion of the New York Times than be President.
So Obama is the next President. That’s clear.
However, the response is to impeach Obama. That’s also clear. With leadership from people like Palin, and Romney, and Huckabee, and Rudy, along with a few people in Congress who are now obscure: probably DeMint, perhaps a freshman Representative.
Sep 18, 2008 - 2:53 pm 28. Eggplant:whiskey said:
“Barring some sort of massive terrorist attack, I think Obama has won this election, based on the economy and the voters desire to punish Republicans (even though the crisis has Democratic origins).”
It’s too soon to be saying this. The Messiah is currently leading in the Real Clear Politics poll averages. Two days ago he was losing in the Real Clear Politics poll averages. These opinion polls typically have a standard deviation of about 5% assuming they’re honest and competent (many of them are not, e.g. Zogby). If the difference is less than 5% then you’re looking at shot noise and nothing more. Also the Bradley Effect should not be ignored. We saw the Bradley Effect in full force in the California Primary Election of Hillary versus the Messiah.
However I’m not going to play Pollyanna. McCain and Palin need to get their act together. It’s a national disgrace that the Messiah is ahead in the polls and a sorry commentary on the state of our democracy.
Sep 18, 2008 - 2:55 pm 29. ash:speaking of the constitution:
“White privilege is being able to say that you support the words “under God” in the pledge of allegiance because “if it was good enough for the founding fathers, it’s good enough for me,” and not be immediately disqualified from holding office–since, after all, the pledge was written in the late 1800s and the “under God” part wasn’t added until the 1950s–while believing that reading accused criminals and terrorists their rights (because, ya know, the Constitution, which you used to teach at a prestigious law school requires it), is a dangerous and silly idea only supported by mushy liberals. ”
http://www.redroom.com/blog/tim-wise/this-your-nation-white-privilege
Sep 18, 2008 - 2:57 pm 30. Son Of Tennessee Democratic State Representative Mike Kernell Hacked Into Palin’s E-mail | Right Voices:[...] Belmont Club » Enthused [...]
Sep 18, 2008 - 2:57 pm 31. ash:on the Wright Card:
“White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whose pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize George W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an explicitly Christian nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theological principles into government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflict in the Middle East is God’s punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and everyone can still think you’re just a good church-going Christian, but if you’re black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have Colin Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are often the result of U.S. foreign policy and who talks about the history of racism and its effect on black people, you’re an extremist who probably hates America. ”
http://www.redroom.com/blog/tim-wise/this-your-nation-white-privilege
Sep 18, 2008 - 3:00 pm 32. Alexis:Sometimes the hard sell backfires.
Senator Barack Obama said, “I want you to argue with them and get in their face.”
I’ve got news for you, Barack. Your supporters got into my face and they convinced me of one thing — I don’t like you. Some salesmen are clever enough to let me talk myself into buying something and making me think it’s my idea. The other day, one vendor doubled his sale because he knew how much I liked his product. But you, Barack, don’t let me do that because all you want to do is tell your acolytes to get into my face and shout me down.
Barack, do you really think I’m more likely to vote for you just because some wild-eyed Obama supporter I don’t know from Eve contacts me and tries to get me to call her my friend on Facebook? Do you really think I’m more likely to vote for you because I see a television commercial that tells me what I want to hear? Do you really think I will be swayed by cheap bumper sticker slogans that are just as dumb as the worst right wing idiocy out there?
Look, Barack, the reason why we have manners in politics isn’t because some deity came out from the heavens and told Americans to behave themselves. It’s because liberal democracy cannot function unless there is a minimum level of civility in our body politic. And watch out, Barack, be nice to people on your way up because you will meet them again on your way down.
If you vote for legislation that promotes teaching kindergarteners to know when a pedophile is trying to take advantage of them, just be honest about your record and people will understand. Instead, you criticize Americans who don’t use email, never mind that anybody opposing you risks getting his or her email hacked by your acolytes. If you had bothered to respect your fellow Americans, you would be winning this election in a landslide. If you don’t, the reason for your loss is your lack of R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Respect.
What kind of change do you stand for, Barack, when you run away from your middle name and then act as though it’s bigotry whenever somebody says it out loud? What kind of change do you stand for, Barack, when your iconography presents you as superhuman? What kind of change do you stand for, Barack, when you call for getting into my face? Yes, you say you stand for change, but for many Americans, change is not the only thing we believe in.
Senator Barack Hussein Obama, whenever you get into my face I am calling you Barack and whenever you treat me with even a minimum of respect I am calling you Senator Obama. You’re not that different from most Americans. Your name isn’t funny at all. If anything, it is boring. And Barack, one reason why I don’t trust you is because you remind me of some close relatives of mine that I know better than to trust.
Sep 18, 2008 - 3:11 pm 33. Uncle Jefe:Hey, don’t let God be the only one to damn America- vote Obama!!
Sep 18, 2008 - 3:18 pm 34. whiskey:I’m sick and tired of “white privilege.” I’ll change skin and bank accounts right now with: Whoopi Goldberg, Oprah Winfrey, Barack Obama, Denzel Washington, Will Smith, any NBA player, any NFL player, any Rapper, or Dennis Haysbert. Believe me I’d win in the swap and they would lose.
If McCain had any guts, he’d intercut shots of Wright’s Mansion at the Golf Course ($5.5 million) with Wright and the rest screaming about White Privilege while Obama nods along.
But McCain pencils in most Americans as his cell-mates in the Hanoi Hilton torture chambers. Big mistake.
Obama is not an American, he hates White people, and the very idea of America. As witness his autobiography where he states that he is a “spy in enemy territory.”
Sep 18, 2008 - 3:53 pm 35. elijah:What is the political ideology of Ayers?
What is/was the impetus for the association between Ayers and Obama?
Sep 18, 2008 - 3:58 pm 36. PatriotFront:Enthusiasm is highly overrated. No matter how excited you are, you can only vote once. (ACORN operatives notwithstanding.)
Sep 18, 2008 - 4:38 pm 37. Konyok:Everybody knows about Reverend Wright.
Instead of portraying Obama as Wright’s acolyte, how much more powerful is it to provoke him to play the part in his own words?
A couple of opinion poll points in September are no cause for panic.
Sep 18, 2008 - 4:40 pm 38. Benj:When Ken the Oaf called for a “Surge” here to “cleanse” America from all those Kim Jong-loving, punky cavaliers bent on murdering old Republican ladies (now there’s a micro-trend!), I figured Wretch might be a little embarrassed by the fan on his shoulder. Guess not. – “Where is the Petraeus of politics?,” he asks. (BTW – Not sure most Clubbers would dig Petraeus’s actual politics – once characterized himself as a Rockefeller republican – hasn’t voted in years as he has not wanted to be identified with a particular party.)
Wretch’s kooky comparisons of an American electoral campaign with struggles against al Quaeda and Marcos bring home his utter cluelessness about America. Check this line – “One sign that Obama isn’t a real organizer, as he claims, is his ignorance of the ‘radicalization moment’. This is the psychological moment every organizer against a totalitarianism aims for.” But O’s politics – both as an organizer and as a conventional pol – have been based on his understanding that America is NOT a totalitarian country. (And BTW – it’s his clarity about that that separates his liberalism from the vanguard party-ism of rad leftists – think Ayers et al in the 70s. Just like Wretch – they looked forward to “heightening the contradictions.”) But Wretch isn’t just dim as a Weatherman about what makes our country different from a dictatorship – he’s bobbing as well as reaching. In a week when a range of journalists – David Ignatius, Richard Cohen, Elizabeth Drew – with a record of (respectively) defending the Surge, slamming Obama and loving MaC – have gone on record decrying the dishonorable nature of Mac’s “post-modern” campaign, Wretch asserts Mac must be LESS of a gentleman. Lousy advice. Morally if not tactically…
Re OBama’s legions of censorious callers. Sounds creepy to me. I’m not big on shouting folks down (though I seem to have anticipated O’s call for his supporters to get “in the face” of pubs!) And I’m far from the only O supporter who’s clear about that. Might check Andrew Sullivan’s plaints (”Cut it out.” he writes today). But be aware you’ll also run across Sullivan’s posts oxposing Sarah Palin’s “expert” lies (how much of America’s energy does Alaska produce according to Fact Check?) and that link to the conservative columnist in Alaska who’s disgusted by Palin’s tactics in the Troopergate case.
http://www.adn.com/opinion/story/528420.html
Last week, Kossites were willfully trying to overcome their own depression as Mac sailed ahead in the polls. Heard some over-the-top rhetoric there – but I don’t think any of the sad-sacks matched Wretch’s call to arms – “Balance in politics is often achieved in the same way it is effected in thuggery.” Wretch’s bluster (and that of other Clubbers’ anticipating “blood on the streets” and fantasizing re the need to “jump straight to armed action.”) seemed particularly hollow when I read the black writer Russell Kennedy’s calm projection about how he’d feel if Obama lost…
“If Obama is defeated, I will, for a brief time, be stunned by feelings of dejection, anger and resentment. These will only be the stronger because the climate of this election year so clearly favors the Democrats, because this was supposed to be an election the Republicans couldn’t win, and because in my view, the Obama ticket is obviously superior to McCain’s.
But I hope that soon thereafter I’ll find solace and encouragement in contemplating this unprecedented development: A major political party nominated a black man for the highest office in the land, and that man waged an intelligent, brave campaign in which many millions of Americans of all races enthusiastically supported an African American standard-bearer.
I hope that I’ll take to heart the wisdom offered by two of my students. “Obama losing,” one wrote, “would be hurtful, but it still spells substantial progress. . . . Change WILL come — the wheels have been set in motion.” Declared the second: “Sometimes you have to believe in the change before it comes (and in the face of its apparent defeat) for the change to be possible.” …
Back in the day, I noted that Black Americans were a GENEROUS people! Some folks here begged to differ…Try this on – Compare Kennedy’s attitude with Whiskey’s plan B. – “Hamstring Obama, paint him and the Dems as both corrupt and bought by Muslim terrorist money, and push for impeachment AND conviction.”
Who’s the truer American? Who’s the better (small d) democrat?
PS Whiskey – ye of little faith? – Do you recall your Spring prediction(s”)? “We’re likely to see a landslide. For McCain.” Wha’appen? You’re mad to be so doomy about your guy’s chances – but why don’t we agree to agree that nobody should should ever bet on your predictive capacities (or your persistence).
Sep 18, 2008 - 4:49 pm 39. Uncle Jefe:Sure benj, Sullivan says ‘cut it out’, yet carries on in his Trig trutherism…
Sep 18, 2008 - 4:59 pm 40. cjm:And gee, no one on the left has been talking about a ‘race war’…
Take off the blinders.
the reality is, that government at every level has been severely infected by leftists. most dem law breaking goes un-punished while gop people are punished even when they haven’t committed a crime. bush has been a disaster in this area. as it stands now, leftists have the country wrapped up like a python. maybe we can free ourselves without a resort to violence, but i doubt it.
why was the 60’s left allowed to take over government bureaucracy, the public schools at all levels, the media at all levels — without a fight?
it will take the loss of one or more of our cities to stop the rot and get the herd moving in the right direction.
Sep 18, 2008 - 5:07 pm 41. Insufficiently Sensitive:The ultimate lever in our presidential politics is the voting machine.
Senator Obama has endowed ACORN with lavish funds to pull those levers, via illegals, dead bodies and multi-addressed people, until they wear out. Be vigilant.
Sep 18, 2008 - 5:42 pm 42. cedarford:I’m afraid the economic crisis is going to doom McCain. Obama benefits not just from enthusiasm, but anger at the awful performance of the Bushies and Neocons and Fundies and Corporatists.
Now comes the fear factor with women. The Bush people and Republicans (under Wall Street Deregulator Phil Gramm) let this fiscal trainwreck happen. Who will best protect their families as jobs are shipped by the Corporatists to China, who will best protect their families from being tossed from houses with no medical care? Who gives a shit about all their dreams collapsing with their retirement funds and 401Ks?
McCain says the economy is fundamentally sound. But he also calls for “investigations” and the firing of certain Bush hacks who let it happen for 8 years.
But women see Obama is more attuned to them in the fears they have had for 2+ years that the “tax cut for the rich” economy isn’t so wonderful for anyone outside the investor and professional classes. They are more inclined to believe that the whole system is rotten and “free trade, free markets” is just code for letting the fatcats get richer by crushing the ordinary Americans jobs, wages, benefits.
Add in residual fear that many women have that the theocrats will be back in power with McCain.
If the fear factor was still with concern about awful Muslim evildoers, as it was back in 2002 and still a little bit in 2004, advantage would be with Republicans. Or if people were consumed with a desire for another war on top of the two we are fighting, to bomb Iran to protect Israels nuclear bomb monopoly in the region.
But it’s not even in the top 5 of biggest voter concerns. Not Bush’s “evildoers”, not the “noble purple-fingered freedom-lovers” of Iraq, not even the need for 250 dollar a barrel oil to defeat “Ah’m-a-Dinner-Jacket”.
There is just so much McCain and Palin can do, given a legacy as bad as Bush’s and the Congressional Corrupticans handed them. And it doesn’t help that McCain said learning about the economy was never a priority in his nearly 30 years in DC.
Republicans had the opportunity to select from two bona-fide geniuses in management of successful enterprises, turnaround masters. Both with deep knowledge of the economy. The seasoned Mitt Romney and the less-seasoned but almost as brilliant Jindal. Republicans, notably the Fundies and the “love old warhorses like Bob Dole” crowd led Romney to fail as a main candidate.
Now they got what they got against an unqualified Chicago slickster who Dubya basically has done his incompetent best to hand the Presidency to.
I think it isn’t going to be enough.
Watch as the awful impact of the Financial wreck and it’s effect on Joe Sixpack’s future, or more importantly, Mrs. Sixpack – filters to them over the next 40 days. It has already started rolling back the Palin bounce. Polls are now heading back to Obama in the lead.
Sep 18, 2008 - 5:50 pm 43. fred:What I am sensing is a profound, emotional fear creeping in over on the Left. Despite EVERYTHING going on in the campaign and the the media penumbra around the DNC, the Obama campaign has not been able to open up a significant lead on McCain and Palin. On top of that, these people know that McCain has not yet begun to fight, and that the Kurtz reportage and other issues that could sink Obama have yet to be put into play by the McCain campaign. Deep in his gut, Obama knows that the easy gains have all been made – and done long before the end of the Democratic Primary season. His base is the Far and Soft Lefts. He isn’t making big inroads into the Middle Muddle. He knows precisely why this has not happened. And it scares both him and his supporters.
So, it’s time to bring out the brass knuckles. For the past two weeks it has been an all-out offensive against Sarah Palin, which apparently is not working out well for them. The Left considers anyone who will not get with their program to be retrograde hayseeds who, for their own good, must be told to shut up.
In a political debate the only thing I want to come to the fight with is the truth and sound reasoning. I have no interest in renting a truncheon or brass knuckles. What turned me away from Marxism was not someone shouting in my face, interrupting my train of thought, or threats issued. I simply arrived at a moment when I let my guard down and decided to investigate the truth and allow it to enter my thought process, long stuck in a mindset of trying to defend socialist ideology.
If Obama wins in November, the only thing that is going to undo him after four years is the truth and catastrophic events that can be laid at his doorstep. It does not matter how convolutedly the mainstream media spins that failure. There will be enough alternate venues where the people can sort it all out and get at the truth of the matter, regardless of their prior ideological dispositions. I am not the only former Marxist out there. I have met others and also met people who were just plain “useful idiot” garden variety liberals who have also seen the light.
I am not afraid of the figurative (or literal) truncheon and brass knuckles. The truth will set you free. It might, at first, entail pain ans suffering, but the grownups will prevail. The truth will win out, one way or another.
Sep 18, 2008 - 6:10 pm 44. slade:There’s an old saying that luck is the intersection of preparation with opportunity. The Republicans prepared the way by tinkering with key elements of the regulatory code affecting markets (the uptick rule, Glass-Steagall, I would also add the foreign commodities exchange (ICE in London) not subject to domestic regulations through which the alleged “speculator” VITOL ran up the oil price with decided domestic consequences). The Democrats provided opportunity in the form of affirmative action loans. The financial services industry punted with their new bundled securities vehicles.
Most Americans understand the political buyout – by foreigners as well as stateside actors (Chris Cox, Barney Frank, Charlie Rangell) – that blurs the partisanship appeal of election campaigns. So they will be left with the issue of which party can *buy back* the American government.
If McCain fails to speak to this issue, it will default to the Party that feels the pain – undiluted by the trickle-down cascade of the *rising tide*. Too many boats left in dry dock.
Tough day at Black Rock that’s for sure.
Sep 18, 2008 - 6:13 pm 45. peterike:In regards to the Palin email theft, this presents a great opportunity to camp McCain, which I doubt they will take. While it can’t be laid directly at the feet of the Obama campaign (though there is a lot of noise about the culprit being the son of a Tennessee Democrat), if Team McCain has sense they will paint this heinous action as part and parcel of the people that support Obama, the people he brings along for the ride.
They should spin it as “do you see how radical the people around Obama are?”, how they will do whatever it takes and have no respect for laws or rights. They should bring quotes from KosLand to the mass of America that still has no idea how radicalized O’s following is.
And Benj, let me pre-emptively tell you to shut up. I don’t CARE if you think O is not “radical.” Even if it were true (which it isn’t) it doesn’t matter. He leads a radical flock and he does nothing to dissuade them. They feel it’s their time to rule, and they have no regard to law or decency when it comes to that. These ARE brownshirts in waiting. And like some others here, I’m convinced that a close Obama loss will result in significant street rioting and other forms of Leftie hooliganism. McCain needs a blowout to avoid any charges of another stolen election and the fire that will result from it, this time.
Sep 18, 2008 - 6:23 pm 46. fred:C-fudd,
What do we mean by an “economic crisis?” Every time there has been a recession and/or market corrections, during my lifetime, the media has called them “economic crises.” I work in the investment business, so it’s hard for the Columbia School of Journalism graduates to blow smoke up my ass. Every single time there has been irrational over valuation of any kind of financial asset, the bubble bursts and the selloff ensues. And every time we have recovered. Markets recover, business soon find their prospects improving… every bear market sows the seeds for the next bull market. We had a real estate and housing bubble that finally started to burst two years ago. We are still unwinding the excess of that period. And by the way, many of the people who fed that speculative bubble were people who got out of the dot.com/tech bubble in ‘98-’99 before that bubble burst. They rotated out of that sector of financial assets and sought a place where they sow the beginnings of momentum. Oil and commodities also have been in a speculative bubble. And that is in the process of bursting, hopefully to revert to a mean valuation that is sustainable and economically viable for both consumers and investors in the real activity of finding and drilling oil.
What is happening now is can be attributable to some institutions being too heavily invested in mortgage backed securities. Also, some units of financial institutions got caught holding on too long to long position bets in oil.
Most people know that an economic platform (Obama’s) that calls for higher taxes on capital formation will only do harm to job creation. It’s obvious he knows next to nothing about managing a company, creating jobs, or even successful investing.
It isn’t the economy that will sink John McCain in November. It will be the fact that the country has drifted Leftwards for quite some time and that the unrelenting efforts of the Gramscians within our institutions are finally paying off. Obama will be popular with people who either want a swollen and ready government teat or those who want to be the ones who squeeze that swollen teat’s milk into the mouths open to receive the milk.
Sep 18, 2008 - 6:26 pm 47. whiskey:Obama has been able to use the Media and radicals as his allies. They got the invite to Palin cancelled in the rally against NutJob.
Cedarford is wrong, women don’t like Palin because she’s blue collar and married a blue collar guy. Women want power/prestige/status, and Obama provides that, Palin is too blue collar and ordinary.
I think it is time for the same tactics, use distributed attacks against Obama. FUNNY (because they are true) viral videos. Someone here can make videos, short, 30 seconds, on the topics of Rev. God Damn America and Obama’s joined-at-the hip part, his ties to sleazy Rezko and the Fannie-Freddie mess, Obama’s ties to Hamas/Hezbollah, Obama’s ties to Chavez and NutJob. One topic each ad, short, sharp, and FUNNY. Youtube and other places hosting it.
WE ought to have our say. Not just Obama’s Chavez-like crowds and thugs.
Sep 18, 2008 - 6:33 pm 48. OldSalt:It truly restores my faith in the nobility of the political process when Obama, Clinton, Reid, Pelosi, and scores of other Democrat leaders immediately condemned this theft in scalding terms. They immediately saw the thread to the political process of some rogue supporter breaking the law to eliminate a Vice Presidential candidates.
Oh…you didn’t hear those condemnations? Me either. The silence of the Dems is a breathtaking admission of guilt, as far as I’m concerned. Not that anyone of these pols or Obama himself directed this action, their silence is because Obama’s Democrats have already authorized the “at any price” dirt gatherers, and fully expect an “October surprise” of this nature to develop. That the perp was or wasn’t directly “one of theirs” is immaterial; it’s the kind of thing that Obama’s Democrats look for and expect. Thus, the silent approval of the theft of Palin’s email account.
This reminds me of the time that two professional Dem intel agents “just happened” to be parked on an interstate 15 feel next to Gingrich’s car, with a professional signal scanning device hooked into a tape recorder. I was thinking that if that had been me, and the guy in the car was Wright or Pelosi, I’d end up in prison for the rest of my natural life. Moreover, the guys who put me there (LEO or politician’s) would all be Republicans. But just like the infamous 500-FBI-File scandal of the early Clinton Administration, the perps walked, and the instigator were never even held to as much as a “…shame on you….”.
With consequences that dire, and absent any moral scruples beyond “.. my end justifies any means..”, why wouldn’t the Democrats invade Palin’s privacy, attack her kids, try to destroy her family, or hell…who knows, under something called “the fairness doctrine”, put their political opposition in jail (ala Putin)?
Though historians claim differently, there is in fact, a cultural divide in America today more grave than any time in the nation’s history, perhaps except for in 1860. One side in politics will do anything, lie, cheat, or steal, anything legal or illegal, up to and including high treason, to gain political power. The other wing still believes that Constitutional government is possible.
Sep 18, 2008 - 6:51 pm 49. Stephen:“It looks like a convincing Obama win in November, with a Democratic Congress.”
Is that the whiskey talking? All I can say is that your pessimism is not supported by any objective polling data that I can see. Looking at the contest for electoral votes on a state by state basis and adding up the totals, this race appears to be anywhere from a tossup to a slight advantage for McCain.
I respect your right to be gloomy, but you may need to look elsewhere to back up your gloominess because the available polling data does not support such a pessimistic view. And furthermore, the actions of the Democrat candidate suggest to me that his own polling data is causing him great discomfort.
Sep 18, 2008 - 6:53 pm 50. Lifeofthemind:@Wretchard,
Sep 18, 2008 - 6:55 pm 51. Alexis:Do you underestimate McCain’s abilities as a military leader? Despite his age he has shown real gifts for agility, stamina and invective. I would not want to be stranded on a desert island with him when the food runs out. Can McCain rally his troops and keep them focused on actions that do not sabotage his campaign? Better than Obama can. The essence of good military discipline isn’t the ability to commit violence, any idiot can and does. Real discipline is the ability to hold fire until it is most effective and then deliver it. Obama has unleashed, or been unleashed by, a Cossack horde. McCain is closer to the Brits at Roark’s Drift.
benj:
Our democracy rises or falls on civility. I don’t agree with those who think McCain ought to fight dirty. I also don’t agree with those who think Obama ought to fight dirty.
Barack Obama could have come out with an ad that aggressively defends his record on “sex education for kindergarteners”, saying that Barack Obama opposes pedophilia and challenging John McCain to agree. Instead, Barack Obama attacked John McCain’s lack of experience in using email. Even though I have been on the internet since 1992 and have played video games since 1979, I feel offended because I know people who don’t use computers. I know people who dislike email even though they do use it. Am I outmoded because I don’t use an ipod, a blackberry, or a cell phone?
I’ll let you know that I have a grandmother who doesn’t use computers at all. I feel quite certain that she will vote for Obama, and she will probably do so enthusiastically. I don’t think it’s right to call her outdated no matter how old she is.
Earlier today, I saw Barack Obama’s negative ad referring to all the lobbyists on McCain’s campaign, claiming that he is “MORE OF THE SAME”. On the face of it, the problem with such attacks is that it reminds voters of Obama’s own creepy associations. Given that this ad was put out in a staunch “red state”, one wonders if the ad were intended to depress voter turnout in McCain strongholds.
Is the McCain campaign guilty of mischaracterization? Yes. Is the Obama campaign guilty of mischaracterization? Also, yes. Fall seems to be a silly season in politics on both sides of the aisle. So far as I know, John McCain has not called upon his supporters to get into the faces of their opponents. I hope he doesn’t stoop to Obama’s level, and it is sad that his campaign has stooped as far as it has.
Some people in my family will vote for McCain and others will vote for Obama. I have relatives who will stoop to any level to get what they want, and I know better than to give in to their bullying. Although you probably know my views by now, I feel deeply hostile against those on both sides who would rather rip our nation apart than treat dissenters with respect. That latent hostility extends to fanatics on both sides of the aisle among my own relatives.
Sep 18, 2008 - 7:03 pm 52. Zephyron:“Add in residual fear that many women have that the theocrats will be back in power with McCain.”
Cedarford, what the hell are you talking about?!? To be back in power you have to have been IN POWER at some point previously! I get sick of the whining by the left about the coming theocracy if the Republicans win. I suspect that the “leaders” of the left know it’s BS and just use it to scare their minions to keep them in line.
I have been a lurker on here since about the time of the most recent discussion of and linking to The Three Conjectures (which, btw, I find to be utterly fascinating). I find the level of writing and commentary here to be of very high quality and this is one of my favorite sites.
Sep 18, 2008 - 7:07 pm 53. Lifeofthemind:Over a quarter century has passed since I saw Raiders of the Lost Ark in Chicago. I remember the raucous crowd was over 90% black getting more and more excited as the huge Arab waved his scimitar at Indiana Jones. Cries of “Get him brother” and “Off him” rang out in the theater. Then Harrison Ford, the legend is he was to sick to dance around and had to do something rather than delay film shooting, pulled out his pistol and shot the guy. The audience was shocked into silence and then a minority of people suddenly started channeling Englishmen admiring a cricket match. Clear and distinct applause broke out across the auditorium with cries of “Well done” and even “Good show.” People remember how things should be and given an opportunity they will attempt to restore civilization.
Sep 18, 2008 - 7:17 pm 54. Eggplant:Fred said:
“What I am sensing is a profound, emotional fear creeping in over on the Left. Despite EVERYTHING going on in the campaign and the the media penumbra around the DNC, the Obama campaign has not been able to open up a significant lead on McCain and Palin. On top of that, these people know that McCain has not yet begun to fight, and that the Kurtz reportage and other issues that could sink Obama have yet to be put into play by the McCain campaign.”
I agree with this analysis. McCain needs to time his response for maximum impact. However I am concerned that the MSM will attempt to suppress McCain’s response, i.e. the effect of the response won’t peak until after the Messiah has been elected. It is vital that we not be complacent in our assumption of McCain’s victory.
Fred also said:
“What turned me away from Marxism was not someone shouting in my face, interrupting my train of thought, or threats issued. I simply arrived at a moment when I let my guard down and decided to investigate the truth and allow it to enter my thought process, long stuck in a mindset of trying to defend socialist ideology.”
This is so familiar. Most people “grow up” after they graduate from university. Unfortunately too many people are “stuck on stupid”.
Fred said:
“If Obama wins in November, the only thing that is going to undo him after four years is the truth and catastrophic events that can be laid at his doorstep. It does not matter how convolutedly the mainstream media spins that failure.”
“Minor” detail here, the Islamic fascists and people like Vladimir Putin and Ahmadinejad all know that the Messiah is a light weight. They know that he has no business being President and is not qualified for the job. They will be compelled to test him. That testing process will range from invading the Ukraine to nuking New York. There’s a good chance the way the Messiah gets “undone” is when he’s vaporized by an Iranian nuke along with a couple million innocent Americans.
Gary
Sep 18, 2008 - 7:27 pm 55. Bob Murphy:@CJM
“why was the 60’s left allowed to take over government bureaucracy, the public schools at all levels, the media at all levels — without a fight?”
Because it has been my experience that normal people with traditional views make a presumption of reason when they are dealing with other people.
That is why we couldn’t grasp what people like Tojo, Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot etc etc were doing.
Most reasonable people just want to go about their business and live their lives and love their families and create things.
The left…
And never the twain shall meet.
Sep 18, 2008 - 7:30 pm 56. Bob Murphy:@Benj
Sep 18, 2008 - 7:40 pm 57. Bob Murphy:Are you on the dole or sumpin’? You seem to have a lot of time to go verbose on the net whenever someone mentions Obama.
I note your usual one-sided concern about Palin’s “expert lies” where you are critical about some level of inaccuracy to an off the cuff question about how much of the lower 48’s energy comes from Alaska.
First of all you assume it’s a lie.
But taking a deep breath, try looking at it from a slightly less one-eyed perspective.
At least Palin knows how many States there are in the Union…
@Wretch
Sep 18, 2008 - 7:46 pm 58. slade:The radicalization moment is all well and good but it occurs to me that there is another key moment speaking of taking it to the streets.
And that is when the police or army get the order to fire into the rioting mob.
Do they or don’t they?
And how many leftie US cops or soldiers did you ever meet? I can count the number on one hand and that includes time in Sam’s army.
Lefties don’t join police forces or the armed forces, in the main leaving those forces peopled by individuals with traditional values.
Besides in 2008 when the order to fire comes there are a lot of very effective non-lethal alternatives to high speed lead pellets.
I would suggest, given the fact that the left now uses cameras and microphones as weapons, any passersby with traditional values might well think it worth making a statement or two to the covering media.
Hell I’m a journalist and I elbow cameramen out of my way all the time (print media, obviously):) I don’t like punks.
This is so familiar. Most people “grow up” after they graduate from university. Unfortunately too many people are “stuck on stupid”.
Interesting juxtaposition – are the variant morphologies of Leftist thought the end-game of philosophical evolution or the remnants of an immature psyche? Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini were the former, but the Hayden-Gitlin-Ayers-Dohrn 1960’s were arguably the latter.
Sep 18, 2008 - 7:49 pm 59. Eggplant:slade asked:
“Are the variant morphologies of Leftist thought the end-game of philosophical evolution or the remnants of an immature psyche?”
Yes, both are true. Part of “growing up” is realizing that modern philosophy (contrary to expectation) doesn’t have the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything…
Or perhaps it does but the answer is something useless like “42″.
Sep 18, 2008 - 8:01 pm 60. Storm-Rider:“ABC argues that one of Barack Obama’s critical campaign advantages is the enthusiasm of his supporters.”
Yea, we’ve seen enthusiastic supporters before. Communist cockroaches have a great deal of energy, because the Socialist/Communist State is their god, and political agitation is their religion.
“The proposition that a striving for self-destruction is the main impulse in Socialism has been extracted from a multi-stage analysis of Socialist ideology, and is not taken directly from the writings of Socialist thinkers or the slogans of Socialist movements. It seems that those in the grip of Socialist ideology are as little governed by any conscious understanding of this goal as a singing nightingale is concerned with the future of its species. The ideology’s impact is through the emotions, which render the ideology attractive to man and induce him to be ready for sacrifice on its behalf. Spiritual elation and inspiration are the kinds of emotions experienced by the participants in socialist movements. This accounts, too, for the behavior of the leaders of Socialist movements in the thick of the fight, down through the ages–their seemingly inexhaustible reserves of energy as pamphleteers, agitators, and organizers.” Igor Shafarevich
“The religious aspects of Socialism may explain the extraordinary attraction of socialist doctrines and their capacity to inflame individuals and to inspire popular movements. It is precisely these aspects of Socialism which cannot be explained when socialism is regarded as a political or economic category. Socialism’s pretensions to be a universal world view comprising and explaining everything – from the transformation of a liquid into steam to the appearance of Christianity – also make it akin to religion. A characteristic of religion is Socialism’s view of history not as a chaotic phenomenon but as an entity that has a goal, a meaning and a justification. In other words, both socialism and religion view history teleologically. Bulgakov draws our attention to numerous and far-reaching analogies between socialism (especially Marxism) and Judaic apocalyptics and eschatology. Finally, Socialism’s hostility toward traditional religion hardly contradicts this judgment–it may simply be a matter of animosity between rival religions.” Igor Shafarevich
“It is certainly true that Socialism is hostile to religion. But is it possible to understand it as a consequence of atheism? Hardly, at least if we understand atheism as it is usually defined: as the loss of religious feeling. It is not clear just how such a negative concept can become the stimulus for an active attitude toward the world (its destruction or alteration) or how it can be the source of the infectiousness of socialist doctrines. Furthermore, socialism’s attitude toward religion does not at all resemble the indifferent and skeptical position of someone who has lost interest in religion. The term “atheism” is inappropriate for the description of people in the grip of socialist doctrines. It would be more correct to speak here not of “atheists” but of “God-haters,” not of “atheism” but of “theophobia.” Such, certainly, is the passionately hostile attitude of Socialism toward religion. Thus, while Socialism is certainly connected with the loss of religious feeling, it can hardly be reduced to it. The place formerly occupied by religion does not remain vacant; a new lodger appeared.” Igor Shafarevich
http://www.robertlstephens.com/essays/shafarevich/001SocialistPhenomenon.html
Sep 18, 2008 - 8:10 pm 61. Alexis:eggplant:
42? No, it’s eleven. What we do is, if we need that extra push over the cliff, we put it up to eleven. It’s one louder. It’s not ten. And it’s not more of the same.
Sep 18, 2008 - 8:27 pm 62. Tamquam Leo Rugiens:NahnCee: The problem of encroaching boundaries by slow degrees is that people become acclimatized to it, consider it normal and accept it. The defense of boundaries an immediate and forceful denunciation of the offending behavior with a demand for it’s cessation and suitable apologies. This is, alas, not something that McCain is willing to do. Even if he were, the media would not adequately publicize it.
whiskey: Investigations only work it you have a platform from which to mount them. With the executive locked up and Congress in Democrat hands the likelihood of investigation even getting off the ground is slim to nil. Not that the media would give it the publicity it would need to be effective in any case.
Sep 18, 2008 - 8:30 pm 63. slade:modern philosophy (contrary to expectation) doesn’t have the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything…
How the h^ll did I miss that? True of course, Philosophy now dependent on the physicists – or at least science to precondition their next move.
How this relates to foreign policy I am blank.
How this relates to economics – it’s the plumbing baby!
Sep 18, 2008 - 8:31 pm 64. Tamquam Leo Rugiens:cjm:
the reality is, that government at every level has been severely infected by leftists. most dem law breaking goes un-punished while gop people are punished even when they haven’t committed a crime.
Correct. Being a Democrat means never having to say you’re sorry.
Sep 18, 2008 - 8:36 pm 65. programmer:The prating, prancing left, whirling, dancing and spraying foam flecked obscenities in an increasingly rapid descent into darkness. No noble goals to strive for, no historical heros to emulate, no believe in redemption, salvation, or love of anything greater than self. And in the end, in the smoke of burning lives and the darkness of despair, no love for even self. Only striving for immolation in a drug induced haze of non-reality. Never to savor the cold, clear breeze of calm reason, the warmth of love for friends, family, country, the passion of hard, satisfying work, building for those who follow, who come after. Just leaving lumps of composting remains to mark for a small brief while the moldering presence of a useless life.
Screw ‘em!!!
Sep 18, 2008 - 8:41 pm 66. NahnCee:Be nice if we could get an effective Attorney General, start cracking down on some lawbreakers. I wonder what John Bolton will be doing after November.
Sep 18, 2008 - 8:50 pm 67. DaMav:Part of playing hardball on this is getting the Administration to actually use some of the weapons in the arsenal. For reasons which are apparently above my pay grade, nobody at the NY Times has had to even break into a modest sweat over their repeated actions of dumping national security secrets on the front page of the paper. There are numerous examples of this ‘Stimsonesque’ approach to left wing transgressions.
Which comes back to Palin’s hacker. The fact that he isn’t sitting behind bars in a cell with Bubba the Well Endowed Wacko is a symptom of the unwillingness to engage. No doubt this would create a great wailing in the ranks of KOS and perhaps the AP. But, one, so what? And two, them standing up demanding mercy for a felon hacking an email account is in itself discrediting to ordinary Americans with email accounts who want none of this kid glove treatment for hackers.
It’s bad enough that we are pushed around by the likes of the NY Times. Now we are going to watch our beloved VP nominee violated by some 20 year old on 4chan while law enforcement sits on its thumbs and rotates?
Sep 18, 2008 - 8:52 pm 68. 3Case:the reality is, that government at every level has been severely infected by leftists. most dem law breaking goes un-punished while gop people are punished even when they haven’t committed a crime.
Correct. Being a Democrat means never having to say you’re sorry.
On the old site I once wrote of my amusement at a “Challenge the Dominant Paradigm” bumper sticker on a Prius driven by wizened moonbat. If the whole thing weren’t so deadly (I’ve a number of Cambodian friends), it would be funny.
The moonbats are desperate; hacking Gov. Palin’s Yahoo account this far from “the critical time”.
Sep 18, 2008 - 8:54 pm 69. Tamquam Leo Rugiens:cedarford:
I’m afraid the economic crisis is going to doom McCain.
Probably right.
Cedarford on drugs:
The Bush people and Republicans (under Wall Street Deregulator Phil Gramm) let this fiscal trainwreck happen. . .
In 2003 Bush tried to have Fannie and Freddy cleaned up. He was prevented by _____________
A. Little Orphan Annie
B. Klingons
C. Democrats in Congress
In 2005 McCain among other Republicans introduced legislation to restructure Fannie and Freddy. The legislation was torpedoed by ___________
Sep 18, 2008 - 8:57 pm 70. DaMav:A. The Katzenjammer Kids
B. The Fremen
C. Democrats in Congress
@Tamquan — that quiz would make a great advert; I’m posting it in few other spots; kthxbye.
Sep 18, 2008 - 9:00 pm 71. Eggplant:Alexis said:
“42? No, it’s eleven.”
Being semi-serious, the number is actually Pi. Pi is believed to be a normal irrational number, i.e. the digits of Pi are completely random. If Pi is calculated to sufficient accuracy then any numerical string can be found within the digits of Pi. For example, you could represent the play “Hamlet” with about 200,000 ASCII characters. That represents about 400,000 base 10 numbers. If you calculated Pi to 10^400000 digits then you would find “Hamlet” embedded somewhere within those digits (of course the Universe would end long before you could calculate Pi to 10^400000 digits).
Here’s a fun experiment: If you search the Internet you can find Pi calculated to 10,000,000 digits in a big text file. Download the file and then search for the first 7 digits of your Social Security Number (you will find it).
When you have nothing better to do or are having trouble falling asleep, meditate on this. The digits of Pi are random, containing no intrinsic information. However within those random digits is any piece of information that you can imagine.
Yin and Yang, Alpha and Omega.
Include in your meditation that Pi appears in many of the equations modelling physics and probablility.
It’ll put you to sleep in no time, much better than counting sheep.
Sep 18, 2008 - 9:01 pm 72. Dave:If this election is anywhere near close, it favors McCain, especially in the electoral college. States that are solidly Obama are
way short of an EC majority.
All elections have four aspects. (1) Be sure everybody knows you are running. (2) Give them a reason to vote for you. (3) Give them a reason to vote against your opponent. (4) Identify your voters and get them to the polls.
(1) is not a factor in Presidential elections. Sarah takes (2) hands down and
highlights all those things that make up (3). The Queen of the Wild Frontier also brings
the volunteers out who will do (4).
We got us one good Fighting Chance.
Violence if Obama loses? Small change. Only those that were about to go berserk under other excuses.
Violence if Obama wins? More likely. Tactical gains always make socialists think
they are no longer constrained by either natural law or political reality. That is when their suicidal tendencies run amok and
they try to take everybody down with them.
(Have I got that right, Fred?)
One way or the other, our side now promises to come out of this election in fighting trim.
To resurrect Wretch’s fighter plane analogy:
Sep 18, 2008 - 9:09 pm 73. Dave:P40s can too take on Zekes and win. Just ask
Claire Chennault.
Just to show you how deluded the left can be:
Everyday my wife gets mailers touting a certain congressional candidate she is NOT fond of.
Why does she get these? Some mailing lists have her by her full given name which is
“Corazon”. Therefore she has to be a liberal D, right? Heh, heh, heh.
Also, seen the closing lines of the latest moveon ad? Says that “John McCain is not on YOUR side”. (Emphasis theirs.) Never dawns on those mental midgets that I make the decision as to who is and is not on MY side.
Sep 18, 2008 - 9:18 pm 74. Brian H:And that they cannot make that decision for me, it is an impossibility. More socialist suicide, I say.
NanCee;
Sep 18, 2008 - 9:25 pm 75. Mark Maps:Yeah, there’d be plenty of suitable work for Bolton, and about a half a dozen clones. If only!
The sort of enthused behavior that brings success in a physical confrontation isn’t the same enthused behavior required in a political battle. As many here have noted, using that type of enthusiasm engenders only repulsion and revulsion.
This Obama camp enthused response tells me the Obama camp is frightened out of its wits, which is a wonderful thing. They’ve run out of tools and are reverting to the Chicago streets.
That fear tells me, too, that they have no October surprise, or they wouldn’t be so frightened. That, too, is a wonderful thing.
(I also have to remind myself that polls are about as worthless as ant droppings. We are no longer a nation that is willing to be honest with pollsters. Hell, I’ll bet a majority of us are unwilling to even talk to pollsters.)
Sep 18, 2008 - 9:39 pm 76. whiskey:If Bush appointed an Independent Counsel now, to look at the Email and the Logan Act violations, that leaves Obama with a nasty little present.
Bush ought to, since that will leave Obama too busy to conduct show trials of him and his people.
Obama could not shut down an Independent Counsel without a court fight and the widespread fear that he does indeed have something to hide because he’s guilty. It’s the slap in the face that Wretchard alludes to.
The other thing that must happen is viral videos. McCain pencils in everyone as his cellmates in Hanoi. His big weakness. So others will have to make the viral videos showing Rev. God Damn America, and that idiot B-ball player shouting “I’m Black and Barack Y’all” during the National Anthem and behaving like an idiot, disrespectful. Juxtaposed with Barack and Wright, hugging, Farrakhan, and the like.
Stuff like that. Funny and nasty because it’s true.
Sep 18, 2008 - 9:39 pm 77. fred:Dave,
I’m not terribly steeped in the theories about the suicidal tendencies of socialists and their regimes. Consciously, I do not think that they want to go down in flames. It’s just that they are too damn stupid to figure out how to make a modern economy work. When you believe in a zero-sum theory of economics, you tend to only focus on the intricacies of dividing up the pie into smaller and smaller slivers rather than on making bigger or more pies. It really is that simple and they really are that dumb.
I wasn’t the activist kind of socialist. When I was in college, in the late seventies and early eighties, I was drawn to socialist thought out of a particular tradition of Christian thinking. I saw it as a moral obligation for society to be more just with opportunity and wealth. I was also keenly aware of Michael Novak’s critiques of Liberation Theology and its philosophical assumptions, not to mention the assumptions about human nature implicit in utopian thought. So, since I had decided that I had a calling to be a priest, after my undergraduate studies I applied to the Jesuit novitiate in the New England Province of the Society of Jesus. My hope was that eventually they would let me be a philosopher/theologian to work on the challenges posed by the best critiques of socialism. I wanted to find a third way around the challenges to socialist thought posed by the best critics of socialism, on the one hand, and the problems posed by the historical reality of socialism’s failures. Eventually, and this happened after I had left the seminary, I came around to the view that utopian thought is non-rational and delusional. That journey took such a turn when I had decided to study psychology and some more accessible reading into neuroscience. I wanted to see further into “human nature.” And what I found there convinced me, beyond all doubt, that socialism will never succeed because there is always going to be evil to ruin the party.
Socialism failed, fails, and always will fail because it is contrary to human nature. People want to enjoy the fruits of their labor. Egalitarianism and utopianism are pivotal themes and foundational values of socialist thinking. But they are contradicted by history, science, medicine, and by the very behavior of socialist leadership.
It just astounds me that the only country on earth where socialism is not discredited is the United States. Most of the college kids I’ve met who are on the Left are, at best, extremely shallow in their grasp of the history of ideas. They have no idea of where their views come from, even though we know that they were inculcated within the kids by their teachers and professors over the course of many years. Well, it’s all coming to fruition now. Many, many years of Gramscian patience are now bearing fruit. The Left is lapping at its high water mark. That is why this election is so pivotal: we now have a long-overdue confrontation with the Left in America. Up or down. And if they win, I am convinced that in four years the failure will be so stunning that only the most ideologically rigid will remain loyal. But, this is a confrontation we need to have with the Left. We have to have it out, because the nation will only go forward when the Left is roundly defeated, either this year or in 2012.
If it be in 2012, the prior four years will be so replete with financial-economic crisis, foreign policy disaster, and cultural conflict that I think the Left will be pretty much finished in America. It won’t completely disappear, but it will be finished as a force to be reckoned with.
And right now, in America, socialism is a force to be reckoned with. They have their candidate who is the darling of the Ivy League elitists who inhabit academy, law, and media.
Sep 18, 2008 - 9:40 pm 78. Thomas Jackson:I guess this explains why Obama lost so many of the final primaries. What is apparent is the complete lack of morality within the Left, something the American people will now have to confront. The ugly face of Liberal Facism.
Sep 18, 2008 - 11:22 pm 79. bobal:Never vote for a man without a sense of humor.
Sep 18, 2008 - 11:54 pm 80. Bob Murphy:or
Without a sense of humor, never vote for any man.
@fred
“When you believe in a zero-sum theory of economics, you tend to only focus on the intricacies of dividing up the pie into smaller and smaller slivers rather than on making bigger or more pies. It really is that simple and they really are that dumb.”
Nice line. I like it. And very true.
But a key thing to consider is that the people that push this utopian thing always end up with a nice slice of that diminished pie for themselves (’cept for the useful idiots, of course) so they are always OK. The Al Gores, the Barack Obamas, the Bill Ayers’, Bernadette Dohrns are all sitting pretty. They have taken care of their own business even though they are inimical to business and the nominally capitalist system per se. Not to mention the lumpen proletariat.
“And what I found there convinced me, beyond all doubt, that socialism will never succeed because there is always going to be evil to ruin the party.”
I think that socialism might create evil in a way. I was in the military for a hitch and worked for various levels of government in jobs that were menial but wonderfully lacking in parental supervision which left me room to play.
Sep 19, 2008 - 4:09 am 81. NHLawyer:What I observed was a real lowest common denominator thing where no one had to face up to the consequences of his actions. You could steal on the job because it didn’t take the bread out of anyone’s mouth, you could laze around and do nothing productive because you weren’t letting anyone down that might be relying on you. No one really took responsibilty to make things happen that were supposed to happen. And anyone that did a real days’ work might well feel the wrath of his peers.
So people who might well have been responsible and loyal to peers and their employer in the private business world felt nothing like that at all.
The whole government/socialist schtick diminished those people, made them less good and some of them became evil, because they could without being confronted about it. And there were no apparent victims for these apparatchiks actions so it was all easy.
The “in your face” approach is not foolproof, and in fact is a mistake, because we have a secret ballot. “In your face” is a big turnoff, and an insult. You may say whatever to the person who is in your face to make him or her go away, but behind the curtain, alone, you pick whoever you want.
Sep 19, 2008 - 5:43 am 82. slade:The specter of socialism sparks some heavy lifting on this site which is fine. I would submit that the target problem is the oil-related corruption that influences policy and decision-making at the federal level – on both sides of the aisle. I would also submit it explains why our government is not providing anything but short-term tourniquets in lieu of long-term planning. The energy issues did not evolve overnight nor in anything remotely resembling a vacuum.
CEO of The Carlyle Group said that US economy is experiencing three major transitions – it is getting smaller (going from 50% of world GDP to 25%), it is getting weaker (exported industrial base, reliance on foreign trade), and it is deleveraging.
So the *engine* of capitalism in this country is changing relative to the rest of the world. It’s not the lingering effects of socialism we should be worried about (doesn’t really matter because the new stripped-down engine won’t support it). The issue is foreign influence in Washington which is a given, but I submit we’ve been given too much of it.
Sep 19, 2008 - 6:10 am 83. I'm Just Plain Dumb:Wretchard,
I don’t know, I find ‘in your face’ and ’shout down’ radical groups are excellent for influencing politicians (fear factor), but have the opposite effect on the general public, because of the agressive attempts at intimidation…people do not like it….and it is the general public that is voting in the election.
Look at groups such as Act-Up, which have gained a ton of political support by intimidating politicians, but have also given a bad inpression of political homosexuals to the public. Take the immagration demonstrations of last year or so, that caused a huge backlash towards illegals by the general populace, so much so that ‘immigration reform’ became stalled, even with a Democratic Majority and a willing President. I think the public does not like to be bullied. If Obama tries the same tactic, it could have ill effects.
Sep 19, 2008 - 6:46 am 84. Joe Buzz:How is this for progressive enthusiasm?:
Patriot Act = civil rights violation
Hacking a Governor’s email account to search for wrong doing = Fine, she deserved it.
Sep 19, 2008 - 7:34 am 85. Storm-Rider:“I would submit that the target problem is the oil-related corruption that influences policy and decision-making at the federal level – on both sides of the aisle.”
That is probably true, but American Socialism is related to your point; because Socialism is simply this: it is elite political power which does not derive from the consent of the governed; it is government of the elite, by the elite and for the elite.
“The issue today is the same as it has been throughout all history, whether man shall be allowed to govern himself or be ruled by a small elite.” Thomas Jefferson
“I declared to them point-blank: we have received our mandate as the representatives of the proletarian party from no one but ourselves.” Karl Marx
“The method of engaging in trifles at public meetings and doing real business on the quiet justified itself brilliantly.” Friedrich Engels
“It is enough that the people know there was an election. The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything.” Joseph Stalin
I believe we have to roll back the “New Deal” which ushered in American Socialism in 1933. The “New Deal” is a bad deal, and it is unconstitutional, because it violates the tenth amendment by concentrating political power in Washington D.C. Power corrupts unless it comes from the people. The “New Deal” also depends on Supreme Court judicial activism, i.e.: legislation from the bench. Many Supreme Court decisions have violated the Constitution and supported elitist agendas (Judicial Activism), but who can override a Supreme Court decision? The Supreme Court grabbed their power of judicial review in 1803 with the Marbury vs. Madison case. The Constitution does not give the Supreme Court a veto power over Congressional Legislation, but they took such power by their own decree. I’m not against the Supreme Court having a veto, but the people of the United States should decide this by amending the Constitution. While we’re at it, the amendment should also provide for Congress to override a Supreme Court veto just as the Congress can override a Presidential veto, and it should provide term limits for Supreme Court Justices as well as for Congress. Power corrupts unless it comes from the people.
“When all government, domestic and foreign, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the centre of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another, and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated….” Thomas Jefferson
Here is a quotation from Garet Garett who studied American Socialism as it developed in the 1930’s, and also a link to his essay.
“There are those who still think they are holding the pass against a revolution that may be coming up the road. But they are gazing in the wrong direction. The revolution is behind them. It went by in the Night of Depression, singing songs to freedom. So it was that a revolution took place within the form. Like the hagfish, the New Deal entered the old form and devoured its meaning from within. The revolutionaries were inside; the defenders were outside. A government that had been supported by the people and so controlled by the people became one that supported the people and so controlled them….. In the welfare state the government undertakes to see to it that the individual shall be housed and clothed and fed according to a statistical social standard, and that he shall be properly employed and entertained, and in consideration for this security the individual accepts in place of entire freedom a status and a number and submits his life to be minded and directed by an all-responsible government.” Garet Garett
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig5/garrett1.html
“You seem to consider the judges the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions; a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy. Our judges … and their power are the more dangerous as they are in office for life, and are not responsible, as the other functionaries are, to the elective control. The Constitution has erected no such single tribunal, knowing that to whatever hands confided, with the corruptions of time and party, its members would become despots. It has more wisely made all the departments co-equal and co-sovereign within themselves….When the legislative or executive functionaries act unconstitutionally, they are responsible to the people in their elective capacity. The exemption of the judges from that is quite dangerous enough. I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society, but the people themselves….” Thomas Jefferson
“At the establishment of our constitutions, the judiciary bodies were supposed to be the most helpless and harmless members of the government. Experience, however, soon showed in what way they were to become the most dangerous; that the insufficiency of the means provided for their removal gave them a freehold and irresponsibility in office; that their decisions, seeming to concern individual suitors only, pass silent and unheeded by the public at large; that these decisions, nevertheless, become law by precedent, sapping, by little and little, the foundations of the constitution, and working its change by construction, before any one has perceived that that invisible and helpless worm has been busily employed in consuming its substance. In truth, man is not made to be trusted for life, if secured against all liability to account.” Thomas Jefferson
“This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or exercise their revolutionary right to overthrow it.” Abraham Lincoln
“We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.” Abraham Lincoln
Sep 19, 2008 - 7:48 am 86. slade:Hank Paulsen in the news conference this morning called the current market regulatory code “sub-optimal.” The steam is starting to rise in defense of Glass-Steagall issue. At a minimum it can be argued as complicated. The financial *crisis* is being ‘leveraged’ to support ideological positions – the enforced dumping of affirmative action mortgages versus a pattern of deregulation leaving the current code *sub-optimal.* Me personally? I could easily listen to the ideological back-and-forth – actually most of it goes over my head – but what I can’t – won’t ignore – is the egregious and irresponsible lack of compliance and enforcement. And I blame some of the vacuum on a “false sense of security” fostered by foreign influence in Washington, although that blame game has no shortage of players, but foreign influence should be knocked farther down the totem pole.
The hysteria-induced segues into desperation tactics being rather silly evidence of eyes in-your-face rather than eyes on the ball. Reminds me of Nixon sweating. What is in sharp focus right now is the need for rules to reconnect risk with the risk-taker – and the guts to enforce and penalize. Stick with the practical and the reasonable – the rest will follow or not.
Sep 19, 2008 - 8:09 am 87. slade:Storm-Rider:
Agree with everything re the Supreme Court, especially the activism and the life tenures.
My point about Congress is that corruption, especially from foreign players, has usurped the concerns of the founding fathers for designing balance of power, which doesn’t mean we should cease “vigilance” but in my view we should temporarily adjust focus and priorities to speak directly to the corruption.
Sep 19, 2008 - 8:20 am 88. slade:“We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.” Abraham Lincoln
That would be the Saudi’s and the Chinese, who, at a minimum, are rolling the ball right beside the home-grown socialists.
But especially the Kingdom of Saud. I wouldn’t mind sending them some serious pain.
Sep 19, 2008 - 8:36 am 89. programmer:Alexis, I missed your tap into the spine earlier. Lol, eleven, indeed.
Sep 19, 2008 - 8:42 am 90. Cannoneer No. 4:Obama releases his “in-your-face” hounds
Sep 19, 2008 - 9:01 am 91. Lifeofthemind:The point for subtlety is behind us. The Democrats will use every tool available to prevent McCain’s message from getting out. Any place that a billboard can be rented or purchased they should have Huge portraits of Raines and Pelosi and Obama and Rangel and Rezco captioned “They caused the mortgage crisis.”
The role of the SCOTUS in constitutional review is a problem. My idea would be to make the Electoral College a permanent body with members elected by the States for staggered six year terms, like the Senate. They would fill vacancies for POTUS or VEEP quadrennially or as needed. In addition they would serve as the Council of Constitutional Review if a Judge felt that an Act might be invalid.
Sep 19, 2008 - 9:20 am 92. Lifeofthemind:It is my expectation that under my Electoral College reform scheme the States would initially select the heads of their 3 branches of government and then for larger states appoint significant personages. It might help to insist that all Electors after the first 3 for each state be persons who do not draw their income from any public source, either as an employee or as a contractor.
Sep 19, 2008 - 9:27 am 93. slade:I made a mental note to discipline myself and not go winging off about the financial *crisis* but that didn’t last long.
Something not right about the sudden magnitude of recent event(s) that is missing a “force multiplier.” We were told that the marginal sub-prime securities, before they got lost in the Sea of Red as illiquid derivatives, were 6% of the total mortgage market. We were told to chill. That was about second quarter of this year before oil spiked in July and off we ran in another direction. How does 6% of the domestic mortgage market constrict global credit markets to the point of insolvency that requires what is effectively government nationalization of financial services sector? We are to believe that all it took to destroy “free market” capitalism was 6% of domestic mortgage securities?
I can follow the sequence of events – plenty of global capital – plenty – but owners holding fast because they can’t confirm the risk/value of what started as 6%, but I cannot understand the magnitude – how 6% elevated Hank Paulsen into the “most powerful main in the world” and destroyed the last vestige of free markets as we know them. That’s a different story from the one I thought I was watching.
What I think happened is this. The real culprit is the (much) larger derivatives industry (as peddled by too many hedge fund managers making paper returns by gaming the system) – but the finger-pointing is still being ideologically focused on the affirmative action mortgage loans, which are not responsible for the larger *catastrophe* of what I woke up to this morning.
RE the electoral college reform. The issue is not the solution(s). It’s the implementation, which is dead in the water. Congress can’t implement, which is why they should not be burdened with the additional responsibility of a Left-inspired agenda, enthusiasm not being an adequate substitute for results. Intentions versus acts once again.
Sep 19, 2008 - 10:13 am 94. Konyok:My candidate for a mathematic answer is i (square root of -1).
Sep 19, 2008 - 10:22 am 95. slade:The key to non-linear systems …
Just takes a little imagination.
Oh that’s right. Congress has that market cornered.
Makes creative Capitalism sound tame.
Sep 19, 2008 - 10:24 am 96. Benj:Alexis said – “Some people in my family will vote for McCain and others will vote for Obama. I have relatives who will stoop to any level to get what they want, and I know better than to give in to their bullying. Although you probably know my views by now, I feel deeply hostile against those on both sides who would rather rip our nation apart than treat dissenters with respect…”
You get it Alexis. Hope you connect w/ Clubbers I can’t reach. Including Wretch himself who muddies the diff between an electoral campaign in a democracy and a Totalitarian state. Not that all comparisons on that front are out of bounds. But it’s beyond disingenuous to pretend pubs need lessons on how to play hard-ball politics. (Remember that “bourgeois riot” in FLA! Or Palin’s current attempts to shut-down the troopergate investigation – That reminds me – Are Clubbers cool with Palin’s apparent defamations of that ex-Marine Monahan?)
Stormrider – you keep willling yourself up into a fear of folks like…me. But in our exchanges a couple threads back, you sensed (I believe) there was nothing scary about me or my little boy. Or that poet who felt the ghosts of the slaves (”below grade”) in Monticello that had slipped past you…O’s not a threat to our demos – he’s realizing the promise implicit in Jefferson’s Declaration that “All men are created equal.” You want to see some echt anti-Jeffersonianism, just zero in on the comments of Clubbers like
Whiskey – “Women are turning against Palin since she’s been convincingly painted as “low class” and women are status-obsessed (particularly younger ones).”
or
Life of the Mind – “My idea would be to make the Electoral College a permanent body with members elected by the States for staggered six year terms, like the Senate. They would fill vacancies for POTUS or VEEP quadrennially or as needed.”
Nothing to fear from O but Whiskey’s contempt for women and this sort of Roman disdain for the idea of popular sovereignty should give you pause…
PS Murph – Re Palin – my understanding is that Palin earned the epithet by repeating the 20% figure for energy (actually 3% acc to Fact CHeck) – THEN changing it to 20% of oil/gas – which also turned out to be wrong – it’s 13%…What’s key here of course is that “energy” is offered up as HER area of expertise. As per Mac “she knows more about it than ANYONE.” The post-modern campaign…
Sep 19, 2008 - 10:49 am 97. Dave:Benj: Sarah Palin’s knowledge of energy could be summarized on two typewritten pages.
Yours on 1/4 inch of paper and if invisible ink were used, nobody would know the difference.
When it comes to political reality, the McCain/Pa;in team must of necessity cater to cater to “big oil” and similar firms. People who make my well-being possible. A matter of political logistics.
Obama/Biden must of necessity cater who demand my servitude. Another matter of political logistics.
In November we shall know which side prevails at the polls. As of now, only one thing is certain. My servictude shall not be forthcoming.
Sep 19, 2008 - 11:08 am 98. Dave:Fred: Socialism has this near-demonic ability to present itself as humanitarian.
It is of course humanist, not humanitarian.
Humanism cannot be had. Not without making H. Sapiens extinct.
Anybody can be attracted to socialism due to that facade. Those who cling to it after reality sets in are, to one degree or other,
Sep 19, 2008 - 11:28 am 99. ag:compelled towards species suicide. Most are in a state of denial about what they are doing. Some though are fully aware of what they are up to. I can only describe these latter as being “perfectly possessed”.
Got no other words for it.
“But where is the Petraeus of politics?” I am afraid he will not show up until we will be well into new Carter admin. on steroids.
Sep 19, 2008 - 11:35 am 100. Mowgli:This is Your Nation on White Privilege
By Tim Wise
For those who still can’t grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are constantly looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this list will help. White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because ‘every family has challenges,’ even as black and Latino families with similar ‘challenges’ are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.
White privilege is when you can call yourself a ‘fuckin’ redneck,’ like Bristol Palin’s boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with you, you’ll ‘kick their fuckin’ ass,’ and talk about how you like to ’shoot shit’ for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.
White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative action.
White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smaller than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with about the same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of Manhattan, makes you ready to potentially be president, and people don’t all piss on themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term state Senator, and constitutional law scholar, means you’re ‘untested.’
White privilege is being able to say that you support the words ‘under God’ in the pledge of allegiance because ‘if it was good enough for the founding fathers, it’s good enough for me,’ and not be immediately disqualified from holding office–since, after all, the pledge was written in the late 1800s and the ‘under God’ part wasn’t added until the 1950s–while believing that reading accused criminals and terrorists their rights (because, ya know, the Constitution, which you used to teach at a prestigious law school requires it), is a dangerous and silly idea only supported by mushy liberals.
White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people immediately scared of you.
White privilege is being able to have a husband who was a member of an extremist political party that wants your state to secede from the Union, and whose motto was ‘Alaska first,’ and no one questions your patriotism or that of your family, while if you’re black and your spouse merely fails to come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home with her kids on the first day of school, people immediately think she’s being disrespectful.

White privilege is being able to make fun of community organizers and the work they do–like, among other things, fight for the right of women to vote, or for civil rights, or the 8-hour workday, or an end to child labor–and people think you’re being pithy and tough, but if you merely question the experience of a small town mayor and 18-month governor with no foreign policy expertise beyond a class she took in college–you’re somehow being mean, or even sexist.
White privilege is being able to convince white women who don’t even agree with you on any substantive issue to vote for you and your running mate anyway, because all of a sudden your presence on the ticket has inspired confidence in these same white women, and made them give your party a ’second look.’
White privilege is being able to fire people who didn’t support your political campaigns and not be accused of abusing your power or being a typical politician who engages in favoritism, while being black and merely knowing some folks from the old-line political machines in Chicago means you must be corrupt.
White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whose pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize George W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an explicitly Christian nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theological principles into government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflict in the Middle East is God’s punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and everyone can still think you’re just a good church-going Christian, but if you’re black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have Colin Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are often the result of U.S. foreign policy and who talks about the history of racism and its effect on black people, you’re an extremist who probably hates America.
White privilege is not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is when asked by a reporter, and then people get angry at the reporter for asking you such a ‘trick question,’ while being black and merely refusing to give one-word answers to the queries of Bill O’Reilly means you’re dodging the question, or trying to seem overly intellectual and nuanced.
White privilege is being able to claim your experience as a POW has anything at all to do with your fitness for president, while being black and experiencing racism is, as Sarah Palin has referred to it a ‘light’ burden.
And finally, white privilege is the only thing that could possibly allow someone to become president when he has voted with George W. Bush 90 percent of the time, even as unemployment is skyrocketing, people are losing their homes, inflation is rising, and the U.S. is increasingly isolated from world opinion, just because white voters aren’t sure about that whole ‘change’ thing. Ya know, it’s just too vague and ill-defined, unlike, say, four more years of the same, which is very concrete and certain.
White privilege is, in short, the problem
Sep 19, 2008 - 11:42 am 101. Konyok:Back to the original thread, this from Polico:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0908/13584.html
Mid September is not the time to panic and fret.
John McCain has proven to be an adroit campaigner. He has already blunted the Obama juggernaut. When the first debate comes, McCain will be the matador gracefully exploiting the weaknesses of an enraged and bewildered Barack Obama.
Sep 19, 2008 - 11:48 am 102. slade:What’s black and white and red all over?
A socialist looking for political traction by (not) playing the race card.
Sep 19, 2008 - 11:58 am 103. Konyok:Goodness, Mowgli
White privilege is the *only* thing that could give “McSame” a victory?
I would suggest that having a surfeit of supporters like yourself will be a significant factor in Obama’s impending electoral defeat.
I rather doubt that you typed your essay contemporaneously for the edification of this humble little forum. That you think it clever to reduce a complex intersection of historical, social, economic, cognitive and psychological issues into one compact slogan that fits perfectly with the tacit theme of one of our presidential contenders speaks volumes to your intellectual honesty. That you think this argument persuasive on this forum places you somewhere in the vicinity of the Russian SVR trolls that posted here during the invasion of Georgia.
So, you’re arguing that this campaign IS about race, after all?
Any comments from Benj?
Sep 19, 2008 - 12:00 pm 104. Joseph Somsel:Obama wants to activate an army of volunteer Donald Segrettis. How did CREEP’s efforts pay off?
I think the answer is that angry “enthusists” shouting, being obnoxious, playing dirty tricks will raise the general voters’ interest in the election and the political process. This is good for McCain since apathy and lack of mental effort favors the Democrats (except for turnout).
The more dirty tricks Obama’s support play, even with suppressed publicity, the more regular voters will look to McCain and the rock-ribbed Republicans. Violence in politics is NOT the change that most people want.
Likewise with the financial crisis. What REALLY happened? The MSM has not provided a cogent narrative because they can’t without tainting the Democrats. One would hope that voters are paying more attention and asking harder questions.
The key tactic is alternative informational channels. The sooner the MSM breaks and is replaced with free channels the better.
It will remain a Republic, if we can keep it.
Sep 19, 2008 - 12:11 pm 105. Tarnsman:Benji, Benji. Spouting the party line and doing what Obambi commands (Get in their faces and damn the facts!). Tsst tsst.
According to the Resource Development Council for Alaska: “Alaska’s oil and gas industry has produced more than 16 billion barrels of oil and 6 billion cubic feet of natural gas, accounting for an average of 20 percent of the entire nation’s domestic production (1980 – 2000).”
More recent figures from the Department of Energy show that Alaska is responsible for 18.1% of United States domestic oil production and 13.1% of domestic natural gas production.
Palin’s claim is based on statements from Alaska’s main energy industry organization, though their figures are slightly out of date. Even based on the most up-to-date data, her statement on natural gas production may be slightly overstated, but she’s pretty close on oil production, as 18.1% can reasonably be described as “nearly 20%.” And the combined production percentage of 15.6% is five times the figure of 3% you cite and way closer to 20% than it is to 3%.
The issue isn’t Sarah fudging the Alaska energy production numbers, its Obambi’s associations with some of the seediest folks around, the latests being his good buddy of Fannie Mae fame. He needs to answer:
Why he took more money from Fannie and Freddie than any Senator but the Democratic chairman of the committee that regulates them?
Why he put Fannie Mae’s CEO who helped create this disaster in charge of finding his Vice President?
Why Fannie’s former General Counsel is a senior advisor to his campaign?
Why when Senator McCain pushed legislation to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Senator Obama was silent and didn’t lift a hand to help avert this crisis?
And why he allowed the leaders of Fannie and Freddie to line the pockets of his campaign while they were enriching themselves with millions of dollars in payments from those now failed institutions?
Senator McCain had this to say about Obambi:
“Those same Congressional leaders who give Senator Obama his marching orders are now saying that this mess isn’t their fault and they aren’t going to take any action on this crisis until after the election. Senator Obama’s own advisers are saying that crisis will benefit him politically. My friends, that is the kind of me-first, country-second politics that are broken in Washington. My opponent sees an economic crisis as a political opportunity instead of a time to lead.”
Sep 19, 2008 - 12:25 pm 106. Storm-Rider:“White privilege is being able to say that you support the words ‘under God’ in the pledge of allegiance because ‘if it was good enough for the founding fathers, it’s good enough for me,’ and not be immediately disqualified from holding office–since, after all, the pledge was written in the late 1800s and the ‘under God’ part wasn’t added until the 1950s”
No, you Marxist/Socialist/Atheist/Leftists have it wrong again. You are just too stupid or too lazy to do your homework – or you are purposefully deceptive.
“The time is now near at hand which must probably determine whether Americans are to be freemen or slaves. … The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the courage and conduct of the army.” George Washington
“Under God” indeed came from George Washington – our number one Founding Father.
Sep 19, 2008 - 12:26 pm 107. Storm-Rider:“White privilege is when you can call yourself a ‘fuckin’ redneck,’ like Bristol Palin’s boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with you, you’ll ‘kick their fuckin’ ass,’ and talk about how you like to ’shoot shit’ for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.”
Typical Marxist/Socialist propaganda. We’ve heard this anti-American rhetoric before. Anti-American American Marxist/Socialists sycophantically take their talking points and rhetoric from their European betters:
London Daily Mirror: “Were I a Kerry voter, though, I’d feel deep anger, not only at them returning Bush to power, but for allowing the outside world to lump us all into the same category of moronic muppets. The self-righteous, gun-totin’, military-lovin’, sister-marryin’, abortion-hatin’, gay-loathin’, foreigner-despisin’, non-passport ownin’ red-necks, who believe God gave America the biggest d*ck in the world so it could urinate on the rest of us and make their land “free and strong.”
“It’s the Christian fundamentalists, Holy Rollers, born-again Bible Belters, and Jesus freaks of Godly America who are rational and skeptical, especially of Euro-delusions. It’s secular Europe that’s living on faith. Uncowed by Islamists, undeferential to government, unshriveled in its birth rates, redneck America is a more reliable long-term bet.” Mark Steyn
Sep 19, 2008 - 12:36 pm 108. Storm-Rider:“White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people immediately scared of you.”
The second amendment applies to all U.S. Citizens; skin color has nothing to do with the God-given right to human life (Declaration of Independence) or the God-given right to defend human life (Second Amendment – Bill of Rights). I’m not afraid of a law abiding American who wishes to defend his life and that of his family and his neighbor, and I don’t give a damn about the color of his skin. You Marxists keep pissing on yourself about skin color; this is a reflection – a projection – of your own bigotry. Classifying people into groups is the trademark of Marxism, particularly economic and racial classification. “The history of all previous societies has been the history of class struggles.” Karl Marx
“Firearms are second only to the Constitution in importance; they are the peoples’ liberty’s teeth.” George Washington
“Americans have the right and advantage of being armed – unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms. “ James Madison
“Arms in the hands of citizens may be used at individual discretion… in private self-defense.” John Adams
“Laws that forbid the carrying of arms..disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed one.” Thomas Jefferson
“The beauty of the second amendment is that it will not be needed until they try to take it.” Thomas Jefferson
“The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.” Thomas Jefferson
“The Constitution shall never be construed… to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms. Samuel Adams
“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” Second Amendment, U.S. Constitution
Sep 19, 2008 - 12:52 pm 109. whiskey:Younger women, who are swayed by fashion, trends, who is popular, and status-power indeed do not like Palin. All the polls confirm this. While men and older women love Palin. It’s easy to see why, it’s not her policies (which are not that different from say, Mitt Romney’s nor her social views, which are the same).
Rather, it is Palin’s personal life. She married early, and had five kids with, an idealized blue collar man. The kind of guy ordinary men could see themselves as, if they were only stronger, more handsome, etc. This is why younger women don’t like Palin, and men do. Why older women (shoved aside for the shiny new Affirmative Action hire, with a fancy Ivy League credential) also love her.
Younger women have been turned off against Palin by the media defining her as a rube, hick, and unfashionable. Uncool. Which is precisely why men and older women love her (the more she is defined this way).
Sep 19, 2008 - 1:10 pm 110. Joseph Somsel:Where’s the data that younger women VOTERS are turned off preferentially by Palin?
I’ll grant that her life story undercuts a number of youthful delusions, carefully nutured by the Left/feminists.
Better to keep plugging. They’ll lose those delusions someday and the sooner the better.
Sep 19, 2008 - 1:30 pm 111. veracious:I agree with Slades,
focus on corruption, which is largely due to foreign influence “rolling the ball” beside our own deviant elements. My suspicion is that hundreds of billions of dollars of foreign and banker dollars, assist, protect, nurture and guide many of the deviant directions. This _influence_ takes mulitple forms and flows through seemingly unrelated channels, within our corporal structures. Is it not possible that a significant portion of help for orgs. such as GreenPeace or GASP Obama come from these sources, being so vast and numerous?
In this vein, USA seems to be failing in a somewhat different way than the Roman empire, which didn’t have many economic rivals that I can think of to create large foreign influence.
For those who watch such things & are observant, you’ll see some suprising interpretationt of large scale corruption in movies like: Star Wars, causing the Federation Senate to become disfuctional and ceding power to the executive; in ‘The 300′ the senate had been bought far in advance of the Persian army, the money even moved in to manipulate the outcome of the oracles.
Personally, I’ve been training my mind to see the signs of foreign influece. In some institutions, like CAIR it’s pretty easy, but for many of the other channels it harder to grok.
Sep 19, 2008 - 1:36 pm 112. veracious:Several above,
WRT White Priviledge. This had meaning, some dozen years ago. When will the non-white male quit whining and start working like the while male does? We don’t ask for or receive special consideration. We pay for those who _are_ granted those considerations with un-fair hiring, un-fair taxing and un-fair government priviledges.
When will the non-white male quit requesting special consideration and join us in our joint American republic, as equals? I and essentially all Americans reach out our arms to our non-white brothers and sisters to share in the American dream. I’m not rich, I don’t get a free ride, I don’t pretend anybody owes me a living or a home. I work for it.
I always liked Alan Keyes; there are plenty of great black Americans that are honorable and worth listening to. Obama is not one of them: he does not represent the pre-American black people, nor the interests of the people that founded and died for this country and its constitution.
Sep 19, 2008 - 1:56 pm 113. Bob Murphy:@Mowgli
Sep 19, 2008 - 2:49 pm 114. programmer:And your solution to the problem of “white privilege is Leftist privilege, where no one is held responsible for the innumerable failures of socialism throughout history including the 100 million who died under communist dictatorship?
You are making a racist generality yourself.
Try substituting mainstream for white and see how that works.
If someone celebrates his demonstrably dysfunctional worldview and I reject it, and he happens to be black, hispanic, asian, Jewish or female does that make me racist or sexist?
Pardon me while I get on with my life and leave you to your preposterous angst ridden mental projection.
Obama is a rampant socialist and gamer from the corrupt Chicago political machine who is an existential threat to the greatest political system yet devised for humanity.
End of story.
Mowgli,
Sep 19, 2008 - 3:22 pm 115. slade:Man, you are great. Where did you find comedy material like that? “White privelege”, come on man, cut me a break. I can’t stop laughing. And what is especially hilarious, all of the examples you give are so obviously satire, man, you need to get on the Bill Maher show. Really. That is primo stuff. Your obvious affection for your fellow man expressed with such clear insight into the foibles of humanity really made my day. One of the finest examples of liberal thinging and concern I’ve see in a long while WooHoo, what a hoot. Thanks.
Announcements of the Death of Glass-Steagall were premature.
It is also time, though, to build a new wall of separation. Today, complex financial instruments like structured investment vehicles and auction-rate securities are marketed to unsophisticated buyers ranging from retail investors to corporate and government treasurers. In 1933, Glass-Steagall addressed the imbalance of power between the investors and the providers of financial services by separating the providers into commercial banks and investment banks. Seventy-five years later, instead of trying to limit what products innovative financial firms can offer, it would be more prudent to limit the markets to which they can sell their wares.
The intersection between “Main Street” and “Wall Street” remaining very, very contentious.
What’s black and white and red all over?
A hedge fund manager’s balance sheet.
Sep 19, 2008 - 3:57 pm 116. bobal:I like Palin because I haven’t seen anyone in a long time, if ever, who radiates such authentic joy.
Sep 19, 2008 - 4:04 pm 117. slade:From the article above:
In other words, the customers, not the companies, should be divided. This could be accomplished by extending the current system of government classification of “qualified investors,” used to limit who can invest in things like hedge funds. By demonstrating expert knowledge or the ability to absorb loss (because of high net worth), qualified investors could be given a pass into the caveat emptor world of modern Wall Street.
This is very interesting with tempting analogies. To what extent is the regulatory code tasked with protecting the “unsophisticated” investor? Slicing and dicing the responsibility.
In an economic sense.
Funny thing that color red. Find it in the most awkward places.
But I agree that some sort of “wall” is required to protect those of us who perform a technical function from having to become experts in finance. Grading risk is not the same as capping the bet. But it’s an interesting trade-off.
Sep 19, 2008 - 4:07 pm 118. slade:I agree with that – total non-sequitor and you-soon-will-be-chastised-by-the-self-appointed-topic-police – Bobal. She has a genuine quality that is being incrementally tarnished by the Process. I expect she – and her family – will emerge intact. Whether she can translate that quality into historical change remains to be seen. I just don’t know.
Sep 19, 2008 - 4:11 pm 119. slade:But I don’t think a breath of fresh air should be confused with The Second Coming.
Sep 19, 2008 - 4:24 pm 120. NahnCee:If Palin can get idjuts like Mowgli to sit down and consciously spew out such counter-intuitive venom, then I’m fer her.
Can you imagine how many hours it took to compose that little screed? At least which-ever Liberal Progressive Obamaniac who did write it was tied up in composition and not hacking e-mail addresses or registering dead people to vote or sticking knives in Republican tires.
///
So, Slade – how many billion do you figure it would take for a foreign entity to wound the American economy, with malice aforethought? And, any guesses on what company will be the next target? I’m thinking whoever they is, they *really* need to try to torpedo Big Oil.
Sep 19, 2008 - 4:34 pm 121. slade:Yeah NahnCee, the gist of your point is taken.
I keep a distance from conspiracy, like the CEO of The Carlyle Group (David Rothenberg I want to say). Not to be trivial, but it’s like String Theory, which is impossible to prove.
I will say this, we spend $600B to $700B annually for imported crude. Changing that number will remove a lot of ambiguity from the political equation – what Dave calls political logistics, I think was his phrase. I would like to see the logistics rearranged in our favor.
If that’s not too much to ask.
Sep 19, 2008 - 4:50 pm 122. slade:I’m thinking whoever they is, they *really* need to try to torpedo Big Oil.
This is a dicey call – way over my “pay grade.”
Show me somebody who can predict the benefit-cost analysis of an overt plan to cut this country from foreign crude. I am thinking in terms of Yamamoto’s “sleeping giant”.
In which case, the plotters are damned if they do and damned if they don’t.
If that is not too cryptic.
But I will give you this much. None of this crap of 2008 passes the smell test.
Sep 19, 2008 - 5:01 pm 123. slade:And I am still confused about this 6% of sub-prime mortgages translating into a meltdown of global credit markets.
That is borderline insane.
Sep 19, 2008 - 5:12 pm 124. ricpic:It may well be that Obama’s supporters have the edge in enthusiasm, but McCain’s supporters are more determined. There is no great enthusiasm for McCain, I will admit that, but there is a fierce determination to stop Obama.
I would not be surprised if white males break 65 to 35 for McCain.
This means that the election hangs on how white females break —
which makes the Palin pick so vital.
Other posters have stated that young white females are not captivated by Palin in the way white males and older white females clearly are. This may well be true, but I find it hard to believe that McCain’s choice of Palin has not peeled enough young white females away from Obama, or put another way, awakened enough young white females from the Obama swoon, to win the election.
Sep 19, 2008 - 5:48 pm 125. Lifeofthemind:@slade,
Sep 19, 2008 - 5:56 pm 126. Lifeofthemind:Not insane but either criminal or belligerent depending on the motivation. If the naked short selling and manipulation was permitted to drive down the market and bankrupt a solvent Lehman Brothers to benefit private interests then it was a criminal act. If it was done to weaken the United States subsequent to discussions with representatives of any foreign sovereign or organized interest opposed to the nation’s interests or government then it was an act of war. In either case participants would be liable to the RICO statutes. In the later case Patriot Act and Treason charges could apply. The hard part is as always gathering evidence that would stand up in court. For the American Executive it is however still policy that both deadly force and rendition of unlawful combatants can be used without meeting the standards of proof demanded for a criminal prosecution.
Why shouldn’t single white females who are not self identifying as part of the post West civilization elite feel the same resentment when subjected to condescension and bullying by semi-educated thugs and trust fund babies as their male peers?
Sep 19, 2008 - 6:02 pm 127. hoss:“And I am still confused about this 6% of sub-prime mortgages translating into a meltdown of global credit markets.”
I work in mortgage bond trading. First off, I’ve heard #s like 11% but even if it is 6%, the total mortgage market is something like $11 trillion – 6% of 11 trillion is still a big number.
Second, it is not only subprime mortgages that are causing a problem, but alt-A mortgages which are made to borrowers who are in between subprime and prime (but most of them didn’t provide documentation for their income and lied on their applications, so they’re generally thought to be a lot closer to subprime than prime). Alt-A is probably another $1 trillion or so.
Third, forget the $11 trillion size quoted above. Around 2002 I helped create the credit derivative market for MBS (although it didn’t really take off in huge size until 2004). With the credit derivative market (which nobody knows the size of) there is literally no size limit to the mortgage market.
So it’s really not all that insane.
Sep 19, 2008 - 6:24 pm 128. fred:Slade’s remarks about the real culprits behind the rolling crises in the financial services industry is spot on. I work as a securities analyst, so I see some of the inside of how some portfolio management panders to institutional and individual investor demand for derivatives, like paper from the mortgage industry. It really was the Party of Jackasses during the eighties which worked assiduously to make this possible. President Bush and his party had nothing to do with it.
But it is extremely timely and expedient to blame him for it all. Abolishing Glass-Steagall happened under Bill Clinton’s and Robert Rubin’s watch. I was not in favor of it. I foresaw the problems which could attend from it. Besides, all a bank has to do is to have a firewall between its regular businesses and the more specialized hedge fund businesses it wants to have with wealthy clients.
Demographics are hugely going to affect this election. GenX is quite small and, from what I’ve observed, generally not inclined to be politically allied with the older cohort of Baby Boomers. The Younger Cohort of Baby Boomers and the GenX group tend to be more conservative. But the Older Cohort of Boomers, the generation after the Genxers, and a good percentage of the immigrants from South of the Border are more Leftist. They are replacing the quickly fading WWII-Great Depression Generation, who are dying out in huge numbers. It was mainly from THAT generation where those lifelong Democrats were drawn over to Ronald Reagan. The Reagan Democrats are dying off and are being replaced by a very large under-40 group that is more inclined Leftwards. Especially young females. I cannot see any significant numbers of them voting for McCain or any Republican.
I don’t even think the kids are consciously socialist. They just incline that way because the narrative in their heads has been very patiently and carefully put there by their teachers and professors. They’ve been told:
1. The United States is an imperialist, racist country.
2. Capitalism is evil, but they are NOT told about the history of socialist failure and oppression.
3. The the people are ENTITLED to receive from their government all of their needs and wants.
4. That the government should bail out all personal and business failure. Risk should be taken out of our lives.
5. That our military is evil and warmongering. That other nations are right to demand that we seek their permission to use our military.
And other things besides. They get almost no access to a counter narrative.
In our country young females feel vulnerable in a highly sexualized culture, and so the threat of not being able to obtain an abortion scares them to death. They have learned that they cannot rely on the men (or what passes for “men”)in their lives to be honorable and faithful. Yet, they have been bombarded, since they were little girls, with expectations and visions of what constitutes a happy life. Fornication is glorified. The girls who do it most are the happiest, etc. Teenage and adult males get away with it – no one enforces statutory rape laws anymore.
Minorities keep getting told that they are victims, long after “racism” ceases to be a serious factor of life in our society.
On and on it goes.
I still believe that the only way the Left will finally be beaten down in America will be at the end of four years of Obama and Democrat control of the economy and foreign policy. In November there is going to be serious partying going on in Moscow, Tehran, Caracas, and Beijing. But I predict four years hence they will find out they overplayed their hand on the American people, most of whom ARE capable of learning from their mistakes. The tragedy is that that lesson might cost millions of lives and a lot of economic destruction. But if that’s what it takes to finally bury the Left, so be it.
Sep 19, 2008 - 6:35 pm 129. programmer:NahnCee,
Allow me to propose a counter proposition. Is it possible that WE (the USA) are manipulating the markets, financial houses, etc. to achieve some long term (or short term, for that matter) strategic goal. Russia’s stock market is/was shut down, no? Foreign markets have certaily been shaken. Now, we are gradually bringing them on line after demonstrating…what?
As I have said before here, I really, really wish I had taken Economics in college instead of weight training. Anyway, not arguing with you, just picking up on your vibes that something really reeks of careful timing and planning about this whole thing and suggesting another spin, why not?
Sep 19, 2008 - 6:42 pm 130. NahnCee:Ohhhh, Progrmmer. I *like* it. Reading overseas newspapers, they over there are even more panic stricken then we over here are about what’s going on with Wall Street. I do like it from a conspiracy point of view, but I just can’t see what it would accomplish … unless there’s a whole bunch of Saudi’s who own AMerican stock who just lot quite a bit of their bank roll.
///
Slade said, “…cut this country from foreign crude.” No, you misunderstood my implication. If you posit that some outside foreign interest has been busily buying up and then dumping stocks to cause bankruptcies in these various companies, then what I am saying is why couldn’t Texaco, for example, also be targeted for a bankruptcy attack? Just when we’re starting to get a head of steam built up to replace dependency on foreign oil, what would happen if two or three of the big American oil companies went belly up?
Sep 19, 2008 - 6:53 pm 131. mark_b:Mowgli is of course long gone.
A quick Google search show 38 hits on the line:
“White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people immediately scared of you.”
So that line is not original. He’s a goosestepping obamabot,making sure we receive our daily dose of inyourfacedness. At least the Russians show creativity.
Sep 19, 2008 - 7:31 pm 132. Benj:For folks wondering re Palin’s energy expertise…- Cut and pasted Fact Check’s account. It references the figures invoked by my critic above – but it makes it clear that he doesn’t have the goods…Palin’s mistake matters because (1) this is her supposed area of national policy expertise (2) she first tried to brazen it out and then fudged the figures even after she had been called out. Bush-stylee!
This is the 3rd of 4th time in the last couple of days someone here has claimed I’ve had the facts wrong re Palin. Each time I re-check what I’ve said and provide proof that my interlocuter is bullshitting. Hope the NEXT person who’s considering offering up a jive (and insults) in place of facts, chills. Not holding my breath, though. This Club is full of fantasts…
Energetically Wrong
September 12, 2008
Updated: September 17, 2008
Palin says Alaska supplies 20 percent of U.S. energy. Not true. Not even close.
Summary
Palin claims Alaska “produces nearly 20 percent of the U.S. domestic supply of energy.” That’s not true.
Alaska did produce 14 percent of all the oil from U.S. wells last year, but that’s a far cry from all the “energy” produced in the U.S.
Alaska’s share of domestic energy production was 3.5 percent, according to the official figures kept by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
And if by “supply” Palin meant all the energy consumed in the U.S., and not just produced here, then Alaska’s production accounted for only 2.4 percent.
Analysis
Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin sat down with ABC News’ Charlie Gibson for an interview, part of which aired Sept. 11. In the exchange, the Alaska governor misstated a basic fact about her state’s energy production:
Palin: Let me speak specifically about a credential that I do bring to this table, Charlie, and that’s with the energy independence that I’ve been working on for these years as the governor of this state that produces nearly 20 percent of the U.S. domestic supply of energy, that I worked on as chairman of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, overseeing the oil and gas development in our state to produce more for the United States.
It’s simply untrue that Alaska produces anything close to 20 percent of the U.S. “energy supply,” a term that is generally defined as energy consumed. That category includes power produced in the U.S. by nuclear, coal, hydroelectric dams and other means – as well as all the oil imported into the country.
Palin would have been correct to say that Alaska produces just over 14 percent of all the oil produced in the U.S., leaving out imports and leaving out other forms of power. According to the federal government’s Energy Information Administration, Alaskan wells produced 263.6 million barrels of oil in 2007, or 14.3 percent of the total U.S. production of 1.8 billion barrels.
But Alaskan production accounts for only 4.8 percent of all the crude oil and petroleum products supplied to the U.S. in 2007, counting both domestic production and imports from other nations. According to EIA, the total supply was just over 5.5 billion barrels in 2007.
Furthermore, Palin said “energy,” not “oil,” so she was actually much further off the mark. According to EIA, Alaska actually produced 2,417.1 trillion BTUs [British Thermal Units] of energy in 2005, the last year for which full state numbers are available. That’s equal to just 3.5 percent of the country’s domestic energy production.
And according to EIA analyst Paul Hess, that would calculate to only “2.4 percent of the 100,368.6 trillion BTUs the U.S. consumes.”
Palin didn’t make clear whether she was talking about Alaska’s share of all the energy produced in the U.S. or all the energy consumed here. Either way, she was wrong.
McCain Gets It Wrong, Too
Sen. John McCain has also has used this inflated, incorrect figure. On Sept. 3, McCain told ABC News’ Gibson:
McCain: Well, I think Americans are going to be very, very, very pleased. This is a very dynamic person. [Palin's] been governor of our largest state, in charge of 20 percent of America’s energy supply.
McCain repeated the false figure more recently, in a September 11 interview with Portland, Maine, news station WCSH6.
Footnote: When we asked the McCain campaign where the 20 percent figure came from, we were referred to the Web site of the Resource Development Council for Alaska, Inc, a group that says it promotes development of Alaska’s natural resources. It states:
Alaska Resource Development Council: Alaska’s oil and gas industry has produced more than 16 billion barrels of oil and 6 billion cubic feet of natural gas, accounting for an average of 20 percent of the entire nation’s domestic production.
This falls far short of supporting Palin’s sweeping claim, however. It refers only to “oil and gas” production, not total energy. It refers only to production, not total consumption or supply. And the 20 percent figure is an “average” over many years, though the site does not say exactly how many. That makes it very much out of date, because Alaskan oil production has declined sharply in recent years. According to EIA figures Alaskan oil production has dropped 22 percent in the most recent five years alone.
And in case you are wondering, Alaska produces even less of the nation’s natural gas than it does of its oil. EIA figures show Alaska accounted for just 1.9 percent of total U.S. natural gas production during the six months ending June 2008. And even that is dropping rapidly. The figure was 2.3 percent just two years earlier.
Update, Sept. 16: The Washington Post’s Fact Checker reports that Palin has modified her claim, saying at a campaign appearance Sept. 15 that she oversees “20 percent of the U.S. domestic supply of oil and gas.” That’s still wrong. The Fact Checker points out the correct number is 7.4 percent, according to EIA. See our post on The FactCheck Wire for more.
Update, Sept. 17: The Associated Press, in reporting on Palin’s “inflated” energy claim, contacted the Alaska Resource Development Council and confirmed that its 20 percent figure is badly out of date. It quoted Carl Portman, the group’s deputy director, as saying that the figure is an average for the decades of the 1980s and 1990s, which The AP noted was “long before Palin became governor at the end of 2006.” Portman was quoted as saying his group “planned to update the site to make it more clear that the 20 percent figure is over a period of time.”
And indeed, when we checked, the Web page had been changed to say that the state’s oil and gas industry accounted “for an average of 20 percent of the entire nation’s domestic production (1980 – 2000). Currrently, Alaska accounts for nearly 15% of U.S. production.” Even that 15 percent figure, however, is higher than the official statistics kept by the federal government, as we have already noted.
Also, in response to questions from some readers, we have written a post on The FactCheck Wire that explains our methodology.
–by Justin Bank
Sources
Sep 19, 2008 - 8:09 pm 133. fred:Benj,
If you do not understand Economics 101, how did you ever get the testicular fortitude to make statements about energy policy and expect us to take you seriously?
If you increase the supply of oil, not only does the spot market see this favorably, but also the futures’ markets see it favorably – EVEN IF IT WILL BE FIVE TO EIGHT YEARS HENCE when the new supply comes on to global markets. Current prices take into consideration the future supply of oil. Currently, the “Peak Oil” supply assumptions hold sway among traders and investors.
Anything that will reduce the supply of oil – short, intermediate, and long-term – will, to one degree or another, be reflected in current prices.
THEREFORE, increasing the supply of oil is the way to bring prices down. Immediately. And over the longer term.
Any policy which will subvert or block increasing the supply of oil coming to global markets will only result in higher, not lower prices.
“Alternative sources” (i.e. “renewables”)are not yet ready to step into the breach and, over the short and INTERMEDIATE TERM, and take care of the lion’s share of our energy requirements. Combined with a determination to block nuclear power plant construction, Obama’s Leftist friends would prefer to reduce our economy to levels of contraction. And his fix, politically expedient and ready-made for the idiot mob, is bread and circuses: tax the oil companies to the point where the government virtually owns them. I find it amazing that an industry that returns, on average, $.081 cents on the dollar ROE is characterized as rapacious and ripe for ripping off. It really does take some balls to demand that we tax them more heavily.
Obama, and you, understand nothing about economics, finance, how businesses are run, and how to grow an economy and create jobs. Hell, even McCain has his lacunae in economics, but at least he gets the broader ideas and principles correctly.
The future of “alternative sources” of energy is imperiled by a sluggish economy hemorrhaging jobs and stuck in the doldrums. If we keep the economy healthy and growing, eventually the engineers and scientists ARE going to overcome the hurdles and constraints imposed by the laws of physics. But right now, to bet the farm on that outcome as the policy preference of the present is insane. We’ve got the oil, and the coal we can refine into fuels that do burn cleanly. Let’s do what is realistic for now.
Remember, when supply is far less than demand, the prices go up, not down. And transferring wealth from the producers in no way alters that outcome.
Sep 19, 2008 - 8:30 pm 134. fred:Oh, and I forgot to tell Benj that our greatest fields for oil, gas, and coal are not in Alaska. They are in the Continental U.S. and offshore. The drilling and extraction technologies are there NOW to do it safely and efficiently, and were not there thirty years ago.
But the kind of crowd that Obama will bring with him to Washington will be beholden to the environmental lobby lawyers, who prefer their fees blocking the drilling and exploration. It’s an open secret that the legal profession is overwhelmingly dominated by the Democrats. It will take an act of Congress, signed by the President, to puncture that legal gravy train that benefits from the lawsuits coming from the environmentalists.
Sep 19, 2008 - 8:36 pm 135. OOOOOooooohhh White Privelidge:Pretty wacky diatribe above. How’d you hear about Sara Palin’s daughter’s boyfriend’s proclivities? Did you read it in her e-mail?
Just a quick comment. When I was in the Army I loved having time to sit around and ’shoot the shit’. That meant have meaningless conversation. Perhaps you should do more of that and less huddling over your computer in the back of your comic book store.
Sep 19, 2008 - 8:37 pm 136. peterike:Fact Check??
“The Annenberg Political Fact Check is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania….. It is funded primarily by the Annenberg Foundation.”
Scrupulously bi-partisan, no doubt.
Sep 19, 2008 - 8:44 pm 137. OOOOOooooohhh White Privelidge:- how many billion do you figure it would take for a foreign entity to wound the American economy, with malice aforethought? And, any guesses on what company will be the next target? I’m thinking whoever they is, they *really* need to try to torpedo Big Oil.
Its already been done for a couple of decades. You are an OPEC state. You want to drive up the price of oil and place America at a strategic disadvantage. You fund environmental groups, lots of them. You support liberal senators who grow more and more “green”. For a relatively minor cost you tie up 90 percent of offshore drilling potential, put oil shale sites off limits, and demonize an industry which has fairly good paying jobs – that can’t be exported and contributed to our preeminent economy.
Sep 19, 2008 - 8:45 pm 138. Storm-Rider:Benj said: “O’s not a threat to our demos”
Barak Hussein Obama is a direct threat to the security of the United States, and therefore to my wife and children.
Barak Hussein Obama said:
“I will cut investments in unproven missile defense systems. I will not weaponize space. I will slow our development of future combat systems….I will set a goal of a world without nuclear weapons….I will not develop new nuclear weapons….”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7o84PE871BE
This statement alone disqualifies Barak Hussein Obama from becoming President of the United States because we must have an effective and ever improving missile defense system to prevent nuclear EMP and other offensive missile-delivered weapons of mass destruction from Islamist nations and terror groups, and Communist nations. The Soviet Union – excuse me – Russia is weaponizing space along with Communist China; and we will have to do this as well; in fact, we will have to do it better than our enemies. Our Islamist and Communist enemies are also developing future combat systems and new nuclear weapons.
Only a fool or a traitor would disarm the United States in this way, and neither a fool or a traitor is fit to be our President.
Sep 19, 2008 - 8:50 pm 139. Ken:There’s a fairly simple way to win this election.
Republicans need to turn the score around. I’m not talking about polls. I’m talking about the score of violent attacks.
In 2004, a group of Democrat thugs attacked a little girl for holding a Bush-Cheney sign.
In Bush’s second turn, a vile cretin forced a Mexican-American woman off the highway, with a child in her car, because she had a Bush-Cheney bumper-sticker.
A Democrat in Virginia got a list of campus Republicans and, because he was a coward, avoided the first eight names on the list. Once he found someone whose ass he could kick, he invaded his home and attacked him.
A Democrat attacked, from behind, a soldier with an “Operation Iraqi Freedom” T-shirt at a Toby Keith concert and then ran away.
Every time people see these attacks, it helps the Democrats because it makes them seem like the strong horse. However, Republicans first need to stop complaining about the news media.
GET IT THROUGH YOUR HEADS, REPUBLICANS. THE CRIME IS NOT THE NEWS MEDIA REFUSING TO REPORT DEMOCRIMES. THE CRIME IS THAT THE DEMOCRATS ARE DOING THE DEMOCRIMES IN THE FIRST PLACE.
Stop thinking of it as a news cycle and start thinking of it as a matter of pride. DON’T LET THE DEMOCRATS ATTACK YOUR BABIES!!!!!
People will stop thinking of us as a bunch of cowardly stuffed-shirts when we stop acting like cowardly stuffed-shirts. Be men!!!!!
I don’t want the news media to report Democrat crimes. I want them to report successful uses of deadly force by Republicans. I want to see headlines saying, “MCCAIN SUPPORTER KILLS ATTACKER.”
I think just three or four dead moonbats could end the perception of Republicans as wimps, and could win this election for us in a landslide–particularly among women, who love bad boys.
Sep 19, 2008 - 9:17 pm 140. OldSalt:re: Ken
Everytime I’ve put a pro-Republican candidate (twice,to be exact, first for Reagan and second for Bush 43), my vehicle has been vandalized in short order. I was on the receiving end of some not-so-nice anti-military liberals when I was in Navy OCS in Rhode Island in …well .. along time ago (post-Vietnam, of course). My attitude towards the gutless, narcissistic, unpatriotic, fascist Democrats was formed via personal experience. I don’t hate them for what they believe, but what they do because they believe. I can honestly say that, including my own in-laws, I’ve never met an honest Democrat, liberal or otherwise. (I have met and served with a few Democrat patriots, though – they are out there, if few in number.)
Sep 19, 2008 - 9:37 pm 141. NahnCee:Ken, you an Obamaniac in disguise? It’s those multiple exclamation points that gave you away.
Sep 19, 2008 - 9:37 pm 142. Ken:NahnCee: no, I am not.
Listen. If you have a better plan I’d love to hear it. But I get really pissed every time the Democrats attack innocent people, and all the Republicans say is “I’m glad I’m a better person.”
I for one am not going to be a bitch for the Democoward bullies any more.
Old Salt: I despise them as well.
Sep 19, 2008 - 9:47 pm 143. fred:I refuse to ever put a political sticker on my car or sign on my property. There is a guy in my neighborhood who has put out a McCain sign and I want to shake his hand, but am afraid the Jackasses (my neighborhood is full of them) might see me yukking it up with their hated enemy. I know other Republicans whose cars have been keyed or worse – simply because they had a Bush for President sticker on their cars.
I refuse to let these thugs target me and I take reprisal against them in the voting booth. And with my stated opinions, in weblogs and in conversations.
I have come to hate the Left – and I used to be a Leftist. No one hates socialism more than those who have left the Left. We despise it – and those who used to know us as Leftists despise us as traitors only are despised.
Sep 19, 2008 - 9:52 pm 144. whiskey:Hotair had up a poll, with internals on Palin. Young women, didn’t like her. Young men, older men, and older women certainly did. Allahpundit remarked on it.
As for White Privilege, it seems that McCain will be running ads on Rev. God Damn America and his #1 parishoner, one Barack Hussein Obama, after all.
Good.
America, I believe, will get a load of Rev. God Damn America, and how Barack Hussein Obama reacted.
Let me add: Rev. God Damn America has a book coming out early Oct. He needs pub. “The One” is likely to have his own very special Night of the Long Knives planned for embarrassing associations of the past, of which Rev. God Damn America is the #1 most embarrassing associate. The Rev. God Damn America has a lawsuit, related to his tawdry affair with a (White btw) married woman in another church (the second such case also). I believe money problems have stopped construction of his mansion. He will be in any case without any means of rabble rousing if “the One” is President because not only will every effort be made to shut him up, but no one will PAY for the Sermon of “Hate Whitey” and “God Damn America” with a Black Man as President.
Now, who do you suppose, has hidden away, just for “useful purposes,” DVDs of various “incendiary sermons” and various reactions of dignitaries? Might not the “One” be shown on such a DVD, reacting with applause to “incendiary” moments?
Such is the stuff dreams are made of. Perhaps there is nothing there, but dry abstract theology, and boring, recitations of say Genesis, given the general dullness and stolid placidness that characterized Trinity United during and after the Rev’s tenure. But just suppose there was?
Is the “One” a pig in the poke? Can Democrats stand a full month of Rev. God Damn America screaming, with “the One” nodding in approval, and applauding on Camera? After all, “the One” is not merely the Messiah, he *IS* the Democratic Party.
Obviously, Salter and Palin talked some sense into McCain. Perhaps he viewed any such DVD himself.
But what am I thinking? I’m sure there’s nothing there. After all, Obama’s associations are staid and sober, all men (and they are all men btw) who have nothing but stolid and placid love for their country and all fellow men, regardless of race or creed.
Sep 19, 2008 - 9:58 pm 145. Tarnsman:Benji, Benji:
According to the EIA:
Total US Oil Production for the first four months of 2008: 620 million barrels.
Total Alaska Oil Production for the first four months of 2008: 115 million barrels.
Percentage of Total US Oil Production produced in Alaska: 18.5%
The source you cited excludes the offshore portion of Alaska’s oil production (28 million barrels) to get the 14% figure. Gee, I wonder why.
According to the EIA Alaska also accounts for 18.5% of the proven US oil reserves. Proven is the key phrase. No one is certain how much oil is beneath the Alaskan coastal plain (because which party won’t allow exploration there??). The EIA mean estimate for ANWAR is 10.4 billion barrels of technically recoverable reserves. Geologists say there could be less or much more. That is almost half of the current proven reserves of the US (21 billion barrels). Add that in and Alaska’s share of the US proven reserves could reach 45%.
While Alaska currently doesn’t contribution much in the way of US natural gas production (soon to change because of Palin’s leadership in getting a pipeline started to bring Alaska gas to the Lower 48), it is estimated that Alaska holds 40% of the total U.S. undiscovered conventional natural gas resource base. Alaska is a huge place that has been barely explored in terms of energy resources. In 2003 U.S. Geological Survey estimated that the undiscovered coal reserves of Alaska could be 5 trillion metric tons. The coalbed methane associated with these deposits is estimated at 28 trillion cubic meters. To give you an idea of what a staggering number that is the current known US coal reserves (largest in the world) is 273 billion tons. Granted Alaskan coal is for the most part soft coal, but it is low in sulfur and thus useable in power generation. Governor Palin maybe got a little ahead of herself with her 20% figure. Alaska certainly has that potential.
“we Americans need to produce more of our own oil and gas.
And take it from a gal who knows the North Slope of Alaska: we’ve got lots of both.
Our opponents say, again and again, that drilling will not solve all of America’s energy problems – as if we all didn’t know that already.
But the fact that drilling won’t solve every problem is no excuse to do nothing at all.”
Sep 19, 2008 - 10:52 pm 146. trangbang68:Isn’t Mowgli a character in “The Jungle Book”?
Sep 19, 2008 - 11:02 pm 147. Lifeofthemind:The poster probably heard some of his “facts”from a Rhesus monkey swinging by on a vine.
The paragraph about the white churches condemning Kerry voters to hell is verbatim identical to a post by Ash yesterday.
White privilege is actually some jackass liberal white boy from Westchester County who never worked a day in his life, went to an elite school on Daddy’s nickel and is now here enlightening us dumb working class folks and church goers to the path to Satori found in the Guru Obama. We ain’t buying it.
Is Ken a Moby? We do not need and should not tolerate any call for criminal activity that can be used to discredit this blog, our host or those who post here.
Sep 19, 2008 - 11:35 pm 148. bobal:I think we don’t know what we’ve got in Alaska. Much remains unexplored. Off the coast of Anwar for instance. We may have much more there than we have ever imagined.
While pumping the oil from the current facilities in Alaska they get very large quantities of natural gas, which they pump back down into the ground, if I understand it aright. New pipelines should be bringing it south.
First think we ought to do, along with building nuclear power plants, is switch our interstate trucking over to natural gas. You’d cut the nation’s diesel use by 40% I’d wager.
Palin/McCain 2008
Sep 20, 2008 - 12:10 am 149. slade:Hoss:
RE: the derivatives market. Thanks. That clarifies some of it, particularly the role of derivatives, which, as I was surmising, acted as the “force multiplier” that disguised and spread the bad mortgage securities throughout the (global) markets, which, in turn means that the so-called affirmative action loans were the catalysts and the derivatives market provided the vehicles for distributing “shakey” securities.
So far so good. What I still don’t understand – what lost me completely – is this $500B public (i.e. taxpayer financed) “backstop” program proposed by Paulsen yesterday to secure Main Street investors against liability for inadvertent exposure to derivatives, as the lesser (expensive) of two evils, the other being do nothing and let ‘er rip or RIP as it were.
I was feeling sort of frisky getting this far, on top of things, but this last 24-hr development loses me. I heard Carl Icahn is bewildered as well.
Back in March – before the spike in crude – we were being told the “fundamentals were sound”. Stop whining and this little recession-that’s-just-a-slowdown shall pass. I was running with that mindset until yesterday when the half trillion dollar news story broke.
Sep 20, 2008 - 2:16 am 150. Cannoneer No. 4:Is Lifeofthemind a concern troll?
Did wretchard appoint him deputy assistant vice-moderator on weekends?
Sep 20, 2008 - 2:20 am 151. slade:It really was the Party of Jackasses during the eighties which worked assiduously to make this possible. – Fred
I happen to agree with that. Which is why McCain faces such a difficult challenge in “messaging” his campaign. It sounds apocalyptic, but I have a bad feeling about all of this. CNBC interviewed a parade of mutual fund managers this week. One of them made the point that compliance and accountability in the markets, emphasis on financial services, had become the exception rather than the rule. It’s not so much what he said as it is the fact that it needed saying.
The other thing I am not understanding is the argument that Main Street was somehow supporting all of this through consumerism and real estate investments. I don’t buy that. Let’s say the bad mortgages were 11% as Hoss says, that’s a big number but it leaves 90% viable investments that presumably weren’t and aren’t supporting the derivatives market. Consumerism? I don’t have enough data to engage but I do know real wages flat since 2000. Short story: Whining from money managers who know they will be fired if forced to sell their paper for 30 cents on the dollar.
So now we have a half trillion dollar “backstop” program.
For The People.
At least that’s how I’m calling it right now.
Sep 20, 2008 - 2:44 am 152. slade:NahnCee (and Programmer):
2164th over at the Elephant Bar blogsite posted what I thought was a nifty slapdown “Who’s the b^tch now, Putie?”
I really, really wish I had taken Economics in college instead of weight training. Imagine sitting around with a degree in biology (I know how to stick a needle up the base of a frog’s skull and scramble the brain matter so it dies quickly before being dissected.)
On the subject of conspiracy and intent, Wretchard has posted a number of essays on Information Theory. Maybe it’s a good time to revisit that subject. What this reminds me of is the debate in AI (Artificial Intelligence) over the top-down versus the bottom-up paradigm. Can one *algorithm* be designed to derive all cognitive function or do constituent elements self-organize into what we know as intelligence? (see for starters Kevin Kelly’s book Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems and the Economic World). Short-cutting to the chase, sometimes “intent” can emerge from circumstances. A bit metaphysical, but the drift is there. Opportunities that self organize and force multiply. That is the essence of a mature organized system.
Whatever. One of the key components is Information Management and that is what markets do best – except for this “naked short selling” stuff which contaminated the information by disassociating the metrics from performance. Good well-managed and responsible companies have seen their stock plummet because the markets were driven into irrational territory. One can view this as metaphysics or information management or mathematics but the fact of it remains.
I think it’s too complicated for a (human) conspiracy) but I also think (human) intent is a fundamental driver.
Sep 20, 2008 - 3:15 am 153. slade:NahnCee
As for the Texaco shenanigans, that would be an interesting meltdown (as opposed to the increasingly mind-numbing meltdowns in financial services – long time to go before 9000 banks consolidate into half that number).
There’s a huge smell to this from the confluence of energy, politics and economics – a complicated convergence most eloquently addressed by Buddy Larsen.
What I see – and my palette is limited – but what I see is opposition between a centralized model of oil-based energy and a decentralized model based on a suite of alternative energy sources that are dominated by renewables. To the extent that one buys into this dichotomy – and it could all be in my mind – then the intentional destruction of a Texaco has some basis in the rational world.
Sep 20, 2008 - 3:29 am 154. slade:I think the end-of-the-day, short-story, Cliffs Notes version is that our species is very clever, but we’re not that d@mn smart.
Sep 20, 2008 - 3:52 am 155. hoss:Slade :
“Back in March – before the spike in crude – we were being told the “fundamentals were sound”. Stop whining and this little recession-that’s-just-a-slowdown shall pass. I was running with that mindset until yesterday when the half trillion dollar news story broke.”
You can’t believe everything you hear. Govt officials/CEOs have to say things like that. If they stated their true concerns (at the end of the day nobody knew/knows the whole picture and how it will all shake out) there would be economic panic (govt officials) or massive dumping of their stock (CEOs). You just have to ignore statements like that as they really have no other choice.
Those of us in the market knew it was BS.
Sep 20, 2008 - 3:58 am 156. slade:Those of us in the market knew it was BS. – Hoss
This little voter is livid, Hoss, that is a fact.
Pick your target.
Sep 20, 2008 - 4:09 am 157. slade:And that’s a vote in your sector, hoss, FWIW
Sep 20, 2008 - 4:22 am 158. hoss:Slade:
“This little voter is livid, Hoss, that is a fact.
Pick your target.”
Don’t know what you mean by pick your target.
You’ve got a right to be livid about taxpayers picking up the bill, but as to being told the “fundamentals are sound” you’ve got to learn to ignore such things.
Simple rule – if someone says something, where saying the opposite would cause total chaos, then they had no choice in their statement.
Just imagine someone like Hank Paulson at a press conference saying “Ladies and Gentleman I don’t know the entire picture (nobody does) but I’m a little worried about the fundamentals”
Dow would be at 2000 before the press conference was over.
Sep 20, 2008 - 4:29 am 159. programmer:hoss,
Cause of rebound of the market yesterday. Filling of short positions or people unloading to anyone who would buy (and a lot of buyers high on government bailout)??? Or no one knows.
Sep 20, 2008 - 4:51 am 160. hoss:programmer,
I’m more of a bond guy not a stock guy, so while I’m certainly up on the stock market, I’m far from an expert, but I believe it was 2 things:
1. The announcement that the govt was going to set up some sort of RTC-like entity to buy these mortgage securities. Will it actually work? I have no idea. The details still need to be seen. What price will RTC2 be buying these securities at? Who gets to sell first? I don’t think they can buy everything from everyone. But, at least for the time being, people have a little confidence that balance sheets will be cleaned up, at least somewhat.
2. The new short selling rules. not necessarily people covering shorts as I believe that it just precluded people putting on new shorts, didn’t mandate that people cover old shorts. Anyway, knowing that the shorters can’t hammer a stock down gives people a little more confidence to buy.
Sep 20, 2008 - 5:14 am 161. programmer:hoss,
Thanks. As noted above, my ignorance about economic issues is abysmal (several snide friends venture to opine that, no, just my ignorance is abysmal).
Slade states:
Opportunities that self organize and force multiply. That is the essence of a mature organized system.
You state:
Anyway, knowing that the shorters can’t hammer a stock down gives people a little more confidence to buy.
*************************
Hmmmm,….
The butterfly may be moving his wings.
Given a choice between viewing events with despair or hope, I always choose hope.
Sep 20, 2008 - 5:32 am 162. Lifeofthemind:@Cannoneer,
Sep 20, 2008 - 7:10 am 163. Ken:Your snap judgment of me is beneath your usual standards. You post intelligent and useful contributions to the conversation. So does Bob Murphy and Old Salt and Old Blue and many others. I agree with most of what you say about most issues but that isn’t my concern here. It isn’t whether I disagree with Ken it is my concern that this place could be attacked. I know I have posted edgy statements to get a conversation rolling. My usual effort is to try to stay focused on the issues in a less provocative manner because that is not only good manners in any conversation but establishes credibility by which my contributions can be judged. That is after all what we bring to the table here. It puzzles me that you use the term “troll” as even if you can critique my expression of concern as being none of my business, which could be fair, it does not seem to be the correct word. Mobys do exist; I have seen them show up on LGF, where if anything I have a reputation for being reluctant to level the charge. If you think I was being overwrought and need to relax you should just say so without attacking me. If you have found my contributions useful and share my concerns for protecting this place then you could say “Maybe, maybe not let’s keep looking.” This blog has obviously attracted a sudden flood of new posters, some terrific, some average and some malicious. Some were probably from the Kremlin and a few could be looking to discredit us. We are now facing a situation in which an election is being effected by a 20 year old who invaded an email account and shared that information with a community of social misfits looking for “lulz.” We should all be concerned about that type of immaturity and not dismiss it as harmless.
Let me try to state my case more calmly.
The GOP, at least for the last 20 years, has suffered because it is seen as the party of rich white guys who won’t fight. I have stated my willingness to consider other options for fighting back, as opposed to mine. Yet all I get in return is, “Oh, how shocking! How could you even THINK of sinking to their level?” (Spoken like Neville Chamberlain). Or a man BRAGGING about how he’s too afraid to post McCain signs or stickers, because someone might hurt his car.
Give me some alternate non-wimpy response and I’ll consider it. However, I refuse to be quietly ushered to the gas chambers just because I’m too “mature” to protect myself and my family.
Sep 20, 2008 - 7:23 am 164. Ken:While we’re on the subject, where did I call for any violence other than self-defense? I’m not advocating attacking them out of nowhere, although Obama is clearly calling for such attacks on our side. I’m simply calling for us to stand tall and not take their shit.
Remember during the attempted election theft by the Democrats in 2000, when the Florida Republicans stood their ground and didn’t let Democrat election counters take their count to a private room, where they could fake the results they wanted? That was a case where Republicans fought like men, and as a result the wind was taken out of the Democrats’ sails for the next five years. We could take them down permanently by the tactics I have suggested.
Question to my critics: if a gang of Democrat partisans gang-raped your wife in front of your eyes, would you just stand there saying, “Why isn’t the media reporting this?” Or would you kill them?
Sep 20, 2008 - 7:37 am 165. Storm-Rider:Fred: “I have come to hate the Left – and I used to be a Leftist. No one hates socialism more than those who have left the Left. We despise it”
Yes, and so do I despise the American Left; and their Big Brother, the European Left. Their leaders are Marxists – their leaders are Communists – and they now control much of our mass media and academia. We have several Marxists on our Supreme Court, and in the leadership of the Democrat Party. The Marxist Left is very powerful – they are our near enemy.
The European and American Marxist Left is the old European Right. Those who would gravitate toward Monarchy, Empire or Fascist Dictatorship have no place to go except the Marxist Left, because there is no Fascist Right to go to. What’s a Brown Shirt to do? Brown Shirts turn Red – that is where unjust and tyrannical political power now resides.
There has never been a “Right” in the United States – from the beginning in 1776 we have been and remain the anti-Right. There is only the American Marxist Left who do not believe in government power deriving from the consent of the governed, and ordinary Americans who do believe so. As I see it there is a trilateral worldwide struggle for power: Marxist Left, Islamo-Fascist and American. These are all revolutionary movements: The Communist Revolution, The Islamist Revolution and The American Revolution.
The Communist Revolution is not over – check out Benj.
The Islamist Revolution is not over – it dates back to the seventh century and is just as powerful, if not more so than the Communist Revolution. The Islamo-Fascists are clearly on the comeback after centuries of decline.
Lastly there is the American Revolution. Anyone who believes that the American Revolution is something to read about in history books is a fool. The American Revolution is not over – we have two powerful Revolutionary movements who are at our throats. The Communist Revolutionaries are in an alliance of convenience with the Islamist Revolutionaries; and their first goal is the defeat of the American Revolution. Our American Revolution is for God-given Life, Liberty and creative Pursuit of Happiness. Both the Communist and Islamist Revolutions are for the opposite: Murder, Subjugation, and Destructive Pursuit of Raw Political Power. Our American Revolution recognizes just government power only deriving from the consent of the governed, whereas the Communist and Islamo-Fascist Revolution only recognizes a raw animal will to power.
The American Revolution is not over. At some point in the future we must awaken to the fact that we are revolutionaries ourselves, and that we are at war for the survival of human liberty – that we are struggling so that government of the people, by the people and for the people does not perish from the earth. Never forget – our Declaration of Independence is a declaration of war – an eternal declaration of war against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.
“I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.” Thomas Jefferson
“It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” Abraham Lincoln
Sep 20, 2008 - 7:45 am 166. Lifeofthemind:@Ken,
Sep 20, 2008 - 7:45 am 167. Ken:That was better phrased this time.
I wouldn’t entirely agree that there’s no Right in America. There are people like Buchanan and Raimondo out there. But they have little influence on either party. I always refer to myself as a true liberal rather than as a conservative.
Sep 20, 2008 - 7:53 am 168. trangbang68:Storm Rider, Hats off to you, very cogent analysis of the existential struggle we face. The Marxists have their lives involved in the struggle. Their long march through the institutions won’t be over in their minds until the workers paradise is created (Of course if they succeed there won’t be any workers left to enjoy it)The Islamo-fascists are our external enemy and must be killed. The Marxists likely only need bitch-slapping and ridicule.
Sep 20, 2008 - 7:59 am 169. slade:Ken-
“Unhand that gun be gone/there’s no one here to fire upon…”-Fagan/Becker
You’ve got a right to be livid about taxpayers picking up the bill, but as to being told the “fundamentals are sound” you’ve got to learn to ignore such things..
Got it Hoss. Lesson learned. (and no sarcasm).
Sep 20, 2008 - 8:05 am 170. Storm-Rider:“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed”
Outside the idea of a Creator Himself, the idea of sacred human liberty is the most radical and the most revolutionary idea in the history of the world.
Sep 20, 2008 - 8:24 am 171. slade:Very good post Storm-Rider.
Sep 20, 2008 - 8:36 am 172. Nine-of-Diamonds:“Obama is up by 4, in the Gallup polls. Women are turning against Palin since she’s been convincingly painted as “low class” and women are status-obsessed (particularly younger ones).”
I wouldn’t worry too much about that Gallup poll. Wizbang convincingly demonstrates some problems with the poll’s methodology. In fact the results show that McCain held steady or gained support from all parts of the political spectrum, whereas Obama suffered a slight decline. The main reason for that poll’s result was Gallup tinkering with voter identification:
http://wizbangblog.com/content/2008/09/19/how-liberal-trolls-are-working-to-get-mccain-elected-president.php
Sep 20, 2008 - 8:40 am 173. slade:Outside the idea of a Creator Himself, the idea of sacred human liberty is the most radical and the most revolutionary idea in the history of the world.
That’s exactly right.
My concern is that (Fred’s GEN X) doesn’t fully appreciate the concept.
Sep 20, 2008 - 8:40 am 174. 3Case:Tim Wise…is not.
It had to be said. Takes a fairly lousy photo, too.
Sep 20, 2008 - 8:56 am 175. Chicago Boyz » Blog Archive » Quote of the Day:[...] of Belmont Club in a comment on one of his own blog posts: One sign that Obama isn’t a real organizer, as he claims, is his ignorance of the [...]
Sep 20, 2008 - 9:34 am 176. Paul:Freedom is not free.
The freedoms granted in the Constitution need to be fought for.
The Republicans for too long have not defended our Constitutional freedoms from assault from the fascist/marxist left in this country.
The abuses of the welfare state, Endangered Species Act, the EPA, gun control, soak the rich taxes, takings of private property, the Union Shop and other forms of socialist government control would not be possible if the original meaning of the Constitution was respected.
The escalation of violent, criminal, contemptible, unjust , immoral lefttard/Democrat behavior will not only continue but grow unless this behavior is called out, slapped down and prosecuted. Illegal violence is not necessary. But a strong deliberate forceful prosecution of these crimes with a vocal loud defense of our liberties is necessary.
Obama illegally undermines our negotiations on troop withdrawals. Nothing happens. State secrets are revealed. Nothing again. Our agent’s covers are blown. Nothing again.
Takings abound. People speaking the truth are threatened. Reporters filming on public property are arrested filming Democrats. It goes on and on. And watch out if Kickback Barry Hussein gets in. Constitutionally guaranteed freedoms will be really hamstrung. First it will be thousands of small innocuous sounding rules, growing more ominous only when confronted. Just like the Brits who have recently adopted Sharia law in civil cases. Of course these new rules will be enforced by Kickback Barry’s new domestic corps.
And what are the Republicans doing? Capitulating, that’s what. Hagel and others in the Senate can’t wait to sell out some more and gets some good face time before the adoring Media shilling for the enemy.
It almost pains Bush and McCain to be partisan. No, we can’t say the whole, real truth. We can’t explain what really happened. Too many Rino, Democrat and Bureaucrat careers would be ruined. We must always be above the partisan fray. Cede the high ground and core of any argument on any issue if necessary, but what ever you do don’t be partisan. Heavens forbid! We wouldn’t want to be mean spirited, racist and nasty!
I sure hope Sarah is the real deal and will turn this around.
PS: Here’s hope for change. If McCain gets in and does the right thing; one more conservative vote on SCOTUS could derail a lot of the leftist fascist agenda.
Sep 20, 2008 - 9:52 am 177. Tony:I recently sent this simple proposition to my liberal friends: “Conservatives think liberals have bad ideas. Liberals think conservatives are bad people.”
My most liberal friends wrote back to tell me how stupid that is, and went on to explain how conservatives really are, y’know, bad people.
Sep 20, 2008 - 9:57 am 178. fred:Slade,
I’m a Younger Boomer, not a GenXer. But I work around a lot of GenXers in my career. They are mostly pragmatic and not inclined towards socialism, but they also are curiously bereft of a sense of belonging to something greater than themselves.
But there are also plenty of them who DO serve the nation in varying capacities. I like them a lot more than I like my older Boomer Cohort brothers and sisters, exempting, of course, those who did serve in the Republic of Vietnam and those who supported the effort. Many of the rest are a waste of human protoplasm.
Sep 20, 2008 - 10:15 am 179. NahnCee:Ken, I read your initial post as an impassioned plea to go out and punch in the nose anyone with a “Vote Obama” sign in their front lawn — an incitement to violence, most certainly. That is *so* counterproductive that it made me immediately think “troll”. I mean, at the least, you should have added, “…and be damned sure you don’t get caught.”
I do, absolutely, agree that the Right / neocon’s / Republicans / Americans need to start pushing back against these illegal attacks that have been going and escalating for some years now. But the very fact that they *are* illegal should mean that there’s a way of dealing with them.
Canadian photographer Jill Greenberg should be prosecuted for theft. And then deported.
Tennessee Democratic hacker-kid should be prosected for felony hacking *and* attacking a vice-presidential candiate and then spend a lengthy period of time in a non-country club jail with no computer privileges.
ACORN members who are registering dead people in Detroit and CHicago should be prosecuted for forgery and whatever other federal crimes they are committing and fined into bankruptcy (remember some of the anti-abortion terrorists ended up filing for bankruptcy).
Code Pink should be busted for trespassing where-ever they show up and fined into bankruptcy. They should be arrested for harassment when they won’t allow the Marines to conduct their legal business and thrown in jail for a long enough time that they get to know the street names of all the resident hookers.
Any brown person waving a Mexican flat in a pro-illegal immigrant parade should be detained, have their citizenship checked and then deported within 48 hours, along with the 5 or 10 people closest to them in physical proximity in said parade.
I simply do not understand why the people that these things are being done to haven’t been fighting back within the system but have been patient, polite and adult for so long that being terrorized like Fred describes above is simply the price of doing business as an American any more.
But if you *do* feel the need to punch the nose of anyone with an Obama sticker on their car or home … for God’s sake don’t get caught!
Sep 20, 2008 - 10:41 am 180. Ken:Nahncee: you keep using the word “should.” And that’s the problem. You know as well as I do that these “shoulds” will never happen. So, instead of talking about how a Platonically ideal world would look, we should instead be asking, “In the real world, what can I do?”
At the very least, the next time (probably about 2 hours from now) a Democrat does or says something horrible, let’s consciously refrain from the following responses:
“If this was a Republican, the media would be mentioning it.”
“That’s the problem with being a Republican. Democrats have no restrictions on their behavior.”
“We just have to be the adults.”
Each of these statements is essentially a declaration of defeat. Instead, what we should be saying is, “What do we do now?”
Sep 20, 2008 - 10:56 am 181. fred:NahnCee,
I agree with some of your “shoulds.” I just do not feel comfortable about being “in yer face” to the degree that the Leftists are prodding people on their side to be. I just wish there was a way to break open their stranglehold on the institutions that formulate and pass on the narrative that the Gramscians have seized control of.
Even when I was on the Left I was never, ever comfortable with the knuckledragging tactics and tendencies of the activists. And they were never comfortable with my Catholic bookishness. In truth, I despise the brownshirts and their style.
How do we expose these people? Maybe they expose themselves as they become emboldened. Then, maybe a lot of the Middle Muddlers will wake up and see the creature they’ve been hoodwinked into accepting?
Sep 20, 2008 - 11:28 am 182. Eggplant:Off Topic:
Robert Fisk says “We’re going to lose in Afghanistan”, refer to:
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisks-world-why-does-the-us-think-it-can-win-in-afghanistan-936185.html
I previously had some concerns about Afghanistan. However if Fisk thinks we’re going to lose them victory is almost assured.
Sep 20, 2008 - 11:53 am 183. Eggplant:Fred asked:
“How do we expose these people? Maybe they expose themselves as they become emboldened. Then, maybe a lot of the Middle Muddlers will wake up and see the creature they’ve been hoodwinked into accepting?”
Typically the way they’re exposed is they seize absolute power, procede to murder about 10% of the population and inprison an even larger percentage. After about 50 years give or take 20 years, the whole system goes to ruin and even the dumbest people realize that the leftist propaganda is all lies.
Sep 20, 2008 - 1:11 pm 184. slade:I’m a Younger Boomer, not a GenXer.
Yes, I got that Fred. I was just admiring your ability to cut a fine series of profiles. As a “young Boomer” myself, I see the lack of membership in a bigger cause or context to be an issue. I don’t know if it is a human condition, but I expect the absence will manifest itself in some form of “adjustment.” That is why socialism continues to be front and center, is it not?
And just for the record, I’m with NahnCee on accountability and prosecution. These here are the Rules. They are Serious. You Break Them. You go to Jail.
Sep 20, 2008 - 1:14 pm 185. Charles:OT: this is a follow up on an earlier wretchard post about a new kind of device for “seeing through buildings” that’s beging deployed along the border with Pakistan. the piece is in the la times
Sep 20, 2008 - 1:28 pm 186. Charles:http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-pakistan12-2008sep12,0,6177879,full.story
OT: here’s a pdf with details on the technology for reading a human’s signature. a lot of the technical info is redacted out. but the intro gives the following brief:
The radar signature of the human body is currently a research topic of great interest to defense
Sep 20, 2008 - 1:32 pm 187. Storm-Rider:agencies. The detection, identification and tracking of humans constitute essential components
of sensor systems operating in a battlefield environment characterized by asymmetric threats.
The low-frequency ultra-wideband (UWB) radar has proved great potential for detecting
concealed targets, such as in foliage penetration (FOPEN) or sensing through the wall (STTW)
scenarios. For all these applications, operating the radar in the low frequency microwave range
(200 MHz to 3 GHz) has the advantage of good penetration through both natural and man-made
structures that conceal the target.
http://www.arl.army.mil/arlreports/2008/ARL-TR-4403.pdf
“These here are the Rules. They are Serious.”
Yes, and our most serious rules is the set of laws written down by our Founding Fathers – The Constitution. Until we as a nation can live by our Constitution as written we will have injustice, and we may then eventually have tyranny. For now our Supreme Court is above the Constitution. Supreme Court decisions often violate the Constitution – for example the Supreme Court’s trumping of Presidential Constitutional authority as Commander in Chief over our armed forces. Our Supreme Court broke our Constitution when those judges decided it was within their power to give the terrorists in Guantanamo rights to our civilian courts – against the orders of our Commander in Chief.
In addition to restoring the American Spirit in the hearts and minds of our people, the restoration of the American Revolution must first and foremost be the reformation of our Supreme Court – placing the court into compliance with the Constitution and under the consent of the governed. Term limits would help, as would a Constitutional amendment giving the Supreme Court the power of judicial review of Congressional legislation; and at the same time the power of the legislature to override a Supreme Court veto, and to override an un-Constitutional Supreme Court case decision through legislation. Our Supreme Court must answer to the people; otherwise we are under a judicial oligarchy – becoming a government of people rather than a government of law. Our laws, whether by Congressional legislation or by Supreme Court decision, must be made with the consent of the governed.
We must also enforce the tenth amendment and role back the “New Deal” which has resulted in a Federal Government monster.
“You seem to consider the judges the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions; a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy. Our judges … and their power are the more dangerous as they are in office for life, and are not responsible, as the other functionaries are, to the elective control. The Constitution has erected no such single tribunal, knowing that to whatever hands confided, with the corruptions of time and party, its members would become despots. It has more wisely made all the departments co-equal and co-sovereign within themselves….When the legislative or executive functionaries act unconstitutionally, they are responsible to the people in their elective capacity. The exemption of the judges from that is quite dangerous enough. I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society, but the people themselves….” Thomas Jefferson
“At the establishment of our constitutions, the judiciary bodies were supposed to be the most helpless and harmless members of the government. Experience, however, soon showed in what way they were to become the most dangerous; that the insufficiency of the means provided for their removal gave them a freehold and irresponsibility in office; that their decisions, seeming to concern individual suitors only, pass silent and unheeded by the public at large; that these decisions, nevertheless, become law by precedent, sapping, by little and little, the foundations of the constitution, and working its change by construction, before any one has perceived that that invisible and helpless worm has been busily employed in consuming its substance. In truth, man is not made to be trusted for life, if secured against all liability to account.” Thomas Jefferson
“This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or exercise their revolutionary right to overthrow it.” Abraham Lincoln
“We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.” Abraham Lincoln
Sep 20, 2008 - 1:36 pm 188. NahnCee:Back when America was trying to enforce integration in the South, people in certain states were flagrantly breaking the law of the land, up to and including killing people. They *refused* to integrate and were cheerfully assaulting, threatening and otherwise terrorizing a whole lot of innocent and law-abiding people and because much of law enforcement and the courts were also prejudiced, nothing was being done to enforce the laws or to bring to justice those racial terrorists.
In the absence of local law enforcement, the Federal Attorney General at the time, Robert F Kennedy, sent in “the Feds”. If a murderer couldn’t be tried for murder because the local sheriff and judge wouldn’t arrest him, he could be arrested for depriving a victim of his civil rights by killing him.
The Federal government stepped into the situation in those states where the locals weren’t and enforced the law. Sometimes it wasn’t exactly the law that you’d think needed to be enforced, but bad guys got arrested and locked up, and the people around the bad guys got the message and the lynchings and cross-burnings stopped.
I think if we’re at a place in our country where a local cop will not arrest disruptive Code Pink protestors or a local judge will not issue a warrant to arrest a Democratic e-mail hacker or a local mayor encourages law-breaking by illegal immigrants by declaring his city to be a refuge for them, then a higher authority needs to step in and over-ride what’s been going on.
Equally, if victims of this civil terrorism refuse to press charges for fear of further harassment then “the Feds” should step in and do it for them. If we are talking about “blood on the streets” across the whole country because a large minority of citizens think it is their Constitutional right to break the law solely because of their passionately held political convictions, then it seems to me that as a country we are in just as much jeopardy as we were in 1965 Selma, Alabama.
In chasing bad guys in the Middle East the Federal government has neglected to notice the increasing number of internal terrorists we’ve been breeding inside America. I think a pledge by our next Presidential candidate(s) to bring law & order back to the streets of America should include cracking down on precisely the sort of “in your face” terrorism being advocated by B. Hussein Obama.
Because if something is not done pretty damned quick, there *will* be blood in the streets sooner rather than later, and it will be the result of self-defense by law-abiding citizens against those demanding the right to break the law because it amuses them to do so.
Sep 20, 2008 - 2:45 pm 189. Storm-Rider:NahnCee, your points are well-taken. The Southern States did not have the right, even under the tenth amendment to have slaves in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; nor did the Northern and Southern States have the right to deny liberty to black people during the post Civil War period in the United States. There are no such States Rights under the tenth amendment because any State law which violates the Declaration of Independence is un-Declarational, and so too any Federal law or Constitutional amendment which violates the Declarational law: “All men are created equal.” That law trumped the 3/5 law of the Constitution. Our Declaration of Independence is simply a higher law which cannot be violated by man or any other law – State, Federal or Constitutional.
President Lincoln understood very well that the key to restoring our nation during the Civil War was to assert the superiority of Declarational Law over that of Constitutional Law.
“The assertion that “all men are created equal” was of no practical use in effecting our separation from Great Britain and it was placed in the Declaration not for that, but for future use.” Abraham Lincoln
The tenth amendment with States Rights and State laws which are in compliance with the Declaration of Independence is one of the keys to restoring political power where it belongs – in the hands of the people. I believe a majority of Governors of the various states must take back the power from our Federal Government which is un-Constitutional for the Feds to possess. Ordinary people like you and me can’t pull off this project except to speak up publicly – as we do here on this excellent blog. Tenth amendment rights for the states along with term limits for Congress and Supreme Court Justices, and an amendment to allow Congress to override a Supreme Court decision or veto is the peaceful way for the American people to restore their rightful power, i.e.: restore the American Revolution. People in their own communities are empowered by our Constitution, i.e.: tenth amendment, to decide for themselves all controversial matters which are not directly placed under Federal authority – such as abortion, school curricula, school prayer, illegal immigrants within the community, etc., etc. The Supreme Court does not have just power to decide on all these things for us according to our Constitution – to do so has created for us an un-Constitutional Judicial Oligarchy.
Sep 20, 2008 - 4:09 pm 190. NahnCee:Storm-Rider, I was talking about 1965, not 1865. Although if things are allowed to continue as they are going, it will be another civil war with brother fighting brother, this time between town and gown, though.
Sep 20, 2008 - 5:29 pm 191. fred:I am in the process of reading Barack Obama’s “Dreams From My Father” and I am struck by how, at times, the narrative seems contrived to fit a certain template that serves a political purpose. He knew back in 1994 that he would be aspiring to a political career and he knew he was going to have to spin some aspects of his background in a favorable light in order to try to head off problems later on. In his revised foreword he alludes to it, when he says he regrets including some information in the autobiography that would be grist for his opponents later on. He doesn’t specify what those would be, but we can fairly well guess what they are.
Some of the stories from his childhood strain credulity, since we know that adults do not have vivid recollections from the period before they were ten years old. I will be generous and grant him some license there, just for the sake of granting that he may be extraordinarily perceptive and possess an incredible memory.
This is what happens when narcissistic Leftists control the narrative of who we are or who we are supposed to be. They get to revise history to suit ideological purposes. I’ve seen it happen in academia when I was a graduate student. I never agreed with it then and I do not agree with it now. Another reason why my days on the Left were quite logically going to come to an end eventually. I didn’t know it then, but I never fit in with that crowd even if I was attracted to aspects of Marxist theory. It required a certain amount of denial and self-deception which, at a certain point, was no longer necessary for me.
Sep 20, 2008 - 5:55 pm 192. slade:The Beginning of the End Game.
I just have no words for this.
Sep 20, 2008 - 6:33 pm 193. Doug:The Economist’s full review of David Freddoso’s “The Case Against Barack Obama”
The best part of the book concentrates on Mr Obama’s record in Chicago, his home town and the place from which he was elected to the Illinois state Senate in 1996, before moving to the United States Senate in 2004.
The book lays out in detail how this period began in a way that should shock some of Mr Obama’s supporters:
he won the Democratic nomination for his Illinois seat by getting a team of lawyers to throw all the other candidates off the ballot on various technicalities. One of those he threw off was a veteran black politician, a woman who helped him get started in politics in the first place.
If Mr Obama really were the miracle-working, aisle-jumping, consensus-seeking new breed of politician his spin-doctors make him out to be, you would expect to see the evidence in these eight years. But there isn’t very much. Instead, as Mr Freddoso rather depressingly finds, Mr Obama spent the whole period without any visible sign of rocking the Democratic boat.
He was a staunch backer of Richard Daley, who as mayor failed to stem the corruption that has made Chicago one of America’s most notorious cities. Nor did he lift a finger against John Stroger and his son Todd, who succeeded his father as president of Cook County’s Board of Commissioners shortly before Stroger senior died last January. Cook County, where Chicago is located, has been extensively criticised for corrupt practices by a federally appointed judge, Julia Nowicki.
The full extent of Mr Obama’s close links with two toxic Chicago associates, a radical black preacher, Jeremiah Wright, and a crooked property developer, Antoin Rezko, is also laid out in detail. The Chicago section is probably the best part of the book, though the story continues: once he got to Washington, DC, Mr Obama’s record of voting with his party became one of the most solid in the capital. Mr Freddoso notes that he did little or nothing to help with some of the great bipartisan efforts of recent years, notably on immigration reform or in a complex battle over judicial nominations.
Sep 20, 2008 - 6:57 pm 194. programmer:Okay, guys, you all know that I limit myself to one conspiracy theory today, but follow this link, I think based on the preceding thread, you may find it interesting.
tedmathis.blogspot.com/2008/09/did-bill-ayers-write-obamas-dreams-by.html
Sep 20, 2008 - 7:24 pm 195. programmer:Preview, programmer, is your friend. theory today = theory a day
Sep 20, 2008 - 7:25 pm 196. programmer:Okay, last time.
http://www.tedmathis.blogspot.com/2008/09/did-bill-ayers-write-obamas-dreams-by.html
Sep 20, 2008 - 7:26 pm 197. Doug:“The Obama that emerges from its pages is not, Mr Freddoso says,
Sep 20, 2008 - 7:30 pm 198. peterike:“a bad person. It’s just that he’s like all the rest of them.”
—
How far we’ve come in striving to never be judgmental!
If one of us white folk sent our young children to KKK Auxilary Bible Studies, can anyone seriously believe we would not be roundly condemned not only by Liberals, but by fellow “conservatives?”
(quotation marks to denote my lack of belief that a true conservative can be non-judgmental in all things.)
Programmer, if the article you link to is true — that Ayers ghost-wrote much of O’s “Dreams” — then poor Benj will be heartbroken.
And it all sounds pretty darn likely to me.
Plus, it would blow away about the only significant thing O ever did, writing a widely praised autobiography (yet oddly… he’s never written anything else, before or since, that’s worth a damn).
I mean, the guy has never even won an election fairly! INCLUDING the Democratic nomination. It’s just been one hustle after another.
Sep 20, 2008 - 8:22 pm 199. Doug:If he wrote the books, they would represent the vast majority of hiw written work.
Never wrote a lick for Harvard Review.
Sep 20, 2008 - 8:45 pm 200. Eggplant:Didn’t teach law, taught whatever Grievance Studies were labeled.
Spent 143 DAYS in the Senate. (compare and contrast w/Palin)
Can’t put two sentences together in the absence of, a, uh, ya know, those Teleprompter things.
…why should we be surprised when he took drugs throughout high-school, and seemingly was mainlined to Magna Cum Laude Status.
slade created the link to:
“The Beginning of the End Game.”
And said:
“I just have no words for this.”
The following was said in the linked article:
“The key problem on this side of the Atlantic is that the largest European banks have become not only too big to fail but also too big to be saved. For example, the total liabilities of Deutsche Bank (leverage ratio over 50!) amount to around 2,000 billion euro, (more than Fannie Mai) or over 80 % of the GDP of Germany. This is simply too much for the Bundesbank or even the German state to contemplate, given that the German budget is bound by the rules of the Stability pact and the German government cannot order (unlike the US Treasury) its central bank to issue more currency.”
I have no expertise in finance. I presume this means if Deutsche Bank folded then it would take down Germany with it. Therefore the ECB will have to bail out Deutsche Bank just as the Federal Reserve is bailing out the American banks. The Europeans will be in the same boat with the US with the taxpayers owning trillions of dollars worth of bad debt. It appears that a large fraction (most?) of the world’s banking system is being nationalized.
Sep 20, 2008 - 10:06 pm 201. NahnCee:Why is it a bad thing if the banking system is nationalized? And what, tersely if possible, is covered by the description “banking system”?
Sep 20, 2008 - 10:40 pm 202. Mad Fiddler:I took a graduate level City Planning course in 1969, taught by Alex Garvin. For a number of weeks, the class examined & debated the issue of neighborhood “red-lining” by banks in NYC. “Red-lining” refers to the practice of outlining the area in red on a map to mark the region as disqualified in advance from mortgage loans owing to a statistical analysis of incomes, employment rates, education, race, et cetera.
Of course, not a single person in the class had ever worked as a loan officer for a financial institution, so none of us had the slightest notion of the standards that banks and loan associations were required by law to follow in issuing loans. It was sufficient for most of the students to know that the neighborhoods being “red-lined” were predominantly black, while the loan institutions were predominantly white. This PROVED that the whole business was the result of NOTHING beyond white bigotry and racism. So most of the folks in the class favored FORCING the banks to extend loans to residents of any and all neighborhoods. (Mr. Garvin in my recollection was neutral in the discussions, as it was all “theoretical” at the time.)
In fact, this is more or less the same thinking that prompted the U.S. government to pressure loan institutions to make mortgage loans available to minorities and other people who would never have qualified under earlier guidelines. That was starting back in the term of Mister James Earl Carter, thank you so very much. Anyone who claims the current mortgage mess is in any way the responsibility of the Bush administration is sadly, pathetically ignorant of practices that have been going on for many decades before he thought of running for any office.
Sep 20, 2008 - 10:48 pm 203. Eggplant:NahnCee asked:
“Why is it a bad thing if the banking system is nationalized?”
Again, I have no expertise in this area. However I have read financial experts saying that by assuming this huge debt, the US Federal government is in danger of reducing its own credit rating. Should this happen then it would cost the US more to acquire loans on the international market and negatively impact the value of the dollar. It is my understanding that the Federal Reserve had no option but to nationalize the banking debt because a dominoe effect was just starting to take place. It is also my understanding that the failure of the Federal Reserve to take similar action in 1929 was what percipitated the Great Depression.
Sep 20, 2008 - 10:59 pm 204. Doug:Southern California Real Estate Bubble Crash Blog
“It took me a while to believe my eyes, so I’ll sum it up as this:
Insured jumbo debt is loaned at 5.875%.
Banks are demanding 8.0% for the same money.
Without a rescue of FNM and FRE, the housing market would have effectively shut down… and that was before the AIG action today.
I have never in my life seen a spread between jumbo loan money this high (over 2%). Considering the current crash and asset deflation, there is no way that I can call rising interest rates; I just don’t see it, and perhaps my blinders are on, but I can’t see bank credit going any further out of whack than it is right now.
In light of all of the Sunday action, I have dedicated this song to the post:”
Sep 21, 2008 - 12:04 am 205. Doug:California Sales Up, Prices Down:
47% of Sales Foreclosures
It looks like the great flush out of the California real estate market is underway.
Sep 21, 2008 - 12:06 am 206. Cannoneer No. 4:August, 2008
—
CA Prices Plunge 38% in one year.
Obama Thugs Threatened to Yank Group’s Tax-Exempt Status Unless They Disinvited Palin
Sep 21, 2008 - 12:54 am 207. slade:Plus: My First Official Non-Ironic Important Action Alert and Pretty Vicious Rant
The essence of the linked article above is that European banks are “too big to fail and too big to save” (by Europeans alone), which will require capitalization by USA. That’s one issue.
Thus, a formal default of AIG would have exposed European banks’ large gap of regulatory capital, with possibly devastating effects on their ratings and market confidence. Which explains why AIG’s problems had sent shock waves through the share prices of European banks. Thus, the US Treasury has saved, inter alia, the European banking system. However, as AIG is to be liquidated, European banks will have to quickly shore up their regulatory capital.
The second issue is the failure of risk “load sharing” within the global markets relative to the specific “toxic loans” from USA housing market:
The near miss of AIG, followed closely by the mother of all bailouts now planned in the US, provides a vivid illustration of the nature of the links between global financial markets. One key link has been risk-sharing. European (and other) financial institutions held a large share of the assets based on US residential mortgages and thus shared in the losses that arose when the US housing market turned sour. This type of risk-sharing is exactly what financial globalisation should be able to provide. The US banking system would be in an even worse shape had all the losses from US sub prime-based securities been concentrated in the US.
The European banks are excessively over-leveraged – 30% to as high as 60% compared with 20% USA and on the order of <10% for prudent regulatory code to limit risk exposure. Part of this derives from what the article calls “toxic loans”, but a large part of it is not. This speaks directly to the point of confusion I was raising earlier – how 11% (Hoss’s number) of the domestic mortgage market can translate into this level of destabilization – to the point where the European banks require massive capitalization. The answer is it can’t. The European banks are carrying their own bad debt levels. My question is where did it come from? It can’t all be “toxic loans” from USA. The numbers don’t add up. (The proposed bailout is $1.0T (estimated), which is 7% of USA GDP or 3% of USA plus Europe GDP or 2% of world GDP.)
Last issue; the downside of nationalizing financial institutions (in addition to what Eggplant wrote above, all of which I would agree with):
But at the same time the balance sheet of the Federal Reserve has now been loaded with so many assets of dubious value that the Fed itself may soon no longer be solvent; hence the Fed’s request for a recapitalisation by the Treasury. This means that the US Central Bank has lost its independence, since it now survives on a life-line from the US government.
An independent central bank committed only to the goal of price stability used to be considered an essential cornerstone of a modern macroeconomic stability-oriented policy framework. In the US, this is giving way to a situation in which the central bank has ended up in the pockets of the finance ministry as a consequence of its frantic efforts to re-establish normal operating conditions in financial markets. In all likelihood, the large increase in US government debt under way will be matched by increased monetary financing of the deficit.
One can intuitively correlate institutional independence with the macro-economic (process) stability required to mitigate volatility that destroys confidence, cripples trading and lending momentum, and devalues real assets. We have seen all of this since the oil spikes in July. Repeatedly we have been told that the metrics are broken and the markets cannot be “anticipated” in any rational sense. The implication is that global markets – and the financial institutions that support them – are not functioning properly – from some theoretical deficiency in the thinking or from corrupt and/or incompetent management. The one explanation that I heard is comparing USA (and now by extension Europe) to the decade-long period of adjustment that Japan experienced as they cleaned up their banking system.
Sep 21, 2008 - 7:27 am 208. Fausta’s Blog » Blog Archive » The Drumbeat, and the drummers:[...] receive he has from his enthused supporters: From president of the world to the temple of Ivesco Field to the worshipful [...]
Sep 21, 2008 - 7:35 am 209. Ken:Nahncee: just how do you propose to enforce the laws if Obama becomes President?
Sep 21, 2008 - 7:37 am 210. slade:Just as a cautionary footnote to the closet populists out there. I heard through the grapevine that the ban on short-selling left a large number of traders holding short options on financials whose stock shot up dramatically with the proposed bailout on Friday.
Sep 21, 2008 - 7:54 am 211. slade:Structured Investment Vehicles.
Those are the words I was looking for.
[h/t Elephant Bar]
Sep 21, 2008 - 8:30 am 212. Jay:Slade, The Black-Scholes based models that were used to price those derivatives is based on assumptions that some of us have shown to be FALSE. They can not handle low probability state of nature.
Sep 21, 2008 - 8:45 am 213. slade:Also several Nobel macro economists have be writing that central banks have become adept at stablizing global economies. More fake science!
Thanks Jay. I appreciate all the feedback I can get, especially this central banking issue, which strikes me a more theory than process.
The Black-Scholes pricing models – were they the same ones used at LTCM – the failed hedge fund that also had a couple Nobel economists on board?
The two Brits in the video are funny – I laughed – but I don’t think any of the on-the-ground reality funny at all. I am old enough to remember poverty through the stories and the pictures. There’s nothing remotely funny about it.
Sep 21, 2008 - 8:52 am 214. slade:The follow-up question would be why the derivatives market wasn’t regulated after the 1998 failure of LTCM. Instead it was intentionally allowed to flourish as a repackaging vehicle for mortgage securities.
Sep 21, 2008 - 8:59 am 215. whitehall:Our money supply is not created by the printing presses of the Fed. It is created through leverage of banks and other private financial institutions under regulation. Of course, GSEs like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac seem to have been adding to the supply also by buying mortgage paper.
When a highly leveraged money creator fails then the money supply it created vanishes too.
What the Fed and the Treasury had to do was stop a sudden reduction in the money supply. They did that by pumping enough new money into the system to prop up the failing regular money supply creators.
If you read Milton Friedman’s monetary analysis of the Great Depression and Amity Shales “The Forgotten Man” you’d see that the problem then was that the money supply collapsed, just as it had done during “panics” of 1893, 1857, and others.
For the highly leveraged money supply creators that the Fed has taken over, the system will have to slowly walk-back from those dangerously high leverages without contracting the bigger pool of money.
Anyway, that’s what it looks like from where I set – a technocratic reaction to Democratic muddled thinking and Wall Street risk taking.
Sep 21, 2008 - 9:32 am 216. slade:Yeah, well:
When Genius Failed at LTCM.
The Genius mentioned in the title refers to Robert Merton and Myron Scholes. Nine months before LTCM failed 1997, Merton and Scholes shared the Nobel prize in economics. Merton, Scholes and Stanford’s William Sharp (famous for developing the sharp ratio to measure risk) are some of the founders of modern finance, which attempts to apply quantitative techniques to market analysis. Merton and Scholes jumped at the chance to join LTCM where they could not only apply their theoretical work but make a great deal of money.
Backing up a few years:
In 1991, when John Meriwether [Big Swinging Dick from Michael Lewis book "Liar's Poker"] was the head of the Salomon Brothers fixed income security desk, a US Treasury bond trader in Meriwether’s department at Salomon falsified a US Treasury bill bid. The scandal that ensued when this came to light put Salomon in danger of losing their status as a Treasury bill broker. The head of Salomon, John Gutfreund was forced out and Meriwether went along with him.
This left John Meriwether unemployed and very wealty. … In 1993 Meriwether took the first steps toward founding the Long-Term Capital Management (LTCM) hedge fund. As befits a Big Swinging Dick market trader, LTCM was to be a Big Swinging Dick of a Hedge fund, capitalized with two and a half billion dollars. For the privilege of having their money managed by Masters of the Universe, LTCM would also charge investors over double the usual management fees.
A hedge fund is an investment fund for wealthy individuals and institutions like banks and pension funds. The number of investors in a hedge fund is limited and they are restricted, in theory, to only those who can afford the risks which may be associated with the hedge fund. Unlike mutual funds, hedge funds are unregulated.
The last paragraph is important. It reveals the lie behind the argument that the trading benefited Main Street. It most certainly did not. The trading was designed – by intent – to benefit Wall Street and it’s patrons.
As told by the story of LTCM. Ten years later, The Mortgage Sequel.
Sep 21, 2008 - 9:35 am 217. slade:Our money supply is not created by the printing presses of the Fed. It is created through leverage of banks and other private financial institutions under regulation. Of course, GSEs like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac seem to have been adding to the supply also by buying mortgage paper. – Whitehall
What I am seeing is that unregulated hedge funds severely contracted money supply through incompetent risk management of derivatives. These “dodgey debts” or “toxic loans” started life as bad mortgages – up to 11% of mortgage market. They were “force multiplied” through the derivatives market run primarily by hedge funds.
That’s how I see it. A Democratically-inspired policy catalyst accelerated and magnified by processing through a (primarily) Republican-inspired financial vehicle.
Sep 21, 2008 - 9:46 am 218. slade:When a highly leveraged money creator fails then the money supply it created vanishes too. – Whitehall
The other point I would add Whitehall is the criminal incompetence of the risk management within the regulated institutions. They were pissing like puppies when they thought they were running with the Big Dogs. You can’t do that.
Sep 21, 2008 - 9:57 am 219. NahnCee:“Nahncee: just how do you propose to enforce the laws if Obama becomes President?”
That’s the issue in a nutshell, isn’t it? What happens if the chief advocate of continued law-breaking becomes the nation’s law enforcer?
Sep 21, 2008 - 10:10 am 220. Jay:The mystery is why the Fed has not used the Open Market process to increase the money supply to increase bank reserves. Or have they? I think that the Fed is cooking the data.
Sep 21, 2008 - 10:19 am 221. slade:I think that the Fed is cooking the data. – Jay
I am all tapped out at this point (pun intended) but I have more suspicions now than I did on Wednesday, let alone the “half trillion dollar” Friday plan.
Sep 21, 2008 - 10:23 am 222. whitehall:I thought the open market operation was largely limited to banks. Of course it was used earlier to help one non-bank (Merrill?) Seems like they saw the limitations and downside of that approach and had to do something bigger and broader in impact and scope.
Sep 21, 2008 - 10:47 am 223. fred:At this point, with a weak dollar and investors using those excess dollars to buy up oil futures contracts and gold, the Fed is in a bind. The Fed knows from past experience during the seventies and early eighties that high oil prices kill our economy. I think the better move is to not lower the fed funds rate. I would have, a few months ago, actually raised it by fifty basis points to strengthen the dollar the prick the oil bubble. High energy prices are like a mammoth tax on the economy.
Sep 21, 2008 - 11:34 am 224. SpeakEasy:There always comes the point when one extreme side overplays their hand and there is violence. The same reason I do not fear a Democratic President (even though I would not prefer one) is my faith in the idea of the American Democratic Republic. We can weather any storm until our Constitutional Ideals are violated, then the war begins.
Case in point: The American Civil War was not just about slavery but also states’ rights. But the exercise of those rights, at that time, was the right to enslave other men when the Constitution clearly stated “..all men are created equal and endowed by their creator…” The result was a very bloody war that set limits to what states’ rights meant. I believe in individual states’ rights but not at the expense of other people’s rights.
If ANY administration tries to take away the right to own firearms, for example, there will be blood. But the Heller decision shows faith in our system to keep the lid on the violence.
My $.02.
Sep 21, 2008 - 12:14 pm 225. NahnCee:SpeakEasy – you really need to go read this screed written by a bimbo with a Russian name, advocating that all progressive liberal Democrats go “into the streets” and overthrow the government and our society if the current administration is not immediately impeached.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/larisa-alexandrovna/welcome-to-the-final-stag_b_127990.html
I don’t think Democrats like Ms. Alexandrovna quite realize how very very eager the rest of us are for people like her to “take it to the streets”.
Sep 21, 2008 - 3:25 pm 226. Bob Murphy:Breathtaking stuff, Slade.
Sep 21, 2008 - 4:44 pm 227. Bob Murphy:Very impressive.
I think I got it.
Just fascinating.
Thanks for taking the time and trouble to give us the straight drum.
Now get out there and make some more money.
I gotta think about all this some more.
I should have added et al for the other worthy contributions.
Sep 21, 2008 - 4:46 pm 228. slade:Neat stuff.
Thanks Bob.
This is either the story of the century or a blow-over with zero-sum consequences.
I just haven’t decided yet which it is.
Sep 21, 2008 - 5:16 pm 229. slade:As far as “taking it to the streets” is concerned, that’s a little excitable for my taste, but, in this case, I wouldn’t know whether to picket Main Street or Wall Street, which ultimately doesn’t matter much outside the context of an easy joke, but the public debate will be – is being (wait until next week, which starts tomorrow ::)) – reduced to the “us vs them” paradigm. Always happens with economics because the public is petticoats and wide-eyed. Paulson has to navigate this politically explosive divide. We – the American people, being primarily Main Street, but I suspect more than a few Wall Streeters on this board as well – have the matching responsibility to try to understand. There is quite a bit of good reporting out there I think but much of it is politically contaminated by ideology. This issue – and the American people – will suffer if we don’t “get it” in some fundamental way.
Sep 21, 2008 - 5:38 pm 230. NahnCee:Slade, I’m pretty sure the progressive liberal Democrat cited is advocating for a little sumpin sumpin more than mere picketing. You *really* have to start thinking outside the envelope.
Sep 21, 2008 - 5:44 pm 231. slade:That’s where I get lost NahnCee. Rightly or wrongly I don’t take [some of] the rhetoric [too] seriously. As I get along in years maybe I realize I should be more literal, but right now I am seeing “arm waving and flapping”, but that is also why this country has analysts with deeper insight monitoring the patterns and trends. I defer to their judgment.
For the time.
The resolution of discontent being an imprecise science.
Sep 21, 2008 - 5:58 pm 232. Bob Murphy:@Slade
Sep 21, 2008 - 6:09 pm 233. slade:As we all get along in years and have seen flaps come and go and things just keep chuffing along we develop a bit of distance.
A lot of the catastrophists get so caught up in the burning immediacy of the moment they lose all perspective.
I keep thinking of those guys with the sandwich boards of my youth in San Francisco proclaiming, “The end is nigh”. Some of them were silly enough to put specific dates and then you’d seen them a week later with fresh paint on their sandwich boards. Again and again.
It’s a mind-bender Bob.
Both my parents grew up in post-1929 depression. The difference between catastrophe and reality being temporal. I hear and read a considerable chatter of “amusement” at the current crisis, which will either go away or somehow cease to exist.
When reality becomes compromised by our ability to “mitigate” consequences, we are living in a very different world.
And I believe that is where we are at – any bad move can be quickly remediated, which means that consequences are less effective in modifying human behavior. Now that’s a mind-bender.
Sep 21, 2008 - 6:25 pm 234. Doug:It is hard not to admire the way casino owner Steve Wynn reacted when Goldman Sachs volunteered their services in one of the controversies he had with legendary financier Kirk Kerkorian a couple of years ago.
When the GS executives arrived and cited an exorbitant figure for their services as a retainer, Wynn pressed a silent button. Six large German shepherd dogs ran into the room and fixed their open but snarling jaws on the crotches of Mr. Wynn’s visitors (regardless of gender).
This was persuasive, and the proposed Goldman retainer shrank quickly.
Conrad Black Lessons to learn from Wall Street’s week of no return
—
Buffalo Soldiers
Sep 21, 2008 - 7:12 pm 235. Doug:Actors take pride in telling their WWII story in “Miracle at St. Anna.”
A (re)Defining Moment:
Bruised by stock market losses, Americans bought houses. The mortgage industry used securitised bonds to ensure that the people who initiated the mortgage did not worry about getting paid back; risk was packaged and sold to others. This time Mr Greenspan did not just stand aside. He said repeatedly that housing was a safe investment because prices do not fall. Home owners could wait out any downturn. Is it any surprise that so many people thought if the world’s financial genius held this view it must be all right?
Even as things went completely wild, Mr Greenspan dismissed those who warned that a new bubble was emerging. It was just a case of a little “froth” in a few areas.
Later, after waiting until 2007, two years after he left office, he conceded that “froth” had been his euphemism for “bubble”.
“All the froth bubbles add up to an aggregate bubble,” he told the Financial Times.
This time, as with the equity bubble, the mistake was not to set interest rates too low; it was to stand back as wildly imprudent policies were pursued by mortgage lenders.
Indeed, any lender would have been encouraged by his words in April 2005: “Where once more-marginal applicants would simply have been denied credit, lenders are now able to quite efficiently judge the risk posed by individual applicants and to price that risk appropriately. These improvements have led to rapid growth in subprime mortgage lending.” Well, he was right about the rapid growth in subprime lending.
Greenspan’s sins return to haunt us
Sep 21, 2008 - 7:13 pm 236. Eggplant:Slade said:
“Just as a cautionary footnote to the closet populists out there. I heard through the grapevine that the ban on short-selling left a large number of traders holding short options on financials whose stock shot up dramatically with the proposed bailout on Friday.”
I’ve read that over the last few months the Fed was deliberately manipulating the stock market to slaughter short sellers. Given this sort of environment, I think a person would have to be nuts to be invested in the stock market either short or long.
Sep 21, 2008 - 9:01 pm 237. NahnCee:Slade and Bob – did you both miss the fairly long and inclusive discussion of progressive law-breaking by the Left above in this thread? Examples were cited of advancing and increasing acts of breaking the law, not to mention Obama’s exhortation to “get in their faces”, yet you find it difficult to believe that Ms. Russian Bimbo is advocating for armed insurrection, and not mere street demonstrations? I apologize if I’m abrupt, but are you sure your advanced experience isn’t morphing into senility and helpless hapless delusions?
Sep 21, 2008 - 10:30 pm 238. Capt Kirk:Obama was the overestimated candidate – McCain was the underestimated candidate.
Sep 22, 2008 - 3:03 am 239. Bob Murphy:Obama is not as competent as he appears; McCain is more competent than he appears.
Obama promised compassion but was glib; no one expected compassion from the Republicans
and found it in Mac.
Obama floated like a butterfly; McCain stings like a bee.
Obama talks about empathy; McCain’s eyes well up with tears over a KIA.
Obama imitates Kennedy and sounds like a preacher; McCain is just himself, like Ike was Ike.
If it comes to a fight, Obama looks like he’ll try and talk the guy out of it and he’ll have
already lost. McCain will punch him in the nose and make sure he doesn’t.
Obama is Precious Pup; McCain is Charlie Brown.
Obama is Road Runner; McCain is Wily Coyote.
Obama is Hollywood; McCain is Yankee Stadium.
Obama is chewing gum and joking on the poop deck; McCain is aiming the Cannons at Iwo Jima.
Obama is an easy Lay; McCain is the wife that sticks by you for no good reason.
Obama is Roger Rabbit; McCain is Jackie Gleason.
Obama is going to flatter you; McCain will give you the news.
Obama is like Infatuation; McCain is the one you’ll marry.
@NahnCee I am quite equanimous about the threat of the insurrection in the streets of the United States as long as the 2nd Amendment exists.
Sep 22, 2008 - 4:42 am 240. slade:The leftist herd mentality does not generally fare well up against armed citizens defending their turf. That might be why they want to disarm Americans.
One friend of mine used to say “There hasn’t been a bad ass since Sam Colt”.
Let them come.
I used to drive Owl (all night)buses in San Francisco and, just out of the army, went armed at work and everywhere else for years. It was very useful to be so equipped on many occasions in my colorful youth.
There is good reason for the 2nd Amendment. Let the Left or the Reconquistadores or Jihadis do what they think they must…
I shall also, when and if the crunch comes.
Nah, NahnCee, by Eggplant’s yardstick, I’m just nuts for having all my money in stocks. I bet big and lost.
I took a second look at the tsarina’s article. I saw a cartoon-like caricature, but the meat is a little red alright. As a general rule, I disapprove of all mass movements, where individual choice is subsumed and rational thought becomes subservient to emotional incitement. Mentally I tune it out, but I can see the red flags.
On to another tough week.
Sep 22, 2008 - 5:21 am 241. Cannoneer No. 4:Hope, Change, & Lies: Orchestrated “Grassroots” Smear Campaigns & the People that Run Them
Axelrod-connected PR firm started Sarah Palin is a secessionist rumor.
Sep 22, 2008 - 5:40 am 242. Whitehall:So with all this money injections from our central banks and the US Treasury, when do we see inflation?
If they inject just the right amount, then prices should stay level. Too much and inflation hits as the currency/money supply expands beyond real growth and velocity changes.
So the Bad Boys (OPEC and Russia) have had a huge infusion of our capital with the price run ups on oil. Where are the PetroDollars going?
Sep 22, 2008 - 10:46 am 243. Ken:I have reported Larisa Alexandrovna’s article to the Secret Service. Hopefully she and her fellow traitors will soon pay the ultimate price.
Sep 22, 2008 - 11:30 am 244. NahnCee:Things are looking up. Hacker kiddy is being busted big time and not brushed under the rug.
U of Berkeley is fining its tree sitters $10K each for expenses they incurred while demonstrating on school property.
SF woman whose big old dog(s) chewed up and killed little blonde lesbian has been convicted (again) of murder and *will* face significant jail time.
Maybe we’re not the only ones who think these goombah’s need to start facing the music when they break the law. Be interesting to see if anything comes either with the Secret Service and Ms. Tsarina de Insurrection, or with Jawa Report’s expose on Obama hiring a private PR firm to make up lies about Palin and then spread them on the internet. Seems like there should have been some laws broken by that, too.
Now … what’re we gonna do about NATO and the Frogs?
Sep 22, 2008 - 3:32 pm 245. Bob Murphy:For NATO, given the low % of GDP NATO members put into the kitty compared with Uncle Sam, they’re not worth much but it is worth keeping NATO alive and keeping members engaged as much as we can.
Sep 22, 2008 - 7:08 pm 246. Erin O'Connor:When the Islamists start big bang things in Europe or the odd missile from Iran, NATO might come in handy.
And it gives us some scope to support the Balkans, Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, and some of the others if they really want to stay out of Russian hands.
If we even nominally support human rights those countries all deserve our support.
There are probably others like Ukraine, Georgia etc.
Richard Fernandez, my friend…you are a moron
Oct 13, 2008 - 9:30 pmSorry, comments for this entry are closed at this time.