See Which one Fills up First

I seriously believe the the two parties work major elections out in advance; that it is scripted and fixed. Okay, I am a conspiracy buff, and I also don't know the actual methods or identities of those evil few, but some things are just so out of plumb, they can't be accidents. Why did Kerry just shuffle and mumble through his last campaign? Because he was taking a dive and just barely trying to make it seem realistic. Why didn't McCain even pretend to be realistic and flexible if not also articulate and knowledgeable? The election was decided when the Democrats used their corrupt primary system to choose the best candidate of a sorry bunch, and the Republicans, inexplicably, used theirs to choose the worst (after Guiliani). Just when the world is fed up up with America, and the last penny has been emptied from the treasury, everybody rushes to the other side of the boat and starts singing in unison about equality and justice. It's obviously a punch and judy show, but we can't stop watching, or ever quite come to disbelieve, even though Plato demolished the whole scam years ago.

Hope in one hand...

http://www.freeandequal.org/ is sponsoring a vice-presidential debate that might not suck.

"Christina M. Tobin, President of Free and Equal Elections, announced this afternoon that Libertarian Party vice-presidential candidate, Wayne Allyn Root, Constitution Party vice-presidential candidate, Darrell Castle, and Independent Ralph Nader running mate, Matt Gonzalez, have formally agreed to a three-way vice-presidential debate to be held in Las Vegas, Nevada this Sunday November 2, 2008."

Especially interesting as the first actual "debate" debate of this season, as opposed to the Lehrer-style love note passing, the first debate where any subject may be covered, and the participants are not constrained say anything. I hope it goes well. Will watch for on utube, I guess. I would be pleasantly surprised if it were on CSPAN.

Oops, I should have checked freeandequal before I replied. I didn't watch the Nader debate, because I can't watch Nader and I was pissed and mystified by Barr not attending. (that convinced me to "support" Baldwin [I had already contributed to the Barr campaign {and I'd like my fifty bucks back}]) So this may be the second interesting debate of this season. I'm withholding judgement until I see the video, if I'm wrong I'll admit it. I still hold a grudge against Nader for killing the Corvair, and for introducing Joan Claybrook to the world. Dude makes me squirm.

I finally watched the Nader-Baldwin debate as far as I could; the two, two-minute introductory speeches. Shorter version Chuck Baldwin, "We support the Constitution". Shorter version Ralph Nader, "We want to do a whole long list of Unconstitutional things". I couldn't watch anymore. Sorry. It may have been interesting, but what I meant was "the first actual 'debate' debate of this season that was actually watchable". We'll see.

Raimondo Recommends

My comment concerning Ron Paul and Justin's endorsement of Nader over at Taki's

Justin - I agree with your choice, but I don't think Ron Paul should be a factor in how you reached your conclusion. Ron Paul was right to dissolve the coalition when he did, because the Revolution was obviously unstable and only held together because of one Man. We need a stable coalition base and at least a handful of Pauls, some of whom may be the Congressmen of both parties that voted twice against the bailout bill. (Incidentally, if you're going to vote, take the trouble to find out how your Congressman voted on this at RP's Campaign For Liberty. Some of these "public servants" in both parties need to be sent on their way; now's your chance.)

We were enthusiastic and cooperative largely because we were getting attention. The point of the money-bombs was the money-bombs, for instance. Since no one, even at the highest point of enthusiasm expected to win (and if they did they were delusional) the goal was to expose the corruption in the system and the complicity of the media, which he did in blazing triumph. The Republicans made a major mistake (from their POV) by including him in the debates.They gambled that RP would make a fool of himself and fizzle out early, like Tancredo, which would have happened if he hadn't gone out swinging. Suddenly, this "nut" is telling the whole country, in detail, about the scam, and counter-punching hard when idiots Guiliani and Mormon boy whazziz name took the bait. At least McCain was smart enough to shut up and smirk instead of getting bitch-slapped like he would have. And later, the depantsing of Hannity. Mwah! Mission, (as far as it would go) accomplished.

My point is, however unfortunate, the Paul campaign is over, he is not a candidate and I respectfully submit that you should have left him out of your calculus for this piece. My conclusion is that Nader is a better choice than the Tweedles, and an acceptable third choice if Baldwin or Barr are not on your ballot, McKinney is head and shoulders over the Tweedles on foreign policy and no worse on domestic. What we're really looking for is a high percentage of protest votes. Then we all (together) need to start pulling up the rails in front of the Obama express.

Senate Races - the Good, the Bad and the mostly Ugly

"good " Senators up for re-election
names in bold are at risk and could use some extra help, donations, etc.

John Barrasso (R-WY) (safe)
Thad Cochran (R-MS) (safe)
Elizabeth Dole (R-NC)(no clear favorite)
Michael Enzi (R-WY) (safe)
James Inhofe (R-OK) (favored)
Tim Johnson (D-SD)(safe)
Mary Landrieu (D-LA) (leaning safe)
Jeff Sessions (R-AL) (safe)
Roger Wicker (R-MS) (no clear favorite) "expected to be quite close"
*Mark Udall(D) v. Bob Schaffer(R) for Wayne Allard's (Retiring "good guy)
     Mark is House "Good Guy" Polls show Udall way ahead
*Tom Udall (D) v. Steve Pearce (R) for Pete Dominici (R-NM) (retiring "bad guy")
     Tom is House "Good Guy" "NRSC...concede the seat to Udall"

"bad" Senators up for re-election
names in bold have a good shot and are worthy of extra support

Lamar Alexander (R-TN) (heavy favorite) opposed by Bob Tuke(D)
Joe Biden (D-DE) (safe) opposed by Christine O'Donnell (R)
Max Baucus (D-MT) (safe) opposed by Bob Kelleher
Saxby Chambliss (R-Georgia) (close) opposed by Jim Martin (D)
Norm Coleman (R-MN) (vulnerable) opposed by Al Franken (D)
Susan Collins (R-ME) (vulnerable) opposed by Tom Allen (D)
John Cornyn (R-TX) (vulnerable) opposed by Rick Noriega(D)
Dick Durbin (D-IL) (safe) opposed by Steve Saurberg (R)
Lindsey Graham (R-SC) (safe) opposed by Bob Conley (D) Ron Paul Democrat
Tom Harkin (D-IO) (safe) opposed by Christopher Reed (R)
John Kerry (D-MA) (safe) opposed by Jeff Beatty (R)
Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) (safe) opposed by Dick Zimmer (R)
Carl Levin (D-MI) (safe) opposed by Jack Hoogendyk
Mitch McConnell (R-KY) (vulnerable) opposed by Bruce Lunsford (D)
Mark Pryor (D-AK) (unopposed)
Jack Reed (D-RI) (safe) opposed by Bob Tingle (R)
Pat Roberts (R-KS) (favored) opposed by Jim Slattery (D)
Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) (safe) opposed by Jay Wolfe (R)
Gordon Smith (R-OR) (vulnerable) opposed by Jeff Merkley (D)
Ted Stevens (R-AK) (vulnerable) opposed by Mark Begich (D)
John Sununu (R-NH) (vulnerable) opposed by Jeanne Shaheen (D)

info from http://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2008/Senate/senate_races.html

Constituent Response Team

I'm really getting excited about this site, and I hope they can really get the word out before the election. I intend to send a donation; I've been looking through the site to see how much is there and I'm liking it a lot.

Capitalism with a Human Face?

A response to another good Lindsay post - East Germans Getting Nostalgic for Socialism

I had a friend in the mid-80's that had escaped from Poland before the Solidarity thing. He was pretty apolitical but thought there wasn't much wrong with Communism in principle. My question to him was how they got anyone to do the shit work and hard labor if everyone was equal?

His answer was that it was done by prisoners and this was really the biggest problem, because they had to actually generate enough prisoners to fill the needed slots - curfew violations, improper documentation, drunkenness, trespassing, black-marketeers etc. because there wasn't enough actual crime to supply the manpower and the real psychos weren't suitable. This was very convincing to me, and today I look at America's gigantic prison-industrial complex with a wary eye.

It would seem that human nature works against any system, and that greed is probably a better basis for society than compulsion where everyone is either a prisoner or a guard. Equality can be a two-way street and it's much simpler for everyone to be equally poor than rich, or for some to be more equal than others.

I meant to mention. although it goes against my theory of the general evilness of all governments, the dozens if not hundreds of guys that worked to bury the reactor after Chernobyl blew up, even though they knew the were taking amounts of radiation that would inevitably lead to a slow and agonizing death. Not to mention the firemen that voluntarily went into and died in the WTC. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have, it's just a mystery to me. Maybe ideology only goes so far, y'think?

On Poetry

I personally cannot read/understand poetry without being told by human or annotation what I'm supposed to be seeing. Without help, I might as well be reading a rock wall. I don't think it's a lack of intelligence or knowledge; I would guess it's something like riding a unicycle - quite difficult and without obvious benefit beyond the skill itself. I have noticed that I use a lot (too much) of metaphor in my own writing, which is probably just a rookie writing error, so I think I have the capacity to read poetry, but lack something crucial (training, persistence, imagination - I dunno).

I'm somewhat of a hermit, and most of my family is either non-literate or non-communicative, but I can only recall one person in my adult life that spoke of an interest in poetry and I don't how extensive her interest was. For most Americans it's teevee, movies and popular music, which is a large part of why I'm the aforementioned hermit. I'm to the point where the noise has died down enough for me to receive the signal, but I still don't know how to process it.

Which brings me to my final point. Poetry should probably not be taught to most kids. It almost seems like it's designed to turn them off. The esoteric seems like gibberish and the accessible is either trite (e.g. rock lyrics) or doggerel. I think that
Seuss and Silverstein are popular because they were illustrated, which helps focus the attention on a sufficiently small piece of the universe for the imagination to work with. See also greeting cards. I think this may be key to popularizing it. Good poetry stands alone, but most people need help with it. There are also a lot of graphic artists (and musicians) who are also not making any money, so it shouldn't be hard to find collaboration if the poet isn't too concerned about purity.

I'm going to have to stick to short non-fiction myself. I have a lot of ideas, but none are original, I'm afraid. Anecdote; I recently got a phone call from a girl I went to high-school with that still has some of my poems, which I mercifully don't remember, that I had given her. She asked me why I quit writing, and I told her that when I found out there were four billion people in the world I came to doubt my uniqueness.

Campaign for Liberty - Vote the Bums Out!

I've been looking for some organized effort to penalize the Congressional thieves that voted for the BBBBB, without much luck, when, miraculously, comes a solicitation from Ron Paul's own Campaign for Liberty for just such a program. I was thinking about wasting my time picketing my polling place, but my own Thieves, Tom Davis (R-Pentagon) and John Warner (R-Hell), have wisely chosen not to run again, in the teeth of what should have been (before the bailout vote) a Democratic hurricane. For some strange, counter-intuitive reason, Democrats voted overwhelmingly for the big ripoff to help the guilty billionaires that caused the mess rather than the poor SOBs that got caught up in it. Whatever, dudes. None of them deserve a penny of taxpayers money, and the weasels that voted for it need to be voted out. From the press release...

"To do this, Campaign for Liberty plans to:

Produce and distribute slim jims specifically tailored to districts/states that tell how each Congressman and Senator voted. These will be available soon on the Campaign for Liberty web site for every district and state in the country.

And we will also print and distribute these pieces in as many of the key districts as funds allow.

Send a series of email blasts into many key districts and states, urging our members and supporters to contact the candidates and demand they oppose any further "bailouts."

Run hard-hitting newspaper ads in as many places as funds allow.

Run radio ads and hold news conferences announcing the votes cast on the bailout.

Flood key districts with tens of thousands of phone calls letting people know where their Congressmen and Senators stood on this very important issue."


Please contribute here.
My previous posts listing the good congressmen here
and the good Senators here

Get Exile(d) Right Now

OMG - the new Exile is on fire lately, especially Eileen Jones. She snarky! Go there right now and read everything. then come back, y'hear?

There Al Loosers

Attention blog commenters, here and especially elsewhere; Spellcheck is necessary but not sufficient. Heck, I couldn't spell necessary without it. Please be more attentive when using the following words, the misuse of which makes one seem less intelligent than one would prefer to seem, especially when commenting on Serious Political and Economic Matters. I'll be adding more as I see them.

Hear
Here
Know
No
Lose
Loose
Looser*
There
Their
They're
To
Too
Two
Your
You're
Were
We're
Ware
Where

Also, if it's not to much trouble, please avoid LOL, OMG and the like. I don't really know why it irritates the crap out of me, but it does, so knock it off. If you're a teenage girl, you can do it on your phone, I guess, but if you'd stop and pay attention in class, instead, you might not end up calling someone a moran on line.

* This one is especially painful, and I see it constantly. Unless your name is Cletus, be careful.

Robert Lindsay is the Coolest Commie - Part III

The following is comment to a good post on Lindsay's blog. It's very surprising how often I agree with him in light of the fact that I detest Socialism and he hates Libertarians. I would try to explain to him that what he calls neo-liberalism is not the free market, but I've never had much luck pursuading True Believers. If Rothbard couldn't convince him, I doubt if I could. I'm pretty confident that if he pays close attention to how the present market chaos is made even worse by government interference, he'll probably figure it out for himself. Obama is getting handed one of the biggest shitcakes in history and failure is baked in. If he's lucky he won't get blamed for the whole mess, but that looks like the script to me.

What really surprised me, though, was Lindsay reporting that he's a fan of Catholicism, (albeit the liberation theology version, which seems to me to combine the worst aspects of both socialist economics and Santeria. But I try to be tolerant). Previously, he almost had me convinced that Mugabe was just a misunderstood patriot, but that was my own fault for being a Lindsay fan. As Norm McDonald said in a joke where he had been fooled into killing his family by a friend posing as the Devil - "That's one for you, Bob."

Robert - a cliche but you truly never cease to amaze me. Am I surprised that you're not an atheist? Yes but, Catholic? Wow! I was raised a Catholic but you get to quit when you're eighteen. I believe in God in a very nebulous way, but I can't stand any of the spooky shit, mysticism, miracles, angels, trans-whatever, souls, guys in robes, etc. It's always been for the rubes and children of all ages.

That said, I'm 100% in favor of everyone else being religious, as long as they leave me alone. I kind of like Judaism minus the burning bushes and what not, but it was and is geared to preserving God's chosen people, which I'm not. So there you are.

Did you see that other Mel movie, Apocalypto? I don't think I took the ending the way he intended; after getting captured, enslaved, pursued and almost murdered many times, the dude makes it to the sea in time for the arrival of the Spanish, and just knows IT'S ABOUT TO GET EVEN WORSE, gathers up his family and heads for the hills. However comforting, religion is the eternal curse on humanity. It's not the opiate of the people, it's the 100% pure smack. I just believe in me. Yoko and me.

Senate Good Guys

The following Senators voted against the BBBBB (Dodd amendment to HR1424).  Again, you should vote to defeat any Senator who is NOT on this list.

Allard  Barrasso  Brownback  Bunning  Cantwell  Cochran  Crapo  

DeMint  Dorgan  Dole  Enzi  Feingold   Inhofe   Johnson  Landrieu  

Nelson, Bill  Roberts   Sanders   Sessions   Shelby  Stabenow  Tester   

Vitter  Wicker  Wyden

Most of these deserve to be defeated because of their support for the Iraq war, but that was then. We have an opportunity to link the next election to this vote and send a clear message that unconstitutional theft under the color of law will be punished.

Mr. Peabody Helps Jesus Save Capitalism

"Put down that beaker of Ephadadrine, Sherman, and follow me to the WABAC Machine. Jesus needs our help!"

"But, Mr. Peabody, I think I've found a way to pay our electric bill.  And then some!"

"Never mind, my boy. Thanks to the miracle of time travel, we'll be back literally before you know it."

"Very well, Mr. Peabody. What settings shall I use?"

"Naples, Italy; Jan.25, 1962."

"But Jesus wasn't in Naples in 1962."

"Don't be so sure, Sherman, but in any case we're going to visit one Charles Luciano.  He's ill and may be more inclined to the truth than previously.  I need some information about the olive oil business and Prescott Bush."

" 'Lucky' Luciano, the heroin king? Olive oil? Prescott Bush? Mr. Peabody, I believe I've found the answer to that missing case of Bronkaid!"

"Never mind that now, Sherman, just set the dials and initialize.  Besides you know how my asthma has been acting up lately."

"Well, here we are, Mr.Peabody.  How will we find Mr. Luciano?"

"Quite simple, my boy; although many of these houses have several burley watchmen at the gate, very few also have American Cadillacs with CIA agents waiting out front. Ah, here we are! Signor Luciano?"

"Si?"

"I'm Mr. Peabody, and this is my boy, Sherman. I'd like to ask you a few questions, if you don't mind."

"Ha, you and everyone else! Hey, I've seen you on TV! You're a funny guy. 'Chicken-catch-a- Tory'! Haha! C'mon in!"

"What did you find out, Mr.Peabody?"

"Never mind, for now, Sherman, we need to move on. Set the WABAC for Florence, Italy, June 20, 1527.  We're going to see the great Niccolo Machiavelli."

"Gee, do we have to go right now? The girls here are so friendly!"

"Sorry,  Sherman, but even though we've got all the time in the world, paradoxically we're in a bit of a hurry right now.  Those bills aren't going to pay themselves, and you can always come back 'later'."

"Okay, Mr. Peabody. Hang on! Not the leg! Bad boy!"

"Sorry, Sherman. As you know I sometimes forget my manners when the quarry is afoot."

"Here we are. Florence.  How will we find Signor Machiavelli?"

"As you can imagine, this place is crawling with paranoids, but "Lucky" showed me the secret hand signal. You'll have to give it, though. What with my paws and all.  Here's a picture."

"Gosh, that's the same as the Dogtown Crips! See, LA roxx! It's funny that they all use the same sign. What a coincidence!"

"A coincidence, to be sure. There's a likely-looking ghoul. Try it out."

"Is that the right counter-sign, Mr. Peabody? Like he's stroking his beard. Which he doesn't have."

"No, but we'll probably see it a lot.  Try that guy."

"Yo! Yo. Whazzup?"

"Nicollo Machiavelli?"

"Who want's to know?"

"I'm Mr. Peabody and this is my boy, Sherman. I need to ask you some questions about "olive oil".

"Walk with me. Leave the kid."

"What did you find out, Mr. Peabody?"

"Patience, my boy.  For now, set the WABAC to Tel-Aviv, June 9, 25."

"But there was no Tel-Aviv, or for that matter, June in 25, Mr. Peabody."

"Sherman..."

"Shutting up, now.  Here we go!"

"Wow, look at those dinks! Looks like San Francisco in '67."

"How do you know? Our series ended in '64."

"I meant 1667, but I did look around when we were in  syndication.  Ever heard of the Cockettes? the Fugs? What a stink! Man, when did they invent deodorant?"

"Just start flashing the sign, my boy. There's a likely-looking pair."

"I see you are a sailor. Step into my tent and all will be revealed."

"Pardon me, sir, it's far from my mind. I'm just looking for a good friend of mine. Calls himself Jesus, among other things.  He's mc'ing a wedding party. Five wise virgins...five foolish. Ring a bell?"

"Yes, I know him! Follow me. And all will be revealed"

"Wait here, Sherman, and keep those kids out of the WABAC."

"How did it go, Mr.Peabody? Did you see Jesus?"

"Just for a second, he said he was headed out to the desert to be tempted.  He winked at me. He didn't seem to be surprised to see a talking dog; evidently there's a lot of that around here.  I saw the other rabbis, though; straightened them out.  If they listen to me, no more oil problem, no cruxifiction, no fall of Jerusalem, no diaspora, no crusades, no dark ages, etc."

"But all those things happened, Mr. Peabody!"

"We can but try, my boy."

"What did you tell them, Mr. Peabody? About the oil?"

"Well, as you may know, the five wise virgins had enough lamp oil to last for the entire feast, but the five foolish virgins were short by varying amounts.  'Lucky' told me the thing about olive oil is that it can be all different quality as well as quantity and needs to be mixed right to burn right.  Of course, he was talking about "olive oil", but the same principle applies; to make everybody a winner you got to give a little to get a little, and you always want to have another wise virgin around.  I got that from Niccollo.  Smart cookie, knows human nature. Even Rabbi Paulson got it, I think."

"But, I don't get it, Mr. Peabody.  How does another Virgin solve anything?"

"Sherman, do you mean you've never heard of Extra Virgin Olive Oil?"

The Big Billionaire Bastard Bailout Bill

These ladies and gentlemen voted against the bill both times.

HR1424 "Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 and HR 3997

You should vote against any incumbent except...

Aderholt Akin Altmire  Bachman Barrow  Bartlett(MD) Barton(TX) Becerra    Bilbray   Bilirakis Bishop(UT) Blackburn  Blumenauer Boyda  Broun(GA)   Brown-Waite, Ginny   Burgess Burton(IN) Butterfield  Buyer  Capito  Carney  Carter  Castor   Cazayoux  Chabot Chandler Childers  Clay Conyers Costello Courtney Culberson Davis(KY) Davis, David  Davis,Lincoln Deal(GA) DeFazio Delahunt Diaz-Balart,L. Diaz-Balart,M.   Doolittle  Drake   Duncan English(PA)    Feeney  Filner  Flake  Forbes  Fortenberry   Foxx  Franks(AZ)     Gallegly   Garrett(NJ)   Gillibrand Gingrey  Gohmert Goode Goodlatte  Graves  Green,Gene   Grijalva Hall(TX)  Hastings(WA)  Hayes Heller Hensarling Herseth-Sandlin Hill  Hinchey Hodes Holden  Hulshof  Hunter Inslee  Issa  Jefferson  Johnson(GA)  Johnson(IL)  Johnson,Sam   Jones(NC)  Jordan  Kagen  Kaptur  Keller King(IA) Kingston  Kuchinich   Lamborn    Lampson   Latham   LaTourette  Latta  Linder Lipinski  LoBiondo  Lucas  Lynch  Mack  Manzullo Marchant Matheson McCarthy(CA) McCaul(TX)  McCotter   McHenry  McIntyre    McMorris-Rodgers  Mica  Michaud Miller(FL) Miller(MI) Moran(KS) Murphy,Tim  Musgrave  Napolitano Neugebauer  Nunes Paul Payne  Pearce  Pence Peterson(MN)  Petri  Pitts   Platts  Poe Price(GA)  Rehberg  Reichert  Renzi Rodriguez Rogers(MI)  Rohrabacher Roskam Rothman Roybal-Allard Royce Sali Sanchez,Linda Sanchez,Loretta Scalise Scott(VA)  Sensenbrenner Serrano Shea-Porter Sherman  Shimkus  Shuler  Smith(NE) Smith(NJ)   Stark   Stearns  Stupak Taylor Thompson(MS)   Tiahrt   Turner  Udall(CO)  Udall(NM) Visclosky  Walberg  Walz(MN) Westmoreland   Whitfield(KY)   Wittman(VA)   Young(AK)    Young(FL)

A Republic, If you Can Get it Back

Well - blogging again, or at least making my comments on other threads into blog posts. I'm surprised no one thought of that before.
I basically threw in the towel after the way Ron Paul was treated in the primaries, but since then the economy has gotten so bollixed up in just the way he predicted, that today's defeat of the Big Bailout has given me a ray of hope, even though I know the attack will recommence at dawn; or as I said to the hapless "lester" over at Taki's - (quoting myself [the sound of one hand jerking]...

"Never fear, Lester; your billionaire buds won’t give up that easily. The only reason they lost this round is because of the upcoming elections after which you can be sure they’ll “get ‘er done”. I’m truly sorry for your stock losses, but President Yomama is just going to capital gains tax you back to zero anyway. I would recommend buying gold, but that would be “donkey business”. For the remnant, I strongly suggest that when the tally becomes available, printing out the list of yeas and bringing it along when voting. This wound in our backs is not going to heal as long as the knife keeps going in."

http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2008/roll674.xml

I'm going to actually do a little research on this matter and see if I can find the corresponding Senate vote on this. I'm not sure if it's actually come up in the Senate yet, although I should know, after majoring in PoliSci and all, but unfortunately the only thing I took away from my classes in legislative procedure is that it's intentionally opaque to keep the unwashed in the dark; in fact, being unwashed in the dark pretty much describes my undergraduate years, now that I recall. Anyway, I'm interested to know how Senator Webb voted, since I made a point of voting for him in the primary and general elections. I never expected much of him as a Dem, anyway, but that's the good thing about being a pessimist; any surprise is got to be good, and besides, I feel pretty much the same about Repubs now. The fact is, most of those on the the nay list should be voted out anyway, because of the Iraq thing, but that's unfortunately become ancient history, and we need to focus on this bailout because after the election begins round two.

BTW; what a surprise to see my Rep., Tom Davis, on the rat list. A final FY to cap his career of phony Republican, big government arselicher. (He had already decided not to run - the Republican brand had “lost it’s shelf appeal” or some such bs). Now he can take his congressional pension and go back to destroying the country as a full time private sector defense contractor lawyer and part-time homewrecker. God I hate that guy.

What the heck have I been doing?and was it worth it?

Best. Candidate. Ever.

There is still some talk of a third-party Ron Paul run, an idea I favor, although he has pretty much ruled it out. He is right to concentrate on his house seat, mostly to keep his ideas in play. One divided by four hundred thirty six is not much but it's not zero.

The calculus changes considerably if Paul (and/or Walter Jones) loses his House primary. There will then be exactly zero Constitutional Republicans in power nationally. The system has already won; however the Ron Paul candidacy was “worth” the expense, in that

a. it messed up the script for the primary charade only being open to pre-approved candidates.
b. completely exposed the corruption of the MSM being in on the charade
c. re-introduced the concept of the Constitution as law that applies directly to our biggest problems, war and the economy, a concept that may prove useful in the near future.
d. took out Rudy, although he was able to lateral the 911 whistle to McCain
e. gave the Republicans the last possible benefit-of-doubt: they blew it.
f. showed how a gentleman conducts himself.

If he loses the House primary, he will be free of any imaginary debt to the Republican Party, or perceived duty to his donors and volunteers.  He could easily justify retiring, having done more in either of his careers than most men do in one.  I'd like to see another moneybomb as a thank you/retirement gesture.  If it were big enough it might tempt someone into one more tilt at the windmill, before the damned thing shakes itself apart.

Bob Barr - Good Enough for Government Work

From Antiwar Blog:

(Ex. Congressman) Bob "Barr is rumored to be considering a Libertarian Party run for President this November. The LP nominating convention will be held in late May." I was a big fan of Congressional Republicans circa. 1995, not so much by circa 2000. My impression was that he was one of the few that didn't get all gooey when they were no longer in opposition. I'm not sure if he was beaten at some point or he just quit and if he did, more power to him. In any case he would make a better president than anyone running, ERP. Speaking of whom,

Ron Paul's House primary is in two weeks, according to his page
(give him $50.00 while you're there)

If, God forbid, he lost the primary, how would that effect the overall equation?
Would anyone care that he almost promised that he wouldn't run as a third party candidate? I wouldn't mind seeing Paul/Barr on both Lib and Const. tickets, but I could live with Barr/(Paul Craig) Roberts. (for instance)

It's somewhat unlikely that a third party might win, and that the most likely outcome is to help elect the democrat; Okay by me. I fail to see how one liberal Senator could be worse than another, and there is a (very) faint chance that Obama might (three-and-a-half years, like Nixon) pull out of Iraq. Besides, they will be out of money and probably in a depression. McCain needs to lose because he will be able continue Bush's policies without effective opposition. A Democrat will not.

Last One Out that can figure out how, Get the Lights

From a comment over at Half-Sigma:

"...why is a Depression necessarily bad? If you're intelligent, you've already paid off your house and have enough money to live off for the next decade. It's not my problem if most people can't save a dime and live off credit.
I don't think it would be a bad thing to see useless bankers jumping from windows and pompous Lexus-renting suburbanites in soup lines. I think the US deserves a depression."

Really. Unless you own stock in Goldman, why should you give a shit if it collapsed. We're screwed when they manipulate the interest rate, blued when they inflate the money supply and tattood when they bail out the (supposedly) private institutions that fail, and if you don't like it - "Dude, don't you love your fellow countryman?" That's the real reason the GOP hates us Paultards; nobody likes a smart-ass, especially when he's right about every goddam detail.

The Fed was sold to us as a way to prevent bank panics; depositors not being able to get their savings out. What savings? We have net negative savings because we already earn less in interest than inflation and the entire system depends on the government loaning money to the banks at even lower rates. Why shouldn't we eliminate the middle man and just borrow directly from the government? Better yet, why shouldn't we all just have government jobs and pensions with free healthcare and broadband so we can telecommute, and then get bailed out if we still can't make ends meet after we get our stimulus rebate and mortgage moratorium?

What's really mystifying is that there enough Americans smart enough to fill out the loan forms.
Schmucks

A bit more on Gold Leasing

A very good explanation of central bank gold leasing, with some good charts.  I can't say I really understand the mechanism, but it seems to back up my theory that they were using it to manipulate the price.

money (pun intended) quote:

"To conclude, this final graph signals incredible stress in the financial sector in its efforts to control gold prices. The low overall rates imply that the official sector is hemorrhaging gold but that this situation cannot continue for too much longer. In short, this final graph signals the death of leasing just a surely as an EKG like this would signal the death of a critically ill patient."

Note that this is from about two years ago.  It would be nice to see a more recent chart, but I suspect that it's still pretty much flat-lined due to the sky-rocketing gold price.  So even though it's at historic highs ($927/oz) today, I'm very tempted to cash out my lame money-market IRA, (my last interest rate was 1.2%) buy coins and bury 'em in the garden, especially since they just dropped the interest rate 50 points and the dow went up about 30.  Storms a' comin', pa.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forex

I tried to do a little research a while back when the price of gold went down from about $400/ounce to about $250 and stayed there for quite a while. I assumed it was being somehow manipulated to prop up the dollar (that's right, I am a conspiracy buff). I got nowhere, though because somewhere (circa 1995?) some countries {cough, Israel, cough} stopped reporting their reserves AND something called gold leasing began, or at least began to be reported.

In my admittedly very dim understanding of leasing, it is a tool that is used by governments to count as reserves gold that it does not actually hold. Whether it is physically in some other place or gone to the private sector, I can only speculate. I'll spare you my half-baked theories, but it is interesting to note that European reported holdings have decreased substantially while only those of Spain(!), Russia and Kazakhstan have increased. I'm thinking that the net decrease in reported holding could account for the temporary lowering in the dollar price of gold (greater supply leading to lower price leading to increased demand and higher price on the private market). All I can show for it is a well-scratched head. Perhaps someone with more intellectual horsepower... MM?

It's also interesting that there is no wiki entry for gold leasing. Spooky. And why did they cancel "The Lone Gunmen" just when it started to get good?

Gold Leasing

I tried to do a little research a while back when the price of gold went down from about $400/ounce to about $250 and stayed there for quite a while. I assumed it was being somehow manipulated to prop up the dollar (that's right, I am a conspiracy buff). I got nowhere, though because somewhere (circa 1995?) some countries {cough, Israel, cough} stopped reporting their reserves AND something called gold leasing began, or at least began to be reported.

In my admittedly very dim understanding of leasing, it is a tool that is used by governments to count as reserves gold that it does not actually hold. Whether it is physically in some other place or gone to the private sector, I can only speculate. I'll spare you my half-baked theories, but it is interesting to note that European reported holdings have decreased substantially while only those of Spain(!), Russia and Kazakhstan have increased. I'm thinking that the net decrease in reported holding could account for the temporary lowering in the dollar price of gold (greater supply leading to lower price leading to increased demand and higher price on the private market). All I can show for it is a well-scratched head. Perhaps someone with more intellectual horsepower... MM?

It's also interesting that there is no wiki entry for gold leasing. Spooky. And why did they cancel "The Lone Gunmen" just when it started to get good?

Finance for Dummies

I've never owned any stocks and I barely even know what a bond is (except bail bonds - ahem) but I got up early enough yesterday to watch the tsunami hit CNBC when futures were down 400 points. Pure schadenfreude bliss, watching the talking heads panic and curse Bernanke and even accuse each other for not seeing it coming. As IOZ said "I love the smell of market corrections in the morning. It smells like victory."

I'd stand in a bread-line all day if I could see Cramer crying every morning and brokers jumping out windows, screaming "Oh, no! I can't live like everyone else. Ahhhh!" So the "Plunge (haha) Protection Team" stepped up and the Dow ended up 300 today. Can you say "bear trap". I also like "dead cat bounce". Ambrose Bierce could have said panics are God's way of teaching proles finance.

I've wondered if the government started buying enough equities to bring the market along, and it works, then what? If they sold it would have to be gradually or else it would just as likely work in reverse. What if they made a bundle? Tax rebates? Options? My brain is too tiny.

The striking writers might as well just go back to work; they couldn't possibly beat this stuff. I'm getting up early again tomorrow. I never thought I'd enjoy reality tv.

Follow the MoneyBomb

Watching the Ron Paul MLK money bomb on Ron Paul Graphs my jaw is dropping; right now (11:30 am EST) it's coming in about $2200 per minute! It's already the third biggest day of donations.  I'm amazed that the server doesn't choke, and the charts keep updating in realtime like clockwork. The future is now - "The Revolution will be Digitized", indeed.  When the New Republic fired the Newsletter ABM, backed up enthusiastically by the Orange Line Libertarians, it was like getting punched in the gut.  Fortunately, it really was old news, and the Paul campaign was able to handle it reasonably well even though it seemed to be pretty damaging, timed perfectly before New Hampshire for maximum effect.  I have to grudgingly congratulate the bastards, but I think they fired their only shot, because that crap had been floating around the internet bowl, more or less unnoticed for a couple of months, and I figured they would save it for the general election.  Now, they got nothing, so they're trying to get back to ignoring him. No high fives yet, orcs.

My first opinion of moneybombs was that they were a pointless exercise and would wouldn't really generate more money because people would hold off donating before and after the big day (the charts show this to be true - reverting to the mean), however, the publicity from the huge daily totals was so much greater than anything they could have actually purchased, that I now see them as the stroke of genius they obviously are.  I'm hoping for a massive total today, simply to show the world the truth about Ron Paul's, and by extension our, racism; money talks, bullshit walks. Or, in this case, bullshit crawls along the gutter like Jamie Kirchick coming out of a Reason party at 4:00 am with cum on his chin.  Maggots.

I Hope, therefore I Am. Hopefully.

I read Chapati Mystery as a crash-course in Pakastani politics. As a pleasant surprise, I found a pretty good run-down of the current crop of Presidential candidates. The author likes Obama, and I suppose we should start getting used to the idea, but he gives Paul a relatively good plug - 

"Neither Kucinich nor Paul should be forgotten, even as we mourn their candor-killed candidacies. Only grown-ups can handle Libertarianism, and even then it would take a good Democrat, or perhaps a fired-up, ready to go Dennis Kucinich, to speak for collective conscience and save Libertarians from themselves. America is ready for neither of these men, but it was delightful to see Ron Paul speaking in syllogisms so sensible they physically hurt the other candidates."

I agree that libertarianism demands personal responsibility and I know what he means by "collective conscience", although we would probably disagree on how this conscience might be assuaged.  Progressives are not prepared to lose any of the ground they have gained in order to stop the US government from murdering people, and can't support Paul's stance on the constitution, because many of those gains were achieved by extra- and therefore un-constitutional means.  The "right to privacy" as well as "the unitary executive" could be established by amendment, but they haven't been.  

On Obama's "support that so bewilders America’s chattering classes; he is unstoppable precisely because he is inexperienced, because he does not yet carry the taint of the Imperial Corporate Machine that fleeces citizen, subject and enemy alike; he is too young to have investments in their entrenched isms, ists, and grievances; he is too new a convert to consider his ascendancy ordained by Jesus; he is just naive enough to believe that, by building a mandate across parties, races and classes, that he might at last rouse the great and drowsy American spirit that once a century rises to correct the hundred years’ of errata preceding it. Hope is indeed naive, and Americans have perhaps decided at last that naivete about the possibilities of tomorrow, no matter how improbable, is preferable the beastly, apocalyptic guile that promises to drown us." 

I don't understand how the author could shoot down Libertarianism because it requires "adult" responsibility and wisdom, and endorse Obama because of the child-like faith that propels his candidacy.  Ron Paul's  uncomfortable syllogisms won't be nullified because Obama "does not yet carry the taint" He'll certainly have plenty of opportunity to acquire it.  As far as rousing the great and drowsy American spirit: be careful what you wish for.

Hope might be naive but it doesn't have to be abandoned just because it's too difficult to work with very tools that were designed to prevent rule by guile.  I naively hope that Americans will deconstruct the empire before it deconstructs the very means to speak to whatever remains of our collective conscience, a very small and meek voice, and fading.

Never play Chicken with Someone you don't Know

Iranian "gunboats" Threaten U.S. Navy (Unh-huh)

And the american public still doesn't get it; I first got this from the business channel (CNBC?) this morning and the usually straight (worldly, joking-uncle type) Marc Haines asked "Why don't they just blow 'em out of the water?(chortle)". 

Meanwhile the oil ticker over his head shows $96.00.

Ass-hats in all sizes. "In this style - 10/6"