Sarah Palin can only name one Supreme Court case?:

The Palin aide, after first noting how "infuriating" it was for CBS to purportedly leak word about the gaffe, revealed that it came in response to a question about Supreme Court decisions.

After noting Roe vs. Wade, Palin was apparently unable to discuss any major court cases.

There was no verbal fumbling with this particular question as there was with some others, the aide said, but rather silence.

I'm not saying she needs to be an encyclopedia of the Supreme Court, but I gather that most of you could fire off at least two or three cases. You would expect someone running to be for vice-president, a heartbeat away from the presidency, would have somewhat of an understanding of one of the three branches of government. Then again with the way the Bush Administration has run over the Constitution and Bill of Rights, you'd think we don't have a Supreme Court.

Posted by Jason at 04:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (21)

Survey USA says that Saxby is in trouble:

[I]ncumbent Saxby Chambliss, a Republican, leads Martin, a Democrat, by two points, 46 percent to 44 percent.

Thirteen days ago, Chambliss led the challenger by 17 points, 53 percent to 36 percent. Chambliss lost seven points in the latest polling and Martin picked up eight points.

Because the margin of error for both polls is 3.8 percent, the poll shows that Georgia's U.S. Senate race is effectively tied.

[UPDATE] Here another story on this from 11 Alive. It's not that Jim Martin is out wowing crowds either. Saxby Chambliss is just that bad.

Posted by Jason at 04:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Here is the electoral vote picture as of today according to Real Clear Politics:

Posted by Jason at 12:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Kathleen Parker joins Peggy Noonan in criticizing Sarah Palin:

Only Palin can save McCain, her party, and the country she loves. She can bow out for personal reasons, perhaps because she wants to spend more time with her newborn. No one would criticize a mother who puts her family first.

Do it for your country.

Have you seen the Couric interview? Oh, man. Hilarious. They really could have played the SNL skit of the interview and I would have laughed just as much.

Seriously, Republicans. You guys are so screwed in November.

Posted by Jason at 11:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (18)

Stephen Gordon adds insult to injury in a press release about price gouging:

"As I live in Morgan County but work in Atlanta, I see the impact of government intervention into the retail gasoline market on a daily basis," said Libertarian Party of Alabama Chairman Stephen Gordon. "I bought gas last night in Calhoun County, Alabama, but by the time I made it to Cobb County, Georgia, there was no gas anywhere to be found."

"Consumers have no incentive to conserve gasoline when the prices are artificially low," Gordon continued. "If the cost was higher, they would be driving less or using more efficient vehicles. Additionally, when gas prices become high enough, there is an increased motivation for gas station owners and operators to truck fuel in from greater distances – passing the additional cost on to consumers."

An Associated Press article also published today anecdotally highlighted this point. "Right now, I'll pay anything for gas," construction worker Larry Jenkins said. "I don't care if it's $5 or $6 a gallon. I need it."

"Alabamians should be proud that we beat Georgia on the football field over the weekend," Gordon said. "We should also be proud that we have better public policy pertaining to price gouging than Georgia. Or would the Montgomery Advertiser prefer that we limit our football scores to no more than one touchdown per quarter?"

Posted by Jason at 11:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

"Mr. Speaker, those who believe they can control and direct the market's invisible hand will eventually be slapped by it." - Rep. Jeff Flake

Here is one of the two best speeches from today in the House. The first is from Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ):

By the way, House Republicans are blaming the speech by Speaker Nancy Pelosi for the bailout's defeat.

Posted by Jason at 07:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

[Compiled from numerous sources]

The US House of Representatives voted 228 to 205 against the $700 Billion bail-out plan on Monday. At the end of the vote, 95 Democrats and 133 Republicans opposed the measure.

Congressional offices received overwhelming number of calls and emails from constituents: 9 to 1 in opposition. Even more than the number for the illegal immigration amnesty bill last session. Georgia Rep. Lynn Westmoreland voted (along with 11 of the 13 Georgia Republicans) against the bill saying, “It was a bail-out for the ones that caused the problem.”

House majority leader, John Boehner, and others reported after the vote that many members shifted away from support because of a highly partisan pre-vote speech by Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Pelosi attacked first the House republicans by calling them unpatriotic for not participating in the negotiations. She then attacked President Bush, saying, “$700 billion is staggering, but only part of the cost of Bush’s failed policies.” She lamented that “eight years of anything goes policy brought us to where we are today.” Perhaps the most unrealistic comments were her praise for Barney Frank’s outstanding economic leadership.

Offense was taken by many in the House, as was noted by Rep. Boehner saying he could see it in their faces. House members were aware of kick-backs from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the way of campaign contributions and grants to support groups like ACORN. These were major points that were addressed through the weekend’s bi-partisan negotiations. They were also aware of hearings in 2004 wherein Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Chuck Schumer and Maxine Waters came to the defense of the failing quasi-government mortgage lenders Fannie & Freddie; and, that subsequent Democrat maneuvers blocked all legislative attempts to rein in the problems.

In addition to grass roots opposition and reasonable concerns over re-election, it was Pelosi’s partisan attacks, lies and calling Republicans unpatriotic that sealed the fate of the House vote.

The original version of the bail-out was rehashed over the weekend and a ‘better’ bill was said to be presented for a vote today. The changes included removal of a provision that would give 20% of potential long-term profits to radical leftist organization ACORN. However, the trade-off included a true socialist agenda:

Section 103 stipulated that the Treasury would be in position to bail-out cities, states and labor unions whose pension funds were staggering.

Also, wording stipulated that the Treasury shall provide help to individuals struggling to pay their mortgages.

Newt Gingrich predicted the bill would pass the House because of the serious implications of any Congressman being the deciding vote in opposition, and then having to take responsibility for killing the needed rescue of the financial markets.

However, Gingrich also said the world is on the edge of a fundamental meltdown in the financial markets. He had no sense this bail-out would stop that reality. The bill contained no market fundamentals to insure stability such as freezing or removing the capital gains tax, freezing spending, or any realistic plan to achieve energy independence. He said, “There is no good future to choose. This is the ‘least bad’ bill on the table.” Gingrich anticipated the bill would pass to send a positive signal to world economic markets.

Forbes reported an unnamed Treasury official as saying, “The $700 billion figure was not based on any particular data; we wanted a really big number.” The intention was to send an immediate message to world markets.

More than two-thirds of Republicans and 40 percent of Democrats opposed the bill. Democratic and Republican leaders alike pledged to try again, though the Democrats said GOP lawmakers needed to provide more votes.

Boehner, the Ohio Republican, said Pelosi’s speech "poisoned our conference, caused a number of members that we thought we could get, to go south."

That was a remarkable accusation by Republicans against Republicans, said Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., chairman of the House Financial Services Committee: "Because somebody hurt their feelings, they decided to punish the country."

It would seem that Barney Frank, refusing to accept responsibility for his own part in causing the crisis in the mortgage markets, fails to understand a simple fact: Americans are not as stupid as he believes we are! It is he and the other thieves in Congress who deserve punishment.

It is apparent that the Democrat controlled House cannot pass the measure without Republican support. It is also apparent that Middle America will remember any switched votes on November 4th.

Posted by Larry Stanley at 05:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

Congress is discussing and voting on the $700 billion bailout today. The bill and a summary are available at the Financial Services Committee website.

I've heard that Westmoreland and Broun will vote against the bailout. Gingrey is leaning that way. Marshall will vote for it and is willing give up his seat to support it.

Martin Avila is live-blogging the sessions during the day over at United Liberty.

[UPDATE] As most of you know by now, the bailout bill failed by a vote of 205 to 228.

How did the Georgia Delegation vote?
Yea: Bishop (D-2nd), Marshall (D-3rd)
Nay: Barrow (D-12th), Broun (R-10th), Deal (R-9th), Gingrey (R-11th), Johnson (D-4th), Kingston, (R-1st), Lewis (D-5th), Linder (R-7th), Price (R-6th), Scott (D-13th), Westmoreland (R-8th)

Posted by Jason at 12:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

USA Today is reporting that our gas supply problems could last two more weeks. Many gas stations around Metro Atlanta are running out as soon as they get gas.

Our governor is in Europe right now and it turns out he procrastinated in getting a waiver from the EPA to ease environmental regulations and he contributed to the problem by pandering and strong-arming gas stations that “gouge” customers, keeping prices artificially low and contributing to the panic.

What can you do voluntarily?

• Do not buy gas when you have half a tank. You do not need gas and you are not going to run out. You only contribute to the madness.
• Take only what you need, do not fill up gas cans.
• Get gas in the early hours of the morning. This is the best way to make sure you have gas.
• Cut back on driving. Limit and consolidate your daily trips if possible.

Posted by Jason at 11:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

From the Henry Herald:

Gov. Sonny Perdue's choice for the next State Court Judge in Henry County said he is now preparing to make the transition from one prominent role in the area to another.

Jason Harper, out-going chairman of the Henry County Board of Commissioners, was selected by the governor Thursday to fill the new judgeship. The chairman will join judges Ben Studdard, James Chafin and Ernest Blount, in handling misdemeanor cases from the Henry County Judicial Center.

Posted by Larry Stanley at 07:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Three Constitutional amendments appear on the current ballot.

Rep. Steve Davis filmed some comments earlier this week about the Constitutional amendmnets and placed them on YouTube to share them with people. It is brief (10 mintues) and Davis will be speaking at 3DCC on Oct 6th as well as the HCGOP on Oct 7th about them and will be open for questions and answers.

I watched the video on the Constitutional Amendments and think Davis presented himself - and the issues - very well. I am especially grateful for his speaking on these topics. The absence of media spin is refreshing.

Posted by Larry Stanley at 08:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I'll be live-blogging the VP debate on Thursday night.

Posted by Jason at 08:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My commentary of the presidential debate has been posted over at Blogging the Debates. You can click the play button on the image below, it'll pop-up the player. My comments will appear at the bottom:

Posted by Jason at 02:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Guard your wallet, negotiators in Congress have reached an agreement:

Congressional leaders and the Bush administration agreed Sunday on the main elements of a $700 billion bailout for the financial industry, paving the way for swift enactment of the largest government intervention in markets since the Great Depression.

Negotiators sought to iron out the final shape of the legislation and it still had to be reviewed by House Republicans, whose fierce opposition to a federal rescue nearly torpedoed an emerging bipartisan pact late in the week. Officials in both parties said they hoped for a House vote Monday.

I don't buy the "sky is falling" attitude of congressional leaders. Intervention always makes things worse. The easy money policy of the Federal Reserve and the Community Reinvestment Act, which Rep. Ron Paul has partly blamed for the crisis. Even though I am very angry with Dr. Paul and his handlers, we can say what we want about the man, but he has always been right on about the financial crisis.

I've seen much made of the money paid to adviser of Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) from Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, but almost nothing about the campaign donations by PACs and individuals supporting the interests of the housing behemoths to Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) and Sen. Chris Dodd D-CT), one of the principal negotiators of this deal.

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), who has also received Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac money, told The New York Times in 2003:

'These two entities -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- are not facing any kind of financial crisis,'' said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. ''The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.''

Representative Melvin L. Watt, Democrat of North Carolina, agreed.

''I don't see much other than a shell game going on here, moving something from one agency to another and in the process weakening the bargaining power of poorer families and their ability to get affordable housing,'' Mr. Watt said.

Taxpayers are now on the hook for $5 trillion in mortgages. No one knows how many of the mortgages are bad. Even the Bush Administration admits that they just made up the $700 billion figure. No one is making sure the interests of taxpayers are protected and it is almost guaranteed that we'll never see any of this money again.

Posted by Jason at 01:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Here is video of the first Presidential Debate:

Posted by Jason at 12:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford is a voice of reason on the latest bailout:

I am worried for our country -- not so much because of the tumult in the financial markets but because of the federal government's response and its implications.

It seems that each new crisis is met with a new answer from the government. After Hurricane Katrina, the federal government assumed roles traditionally handled by state and local governments. After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the government federalized 25,000 workers through the Transportation Security Administration. The example of security-focused countries such as Israel, which elects to have that function handled by the private sector, did not matter. Now, our federal government is likely to commit three-quarters of a trillion dollars -- more than last year's Pentagon budget -- to a bailout based on what happened in the credit markets last week.

An ever-expanding scope of federal commitment and power is not what made this country great. Expanded power in one place comes at a cost in other places. American cornerstones such as individual initiative and an entrepreneurial spirit -- born in free and open societies with private property rights and the rule of law -- have never fit particularly well within the context of an ever-growing federal government.

For 200 years, the "business model" in our country has rested on a simple fact: that while one may reap rewards from taking risks, one should also be prepared to face the consequences of those risks. Some of the proposed actions with regard to the credit market turn that business model on its head -- absolving those who took too much risk, or bought too much house, from the weight of their own choices. If Congress passes the proposed bailout, we will be destined to have far greater problems in time, leaving those who are prudent in their finances to foot the bill for those who are not.

Last week's events were rooted in distressed mortgage securities whose optimistic values were facilitated by quasi-governmental entities Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The investment banking capital write-downs were turbocharged by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which did what too many laws do -- it fixed yesterday's problem. The amazing expansion of credit was fueled by a Federal Reserve offering an easy-money policy that led us right into a credit bubble. All this was made worse by the government enabling some people's tendency to want more house than they can afford.

With that bubble popped, we will now go through a major financial de-leveraging. It will be painful. Yet to preserve what has made this country great, we need to be on guard against Washington offering endless cures to our ills.

Many of the "cures" that are soon to be offered will have one thing in common -- telling us what others did wrong. Instead of listening to these, each of us as taxpayers must admonish those in Washington to get their own financial house in order. Washington is the master of creative and unsustainable finance, with $50 trillion in unfunded promises.

Sanford gets it, as he does on so many other issues. We must be very skeptical of anything the government does, whether it is giving $2 trillion in bailouts to companies that took risks and failed or whether it is giving up essential liberties for some measure of security.

Posted by Jason at 10:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Washington Post is discussing the fiscal future of the United States:

Back in June -- before the government had assumed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's $5 trillion debt and before it had embarked on the most recent batch of financial bailouts -- the Government Accountability Office issued a report declaring that the federal government was on "an unsustainable long-term fiscal path." The government has committed to spend $54 trillion more than it would take to keep the budget deficit at the 2007 level (about 1.2 percent of gross domestic product) over the next 75 years. Though spending on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and on other items have undoubtedly contributed, by far the biggest cause is the projected cost of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, brought on by an aging population. According to the GAO, existing law requires the government to spend $41 trillion more on these entitlements over the next 75 years than it can expect to receive in payroll taxes and premiums. Of this, $34 trillion is related to health-care programs.

Does 75 years seem remote? Well, the crunch actually begins much sooner than that -- in 2011, when Social Security's cash flow turns negative, because of the first wave of baby-boom retirements. No longer will the rest of government be able to live off the surplus in Social Security's trust fund. According to the GAO, the federal budget deficit -- projected at more than 3 percent of GDP next year -- is on a path to exceed 20 percent of GDP by 2050, unless we enact substantial reforms to our tax structure and entitlement programs.

The federal debt in August was just over $9.6 trillion, or about 65 percent of GDP -- better than, say, Japan (182 percent) or Italy (106 percent) but worse than historical U.S. norms. About a quarter of U.S. government debt is held by foreigners; we owe Japan and China about $500 billion each. Recent events will push their share higher. We are lucky to own the printing press that produces the currency, U.S. dollars, in which these debts are denominated. But we cannot inflate it away forever. Eventually, our creditors will demand higher interest in return for accepting pieces of paper backed by "the full faith and credit of the United States."

This has been one of the most exciting presidential races in recent memory, marked by the high drama of a young African American nominee's bid to make history and the even higher drama of the past few days. But, in light of the country's actual economic predicament, it has not been a terribly serious or even relevant campaign. Both Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain have ignored the long-term entitlements crisis, making tax and spending promises that they cannot keep without borrowing more money, much of it from abroad. In the next 37 days, they must engage in a more realistic debate.

Posted by Jason at 10:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Georgia-Alabama game gets underway at 7:45pm on ESPN. I have to admit that I am nervous about the game, as much as I denied it to Stephen Gordon this week, an Alabama fan working with me on the Barr campaign.

You can read the game preview here.

Alabama's defensive line could mean problems for Knowshon Moreno. I'm not saying I don't have faith in Matthew Stafford, but I don't like the thought of a one-dimensional offense.

USC lost. Florida lost. Georgia winning would make for a great weekend.

[8:37pm] We are getting our asses kicked.

Posted by Jason at 06:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (17)

I got word yesterday that my column for The Covington News will resume in November, after the election. That had always been the plan, but apparently they went through a change in editors and I hadn't spoken to anyone at the paper since June when I started working for the Barr campaign. I just made sure everything was still as originally intended.

Posted by Jason at 12:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I will be live-blogging mainly to make notes before I write my commentary at Blogging the Debates. I'll get started around 7pm. I'm recording the debate as well and I'll post that sometime Saturday.

By the way, Reason magazine is hosting a counter-debate with Bob Barr. You can watch it online here.

Tonight’s debate is on foreign policy, not economic policy, though the financial issues inside the United States has international ramifications and given the news that China is no longer buying our debt, there is no doubt that it will come up. Republicans will no doubt complain about this.

Foreign policy is considered to be John McCain’s strongest issue. He will play the “Country First” line. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear him say, “for patriotism, not for profit” to play on the populist trend we are seeing in American politics.

Barack Obama has to make the foreign implications of economic issues the forefront of his argument against McCain. That’s not to say Obama is right on economic issues, nor does it mean McCain is right on foreign policy. I don’t believe either candidate is best suited for either issue.

Obama has an upper hand on Iraq. He opposed the war and was skeptical of the “surge,” though he admits it paid off by the decrease in violence. McCain supported the “surge,” supported the war and has generally been supportive of President Bush. He contends that he right on the “surge.” However, the American public has been opposed to military actions in Iraq and is supportive of a timetable withdrawal.

This is where Obama could make a “third Bush term” argument by emphasizing the contention of the Bush-style foreign policy that has alienated the United States. It wouldn’t surprise me if McCain’s “100 years in Iraq” comments from earlier in the year could come up at some point.

McCain has to convince voters that Iraq is worth, not only the cost but more American lives. He also has to highlight Obama’s inexperience on foreign policy. He needs to get Obama flustered and off point. Obama is exceptional at delivering speeches, but he is not very good at thinking on his feet and tends to trip over himself.

That is just my two cents, mostly from a political viewpoint, not necessarily my personal political beliefs.

Posted by Jason at 07:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Here is Green Death drinking Green Death:

Posted by Jason at 03:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Here is Westmoreland's contact info. Please urge him to vote NO! to the socialist bailout with a minimum price of $700,000,000,000.

Washington, D.C. Office:
1213 Longworth House Office Building,
District of Columbia 20515-1008
Phone: (202) 225-5901
Fax: (202) 225-2515

Newnan Office:
1601-B East Highway 34
Newnan, Georgia 30265
Phone: (770) 683-2033
Fax: (770) 683-2042

Posted by Ryan Larosa at 10:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

This is so incredibly sad:

[S]ome of the most basic details, including the $700 billion figure Treasury would use to buy up bad debt, are fuzzy.

"It's not based on any particular data point," a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com Tuesday. "We just wanted to choose a really large number."

Wow. If it wants to see a bailout bill passed soon, the administration's going to have to come up with some hard answers to hard questions. Public support for it already seems to be waning. According to a Rasmussen Reports poll released Tuesday, 44% of those surveyed oppose the administration's plan, up from 37% Monday.

Speaking of John Stossel. He has a column about these bailouts and Freddie Mac and Fanny Mae. It's a great read, but here is a quick excerpt:

Barack Obama says, "[Today's economic problems are] a stark reminder of the failures of ... an economic philosophy that sees any regulation at all as unwise and unnecessary" ().

What? Does that mean that until last week the Bush administration embraced the free market? Nonsense. Governments at all levels have regulated and subsidized the housing and financial industries for years. Nothing changed under President Bush.

The government-backed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were created precisely to interfere with the housing and mortgage markets. In effect, Freddie and Fannie diverted money to people who wouldn't have qualified for mortgages in a real private market.

Had actual private companies performed these activities, they would have been subject to market checks. But they were not. The results were predictable.

Posted by Jason at 10:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The National Taxpayers Union takes a look at candidate spending plans. They find that Obama is proposing $292.954 billion in new spending. McCain is proposing $92.437. And, Bob Barr wants to slash $200.928 billion from the budget.

Posted by Jason at 06:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Head to No Cash for Trash and sign the petition to stop this asinine bailout.

Posted by Jason at 05:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'll be live-blogging the presidential debate on Friday at Blogging the Debates, sponsored by Voter Watch. I'll be representing Bob Barr. Other contributors to this will include the Heritage Foundation, Reason magazine, Cynthia McKinney and Dick Morris.

Posted by Jason at 05:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Jamie Dupree, WSB Radio's Washington correspondant, said that the continuing budget resolutions have been scanned into PDF form (as opposed to creative a PDF from the actual file) to prevent reporters and interested parties from scanning through and finding earmarks for pork projects.

Such an open and transparent Congress.

Posted by Jason at 12:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

The bailout for the auto industry is making its way through Congress:

The House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a $25bn package of low-cost loans to help hard-pressed carmakers and their suppliers finance plant modernisation at a time of restricted access to public capital ­markets.

The automotive loans are separate from the proposed $700bn bail-out for the banking sector, which is still being debated in Congress. The House approved the measure 370-58, setting the stage for Senate approval within days.

The industry’s case has been helped by the fact that Michigan and Ohio, the two states most dependent on the car industry, are key swing states in the November 4 presidential election.

Executives of General Motors, Ford Motor and Chrysler and their suppliers have lobbied heavily for the loans. Both presidential ­candidates, John McCain and Barack Obama, have expressed support.

Looking over the vote leads me to this question: What the hell has happened to Lynn Westmoreland?

Tom Price, Paul Broun, John Linder and Nathan Deal all voted against the resolution.

Posted by Jason at 11:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

President Bush provided virtually no reason to justify the $700 Billion bail-out plan. He acknowledged that over 90% of homeowners are paying mortgages on time and will eventually pay off those mortgages. He did not, however, provide solid reasoning for that 90% of Americans to "bite the bullet" and support an immediate passage of the bail-out plan.

There was a domino effect. To be sure, massive amounts of money was in play when the mortgage backed securities market fell. Housing values fell. Lenders became under capitalized. The money available for new loans dried up.

Bush said businesses "cannot borrow money" to meet their daily needs. That is when he lost me and any concept of my support for immediate acceptance of the plan as proposed. If you must "borrow money" to meet daily needs, the business has already failed.

I lost a business a few years ago. I know the downside of throwing money at a problem. The hope of buying your way out of bad decisions is fruitless. I had sufficient capital to collateralize my loans, so all that was really lost was the collateral and a lot of cash. I am speaking from experience: Bad decisions net bad results. Businesses and people have the right to fail. Risky investments provide no guarantees- in McDonough or Washington.

What I want to hear from Bush or any anyone else in support of this plan regards payback. Bush said some if not all the $700 Billion would eventually be repaid. That is pure bovine scatology. It is pie in the sky. All we must do is look at the fast and loose laws and managment practices that brought us to this point. Bush said nothing tonight to address tangible benefit to the 90% of us who have played by the rules.

Government intervention, government policy, social engineering and open-handed graft caused this problem. I need to hear someone address that series of problems. Immediate adoption of the proposed bail-out provides no sense of confidence. Simply saying that dominoes fell after Fannie & Freddie were finally bankrupt is not enough.

Some things are certain: I am not comforted by the Democrat leadership that provided cover for Fannie & Freddie, to now be in the driver's seat to design a recovery plan. I agree that a bi-partisan solution must be found in order for further political wrangling to be avoided. Yet I am the kind who wants assurances that people like Frank and Reid are removed from the process. Along with every Democrat or Republican who voted to kill the 2003, 2005 and other proposals to rein in Fannie & Freddie. So long as the foxes are guarding the henhouse, at the end of the day we will have no eggs left.

This nation must not be allowed to fall into socialist government or economy. If any group ever wanted to force that situation, it would be manipulated by allowing massive failures of government backed private-public ventures -- and then coming to the "rescue" by mortgaging the future and selling the principles of American capitalism.

Posted by Larry Stanley at 09:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

This is a very bad move on McCain's part:

John McCain called Wednesday for the first presidential debate, scheduled for Friday in Mississippi, to be delayed and urged Barack Obama to join him in Washington for a high-level meeting of congressional leaders to address the financial crisis. Obama responded that the debate should go on.

In a roll of the dice that jolted the presidential race, McCain said in New York Wednesday that he is suspending his campaign - and his fundraising and campaign advertising - as of Thursday and will return to Washington. He also scrapped a planned appearance on David Letterman.
[...]
"I am calling on the president to convene a meeting with the leadership from both houses of Congress, including Senator Obama and myself," McCain said. "It is time for both parties to come together to solve this problem."

You don't pull a stunt like this because it signals weakness and McCain cannot afford to show that.

Posted by Jason at 05:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

From the recently adopted GOP platform::

We do not support government bailouts of private institutions. Government interference in the markets exacerbates problems in the marketplace and causes the free market to take longer to correct itself.

H/T:Below the Beltway

Posted by Jason at 07:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

The United States Supreme Court has interceded in the case of Troy Davis by granting a stay of execution, according to 11 Alive.

I'll post more as it comes in.

[6:13pm] ABC News, CNN and the AJC are all carrying the story.

By the way, I'm not saying the guy is innocent. I am saying that given the extraordinary circumstances, such as a majority of witnesses recanting their testimony, Davis deserves another trial.

Posted by Jason at 05:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)

George Will has a great column today about John McCain:

Channeling his inner Queen of Hearts, John McCain furiously, and apparently without even looking around at facts, said Chris Cox, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, should be decapitated. This childish reflex provoked the Wall Street Journal to editorialize that "McCain untethered" -- disconnected from knowledge and principle -- had made a "false and deeply unfair" attack on Cox that was "unpresidential" and demonstrated that McCain "doesn't understand what's happening on Wall Street any better than Barack Obama does."
[...]
By a Gresham's Law of political discourse, McCain's Queen of Hearts intervention in the opaque financial crisis overshadowed a solid conservative complaint from the Republican Study Committee, chaired by Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Texas. In a letter to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, the RSC decried the improvised torrent of bailouts as a "dangerous and unmistakable precedent for the federal government both to be looked to and indeed relied upon to save private sector companies from the consequences of their poor economic decisions." This letter, listing just $650 billion of the perhaps more than $1 trillion in new federal exposures to risk, was sent while McCain's campaign, characteristically substituting vehemence for coherence, was airing an ad warning that Obama favors "massive government, billions in spending increases."

The political left always aims to expand the permeation of economic life by politics. Today, the efficient means to that end is government control of capital. So, is not McCain's party now conducting the most leftist administration in American history? The New Deal never acted so precipitously on such a scale. Treasury Secretary Paulson, asked about conservative complaints that his rescue program amounts to socialism, said, essentially: This is not socialism, this is necessary. That non sequitur might be politically necessary, but remember that government control of capital is government control of capitalism. Does McCain have qualms about this, or only quarrels?

On "60 Minutes" Sunday evening, McCain, saying "this may sound a little unusual," said that he would like to replace Cox with Andrew Cuomo, the Democratic attorney general of New York who is the son of former governor Mario Cuomo. McCain explained that Cuomo has "respect" and "prestige" and could "lend some bipartisanship." Conservatives have been warned.

Conservatives who insist that electing McCain is crucial usually start, and increasingly end, by saying he would make excellent judicial selections. But the more one sees of his impulsive, intensely personal reactions to people and events, the less confidence one has that he would select judges by calm reflection and clear principles, having neither patience nor aptitude for either.

Both Clarence Thomas (appointed by Bush 41) and Antonin Scalia (appointed by Reagan) adhere to originalism when it suits the Bush Administration. I think the jury is still out on John Roberts and Samuel Alito.

I don't see how anyone who seriously considers himself a conservative can trust a man who cities Theodore Roosevelt as his role model.

Roosevelt was a progressive, albeit a "national greatness" progressive, who also happened to appoint Oliver Wendall Holmes to the Supreme Court. Holmes helped usher in the progressive movement into mainstream American.

All I am saying that McCain has given every indication that his first inclination is big government and he has done nothing to indicate that he will change.

Posted by Jason at 12:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (16)

"See, you know the way a bailout works? Here’s the way a bailout works. A failed president and a failed Congress invest $700 billion of your money in failed businesses. Believe me, this can’t fail." - Jay Leno

H/T: QandO

Posted by Jason at 12:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Radley Balko writes that the meltdown and bailouts are not capitalism:

Many commenters have blamed all of this on capitalism. This isn't capitalism. It's a peculiar kind of corporatist socialism, where good risks and the resulting profits remain private, but bad risks and the resulting losses are passed on to taxpayers. There's nothing free-market about it.

Neither Barack Obama, nor John McCain, nor either party's leadership in Congress has proposed a reasonable plan to deal with the government's unfunded Social Security and Medicare liabilities. In fact, all have proposed expensive new government programs that can't possibly be funded over the long term. All seem both oblivious to the federal government's impending financial peril and intent on making it worse.

Perversely, all are then simultaneously demanding that they be given greater control over the private sector — because, they gallingly explain, corporations have shown that they can't be left alone to behave in a manner that's fiscally responsible.

Governments have been screwing over taxpayers for about as long as there have been governments and taxpayers. Capitalism, on the other hand, is a fairly recent development, and has spurred an explosion of wealth and the greatest standard of living in human history. What's happening now isn't capitalism, but capitalism is certainly taking the brunt of the blame.

Unfortunately, the end result may be that our politicians make capitalism more accountable to them — the same people who have shown that when it comes to the government's finances, they're accountable to no one.

He adds, "This company routinely borrows from its workers' pension plan to pay off its debt. Its accountants then claim that because the company owes the borrowed money to its own pensioners and not to outside creditors, the resulting hole in the pension plan doesn't really count as a liability."

Forget Enron, AIG and Bear Stearns, right? Look at Congress and the fiscal state of the United States.

Posted by Jason at 07:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

FoxNews reports:

Russia flexed its muscles in America’s backyard Tuesday as it sent one of its largest warships to join military exercises in the Caribbean. The nuclear-powered flagship Peter the Great set off for Venezuela with the submarine destroyer Admiral Chabanenko and two support vessels in the first Russian naval mission in Latin America since the end of the Cold War.

“The St Andrew flag, the flag of the Russian Navy, is confidently returning to the world oceans,” said Igor Dygalo, a spokesman for the Russian Navy.

These petty dictators now have military strength. The Cold War returns.... and we are still buying oil from Hugo!

Posted by Larry Stanley at 11:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

This is news? The fact that Sarah Palin's email account was hacked immediately brought thinking people to the Democrat panic to dent her popularity.

FoxNews reports:

The FBI has served a search warrant against a 20-year-old college student in connection with the hacking of Sarah Palin’s personal e-mail account.

A witness told WBIR-TV that FBI agents served the warrant at the college residence of David Kernell, a student at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. Kernell is the son of Mike Kernell, a Democratic state representative from Memphis.

Let's see whether he is prosecuted.

Posted by Larry Stanley at 11:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (13)

OK, It's an AP report. Even having to sift through the fact the AP cannot tell a factual story with anything positive about the US, this one is confusing:

The alleged incident late Sunday threatened new rifts between the United States and its key ally against terrorism days after a truck bomb struck a luxury hotel in Islamabad, killing 53 people.

The Pakistani army cannot patrol the nefarious tribal frontier. Their former president has admitted his troops simply do not come out alive. So the "Fedayeen Al-Islam" — Arabic for "Islam commandos" — claiming responsibility for the bombing and urging Pakistan to end cooperation with Washington, may simply withdraw into the "safe zone?"

This is all I need to know:

Some 270 people were wounded in the Saturday night attack on the heavily guarded Marriott hotel. The dead included the Czech ambassador and two U.S. Defense Department employees.

Al-Arabiya television said the group that claimed responsibility for the attack demanded an end to Pakistani-American cooperation against the militants and a halt to U.S. military operations in Pakistani tribal regions.

Sure, it's another powder keg. Yet, we cannot simply "Play Clinton" and shuffle it off to someone else. Especially when everyone knows that border region has been a safe harbor for terrorists from the start.

Posted by Larry Stanley at 11:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

On September 12th, I wrote:

[W]e may well run out of gasoline as a result of this because the market will be prevented from adjusting price with supply.

Cobb County police had to break up a few budding altercations Monday as tempers flared at the few local gas stations with fuel to sell.

“I think we’re getting a good sense of people’s frustration and anxiety,” said Cobb police spokesman Dana Pierce.

That’s no surprise, considering commuters at some stations were waiting in line more than an hour for their turn at the pump.

“We’ve had some folks run out (of fuel),” Pierce said.

A bigger problem: The lines at the working gas stations spilled onto major thoroughfares, clogging normally fluid driving lanes.
[...]
“That’s probably making things worse,” said Lehman, noting that everyone seems to be concerned about driving on anything less than a full tank.

Such panic is exacerbating Atlanta’s fuel shortage, said Gregg Laskoski, a spokesman for the southeastern office of the American Automobile Association.

“An awful lot of people seem to filling up their cars to sit in the driveway,” Laskoski said. The demand has also exceeded fuel supplies in Nashville and Tallahassee, he said, but not to extent seen in Atlanta over the last week.

“When you have irrational behavior, there’s no way a supplier can meet the demand,” he said.

Posted by Jason at 10:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

The Reason Foundation proposes a bailout I can get behind (for the most part):

Treasury Secretary Paulson and President Bush seem to be under the delusion that their plan to fix the economy is the best and only one out there. Gone are the days where central planning was rejected—even by Russia and China. If Congressional leaders really have the best interests of Americans at heart they will consider the vast array of other (and better) options available:

• Eliminate the capital-gains tax to free up liquidity in the markets;
• Cut corporate taxes in general to free up liquidity and encourage foreign investment;
• Eliminate or suspend the federal “mark-to-market” accounting rules that are unnecessarily forcing firms into bankruptcy;
• Repeal the Sarbanes-Oxley law (which obviously hasn’t worked) that is hurting entrepreneurial spirit; and
• Lift the short-selling ban put in place to “cool down” markets that is artificially skewing the price and value of companies.

All of those actions should provide Wall Street with enough confidence to keep the stock market alive and keep companies from going into massive bankruptcy.

Cutting taxes and deregulation are the best way to cure an ailing economy.

Oh, and has anyone seen the proposal from the Bush Administration? Check out this section:

Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.

"Unless industry is sufficiently socialized by its private owners and managers so that great essential industries are operated under public obligation appropriate to the public interest in them, the advance of political control over private industry is inevitable." - Donald Richberg, head of the unconstitutional National Recovery Administration

Posted by Jason at 07:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The America's Future Foundation is hosting a tour of the South, including a stop here in Atlanta on Wednesday, September 24th at Shout Restaurant. Speakers will include Benita Dodd, Vice President of the Georgia Public Policy Foundation, and Tim Carney of the Evans-Novak Political Report.

You can view the event details here.

Posted by Jason at 05:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Larry Munson has retired as the Voice of the Georgia Bulldogs, according to 11 Alive.

[5:42pm] The AJC has the story:

A shroud of secrecy has enveloped the announcement, which [could] come at any moment. A reason for the sudden retirement was not known, though Munson has been calling only home games for past two seasons.

Posted by Jason at 05:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

You have just solidified my vote for Jim Marshall. I despise fear-based politics. The mailing done on your behalf by the Georgia Republican Party with the paragraph, "Radical Islamic terrorists bent on destroying us. Borders that remain open, allowing untold millions to sneak in at will" highlights the problems with our political system. You use scare tactics in an attempt to drive voters to your candidacy. It's an old political trick, I realize that. However, it is worn out tactic that makes your candidacy look weak, tired and shameful.

There is no doubt that you would support the same policies that undermine the Constitution as the current administration (USA PATRIOT, warrantless wiretapping, etc.). There is nothing conservative about undermining the Bill of Rights and the Rule of Law.

I do not agree with Jim Marshall on much politically, but you have given me no reason to vote for you.

To the folks at the Georgia Republican Party. Please remove me from your mailing list.

Posted by Jason at 05:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"I'd tell you to hide your wallet, but it's probably too late. This will likely be a very bad week." - US Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) via Twitter

Posted by Jason at 12:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

In-person absentee voting begins today. You simply go to your local board of elections or election registrar and cast your ballot or you can fill out an application and vote absentee via USPS. The AJC has a handy guide on voting.

You must be registered by October 6th in order to cast a ballot in the upcoming election. You can download a form to register here. Please do research and find out what candidate best represents your views and for God's sake if you don't know the issues or the candidates please DO NOT vote.

Posted by Jason at 12:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson made the talk show rounds yesterday discuss the taxpayer bailouts of financial giants and selling the plan to the American public.

During his interview on This Week George Stephanopoulos made a point regarding concern about the bailout that hasn't been covered that much. You can listen to it here (at exactly 14 minutes).

Stephanopoulos: Conservatives are saying this smacks of socialism.

Paulson: I would say this, this is big government intervention. I think this is an unprecendented time. We have a regulatory system that was broken. There are excesses in the system and I have never as a philosophy thought intervention was good. I would just tell you it's necessary right now.

What I find so appalling is that government believes they can solve the problem. The FDR's New Deal was based off programs that Herbert Hoover enacted and they not only failed, but prolonged the Great Depression. You can read more about that by reading America's Great Depression by Murray Rothbard.

My point is that we are making the same mistakes all over again and we have adopted socialism as our new economic structure...and it happened under a Republican president.

Posted by Jason at 11:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

The state Board of Pardons and Paroles should intercede in the Troy Davis case and stay his execution. The more I read about this case, the more I believe that there is more to it.

I am not willing to say the guy is innocent, but it appears that there is substantial doubt seeing as how seven witnesses have recanted their testimony.

This case has also made me do some searching on my own beliefs concerning the death penalty. It's a complex issue, much like abortion.

What if Troy Davis is innocent? One would think that given the circumstances, such as witnesses recanting testimony and the lack of evidence, it would warrant if not a new trial.

You can read more on the case here and here.

Posted by Jason at 07:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Today is the third "birthday" of the launch of this blog. I've had a lot of fun with it. It has given me a place to vent and discuss issues of the day and I've made some good friends in the process.

I wanted to take a moment to say thank you for reading.

Posted by Jason at 07:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Liberty Maven has a great quiz about the Constitution. Go test your knowledge.

Posted by Jason at 06:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The Politico is carrying a story on comments made by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on the Sunday morning talk shows. According the story, American taxpayers may be on the hook to bailout foreign financial institutions:

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson confirmed the change on ABC's "This Week," telling George Stephanopoulos that coverage of foreign-based banks is "a distinction without a difference to the American people."

"If a financial institution has business operations in the United States, hires people in the United States, if they are clogged with illiquid assets, they have the same impact on the American people as any other institution," Paulson said.

"That's a distinction without a difference to the American people. The key here is protecting the system. ... We have a global financial system, and we are talking very aggressively with other countries around the world and encouraging them to do similar things, and I believe a number of them will. But, remember, this is about protecting the American people and protecting the taxpayers. and the American people don't care who owns the financial institution. If the financial institution in this country has problems, it'll have the same impact whether it's the U.S. or foreign."

A line has to be drawn somewhere. We must get back to a true free market system with very minimal, if any, government interference.

Here are some points on the newest bailout. The biggest one to me is that the debt ceiling is being raised again, from $10.615 trillion to $11.315 trillion. I believe this is the second time this year the ceiling on the national debt has been raised and fourth within the last two years. This would be the seventh increase during Bush's presidency.

Also, check this out, it's a citizens guide to the fiscal health of the United States issue by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Pay particular attention to page 9.

Posted by Jason at 05:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Glenn Beck does a portion of his show where he argues with 'his idiot friends." Now we have local evidence that college prfessors and government employees alike have fallen prey to the ignorance and false teachings of liberalism.

the Daily Herald:
CSU Celebrates Constitution's Birthday

Joe Corrado, a professor of political science at Clayton State, and coordinator of the university’s American Democracy Project, said, "What's important about the Constitution is it's alive and open to change."

Mary Evelyn Tomlin, public programs specialist at the National Archives and Records Administration's Southeast Regional office in Morrow said, "The Constitution is a living document, because it was written in a way that lets each generation interpret it in a different way. This allows the Constitution to adapt to society as moods shift on various issues."

Revisionist history. Social engineering. No grasp of historical facts. Adapt to society? Shifting with moods? More like CHAOS. Be aware. Be warned: This is the tripe expounded at CSU and by employees at the National Archives.

It is part of a Congressperson's obligation and sworn duty to 'support,' and therefore, preserve, protect, and defend the US Constitution from all enemies, both foreign and domestic. --- Thomas Jefferson, 1798

Posted by Larry Stanley at 11:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (14)

Here are the last two parts of Glenn Beck's series, "Exposed: America's Broke." You can watch the previous parts here. These are mainly about entitlements. Part 4 includes an interview with David Walker.

Only the first nine minutes or so of the last video are actually about the series. I thought I edited it, but apparently I didn't.

Part 3 (Wednesday):

Part 4 (Thursday):

Posted by Jason at 10:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I blame Sonny Perdue:

Gas prices in metro Atlanta ticked down Friday, but fuel supplies were still tight enough for some stations to run dry.

The average price of regular gas was at $4.04 a gallon, while some stations dipped as low as $3.59, according to AtlantaGasPrices.com.
[...]
Atlanta gets virtually all its gasoline from the Gulf, so while pipelines were open, supplies were still below normal.

Stocks of gas were already low because of shutdowns forced by Hurricane Gustav. Moreover, refineries were in the midst of a yearly transition to “winter gas” from gas formulated for summer driving.

Basically, what this legislator is saying that there isn't a shortage of gas in surrounding areas. It turns out that Nashville is running out of gas as well.

No gas stations around me have gas. I nearly didn't make it to work on Friday. I made it from my home in Covington to McDonough, near my office, on fumes. I had to go out today to get gas for my lawnmower. I wound up driving eight miles to Porterdale to find a gas station that had fuel.

My point is that we may not have this problem if the Governor would stop intervening and allow gas stations to base the price at the pump on supply. People would only buy as needed.

I don't believe price gouging is wrong and I believe the Governor's ignorance has caused this problem.

Posted by Jason at 12:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

This is a big game for Georgia. They're favored by a touchdown. You can follow the game here.

[HALFTIME] Georgia is up 21 to 3. Matthew Stafford is 10 of 18 for 183 yards and a touchdown. Knowshon Moreno has 12 rushes for 42 yards and two touchdowns, including one where he leaped in from the four yard line. A.J. Green has seven catches for 150 yards and a touchdown. And, Rennie Curran has to be the best linebacker in the country.

Posted by Jason at 08:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (17)

I am selling an autographed copy of The FairTax Book on eBay.

Posted by Jason at 07:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"Every government interference in the economy consists of giving an unearned benefit, extorted by force, to some men at the expense of others." - Ayn Rand in Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal

What is the price tag of the newest bailout? Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson says it will cost "Hundreds of billions of dollars" and could potentially reach $1 trillion (1/3 of the federal budget). Meanwhile, calls for regulation are becoming more fierce, despite the fact that the Bush Administration has "presided over the largest increase in regulatory spending," according to George Mason University.

By the time this is all said and done, taxpayers will be on the hook for nearly $2 trillion for all the different bailouts that have occurred.

Posted by Jason at 12:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Cannibal! The Musical opens tonight at Dad's Garage. You have no idea how excited I am about seeing this. Amanda and I are already getting a group of friends together to go see it.

This musical is the first movie made by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of South Park. I have it on DVD and watch it religiously.

Posted by Jason at 12:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Arrrr, maties. 'Tis talk like a pirate day.

Posted by Jason at 11:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Rep. Lynn Westmoreland is no longer a porkbuster:

Westmoreland's other big issue is transportation. He thinks Georgia needs to look seriously at commuter rail, and would like to see the Atlanta-to-Griffin line built. "We're going to have a commute rail somewhere in Georgia," he said. The Griffin line already has $100 million in federal funds, so it makes sense to build that one first. He'd like to eventually see the line run to Macon and even Savannah.

Take this one of two ways. Either he buys into the rentseeking rhetoric from the business community or he is doing this to help his bid for Governor in 2010. It's disappointing either way.

Posted by Jason at 11:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Politico is reporting that another massive bailout is in the works:

After an emergency Capitol meeting Thursday night, the Bush administration and top leaders in Congress pledged to work together to greatly expand the government’s intervention in the financial markets to try to resolve the debt crisis that threatens the larger American economy.

The details of the proposal –and full scope of the exposure for taxpayers—are still unclear. But the basic concept of legislation being drafted by Treasury would authorize the government to begin to buy up illiquid assets in a systematic fashion rather than through ad hoc actions such as this week’s bailout of AIG.

Speed is a priority. Rather than create a separate entity to perform this function, Treasury appears to want to expand its own authority so the government can act more quickly.

Congress will almost certainly delay its adjournment next week to complete legislation.

Posted by Jason at 10:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I typically agree with Democrats when they complain about having their patriotism questioned when they refuse to support or criticize terrible legislation like the USA PATRIOT Act or refuse to engage in more overseas conflicts or even immigration. It's incredibly stupid of Republicans to engage in that sort of rhetoric. It's hypocritical for Democrats to engage in the same sort of rhetoric. Tell that to Joe Biden:

“We want to take money and put it back in the pocket of middle-class people,” Biden said in an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

Noting that wealthier Americans would indeed pay more, Biden said: “It’s time to be patriotic … time to jump in, time to be part of the deal, time to help get America out of the rut.”

Posted by Jason at 11:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I can't stand Bill O'Reilly. The guy is a tool, despite his attempts to portray himself as an independent. Anyway, Neil Cavuto completely owns Bill O'Reilly on economics in this clip. Cavuto's best quote: “You’re worse than the very politicians you castigate on your show.”

H/T: Liberty Maven

Posted by Jason at 07:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)

Glenn Beck is doing a five part series called, "Exposed: America's Broke." It's very interesting. He has had Stephen Moore, formerly of the Club for Growth, and is featuring a lot of what David Walker, former Comptroller General of the United States, says about the future of our economy.

I'll be posting these throughout the rest of the week.

Part 1 (Monday):

Part 2 (Tuesday):

Posted by Jason at 09:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

John McCain flip-flopped on the AIG bailout:

Asked whether he agreed with the government bailout of insurance giant American International Group on today's "Good Morning America," Sen. John McCain answered ambiguously, in stark contrast to a Tuesday interview where he adamantly opposed it.

"I didn't want to do that. And I don't think anybody I know wanted to do that. But there are literally millions of people whose retirement, whose investment, whose insurance were at risk here," the Republican presidential nominee told ABC News' Robin Roberts, sounding somewhat accepting of the Fed's action on AIG.

"They were going to have their lives destroyed because of the greed and excess and corruption," McCain said.

I received some talking points today on AIG. Here is the most interesting line, "AIG is still a solid company with over $1 trillion in assets." Soak that in for a moment. Now prepare to get very upset. I saw this at lunch today on Fox News and was floored by it. The federal government has spent over $800 billion on bailout this year. First came Bear Sterns ($25 billion), followed by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae ($200 billion) and AIG ($85 billion). That couple with $500 billion in other unnamed bailouts (they didn't list them, but they were included in the total). Couple that with a $400 billion budget deficit (though some of the bailouts may already be included in that).

This is madness. Oh, and don't forget that the auto industry wants a bailout too.

Posted by Jason at 04:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

State Sen. Eric Johnson plans to make school choice a major issue next year:

Republican State Senator Eric Johnson plans to introduce legislation in January 2009 that would give each public school student a voucher equal to the money the state currently spends on his or her education. The voucher could be used for tuition at the parents' school of choice -- public, private or religious.

The system would force public grade schools to compete for students and teachers, much like America's institutions of higher learning.

"Foreign students flock to the United States for college and university education," Johnson said. "You don't see anybody knocking on the doors to send their child over here for primary or secondary education."
[...]
Johnson's proposal would provide no funding to students already enrolled in private schools. He said the economic downtown requires the state to stay within existing public school budgets. But where the money goes would be up to parents.

This issue will resonate with the conservative base in 2010. Johnson could very well win the race for Lt. Governor because of it, despite what his critics may believe.

Posted by Jason at 04:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The Georgia Public Policy Foundation used a quote in its Friday Facts from the satirical The Onion, last week and has received several responses, including, “Guys, I’m confused. You included a report from The Onion in your clips today. Of course, The Onion is made-up news intended as parody. Did you include it in your clips knowing that it’s parody? If so, are you confident that everyone else knows it’s parody?”

A search on the GPPF website shows they’ve been quoting The Onion for years. Or are some people trying to divert attention from the interesting MARTA item in the Friday Facts?

Isn’t a free-market think tank is allowed to have a sense of humor?

Posted by Jason at 04:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today is Constitution Day and the fourth anniversary of a holiday passed by politicians who either know nothing about the origin of the Law or choose to ignore it when it is convenient for them, either by appropriating funds outside of the limitations set in Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution (ironically this holiday was passed as an amendment to a spending by Sen. Robert Byrd) or subverting rights clearly protected either in the body of the Constitution, like habeas corpus, or the Bill of Rights (McCain-Feingold, USA PATRIOT Act, warantless wiretapping, etc.). It is true that our Constitution isn’t a suicide pact, but our foreign policy is.

Take a second today and read the Constitution, maybe order a copy for home use. I usually carry a pocket Constitution from the Cato Institute in my back pocket. You can even order one for free from the Heritage Foundation. I even downloaded an a Constitution application for my iPhone.

The Constitution stands for limited government and personal liberty. We need to remember why we have these freedoms and not take them for granted and not be played by politicians that want us to surrender our rights.

Posted by Jason at 07:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

American International Group (AIG) has been bailed out by the federal government to the tune of $85 billion. A better way to say it is...the federal government using money taken from individuals by force has ostensibly taken control of 80% of a private insurer:

The U.S. government took control of American International Group Inc. in an $85 billion bailout to prevent the bankruptcy of the nation's biggest insurer and the worst financial collapse in history.

The Federal Reserve will provide a two-year loan, take 79.9 percent of the New York-based company's stock and replace its management because ``a disorderly failure of AIG could add to already significant levels of financial market fragility,'' according to a statement by the central bank late yesterday.
[...]
The government is lending AIG the money at 8.5 percentage points above the three-month London interbank offered rate, or a current rate of about 11.5 percent.

The agreement will give the company, which sells insurance in more than 130 countries, time to sell assets ``on an orderly basis,'' AIG said in a statement. Chief Executive Officer Robert Willumstad, 63, will be replaced by former Allstate Corp. CEO Edward Liddy, 62, according to a person familiar with the plans, who declined to be identified because the change hadn't been formally announced.

Posted by Jason at 07:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

While China has oil rigs just off the Florida coast....

WASHINGTON - The House voted late Tuesday to open waters off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to oil and gas drilling but only 50 or more miles out to sea and only if a state agrees to energy development off its shore.

Democratic leaders called it a step toward energy independence, but Republicans labeled it a "sham" because most of the estimated 18 billion barrels of oil believed to lie below off-limits coastal waters are within 50 miles of land and will remain out of bounds.

The measure passed in a largely party-line vote of 236-189. It now goes to the Senate, where energy will be the topic later in the week. Thirteen Democrats bucked their leadership and voted against the measure.

Even before the House vote, the White House said President Bush was prepared to veto the measure should it reach his desk. An administration statement said the bill would "stifle development" of offshore energy resources by essentially making permanent drilling bans within the 50-mile coastal buffer, while imposing new taxes on the largest oil companies.

You just cannot fix stupid!

Posted by Larry Stanley at 12:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I don't like it.

Lehman's parent corporation filed Chapter 11. Barclay's agreed to buy some of the subsidiaries that were not listed in the bankruptcy. OK, stockholders stand to lose a lot of money. That is the price of poor management.

Merrill was bought out by BoA for $50 billion. They simply went the way of E. F. Hutton, sort of. That's business.

But look at $200 Billion for a "loan" bail-out going to Fannie & Freddie. I understand the government's stake in that fiasco. But I also understand the stupidity of multi-million dollar slush funds for PACs, political candidates and pet projects. Not to mention the hundreds of millions raked off the 'companies' by politically appointed managers and politicians. This one is not just about "looking into" what went wrong by another appointed 9/11Commission or Warren Commission. There can be no opportunity for political cover. This one requires good, old fashioned legal investigation through the Justice Department. And let the heads roll!

Now the icing on the cake. The Fed will "loan" $85 Billion to bail-out AIG. Did I miss something here? AIG's stockholders stand to lose a lot of money. But isn't AIG a privately held, stock company? Our federal government - or the super-bank (Fed) controlling our monetary policy - will take 80% of AIG in the deal.

Socialization of the banking, insurance and mortgage industries is more than simply dangerous. It is no different than "government collectively owning the means of production and distribution of goods."

"They" tell is that government intervention is required to avoid a complete meltdown of our economy. The Crash of 2008. Had government, specifically crooked & slimy politicians seeing a pot o' gold to plunder, had stayed out of the mortgage business that problem would have remedied itself the old fashioned way. Stupidity should simply not be rewarded. This situation proves many things, but among them is the glaring reality that American politics has far less to do with dreams, hope or idealism than with personal agrandizement.

The concept of taxing citizens, controlling the monetary infrasturcture, and then "buying" entire industry sectors IS NOT CAPITALISM. Heck, it isn't even a glimmer of a free market. One might think Khrushchev was right - pounding his shoe on the table - the American way of life has been crushed... just not militarily.

Thank you for allowing me to vent. History will not be kind to this period in the American experience. The one positive flash is the "Change We Can Believe In" is nothing more than "You Hope I Can Find Something to Change!" If voters are paying attention, that empty campaign will end abruptly.

Posted by Larry Stanley at 12:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Speaking of the Gang of Ten, a group called American Future Fund has started running ads about and against Sen. Saxby Chambliss and Sen. Johnny Isakson's support of the proposal.

Here is the radio, which has been running on WSB this week. You can view the print ad here:

Posted by Jason at 04:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

John McCain may back the Gang of 10 plan:

I'm hearing disconcerting rumors that McCain is planning to endorse the so-called Gang of 10 16 20 energy legislation. That would be a huge mistake. In terms of its effect on the conservative base, supporting the Gang of 20's energy bill would be like McCain pouring a big bucket of cold water on the fire he started with the Palin pick.

[UPDATE] The guys at RedState are bothered by the idea.

Posted by Jason at 12:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We've come full circle:

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is now only ~100 points higher than when President Bush took office.

Posted by Jason at 12:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The Cato Institute has released a new study on economic freedom in the world:

Economic freedom around the world remains on the rise but it has declined notably in the U.S. since the year 2000, according to an authoritative study released today by the Cato Institute and Canada's Fraser Institute.

In 2000 the U.S. was the second-freest economy listed in Economic Freedom of the World, an annual report written by James Gwartney from Florida State University and Robert Lawson from Auburn University. This year the U.S. has fallen to 8th place, behind Hong Kong (ranked in first place), Singapore, New Zealand, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Chile, and Canada.

More significant than the U.S.'s drop in the rankings is its fall in the freedom ratings: on a scale of 0-10, the U.S. fell from 8.55 in 2000 to 8.04, according to the Economic Freedom of the World Report: 2008 Annual Report. Only five countries have experienced a greater decline over the same time period: Zimbabwe, Argentina, Niger, Venezuela, and Guyana.

Posted by Jason at 12:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Jerome Corsi, author of Obamanation, has been factchecked. It turns out that Corsi, who is a 9/11 Truther (if that isn't enough to destroy his credibility then I don't what is), is full of it.

Posted by Jason at 05:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

My niece, Shannon, was helping my sister clean out their attic today and apparently fell through the roof onto the garage floor below. She is being rushed to the hospital right now.

Please keep her in your prayers.

Posted by Jason at 05:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

It has been a bad day on Wall St.:

When Wall Street woke up Monday morning, two more of its storied firms had fallen.

Lehman Brothers, burdened by $60 billion in soured real-estate holdings, filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition in U.S. Bankruptcy Court after attempts to rescue the 158-year-old firm failed. Bank of America Corp. said it is snapping up Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. in a $50 billion all-stock transaction.
[...]
The world's largest insurance company, American International Group Inc., also was forced into a restructuring.

And a global consortium of banks, working with government officials in New York, announced a $70 billion pool of funds to lend to troubled financial companies.

U.S. stocks were headed for a sharply lower open and Treasury bond prices soared as the market reacted to the news.

Obama blames Republicans. McCain is calling for more regulation. Alan Greenspan is calling this a "once in a century" crisis.

Personally, i think this is a sign of things to come if the populist movement continues to gain ground and our entitlements aren't dealt with.

Posted by Jason at 11:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Tina Fey as Sarah Palin:

Posted by Jason at 12:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)

Gov. Sonny Perdue has signed an executive order putting an anti-price gouging statue in effect, according to 11 Alive. These things are popular with the public, but poor economic policy. If Hurricane Ike is as bad as some forecasters and the press are making it out to be, we may well run out of gasoline as a result of this because the market will be prevented from adjusting price with supply.

Posted by Jason at 08:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (24)

RomneyCare has made its way to Congress in the form of S. 334 and it is bad news:

Mandatory Coverage

S. 334 would require every American to buy a Healthy Americans Private Insurance (HAPI) health insurance plan OR pay a penalty. Mandatory insurance hasn’t worked in car insurance, and the two states – Maine and Massachusetts — that have passed “universal health insurance coverage” are far from covering everyone.

$1.4 Trillion in NEW Federal Spending

By 2014, the federal government will spend between $1.3 trillion and $1.4 trillion on this new federal program, according to the CBO-JCT analysis of S. 334. Where is the government going to find $1.4 trillion each year?

Tax Increases

Under current law, employer-provided health insurance is a tax-free benefit – tax deductible for employers and excludable from an employee’s taxable income. In addition, the self-employed enjoy an income tax deduction. S. 334 would eliminate the current tax exclusion and other health care tax breaks and proposes to tax employers anywhere from 3 to 26 percent per employee. In the May 1, 2008, analysis of S. 334, CBO-JCT suggested these changes in the tax code will amount to a $400 to $500 billion tax increase per year.

Posted by Jason at 12:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Republicans trailed Democrats by 11 points in the polls just a couple months ago. A new Gallup poll now shows the GOP within three points:

The positive impact of the GOP convention on polling indicators of Republican strength is further seen in the operation of Gallup's "likely voter" model in this survey. Republicans, who are now much more enthused about the 2008 election than they were prior to the convention, show heightened interest in voting, and thus outscore Democrats in apparent likelihood to vote in November. As a result, Republican candidates now lead Democratic candidates among likely voters by 5 percentage points, 50% to 45%.

If these numbers are sustained through Election Day -- a big if -- Republicans could be expected to regain control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Posted by Jason at 12:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson have broken their anti-tax pledge, according to Grover Norquist:

Americans for Tax Reform, led by anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist, say that Republicans who have signed on to the Senate “Gang of 10” plan _ which has grown to 20 sponsors _ are violating their no tax increase pledges because the legislation would increase taxes on oil companies.

“On net, this ‘compromise’ is a violation of the Taxpayer Protection Pledge because it increases net income taxes” on oil companies, the group said in a statement released this evening.

Any tax increase on oil companies would be felt at the pump. As Monroe said yesterday, "BUSINESS DO NOT PAY TAXES. EVER. Consumers pay them. This is no exception."

H/T: AJC

Posted by Jason at 11:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Amanda and I noticed this last night on the way home:

Gas prices jumped by about a nickel overnight in metro Atlanta as the threat of refinery damage from Hurricane Ike sent the recent price decline into reverse.
[...]
Prices had stabilized at the start of this month after falling steadily during August.

But on Thursday, the wholesale price for gasoline produced on the Gulf Coast jumped about 30 percent on the spot market as Ike churned toward Texas and its massive petroleum refining infrastructure.

The wholesale price for a gallon of gasoline rose about $1 to $4.25 Thursday morning, topping the high price five years ago when hurricanes Katrina and Rita raked the Gulf Coast, said Tom Kloza, publisher of the Oil Price Information Service in Wall, N.J. It was uncertain if that price spike will filter down to the retail level.

Posted by Jason at 07:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

Absentee voting for the November 4th General Election will begin on Monday, September 22nd. Most of you will likely wait until early voting, which begins October 27th through Halloween (my second favorite day of the year).

I will probably vote absentee. Here is how I am planning to vote right now.
- President: Bob Barr (L)
- US Senate: Allen Buckley (L)
- US Congress (8th District): Jim Marshall (D)
- State Representative (District 110): John Lunsford (R)
- State Senate (District 17): John Douglas (R)
- PSC (District 1): John Monds (L)
- PSC (District 4): Brandon Givens (L)
- Newton County Chairman: write in
- Newton County Sheriff: Bill Watterson (R)

There are a couple other offices, but I'll probably just write names in. I'm still not completely sold on Marshall, but my vote for him is more of a vote against Rick Goddard.

Posted by Jason at 12:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

This is from Erick over at Peach Pundit:

I’ve been reading through the details of Saxby’s energy compromise plan. Holy crap! It raises taxes by $30 billion.

Now Saxby says that is going to be paid by oil companies, but he’s got to be retarded if he doesn’t realize they are just going to pass the buck to you and me.

Um, is there a libertarian running? I may need an alternative.

Erick is right though. That $30 billion in tax increases will be passed on directly to you. So while Saxby Chambliss is calling this bill a "true compromise," remember that whatever taxes are increased will be passed on you.

This proposal would likely cancel out any relaxation in drilling or exploration with the increased taxes and would increase dependence on foreign oil as producers shy away from exploration in the United States. If you need any more perfect of an example, Gov. Palin's tax on oil companies in Alaska would be it.

[UPDATE] By the way, I have Buckley signs and bumper stickers. Let me know if you want one.

Posted by Jason at 11:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

You can read my personal recollection of the events of September 11, 2001 here. Please feel free to share your own.

Posted by Jason at 06:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Who is blocking The Path to 9/11?

I do have a copy of it. Let me know if you want a copy.

Posted by Jason at 10:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It is not in the Herald's online edition, but buried on page 246 of the print edition. No, there are not 246 pages in the Daily Herald. But the BoE deciding against adopting the rollback millage rate was certainly not going to be placed on Page One!

The wording of the article said nothing about the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights. It did, though, talk about all the state funding the school system will lose due to the state's budget shortfall. We are reminded, "It's for the children!" And maybe, just maybe, more money for the school system may foster a slower decline in the value of our homes.

I say, "WAA!!!" We are closing twelve state parks. Salaries are cut or placed on hold. Budgetary crises abound, and our school board is worried they may have to curtail spending. They may have to dip into their reserves. On a budget that exceeds $500 million annually and a SPLOST that is always renewed, we should have the lowest drop-out rate and the highest SAT and ACT scores in the state!

It is a fact that attending students will not reach the projected numbers. It is a fact that every school is built on a cookie-cutter plan and the architect's fees are paid each and every time. It is a fact that huge amounts of money could be saved if the school system would change the amenities (cosmetic features) and air/heating systems they use. The viability of the system surely depends on competitive salaries, but austerity cuts mean everyone gets to feel the pain.

It is a cliché, but walking uphill two miles each way to school, with no shoes and not enough chalk for the blackboard sounds archaic. So long as the school board goes merrily along spending Other People's Money, they will not understand what austerity means!

P.S. I am expecting a response from a ranking BoE member.

Posted by Larry Stanley at 08:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Agenda item for the September 16th meeting of the Henry board of commissioners: Reallocate $65,000 from District II road construction funds for current and future improvements at Nash Farm for recreational actrivities. The specific uses are listed as bathrooms and remodeling of the existing barn.

The background and summary information states that after two projects (Mt. Carmel Road and Walker Road / Hwy 155 intersection) were approved for bid awards, District II was left with $436,000 in "savings" to be redistributed.

District II and the Henry DOT will transfer $286,000 to District IV for the intersection at Miller's Mill Road and State Road 138.

Also, $85,000 will be transferred back to the Henry DOT for "reimbursement of work performed at Heritage Park to be used on future projects or for capital needs."

This is wide open for abuse. In fact, transportation was named as the largest single concern of every candidate for office including chairman-elect Mathis. Open-ended statements translate into whatever you want to do later!

Transferring transportation funds to our parks, Nash or Heritage, means recreation - NOT ROADS - is the top priority.

Apparently all needed transportation projects are designated, funded and our traffic congestion will soon be resolved! Just for kicks, what intersections could be improved or roads widened or traffic signaling installed for $150,000?

Posted by Larry Stanley at 08:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (41)

Saxby Chambliss is backing out of debates:

You’ll recall that, on Aug. 5, the day of the Democratic run-off vote, Republican incumbent Saxby Chambliss invited Buckley and that Tuesday’s victor to a series of debates.(Read the invitation here)

The three camps met late last night, to discuss a schedule. A representative for Democrat Jim Martin suggested weekly debates, either here or in Washington — the latter location to fit Chambliss’ schedule.

Eight to 10 meetings, in other words. See the Martin proposal here.

Buckley said there was an agreement. But it looks like Chambliss has put the cap at five debates. Here’s the Chambliss response. It lists the debates in which the Chambliss campaign is willing to participate.

Posted by Jason at 12:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

There is a 74% chance that income taxes will go up.

H/T: Club for Growth

Posted by Jason at 12:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Who cares about lipstick. Seriously. It's apparent that Obama was just using a saying that other politicians have used over the years, including John McCain in reference to Hillary Clinton.

You'd have to be completely drunk on the McCain/Palin Kool-Aid read anything into Obama's comment and he will rebound because McCain is pushing this way too much.

Either Sarah Palin is a pit-bull, or she’s a fragile woman with delicate sensibilities whom we’ll all need to tiptoe around for the next four years.

She can’t be both.

Posted by Jason at 11:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (16)

Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle is forming an exploration committee for 2010:

Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle took the initial steps on Tuesday to begin a bid for governor in 2010.

The Chestnut Mountain Republican announced formation of an exploratory campaign committee and began the process that will allow him to accept campaign contributions.
[...]
"I am strongly considering a run for governor in 2010, and today we filed paperwork to begin that process by forming an exploratory committee," Cagle said. "We did this in order to ensure every step we take is fully in compliance with the campaign disclosure requirements of Georgia law. In the months between now and the legislative session, our steering committee will be actively working to build a sound financial and organizational footing for future campaigns."

Posted by Jason at 11:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Cato @ Liberty has reviewed Sarah Palin's uninspiring tax record:

On tax policy, Alaska governor Sarah Palin has a rather uninspiring, albeit brief, record. The following is some information gleaned from State Tax Notes.

Palin supported and signed into law a $1.5 billion tax increase on oil companies in the form of higher severance taxes. One rule of thumb is that higher taxes cause less investment. Sure enough, State Tax Notes reported (January 7): “After ACES was passed, ConocoPhillips, Alaska’s most active oil exploration company and one of the top three producers, announced it was canceling plans to build a diesel fuel refinery at the Kuparuk oil field. ConocoPhillips blamed the cancellation on passage of ACES [the new tax]. The refinery would have allowed the company to produce low-sulfur diesel fuel onsite for its vehicles and other uses on the North Slope, rather than haul the fuel there from existing refineries.”

There are good reasons for an oil-rich state to tax oil production, but a fiscal conservative would usually use any tax increase to reduce taxes elsewhere. Perhaps I’m missing something, but I see no evidence that Palin offered any major tax cuts. She did propose sending $1.2 billion of state oil revenues to individuals and utility companies in the form of monthly payments to reduce energy bills, but that sounds like welfare to me, not tax cuts.

It's funny that conservatives and Republicans are not talking much about that tax on oil companies, which as Hot Air notes is very similar to what is being pushed by Barack Obama.

One question. Why isn't the Club for Growth all over this?

Posted by Jason at 11:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is hilarious.

Ron Paul is holding a press conference tomorrow where he will tell his supporters to look to a third-party alternative the general election:

Texas Republican Rep. Ron Paul will call on supporters to back a third party candidate for president Wednesday, rejecting his own party’s nominee and offering equally harsh words for the Democratic candidate.

Paul, who unsuccessfully sought the Republican presidential nomination, will tell supporters he is not endorsing GOP nominee John McCain or Democratic nominee Barack Obama, and will instead give his seal of approval to four candidates: Green Party nominee Cynthia McKinney, Libertarian Party nominee Bob Barr, independent candidate Ralph Nader, and Constitution Party candidate Chuck Baldwin, according to a senior Paul aide.

The announcement will take place in the morning at the National Press Club in the nation’s capital.

Posted by Jason at 07:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Here are a couple of giveaways that might interest you.

The Heritage Foundation is giving away a DVD that talks about the issues facing entitlements like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. It's called A Legacy of Debt and you can request a copy here.

I got my copy yesterday, but I haven't had time to watch it yet.

You can also get a "I Don't Vote For Tax Hikers" bumper sticker from National Taxpayers Union over at NoTaxHikers.org.

Posted by Jason at 12:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I hear a lot of talk out of Obama supporters on taxes. They say that he'll only increase taxes on the top 5% of income earners and give tax breaks to everyone else and that it'll equal out to be a net tax cut. That doesn't make much sense considering that you can't give a tax break to individuals that do not pay taxes, and that comes out to be around half of individuals that file a tax return.

I saw this article yesterday and it about the closet to truth in reporting that I've been able to find about Obama's tax plan from the media:

[T]he campaigns like to compare their proposals to a current policy baseline which assumes the Bush tax cuts are extended and the AMT is patched every year. Under that baseline, according to the tax center, McCain's plan would cut taxes by $596 billion over the next decade; Obama's would increase taxes by $627 billion during the same period, reflecting the fact that Obama is raising tax rates on the wealthy and boosting the taxes they pay on dividends and capital-gains earnings. Obama is also not embracing McCain's proposal to cut the top rate on corporate taxes.

Regardless of the baseline used, the government's debt would go up sharply — by $3.5 trillion under the Obama plan and by $5 trillion over the next decade under McCain's plan, the tax center estimates.

Posted by Jason at 12:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Sarah Palin beat up on Barack Obama on earmarks yesterday:

In front of several thousand inside the John Knox Pavilion and with an over flow of more than another thousand, Palin said she cut excess spending in Alaska, “I came to office promising to control spending by request if possible, but by veto if necessary. Today our state budget is in control we have a surplus. We put a veto pen to nearly half a billion dollars in wasteful spending.”

She then went on to attack Barack Obama for accepting earmarks for Illinois, “In just three years our opponent has requested nearly 1 billion dollars in earmarks. That is about a million dollars for every working day,” Palin said. “So we reformed the bases of earmarks in our state and I’m ready to help President John McCain end these corrupt practices once and for all.”

I realize that Republicans are still talking about Palin's role in killing the "Bridge to Nowhere," but they are conveniently ignoring Palin's own support of pork barrel spending, including her support of the "Bridge to Nowhere" (see question #5) during her campaign in 2006. That's right she intially supported the project and slammed pundits that criticized the project.

Among Palin's own pork projects are:

[A]s a small-town mayor and a governor Palin did not hesitate to embrace the federal earmark process, according to a Washington Post report by Paul Kane that shows Palin helped secure almost $27 million in projects for her tiny hometown of Wasilla, Alaska.

Among the spending projects Palin helped obtain through the earmark process: $500,000 for a youth shelter, $1.9 million for a transportation hub, $900,000 for sewer repairs and $15 million for a rail project, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan watchdog group, Taxpayers for Common Sense.
[...]
And during Palin's tenure as governor, Alaska requested 31 earmarks worth $197.8 million in next year's federal budget, The Los Angeles Times reports, citing the Web site of Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), the former chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

It is important to separate fact from fiction when it comes to Sarah Palin. It is very easy to stick your finger in the air to find out which way the political winds are going. She didn't run on cutting earmarks and she hasn't governed that way.

Posted by Jason at 11:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

This has gone too far. Some company has created an action figure dedicated to Sarah Palin:

"Sarah Palin Action Figure Takes Political World by Storm!" proclaims the ad for the figure, which stands 12 inches high, dressed in a "Tomb Raider" outfit, equipped with leg holstered .45 handgun.

There's also a figure called "Sarah Palin Executive," dressed in a navy blue tailored pant suit.

"Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals can enjoy Sarah as they see fit,' the ad promises. "Whether placed on the altar of respect or reviled as the harbinger of doom, these wonderfully crafted action figures depicting the Governor of Alaska and Republican Vice-Presidential candidate are sure to amuse.

Posted by Jason at 07:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

[UPDATE 9-9-08] According to McDonough city attorney Steven Fincher, James Lee "tenured his resignation." Read Billy Copeland's Inter Office Communiqué.

When the the lawyer who presented and read it, or the staff member who wrote it does not know the difference between tenured and "tendered" it's no wonder the city has problems. I still think we need to know why there is so much scuttle-butt if Lee planned to resign anyway.

[UPDATE 11:00pm] While we are waiting for the official spin to be printed in the Herald, or released by the city's media person....

The anonymous source offered more information about the talk and rumors circulating at City Hall:

More about Saturday morning.

1. Mr. Lee had his attorneys with him so the mayor and council backed down.

2. Mr Lee was going to retire anyway.

3. The city offered an early retirement program to city employees and James was one of them who were going to retire. Paperwork for each employee who was going to retire could not be turned in till 10-01-2008. The last day for paperwork to be turned in was 10-31-2008. Each employee had to advise them when their last day would be and they could not work past 12-31-2008.

4. Rumor is Police Chief Dorsey is next on the list.

5. Rumor is the mayor is going to step down and ask to be appointed city manager and Councilman Wayne Smith be appointed mayor.

6. The mayor is out of town for two weeks.

7. The other night at a council meeting the mayor’s assistant was the subject and what she is paid. Drum roll please - $45K. The mayor feels she should be paid $65K. See what friends do for friends?

8. Why does a part-time mayor need a full time assistant??

9. Why would the Mayor step down and take the city manager job? Power and control of the money. When Billy was mayor the first time he had all the control, then Richard came to power and he gave it to the council and he was the tie breaker.

10. I can tell you this; the mayor never has any thing good to say when he comes around to the departments to talk to the employees. When you read the city news letter it's all about Billy never about the employees. One other thing: the city has a media relations person who gets paid $ 65K. Guess who puts out the city news letter?

The rumors do pose a couple of legal issues. For one, the mayor is elected and not appointed. CAN an interim or acting mayor be selected pending a special election? If any of this is true, Billy must believe he walks on water! As an employee in a failed city, how long could the job last?

[Original Post 9/8/08 8:34am]
Councilwoman Gina Riffey responded to a query with:

There was a called meeting for the Council Saturday morning at which James Lee tendered his resignation effective February 09. I believe his last day at work will be 1 October. I am unable to make any other comment at this time.

A few days ago we received an anonymous tip that that Lee would be fired on Saturday. The unidentified informant said

The city has called a Special Saturday morning city council meeting (09-06-2008 at 9:00 A.M. ) to fire the city manager James Lee and one other employee. After firing Mr. Lee the mayor is going to ask the council to appoint him the acting city manager. Also on the table is the possible lay off of police and fire department employees.

We saw it all coming. The Welch-Talmadge-Notti Memorial Butterfly Park is costing $38,000 per month. The city recently purchased a new fleet of vehicles for the police department. The city is facing a $1.5 million budget deficit. Simply, they have spent a lot more money than they expect to receive. Included in that financial incompetence is the vote to extend a bid for $92,098 to build a bicycle/pedestrian trail in an undeveloped part of Alexander Park. A DNR grant and SPLOST funds are expected to fund the project. But this undeveloped area of the park is not expected to even connect to the $38,000 per month Butterfly Park -- it is unused land that the council thinks needs a bike path.

City administrator James Lee has a salary higher than the state governor. Surely he is trusted by the elected mayor and council. Surely the months of warning of budget deficit and possible layoffs did not escape Mr. Lee or the council.

It is clear he does not have the confidence of the elected officials. Conjecture would lead some to think the free-spending mayor and council needed a fall guy. And James Lee was the most reasonable choice. An official story line is sure to be released soon.

Posted by Larry Stanley at 11:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (26)

Steve Chapman noticed a missing theme from both the Republican and Democratic party conventions:

This year's Republican National Convention had a different theme for each day. Monday was "Serving a Cause Greater than Self." Tuesday was "Service," Wednesday was "Reform," and Thursday was "Peace."

So what was missing? Only what used to be held up as the central ideal of the party. The heirs of Goldwater couldn't spare a day for freedom.

Neither could the Democrats. Their daily topics this year were "One Nation," "Renewing America's Promise," and "Securing America's Future." The party proclaimed "an agenda that emphasizes the security of our nation, strong economic growth, affordable health care for all Americans, retirement security, honest government, and civil rights." Expanding and upholding individual liberty? Not so much.

Forty-four years after Goldwater's declaration, it's clear that collectivism, not individualism, is the reigning creed of Republicans as well as Democrats. Individuals are not valuable and precious in their own right but as a means for those in power to achieve their grand ambitions.

No one denies the man is a hero. What he suffered through is unimaginable, but he believes that every American should do the same, or at least not indulge in their own self-interest. That's fine for him, but what about Americans that want to pursue a profit like Mitt Romney, who was pilloried for making money during the Republican primary. Remember the "patriotism over profit" spiel that McCain gave?

What happened to the Republican Party that praised individualism?

Posted by Jason at 09:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

This segment from CNBC is a must watch. The commentator, Jim Rogers, says, "America is more communist than China right now." The host of the show notes that the federal government calls this a "conservatorship" and questions what a bailout would have looked like.

By the way, the Bush Administration is blaming all of this on Congress. Nevermind the fact that Bush signed the housing bill that allowed for this sort of takeover. They repeat the line that this action is not a "bailout." Bush refers to it as a "stabilization."

Milton Friedman once said that the American economy is "more than half socialist." I can't help but believe that we've made that transition with this takeover and the effect it will have on taxpayers.

Posted by Jason at 04:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

The federal government has taken over Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae:

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson announced plans Sunday to take control of troubled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and replace the companies' chief executives. The Treasury will acquire $1 billion of preferred shares in each company without providing immediate cash, and has pledged to provide as much as $200 billion to the companies as they cope with heavy losses on mortgage defaults. The Treasury's plan puts the two companies under a conservatorship, giving management control to their regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, or FHFA.

With that, the U.S. mortgage crisis entered a new and uncharted phase, potentially saddling American taxpayers with billions of dollars in losses from home loans made by the private sector. Bush administration officials argued that the cost of doing nothing would be far greater because of the toll on the economy of falling home prices and defaults in the $11 trillion U.S. mortgage market.

Posted by Jason at 07:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Front page news: Stay-at-home mom became leader, makes history

The story is all about a small town girl who always places her family first, even puttng off seeking higher education or a career. It reads like she is Henry's Hockey Mom - trying to compare her to Sarah Palin:

Mathis, 45, started out as an involved stay-at-home mother, participating in church groups and after-school organizations when her children were younger.

Mathis commented on the home-mortgage crisis that has a far-reaching impact in Henry County, one of the fastest growing counties in the nation. "I saw it several [coming] years ago - the zero-down, interest-only loans," she said. "I blame greedy lenders and builders for the predicament that we're in. It was purely greed on their part. To me, buying a house is the American dream.

It is critical to have an experienced person, who, at the very least, understands the basic operations of government, to protect the county's interests and lobby for our needs."

Yet the Herald continues to print only things to glorify our tax & spend chairman-elect. It's a real shame or own county's legal organ cannot - WILL NOT - cover the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Posted by Larry Stanley at 07:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Did anyone else catch the Georgia game today? If you did, you may have seen this move by Knowshown Moreno:

The video isn't that great, but yeah...amazing.

[UPDATE] Found a better video.

Posted by Jason at 08:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

"You guys won today. You guys won yesterday, so that's two in a row. If you win again tomorrow, that's called a winning streak." - Lou Brown from Major League II

The Braves won tonight. That makes two in a row. Despite the Braves struggles this year, I actually enjoy watching the younger players from the minors getting a chance to play.

Posted by Jason at 01:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here is an interesting poll on judges:

Most American voters (60%) [believe] the Supreme Court should make decisions based on what is written in the constitution, while 30% say rulings should be guided on the judge’s sense of fairness and justice.

Posted by Jason at 12:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Those of you who know me know that Amanda hates politics. She doesn't vote and very rarely will make a comment on anything that has to do with elections or politicians.

My wife hates Sarah Palin. Why? Because she is tired of hearing about her. Last night she said, "She is going to get McCain elected." She added, "Whoever picked her probably got a huge raise."

Just thought I'd share that.

Posted by Jason at 12:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I feel sorry for you folks that take Hwy 81 home to Ola or Newton County today:

Henry County police will close Lake Dow Road in McDonough at its intersection with Ga. 81 to accommodate traffic generated by a three-day rodeo.

Capt. Jason Bolton said the intersection will be closed 5 p.m.-11 p.m. Sept. 11-13 while a rodeo is held at Heritage Park. Bolton said drivers heading to the event from the south side of Lake Dow Road can use Rosser Road to detour to Ga. 81.

Posted by Jason at 12:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Penn Jillette is absolutely right:

We need someone stupid enough to understand that the president of the United States can't solve many problems without taking away freedom and therefore shouldn't try. The only reason John McCain scares me a little less is because I think he's a little less likely to win. They both promise a government that will watch over us, and I don't like that.

I don't want anyone as president who promises to take care of me. I may be stupid, but I want a chance to try to be a grown-up and take care of my family. Freedom means the freedom to be stupid, and that's what I want. I don't want anyone to feel my pain or tell me to ask what we can do for our country, or give us all money and take care of us.

Gene Healy at the Cato Institute explains that the Founding Fathers wanted the president "to faithfully execute the laws, defend the country from attack and check Congress with the veto power whenever it exceeded its constitutional bounds."

That sounds like plenty to me. You gotta be smarter than me to do all that, but you don't have to be as smart as Obama, and you sure don't have to be a great leader.
[...]
I think Ron Paul and Bob Barr mean it when they say they want much smaller government. But the government is already big enough, powerful enough and bipartisan enough (and "bi" means exactly two and no more) that Ron and/or Bob won't even be in the debates. People won't even hear someone suggesting that our president should do less and individual citizens should do more for themselves.

The choice shouldn't be which lesser of two evils should have the enormous power of our modern presidents. The question should be, who would do less as president? Who would leave us alone?

Posted by Jason at 11:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

State School Superintendent Kathy Cox will be on Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? tonight. Kind of funny given the state of education here in Georgia.

What is even funnier is that this ad by State Rep. Rob Teilhet (D) will run during the show:

Posted by Jason at 11:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Once again a blog (this one!) and a newsletter (Henry Citizen) beat out the local press - even the county's official legal organ, the Herald. The following quotations (and final analysis) are not found in the Herald's account of this very important board action.

At the board of commissioners meeting held September 3rd at 5:30pm the board voted to follow the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights and rollback the millage rate on our property taxes. This is an historic event and specific praise is due to commissioners Reid Bowman who made the motion, Randy Stamey who made the second, and Johnny Basler who also voted in favor. Commissioners Warren Holder and chairman-elect BJ Mathis voted to oppose.

Go online (county website) to watch the TV-14 video of the meeting.

The final public hearing was held at 5:00pm, with Tax Commissioner Andy Pipkin as presenter. In the beginning we heard explanations about the millage rate as set by the county versus the re-assessments set by the board of assessors. Holder commented that even with a rollback millage rate, taxation could go up for some people and down for others. Pipkin agreed saying the rollback rate was an average across the county, and that individual assessments would dictate the actual tax amount.

Commissioner Reid Bowman asked about the impact with a rollback. Pipkin stated the proposed rate for unincorporated areas is 11.20. With a rollback it would be 10.965, the same as last year. Bowman said that a rollback, even if it is a minute amount, is the right thing to do. He said, “Sooner or later we've got to look at what we can do to reduce taxes .”

Commissioner Stamey asked the dollar amount of impact. Although Pipkin said he did not have those figures, Bowman said the information was available in materials presented to the board. The impact would be about $5.5 million to the tax digest.

Mathis asked whether all positions in the police department had been filled and expressed concerns about public safety if the rollback rate were adopted. County manager Rob Magnaghi gave information about public safety division and said public safety would not be adversely affected.

Commissioner Holder expressed concern about declining state funding for the board of education and about state grants to the county. He said that in the end the local governing authority (board of commissioners) must raise the needed funds.

Commissioner Johnny Basler said, “For us to go up even one dollar, I have a problem with it.” He added, "We must walk by a mirror and look at ourselves ." Homes carry the burden for Henry taxes because commercial development has not kept pace with housing. But he asked, “What can small businesses do to stay in business? What incentive does anyone have to come here to do business?”

Chairman-elect Mathis said the tax issue is extremely confusing , even for board members. She asked for the communications department to prepare educational materials and possibly use TV-14 to explain the taxation process to citizens.

Holder made the motion to adopt the recommended higher millage rate of 11.2 mils, and it was seconded by Mathis. It failed with Bowman, Stamey and Basler voting to oppose.

Bowman made a motion to adopt the rollback millage rate (10.969 for unincorporated areas; 8.38 for McDonough; 10.706 for Stockbridge; 9.869 for Hampton; 9.558 for Locust Grove). Stamey seconded the motion. Basler voted to approve. It passed with only Holder and Mathis in opposition.

Personal Note: I watched the video of both meetings, listening to citizens who addressed the board, and all comments by board members. The strongest points were made about the economy, falling true values of properties, and impact to citizens and their quality of life. The concept of "need" for additional revenue, as shared by commissioner Holder and chairman-elect Mathis, does not equate to the realities of continually increasing taxes. The concept of "need" was not addressed in terms of reducing spending. Instead I was reminded of the expansion of departments like Life Management under Mathis's agenda. Perhaps Mathis is confused, but the rest of us want smaller government! Thanks to a majority of board members, the citizens won this battle.

Posted by Larry Stanley at 07:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (19)

Tonight the final night of the Republican National Convention. This is John McCain's big night as he accepts the GOP nomination. Sen. Lindsay Graham, Gov. Tom Ridge, Cindy McCain will also speak.

Gov. Sarah Palin had a huge audience as 37,244,000 people watched her speech. For those of you who are wondering, that is significantly more than the number of viewers that watch her counterpart, Sen. Joe Biden, speak last week (24,029,000). However, it is less than the 38,379,000 that watched Obama give his acceptance speech.

You can read the text of her speech here.

By the way, McCain is officially the nominee. He took 2,343 delegates to Ron Paul's 15.

Notable speeches during the GOP convention:
- George W. Bush
- Fred Thompson
- Joe Lieberman
- Mitt Romney
- Rudy Giuliani
- Sarah Palin

[8:39pm] Fact checking Sarah Palin: "Palin may have said 'Thanks, but no thanks' on the Bridge to Nowhere, though not until Congress had pretty much killed it already. But that was a sharp turnaround from the position she took during her gubernatorial campaign, and the town where she was mayor received lots of earmarks during her tenure."

[8:44pm] It gets better. McCain had previously criticized earmarks requested by Palin while she was mayor of Wasilla, Alaska.

[8:48pm] Palin has requested more than $300 million in earmarks in 2008 and 2009.

Posted by Jason at 04:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Today is the third day of the Republican National Convention. Several former presidential contenders will give speeches tonight, Romney, Huckabee and Giuliani. The keynote will be delivered by Sarah Palin, McCain's VP.

I may live-blog Palin's speech tonight. Don't know if I'll have time.

[7:58pm] Peggy Noonan on Sarah Palin: "I think they went for this — excuse me — political bullshit about narratives."

[8:04pm] Noonan defends her comments: "I just got mugged by the nature of modern media, and I wish it weren't my fault, but it is."

[8:13pm] Here are some excerpts from Palin's speech.

[8:28pm] Rasmussen: Clinton beats Palin, 52% to 41% in a hypothetical poll. Palin wins among men, 49% to 45%.

Posted by Jason at 06:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (33)

This is the second day of the Republican National Convention. Day 1 was modified due to Hurricane Gustav, though Laura Bush and Cindy McCain addressed the delegates.

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-TN), Laura Bush and President Bush (via satellite) will address the convention tonight.

Today is also Ron Paul's Rally for the Republic, which is being covered extensively over at United Liberty. Dr. Paul's event is making convention organizers and GOP leadership uneasy. Word got out today that McCain's people are working to get support from Dr. Paul, as well as the names of his delegates.

Posted by Jason at 06:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (13)

I think we should drill in ANWR. Know why? Because the Alaskan citizens want to drill in ANWR and their opinion is the only one that matters. Your thoughts?

Posted by Joshua Patterson at 12:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (19)

I've been watching coverage of Hurricane Gustav since last night. Things seem to be going better but there is cause for concern due to two ships getting loose in the Industrial Canal in the Ninth Ward.

There are bloggers on the ground in New Orleans. Check out Gustav Bloggers. I believe the guy responsible for this blog is the same guy that ran Interdictor during a Hurricane Katrina. I read that blog several times a day during Katrina.

Keep the folks affected in your thoughts.

[12:45pm] I just saw this picture over at Drudge. It's amazing:

Posted by Jason at 12:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)