Alexis de Tocqueville called it
a “soft despotism”.  Mussolini
referred to it as “corporatism”.
We now call it Obama-nomics.

Barack Obama has made a
mad dash these fiirst 100 days
of his presidency to the ex-
treme left.  Taking advantage
of every available crisis at
hand, he is pushing America
deeper into Socialism. This
despite his campaign promises
of appealing towards modera-
tion.  Instead, we appear des-
tined to be in line for rations,
of health care, energy, food,
and anything else he can sink
the government’s teeth into.

Soft Despotism is the slow,
creeping, incremental seizure
of power by the government.
It started long before Obama,
so we cannot blame him for
all of it.  Wilson, FDR and
LBJ all played a major roles.
Truman, Carter and even a
few ‘moderate’ Republicans
had a hand in it as well.

Mussolini’s plan for corporat-
ism called for a vertical inte-
gration of government,
business and labor unions
to control a nation’s economy.
The recent moves towards
salvaging GM and Chrysler
show the blueprint from the
Obama version of corporatism.
Labor unions will hold a signi-
ficant stake in both, a majority
in Chrysler.  Uncle Sugar also
holds a piece of the pie.  What
ever is left is fought over by
creditors and bond holders.

The banks are facing a similar
fate.  The Fed is stalling those
banks who want to repay the
TARP funds loaned to them.
Claiming that they are still in
peril, after a ‘stress test’, and
despite several banks showing
a 1st Quarter profit, Uncle
Sugar wants the banks to give
them common stock, with
voting power, instead of the
preferred stock the banks ini-
tially handed over last year.
The Obama Administration
is under strong pressure from
their labor union supporters
to pave the way for the banks
to become unionized as well.

The Obama Administration
has expanded the role of the
government in the economy
from around 20% of GDP to
over 30%.  He has weighed
in with record breaking budget
deficits, dooming future gener-
ations to higher taxes and
massive debt.  Unemployment
continues to grow as the
stimulus packages already
voted on by the Congress have
failed to have any effect as of
yet.  Most analysts now say
that at best, the economy may
begin to rebound sometime
next year, if then.

On foreign policy, Obama took
his teleprompter on tour over-
seas.  He continued protocol
gaffes begun with dissing the
British Prime Minister, Gordon
Brown.  In Europe he gave the
Queen of England an IPod,
apologized for America being
a bad country, and bowed to
the Saudi king.  More apolo-
gizing continued in Mexico
and in Trinidad.  He greeted
Hugo Chavez, whom Obama
emulates with his daily TV
appearances.  North Korea
has started processing
nuclear material again and
test launched a long range
missile as America sat and
did little to stop or condemn
it.  Russia now admits that
our intelligence from the
Bush era about Iran’s nu-
clear program is correct,
yet little is being done to
prevent Iran from building
a nuclear bomb.  The only
country who will act, Israel,
is being criticized by Obama
surrogates.

The media claims that the
Obama Administration is
the brightest and best run
ever.  Yet nearly all of his
cabinet appointments have
had serious issues due to
failures in the vetting pro-
cess.  Many key positions
have yet to be filled.  The
new White House Press
Secretary, Robert Gibbs,
is absolutely the worst ever
to hold that position.  His
press conferences are
filled with stumbles and
gaffes.  This past Monday
was a good example when
a photo-op of Air Force One
flying over New York City
sent thousands fleeing
buildings in fear of another
9/11 attack.  An outbreak
of swine flu from Mexico
now stalks America, but
did not stop Obama from
playing golf over the week-
end.  Had Bush done so,
the MSM would have
screamed bloody murder!

A report from the Center
for Press and Media
shows that Obama has
received an extraordinary
amount of favorable press
coverage.  Over 27 hours
compared to less than 8
hours during the same
period for Bush and about
15 hours for Clinton. They
failed to vet Obama during
the primaries and continue
to let Obama slide on his
many gaffes and decisions.

What is in store for the next
100 days?  Legislation to
reign in the credit industry,
nationalizing health care
and putting a huge new tax
on energy consumption.
Nice, eh?  Congress is now
even reconsidering Obama’s
much ballyhooed Middle
Class tax cuts, as projec-
tions for the budget deficit
look grimmer than predicted.
If potential inflation rates of
8+% annually don’t scare
you enough, how about the
prospects of the Taliban
seizing control of Pakistan
and their nuclear weapons?

After all, under the Obama
Doctrine, America is the bad
guy and is to blame for all of
the world’s problems.  So why
should our enemies fear us?
Which brings me to a nice
quote that we should all keep
in mind the next four years.

“When the people fear the
government, there is tyranny.
When the government fears
the people, there is liberty”
Thomas Jefferson, like all of
our Founding Fathers, knew
that the republic given to us
via the U.S. Constitution
would only keep us free if we
defend it.  Line by line, clause
by clause.  Over the past
century, the Constitution has
been under continuous assault.
Each new law passed, each
new treaty entered into, sheds
one more safeguard of our
liberty.

At break neck speed, Obama
and the Democrat-controlled
Congress, are passing legisla-
tion.  Bills involving vast sums
of money, policies that change
the very nature of this nation
are being made law with little
if any review or debate. And
they are far from done.

The New York Times, that
extremist, right-wing rag,
ran a story on April 1 of this
year concerning an alarming
trend in our health care sys-
tem.  It seems that many
doctors are opting out of
accepting Medicare.  Trying
to find a replacement is
becoming more difficult.

This, coming on the eve of
the largest expansion of
government-run health care,
is not good news for the
Obama Administration.  It
will not matter how much
money the government throws
at the problem if there is
nobody who will participate.

The primary reason for this
migration is government
bureaucracy.  Medicare takes
too long to reimburse doctors
and other providers.  Also, the
amount of paperwork is too
much.  A survey in 2008 by
the Medicare Payment Ad-
visory Commission, whom
advise Congress, showed that
last year, patients who had
difficulty finding doctors who
accepted Medicare rose to
29%, up from 24% the year
before.  A survey in Texas
last year showed that only
38% of primary care doctors
accepted Medicare.

Add to this a report from the
American College of Physi-
cians that we are facing a
shortage of internists.  By
2025, they estimate we will
have 35,000 to 45,000 fewer
doctors practicing than the
nation will need.  Meanwhile,
President Obama assures
us that doctors nationwide
are eagerly awaiting the
nationalization of the health
care industry.  Oh are they?

The latest trend in medicine
is not Botox, but the concierge
system.  Patients pay a retain-
er fee, usually around $1600
annually, to have access to
a provider service.  From
there it is a pay-as-you-go
method, with fees based on
what service you require.
Some doctors are even going
back to older methods, of
just charging flat fees to new
patients.  In some cases, these
are very low, as little as $25
for a general examination.  A
few states are attempting to
discourage this practice by
actually prosecuting doctors
criminally who do not accept
government, or even private,
insurance.

In Ayn Rand's tome of a novel,
"Atlas Shrugged", we have the
hero, John Galt, leading a
strike of the mind.  Convincing
the productive and creative to
stop participating in the econo-
my.  It would seem that we now
have a trend of Dr. Galts exit-
ing the system, tired of being
oppressed by government
regulations and fees.  After all,
most physicians leave college
with huge student loans to pay
back.  It would stand to reason
that a new revolt of the Middle
Class would be lead by those
most restricted.

One must wonder what other
sectors of the economy will
begin to follow the lead of the
Dr. Galts?  As the Obama
Administration prepares to
inject more government control
into the free market, whole
industries from banking, autos,
energy and agriculture are now
facing being further regulated.
We already see a lack of new
capital investment as many
financiers continue to sit on the
sidelines with their cash, not
knowing how far this march
to Socialism will take America.

I suppose I could write about
how Obama has absolutely
stunk during his recent trips
overseas.  In Europe he cow-
towed to everyone, including
the Saudi king.  Oh, Obama
did make more protocol mis-
takes, insulting our British
allies.  In Turkey, Obama
made more apologies to the
World on behalf of America.
So belittling his stature that
the Turks made Air Force One
wait in line on the tarmac for
14 hours.  After all, it's just
another jet liner and Obama is
just another lame American
tourist.  LOL!

His most recent trips to Mexico
and to the Conference of the
Americas meeting was again
filled with more apologies.  He
smiled and shook hands with
dictator, Hugo Chavez, even
accepted a book which trashes
America.  Obama then joked
after Daniel Ortega's 50 minute
anti-America rant that Obama
was grateful that Ortega didn't
blame him for things America
did when he was 3 months old.
Yuck-Yuck-Yuck.  About the
only redeeming event was the
fact that Chavez proved to be
a worse gift-giver than Obama
as the book gift was in Spanish
which Obama cannot read.

But what I really want to rant
about is Obama's cabinet
meeting today where he staged
his hard work at reducing
spending.  He photo-op'd his
hard work in getting depart-
ments to reduce expenses by
a whopping $100 MILLION
dollars!  This, at the same time
the interest on all the new
Trillions of debt he's saddled
America with cost $1.2 Billion
dollars per day.

This is known as 'gesture
politics'.  That is, when there
is actually a real gesture.
But I tend to call this farce
'JESTER POLITICS'.  The
MSM made a huge deal
as to how wonderful it is
that Obama is working sooo
hard to save the taxpayers
money.  They ate it up like
the blind sheep they are.

At some point, people really
need to question the mental
capacity of our new president.
He increases spending by
some $2 Trillion dollars and
commits our country to ten
times that, plus outlying costs
of whole new programs.  Then
he flip-flops and vows to re-
duce the budget deficits by
50%, factoring in money we
won't be spending on Iraq,
'hopefully'.

He doesn't know how his
cabinet appointees slipped
through his much lauded
vetting program with tax and
other problems.  He didn't
know that the DHS would
insult every veteran in the
country.  He didn't know that
ex-governor Rod Blagojevich
was trying to auction off his
old senate seat.  Just like he
didn't know that his realtor
buddy, Tony Rezko, was a
crook, his pastor, Jeremiah
Wright, preached hate, or his
political mentor, Bill Ayers,
used to be a terrorist.  I'll
even bet Obama didn't know
that in 2006, Ayers traveled
to Venezuela to praise Hugo
Chavez for his liberation-
education program.

No, Obama didn't know any
of that.  He really doesn't
know very much, does he?
I guess that's why he voted
'present' so often when he was
in the state senate.  There's
one thing 'I' do know, we're
all in a heap of trouble!

The Main Stream Media and
the Department of Homeland
Security must have been in
a 'tizz' on Wednesday as a
wave of spontaneous anti-CNN
rallies were held across the
nation.  Right-wing extremists
of all shapes and genders
railed against CNN, and maybe
even MSNBC, too.  Hehehe!

No, actually it was the 2009
version of the Tea Party, with
T.E.A. standing for Taxed
Enough Already.  Estimates
of some 800 to 2300 rallies
nationwide were held.  Crowd
estimates range from 200,000
to 300,000, though some put
the number at well over a mil-
lion.

The MSM scoffed at the whole
affair.  CNN video-stenogra-
pher, Susan Roesgen, talked
with those at the Chicago rally.
When an attendee tried to ex-
plain that he was protesting
against the increasing size of
government and National Debt,
Roesgen injected that why
should he be upset?  He's
going to get $400 from Uncle
Sugar, after all!  Somehow,
the reality that he and his
infant now owe an additional
$68,000 escaped her view of
reality.  Roesgen dismissed
his answer and told the audi-
ence and CNN anchor that
the crowd is anti-CNN and
was promoted by the evil
Fox News.

The rest of the MSM treated
the rallies in similar fashion,
in some cases more vulgar.
They trotted out pundits who
added that the rallies were
just angry millionaires who
aren't patriotic enough to pay
their fair share of taxes.  Or
right-wing gun nuts and pro-
life freaks, whom should be
feared according to the DHS
report distributed to police
departments last week Tues-
day.  The report warned how
returning veterans from Iraq
and Afghanistan might be
coerced into joining extremists
and become a national threat.

The New York Times ignored
the Tea Parties completely,
though they did cover a rally of
300 Afghan women protesting
against restrictive laws.  On
MSNBC, a camera crew
covered a protest of a few
dozen ACORN protesters in
front of the AIG headquarters.
Such was how the MSM
reacted to the ground swell
of public angst to big govern-
ment.

Many rallies had over 10,000
participants.  Atlanta's was
perhaps the largest, with over
20,000 attending.  Most of the
rallies forbid politicians from
giving speeches.  The theme
of the day was that wasteful
spending from both major
political parties had to stop.
That the nation's march to-
wards Socialism would not
be tolerated.

In Texas, Governor Rick
Perry did speak at three such
rallies.  He repeated his call
from this Tuesday to support
legislation in the Texas state
house to invoke the 10th
Amendment.  Perry is against
accepting some of the Obama
stimulus money due to the
conditions attached.  The
stimulus requires changes
and new programs, but only
funds these for one year.
The MSM claims that Perry
is advocating that Texas will
secede from the union.  But
all Perry is doing is reminding
Washington that the Federal
government is an agent of
the 'several states', not the
other way around.

New rallies are planned for
July 4th.  Where these will
lead and what impact they
will have in future elections
is unclear.  What is certain
is that the mood in the coun-
try is not good for Obama or
the Congress.  But wiith
Obama losing a percentage
point a week in favorables
and Congress even lower,
we may in fact see some
REAL CHANGE, soon!

The past four posts I've made
have painted a dire picture
for what's left of the Conserva-
tive Movement, as well as the
Republican party.  Years of
missteps, compromise, and
poor judgment have led them
into decline.  So what can be
done now to rectify the situa-
tion?

Well, for starters, they have
great allies.  Barack Obama,
Nancy Pelosi and others are
doing a great job of splashing
ice water into the faces of the
average American citizen.
With last week's vote on the
Obama budget, every man,
woman and child is now some
$68,000 deeper in debt.  Our
National Debt will shortly ex-
ceed our Gross Domestic
Product, a condition usually
afflicting 'Banana Republics',
not properly run nations.

As the Clinton campaign
effectively used in 1992, it's
the ECONOMY STUPID!
Americans tend to vote with
their wallets.  Since late
February, we are seeing the
rumblings of a grass-roots
uprising forming.  The Tea
Party rallies are spreading
like wildfire.

There lies the hope for the
future.  The more nuttiness
that comes out of Washington
will drive more people into
the streets protesting.  And
not just Washington.  Many
state governments are also
now engaged in raising taxes,
such as New York's proposed
'millionaire's tax' which will
affect everybody earning over
$300,000 a year.

New York City is especially
vulnerable, as only some
44,000 people and entities
pay some 90% of the taxes
collected.  As Charles Adams
wrote in his wonderful book,
"For Good And Evil", there
are limits to how much folks
will allow themselves to be
taxed before they vote with
their feet.  It won't take much
for a 21st Century Exodus to
occur, with low-tax states
luring new residents and
businesses to relocate.

Over the last few years, we've
already seen a steady migra-
tion of wealth to China, of all
places.  It's a sure sign that
the world is turning upside-
down when a Communist
nation is practicing a better
form of Capitalism than we
are!  But then, they have a
more aggressive method of
term limits for dealing with
corrupt politicians, a bullet
to the back of the head.

While I'm not advocating that
as a solution here, America
does need to tighten the rules
on term limits.  Allowing those
who were serving in 1995 to
be grand-fathered was not a
good idea.  Had it been done
the right way, by 2007, we
would not have any of the
jokers who are ruining the
nation now in office.

The Republicans need to
put together a new 'Contract
for America'.  One which
cleans up term limits, restores
the firewall between retail and
investment banks, advocates
rational regulation of the exotic
financial instruments (like
derivatives and credit default
swaps).  Simplifying our tax
codes, instituting a flat tax
with limited deductions for
children, mortgages and
health insurance outlays.

A new 'Contract with America'
needs to also dial back taxes
on corporations and capital
gains.  If we want long-term
growth and job creation, then
the nation needs to be a
fertile ground for opportunity
and incentive.  I would also
include a clear, definitive plan
for energy independence in
the contract.  We need a 'Do-
It-All-Now" approach, utilizing
oil and natural gas until newer
sources are fully developed.

Another key plank in a new
contract must also be to ad-
here to the Constitution.  It's
there to limit the power of
government, and right now
nobody is paying attention
to it.  The rights of the
individual must be held as
sacred.  Privacy, self-defense,
freedoms of speech and wor-
ship, and ownership of one's
own body must be protected.

The Federal government has
to get out of the business of
moral and social issues.  It
should stay focused on it's
primary purposes, defending
the borders and promoting
interstate commerce.  Edu-
cation, abortion, marriage,
and even welfare should be
left to the states to determine
how their citizens want them.
Enough is enough!  The
Constitution is very clear on
this.  The 9th and 10th
Amendments are NOT just
ink blots!

A nice 5 or 10 point plan,
keeping it as simple as
possible would be the way
to go.  The GOP should
put it together by this summer
and make sure that every
Congressional candidate,
especially those challenging
Democrat seats, sign on-
board to the contract. Then
promote the heck out of it.

As for the Conservative Move-
ment, there is a divide between
those who have led the Intelli-
gentsia (Christopher Buckley,
David Brooks, etc...) and the
Purists (Rush Limbaugh, Ann
Coulter, Mark Levin, etc...).
At issue is the Reagan Legacy,
which was rooted in the sound
economics of F. A. Hayek and
the fundamentals of our Con-
stitution.  The Intelligentsia
desire to be popular with the
Main Stream Media which is
their avenue for fame.  The
Purists dominate talk radio
and the book circuit.  They do
not need the MSM, in fact, they
enjoy the ‘bad-boy’ image the
MSM paints.

But the Purists have to fish or
cut bait.  If the rest of us have
to choose between the lesser
of two evils, then they have to
come down off their high horse
and choose as well.  We simply
cannot afford eight years of
this nonsense.  I’m not even
sure if we can survive four
years, or even two for that
matter.  This is going to be a
long march through the wilder-
ness.  The damage being done
now could take a decade to
clean up and repair.

One of the better, more
objective, polls is the
Battleground Poll.  Their
questions are very neutral
and serve as an authentic
guide to where the minds
of the Americans are at.

Despite Obama's victory,
the polling data shows that
America is still, by and
large, a nation that leans
to the right.  Whatever
the topic, economics, taxes,
abortion, defense, generally
about 60% adhere to those
positions that would curry
favor to a genuine conser-
vative candidate.  Most
people want the government
to leave them alone and
govern responsibly.

Most of the exit poll data
showed that what lost the
election for McCain was
his lack of a clear message
on economics.  Given that
just a mere seven weeks
before the election, we
experienced the beginnings
of the worst meltdown of
the economy in decades,
this was definitely bad news
for McCain.  Without Joe
the Plumber, I suspect that
Obama might have won in
a true landslide, with 400+
electoral points and perhaps
even double digit popular
vote advantage.

But Joe was only one man
and he arrived on the scene
too late.  Others, like Rush
Limbaugh, were on the scene
but off on the side lines.  Very
little was done to bolster the
McCain campaign by those
who claim to 'Keepers of the
Flame' of their cause.  The
Faithful did not get the needed
marching orders in time, if at
all, to do their work.

On top of all of that, the people
were just plain 'Bush-ed out'.
His milk-toast brand of conser-
vatism, appeasing to the likes
of Ted Kennedy and general
mismanagement on many
levels had taken it's toll. The
war in Iraq, while finally being
won, had taken too long and
split too much blood.  The
budget deficit had grown
(though compared to how
Obama is expanding it,
Bush now seems like chump
change) and the power of
government expanded too
much.  Even Bush's attempt
at appearing human and not
merely recite off of tele-
prompters at every occasion
worked against him.

Obama assumed a cult-like
status among the True Be-
lievers of Statism.  Every
sub-group of Democrats,
anti-war, tax & spenders,
hand-out-heaven-advocates
(ACORN), unions, etc, were
all behind him 100%.  Middle
America was just happy to
have someone in the White
House who was not Bush.

But since his election, Obama
has begun to lose some of his
luster, particularly with the
independents.  After going
back on a number of promises,
such as posting legislation on
line for five days before a vote,
scrutinizing budgets, spending
wisely, and other issues, his
support is beginning to slip.
Some polls are showing a near
even split now between his
positives and negatives.  This
will only widen, in a bad way,
as the full impact of his budget
and policies take hold.

So, what will the Conservatives
do to rally support back to their
side?  Who will lead the charge
and how will it be executed?

We begin Part 3 with the 2008
Presidential campaign.  While
the Democrats had only two
genuine contenders for their
nominee, the Republicans had
a full field.  We had the King of
the Moderates, the Old Fraud
himself, John McCain.  Then
there were the two wanna-be
conservatives, former gover-
nors, Mitt Romney and Mike
Huckabee.  Beyond the other
deluge, the GOP had two men
of true merit:  former New York
Mayor, Rudy Giuliani and that
straight-shootin' Texan, Con-
gressman Ron Paul.

Clearly, beyond any shadow of
doubt, the one candidate who
commanded the most exper-
tise as an executive and held
true, principled values was
Rudy.  While less of an execu-
tive, Ron Paul was the next
best option.  But both had is-
sues as far as their credentials
as 'true conservatives'.

The so-called conservative
magazine, "The National
Review", painted Giuliani as
an unfit choice early on.  
Namely because he had a
sense of humor (once wear-
ing a dress for a party) and
they questioned his position
on abortion.  Ron Paul was
dismissed as plain crazy,
despite being the only one
running who had a firm grasp
of the failings of our monetary
system.  He also had that
nasty habit of quoting the U.S.
Constitution all the time! LOL!

Still, despite being pooh-
poohed by the Right Wing
Intelligentsia, Giuliani had
a great deal of support at
the beginning.  Fiscal Con-
servatives and even many
in the National Defense
types knew that Rudy would
run a tight budget and carry
out the war against terror
with vigor and conviction.
The Religious ‘leg’ of the
3-legged Conservative stool
were the only ones who had
sharp negatives for Giuliani.
Aside from being pragmatic
about abortion, Rudy was a
Roman Catholic, which still
makes some in the Bible
Belt cringe.

Mitt Romney, who was second
in the executive experience
department, also suffered from
religious bias.  Mormons still
scare a lot of Baptists and
other orthodox Christians.  So
he wasn’t going to get very far
with them.  Nor were his cre-
dentials valid enough for the
Defense types.  After Rudy,
John McCain was the only
other who held their respect.

Huckabee, being a Baptist
minister himself, had the
religious right in his pocket.
But his tax and regulatory
policies as governor of
Arkansas did not curry much
favor with the fiscal types and
he had zero security creden-
tials.

Enter now the New York Times
and the rest of the Main Stream
Media.  Well before the first
primaries, they mustered their
forces against Giuliani.  Most
of the polling data of the fall of
2007 showed him defeating
either of the Democrats.  He
was, after all, America’s Mayor.
Hit pieces began with crticism
of Rudy’s use of any reference
to the 9/11 attacks in his ads.
From there, it got much worse.

They went after his family, his
ex-wife, and any other foible to
discredit him to the Average
American.  By December ‘07,
Giuliani’s poll numbers were
slipping, especially in the early
primary states.  Nationally, he
was still Number One with a
decent war chest of cash.

December was a critical month
for the Republicans.  With most
of the rank-and-file split be-
tween Giuliani, Romney and
McCain, the Conservatives
had yet to weigh in with a
clear choice.  This brings us to
the failure of the current gate-
keepers of Conservatism.

Had, at this point, any of the
public leaders, especially
Rush Limbaugh and Ann
Coulter, picked a candidate,
there would have been time
for that one to garner the
support needed and walk
away with the nomination.
But they, nor any of the
other popular ‘talkers’ did
so.  They sat on their hands.
They failed to act.  Coulter,
later in the process, turned
her choice into a joke and
publicly supported Hillary
Clinton of all people!  Even
Rush jumped on the band-
wagon in his “Operation
Chaos”.

While this may had been
good fun, it did not result
in the desired effect of dis-
rupting the Democrats.
Sure, they had their prob-
lems, but either way, they
were going to have a
nominee who had zero
executive experience, poor
security credentials, and
were all for having as many
babies being aborted as
possible.  Heck, Obama is
in favor of killing them even
after they are born!

After the first few primaries,
Giuliani was essentially out
of the race.  Thanks to sup-
port from the MSM and even
cross-over voters in open
primary states, McCain was
rolling up the score.  By
late January, the game was
all but over.  Romney’s best
speech was when he bowed
out of the race.  Giuliani
tossed his hat to McCain,
knowing full well that he was
better than either Democrat.
Huckabee stayed in for as
long as he could milk the
religious wing.  His eyes were
already looking to 2012 and
either a TV or radio show to
fill in the time in between
campaigns.

Ah, let us not forget Ron Paul.
With the Libertarians having
been compromised by the
Far Right years ago, Paul
was the darling of the indivi-
dualists and Constitutionalists.
Despite almost fanatical sup-
port, who kept the cash flow-
ing, Paul never got much
more than 10% of the primary
vote in any state.  With the
Republicans more rational mix
of winner-take-all primaries
along with some proportional,
Paul would never get enough
delegates to sway power.

So, the GOP was left with
McCain as their candidate.
Another step in the Road to
Moderation.  To appease
the Conservatives, he choose
Alaskan Governor Sarah
Palin to be his running mate.
An unusual and risky choice,
but one that put a spark of
life into McCain’s campaign
and threw the Democrats
off their prepared game plan.
They had assumed McCain
would choose Romney to
add much needed economic
credentials to his ticket.

Only after the choice of Palin
did Limbaugh and the rest
rally to McCain’s camp, but
only in a half-hearted way.
It seemed to me that they had
already given up the game, as
if thinking that maybe America
needed four years of statist
inspired disaster to ‘cleanse’
the nation in preparation for
a new breed of conservative.

Even before the election was
over, various attack dogs within
the GOP began trashing Palin.
Her energy and enthusiasm,
along with genuine executive
credentials, elevated her to
excellent position for 2012.
But this is assuming we’ll have
an election in 2012.  Or at least
one where the post-Census
redistricting by Obama and
Nancy Pelosi haven’t trashed
the electoral college map
forever.  The tactics used by
Obama, with his allies in
ACORN, will be very ready
for whom ever the GOP runs
next time.

Next time, I will go further
into election analysis and
it’s aftermath.  And, we will
begin to consider the future
fate of the Conservatism

As I last left off, in the latter
1990s, the Conservative
movement, led by Newt
Gingrich and his block of
hard-core Republicans,
had some minor success
in rolling back the clutches
of government.  But once
they became entangled in
the quagmire of Bill Clinton's
sex scandals, their focus
was undone.

Instead of the folly of the
impeachment hearings,
Gingrich could have used
a bloodied and wounded
Clinton to bring about true
changes in our political
and economic systems.
Real term limits, for example,
which did not allow buffoons
like Barney Frank to be grand-
fathered in their offices.

Equally as important would
have been eliminating our
ridiculously gigantic tax code
and regressive tax system in
favor of a simpler, flat tax.
Personally, I would have
favored a Constitutional
ammendment, adopting the
Swiss notion of stripping
the power to tax away from
Congress altogether, and
lay it in the hands of The
People.  There are so many
things that could have been
done.  Abolishing the Federal
Reserve and returning us to
‘honest money’, or trashing
the failed institutions, like
the Department of Educa-
tion or Fannie Mae and
Freddie Mac, which helped
cause our current predica-
ment.

But Newt is not solely to
blame for this failure.  He
had a lot of help.  Many of
the Republican and Conser-
vative punditry had a hand.
They, too, got caught up
with their fixation against
Clinton.  You have to wonder
why they would want to im-
peach him and put Al Gore
in the powerful position as
being a sitting president for
the 2000 election cycle?  Was
that really such a bright idea?

NO!!!  Of course not!  So in-
stead of focusing on doing
some real good, like disassem-
bling seven decades of bloated
government, the GOP wasted
their opportunity.  All it accomp-
lished was to victimize both
Bill and Hillary Clinton, and set
the stage for a backlash
against the Republicans and
Conservatives.  This then
caused what became known
as the Era of “Kinder Conser-
vativism.

George W. Bush was another
lesser of two evils.  Another
‘stopped clock’ who was cor-
rect on occasion.  Sure, I was
as glad as anybody that he
happened to be president
when we were attacked on
9/11.  I shudder to think how
Al Gore would have reacted.

But, Bush did make numerous
blunders.  And I’m not talking
about Iraq, though that was not
handled properly.  In his at-
tempts to be the face of a
“Kinder Conservative”, Bush
opened the door on more
Federal government involve-
ment in education and health
care.  He also went along with
the ouster of a key ‘gatekeeper’
of liberty, Trent Lott.  Bush
threw him under the bus for
a gaff that is mild compared
to those made by Obama and
his gang.

Some much energy of the
Conservative movement was
expended in defending our
war against Islamic fascism
and Bush’s policies that the
GOP continued to embrace
the notion of running more
moderates.  Whatever prin-
ciples they had in 1994 were
long gone by 2004.  The
Democrats were able to put
themselves into position to
retake both wings of the
Congress in 2006.

The immigration act which
Bush and ‘The Old Fraud’,
John McCain, tried to get
passed put the last nails in
the coffin.  Bush lost all
credibility by this point.  His
budgets were getting larger,
deficits growing.  While he
did, with McCain’s help,
bring about The Surge to
finally win the war in Iraq,
the die was cast.  2006 set
the stage for the Democrats
to win back the White House.

Stay tuned for Part 3, as we
watch Rush Limbaugh and
Ann Coulter, along with many
other Conservative gate-
keepers, hand the country
over to Barack Obama and
condemn us to Socialism.

Some of you think that all I
desire to do is write an endless
stream of blogs trashing our
Kenyan-In-Chief, Barack
Obama.  Nothing can be fur-
ther from the truth.  Sure, I
would enjoy blogging about
all of the different versions
of You-Tube videos of the
Haddaway song, "What Is
Love?".  My favorites are the
one with Sponge Bob singing
it, as well as another cartoon
featuring some "South Park"
like characters.  See, I do
watch musical videos other
than "Westerwald Marsch"!
LOL!!!

The great tragedy that has
fallen upon our nation, how-
ever, is not Obama's fault.
He is just the means to our
end.  How and why we've
gotten to this point in our
history is somebody else's
fault.  It is a failure of the
'Gatekeepers'.

Mind you, despite my rant-
ings, I am not a Republican.
I'm not even a Conservative.
True, I tend to vote along
their lines, but it is merely
the lesser of two evils.  Or
as my favorite radio talk-
jock, Mark Scott, would say,
"Even a stopped clock is
right twice a day."

There has been a lot of hand-
wringing in recent months
concerning the losses being
piled up by the GOP.  Since
2006, they've lost the Congress
and now the White House.
They have been nearly com-
pletely neutered in the Senate.
Especially given the leanings
of several of the Republican
Senators.

During this last election, I
throw my hat towards John
McCain after Giuliani was
run out of the primaries by
both the Far-Left and the
Far-Right.  Both were in
great fear of the most ex-
perienced executive in
American politics.  He would
have run circles around any
challenger from the Demo-
crats, and probably would
have given the current Con-
gress a run for their money,
too.

So how did we get stuck with
‘The Old Fraud’ as a counter
to ‘The Great Faker’?  The
answer takes us down a long
path of compromises and mis-
steps.  Thus, this will be a
multi-part exploration. Unlike
another radio talk-jock, Mark
Levin, who’s new book,
“Liberty and Tyranny”, which
he subtitles as a Conservative
manifesto, I will deal with this
subject as an Objectivist.  In
other words, I will not shy
away from being critical of
those who failed at the gates.

Who failed?  What gates am I
talking about?  The gates to
the land of freedom and true
liberty.  Where the individual’s
rights are held sacred.  The
land of true Capitalism.  I get
a real kick watching these
morons protesting the G20
summits and such, complaining
how Capitalism has failed.  We
have yet to experience it! What
we have instead is Social
Democracy which practices a
form of market economics.

Capitalism is basically all about
property rights, with the most
important property being your-
self.  Without individual sove-
reignty, you cannot be free, nor
can you truly own anything
else, for that matter.  As Ayn
Rand often pointed out,
Capitalism is a political system,
not merely an economic one.
While the GOP and Conserva-
tives adhere to some of the
principles of Capitalism, they
do fall short on a few subjects.

The Gatekeepers of Liberty
had a good run during the
1980s with President Ronald
Reagan.  His revolution was
modest, but a complete re-
versal of our nation’s course
from previous administrations.
In 1994, Newt Gingrich led
another revolution, which too
had limited success.  But then
things began to slip.
Mind you, I like most of
the Gatekeepers, Gingrich,
Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter
and the rest.  But as I said
before, they are ‘stopped
clocks’.  They are right a
couple times a day.  Which
leads me to the essence
of this next series.  The
Gatekeepers of the Con-
servative movement are
to blame for our current
state of affairs.  They had
the opportunity to bring
about long-term, effective
change.  But they blew it!

So much could have been
accomplished after the 1994
Congressional elections.  But
while Newt did achieve most
of the ‘Contract With America’,
he got side-tracked with the
Clinton-Lewinsky-Impeachment
nonsense.  A golden opportun-
ity to use a wounded Clinton
to effect true change, like a
flat tax, abolishing the Federal
Reserve, and really rolling back
the failed policies of FDR and
LBJ, was squandered.

In Part 2, I will explain more,
and take us into the current
problems with the Conserva-
tive movement and the GOP.
As Oliver Cromwell said,
“Put you trust in God..., and
keep your powder dry.”

For those of you who were
concerned about Obama being
Clinton Part 2 or Carter Part 2,
be more worried about him
being Nixon Part 2!  This
week's ousting of GM CEO,
Rick Wagoner, is a alarming.
Aside from the fact that there
is no Constitutional provision
for such an action, this may
just be the beginning.

Our pals in Congress are now
considering a bill which will
give the Treasury Secretary
the power to set wages and
compensation.  Of course, it
will ONLY be limited to those
firms which have taken bail out
money from the government.
But when have you ever seen
the Congress limit the power
of the State?

Could wage and price controls
for the entire economy be far
off?  Let's not forget that FDR
did this back in the 1930s with
his NRA program.  No, he was
not advocating gun rights!  His
NRA stood for National Reco-
very Act.  What are we calling
all of these new stimulus and
bail out bills?  Recovery Acts?

In the early 1970s, Richard
Nixon instituted wage and
price controls in a futile at-
tempt to control inflation.  At
the time, it was flirting with
10%.  When you look at the
numbers in Obama's budget,
his scheme for reducing the
deficit 50% by 2013 takes
into account an inflation rate
of about 8% per year.  Hmmm.
Where have we seen this
play before?

The stagflation of the 1970s
was made much worse by
the government trying to
inflate the budget deficit away.
Inflation hurts the lower and
middleclass worse than the
wealthy.  It is especially hard
on those with fixed incomes.
Of course, when you can
adjust income at the rate of
inflation, then it gives the il-
lusion of keeping pace. But
does it really?

The answer is, N-O!!!
Inflation is bad for everyone,
except those deeply in debt.
Then it becomes a game of
at least pulling in enough
cash to take advantage of
the inflation to pay down a
debt.  The question is, can
the government pull in enough
to make the scheme work?

The answer is N-O!!!  LOL!!!
Sorry to burst your bubbles,
but everything Obama is
planning on doing will not
help generate any long term
growth.  Increasing tax rates
is always a bad idea.  If the
Congress and Obama con-
tinue to legislate a new busi-
ness environment where
incentive is stifled, which
wage restrictions and in-
creased tax rates will do, they
will not reap any benefits in
increased revenue.

The Obama budget looks to
add some $12.8 Trillion dollars
of new debt.  And that's an opti-
mistic figure.  His new health
care plan could easily wind up
costing several times more
than the allocated $640 Billion
planned on for 2010.  Our GDP
for 2008 is estimated to have
been $14.2 Trillion dollars.  The
number may be lower as more
adjustments are made for the
4th Quarter.  It's decline has al-
ready been revised from a neg-
ative 4.7% to 8.3%.

The firing of Wagoner sets a
whole new precedent.  Already
there is talk of Ken Lewis, the
CEO of Bank of America, may
be the next to be forced out by
the Obama Administration.  If
that happens, then all of the
400+ companies who took
TARP money may be feeling
the long arm of Obama soon.

Even Nixon did not meddle
with internal corporate politics.
Many of the banks that took
TARP cash are now scramb-
ling to give it back.  They have
seen the future and it is not
pretty.  If Obama & Company
continue to repeat the mistakes
of the past, what next?  Will
he display other extra-Consti-
tutional actions?  Has the era
of dirty tricks, enemies lists,
and other abuses of power
returned?

This has been one of those
weeks where it's difficult to
know where to begin?  There
have been so many gaffs,
idiocies and outright outrages
from the Obama Administra-
tion and Washington, DC in
general.

We start with another whirl-
wind of media appearances
which range from bad taste
to border-line sadistic.  Our
Kenyan-In-Chief, not content
with abusing handicapped
children, saw fit to go on CBS
"60 Minutes" and giggle his
way through the economic
crisis.  Then, on Tuesday,
we are given another show-
conference which proves once
again how boring Obama is
without his teleprompter.

If all that wasn't enough, it
never seems to be of late,
Tim, "Turbo Tax" Geithner
took us on a merry-go-round
of power-grabs and excuses.
He even managed to slam
the US dollar.  Not to be out-
done, Hillary Clinton then goes
to Mexico and blames America
for all of their problems.  Then
she begs the North Koreans
on national television to give us
a phone call when they're not
too busy!  LOL!

Even Nancy Polesi and Harry
Reid got into the act.  Nancy
proclaimed that illegal immi-
grants are patriotic Americans.
Senator Reid decided to call
a justice of the Supreme Court
a liar and a fraud.  The GOP
leadership stumbled about as
well, attempting to deliver an
outline of a counter to the
Obama budget.

If it weren't for the fact that our
nation is at stake in all of this
Tom Foolery, our very liberty
and sovereignty, I'd say that
the whole week would have
made a good chapter in a
fictional book.  Maybe even
a comdey film by the Zucker
brothers?

But alas, it's all too real and
not very funny at all.  It seems
that for any sanity, we must
look overseas for rational
thinking.  Czech Republic
Prime Minister, Mirek
Topolanek, told the European
Parliment that Obama's
stimulus program is
"dangerous"!

"Not only is America repeat-
ing its mistakes from the
1930s - the large-scale stimuli,
the protectionist tendencies
and appeals, the "Buy Ameri-
can" campaign... - all these
steps, their combination and,
worse, the initiative to establish
them as permanent, are a
ROAD TO HELL."

Topolanek, who is the current
President of the European
Union, was not the only voice
at the Parliment meeting in
Strasbourg, France.  The UK
member from Southeastern
England, Daniel Hannan, also
spoke out against the spend-
and-borrow-your-way-out-of-
recession concept.  Hannan
chastised British PM Gordon
Brown, who's bank bail out
program was copied by the
U.S.A.,  for Brown's reckless
destruction of the British
Pound, which has lost 30%
of it's value in the past year.

Global critics of Obama's
stimulus/recovery/socialist
agenda are piling up fast.
China, Russia, Brazil, even
Venezuela and Zimbabwe,
have made comments this
week.  So much for Obama
repairing our image to the
world.  The sorted truth is
that all of them are holding
US dollars and Treasury
bonds, which are threatened
to lose substantial value as
Obama plans to expand the
National Debt, doubling in
five years.  Imagine that! In
just five short years, Obama
will pile up more debt than
every single president, from
George Washington to G.W.
Bush did in 218 years!  And
people wonder why I am
befuddled and worried???

Our Congress shares much of
the blame, as they are all too
happy to go along for the ride,
slipping in their pork barrel pro-
jects where they can.  Regard-
less of who think is to blame
for it all (I'll deal with that one
next time), the fact remains
that somebody needs to put
on the brakes NOW!

Amazingly, even before the
last rounds of stimulus and
government spending bills
have mailed out any checks,
the economy seems to be
doing a bit better.  Home sales
were up in February.  Consum-
er spending was up.  Durable
goods sales were up.  Even
the Dow Jones seems to have
bottomed out for the time
being and is recovering.

Soooo, MAYBE, just maybe,
we do not need to transform
America into a Socialist heaven
on Earth?  Maybe we can skip
the further nationalization of
our economy.  Heck, most of
the banks who got TARP
money want to give it back
now.  So I say let's cool it on
the further expansion of gov-
ernment.  No national health
care schemes.  No giving the
Treasury any more power.
And somebody PLEASE tell
the Federal Reserve to shut
down the printing presses!

We've already gone through
nearly eight months of this
nonsense.  It won't hurt us to
put everything on hold for six
months and see what happens.
Continuing at break-neck
speed towards Socialism will
hurt us.  Even if we get some
short-term relief from Obama's
plan, the long-term monetary
crisis will make everything that
has happened thus far seem
like a picnic.

If you haven't heard that insur-
ance giant, AIG, has paid out
some $165 Million dollars in
bonuses to some 400 execs,
then you must be in a coma.
All the media is in a stir as out-
raged Congressmen and pun-
dits comment.  How could a
company which U.S. taxpayers
bailed out, to the tune of about
$170 BILLION dollars do such
a thing?  

Of course, this is the same
bunch that after they got $85
Billion from the government,
did a spa weekend for $440,000
and sent a couple
execs to England for a holiday
at a cost of $66,000.  Well,
the gross were in season
don't ya know?

The outrage is silly, as the
same Congressmen who are
now complaining were the
ones who gave AIG the cash
with few strings attached. In
fact, it was Senator Chris Dodd
of CT who got an amendment
to permit bonus payments
added to the TARP law.  BTW,
Dodd had received some
$103,100 in campaign contri-
butions from AIG execs in
2008's election cycle.  Nice,
huh?  Talk about getting a
return on your investment!

Some now question whether
we should have bailed out
AIG in the first place.  Why
did we?  Let us set the 'way-
back' machine to Oct '07,
and look at our old friend,
the Credit Default Swap (CDS).

A CDS is basically a bet made
by two parties on whether or
not a company will default on
their bonds.  Companies sell
bonds all the time to raise
needed capital, usually paying
a much higher interest rate
than government issued bonds.
This is all fine and well *IF*
the company selling the bonds
has a good track record on
paying off bonds and happens
to also be making money.

Let us say that you run a
mutual fund and want a
position in a certain company,
but their stock is kind of high.
So you buy some stock and
you then buy some bonds
from that company.  Such
companies will put up their
assets as security for their
bonds, often in the company's
own holdings of their stock.

Any investment involves a
certain amount of 'RISK'.
Maybe the company is part
of a 'soft market'.  So, you buy
some bonds, but to play it
safe, you acquire a CDS from
a another firm, most likely a
hedge fund OR an insurance
company, like AIG.  The CDS
itself now also becomes part
of your fund's portfolio.

The CDS market exploded
in the late '90s like many
other exotic investment in-
struments, such as derivatives.
All of these are essentially
'side-bets'.  In 2000, the CDS
market was a mere $900
Billion dollars world-wide. By
January 2007, it was $50
Trillion!

One of the more popular types
of CDS were those covering
potential defaults of mortgages,
bundled into 'tranches' and
traded worldwide.  AIG's posi-
tion on mortgage related CDS
was is estimated at about
$75 Billion.  By June of 2008,
the actual value of the tranches
dropped to about $60 Billion
thanks to the housing bubble.
AIG's overall position in CDS
of all types is estimated at
around $300 Billion, mostly
to Asian and European banks
and investment groups.

So, this explains why after we
taxpayers have given AIG
$170 Billion dollars, they are
still struggling and basically
broke.  AIG is a sieve for cash,
with them having to pay off
many others who bought these
exotic instruments.  This also
leads us to why we bailed them
out in the first place.

As the housing bubble was
straining the credit market, the
value of all CDS assets was
declining.  The collapse of
Lehman Brothers is the per-
fect example.  When former
Treasury Secretary, Hank
Paulson, auctioned off their
CDS paper, the market only
paid about 9 cents on a dollar
for them.  In other words,
CDS is not a good bet for the
one issuing it.

It's also not a good asset to
hold or trade.  During better
times, CDS paper was traded
heavily.  It could easily move
through several sets of owners
on the same day.  AIG's CDS
exposure being at $300 Billion
meant that multiple entities
were also at risk whether they
still or even had held them at
some point.  $300 Billion in
bad CDS paper could easily
translate quickly into $3
Trillion dollars of lost wealth
on the accounts of many
investment firms.

The ones who would suffer
the most would be those
pension funds and other
publicly held groups that de-
pended on their cache of
CDS to firm up their account-
ing books.  Had AIG been
allowed to collapse like
Lehman, the ripple effect
would have crashed many
more companies around
the world, plus here at
home in the U.S.A..

I suspect that at some time
in late August or so, Paulson
and Fed Chairman Ben
Bernanke must have figured
that the housing/credit crunch
could be fixed quickly with a
massive infusion of cash.
But after the Lehman auction,
their view on the situation
changed fundamentally.  They
were now staring into an abyss
of a hyper-leveraged monetary
crisis.  Shoveling cash into
the abyss in hopes of restoring
confidence seems to be their
only solution.

And confidence is the key to
the whole game, as none of
these investment instruments,
not even our U.S. dollar, has
any real value!  The financial
house of cards has been build-
ing since Dec 24th, 1913, when
Congress abdicated it's power
to print money to the private
bank that is the Federal Re-
serve.  We now live in a world
who's total GDP is about
$60 Trillion dollars, and who's
holdings in actual, physical
assets is around double that.

But the overwhelming majority
of 'wealth' is focused in the
whole range of exotic assets,
such as CDS and derivatives.
Estimates, and that's about
all we can get are estimates
since these investments are
largely unregulated and de-
finitely over-valued, is any-
where between $400 Trillion
to an astounding Quadrillion
dollars!!!  We're barely able
to comprehend a Trillion dol-
lars, let alone a Quadrillion.

This is the problem we face
now.  Investors do not like
uncertainty, although all
investments have risk. And
it's made worse by the fact
that nobody really knows
just how much digital wealth
there truly is being played
with in the world.  The only
plan available for now is to
keep people playing.  So
when AIG or Fannie Mae
or somebody else comes to
Washington with their hat
in their hand, the odds are
they'll get bailed out.

The danger, of course, is
that at some point, the
music stops, and the all
of that cash we've been
shoveling comes back in
the form of inflation, and
higher taxes.  This latest
financial crisis of the past
few months may seem
like a picnic compared to
the Great Day of Reckoning
ahead!

CNBC host of "Mad Money",
Jim Cramer, has become a
man symbolizing change.
A supporter of Obama during
the election, Cramer believed
that Obama would bring about
change and hope for the coun-
try.  He even said on his cable
TV show that if McCain won
the election, America would
enter an economic depression.

All of that has reversed, as
Cramer has seen the truth and
folly of his ways.  After only a
few short weeks of 'lightning
round' pronouncements and
legislation, Cramer now calls
Obama "the most wealth-de-
stroying president in history".
This remark has even earned
Cramer a spot on the White
House enemies list along with
Rush Limbaugh and fellow
CNBC analyst, Rick Santelli.

Had Cramer read either Alexis
de Tocqueville or Ayn Rand,
he would have known what he
was getting into last spring.
Tyranny always targets the
productive, the creative, the
clever and the ambitious first.
This is the nature of those
who seek power, control and
corruption.

What Socialists like Obama
always fail to understand is
that jobs, REAL JOBS, are
only created by healthy, grow-
ing businesses.  Such require
a fertile environment to suc-
ceed.  A field of low taxes and
modest restrictions.  What
Obama has done in the past
few weeks is plow tons of salt
into the soil of free enterprise.

Instead of focusing his efforts
on tackling the true problems
of the moment, such as the
lack of credit from the banks
and the toxic assets and bad
mortgages they hold, Obama
has used the financial crisis
to launch an agenda of
Socialism.

Cap and Trade Carbon Tax
to restrict and make our energy
production more expensive.
Expansion of a failed education
system, favoring the teacher
unions and bureaucracies.
This week he launched plans
for universal health care, a
system which has failed in
every country which has tried
it already.  Obama has com-
mitted the American taxpayer
to footing some $20 TRILLION
dollars of future debt to pay for
his schemes.

He did unveil a plan to deal
with bad mortgages, of which
there are some 5.4 million now.
But Obama's $75 Billion dollar
bailout is expected to, at best,
only help around 12% of them
who may qualify.  A far cry from
the $300 Billion which McCain
had proposed during the cam-
paign which would have re-
valued all of the bad mortgages
to realistic, current values.

The end results of Obama's
assault on Capitalism are a
credit market still frozen, an
unemployment rate of 8.1%
and growing, a stock market
which has lost 30% of it's
value since he took office,
and the specter of the FDIC
facing insolvency within the
next six months as banks
fail or cannot afford prohi-
bitive assessment fees.

The Obama White House
has tried to spin the facts.
They claim that the Dow Jones
is merely an opinion poll, not
a gauge showing $2 Trillion
dollars worth of wealth lost
in the past 6 weeks, effecting
the savings of 2/3 of the aver-
age Americans.  They say that
small business is not an engine
of job creation, despite the
facts that 27.2 million people,
50.2% of America's work force,
are employed by small busi-
nesses.  That in the past year,
97% of all new jobs were cre-
ated by companies with 20 or
fewer employees, including
40% of all high-tech jobs.

Jim Cramer should have seen
the handwriting on the wall
when Obama told Joe the
Plumber that he had no right
to pursue the American dream.
That Joe was obligated to
fork-over the fruits of his labor
to the government, since only
Washington DC knows best
how to spend the money.  Joe
simply is not smart enough
to create jobs, certainly not as
smart as Tim 'Turbo-Tax'
Geithner!  Only the elite of
Washington know best how
to spread the wealth around!

Cramer may face more trouble,
as he is employed by General
Electric, which owns NBC,
CNBC and MSNBC, all of
which lean heavily to the left
and support the Obama agen-
da.  You just know how wise
the management at GE is,
they've only lost about 80%
of their equity in the last 12
months.  LOL!  Serves them
right!  I'm sure if Cramer
writes a good resume, he may
get a job at the Fox Business
Network.

Pretty clever title, huh?  Am I
good at these or what?  Some-
body ought to pay me for this.
LOL!

The Oracle of Omaha, the
CEO of Berkshire Hathaway,
Warren Buffet, has thrown a
potential wrench into the
Obama economic plan. In
a letter to shareholders, he
gave some bad news and
even worse, some harsh
opinions.  Berkshire's profit
margin for 2008 was down
some 62%.  He expects that
2009 will not be much better.
He sees no sign that the
economy will recover any
time soon.

Buffet wrote that the Federal
Reserve and U.S. Treasury
have done all they can.  In
fact, Buffet warns that the
next 'bubble' that may burst
could be Treasury bonds.
With so many investors run-
ning to T-bills for safety,
they will pay less and less
return as their interest rates
decline.  Buffet, himself, has
begun moving away from
bonds to equity shares.

Buffet is clearly concerned
of the specter of inflation
caused by the government's
massive spending.  Plus,
the fact that the Fed has been
shoveling out cash as fast as
it can print it.  Nobody really
knows just how much cash
the Fed has doled out since
January '08.  The estimates
range from $4 Trillion to $9
Trillion dollars.  Quite the
spread, huh?  At the CPAC
meeting last week, former
presidential candidate, Rep.
Ron Paul, the most indepen-
dent member of the Congress,
announced his bill demanding
that the Federal Reserve be
audited.  I shutter at what a
truly honest, objective exa-
mination of their books
might reveal.

Buffet announced in his
letter on Saturday that he
lost around $5 Billion dollars.
Berkshire lost over $11.5
Billion.  He was also very
critical of the housing and
hedge fund markets as
well.  The Oracle calls for
both lenders and borrowers
to act more responsibly.  
He blames the hedge funds
for much of the losses at
Berkshire, resulting from
derivative selling of junk
bonds sold by the companies
Berkshire owns.

Having been an advisor to
Obama, you'd think that
Buffet would be more help-
ful to Obama's economic
plans.  But in warning of a
probable "onslaught of in-
flation", Buffet is now at odds
with Obama over all of the
government's plans for new
spending.  Buffet says that
the economy is the worst
he's seen in 44 years and
may not recover till "well
beyond" 2009.  

"Economic medicine that was
previously meted out by the
cupful has recently been
dispenced by the barrel.",
writes Buffet.  "These once
unthinkable dosages will
almost certainly bring on
unwelcome after-effects.
Their precise nature is any-
one's guess, though one
likely consequence is an
onslaught of inflation."

Meanwhile, the stock market
loss nearly another 300 points
today, following more bad
news.  AIG got another $30
Billion from Uncle Sugar
after announcing that it lost
more than $60 Billion during
the 4th quarter of 2008.  It
lost more money than any
single business in the history
of mankind!

Across 'the pond', in Europe,
bad news was the soup du
jour as a plan to bailout
Eastern European nations
came to a screeching halt.
Austrian banks are especially
at risk.  Germany is also putting
pressure keeping the Euro
healthy, which lost value today.
The current crisis is now strain-
ing the foundation of the
European Union.  With the
Eastern countries declining
rapidly, and others like Spain,
Ireland and Italy bleeding,
cracks in the common market
and currency are growing.
France and Germany are at
odds with each other as to
managing the crisis.  They
still have the economic assets
to assist the EU, but both are
lacking the political will to do
so.  Britian's PM, Gordon
Brown is looking beyond them
and is now seeking a global
plan to share the burdens.

First, I have to say how warm
my heart became watching
Newt Gingrich's speech on
Friday to CPAC where he
issued a challenge to U.S.
Attorney General Eric Holder
to debate him in Detroit, MI.
Either Newt read my last
post here, or, as more likely,
great minds think a like!  On
to new business!

The business of America is
business!  This week, however,
we have witnessed a further
assault on business, on free-
dom, and Capitalism, by the
President, Barack Obama. In
a series of speeches, he has
launched new waves of attack
on the means of prosperity.

On Monday, he held "breakout
groups" at the White House on
reducing spending and making
government more efficient.  A-
mong his invited guests were
none other than tax-cheat and
Ways & Means chairman, Rep.
Rangel of NY.  Now there's a
true expert on government
waste!  In a nutshell, the whole
exercise was a waste of time,
which truly annoyed me as it
preempted Neil Cavuto post-
market show!  Hehehe!

One interesting point came out
of the mouth of John McCain
during the post-breakout group
therapy session.  It seems that
some $11 Billion tax dollars are
to be spent on purchasing a
fleet of 24 helicopters to shuttle
our dear President around.  All
this as Obama plans to scrap
the F-22 Raptor program as an
unnecessary expense.  I guess
having the best airplane ever
built defending America is not
as important as Obama's new
ride, which cost more than
the two converted 747s used
as Air Force One.

We also learned on Monday
that our friends in Congress
were preparing to vote on a
$410 Billion spending package
loaded with nearly 9,000 ear-
marks to feather their Congres-
sional nests with. These in-
clude a museum for Buffalo
Bill and a program to rid pigs
of foul odors.  LOL!

Tuesday, Obama then gave
a speech to a joint session
of Congress wherein he had
claimed that neither his pre-
vious stimulus/spending bill
of $878 Billion, nor this new
$410 Billion dollar package
had any pork in it.  He went
on to add that while the era
of Big Government had re-
turned, he intends to reduce
deficit spending down from
$1.4 TRILLION this year to
a mere $500 BILLION by
the end of his first term in
2013.  HALELUJAH!!!

The media made a full court
press glorifying Obama as
the new Reagan for his quest
to be fiscally responsible. But
come Thursday, Obama un-
leashed his budget for 2010
which shatters the records
and weighs in at $3.6 TRIL-
LION dollars!  His budget
includes plans for Phase One
of universal health care and
college for all.  It also lowers
the amount of tax credits
people can deduct for things
like interest on mortgage
payments and contributions
to charities.

I suppose Obama figures that
you'll be contributing enough
to the Uncle Sugar Fund so
that private charities are no
longer needed.  Obama's new
budget also increases the
tax rates on capital gains, and
the marginal rates for all those
whom earn over $209,000
individually or couples who
earn over $250,000 per year.
The much anticipated tax
break for the middleclass is
a breath-taking $8 per week!

Unfortunately, the middleclass
will be subject to new carbon
taxes, which will be tacked on
to people's utility bills and at
the gas pump.  So kiss that $8
goodbye.  He also intends to
reduce, if not eliminate the
Earned Income Tax Credit
which helps low-income work-
ers and middleclass families
with children.  What A Guy!

Obama's new tax rates will
impact small businesses the
most.  Already, the media is
making attempts at down-
playing the fact that it's small
businesses that employ about
70% of new employees.  Also
in his budget are goodies like
paying for the slaughtering of
livestock to keep food prices
high and for the removal of
gang-related tatoos.  Again I
say, What A Guy!

So Obama's plan for America
is to make home ownership
more difficult, food and energy
more expensive, and invest-
ment and hiring employees
less attractive.  And this helps
our economy how???

I suppose if your line of work
is removing tatoos or shooting
livestock, you will be grateful
for the new budget.  But if you
work for a charity, a company
involved in the housing or
health care industry, or any
small business, all of which
probably accounts for around
50% of our GDP, then I'm
afraid that you're out of luck.

Needless to say, the financial
markets took huge hits this
week, making this February
the worst ever since 1933
with losses of some 12.5%.
And I haven't even gotten to
TARP-2, which will blow an-
other $750 Billion to prop up
banks and the toxic mortgage
problems, or another stimulus
package which is due around
April.  I think it's safe to say
that the current $1.4 TRILLION
dollar deficit will be blown out
of the water, if not the solar
system, before all is said and
done.

Some analysts say that in the
40 days since taking office,
Barack Obama has committed
American tax payers to spend
more of their money than all
previous government spending
from 1776 right through the
day Obama was inaugurated.
Think about that!  We’re going
to be spending more money
than America has in it’s entire
history, including World War 2!
Can you say “train wreck”???

Obama and his liberal allies
are bound and determined to
overdose American citizens
with government largess on a
scale that FDR and LBJ com-
bined could never have ima-
gined.  And, despite the in-
crease in taxes on the wealth-
iest 2%, or even 5% of the
country, even if the govern-
ment confiscated 100% of
what they earn, it still would
not be enough to pay for it all.

Obama and his liberal cohorts
are enslaving future genera-
tions with debts that cannot
possibly ever be paid.  With
the anti-business, anti-market
policies and regulations that
they are unleashing on our
economy, these debts will just
pile up as our GDP shrinks
and stagnates.

The good news, if any, is that
there are already some signs
that the American people are
losing faith in Obama.  Friday
saw rallies of ‘Tea Party’ pro-
testors in several major cities.
But the real question now is
can we hold the line till 2011
should and IF the Democrats
lose their majorities in either
houses of Congress?  Could
such a change put the brakes
on in time before the dollar
collapses and hyper-inflation
rears it’s ugly head?  

Keep in mind that the primary
reasons are economy is suf-
fering now stems from the
actions of the Clinton admini-
stration between 1993-94.
Just the Community Rein-
vest Act and the lack of
seriously dealing with Al
Qaeda after the first bombing
of the World Trade Center
has probably cost us some
$10+ Trillion tax dollars al-
ready, not to mention dozens of
more trillions in loss wealth and
economic stability, plus several
thousand American lives, too!
So we face some tough times
and who knows what the final
tally on our blood and
treasure will be from Obama’s
first 40 days?