Glenn Beck: Moocher of Historic Significance

Even as Glenn Beck makes his bid for self-importance, I think it's good to note the irony of what he's doing. Glenn Beck, in his rally, is doing nothing less than trying to leach off the historical significance of the giants that came before him. The fact that his movement operates in contempt for both the key historical figure's values should not be ignored.

Obama-Instigated Change

Republicans are throwing around negative inuendos, smears and outright lies about Obama - his citizenship, his religion, his fitness, his loyalty, his policies..... But I am most disgusted with the way Republicans malign Obama's solid achievements with regard to the economy. Two things they scream most about are the bailouts and The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. They fail to say that the big financial bailout was the work of the Bush Administration. And they deliberately confuse the Recovery Act, with which Obama has instigated an era of economic change.

Republicans Seek Social Security Privatization

Republicans want to privatize Social Security. President George W. Bush spent months seeking privatization with no luck. Today Republican Representative Paul Ryan is touting his new "budget" that seeks privatization of Social Security. And now the old Republican Senator Simpson, the co-chair of Obama's deficit commission, is trashing Social Security.

LTCM and Frontline's The Warning: Crash and Burn

Imagine a market where you could defraud your investors, and get away with it. Imagine a market the Government couldn't investigate, that no outsider could peer into. Imagine that the banks would do everything in their power to conceal what was going on from you, yet when the time came, and one company went under, the obligations to and from that one failed company could trigger the failure of the entire system. Of course, you don't have to imagine this to be true. This is what actually happened, in 2008. » Continue reading "LTCM and Frontline's The Warning: Crash and Burn"...

America Ends Combat Mission in Iraq

The last combat troops have left Iraq.

Enough said. Enough done. Let's go home. My thanks to all the troops who have risked their lives and given their lives in this fight.

A Mosque as a Mask for Intolerance

Americans are in the midst of a contentious debate about a "Ground Zero Mosque." Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf submitted plans for an Islamic Cultural Center to be built 2 blocks north of Ground Zero. A few loud-mouths, looking for a way to stir people up, started the controversy. The Mosque became a mask for intolerance.

It's None Of Our Business.

That is, the question of whether those folks, who own private property, should be allowed to build a mosque on it near where the Twin Towers once stood. Once we get past the question of rights, then all we have left are methods which rely on essentially pressuring these people out of doing what they want to do.

The Theory of Relativity is about Speed and Energy...

...not disdain for consistent moral values.

There's a reason that science has been such a smashing success. It's about putting our ideas about the world to the test, by actually looking at the world to determine their truth value. Cut out the emotional BS, cut out the handwaving around the unprovable, you're dealing with what can be proven or disproven in terms of evidence.

Ground Zero Reconciliation

Ground Zero in New York is where Osama bin Laden slaughtered 3,000 people. Bin Laden does not think of himself as a terrorist, but as a Muslim instigating a war with Christians in order to make the world safe for Islam. From Bin Laden's point of view the 9/11 atrocity was a huge success: Americans have been rendered ridiculously paranoid, so much so, that many are hysterically against the building of a peaceful Islamic house of worship near Ground Zero.

We've been Googled!

I remember when Google was one site among many that I accessed when I wanted to find something on the Internet. Slowly but surely, Google became my preferred site and the preferred site of almost everyone because it had an outstanding search engine. Google became a verb, as in "Google it" and "I googled the facts." It pains me to say that google now means something radically different: "double-cross." Yes, we've been googled!

America's Birthright of Freedom

It's not often that I agree with Alan Keyes, but this is one of those times. He hit it on the nail: Conservatives should not mess with the Fourteenth Amendment, because once birthright citizenship goes, Citizenship does indeed become a grant of the government, even for folks born right here in the states, a grant that can be rescinded, or never given to certain classes of people, born American.

Angry Republicans

Why are Republicans so angry? They don't argue with Democrats; they vilify them. Instead of disagreeing with President Obama's policies, they call him a Hitler, a Stalin, a terrorist, a socialist, a communist, the anti-Christ, someone who hates whites - the list is endless. Republicans spew the same kind of ravenous rage towards Nancy Pelosi and other prominent Democrats. Why?

Five Reasons The Republican Majority Remains Lost

Let's start with today's number one reason:

House GOP leaders: 9/11 first responders aid bill 'a massive new entitlement program' I dunno. I'm still trying to figure out how this makes things better for the GOP.

Judge Grants Injunction Against Arizona Law

US District Judge Susan Bolton has granted an injunction on the most controversial portions of the controversial Arizona Immigration Bill.

Fifty-Seven Should Win.

In the old days, if something got fifty-seven votes in the Senate, it would have been a victory for the majority.

Clearly, we we are in a different time. Republicans have struck a blow for corporate secrecy, for people to pump millions of dollars into ads they don't have to take responsibility for. But they certainly haven't struck a blow for Democracy.

David Horowitz: What's wrong with the GOP

David Horowitz is a symbol of what's wrong with the Republican Party, and why polls continue to show public approval (PDF) of the Democratic Party higher than the GOP. Horowitz writes a plea for donations to the Freedom Center to stop the new Mosque in New York City. He opens his plea in an email sponsored by GOPUSA, with the following line: "Dear Fellow Conservative, I am sure you've heard about the mosque they want to build on the sacred soil of Ground Zero in New York City." He begins with a bald faced lie, and builds his pitch from there.

The Future For The Great Recession

If Obama becomes a one-term President that will be a good sign that the voting public is wiser than voters in the days of FDR. During the depression era the people were so afraid to vote for change that FDR was able to hang in for near four terms in office. Now, we are looking at a ‘double dip’ and a ‘jobless recovery’ and people want this administration gone. And, by the time 2012 elections roll around I believe they will want Obama ‘gone’ moreso than they wanted Bush ‘gone’.

Tom DeLay: Liberal City No Place to be Tried.

Former U.S. House Majority Leader, Tom DeLay (R) of Texas, is scheduled to stand trial in Austin, Texas. The charge states he illegally sent $190,000 in corporate money through the RNC (Republican National Committee) to help elect GOP Texas legislative candidates in 2002.

VOID Incumbents: Not Refreshment Parties

I have received several inquiries and comments that follow the inquiry: How can an anti-incumbent movement like VOID (Vote Out Incumbents for Democracy) hope to be successful when the right wing Tea Party and the left wing Coffee Party are hijacking the anti-incumbent movement for conservative and liberal purposes? Here is a typical response to these very important inquiries.

Ted Stevens: His Time is Done.

Former Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska died this morning in an airplane crash. He lived a full life, and many will say he did much to expand the economy of Alaska through the use of federal dollars. For many Alaskans, Ted Stevens was a heroic political figure. All this true and said, Ted Stevens' way of governing, seemingly appropriate for his time in the Senate, is now one of America's greatest liabilities and challenges to overcome. May Ted Stevens and his way of governing rest in peace. The time for fundamental change is well passed due.

Raucous Debate Expected With Mid-term Elections

Midterm elections are coming up in November. This should be a time for serious debate on the issues at hand. Unless there is an intervening issue the economy will be the focus of any debate.

Will The Real Glenn Beck Please Shut Up

Noteworthy, that this weekend the Wash Post published an opinion by Dana Milbank berating Glenn Beck for prophesying death and darkness. Milbank relates that recently a man set off in search of the TIDES Foundation or the ACLU to ‘kill people of importance’. Bryon Williams was shot and captured while wearing body armor, firing at police with a 9mm handgun, carrying a shotgun and a .308-caliber rifle with armor piercing bullets. According to his mother her son had been watching TV and was upset by ‘the way Congress was railroading through all these left-wing agenda items’.

Another War On The Horizon

The primary mission of the Republic Sentry Party is to work for the abolishment of Corporate Personhood. We believe that before we can proceed as nation we must right some wrongs. Few would argue that we are now governed by 'Corpocracy', by the best government money can buy. Corporate Personhood has rendered our congress and courts irrelevant to the citizenry.

Please read this article thoroughly, debate the issue here and with friends, post it on blogsites and help in the effort to make the public aware of the coming battle to abolish Corporate Personhood law. In that endeavor we believe there are two possible paths to overturning this law. It will require the congress acquiese to Article V Convention whereby ratification by the states of a proposal to abolish Corporate Personhood would amend the Constitution to do so. Another path is through a strong third-party movement that could gain influence in congress and press the Supreme Court to abolish Corporate Personhood.

Otherwise, we have the Corpocracy we deserve….

A Snapshot In Time

Ethics: Charlie Rangel, five term Congressman, hits the courts in September, charged with a number of alleged violations. In March he was asked to give up the Chairmanship of the House Ways And Means Committee.

Beck's Latest Rant

Well, I have just watched the ‘show of the century’, IMO. Following the interference of his 5PM show by the apologetic Agriculture Secretary, Tom Vilsack, Beck went on a scathing rampage in eviscerating the MSM and the current administration. Were he not a Libertarian, Hollywood would double his salary on the spot. I do believe no news/entertainment show will ever top his performance this evening, Jul 21st, 2010.

Are You On Board With This?

Does it make sense to you that the U.S. is the only country with an anchor baby policy? Talk about jumping to the front of the line! How did this country get into the anchor baby business? The better question should be, how do we get out of the anchor baby business.

The Ladies Time At Bat

The following article, by the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, gives a most comprehensive assessment of ills of Corporate Personhood. Interesting that these women go back to the history of the Founder’s, much in the same vein as Glenn Beck, and for the same reason it appears. To know where we should be going we need to know where we came from. Please read the article thoroughly and then let’s have a debate. But, it is clear that as long as the Corpocracy can divide us, as the article alludes, we have slim chance of REAL reform in any sector. Regaining our Republic, our sovereignty, and our Constitution will require a strong united movement with the specific goal of removing the Corpocracy government.

It's Only Getting Worse!

It is only getting worse. This was the message delivered this morning to the National Governor's Association (NGA) by Erskine Bowles (D), and Alan Simpson (R), co-chairs of the President's National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, a bi-partisan committee to address the growing debt crisis in the making. Their report to the NGA indicates every year reform is delayed, the cost to fix the problems increases dramatically, and the number of Americans who will suffer the consequences of delays rises significantly. There is a time limit, beyond which, reforms will become meaningless.

A Plea To The MidWest

A Sunday Washington Post article reports that the country may not be ready for a complete insurgency relative to anti-incumbency. While acknowledging that the 2010 midterm elections will have major influence over the power structure in Washington, the writer senses that America’s heartland, the Midwest, may be content with the status quo.

Economics: What Most Folks Should Know

Economics is not intuitively grasped. Paul Siegel at WatchBlog wrote an article that prompted my considered response here. Siegel was right in stating that under the right circumstances, specific and targeted spending can increase government revenues, counterbalancing that spending, both in the the near and more distant future. This same kind of non-intuitive economics applies to lowering taxes and increasing revenues, under a very specific set of circumstances, and with specific limits.

Obama Falls Through the Floor

President Obama’s fall from grace is unbelievable. A recent poll by a Daily Kos associated polling group indicates that even Bush is locally more popular than Obama. Bush would beat Obama 50-42 in Ohio. A state Obama won in 2008. Bush is not a popular guy. If he comes out on top of Obama, what does that say about Obama?

Feeding the World

When I lived in Brazil twenty-five years ago, I was only vaguely aware that the Brazilian agricultural frontier was pushing west. I knew about a significant number of farmers from Rio Grande do Sul moving into western Parana, Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso & Goias. But Brazilian agriculture was not efficient and I heard the soils out west were acidic, poor and subject to rapid exhaustion. Lately, I have been watching Globo Rural (a Brazilian agricultural TV show) on Internet and have been impressed by what looks like efficient and forward looking agriculture. Today I read a really good briefing article on Brazil’s agricultural miracle. It is a good news story thirty years in the making and it sort of crept up on us such that we didn’t notice. But it is big, a game changing development.

I Want Your Money

There is a difference in philosophy between conservatives and liberals when it comes to creating wealth. Liberals think wealth is a gift from the government to individuals. A social program that costs x dollars and a tax break of x dollars are identical things, because they think that all wealth belongs to government. Whether you earn it or not is just a matter of accounting technicalities or political generosity. Conservatives know that wealth belongs to people. Those who earn money give some to government so that it can do things we prefer not or cannot do ourselves. But it is our money.

How We Won in Iraq

Now that Iraq is back in the news, I would like to share what I wrote on my personal blog back in June 2008. I just cut and pasted it, minus the pictures and the text directly related to them except the one with me smiling in the MRAP. I think the predictions turned out okay. Many have and will write more scholarly works explaining how we prevailed in Iraq. Mine has the advantage of being by an eye-witness participant contemporary with events. The title was “We’re gonna do what they said can’t be done.” We did.

Anti-Science Mush Brains

I found two stories that seemed different but both showed attacks on science, health and a better environment. One talked about restrictions on stem cell research; the other featured antiglobalization vandals wrecking a farmer’s GMO corn crop. My guess is that the supporters of the first issue would identify with the right, while those who think the second group was doing the Lord’s work would call themselves leftists.

You Don't Need War to Create Carnage

Venezuela and Iraq have about the same population. Guess where you are about four times as likely to die violently. Last year 4644 civilians died violently in Iraq. Venezuela topped 16,000 and may have reached almost 20,000 and that is only the number we know. Little Hugo Chavez is actively attacking journalists who report the violence, so there may be more.

One for Obama

Give the President credit. Most Americans worried that government couldn’t run big industries like car firms. Obama said he agreed. Some of us were skeptical but he was telling the truth. GM will return to private hands, chastened but still alive and not run by government bureaucrats. Score one for Barack Obama.

Wind Bags

I found this about wind power. All the swells love wind power until it comes anywhere near them. They can often even get the local Indian tribes to claim it violates some sacred something or other to make the opposition more PC. Evidently it spoils the view from some burial grounds. I am not making this up. Who knew the dead were so sensitive?

Good things about an Obama Presidency

The EPA and the Coast Guard just cannot find the oil. They think most of it is gone. Nobody is saying that the BP spill, the worst environmental catastrophe in U.S. history, was a non-event. They are just saying that nature and physic have ways to deal with these things. Of course, this displeases the disaster and victimization industries. Democrats are attacking the Obama folks, but you sense the attacks are half-hearted. That is the advantage of having a liberal Democrat in office.

Training & Trucking

Which country has the world’s best freight rail system, according to experts? It is the United States, by a wide margin. And it has gotten a lot better since 1980.

Obama Keeping Those Mexicans Out

The Obama Administration is keeping out Mexicans who have a legal right to cross the border and a useful purpose in doing so. According to promises & agreements we have made with Mexico, Mexican truckers can make deliveries in the U.S. They need to have a U.S. license and their trucks have to pass U.S. standards and they do. But evidently Democrats think these guys cannot drive well enough to be allowed in our country.

Underwater Obama

51% of Americans disapprove of President Obama, according to Gallup Poll. Other polls give him even worse marks. Increasingly dejected supporters blame racism, ignorance & plain cussedness. They are mistaken. His disapproval number was 13% in January 2009. Did nearly 40% of the American people suddenly become racist or ignorant? Or did they just get to know Obama?

Will of the People

It is still too soon to tell which party will win in the November elections. I believe in our democratic process. I assume that whoever is elected in November will represent the will of the American people at that time. We also must assume that anybody who was not elected was rejected by the people.

Clogged Stimulus Pipes

The practical problem with rapidly increasing government spending is that it cannot be done. Think of it like a plumbing problem. You can only push so much through the pipes. I applaud the thoughtfulness of local and state officials. Their deliberations mitigate the haste makes waste hitch. But it really messes with those who think the Federal government can fine tune the economy. They just don't have the right tools.

False Monster Gods

Can we agree that all those who kill in the name of god must either believe in a false god and/or will go to hell when the true God finds out? This way we don’t specify or insult any religion and can make an always true statement. The act & motivation automatically prove that the perpetrator is in error and should be rejected by all as a member of any religion that features the real God.