Obamaville - January 30 - Florida Primary Eve

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Any Surprises Tomorrow?

In a word, no. Romney, as expected before the media driven Gingrich surge, has equaled his surge in the polls with a retreat about as dramatic. In the process he has left a lot of people perplexed.

The volatile Republican candidate who wants to take on our Democratic President, in which there would have been a clash of wills over who is the most intelligent, most knowing and most scholarly, has fallen by the wayside in spite of media efforts to prop up his flailing campaign.

The problem is Newt can never live up to his exaggerated opinion of himself. The second problem is he might be a senior member of the establishment, but it was an establishment that lost control long ago.

While the media wants him to remain in the race to rip Mitt Romney apart and leave Romney vulnerable to the expected billion dollar attack by the president this fall, I believe the media, Obama and his Chicago gang are way out of touch with the public.

Newt's petulant and insolent attacks on Romney just make Newt look smaller and smaller in the eyes of the public. He shows no signs of being interested in what the public wants, only satisfying his raging animosity toward a candidate who is simply walloping the schoolyard bully.

Revenge, anger, and jealously are hardly becoming a GOP candidate for president and the more he sho9ws his true colors the faster his fall from grace in the eyes of the public.

As for Romney, he is getting a Harvard education in the primary because as soon as he wins the nomination, the Harvard president will try the same tactics only then Romney will have the experience and class to keep the election focused on the economy.

Barack Obama, through his mouthpieces in the media and campaign, is doing everything possible to encourage Gingrich because the biggest obstacle to his re-election is not Romney, it is the truth. This president has failed to address high unemployment, his $1.3 trillion a year deficit, and his ballooning nearly $16 trillion national debt.

As a result, there is no growth in the economy and no way health care costs can be controlled, Social Security can be saved, and Medicare can be protected. We are in a whale of trouble is the president is not held responsible for what he didn't do, and what he shows no signs of wanting to address in the immediate future.

ObamaCare does nothing to reduce health care or health insurance costs, and most certainly will not make Americans healthier. Just tell us the truth, that the problem is greater than they thought and is not being addressed.

The same with the unemployment, deficit and debt. We are not over the recession, but we could be, if the White House would admit they failed with social engineering to solve our problems and now must listen to the people who want less government, less regulation and most certainly a lot less hot air from our nation's capitol.

There is nothing wrong with admitting we still have a problem. Honesty is always better than cover ups, misinformation and distortion. We have had three years of intellectual thought. We need solutions, not theories. We need a will to take on the problems, not ignore them. We need foresight to tackle issues like Social Security and Medicare reform, not act as if they will take care of themselves.

Right now Romney is the only candidate relentlessly pursuing an agenda of the concerns of the people. Yes, he must deviate for a short time to secure the primary nomination and if that means to defeat Gingrich then so be it. But rest assured he will focus on the issues, the national issues, and that is the president's Achilles heel.

Now as I mentioned before, at this time the last campaign Obama and Hillary were in a brutal battle over the attempts (according to Obama) by Bill Clinton to use the race issue to defeat Obama. Now that sounds a lot meaner than today when Romney's tax returns showing $3 million in taxes paid and $3 million in charitable contributions seems to be the big concern?

Need I remind us all that maybe we need a president that can't be bought. Maybe we need a president who spends his time on the people's business instead of campaign fundraising. Maybe we need hope and change. Maybe we can get it this time.

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Obamaville - January 26 - The Last Florida GOP Debate Recap

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Thursday President Obama took off on a five state junket stretching from coast to coast.  It was his government financed non-campaign trip to critical campaign swing states in an effort to sell his non-campaign State of the Union message where he laid out his election campaign platform.  Duh???

Anyway, he's out of town so the Republicans held their 18th debate of this early primary season.  Don't forget, there are still 46 more states to decide.  I, for one, think we have reached the point of intellectual saturation and constipation from this many debates.  Doesn't the media have anything else to do?  Why aren't they covering some hard news instead of trying to manufacture political news?

Maybe half a dozen would have been tolerable by this point, but one and a half dozen seems like gross over-kill.  They may serve a psychological purpose in giving that good old liberal lame street media a chance to dig deeper and deeper in trying to find weaknesses in the GOP field, and they burn up GOP financial resources thus saving Obama campaign money.

But Obama is going to have a billion campaign dollars to spend!  That is like a federal stimulus program.  Only two presidential campaigns in history have cost more than $270 million and they were both his, which just proves the point we are getting the best politician money can buy.  He will spend $1.8 billion in two elections to win a job that only pays $400,000 a year, or $3.2 million over 8 years.

As for the Republican debate that took place.

There were two winners in  the last Republican debate before the Florida primary Thursday night.  First was Marco Rubio, the rising Republican star Senator from Florida as both front runners, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, said they are considering him a leading candidate for a higher position than cabinet if they win the nomination.

Now the only job higher than the president's cabinet is vice president, so there is a very good chance the Republicans will be the first political party in American history to nominate a Hispanic for vice president.  A background story I did on Marco Rubio a couple of years ago follows this story.

The second winner was Romney who clearly won the debate even though Gingrich and Santorum gave him plenty of jabs.  He countered their attacks, stood his ground, and firmly and decisively controlled the outcome.

Of course he has a few more answers and positions he needs to fine tune before he takes on Obama in September but he made a giant step forward in fulfilling the uncomfortable role of aggressor in the debate.

More important, he began drawing sharp contrasts with Obama on the issues Obama cannot defend like his handling of the economy, jobs, health care, housing and energy.  After three years in office the president has little to show and a lot to promise.

Ron Paul was much sharper this debate although the moderators continue to ignore him much of the time, especially when follow up comments are given.  Still, his jokes kept thing from getting too intense and when Wolf Blitzer, the CNN moderator, pressed him about the problem if he was elected that he would be the oldest president in history, Paul shot back, be careful with your question, we passed an age discrimination law in America and you are close to it, to the laughter of the crowd.

When asked about his medical condition he replied he was healthy enough to challenge anyone on stage to a 25 mile bike ride across the Texas desert.  There was much more laughter.

Rick Santorum gave his best and most passionate but his responses were too complicated for viewers, at least me, to understand while others flat out disagreed with the typical person watching the debate.  Though it was his best effort, one could sense that his hopes for winning this time are rapidly fading and he is turning his attention to laying the groundwork for a 2016 campaign.

Ron Paul has clearly won the admiration and respect of Romney and Gingrich.  As Paul continues to attract youth and Independents, he becomes a potential crucial ally to the GOP winner because Paul can keep votes away from Obama.

Since Ron Paul really has no illusion about winning the presidency and is committed to building popular support for his agenda for America, he will be a winner.  People are hearing and believing in his message of eliminating debts, deficits, wars and foreign aid.  His individual freedom and fear of a massive central government bureaucracy, which is pretty much what we've got, are resonating with about 20% of the voters across both party lines and with Independent.

Newt Gingrich seemed almost asleep on stage.  Gone were the rapier slashes and sharp barbs.  Last debate NBC silenced the crowd and Gingrich just doesn't make it with his one liners when there is no response from the crowd.  There were no excuses in this last debate, CNN allowed the crowd to respond.  It was far more entertaining, interesting and informative than the clinical and sterile exercise NBC gave us last week.

Yet the master debater and historian seemed stunned by Romney's attacks and counter attacks and never got into a grove with the audience.  If he was slipping in the polls before the debate he stumbled in this chance to recover.

All four candidates managed to get in some good discussion about President Obama and his failed policies and to identify a far different approach to government they supported.

Mitt Romney was far more at ease in this debate than previous ones and this time the attacks inspired him as his responses and counter attacks were pretty much effective.  In the end he was the clear winner no manner what those radical socialist liberal and radical right wing conservative commentators on network and cable news say.

Now it is a long ways to the Republican National Convention in August and to the 1,144 delegates the winner needs at the convention so a lot could happen.  The news media also seems to forget that by the end of the Florida primary next Tuesday we will have only heard from 4 out of 50 states.

The following is a reprint of my earlier story introducing Marco Rubio to my readers.  You should learn about this young man and his family because he may play a big role in the future of the nation.

Wednesday, November 03, 2010

Rising GOP Stars - Marco Rubio, Cuban American Tea Party Patriot

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Highly regarded for his principled, energetic and idea-driven leadership, Marco Rubio won a three way battle for U.S. Senate fighting off numerous trips by Obama and leading Democrats and efforts to split the GOP vote in 2010. His humble and honest acceptance speech after the victory was one of the highlights of all speeches by candidates. Take a moment to listen to this 39 year old rising star.

In 1971, Marco was born in Miami to Cuban-born parents who came to America following Fidel Castro’s takeover. When he was eight years old, Rubio and his family moved to Las Vegas, Nevada where his father worked as a bartender at the Sams Town Hotel and his mother as a housekeeper at the Imperial Palace Hotel. In 1985, the family returned to Miami where his father continued working as a bartender at the Mayfair House Hotel until 1997. Thereafter he worked as a school crossing guard until his retirement in 2005. His mother worked as a Kmart stock clerk until she retired in 1995.

Rubio attended South Miami Senior High School, graduating in 1989. He attended Tarkio College in Missouri for one year on a football scholarship before transferring to Santa Fe Community College and then graduating in 1993 with a bachelor of science from the University of Florida. He continued his studies at the University of Miami where he earned his juris doctor, cum laude, in 1996.

From 2000-2008, Rubio served in the Florida House of Representatives. During this period, he served as Majority Whip, Majority Leader and Speaker of the House, effectively promoting an agenda of lower taxes, better schools, a leaner and more efficient government and free market empowerment. Rubio also helped spearhead Florida’s congressional and legislative redistricting effort. He chaired the House Select Committee on Property Rights, which crafted national model legislation to protect private property rights following the U.S. Supreme Court’s Kelo v. City of New London decision that opened the door for eminent domain abuse.

During the two years prior to assuming the speakership, Rubio traveled around the state hosting “Idearaisers” to solicit Floridians’ input on ways to strengthen Florida. The 100 best ideas were compiled into a book entitled “100 Innovative Ideas for Florida’s Future” which served as the basis for his term. All 100 ideas were passed by the Florida House. Fifty-seven of these ideas ultimately became law, including measures to crack down on gangs and sexual predators, promote energy efficient buildings, appliances and vehicles, and help small businesses obtain affordable health coverage. Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich hailed the effort as “a work of genius.”

In addition to these ideas, Rubio championed a major overhaul of the Florida tax system that would have eliminated all property taxes on primary residences in favor of a flat consumption tax. The effort garnered national attention, with Grover Norquist, president of the fiscally conservative Americans for Tax Reform, praising Rubio as “the most pro-taxpayer legislative leader in the country.”

During his legislative career, Rubio also promoted efforts to develop a world-class public school curriculum, increase performance-based accountability, enhance school choice and target the socio-economic factors affecting chronic academic underperformance. He is also widely credited for blocking the expansion of gambling in Florida and shepherding the passage of historic energy legislation based on market incentives rather than government-imposed mandates.

Since the end of his tenure as Speaker, Rubio has resumed his law practice as a sole practitioner. He has also served as a visiting professor at Florida International University’s Metropolitan Center, worked as Florida Chairman of GOPAC and as a political analyst for Univision during the 2008 election cycle.

He has also continued his community and civic involvement, serving on the boards of the Latin Builders Association and Alafit International, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting global literacy. He also remains engaged in the West Miami community where he served as a city commissioner prior to being elected to the state house.

Rubio and his wife, Jeanette Dousdebes Rubio, have been married since 1998. They are the parents of four children: Amanda, Daniella, Anthony, and Dominic. They currently live in the working class city of West Miami, just four blocks from the home his parents moved the family to in 1985.
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Save the Economy - Vote Republican!

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If you want to know what the stock market is going to do in reaction to the midterm elections, here is a bit of inside information. The greater the victory by the Republicans the greater the economy and stock market will improve. So if you want to speed up the economic recovery, vote Republican.

In most off year elections the minority party wins the most seats and the stock market always gains more on average after a midterm election than after a presidential election. Obama should know, he got elected and the stock market promptly crashed.

The market has been slowly trending up this year as the Republican victory got nearer. The larger the GOP victory tomorrow, the stronger the market will react for the better.

Part is a result of the anti-business attitude of our young president, part is a result of the social leaning agenda of Obama and the Democrats, part is because of the record setting deficit spending and record increase in the national debt under Obama, and part is the historical pattern of minority success in midterm elections.

Make no mistake, the Republicans are going to win and win big.

According to Brian Gendreau, market strategist for Financial Network, in the period from 1922 to 2006, the average gain of the Dow Jones Industrial Average over the 90 trading days following midterm elections (roughly November until mid-March) was 8.5%, according to a new study he authored.

That's almost 5% higher than the Dow's gains in presidential election years.

During the midterm elections the only time the ruling party gained seats in both the House of Representatives and Senate was in the 2002 elections, and the market fell afterward - making it the only time since 1942 that the Dow has fallen after a midterm election.

In the days before midterms, the market generally tends to perform well, just as it has this year.

"The market starts to go up beforehand and it just doesn't stop," said Gendreau.

While past performance is no indication of future success, consider this: The Standard & Poor's 500 Index has posted gains for every 200-trading day period following mid-term congressional elections since 1942. Stocks surge, on average, by a whopping 18.3% in those 200 days, according to the Leuthold Group, a Minneapolis-based investment-research firm.

The S&P index chalked up its biggest 200-day gain, 30.5%, in 1942, as the tide began to turn in World War II. The smallest gain, 3.9%, came in 1946, as investors worried that the economy would sink into another depression.

Like I said, save the economy, vote Republican!
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Campaign 2010 - Economy Poised to Take off if Republicans Win Big

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One of the realities of economics is a favorable (Conservative) Congress can always trump an unfavorable (Liberal) president and never is that more obvious than in the 2010 midterm elections. Obama has clearly staked his claim as the enemy of the business community, big and small business, with harsh anti-business and class polarization rhetoric and a Progressive agenda threatening income redistribution and regulatory interference in a broad range of business interests.

Anyone wanting to send a message to Washington need only vote Republican and the extent of GOP wins will dictate the extent of the positive economic bounce that may result in the stock market and throughout the business community. Seldom, if ever, has a sitting president run against the entire scope of the broad based business community that fuels the American economy.

Perhaps Obama had no choice because he relied on the far left and self-serving special interests to get elected in the first place in 2008 and as feeble as his efforts were to take care of the unions, health care industries like insurers and pharmaceutical giants, and the housing industry, he built a base of special interests with diametrically opposed agendas.

Whatever he did to help his Goldman Sachs base hurt his SEIU union base. His efforts to protect the union health care plans while trying to appease the health care industry left him with a phony health care reform that may extend coverage to the uninsured at some point, but assured the health care industry they could raise prices and premiums to cover any loss. By guaranteeing that unions could keep their Cadillac high cost plans he assured future health care would drive up prices for all Americans.

As for his so called economic reforms, his highly heralded economic reform program did not even touch the housing industry which brought down the economy in the first place. His hundreds of millions of dollar contributors from Wall Street not only did not even get a slap on the wrist, they got federal bailouts and record bonuses since Obama was elected.

To protect his contributors to the most expensive presidential campaign in history in which Obama and the Democrats spent well over ONE BILLION DOLLARS to get him elected, he had to create a straw dog to blame for his failure to keep unemployment under 8%, his promise not mine, in order to get his TRILLION DOLLAR non-stimulus bill passed. Thus the Republicans and Bush became the enemy.

Certain truths have been conveniently obscured by our young president and he seems convinced the people of Main Street America are too stupid see through the political smoke screen. He cannot deliver on his promises to his own liberal base because the nation and the world are rejecting the folly of a liberal nation dominating the world. Unfortunately someone has to pay for the socialist agenda and it won't be the socialists who claim to be entitled to cradle to grave care from the government.

Every socialist experiment in the world in which there is no capitalist base to pay for the program has failed, pure and simple. Nearly every country in Europe has had to elect a conservative government to undertake the painful budget and deficit reforms needed to save the nations from bankruptcy while gutting the liberal promises previously made.

At the same time, Obama has run against the Bush and Republican record the 8 years before he got elected and forgets to mention the Democrats under Pelosi, not the Republicans, controlled the House the last two Bush years and approved the record deficits. During the entire 8 years many Democrats had to vote with the GOP in order for the depending to happen. In fact during the entire Bush years Republicans never had control like Obama did the last two years with huge majorities in the House and Senate, yet Bush always got the Democrats to approve his budgets and deficits and never whined about the Democrat minority or majority blocking progress.

A whole lot of misinformation has been thrown at the electorate in this, the worst year in campaigns in ages. It is a testament to the fact Obama made no effort to reform the campaign laws that give special interests more control than citizens and give campaign funds more importance than citizen needs. He owned the national agenda and made NO effort to fix the corrupt campaign mess we are in.

So we shall see to what extent the people were fooled by the politicians like Obama who has now taken his rightful place among the political establishment he is so quick to condemn. As I said, the stronger the Republican vote against the Obama agenda the stronger the recovery of the economy and the return to bi-partisan cooperation to solve our problems.
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A Trillionaires Delight - The 21st Century of Rothschild, Morgan and Rockefeller

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Somewhere in the trillionaires room of Heaven three old codgers are sitting around a table smoking cigars and chuckling over the J. P Morgan Chase & Company buyout of Bear Stearns for a paltry $2.00 a share. Not so much because the price had been over $130 a share a few weeks earlier but because the Federal Reserve Board put up $30 billion of the government’s money to guarantee the sale.



Yes, Mayer Amschel Rothschild, J. P. Morgan and John D. Rockefeller, patriarchs of three of the most powerful family fortunes in history have waited nearly two centuries to see their dreams fulfilled. Perhaps such patience is why their families have remained successful by steadfastly maintaining the rules of the game as set down by their founders.



It was 248 years ago, in 1760 that Mayer Amschel Rothschild created the House of Rothschild that was to pave the way for international banking and control of the world’s resources on a scale unparalleled and somewhat mysterious to this date. He disbursed his five sons to set up banking operations throughout Europe and the various European empires.



"Give me control of a nation's money and I care not who makes the laws."
Mayer Amschel Rothschild

In time the House of Rothschild was able to take control of the Bank of France and Bank of England and relentlessly pursued an effort over two centuries to control a national bank in the USA. By 1850 it was said the Rothschild family was worth over $6billion and owned one half of the world’s wealth.



From oil (Shell) to diamonds (DeBeers) to gold (from 1919 until 2004 a Rothschild was permanent Chairman of the London Gold Fixing committee which met twice a day in the Rothschild offices in London) the Rothschild’s quietly accumulated a foothold in critical industries and commodities throughout the world.

A master at building impenetrable walls around his family assets the current value of the Rothschild holdings are estimated to be between $100 and $300 trillion, yes that is trillion dollars! Now for a point of reference the current United States National Debt is $11 trillion.

J. P. Morgan began as the New York agent for his father’s business in London in 1860 and by 1877 was floating $260 million in US Bonds to save the government from an economic collapse. In 1890 he inherited the business and in 1895 bought $200 million in US Bonds with gold to again save the US economy.



“If you have to ask how much it costs, you can't afford it.”
J. P. Morgan

By 1912 he controlled $22 billion and had started companies such as US Steel and General Electric while he owned several railroads. Morgan was also an American agent for the House of Rothschild in London and used the Rothschild resources to help people like John D. Rockefeller.



Rockefeller, who started Standard Oil in 1863 with the help of Morgan, grew his company into the largest oil company in the world and by 1916 Rockefeller was the first billionaire in American history. In 1909 he had set up the Rockefeller Foundation with $225 million and donated nearly a billion more dollars to various causes. The Rockefeller family fortune is estimated to be around $11 trillion today.



“The way to make money is to buy when blood is running in the streets.”
John D. Rockefeller

So what did they have in common these extraordinary capitalists? They all were dedicated to owning a national bank in America so they could determine the fiscal policies of the nation and earn interest on the debt of the nation.

Rothschild agents in 1791 formed the First Bank of the United States but intense opposition to foreign ownership by President Jefferson and others helped kill it by 1811. A Second Bank of the United States was formed in 1816 once again by Rothschild agents and this time they secured a 20-year charter. However, President Andrew Jackson was also opposed to foreign ownership and withdrew the federal deposits in 1832 as part of his plan to kill the bank charter in 1836.

An attempt to assassinate Jackson in 1834 left him wounded but more determined than ever to stop the central bank. Thirty years later President Lincoln refused to pay international bankers extremely high interest rates during the Civil War and ordered the printing of government bonds. With the help of Russian Czar Alexander II who also blocked a similar national bank from being set up in Russia by the international bankers they were able to survive the economic squeeze.

Lincoln said, "The money powers prey upon the nation in times of peace and conspire against it in times of adversity. The banking powers are more despotic than a monarchy, more insolent than autocracy, more selfish than bureaucracy. They denounce as public enemies all who question their methods or throw light upon their crimes. I have two great enemies, the Southern Army in front of me and the bankers in the rear. Of the two, the one at my rear is my greatest foe. Corporations have been enthroned, and an era of corruption in high places will follow. The money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in the hands of a few, and the Republic is destroyed."



Both Lincoln and Alexander II were assassinated. In 1881 James Garfield became president and he was dedicated to restoring the right of the federal government to issue money like Lincoln did in the Civil War and he was also assassinated.

Finally along came 1913 and the US was again suffering from a weak economy and there was a threat of another costly war, a world war this time, and business tycoons J.P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller and E.H. Harriman were part of a group that got Woodrow Wilson to sign into law the Federal Reserve Act creating a network of 12 privately owned banks as part of a new Federal Reserve network.



One of the largest stockholders in the new Federal Reserve was the House of Rothschild through their direct and indirect holdings. A few years later it was disclosed that the Rothschilds also owned about 20% of J. P. Morgan. In time Morgan would merge with the Chase Manhattan Bank of the Rockefellers.

Years later John F. Kennedy opposed a private national bank and was assassinated in 1963 and Ronald Reagan opposed a private national bank and in 1981 an attempt was made to assassinate him. Coincidence or not the opposition to a privately owned national bank was a common characteristic to all these successful assassinations and assassination attempts.

Which brings us full circle to the present bailout of Bear Stearns by J.P. Morgan Chase & Company and we find the Rothschild, Morgan and Rockefeller families are all conveniently part of the same group benefiting from the bailout and the $30 billion guarantee by the Federal Reserve. This is the third time the J. P. Morgan Company has come to the rescue of the American banking system and economy.

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The Week in Review - Politics, Pollution, Procrastination and Prayer - What a Future!

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On the political front there were primaries and two special elections. The anti-incumbents won in Kentucky and Pennsylvania sending a signal to both Democrat and Republican parties. Then in the special elections a far more conservative Democrat than the moderate Republican won in Pennsylvania and a far more conservative Republican than two Democrats won in Hawaii. For the week the real winners were the conservative public, especially united in their opposition to the Obama and Democrats madcap spending addiction and total disregard for the spiraling federal deficit.

Also in politics Rand Paul, Kentucky Tea Party winner, naively mistook victory for a honeymoon with the press and found out just how deep and devious the venom of left wing media can be when he made his first appearances on the radical left PBS and MSNBC bastions. By weeks end someone finally took Rand to the woodshed for a little education in surviving with the sharks of the elite media.



Our self-proclaimed transparent president Barack Obama knows all about media and how fast they can turn on you and has been doing a good job of manipulating them. You would never know it, but Obama has not had an open news conference, one in which the media can ask about anything, since last July. Even George Bush held open news conferences twice a month throughout his eight year term. Obama has gone 10 months with no open news conference.

On the pollution front the BP oil spill has been partly stopped, and an effort to seal it will be made in the next couple of days. No one knows how many thousands of barrels have already escaped or how far it will be spread. There are predictions for catastrophic damage and losses, much from the seemingly thousands of lawyers lined up to sue everyone for damages which will line the pockets of the lawyers but do little to help the local economy.



The Obama administration may wind up being one of the biggest losers in this disaster because they were too busy playing politics to make sure their own regulatory agencies did their regulating. Yes there were problems with the technology, with the equipment and with the procedures, but there were also problems with the Obama people who have had nearly a year and a half to investigate their regulatory agencies and make sure all safety and equipment inspections take place. If the regulators were too cozy with the oil industry it was Obama's fault, they reported to him.

On the financial front we teetered on the brink of disaster over the European crisis and are far from out of it yet. After the shocking stock collapse the week before we got a report from Obama's SEC and other agencies saying it will take several more weeks to repair the regulatory flaws before they are sure the crash of 1000 Dow points in minutes won't happen again. No that is not very reassuring. Why don't they just declare an emergency and fix the damn mess?

Also on the financial front the Senate approved a version of the financial reform act, now it goes to a conference with the House and final action is expected by July. That means it took Congress three years since the housing meltdown and two years since the banking meltdown to start to fix the problems. It also means it will have taken President Obama and his Calvary of change agents about 18 months to come up with a fix for the economy. If that is rapid response by the president and the Democrats controlling Congress we are in very serious trouble.

When the bill goes to conference with the House it still contains some derivative language the banks hate and still makes no mention of the housing crisis which triggered the collapse of the economy. Rumor has it that no Democrat in Congress has the guts to say the strict derivative language should be dropped to satisfy the big bankers who financed the campaigns of Obama and the Congress. So watch to see if Obama, who has tried to paint a picture of himself as champion of the bank bashers, is not the one to request the derivative language be modified in order to protect the Democrats up for re-election.



If you doubt his claim as the champion bank basher just look at this letter I got from him this week. It came from the barackobama.com committee:

Jim --

On Thursday, the Senate passed historic Wall Street reform. This movement proved again that the strongest special interests, who for so long have called the shots in Washington, can be beat.
When opponents in Congress tried to block the legislation altogether, you stood up -- and they backed down. When the lobbyists pushed for loopholes and exemptions just before a final vote, you did not relent -- and we fought them off.
Your support brought us to this day -- and, because of that, we're poised to implement sensible reforms that will provide a stronger foundation for economic growth.
Now, the House and Senate must iron out their differences before I can sign it into law. But the financial industry will not give up. They have already spent more than $1 million per member of Congress, lobbying on this issue. And in the coming days, they will go all in. This is their last shot to stall, weaken, or kill reform, and they are not accustomed to losing.
But this movement has you -- and together, we have beaten the special interests before.
Please donate $5 or more today to help Organizing for America continue to mobilize thousands -- to counter the special interests' attacks and get strong Wall Street reform to my desk.
Every American has a stake in this bill.
If you have ever been treated unfairly by a credit card company, this reform works for you -- never again will Americans be duped by fine print or hidden fees.
If you ever try to take out a home loan or student loan, this reform works for you -- putting an end to predatory and deceptive lending practices.
And, if you or your small business relies on credit from community banks that are being punished for playing by the rules while their competitors do not, this reform works for you -- reining in the big banks and making sure all our lenders are subject to tough oversight.
These reforms would put in place the strongest consumer financial protections in history. And, by helping safeguard our economy from recklessness on Wall Street, it would ensure that a crisis like the one that caused this recession never happens again.
This is not a zero-sum game where Wall Street loses and Main Street wins. As we have learned, in today's economy, we are all connected. When the economy prospers, we all win. Senators of both parties recognize that fact, and that is why lawmakers stood up to the lobbyists and worked across the aisle to ensure that Wall Street reform passed.
But this fight is not yet over. And it is up to us to overcome this final test and pass reform into law. When we do, the power of this movement to make change in Washington -- despite the best efforts of the special interests -- will no longer be up for debate.
Please donate $5 or more today:
https://donate.barackobama.com/WSRSenateVictory
Thank you,
President Barack Obama



If Obama makes any move to change the reform legislation and water down the derivatives section he is a total hypocrite. Besides, aren't all lobbyist committees required to be registered lobbyists? If Obama can have a committee directly lobbying for a bill and raising millions of dollars to do it aren't they a lobbyist and special interest too? Yes we are back into the silly season.

As for pollution, BP is still struggling to clean up the spill and seal off the leak. Congressional hearings have already pointed out flaws in the regulatory process by the Obama people for not doing safety inspections and in the oil industry for not solving all safety problems, testing new technology and not having a plan for such a disaster.

While the leak will get sealed at some point, the clean up of oil already leaked is the source of much wild speculation and certain to be the target of multi-billion dollar damage suits by every lawyer who is part of the number one contributor to the Obama campaign and the Democrats running Congress. At least the unemployment rate for lawyers is sure to go down.



As for speculation about how serious the spill will be, I have my on speculation to throw in the mixing pot. We all know that oil leaking into the ocean is a normal thing and there are microbes in the ocean that feed off the oil. Normally there is not this much oil for feeding the microbes. So I predict that with hurricane season a week away there will be tropical storms and hurricanes that hit the gulf.

All the surface oil will most likely reduce the destruction by the storms because they have to move across heavy water with all the oil in it. However, the churning seas will widely disperse and break up the concentrations of oil in the gulf. The natural process will enable the microbes to attack the oil residue much more aggressively. At the same time the turbulence of the gulf and the massive volume of water thrown onto the shores by the hurricanes will help clean up the shore and wetlands that have been contaminated with oil.

The liberal media have said it will take many billions of dollars and more than a decade to clean up the mess. I say with the help of Mother Nature and/or Divine Intervention because of all the prayers being offered for help, the damage and length of time to recover could be far less. Sometimes it takes supernatural action to clean up the mess of men.

On the immigration front the liberals continue to bellow like stuck pigs about the Arizona law that has been significantly modified since original passage. Neither Obama nor the Democratic leadership in Congress will admit that Arizona was forced to act because Congress and the president decided it was too risky to push immigration reform with the November elections. That sounds more like backroom politics than leadership.

Of course the California liberals have followed suit and are trying to adopt restrictions in travel to Arizona to penalize the Arizona people. That sounds more like an action you would find in Soviet Russia than America. How can a state adopt any action that grossly discriminates against another state and ignores the fact the Congress and president failed to do their job? Only the liberals can figure out such bizarre strategies. And yes, as I said in an earlier article, Arizona has now threatened to shut off the electricity to California if they discriminate as they threatened. More than 25% of Los Angeles electricity comes from across the border in Arizona.

Top of all this activity off with the fact that Obama, after running around the country holding a series of press opportunities to boast of how the economy has turned around thanks to his trillion dollar deficit spending, watched helplessly as the stock market lost more value than any week since the economic crash. Of course Obama was just staying away from Washington for the week because of the election losses and mismanagement of the oil spill but he still claimed credit for fixing things prematurely, a fitting exclamation point on how little he still understands his job.



Let's see, Europe is on the brink of economic disaster, the national debt exceeds $13trillion, North Korea is charged with sinking a South Korean ship, Iran cuts nuclear deals as Obama tries to shut them down in the UN, the death toll of American military in Afghanistan passes 1,000, the stock market falls the most since the crash, oil continues spilling in the Gulf, financial reform moves forward as immigration reform moves backward, and the only thing PBS, MSNBC, NBC and ABC can ask Rand Paul is about the 1964 Civil Rights Act passed by Lyndon Johnson. Now what is wrong with this picture?

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No Inflation? Do You Really Believe the Government or FED?

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I hope not. Thanks to the politicians heading our government the spin doctors have gotten so good at twisting information and stretching the story, that it is almost impossible to tell the truth from the lies. Then there is the ideology influence meaning both sides of an issue give absolutely opposite analysis and supposed truth about every issue.



For every subject there are both sides. Democrats and Republicans, the House versus the Senate, liberals versus conservatives. president versus congress, working class versus the elite, intellectuals versus Tea Party members, well you see what I'm saying.

But that is not the end of the confusion. For on top of all that, there are so many special interests, again on both sides, that we are also bombarded by them. All this is a rather long segue into the story I am writing which concerns government credibility.



Take inflation. For the last several years we have been repeatedly told by the government and the media, surrogate mouthpiece for the government, that our inflation rate is practically non-existent. But these past few years of extremely low interest rates resulting from very low inflation rates don't seem to have reduced credit card interest, bank fees, the price of gasoline or even the cost of everything else.

Maybe I just don't understand. I mean how could inflation be insignificant if health care costs are rising by anywhere from 16-33% a year depending on who you listened to. Even Obama says the cost of health insurance premiums were up by 40% this year? Those claims were why we now have health care reform.



Actually Obama and the Democrats in Congress said there would be no increase in insurance premiums, no increase in medical costs, no increase in taxes yet they said it would cost about a trillion dollars to implement. If we are saving a trillion dollars by cutting Medicare and Medicaid and eliminating all that fraud, then why does it still cost a trillion dollars? Shouldn't the cost be paid from the savings? Of course the increases in fees and taxes start right away, while major changes don't take effect until 2013, the first year after Obama is re-elected if he is re-elected.

Another thing about our lack of inflation. Why is it the same banks charging us 20% interest on credit cards get the money for free from our Federal Reserve? Right now banks can borrow from the Fed at 0% to one-quarter of one percent. We pay 20%, they pay nothing and they get their money from us?



As near as I can figure, a bank can borrow money at no interest from our government, then charge the people who pay for the government, namely us, 20% on the money we spend, meaning the bank can make a 20% gross profit on money they borrow from the government if they do nothing but process credit card transactions. No wonder no one's making loans, that car and home sales are miserable.

But that is still not my only beef with inflation reported by the government. Gasoline is way up the past few years yet consumption is down and per capita use is way down. Still makes no sense unless it is a scam to keep the big banks in business.



I do a lot of shopping, and prices keep going up. The alternative to prices going up is to shrink the size of packaging which everyone seems to have done. Keep the price the same, reduce the amount of food they get. Now that sure sounds inflationary to me but not to the government bean counters.

Finally there is the Wal-Mart approach to being successful when the economy sucks. Just force a reduction in the cost of goods, this is a big advantage for Wal-Mart with the buying power of about 8,400 stores. Wal-Mart demands such low prices from suppliers because they sell more stuff than anyone else. Of course this sends the jobs overseas because American companies cannot cut prices anymore. And it reduces the quality of products because "Made in America" labeling is no longer true.



The quality of the products gets reduced in order for even foreign suppliers to get a Wal-Mart contract. I noticed how cheap materials have become commonplace, or how thin packaging is getting. What I buy breaks down faster, like scouring pads that are shot after one or two good pot scrubs. Ten or twenty years ago they cleaned many pots and pans. My laundry detergent says it does x2 or x3 the loads yet I get half the loads from what I got ten years ago.

So Wal-Mart can save me money but only if I give up American jobs and American quality control and accept inferior materials and much shorter product life. Now selling that should have required a great spin job but it didn't. Americans flock to Wal-Mart, jobs flock overseas and quality sinks even lower. This is the bill of goods we are being sold by the spin doctors.

I think inflation is going up a lot faster than reported by the government and media. As I just explained, there are a lot of ways to hide the cost of inflation and none of them do much to help the consumer. What pennies the Wal-Mart way saves us in groceries and goods, we pay in increased interest and fees on our bank and credit cards.



So why write this article? Because if the economy is still being built on a house of cards then more of the house of cards may still collapse. Oh yes, and about that Wall Street manipulation that nearly destroyed the world economy two years ago, the one Obama promised to fix, not even the new and highly spun Financial Reform program Obama wants will fix those problems.

The crucial rules will remain the same and the same crooks are handling the money. Maybe one day our president and congress will take care of us instead of all their more special interests. That is as good as I can spin this story right now.

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