Foreclosing on Foreclosing

Here we go again. Another banking crisis at our feet. Yet another round of recrimination, blame, stupid ideas and finger pointing. And guess what? It is all about mortgages...again. Because the banks messed up...again.

First, let's simplify and identify the problem. It is actually pretty straight up this time. The banks, in their haste to foreclose on those mortgages they should not have issued, were sloppy about the paperwork. Yes, I know. A lot of people bought houses they could not afford and agreed to mortgages they could not pay. They share in the responsibility for this mess, too.

But not the foreclosure debacle we now have. This one rests squarely with the banks. They simply failed to review the documents as they filed thousands of foreclosures. This led to uncertainty about the titles of the homes and that has led to canceled sales and removal from the market. This is not rocket science. In a lot of cases, the documents that are flawed are affidavits of ownership or delinquency.

It is important to note that the banks themselves stopped the foreclosures. Not the government as some would like to say. In fact, except for some really stupid ideas, government is not all that involved yet, which is partially a problem and partially a blessing.

Several so-called leaders including the false queen Nancy have called for a nationwide freeze on all foreclosures. This is idiocy. Lots of the proceedings are just fine and have no problems. A freeze would actually make things worse since those people being foreclosed on for non-payment would get to live for free in homes they should not be in. And it would embolden even more people to stop paying. Nancy's little freeze idea is the result of election year panic and her need to sound like she is in charge of anything other than 435 severely incompetent congress critters.

This is a problem created by the banks and one that can only be resolved by the same banks. Many are claiming that this mess will further harm the economy. Probably not. See, these homes will be foreclosed on and become available. Nobody is forgiving mortgages. Nor should they. The banks need to learn to do their job properly. It is really that basic.

My question is where are the regulators? Again? I thought this lax regulatory issue was being dealt with. What happened to the promises of vigilance from Obama's pre-failed economic team? Where are all of the regulators now? Well?

Because that is the question here. The banks freely admit they messed up. That is not up for debate. The real problem is that once again, the Federal Reserve under the ever incompetent Bernanke and the Treasury under the always incapable Geithner have simply not done their jobs. They have once again looked the other way. Once again pretended it is not a real problem. Once again yielded to the corrupting forces.

In an interesting side note, the Senate quietly and without any fanfare at all passed a bill that would actually make it easier for the banks to not do the proper paperwork by allowing out of state notarization, thus making it almost impossible to verify the documents' legitimacy. Obama says he will not sign this and he should not. The banks need to learn to do their jobs, not keep asking government to relieve them of their responsibility. I am sure that this will become part of the whole silly political shouting match, too and be wildly misrepresented by both sides. My question is how did this pass the Senate while aid to Haitians still suffering from an earthquake and tropical storm did not. I guess bankers write bigger checks than homeless families.

Some on the right want to claim this is somehow Obama's fault. Well, except for the lack of any kind of regulation or oversight, it is not. They would like to somehow get us to believe this will cost the taxpayers and further hurt the economy. Not so much. All this does is reduce the inventory of homes for sale by less than a third. What ehey don't tell you is that 2/3 of foreclosures are procedurally okay.

Some on the left want to use this to again try their ludicrous and dangerous mortgage forgiveness scheme where those folks that bought homes they could not afford are suddenly free and clear of their mortgage. They want to use this to basically reward idiotic behavior by home buyers. It was a bad idea 2 years ago, a bad idea last year and a bad idea today.

What needs to happen is everyone should step back from this and let the banks sort it out. They made the mess through sloppy and lazy procedures. Let them fix it. In most cases, it involves actually reading the paperwork. Just like Congress doesn't and apparently like the banks don't.

This entire mess can be simply summed up. The banks messed up again and they want to make it our problem again. Well, I say no. They broke it, they can fix it. This time, they will have to just deal with it.

To those in government - on both sides - looking to make political points, I say shut up, shut up, shut up! Stop! Enough! These are home foreclosures we are talking about. Families and businesses. Not some abstract you can use in your sad election bid.

To the pundocracy, I say happily, who cares what you think? You are more part of the problem than any solution. Screaming about this as if it is the end of the world. Looking for the partisan angle. It isn't there. This is a simple paperwork snafu. Caused by laziness and arrogance at the banks. Yell at them. I dare you.

Maybe we need to vote on November 2 for anyone not an incumbent. No matter how wacky they seem, they have to be better than what we have now. Come November 2, let's foreclose on their political careers and take our house of government back from them. They certainly have not paid as promised.

To drive home that message, I am offering T-Shirts with this message:


As a capitalist and a free market person, I am selling them for both profit and with the intent of donating to those candidates that are willing to step outside the parties and declare a concern for the Constitution and the people.

You can order them here: http://www.itisnotagame.spreadshirt.com

Steaming Rhetoric, Anyone?

Usually, I try to be balanced on this blog when it comes to stupid politicians, but Congressman Alan Grayson of Florida's 8th district makes it difficult at best.

Recently, this pathetic excuse for an intelligent being ran a campaign ad calling his opponent "Taliban Dan," based on some very out of context clips. Essentially, Grayson took a single sentence quoting a passage of the Bible (the one about a wife submitting to her husband) that Dan Webster used in a long speech and turned that into evidence that Webster somehow supported the total subjugation of women like the Taliban.

Now, to be as fair as possible, Webster is not exactly a proponent of equal treatment for woman across the board. He is known to be extremely anti-choice and anti-gay. That said, he is not Taliban. A full view of his speech reveals that he was pointing out that there are more than just that one verse in the Bible about women. I am not giving Webster a pass on his views towards women. He is most assuredly somewhere before Suffrage with his positions. But I am pretty sure that this does not include stonings.

That did not slow Grayson down, though. He put up a 30 second television ad that used Arabis looking lettering and the phrase "Taliban Dan." This from a congressman that has decried the Republican smear machine.

Or more appropriately, from a hypocritical congressman looking to save his job at any cost. Another fat, lying, thieving politician that would sell his children to keep his corrupt job. Another perfect example of what is wrong with our government.

In all fairness the Republicans are not a lot better, but not as bad or deplorable as Grayson. Their endless cries of socialism and not so subtle suggestions of Democrats being pro-terrorist and so on are bad enough. They have been pounding that drum for 2 years now.

But Grayson? Well, he just made them look good. It will be hard to top this one for even the most hateful and goofy Republican. Sure, the GOP has been playing the hate and fear card heavily, but that is what they do. And Grayson was one of the folks decrying it. But now he is one of the folks using it.

Alan Grayson is pretty much the new poster boy for what is wrong with American politics. Both sides engage in this endless hate filled food fight. Both sides feel an entitlement to elective office and feel the ends always justify the means. Both sides hurl insults and threats as if they were candy canes and cheap beads. Neither side takes actual responsibility for their words.

And Grayson has now redefined the apex of that method. One look at Grayson and you have to knows it is time to throw all of them out. They don't care about us. They barely knows we exist. His ad proves that. Instead of a logical argument against Webster's extreme positions, he hurls hate and vitriol. They all do that.

Why? Because, truth told, there is no real difference between to 2 corrupt tired parties in Congress. Both sides main interest is staying in Congress. They will do and say anything. Grayson is not alone in this Hall of Shame. Michelle Bachmann deserves a place in there. As do Boehner and Pelosi. And Cantor. All of them. If dishonesty, mean spiritedness and plain old hate were ranking factors, Grayson is number one this week.

In just over a month, we get to have our say. We get to fire the entire stinking lot of them. Send them all home. They have not served us at all, let alone well. Not one thing they told us they would do has been done. On either side. It has all been about them and their need to win the next election. And while they play this idiotic game, we pay the price.

Look around. Think things got like this in just 2 years? Nope. Both parties have been so busy serving themselves that they totally forgot to govern. And we are paying for it. Well, on November 2, we can end that by simply voting them out. Tell both parties that their day is over. All incumbents at all levels need to be replaced. On November 2, cast a vote that sends that message.

To drive home that message, I am offering T-Shirts with this message:


As a capitalist and a free market person, I am selling them for both profit and with the intent of donating to those candidates that are willing to step outside the parties and declare a concern for the Constitution and the people.

You can order them here: http://www.itisnotagame.spreadshirt.com

Whose Civil Liberties?

In one of the least covered stories last week, the federal government invoked the privilege of state secrets to try to stop a lawsuit brought on behalf of a terrorist by the ACLU.

Anwar al Awlaki, known to be linked to the Fort Hood terror shooter and multiple attempts to bring a WMD into the US, is suing the US government on the grounds that he has a right to not be killed in defense of the nation. Specifically, he claims in this insane lawsuit that he has a right to not be targeted by our anti-terror efforts. To make this even more mind boggling, the misguided folks at ACLU are demanding all defense and intelligence documents relating to this terrorist.

This would be ironically funny if it were not so serious.

Note I do not say alleged. Because he admits all of this. He is proud that he had a hand in the failed "underwear bombing" attempt. He openly advocates attacks on the US. He is currently hiding in Yemen and spewing his anti-American hate daily. The only alleged I can apply to Awlaki is his alleged humanity, which is apparently non-existent.

This is the guy that the ACLU is helping. Because his rights are more important than mine. Or yours. They are suing on the grounds that it violates international law to target an individual with death. Really? So all those fatwas issued by radical Moslems are illegal? Where are those lawsuits and condemnations? It is against international law to seek the death of an enemy? So why was not the ACLU suing Islam when it issued their death threats against an American for her (misguided but Constitutional) "Draw Mohammed Day?" Where was the ACLU when Comedy Central went all coward and censored South Park?

This disgusting terrorist would happily kill a school full of American children and then post the video on an Al Qaeda web site. This truly vile person wishes death on innocents every day, yet the ACLU is concerned about his rights. Apparently the right to promise death and destruction outweighs the Constitutional obligation of government to protect us from enemy attacks.

And there is the problem with American understanding of the threat of terror. Folks like the ACLU do not perceive the real threat of terrorism. They simply do not understand that people like their client Awlaki wish all Americans harm, including the ACLU. They don't want to accept that this guy is playing them for fools. So , they are suing.

The ACLU claims that the courts must have a role in the pursuit, capture and - where necessary - killing of terrorists. Seriously? Perhaps they need to review the Constitution which is amazingly clear on granting defense and war powers to the Executive Branch with limited approval power to Congress. The Courts are never mentioned.

This is why organizations like ACLU - that have done amazingly good work in the past - are in such disrepute today. They have no sense of the real world. No concept of the actuality of the enemy and their desire to kill and do great harm. They pretend that this is all a classroom exercise in law and not an actual ongoing life and death struggle. In my opinion, the ACLU is allowing its institutional dislike for our military and intelligence organizations to direct this action. They hate the military so much, they are willing to defend a publicly self proclaimed anti-American terrorist just to hurt our defenses.

The good news is that the administration has claimed official secrets on all requests for discovery. It seems the ACLU thinks they need lots of secret intelligence documents to make their case. They don't. There is no case. The ACLU's "client" Awlaki has openly called for attacks on America. He is currently the top English speaking Al Qaeda thug. He has participated in the planning of attacks. The only case the ACLU has is one where they need to prove their own sanity.

So the question remains - whose rights matter more? Those of a traitorous American that has taken up with our enemy and participated in attacks that killed Americans on US soil and others that came close or the rights of the other 300 million Americans who rely on our military to defend us from killers like Anwar Al Awlaki? And what of the rights of our military and intelligence people? Those documents could put them further into harm's way, unlike ACLU client Awlaki who is hiding behind and protected by the terror loving Yemeni government.

At what point does the ACLU ever realize that they need to reign in their ideological idiocy and see the reality. This is not about desegregating schools or Illinois Nazi rallies. This isn't even the somewhat abstract debate over the rights of Gitmo detainees. This is about real life and death from a real enemy. A real terrorist. One the ACLU has inexplicably chosen to side with. One that is working right this second to kill more Americans, even while Americans are working to prevent us from taking this piece of human trash out of the gene pool.

It is time for folks to stop sending ACLU money. It is time for our government to stop funding ACLU. After all, those funds are now being used to try to expose our covert efforts to stop terrorists who want us dead. And that violates MY civil liberties. Will ACLU sue itself on my behalf?

Taxes, Lies, Media and Politicians

As this election season thankfully heads to a close in November, the issue of whether or not to renew the "Bush Tax Cuts," stands at the top of the list of items the cowards in Congress hope to avoid taking a firm position on. This includes both parties, which are all over the place. In general, Democrats want to extend them for everyone except the top 3-4 percent and Republicans want to extend them for everyone, especially the top 3-4 percent.

Oddly - or perhaps not so oddly - both sides are not being totally honest about their positions. In brief, the Democrats claim that raising taxes on the top earners will somehow resolve the deficit. Not so much. The amount gained over 10 years would not cover this year's deficit, let alone a 10 year run. They also want us to somehow believe that those that earn more want to pay more taxes. Well, except for big fat liars like Warren Buffet (he really is a big fat liar who get on Goldman to profit from our misery) nobody wants to pay more taxes.

And the Republicans claim that this top 3-4 percent of earners are job creators. Again, not so much. Every bit of research indicates that this tax cut on top earners has almost no effect on the greater economy and creates very few jobs. The GOP also makes goofy claims about small businesses being harmed. Also not really true. I run one of those small businesses and this tax change would not affect me at all. The truth here is that those top earners will not spend the tax savings, nor will they be seriously harmed by the increase.

All of that said, this is simply not a good time to raise taxes. Not because of the false economics put forth by the 2 corrupt parties. Not because of any actual economic harm. It is just a bad time to raise taxes because of the psychological factor. There is a saying that in politics, perception is reality, and the tax issue fits right into that.

A tax increase of any kind right now would have a serious psychological impact on the economy that far outweighs and real dollar impact. Before folks start yelling, remember that we have spent over 2 years being told scary things about the economy that mostly were not true. The banking system was not about to implode, depression was not around the corner, stimulus did not stimulate, states did not default, nations did not go bankrupt and the Wall Street gang did not need our money. So the claims about these tax cuts have to be viewed in the light of over 3 years of lies from Congress and both administrations.

However, the damage to the recovery of the economy from the psychological factor of a tax hike is real. Businesses would stop growth and people - at all income levels - would stop spending. Not because of anything tangible, but because of the intangible effect, which is endlessly amplified by the nonsense spewing forth from the financial media. One of the unspoken truths about this entire financial mess is that the financial media has way exaggerated the situation to increase the drama for ratings. In much the same way as the ever unreliable Jim Cantore at the Weather Channel exaggerates a simple thunderstorm into a disaster of epic proportion. This has not helped at all.

Well, the same financial media is exaggerating the real impact of increasing taxes on the top 3-4 percent to try to extend their relevance. Oh, don't forget that most of them have a personal and undisclosed interest in the tax situation. Their taxes might go up.

What we never hear and what we should be hearing more about is a flat tax. If there ever was a time to put one into place and eliminate the zillion page tax code, this is it. If the financial commentators were honest and not spinning for politics and profit, they would talk about a flat tax. Instead they prattle on - incorrectly - about how Wall Street dislikes uncertainty. Wall Street love uncertainty. They profit from it.

Businesses dislike uncertainty. Families dislike uncertainty. It makes planning impossible and fairly pointless.

Imagine if every business and person knew - for certain - what their tax burden would be. Say the flat tax is set at 20 percent. No deductions, credits, exemptions or tricks. You make a dollar and 20 percent goes to tax. No property tax, no sales tax, none of that. Then businesses could plan. Then families could plan. Of course Wall Street would have to go back to fundamentals and actually working for a living, but that is not a bad thing.

Best of all, imagine never again having to deal with 2 inch thick tax returns and instructions that are written in some language that defies understanding. No more Schedule C, Form 1040, Earned Income, Deferred Income and the rest of the jungle of garbage that we call the tax code. No more paying someone else to decipher that maze of nonsense. Imagine the stimulus the billions spent on tax preparation would have if it suddenly was available in folks' pockets. Not to mention the psychological boost of being freed from the servitude of those forms.

If the Tea Party people were serious (they are, but not enough for this) they would be advocating a flat tax and a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. Put those 2 together and government will shrink to fit. If the Eric cantors of this world were serious about taxes, they would be advocating this, but the Eric Cantors of the world are not serious about this. They are puppets on the strings of their masters, who like the complex tax code that allows them to hide money legally.

So let Congress know that a flat tax beats a tax cut all day every day. Date those elected morons to defy their special interest masters and do something for the people they pretend to represent. I would tell my failed Congressman Kendrick Meek, but he is too busy running to lose for Senate to care about actual constituents. As if he ever cared.

And on November 2, lets help Congress with their taxes by firing the lot of them.

To drive home that message, I am offering T-Shirts with this message:


As a capitalist and a free market person, I am selling them for both profit and with the intent of donating to those candidates that are willing to step outside the parties and declare a concern for the Constitution and the people.

You can order them here: http://www.itisnotagame.spreadshirt.com

US Senate - A Division of Goldman Sachs

One of the items in the recently passed financial reform bill is the creation of a consumer protection bureau. While I have never been sure this was really needed and certain it should be not part of the Federal Reserve or Treasury, I was always of the belief that if it did come to pass then Elizabeth Warren should head it up.

Way back, I suggested that Warren and Fox's Eric Bolling head up an investigative panel to see exactly what happened on Wall Street before new regulations were created. Obviously, like they do most citizens, the Congress ignored me completely and passed a set of new regulations without benefit of a full investigation. And, as is usually the case when Congress acts hastily, new information comes out regularly that points up the flaws and shortcomings in the new law.

That said, since passage, only one name has been floated to head this new agency. That would be Dr. Elizabeth Warren. She was initially chosen to head up the TARP oversight for the Congress. This is perhaps one of the few intelligent decisions Congress has made in a long time.

As head of that oversight panel, she has been relentless in holding the banks' feet to the fire and is well known for asking tough questions and speaking her mind without the normal prevarication and nonsense that is so much part of Washington. Her plain spoken and honest assessments are what have made her as well known and respected as she is.

However, it appears unlikely that she will head up this new agency after all. According to the Associated Press, "The 61 year old Harvard professor and consumer advocate had been considered the leading candidate to head the bureau itself, but her lack of support in the financial community could have set the stage for contentious hearings that might ultimately have derailed her confirmation." (this is directly quoted from the article itself which appears in today's Miami Herald).

So the "financial community" is still able to tell the Senate what to do and not do. And by financial community, one can only assume that this means Goldman Sachs. Sure, there are others like Citi, JP Morgan, Bank of America and so on, but Goldman is the leader of this perilous pack. And apparently now in charge of the Senate.

I am not sure what is worse here. The fact that Goldman and their gang of thieves can assert this kind of control or the fact that the media states it as a simple conclusion with no further comment.

It is bad enough that the Senate is obviously a bought and paid for enterprise. The simple fact that all the Senate as a whole has been concerned about since the passage of the original TARP has been their Wall Street benefactors is bad enough. Remember, it was the Senate that amended TARP to another bill after the House resoundingly defeated it. It was Reid and McConnell (who now lies and says he was opposed) that subverted the Constitutional requirement that all spending bills initiate in the House. It was Dodd (now leaving the Senate before the investigation into his own depth of corruption) who jammed it into an unrelated bill just for the "HR" heading required to end run Article 1, Section 7 of the Constitution.

Now, it appears that the same Wall Streeters that used fear and intimidation to get $700 billion in free money from the taxpayer is still in charge enough to prevent the nomination of an actual regulator that might just force them into following the laws and rules. Apparently, the only thing this joke of a Senate does in a bipartisan manner is genuflect before the all powerful "financial community" and ignore the best interests off their constituents.

What is worse is that the media sees no problem with this. They state it in the same way they note that the sun rises in the East. At least according to Erica Werner and Julie Pace of the AP, this is OK. In fact, as far as I can tell, neither of these so-called journalists even flinched at the idea that the financial community has adequate sway to not only control the Senate but also to apparently cow the White House as well. There is no follow up, no mention of just how wrong the concept is. Just a simple sentence that appears to accept the corrupt practices of our government.

So, we the people will have to settle for mediocrity as demanded by Goldman and their corrupting cronies on Wall Street. We shall have to accept that any financial regulation will only be at the pleasure of the regulated. And we might as well prepare ourselves now for the next crisis and the next bailout of these jerks. Because they own them a US Senate and we have nothing.

Of course, that is changing. Perhaps the recent victories by non-traditional candidates is a sign that Americans are sick and tired of this kind of nonsense. Perhaps these candidates are winning because Americans have done the math and realized that only these candidates will be able to resist the corrupting influences of Wall Street and the rest of the big money crowd.

Let me remind folks in both parties of something. To pass TARP, House Minority Leader John Boehner actually wept on the House floor. Look it up. He stood there in tears begging for money to bail out the big banks. Mitch McConnell predicted the end of the world if the money didn't come. Obama, Palin, McCain, Frank, Dodd, Pelosi, Bush, Paulson, Clinton, Reid and the rest of them all supported this mess. Since then some have decided to pretend they were opposed. They weren't and they are lying if they say they were. TARP was a bipartisan screwing of the American People. For those that fear government's destruction of the free markets, well, it started with TARP. It started with both parties.

We can stop the game on November 2 by simply voting these corrupt clowns out of office. Look at the reaction from official Washington to a Senate primary in Delaware. Or a gubernatorial primary in New York. The favored, party picked candidate lost and the politicians and pundits on both sides went loony tunes. While I am not a fan of a lot of the policies that these candidates espouse, I am a huge fan of irritating the political/pundit world. I am also a fan of simply tossing the entire Congress out on their heels come November. they have done a bad job, They have lied, cheated, stolen and now apparently take their orders from Wall Street.

Come November 2, vote to take America back from the special interests and corrupt politicians. This time, America is depending on all of us to help all of us. Let's not let us down.

To drive home that message, I am offering T-Shirts with this message:


As a capitalist and a free market person, I am selling them for both profit and with the intent of donating to those candidates that are willing to step outside the parties and declare a concern for the Constitution and the people.

You can order them here: http://www.itisnotagame.spreadshirt.com

The Party is Over - or - We Are Over the Parties

So another round of primaries yesterday and another set of so-called upsets of so-called party insiders by so-called Tea Party candidates. I say "so-called" because it is the media that is applying this labels. The voters, not so much. The real loser in all of this is actually the media (and that includes you too, Fox) who really have no idea how to handle serious third party candidates or the outsider candidates that keep winning. So they try to force all of them into the tired, corrupt old 2 party structure that has miserably failed this country for at least a generation if not longer.

But what has made this even more fun to watch is the rapid disintegration of the existing parties. Both the Democrats and Republicans are having trouble as parties this time. Why? Well, both are under attack from within. The Dems from the far left and the GOP from the far right.

For too long, the corrupt 2 party system has served itself and only itself. Since 1990 or so it has been almost impossible to tell them apart once they won an election. Sure, they sound different on the campaign trail, but once in office, they are all the same. Both parties govern only for the purpose of sustaining the parties.

While this is way more obvious on the Republican side with the Tea Party movement and labels like "RINO" (Republican in Name Only)- which I find absolutely hilarious by the way - the Democrats have the same problems. It is just harder to see since the Republicans are famous for lock step marching and little or no dissension among the ranks. The Democrats, on the other hand, are not particularly well known for lock step or even agreement among the ranks. So their problems are a little more obscure.

While I am registered No Party Affiliation and have been for a long, long time I tend to see myself as a moderate in most things. I believe that the Constitution is the law of the land. And I believe that the Constitution is a living document. I do not see judges as "activist," when they render decisions. In fact I find that label somewhat detestable since it is only applied to decisions one party or the other dislikes.

I believe that the Congress as it is today is an overpriced, overpaid, overprivileged failure of epic proportions. That is the fault of the 2 tired, corrupt parties that have created the permanent incumbency. Most members of Congress are lazy and pointless. In a recent post I talked about Eric Cantor and Alan Grayson as perfect examples of this. They are exactly what is wrong with Congress today. Neither of them has an inkling of the word compromise or the word deliberation.

Both - like the rest of their disrespective parties - are blind ideologues who have no interest in serving their constituents. Neither is an honest negotiator. Both exist only to garner huge campaign contributions while serving their chosen special interests. And both - as are the other 533 Whores on the Hill - are liars of the first degree.

So along comes the Tea party folks who are actually not really part of the Republican party. However, the GOP has been desperate to fold them into their unitized message. Unsuccessfully, I might add. To date, everyone a Tea Party backed candidate has beaten has been a Republican. It remains to be seen if they can win a general election. I do not count Scott Brown in Massachusetts since it was a special election and Brown has not exactly gone all lockstep for the GOP or the Tea Party. In fact, Brown is an anomaly in Congress in that he actually votes the way his constituents want him to vote.

In the meantime, the GOP is in turmoil. To the point that Sean Hannity (who has never served as an elected official or run for office) yelled at Karl Rove last night when Rove pointed out that the Tea Party winner in Delaware was going to cost the GOP a Senate seat. Now, I am not a Rove fan, but he did direct George W. Bush's winning campaigns. So he does know a thing or 2 about the voters. Hannity on the other hand is a teleprompter reading desk jockey who has never actually done anything useful. Yet, here is Hannity telling Rove he knows nothing. And that is the GOP's problem in a nutshell. The pundits are running the show and not the actual politicians. Well, the day Hannity actually does something for the country that does not profit him personally is the day his opinion matters to me.

Same for the Dems. They have their own collection of pointless pundits who, while having never done anything for anyone except themselves, feel somehow qualified and obligated to shred folks trying to do something. While I certainly have issues with some of Obama's policies, I am stunned that those very same far left Democrats were bashing the guy they fought to elect within days of his taking office. If you want to see the enraged buffoonery of the far left in action, look no further than Keith Olbermann. Here is a guy that was a cheerleader for Obama in 2008 and immediately a critic in 2009 when Obama didn't simply pull our troops out of the wars and didn't arrest the heads of Wall Street and so on. Olbermann is another teleprompter fed blatherer who has never once done anything useful for this nation that did not somehow profit him personally.

On a semi-personal note, Olbermann has ventured even further out over the line of reality with his not so subtle contention that the reporter at the center of the controversy with the New York Jets is somehow at fault for their allegedly boorish behavior. According to this dunderhead, she was asking for it. Seriously? She was asking for it? That is so pathetic it is almost clinical. (I am not putting her name here because I am too lazy to look up the correct spelling. E-mail it to me and I will edit).

It is like the mirror reflection of the GOP-Tea Party divide. Same deal, different players, same tired old rhetoric.

I saw a comment posted on one of the blogs last night that read, "See. RINO's are running the Republican party." This was after the Republican Senate Campaign said they would not support O'Donnell in Delaware even though she is the elected GOP nominee in that state. The comment is both telling and insanely funny. The Republican Party is being run by Republicans in Name Only? Then by extension the Republican Party is a self defined fake and only those that call it a fake are real Republicans.

If this sounds loosely familiar, it should and Democrats need to join the GOP in the Shameful Act Hall of Fame for their treatment of Alvin Greene in the South Carolina Senate race. They tried desperately to not support him. They even challenged the votes of their own party in that primary. Took themselves to court if you will. It has become a comedy of the absurd and would be funny were it not real.

Well, we can end the comedy on November 2 by simply voting the old clowns out and voting new clowns in. Yes, I meant that. Most of the folks challenging incumbents and party picked candidates are pretty much the lesser of multiple clowns. O'Donnell and Greene are perfect examples of what I mean. And I hope both of them win. At least they will be new, relatively uncorrupted clowns that reject the tired old 2 party system that has kept a stranglehold on the seats of power in this country for way too long. It is past time to break that hold and end the sad comedy.

To drive home that message, I am offering T-Shirts with this message:


As a capitalist and a free market person, I am selling them for both profit and with the intent of donating to those candidates that are willing to step outside the parties and declare a concern for the Constitution and the people.

You can order them here: http://www.itisnotagame.spreadshirt.com

What are They Teaching?

Preventative disclosure - I am registered No Party Affiliation (NPA and Proud!) in Florida and have been for some time - as in decades. As such, I get calls from both sides seeking to sway me to one or the other. Failing that, they at least want some money. I have not given a dime to either party for quite some time and do not intend to fuel their hate and anger machines now.


As the election draws closer, the number of fund raising calls from both sides keeps increasing. And the alarmist noises being made by those fund raisers gets more alarming. This week I got a call that set me to wondering just what these callers have been taught.

This one came from the Republican Senate Campaign Committee. It could just as easily been the Democrats. Both sides are the same. It went something like this (I am not making this up):

Caller: Hi. I am calling on behalf of the Republican Senate Committee. In November, Americans head to the polls to vote in the most important election in American history. We need to elect more Republican Senators to help get rid of Nancy Pelosi.

Me: Umm. You do know that Nancy Pelosi is Speaker of the House and 100 Republican Senators could not remove her.

Caller: Right. That is why we need to elect more Republican Senators.

Me: And you do know that Senators have no voice in who is Speaker of the House, right?

Caller: Yes. Because the Democratic majority....

Me: Not to be rude, but do you understand how Congress is structured? I mean you do know that the House of Representatives elects the Speaker and the Senate has no say at all.

Caller: Yes, I know that, and that is why we need more Republican Senators. All 435 Senate seats are up for election...

Me: There have not been 435 Senators since Rome burned. Want to try that again? No, wait. Let me explain. The House of Representatives currently has 435 members, all of whom face election every 2 years. The Senate is currently 100 members and only one-third of them face election every 2 years. So, what are you asking me for?

Caller: We need to raise money to elect more Republican Senators.

Me: Out of curiosity, who is the minority leader of the US Senate right now?

Caller: Michael Steele?

And so on. This call lasted quite some time, since I asked for a supervisor who was even less well informed. They could not name any Congressional leader except the false queen Pelosi and seemed somewhat baffled that Senators could not unseat her. They could not name the Republican candidate for Senate here in Florida, even though they were trying to raise money for him.

The answer to "Who is the GOP Senate candidate here in Florida?" was, "Oh, wait. I can't remember the name. Tea Party endorsed. I know that...."

What bothered me about this call was the fact that these callers have no idea how our government is structured. None. They don't know the difference between the House and Senate. They have no clue as to who is running or who is currently in office. This is not a lack of briefing by their employers. This is a lack of proper education in basic American civics. It is a lack of basic knowledge about who sits in leadership posts in our government.

I learned this stuff when I was in elementary school. It would be do easy to blame the schools or teacher's unions. And they should be brought to task for this. But the real culprit here is the failed 2 party system we have. The Democrats and Republicans don't want voters to know how it works or who is in charge. If the voters knew the truth about how horribly twisted and corrupt the system has become, no incumbent would ever win re-election.

So what are they teaching in the schools? Keep in mind that we just send billions to school districts across the country to help them meet their budgets. And while that money is controversial (what isn't controversial these days?) what is more aggravating is the lack of any kind of requirements or conditions to get the funding. So what do we get for our billions?

Not civics or any education on how our government works. No real explanation of our rights and freedoms. No teaching about how a bill becomes law or why a bicameral legislature is more representative than a unicameral form. Nope. We get more nonsense self-esteem claptrap. More "everyone is a winner" stupidity. Another round of "everyone can do anything."

And that is how a political fundraiser has no idea how the political system works. And that is why our elected officials are simply embarrassing. That is why the ballot has become a "hold your nose and vote," process. If you think this generation of self serving narcissistic elected failures is bad, wait for the next one.

One of the few things that is bipartisan is that narcissistic self righteousness. Look at Eric Cantor and Alan Grayson. Two members of the Parliament of Whores we call Congress. One from each of the corrupt parties. Yet, they are almost the same person. Totally convinced that they are right and everyone else is too stupid to see that. Both talk to the people like we are 4 year olds. Neither has a clue about the reality of life on "Main Street," and neither actually cares.

That is just 2 of the 535 self serving corrupt entities that occupy Capitol Hill. Those 2 are just examples of how bad our Congress really is. Sure. Obama's poll numbers are dropping. And well they should. He is not doing what one could call a great job. But Congress? Their numbers would embarrass Spiro Agnew. So few people hav favorable view of Congress that it is entirely possible that all of the favorable view results came from employees of Congress.

Well, I think we need to do some unemploying. Starting on November 2, we need to get rid of all of the party hacks and whores that are in Congress now and elect anyone that is not an incumbent. They cannot possibly be worse than the corrupted, self serving, overly entitled batch we have now. And where possible, not from one of the 2 failed parties.

If anyone can be blamed for the mess we have now, it is the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. As the phone call pointed out so effectively, they actually don't care about the governing part of the deal. All they want is the winning. For them it is just a game. Well, we are the umpires and it is time to send them to the clubhouse permanently.

To drive home that message, I am offering T-Shirts with this message:


As a capitalist and a free market person, I am selling them for both profit and with the intent of donating to those candidates that are willing to step outside the parties and declare a concern for the Constitution and the people.

You can order them here: http://www.itisnotagame.spreadshirt.com

No Party Affiliation

Today's Miami Herald brought some interesting - if incorrect - political analysis of the growing numbers of voters registered to neither party. As someone who has proudly been No Party Affiliation (NPA and Proud!) for over 15 years, I could not help but laugh at the pathetic attempt to pigeonhole truly free thinking independent voters by not only the press but the 2 corrupt old parties as well.

In the article by Lee Logan of the Tallahassee bureau of the decidedly Democrat leaning Herald, it is reported that the number of unaffiliated voters is growing more rapidly than either Democrats or Republicans. Since anyone in Tallahassee is most likely part of the autocratic Republican-Democrat Junta that has run the state of Florida like a fiefdom of corruption for decades, Logan's article has to be taken with an Everest size grain of salt.

Phrases like, "...while Democrats struggled to maintain their hefty registration edge over Republicans," don't seem to square up with the later phrase, "..the Republican share of the electorate has declined slightly.." This tells me that the article itself is coming from the Republo-Crat regime and not an objective look at all. In fact, I think it is fair to say that the Herald along with every other media outlet in the nation is in the same situation. They have all tied themselves to one party or the other (yes, Fox, you too) and can't seem to grasp the concept of truly independent voters not held under the sway of the Donkey or Elephant.

In the article, both parties try to claim the "No Party Affiliation" voter. Democrats say that these voters are going to start to appreciate all of the spending and taxing soon since it is saving jobs, blah, blah, blah. At the same time, the GOP claims these voters since, "these non-affiliated voters in their behavior are Republicans."

See the problem? Neither party (nor the press) can come to grips with the simple and obvious fact that more and more voters are sick of their prattling nonsense and ineffective blind ideology. They cannot seem to grasp that we want a government that serves all of the people and not just the majority money folks. The media seems to be totally incapable of even processing the idea that voters can no longer be pressed into simple molds to make reporting easier. Pundits rely on the same tired party line nonsense and refuse to accept that both parties have failed.

And that is the issue in a sentence. Both parties have failed. They have failed so big and so blatantly that it is almost impossible to tell them apart. Sure, they sound different on TV, but look at what they do. Both parties serve only themselves and their major money sources. Never doubt that. The people they elect only serve the parties and never the people. Every action (on inaction) is designed to either win the next election on embarrass the other party.

One look at Congress confirms this. Until 2007, Republicans ran the Congress and Democrats obstructed. Since 2007, it is reversed. No changes, nothing new. No deliberation, no compromise, no honesty. Just pathetic games. Senate minority leader McConnell has made it clear that nothing will pass without a filibuster for the sake of a filibuster. This includes GOP sponsored legislation. Oddly, when the GOP ran the Senate, they complained that the Democrats were obstructing. Now the GOP says it is the "will of the people," which explains the Democratic majority. More Democrats were elected to the Senate so Republicans could stop everything. Makes no sense anywhere except on Capitol Hill.

Same in the House. 6 years ago, the false queen Pelosi was minority leader and she complained about the use of parliamentary tricks to push through legislation that was not going to pass otherwise. Now that she has taken her throne and scepter, she uses those exact same tricks, like the recent use of reconciliation. Seems that when she is in charge, the tricks don't look so bad.

Tallahassee is far worse. The Republican controlled legislature has refused to work with the governor because he chose to run for Senate as an independent. And in Florida, the rift is so wide between the parties and so blatant, that the Republican House Speaker doesn't even bother to make up reasons for it. He pretty much says that the business of the people is on hold because they are mad at the governor for not playing party politics.

All of this party line garbage is why the number of NPA voters keeps increasing. Because the 2 parties are like old, worn out hookers. They just keep selling out and selling out, but fewer people are interested in what they are selling. Both parties are corrupt and self serving. Neither has a clue about the will of the people. Both have adopted hard partisan lines that neither will ever soften or negotiate. It has become all or nothing on both sides.

There are no moderates, no crossover votes, no compromises and no meaningful debates. Just the same tired old junk from the same tired old hacks. It is beyond time to send them home. On November 2, we, the NPA voters can do just that. Send them home, en masse. They have failed and failed badly. It is time to fire them - with no regard to party. They are all bad.

To drive home that message, I am offering T-Shirts with this message:


As a capitalist and a free market person, I am selling them for both profit and with the intent of donating to those candidates that are willing to step outside the parties and declare a concern for the Constitution and the people.

You can order them here: http://www.itisnotagame.spreadshirt.com

Let Them Eat Nothing!

Acting en masse in a genuine Marie Antoinette moment, the US Senate has once again set a new low point for partisan politics trumping the needs of the people. And this time both sides seem to have gone out of their way to be particularly dishonest about it.

Yesterday, the Senate - along mostly party lines (duh) - failed to vote cloture and allow a real vote on a bill to give small businesses a large tax break and access to an additional $30 billion in SBA loans. This is a bill that, until yesterday, had pretty solid bipartisan support. In fact, the bill itself reads like a Republican concept, based on their accurate position that small business needs more attention from the Obama administration.

Republicans have been correctly hammering Obama and the hopeless Dems in Congress since day one about the need to give small business a break and let them create jobs. So what happened? Well, surprise, surprise, surprise. Partisan election year politics happened.

Look at the reason given by Senate Minority Leader McConnell. He complained that Republicans could not get enough amendments added to the bill. Let me say that again - Republican Senators blocked an opportunity to help small business because they could not add enough amendments to a bill they had already said they liked.

To be fair, Senate Majority Leader Reid did limit them to 3 amendments, which is silly to start with. However, many of the ideas that Republicans wanted were already in the bill itself. Democrats are easily guilty of overplaying the power hand on this and not working more to resolve what is - at the end of the day - a stupid procedural dispute. And the Dems are wrong for once again fearing that Republicans might try to add an amendment that they don't like.

However, Senate Republicans should be ashamed for once again putting election year politics ahead of the needs of the people. This was not about the bill itself. Or paying for it. Or if it is needed. Both sides agree that the bill is needed. This is about the ongoing GOP strategy of not allowing any progress on the economy so that they have a campaign issue.

Democrats are doing the same thing. Would a tax break really be on their agenda in a non-election year? The folks that brought you mandatory health care? Of course not.

Once again, the Senate proves to be an almost pointless body that has degenerated into nothing more than an endless campaign stop for a very spoiled and uncaring 100 plutocrats who put themselves and their corrupt political parties above the people that elect and pay them.

So, small business, no soup for you! McConnell and Reid are too busy making sure the soup is all theirs. The only small businesses these guys care about are the ones that they use to hide their own money. Next time a smarmy Democrat talks about job growth, remind them that they killed job growth over petty partisan nonsense. And the next time some self-righteous Republican blabbers about how small business creats most of the new jobs, remind them that they killed that job machine to further their pathetic ambitions.

Better yet, come November, vote the entire stinking lot of them out. If they were employees, they would have been fired already. The United States will be a much better place without this collection of tired corrupt career party hacks. On November 2, vote for anyone but the incumbent. Your nation will thank you.

To drive home that message, I am offering T-Shirts with this message:


As a capitalist and a free market person, I am selling them for both profit and with the intent of donating to those candidates that are willing to step outside the parties and declare a concern for the Constitution and the people.

You can order them here: http://www.itisnotagame.spreadshirt.com

Spenders, Tax Cutters and Liars. Oh My!

According to the US Constitution, Congress has the power to tax and spend. And they do know how to exercise those powers. It is a bipartisan activity, although the 2 parties will both happily lie to you about which they are doing more of. And both parties do plenty of both...and plenty of lying about it.

Now that it is time for this joke of a Congress to actually deal with the soon to expire Bush tax cuts, the flow of dishonesty and misdirection from all sides is just blinding. Start with the basic positions. Democrats want to pretend to end tax cuts for the "wealthiest Americans," so they can spend more and Republicans want to cut more taxes so they can pretend to spend less.

Let's start with the party in power. Seems fair - they are currently in charge of the Congressional honeypot. And the Democrats are in trouble on the tax issue. Seems that the recently former chair of the House Ways and Means Committee that actually has to initiate all tax laws (Article 1, Section 7) was himself apparently evading taxes like a Wall Street pro. Charlie Rangel is currently waiting for the full House to hear what amounts to a trial for the ethics violations he committed with his multiple residences, unpaid taxes on revenues and money he just "forgot" he had. In other words, false queen Nancy's hand chosen tax writer was actually a tax cheat. Oh, and a big fat liar.

This tosses a wrench into Pelosi's plan to raise taxes on high income folks and also raise taxes more deviously on everyone else. And that makes it almost impossible for her to keep handing out billion dollar gifts to get legislation passed. The House has gotten into the habit of simply waiving their own rules regarding spending. According to the rules, expenditures or tax cuts (they are actually the same thing) have to be paid for with an offsetting reduction in spending elsewhere. Incovenient.

Now that Rangel is no longer in charge of Ways and Means, false queen Nancy has to find another way to fund her corrupt empire of greed and nonsense. Seems that Rangel was willing to do whatever she wanted as long as he didn't have to own up to his own crimes. Remember, Pelosi kept him in that position for 2 years before finally moving him out.

This would normally be good news for Republicans, who believe that cutting taxes is the magic answer to everything. The GOP position on taxes versus spending was summed up best most recently by Mike Pence. When asked by legacy qualified interviewer Chris Wallace why the unemployment benefit extension was stalled, Pence said it had to be paid for with an offset in spending. That made sense, but Pence's next answer totally negated any logic momentarily present. Wallace asked the redoubtable Pence how extending the tax cuts would be paid for. This sent pence off into a long explanation of economics that I suspect Pence did not fully understand. When brought back down to Earth and pressed for a real answer, Pence said tax cuts pay for themselves in stimulus and job growth. And that is perhaps the lie of the millennium.

See, tax cuts are spending. the same Republicans who decried Obama's stimulus plan as unpaid for spending want to spend almost a trillion dollars on more tax cuts for high income folks. Now I have no problem with cutting taxes. None at all. However, I do have a problem with the false belief that tax cuts somehow stimulate anything and are not really spending. I have an even bigger problem with all of this targeted tax cut garbage.

Tax cuts are spending. I am saying this again because liars like Pence and Cantor can't seem to grasp this. A tax cut removes money from the government just like spending does. It costs someone. Just like spending. But the Republicans never seem to want to admit that. Just like Democrats never seem to want to admit that spending endlessly does not solve anything.

While Pence and company push to cut taxes to somehow magically increase revenue, Democrats are pushing to spend money to somehow magically save money. Only in Congress does this make any sense.

What those 535 boneheads should do is level the taxes to a single rate flat tax. No deductions, credits, exemptions or other trickery. Then they should simply only spend what they have. No deficit spending. If they need more, then let them raise taxes and justify it to the people. Same with the endless tax cuts. Tell us what programs and spending are getting cut to cover those tax breaks.

I am all for lower taxes and less spending. I think the estate tax is an obscenity and the capital gains tax is a deterrent to investing. I think the current multi-tiered tax structure with the bazillion deductions, credits and exemptions is stupid and ineffective. I fully support a one line flat tax with no breaks. Same rate for everyone. Imagine how easy it would be for business if they knew in advance exactly how much of each dollar was tax. Imagine the real dollar savings in paperwork alone.

Here in Florida, we know all about unwise tax cuts. Ask Marco Rubio - the current darling of the reduce taxes and not spending movement. As Florida Speaker, he pushed tax cuts through the legislature with no matching spending cuts. His attitude was to let the counties figure it out since he was leaving the Florida House anyway to run for US Senate. He knew he wouldn't have to deal with the fallout of his irresponsible and unpaid for tax cuts.

And that is exactly what spenders and tax cutters in Congress are doing now. Democrats keep spending in the belief that somehow all of it magically comes back. Republicans keep yelling for tax cuts in the belief that cutting revenue will somehow magically increase revenue. Do any of these morons have a working checkbook?

I think they all need to go. If they worked in private industry, they would have been fired long ago for incompetence and lying. Well, come November, we can do just that. Fire the whole stinking lot of them.

To drive home that message, I am offering T-Shirts with this message:


As a capitalist and a free market person, I am selling them for both profit and with the intent of donating to those candidates that are willing to step outside the parties and declare a concern for the Constitution and the people.

You can order them here: http://www.itisnotagame.spreadshirt.com

The Racism Race

The last week or two have been nothing if not filled with crossing charges of racism. Oddly, none are correct and all are politically motivated and hurled by lazy politicians and pundits looking for a quick sound byte or ratings boost.

I will spare all of us (especially me) a recitation of the growing misuse of the accusations of racism that started over the 2008 election. We all watched and saw and know better. In a nutshell, supporters of Obama label everyone opposed to them as racists and opponents of Obama seize on every minor opportunity to point out racism among Obama's supporters. In other words, racism is the new corruption or sex scandal.

Recently, however, the charges have gotten way out of control and even further out of proportion to the reality.

The first salvo in this new standoff came from the NAACP. At their annual convention, they passed a resolution calling on the Tea Party to end racism in their ranks. OK. Except the Tea Party movement is not racist. At all. What the NAACP was overreacting to was the presence at some Tea Party rallies of a very few individuals who took the opportunity to put their racist message on a poster and join the rally. These were not actual Tea Party signs and not at all part of the Tea Party agenda.

To be fair, you can find racist messages at the NAACP convention, the Democratic and Republican conventions, probably even the Jewish Federation. None of these organizations - including the Tea Party - is racist. None. Yet somehow, the media decided to focus on those one or two at Tea Party rallies, thus branding lots of good folks unfairly. And the Tea Party organizers were already doing everything they could under law to remove those signs and messages.

The NAACP was asking them to do what they were already doing. An unnecessary action by an organization desperate for relevance. Most serious Tea Party folks just waved it off. Like them or not, the Tea Party movement is not about race. It is about the Constitution and smaller government.

Sadly, one responded. Tea Party Express founder and leader Mark Williams issued a nauseating racist screed on his blog (later removed) that among other things accused the NAACP of being racist for having the word "Colored" in its name. Williams later called it parody and sarcasm. It wasn't. Rightfully, the rest of the Tea Party leaders told Mr. Williams to go away. As they have told other race baiters to go away.

Not content with this, some on the far right started looking for a black person being racist to somehow embarrass the administration. And they thought they had one. An old tape of USDA official Shirley Sherrod (a black woman - sadly it matters in this context) speaking many years ago was edited to sound like she was denying white farmers full services. This was not the case, but too late for that.

The pundocracy swung into motion without any fact checking, which caused the Obama administration to panic before checking all the facts and they forced this woman to quit her job. Because they were afraid of the publicity. Even though there were no official complaints and in fact many good reviews of her work. The NAACP, still trying to recover from the Tea Party embarrassment jumped in and - with no fact checking again - condemned this woman as a racist.

As it turns out, she was not and her remarks, when viewed in totality are obviously not even vaguely racist. Too late, though. She had already been forced to resign while driving home. Seriously. And thus, the damage was already done. To make it worse, the NAACP - again looking rather bad - blamed conservative pundits and bloggers for their error. No mention that they never looked into the matter themselves or even bothered to call this woman. They didn't. They - just like the Obama White House - jumped to head off some bad PR and to look proactive.

Well, they just look stupid. All of them the NAACP, Williams, The White House, the pundits - all of them. None of them researched anything and none of them was honest about it. And why is this now the new battleground? Because Congress is moribund and intellectually bankrupt. How can I pin Congress for this? Easy.

If members of Congress would actually take on real issues and have real debates with real substance, then that would be what we all talked about. That would drive the pundits and press. Those would be the headlines. Since Congress has locked itself into this eternal partisan p***ing contest pointed solely at the next election, not much of substance happens and certainly nothing surprising.

Every debate is predictable, every vote countable days in advance along hard party lines. Every utterance of the self proclaimed leaders is a rerun of the day before and nothing ever really gets done. Both sides have conspired to derail public policy in favor of political gamesmanship. Since Congress has become a permanent campaign festival, the rest of the body politic follows suit. And as the extremes in Congress go further out on the ledge, so does the rest of the gang.

Thus, the American discourse has devolved - pretty much by an act of Congress - to a name calling spat not worthy of an elementary school playground. Until those 535 clowns are replaced by serious people, this idiocy and this "gotcha" strategy will rule the roost. I actually don't care about party or liberal/conservative. The only difference between Democrats and Republicans these days is whose picnics they attend.

I care about issues and those serious about actual governance. Those willing to set aside the permanent campaign and actually do the job they were elected to.

We can send a lot of them home for food on November 2. Come election day, do something really good for America and vote to fire your Congress Critter. The nation and world will be a better place for it.

To drive home that message, I am offering T-Shirts with this message:


As a capitalist and a free market person, I am selling them for both profit and with the intent of donating to those candidates that are willing to step outside the parties and declare a concern for the Constitution and the people.

You can order them here: http://www.itisnotagame.spreadshirt.com

Party Line Moronics

Yesterday, almost at the same time that BP announced that oil had stopped pouring into the Gulf for the first time in 3 months, a Congressional committee announced that the partisan trash would keep pouring into the nation unabated. The trash flow in question has to do with legislation revamping the horribly failed MMS. Something that literally every Congress Critter except Joe Barton agrees on publicly. But when it is time to actually go on the record with a vote, same old party line nonsense.

The bill in question is HR 3534, intended to divide MMS into three agencies with distinct responsibilities and reporting, prevent the corruption that was found to exist in the last administration and endorsed when Obama rehired the same corrupt failed team and to try to stem the flow (pun very much intended) between regulator and regulated by enacting a 2 year ban on going from regulator to oil company executive.

This is one of those pieces of legislation that should move right through without the partisan rancor. It is something that almost every member of Congress that has been interviewed for the last 90 days has called for. Not one member of Congress actually has a reason to oppose this.

It is something the American people want done rapidly. It is something overdue and overlooked by an administration that seems to rehire failures (see Obama economic team) and a dysfunctional Congress that only looks to the next election cycle.

Remember the hearings? With the exception of BP property Joe Barton, every member of that committee had sharp words for BP and even harsher words for the MMS. All except BP Joe pledged to reform the agency and made marvelous statements to that effect. But once the hearings were over and the cameras off, the partisan idiocy was firmly put back in place.

The legislation passed the committee on mostly straight party line, by a 27 to 21 vote. Yep, 21 members of this committee voted to reject cleaning up MMS. All Republicans, all automatically opposing any Democratic legislation. This bill could have been to rename an office building after Ronald Reagan and Republicans would oppose it as long as a Democrat is Speaker.

Democrats should not be giggling right now. They are just as bad if not worse, having spent years opposing all things when they were the minority in the House. This is not new at all. It is just worse than ever. And it is never about the actual legislation. This vote was not about MMS.

It was not about correcting one of the worst agencies our government has ever had. It was not about trying to actually regulate the drilling industry in a fair and effective way. It was not even about trying to prevent the next disaster. It sure as heck was not about you and me or the folks who live on the Gulf coast. Not even close.

The only thing those bought and paid for talking puppets in Congress care about is themselves and their precious 2 party system. The only thing these charlatans are focused on is the next election. And that pathetic blind ideology says to vote party line regardless of the issue. The goal is not to govern, but to ruin.

In this case, the minority, led by "Mr. Repeal" Boehner is going to vote no on everything that comes along on the simpleton's theory that they can then say they opposed the false queen Pelosi's majority. Boehner and his masters at the Republican Party seem to think that 'NO' is a good answer to everything Democrats propose. Even common sense stuff like fixing the failed regulatory agency that allowed BP to drill an unsafe well and pollute the Gulf of Mexico.

On the flip side, the majority led by the false queen seems to think that being the majority gives them the right and privilege to steam roll the minority and ignore their input. False queen Nancy's masters at the Democratic Party seem to think that passing legislation willy nilly because they can without regard for the public or the rest of Congress is a great idea.

Therein lies the problem. The tired, corrupt 2 party system is struggling to keep itself in command of all that happens. The differences between them are barely noticeable except at election time. All they care about, think about, worry about and work on is their own power base. All either party wants is to win the next election, and they will sell every one of us down the river to do so.

For them it is a grand game with the laws of this nation as their playing cards and us as chips to be tossed on the table. For them it is not about governing or the good of the people. It is not about the right thing, the wrong thing or the true thing. It is only about the winning thing.

Boehner and Pelosi are the same. 2 tired, corrupt politicians who have sold so much of themselves that they no longer have any actual persona. They have sold us out to their party leaders without a flinch. They have sold this nation out for the chance to win an election.

Well, come November, we can sell them out by voting them out. All of them Every last one of the House and those Senators that are up for election. Because that is the one thing these miserable excuses for leaders cannot sell out from under us. Our right to vote them away.

On November 2, let Pelosi, Boehner and the rest knows their services are no longer desired.

To drive home that message, I am offering T-Shirts with this message:


As a capitalist and a free market person, I am selling them for both profit and with the intent of donating to those candidates that are willing to step outside the parties and declare a concern for the Constitution and the people.

You can order them here: http://www.itisnotagame.spreadshirt.com

Settled But Not Resolved

Back on April 16th, before BP became the most hated corporation in America, the then most hated - Goldman Sachs - was sued by the SEC for fraud. I said then that Goldman would settle for very little money and not admit any wrongdoing.

Well guess what happened today? Financial Reform passed. And Goldman settled for $550 million and no admission of wrongdoing. They did admit to some errors in marketing, but no actual wrongdoing.

In other words, the administration's crack economic team accepted a fine that, in Goldman money, is the same as a traffic ticket and let them totally off the hook for any actual violations. In fact, Mary Schapiro's improved and more efficiently corrupt SEC pretty much acknowledged that Goldman played within the rules when they withheld important information from clients.

I knew it. I knew this administration wouldn't see it through. I knew Goldman would buy their way out of this. I knew the already failed economic team would let them off the hook.

This is why the Financial Reform bill is a waste of time and not needed. Because there is still zero appetite for actually enforcing the existing laws. Because all that will happen is Obama's pre-failed economic team will have more laws and regulations to not enforce and whole new agencies will be formed - probably headed by previously failed administrators - and they will also not enforce anything.

The settlement was predictable. It is how the SEC has operated for years and years. It is how almost all government regulation of large entities works. File some charges, hold a great press conference, wait 90 days and the quietly settle for a small fine and no actual wrongdoing.

And this administration obviously wants to follow in that tradition. Sure, we can send a CEO to prison for an umbrella stand, but prosecute a firm that was at the heart of the meltdown? Prosecute a firm that somehow profited from the meltdown? Nope. Not in the Hope and Change playbook.

See, it still comes back to the same song. Bernanke, Geithner, Schapiro and the rest are the same folks that brought you this meltdown recession. Why would they want to actually go to court where it might be revealed that their incompetence and laziness was a prime contributor to this mess. It was, after all, Geithner who saw to it that Goldman got paid every dime AIG owed when everyone else got bupkes. And it was Bernanke who granted a commercial bank charter on a Sunday with no waiting period to get Goldman their chunk of free TARP money. And Schapiro? She watched all of this unfold.

The last thing Obama's failed team wants is for this to be heard in a court of law. They cannot afford any sworn testimony as to their complicity in this mess. And who pays? Well, we do, of course. That $550 million is nothing when stacked next to the $13 billion Little Timmy Geithner and Benny Bernanke took from taxpayers to give to AIG to pay Goldman 100 cents on the dollar. Our money is paying the fine. And Schapiro endorses this - is even proud of it.

So the new financial reform bill? Pointless before it is law. The idea that new laws unenforced are any better than old laws unenforced is either a definition of insanity or a very well thought out scam. Either way, not good for us. Some promise repeal. Nonsense. Repeal just does not happen.

In 1994, Republicans took control of Congress on a promise to repeal the Brady Gun Control Act. Well, every word of Brady is still in place. Not even a change. Repeal is a lot harder to accomplish and is empty a promise as is Change. It sounds great to rally the troops, but it is not realistic.

Where is the Congress? They are pretending this is not even happening. Democrats are happily pointing to their shiny new law and declaring all problems magically solved. Republicans are pointing to the new law and raising money from Wall Street on the false promise of repealing it. In other words, same stuff, different day on the Hill.

We can change things a little by simply standing up on November 2 and voting the Congress out of office. One last great layoff of 470 or so corrupt Democrat-Republicans who have totally games the system to benefit themselves. On November 2, fire the stinking lot of them and let's get a real new team in place.

I am selling shirts with this campaign slogan to make my point and hopefully move some votes back to the reality side of the ledger.
As a capitalist and a free market person, I am selling them for both profit and with the intent of donating to those candidates that are willing to step outside the parties and declare a concern for the Constitution and the people.

You can order them here: http://www.itisnotagame.spreadshirt.com

Praeter Nos, Nimirum

That should be the official motto of the entire Congress. "Except For Us, Of Course," in Latin. Perhaps it would look best engraved into a 24 carat gold seal and then reproduced as diamond studded platinum lapel pins for each member of Congress. As a show of their serious concern over spending of course.

I wax sarcastic because I just spent more than a little time trying to find Congress' own budget online somewhere. I couldn't find it, which is not all that surprising, given their commitment to transparency and all, but I did find some intriguing numbers.

Let's start with how much these clowns earn annually. The base salary for a freshly purchased Member of Congress is $174,000. For which they work an average of 3.5 (three and one-half!) days a week for about 6 hours a day with a minimum of 12 weeks paid vacation and unlimited sick time. That does not include almost unlimited expenses and benefits that most of us will never see or imagine. Like free postage. The "leadership" does even better for themselves, adding anywhere between $20K and $50K to that base. Committee chairs get a little boost in the paycheck, too.

So, figuring 535 members at base salary plus the add ons for the various leaders and chairs gives us a total cost for these fairly poor employees to We the People of around $94 million. Figure the same or a little more in expenses and let's call it $200 million.

Congressional staff is not cheap. And the largesse there is truly bipartisan. Here is what some of them spent on staff in 2009. Most of this info is from LegiStorm.

The false queen, Nancy Pelosi spent $1.13 million on her staff. This does not include some of the permanent Speaker's staff.

Famed budget and tax cutter Eric Cantor spent $1.12 million. Yep, within a rounding error of Pelosi.

House Minority Leader John Boehner spent just under an even $1 million. By Congressional standards, this is cheap.

Renowned and unrepentant tax and spend maestro Henry Waxman spent $1.3 million topping even Pelosi.

On the Senate side, where everything costs more, just like at the Neiman end of the mall, Majority Leader Harry Reid spent $2.27 million.

Minority Leader and self proclaimed budget balancing spending cutter Mitch McConnell spent $2.5 million.

Just for fun, I looked up Obama's 2007 (has last full year in the Senate) staff expenditure and he spent a whopping $3 million. No surprise there. I think we all know about the president and spending other people's money.

So, 435 House staffs at around $800K per (average) and 100 Senate at $2 million per (average) gives us about $550 million.

We are already at three-fourths of a billion dollars and we have not even counted standing staff, maintenance on the Capitol and office buildings, printing (2,000 page bills cost real money to reproduce in accordance with the Rules), Capitol Hill Police, office space (district offices cost rent), furniture and supplies and the rest. It would not surprise me to learn that it costs us over $3 billion per year for Congress. And that is a huge waste.

$3 billion so that they have a sandbox in which to have their petty partisan squabbles. $3 billion per year so they have back rooms in which to make the dead of night deals that end up costing us in money, freedoms or both.

The Democrat-Republican partisan chokehold on the Congress has rendered it useless and ineffective. It does not matter which party is in charge. In 2006 (the last year Republicans had control) Cantor spent a million dollars on staff. To add insult to the injury of a useless Congress is that they are deficit spending not only on stuff that we know about, but a lot of it on themselves.

The tired, corrupt 2 party system that controls the Congress makes sure that members of Congress are well taken care of. In fact, they have it set up so that they get an annual pay raise unless they vote not to. Yep, you read it right. The pay raise is automatic for Congress (and therefore staff) unless they actively vote no. To get the raise all they need to do is nothing.

Of course, nothing is what they do best. Come November, we can cut the cost of this huge waste of our resources by voting the whole lot of them out. They are not looking out for us, not interested in us and sure as heck not listening to us. So let's do the only thing we can - vote them away. They will have to hear that.

Praeter Nos, Nimirum indeed.


As a capitalist and a free thinking person, I am selling them for both profit and with the intent of donating to those candidates that are willing to step outside the parties and declare a concern for the Constitution and the people.

You can order them here: http://www.itisnotagame.spreadshirt.com

Issues? We Don't Need No Stinkin' Issues.

As the mid-term campaign drones on and candidates of all stripe begin to actively advertise, it is apparent that none of them has any desire to actually run on issues and ideas. In fact, I am fairly comfortable saying that they are going to avoid any and all issues. They being both parties and their anointed candidates.

The Democrats recently unveiled an ad that uses Joe Barton's apology to BP and John Boeher's analogy of the recession to an ant as proof that the Republicans are out of touch. In this ad, there is not one idea, issue or thought that might tell us what Democrats think. Just smacking around the fools. We already know that Barton and Boehner are as useless as the rest of the Congress and exist only to obstruct. So?

Democrats fail to understand that people want to hear solutions not problems.

Republicans are just as bad. Palin recently unveiled an ad for her PAC that basically says a lot of Republican women are running for office. I believe she calls them "pink elephants." Whatever. What she does not do in this ad is mention where any of them (or her for that matter) stand on actual issues. Apparently, to the GOP, just running women for office is adequate. But we already know that there are many campaigns that feature female candidates. So?

Republicans, just like their donkey logoed counterparts, fail to understand that people want solutions, not symbolism.

To be fair, Obama started the symbolic train really rolling in 2008. And McCain jumped right on the empty symbol bus with him. Both ran campaigns almost devoid of actual ideas and solutions. Obama talked Health Care and such, but in vague generalities. McCain just talked.

Well, it is now 2 years later and both parties are even further along in their obvious quest to be as non-specific as possible.

Let me get very local as an example. Here in Broward County, Florida we have a county commission race between 2 well known corrupt career politicians - incumbent Sue Gunzberger and former State Senator Steve Geller. Both are spending huge sums of money to accuse the other of corruption and to defend themselves against those same accusations.

Geller charges that Gunzberger steered millions in county business to her late husband's company. This is actually accurate. In fact, there is an investigation underway into her actions as a commissioner. The investigation is based on 17 years of complaints from competitors that were denied any business. Gunzberger's defense? She claims they are using her late husband to attack her. Novel, but untrue.

Gunzberger charged that Geller was a lobbyist during his tenure as a State Senator and made over a million dollars as a lobbyist during that time. This is also true. Geller did actively lobby many cities in Florida on behalf of private companies while a senator. No revolving door for Geller. No door at all. One big cash collecting office. His financial statements bear out the money. His pathetic defense? Gunzberger is attacking him for making a living in the private sector.

Well, both are corrupt and both belong in a jail cell somewhere. Both openly profited from public service and both claim they were right and the other wrong. But neither has advanced one single idea for this county. Nothing about budget issues or crime or anything other than the pointless attacks and lying defenses.

When I said corrupt career politicians, I meant it. Neither has even lifted a finger for anyone except themselves. Geller wouldn't know an honest day's work if it bit him in his leg and Gunzberger has apparently never heard the phrase "conflict of interest." Yet, these are the only choices we get for that seat. Why?

Because nobody wanted to take on the lobbyists' choice of candidates. Nobody wanted to try to run against the millions these 2 corrupt-o-crats will spend to shame each other. As if they could be shamed. Seriously. One is hiding behind her dead husband doing the grieving widow act and the other calls being a lobbyist while an elected official the private sector.

And this is what we see across the country. Boxer-Fiorina: Failing US Senator versus failed former CEO. McCollum-Sink: failed Attorney General versus failed state CFO. Reid-Angle: Failed Senate Leader versus failed repeat candidate. And so on.

None of them can run on actual issues because none of them has the courage to stand for anything. None of them is adequately independent of the tired, corrupt 2 party system to even try. they are all just thralls waiting to be told what to say and what to think. Republicans are swaying back and forth between moderate conservative to far right and Democrats between moderate liberal to far left.

Both parties care nothing about issues or the people. In fact, they would prefer to avoid all issues all the time. It would be so much easier for them to just run on blind symbolic ideology. Of course, that is how we got this non-functioning Congress in the first place. And that is how we will continue to have a non-functional Congress. Because the courage of one's convictions is also the last thing that is tolerated by the parties.

Unless we vote the party hacks out of office and start picking candidates based on their issues and not their party, we are doomed to continue this endless cycle of waste and corruption. the 2 parties have become too comfortable and too lazy. They are identical in almost every way. Look just below the rhetoric and you will find very few differences or distinctions. It is as if they are putting on a show for our benefit and then running backstage to count the proceeds.

We have the power to end their little game. On November 2, vote out all incumbents. All of them. Replace the entire stinking lot. It cannot be worse than it is now.


As a capitalist and a free thinking person, I am selling them for both profit and with the intent of donating to those candidates that are willing to step outside the parties and declare a concern for the Constitution and the people.

You can order them here: http://www.itisnotagame.spreadshirt.com