An oldie, but a goody.

Just a reminder, The Anointed One is still out trying to sell us a bill of goods.

Have you asked an Obama supporter what specifically he has accomplished lately??

The House of Cards Shudders a Little

Finally, it sounds like there is real debate with regards to this farce of a "bailout".

While the Dems are enjoying an attempt to snipe at McCain, the basic fact is that McCain ducked out a side door after this meeting - avoiding the press altogether. It was the Dems who felt a need to go get licks in against McCain in in front of the cameras.

That said, at least one Representative showed up with 11 pages of responses from Drs. of Economics spread out amongst some of our most prestigious institutions, including Harvard, Yale, and MIT. All 11 pages were against the bailout as proposed by the administration. All agreed that infusing cash in this manner will only delay the crash, and give us that much more to fall when it does come. Another mentioned last night that comments from his constituents were running 300:1, against the bailout.

I am hopeful that the package, as it stands right now, has cut the amount of money initially available to Treasury to $250bil, with more available only after a Congressional vote. The new package also has much more oversight and approvals, and requires any profits be reapplied to the National Debt. Still not great, and still not the correct response, but a much much more manageable number. This new package also provides more time to look at the results before committing fully.

Politicians Will Say Anything

Not only to get elected, but to try and make their case and get publicity.

There are two Marines suing Representative John Murtha for his comments after a number of women and children were killed in Iraq in 2006.

Whether Representative Murtha is found guilty or not, this will hopefully serve as a warning to our Government that they will be held accountable for opening mouth before finding out the facts and engaging brain. Being an elected official does not give one carte blanche to slander and libel others, though it seems of late that that has become a common practice in the media.

It's time that our Representatives are held more accountable for the crap they spew in an attempt to grab votes and publicity.

Even More Silliness in this Bailout

Original Article Here

I noticed a few changes to the article I posted last night today. Namely, this:

The administration is balking at another key Democratic demand: allowing judges to rewrite bankrupt homeowners' mortgages so they could avoid foreclosure.

So lets get this straight. Democrats want to "prop up" the housing market. How? By destroying the ability of lenders to be secure in their contracts. The Dems basically want a judge to be able to rewrite these loan contracts however he wants to make sure that home owners do not get foreclosed on.

Boy, I'd sure like that service too. I think I need to pay half of what I'm paying now. Why? Why not. I must be entitled to the house that I'm in. Heck, I don't think I'll even pay my mortgage any more. After all, the Government will be there to make sure the big bad man at Countrywide doesn't take my house away.

I still don't understand how it is ok for people to enter into a contract, and then because it's "too hard" turn right around and get out of that contract. I don't understand how this action will "prop up" the housing market. And I really don't understand why the Democrats suddenly think that when a bill is being touted as "emergency must pass", they should add a bunch of idiocy and pork to it. As you've read here, I don't want this one to pass, but at the same time, it's obvious that the Dems see this as an opportunity to add all kinds of bullshit to this bill to ram through programs that they know they couldn't get away with normally.

Ultimately, it comes down to this. Homes are overpriced. The price of housing in most areas of this country has far, far exceeded the abilities of the average person to become a homeowner without putting themselves into crippling house payments. The response to this situation is NOT to "prop up" the housing market. The only thing that these actions is doing is prolonging the misery of the housing market itself. The market needs to be left FREE to drop and correct itself. Will this put some people in a bad way? Yes it will. Will it cause some hardships and bankruptcies? Absolutely. Will it allow us to break a few more bars in this prison of debt that we are putting ourselves into? Most certainly. And that, my friends, is a good thing.

Allow the housing market to correct. Let it go and be free. Let it correct itself and put housing back into an affordable range for our families and citizens. DO NOT prolong this overpriced situation to imprison future homeowners in a cage of mortgage debt.

Mortgages represent REAL MONEY. They represent cash that you MUST pay back to people. Don't treat a mortgage as this ephemeral situation where you're not playing with real money.

Mr. President and Congress, let the markets be FREE.

When Seconds Count, Police are only Minutes Away

So often you hear the following from anti-self defense (including anti-gun) advocates:
Don't escalate the violence by fighting back.
Just give the robber what they want.
It's the Police's job to protect you.

911 call details violent struggle for Tarrant County couple that left burglar dead

Tonight in Dallas, a couple fought a home invader for 45 minutes, tooth and nail. Either this couple didn't own a gun, or they were unable to get to it when the man entered their unlocked back door. They gave the intruder everything they had right up front, and he still starting hitting them with a pipe. At one point in the struggle, the couple was even stabbing the intruder with a knife.

They finally got the invader subdued to the point that they could call 911, and despite an immediately lethal and dangerous situation, it still took the Police 12 minutes to get to them.

This intruder was armed with various weapons, including a gun - which was unloaded.

Folks. The Police would love to help you, but they can't be everywhere at once. What are you going to do for 12 minutes when an armed invader is in your house intending to kill you? Better yet, if you are a person who owns a gun for self defense, where is that gun right now?? Is it near to hand? Is it across the house in the bedroom? Is it unloaded and locked up in a safe??

I'm not advocating leaving a firearm where an untrained youngster can get to it, but there are options that allow you to safely keep a ready and loaded weapon near to hand.

This couple got lucky. Will you count on luck if this happens to you?

Too Little, Too Late?

The $700 Billion Dollar Bungle is moving ever closer to a vote.

Democrats have successfully added "mortgage help", though I'm not yet sure what that means.

Worse:

In one expansion of its original proposal, the administration is asking for broad power to buy up virtually any kind of bad asset — including credit card debt or car loans — from any financial institution in the U.S. or abroad in order to stabilize markets.

You've read that right. We've gone from making sure our well-connected friends in high places (who, I might add, are part of starting this mess) to offering to accept bad debt from around the globe. After all, with a blank check of this size, one must spread the wealth no? After all, it's not your money they're playing with...oh wait.

Frank said he and Paulson had agreed to create a congressional oversight board as part of the bailout and to mandate that the government come up with a plan to avoid foreclosures on any mortgages it acquires in the rescue. A government official with knowledge of the talks confirmed the administration backs those provisions.

Well, some oversight might be nice, but then again, the same people overseeing this are the ones willing to sign off blindly on this bailout without listening to cooler, more disconnected heads.

There is a small light revealed in this article, however:

And in a fresh sign of a challenging road ahead, Sen. Richard C. Shelby of Alabama, the top Banking Committee Republican, blasted the emerging plan as "neither workable nor comprehensive."

"In my judgment, it would be foolish to waste massive sums of taxpayer funds testing an idea that has been hastily crafted and may actually cause the government to revert to an inadequate strategy of ad hoc bailouts," Shelby said.

Will it be enough? Will your calls and the calls of your countrymen be enough?

I hope so.

Fool Me Once...

Thankfully, we did not see a massive decline in the financials today.

However, The markets were not fooled one bit.

Crude Oil made it's greatest one day increase ever, and the dollar reached a new low against the Euro. Add a $43 spike in gold and you can immediately see that this bailout isn't exactly "just what the doctor ordered".