Germany and Greece.

In a field one summer's day a Grasshopper was hopping about, chirping and singing to its heart's content. An Ant passed by, bearing along with great toil an ear of corn he was taking to the nest.

"Why not come and chat with me," said the Grasshopper, "instead of toiling and moiling in that way?"

"I am helping to lay up food for the winter," said the Ant, "and recommend you to do the same."

"Why bother about winter?" said the Grasshopper; we have got plenty of food at present." But the Ant went on its way and continued its toil. When the winter came the Grasshopper had no food and found itself dying of hunger, while it saw the ants distributing every day corn and grain from the stores they had collected in the summer. Then the Grasshopper knew:  It is best to prepare for the days of necessity. 

Yet the Germans have a soft spot for the Greeks. An affection that is not returned, of course, since jealousy rules those who have to accept a helping hand.

What I find odd is that all the Greek families I know here in Obscurityville, MA are extremely hard working people. They own apartment buildings, pizza shops, dog walking businesses etc and work ungodly hours in the pursuit of success .

So how did Greece get to be the welfare state of the European Union? Did all the hard working people of the country pick up and go elsewhere? Were the public union people and telephone sanitizers the only people left like in "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy?" 

How did such a country, universally known as the cradle of democracy, forget the whole thing? Perhaps the road to democracy ends with a  government job and a hefty pension? The mind boggles.

But here we have Germany, the EU's most robust economy, leading the way to bale out the country with a massive, and yes it is massive, cut to the Greek debt . And ok, maybe it isn't all about the love with Greece because if they default the whole world just may fall into a thousand years of darkness, but all the crap Germany is taking from the Grecian hoards has got to be hard to take.

That's the tough thing about having a thankless job...nobody thanks you.

The statistics of the Hellenic hijacking of the private sector is right out of the "truth is stranger than fiction" literary tradition: Public employees could retire at age 58 from their "jobs for life" and receive up to 92% of their salary in pension benefits. Greeks have also avoided many a tax burden due to the public sector basically just voting themselves raises and perks that their economy could never possibly grow into like taxes on real estate. And since governments do not actually MAKE anything, rising wages in the public sector has no correlation to actual production. Government is just an expense and in the case of Greece, government is a huge expense.

And here we are, a world economy betting Greece won't figure out it would be cheaper for them to bail on the debt and start printing their own money again.

Not a comfortable feeling is it?

The Iraq Withdrawal: The Right Thing for the Wrong Reason

Just short of nine years, our involvement in Iraq this time, lasted longer than WWII, The Civil War and our American Revolution. Billions of dollars were spent, thousands of US lives were lost and the goals of the conflict and it’s eventual outcome remain unclear. So it has been announced that the US is leaving Iraq.

And the American War Machine is Pissed!

With the loss of Iraq, there is less justification for new armaments and facilities, less catered War Rooms, less opportunity for advancement and less travel. No more junkets paid for by Raytheon, Boeing and Lockheed. The budget is sure to get cut. We'll lose all the chics who dig a man in uniform! What’s a war monger to do?

War has always been a growth industry in America. Since before I was born, we went from Korea to the Vietnam “Conflict” (to 1975), supporting the Contras in Nicaragua from 1977 to 1984, Invasions of Grenada (1983) Panama (1989) the first Persian Gulf War (1990-91), Haiti (1994-95) Kosovo (1999), etc. And through most of this the Cold War was running until 1991 and now with the War on Terror (2001-?) which involves our even longer stay in Afghanistan. Then there is our incredibly wasteful War on Drugs (1984 to Infinity). I know I'm leaving things out but I've only allowed myself one paragraph for war chronicles so to just paraphrase:

Guns, guns, guns!

But now, for the first time in a long time, one of our true growth industries has to cut back. Oh, the Sean Hannity of it!

And it wasn’t even because we really wanted to. No, no, this was not our government's first choice.

President Obama, for all his initial inexperience in “foreign relations” has really embraced his roll as Commander in Chief. So much so he has totally set aside his avowed campaign pledge of bringing our men and women home after he was elected and in fact started a few more fights for good measure. But the president was unable to secure a guarantee from the Iraqi Parliament that our troops would continue to be protected from prosecution for war crimes in the international courts. This and only this has served as the impetus for the United States to finally withdraw our troops from the country. Can you believe it? 

As a Libertarian, I have always been disappointed that so called Conservatives have a propensity to back military initiatives and odd constitutional amendments like the silly “Anti-flag Burning Amendment” but it’s the Progressives in government that really tend to expand on that mentality with a sort of “ I didn’t start it but I’ll finish it” military fervor. For me, it just reinforces my belief that Republicans and Democrats are just part of the same government syndicate. I haven’t seen much difference between that war monger, free spender GW Bush and that war monger, free spender Barack Obama other than one ran a baseball team for awhile and the other has never held a real job.

The remarkable thing is that none of this almost constant warfare has served to make this nation a safer place to live. Our “foreign entanglements” have put us more and more in harm’s way and have not only drained our resources but has fostered animosity to the point that our malls, city centers and schools have become the soft targets of a growing discontent with our ever expanding interventions. One can blame Hollywood for it’s exportation of cinematic depravity but having Syrian troops shoot cans of CS gas with the “Made in Jamestown, PA USA” label on them into houses with women and children living there sends a different message. It says “We sold the people who want to kill you this poison.” Enough said.

So at any rate, we can cheer that our troops are coming home or rather we can rejoice because we get to see them again before they are reassigned to some other altercation we’re cooking up.

I here Uganda is the next “Boom Town”.

Obama Completes Overthrow of North African Fiefdom

For whatever the motivation for ignoring the war powers act and by bypassing the US Congress, the United States autocracy has overthrown a smaller autocrat in Muammar Ghadafi, a man who died as cruelly as people who live like him are meant to.

But this conflict was not about him or his demise. It was about the erosion of the US Constitutional government and the rise of a US imperial dictatorship.

During the Korean and Vietnam conflicts, the American people grew weary of years of intense warfare without the declaration of war. The US Congress, fearing an erosion of power, passed the War Powers Act in 1973 that compelled the Presidency to notify Congress within 24 hours of ordering troops to repel attacks against the United States and limiting their activation to 60 days with an additional 30 days for withdrawal. The War Powers Act went into law over President Richard Nixon’s veto.

And nowhere in this law can I see the term “boots on the ground” that President Obama has invoked when choosing to ignore Congress when it called on the Obama regime to comply with the law. Never mind that the United States was in no imminent danger which is outlined in the law but that’s what the cover of NATO is for. NATO is the mask the United States wears when it goes out into the world to strike a foreign foe or for a foreign friend.

But such flouting of the War Powers Act is not without precedent. President Clinton also ignored the deadline when he chose to distract from his troubles here at home by intervention in the Kosovo conflict, bringing victory to the Muslim insurgency there. Kosovo is still destabilized decades later.

And here we have Libya. With their revolt complete, they can now ease into a life of peace and tranquility. Nobody believes this will happen. The Libyan people will now usher in a new Cuban Heal to be ground under. Yes, another moderate Muslim country dethroned to welcome in a new hard line caliphate. Way to go!

But the world is put on notice. The United States will pick and choose who shall stay and who shall go. Our Presidents can now assassinate a head of state of a sovereign nation at their choosing. President Bush did it, Obama has followed suite and who will stop us? Not the US Congress and certainly not the European Union because they’re in on it too. Germany, France and England are best positioned to take advantage of restoring the Libyan oil industry, bless their charitable hearts.

The irony of the Nobel Peace prize winning president ordering and then openly celebrating the deaths of Osama Bin Laden and Muammar Ghadafi while overseeing two sustained wars while starting two more should be enough to make those thousands of Bush era anti-war Demonstrators march on Washington, right?

The silence is deafening. Where is Cindy Sheehan now? How about Jesse Jackson? Sean Penn? Maxine Waters? Jane Fonda? Tim Robbins? Susan Sarandon? How about blue-collar millionaire Bruce Springsteen? They were all prominent anti-war protesters marching on Washington just 4 short years ago. “Bring them home!” they chanted and held Cindy Sheehan, a woman who’s son was killed in Iraq, up as an example of a mother’s sorrow. But GW was a Republican war monger. Now we have a Democrat war monger, big difference. A bigger bunch of hypocrites has never existed. How can these people of “principle” even look themselves in the mirror.

Three years after the election, the wars rage on and have even expanded. And all we can do as US citizens is PAY for it. We pay with our labor and we pay with our children. We have no voice in our government and the rule of law in this country has broken down to invite certain chaos. Or a takeover. 

Dictatorship: A ruler who is unconstrained by law. A ruler with Imperious or overbearing power.  

So for all those people who are celebrating the death of another dictator, for the United States, the shoe now fits and if you think those guys were bad…

Maintaining the Government House of Cards Through Occupation

As one such future oppressor has stated; “We are trying to limit the power and privilege of the wealthy”.

If only they had used the word “Government” instead of “Wealthy”.  But this is a good example of the difference between the Tea Party and the Occupiers.

But there are other differences. Many not so well defined on the Leftist Occupiers but very much defined on the Conservative/Libertarian Tea Party side.

o       The Tea Party is made up of working people who save to send their kids to college. The Occupiers want you to pay for their college too.

o       The Tea Party wants to win change through the ballot box. The Occupiers want to win change through, well, occupation or in other words: intimidation. One does not "occupy" for democracy.

o       The Tea Party are working and waiting for the next election. The Occupiers are working so there won’t BE a next election.

The Occupiers believe it’s time for a “re-thinking” of the way we as a nation govern ourselves” and with the addition and full fledged support they are getting from public labor unions, public school teachers, Leftist politicians, openly Marxist groups, mainstream TV news, social advocates and other propagandists, we the working people who actually pay taxes into this house of cards we call a government are beginning to see just what that re-thinking will entail.

All this piling on is really all just for one reason; to sustain government. 

According to the latest US Treasury report, government spending has actually increased in 2011 over what it spent in 2010. Federal government spending has increased 5% over last year and local state government spending is up 10% from this time last year. But this spending was largely fueled by the last Stimulus Package, which was $830 Billion if anybody was keeping track, and that money has just about run out.

Enter the Millionaires. The government needs money since they refuse to cut a dime out of the Federal budget. Republocrats and Demlicans have accomplished nothing since the 2008 elections to change the government’s spending habits. We were all looking for a change but no changes seem to be made. So going after millionaires will serve two objectives: The government vacuum needs cash from anywhere it can get it and it gives the government and it’s minions a group to vilify along with bankers and The Jews.

Is anyone alive yet aware that the Stimulus packages were never intended to create jobs? These measures were passed to sustain government at its present level. No roads were ever meant to be built, no bridges were ever meant to be repaired. There were a bunch of signs printed up about how your tax money was being spent but it was all a lie. 

And here we have president Obama back for more and this time with a street mob.

The mob is there for when we run out of millionaires.

The federal and state governments are running out of places to get cash. Their collectivist tax policies and share the wealth give-a-ways have already destroyed 7 million jobs over the last 4 years in the United States. That reduction in tax revenue must be made up from somewhere and that somewhere is you and I. We are the ultimate target.

Ever since the Great Society of Lyndon Johnson we have had government attempt to mediate the outcome for an entire nation. By social engineering and a theory of bringing people up by bringing others down has fostered an ever growing segment of society that literally gets something for nothing, receiving their sustenance from the silk gloved hand of government. But that money came from other working people, working people that still had bills to pay and needs to provide for. Fast forward to now and we see what such policies have wrought upon us. This is what just giving people a fish can do. A fish somebody else worked hard to earn.

As the Occupier mobs grows larger, more belligerent and more unruly, they will attempt, encouraged by a faltering Marxist presidential regime and its media cohorts, to pull something violent and destructive. It’s only success will be measured by the size of the chaos it provokes as though to say to the world; “If we can’t have it, you can’t have it either”.

That’s the problem with creating a dependent class of people, they expect too much.

Obama's Whitehouse Invents Big Lie to Protect Eric Holder

It looks like the United States would rather start yet another war, this time with Iran, than tell Attorney General Eric Holder to resign.

In the ultimate and absurd "Wag the Dog" scenario, the US Government has pulled an assassination attempt out of thin air to divert attention away from a man who is clearly the most incompetent AG since Jimmy Carter appointed that myopic, unapologetic mass-murderer, Janet Reno. 

Time will tell if the Saudis will play along with this "outrage".

The shredding machines must be going 24/7 at the Justice Department right now since the chairman of the House Oversight and Gov’t Reform Committee, Darrell Issa, has issued a subpoena of records relating to Justice’s “Fast and Furious” operation. An operation so politically motivated and misguided as to rival any debauchery the US government has ever cooked up. And that’s saying something.

The list of accusations and public indictments against Mr. Holder started immediately after his appointment by President Obama and he has gone downhill ever since. Here’s the quick list:

o       Decides to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay by January 2011…just because.

o       Reopened criminal investigations into CIA interrogations under the Bush administration not only wasting two years and a boat-load of money but getting no prosecution victories in his obviously politically motivated pursuit.

o       Wanted to try foreign terrorists in criminal courts instead of military councils and in New York of all places.

o       Not only drops racially motivated voter intimidation charges against the New Black Panthers Party against all recommendations but in an interview regarding how race had affected the Department of Justice’s decision making, Eric Holder denies this accusation with a diatribe that race wasn’t a factor when deciding to prosecute “my people”.

Let’s just pretend for a moment that instead of the Black Panthers it was the Tea Party standing in the same spot just outside the polling station handing out leaflets. The Justice Dept would have been up their arses in less than a minute and it would have made all the news outlets 5 seconds after that.They'd all be doing the mandatory 5 years for voter intimidation.

But the AG has graduated from his gross negligence, his go-it-alone style of management and his failure to even investigate a situation even a little bit before rendering a decision.  Now Mr. Holder has elevated himself to accessory to murder, illegal gun running, aiding and abetting an organized criminal enterprise, lying about it to a Congressional Investigating Committee and getting caught, telling the committee that he had only recently heard about the F & F operation and then having a 9 month old memo surface proving he knew about it well before then. He can't even lie right.

 

As much as the Iranians deserve it, I think even they would rather earn a beating than to be accused of a bogus assassination plot. And for what? To protect a liability of a man who clearly should be put in jail never mind lose his job. The blood of many innocent people now stains Mr. Holder's hands.

If this was China, they’d probably just throw him out of the window of his office just to avoid further embarrassment. Remember that Chinese executive behind the Melamine milk poisoning incident there? According to the public statement, he had an "accident".

Lets hope Justice finds Mr. Holder and soon.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: Government Sponsored Bankruptcy

It seems that global investors are just figuring out that banking on the debt of what is known as Government Sponsored Enterprises is a bad idea. As Claude Reigns said in the movie Casablanca; "I'm shocked!"

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are GSEs which means that the full weight of the United States Treasury is standing behind them, guaranteeing the loans they purchase from banks. Or rather the US taxpayer will cover any losses they may tend to incur because, you know, every banking entity, despite their best efforts, can make a bad loan here or there, right?

But it is being reported that the purchase of Fannie & Freddie’s mortgage debt by Russia, China, Brazil and India have declined and their faith in the US government’s ability to back up that debt has been shaken. These countries are divesting themselves of this debt as a government holding fearing a lack of return.

But why?

Perhaps not knowing how much in debt these two GBEs are in may play a roll.

Picture rooms full of brokers, hundreds no, thousands of brokers all over the nation and their job is to get one loan every hour. And picture this happening every weekend for 12 years and know that every one of those loans, no matter how good they may be or bad, was sent to Fannie & Freddie and they BOUGHT them.

So how much in debt are these two “companies”?

I’ll bet that as of right now, three years after the beginning of the housing market collapse, that nobody knows. The Feds don’t know, the people at Fannie & Freddie don’t know and most important, the idiots buying their debt sure as hell don’t know. How can they know if they bought them?

The Federal government has no business being in the mortgage business. There is no Constitutional mandate nor business need to be involved in who gets a mortgage. And a "Government Business Enterprise" has no reason to even exist. Fannie & Freddie became instruments of a government agenda, an agenda that everybody should be able to achieve the “American Dream” of owning their own home. And if Fannie & Freddie were going to buy the loan, the banks writing these loans didn’t need to carry the paper and were absolved of responsibility.

With Fannie & Freddie driving the bus, it was full speed ahead for the wanton purchasing of mortgages that fueled unbridled speculation and runaway lending practices that drove housing prices through the roof. And just when we thought it couldn't get any worse, the “No Income Verification” loans, otherwise known as “Liar Loans’ and “Interest Only” loans (which cannot be refinanced) were the last products of a dying enterprise.

Then, in a final effort to keep the money spigot on, Federal Reserve Chairman Allen Greenspan lowered the interest banks pay to borrow money to zero. Nowhere to go from zero is there?

And here we are. The music stopped and the Fed was all out of chairs. Allen Greenspan’s apology was sincere and dramatic: “Sorry” he said before collecting his pension and flying off to Hawaii.

It is now classic comedy to view the youtube recordings of  US Congressman Barney Frank, the guy in charge of the House Financial Committe, saying in 2004, having been warned by the Republicans of mismanagement at the agencies and of a possible failure, stating that he had seen nothing to indicate that the safety and soundness of Fannie & Freddie was an issue and there was nothing to worry about, just three years before the colapse.

Fannie & Freddie, although still buying loans, have had to tighten up the rules considerably. All those people who were looking for the American Dream found it was fool’s gold and for all the “Good Intentions”, the government once again finds that it cannot defy gravity.

And for Fannie & Freddie, well it will be years before we find out just how much in debt they really are. The final number will have a “T” in it.

Government Business Enterprises should be constitutionally banned. All they do is run a deficit. They don’t make money and only serve to drive out legitimate business from a given industry. They don’t solve any problems and suck funds from the economy. Having been established in 1992, it only took a little over 13 years for Fannie Mae to drive our economy into the ground. Quite a feat.

Now just think about what would be in store for us if Barack Obama had gotten his Public Option piece included in our overwhelmingly foolhardy National Health Plan? The Public Option called for esentially a GBE to compete with private insurance businesses in the marketplace for healthcare coverage.

Who here now thinks that this would be a good idea? Show of hands please?

Four More Years of Barak Obama...

I think we have hit a threshold in this country where most Americans would now vote for anybody other than Barak Obama for President of the United States.

Does anybody think things will get better for the economy under a second term for this man?

Sure, he may consolidate his power, tighten his grip and extend his rule over business by using his regulatory licensing agencies and his Czars since he can’t get his legislation passed but does anybody believe for a moment that the man and his policies are capable of turning the economy around, create jobs and a safe environment for business?

In the marketplace of ideas, President Obama’s three year, full speed ahead tax business first, cut gov't spending later mantra has hit a wall and will go no farther legislatively in the next year. Will four more years of an Obama administration be any different?

It is more than likely that the House and Senate will gain more Tea Party Republicans and the continuing “gridlock” will only save the country from more destruction at the hands of the naked Marxist Obama.

The thought of four more years of what we’ve been going through for the last 3 seems like an unbelievable prospect and one I’m sure not many are willing to contemplate. We are now in a place to ask ourselves "What would four more years of Obama mean to us, Prosperity or Pain?"

People are looking for somebody else to vote for, anybody else to vote for. They’re imploring politicians, many of whom they don’t even know where they stand on major issues, to run for President against Obama. Personally I would vote for a cardboard cutout if it managed to get the Republican nomination. Even a third party cardboard cutout would be preferable.

We won’t know what we’re going to get with a new president but we sure know what to expect with the old one. More speeches, more class warfare, more "us against them" divisiveness, less clarity and tougher times. There seems to be only one future under an extended Obama administration. 

The clear pick for president in November 2012 is…Anybody.