Moving Left Isn’t Right

Written in a time filled with the gasps and death of the Soviet Union, and its satellites’ declarations of their independence, I found Alvin Rabushka’s “The Failure of Socialism in China” capturing my attention. In it, the author mentions the method that Mao Zedong attempted to use to incite the communist Chinese economy to grow – namely central planning. The author also illustrates why the planning did little to anything at all on its own in the way of economy-building or growth.

As many economists critical of socialist governments point out, central planning heavily relies on a number of measures, so that it can claim to function better than alternative forms of economies.

Find the complete post here: Conservative Daily News

Those who ignore history…

Hold Your Horses, Hutton

They did WHAT!?

In his February 16, 2013 column in the Guardian, columnist Will Hutton lays out the numerous failings of the British Food Standards Agency (FSA), which led to horse meat entering the human food chain. The horse-meat scandal may actually turn out to be two parallel mislabeling scams. Whatever the case, and as strange as mislabeled horse-meat is – it is not my primary issue.

My issue is with Hutton’s disgusting use of the scandal. Mirroring the penchant for American “journalists” who turn their columns and shows into personal soap boxes, Hutton takes swipes at right wingers in the United States, and he espouses the supposed ability of large government to function better than a slim and efficient one. Hutton especially takes to task a British politician who supported cuts in the funding of the FSA.

Hutton would have us believe a fully funded FSA would not have allowed this fiasco to occur. Indeed, an FSA, or any other governmental agency that does not receive adequate funding, is the cause for any accidents and other unfortunate mistakes that then occur. Hutton thinks that because the politicians, often times responding to their voters’ concerns, reduce funding to a bloated agency, they should receive the anger and onus of the press and people too.

Hutton so seems to dislike politician Owen Patterson, he goes so far as to make a personal attack of the man, referring to him as “one of the less sharp knives in the political drawer”. Hutton’s anger seethes against anyone he deems “connected” to the scandal. He attacks the large supermarket chains who seek to price food where the consumer can afford it, he attacks the stock holders of the supermarkets, he attacks right-wing think tanks in the U.S., and he eventually goes so far as attacking capitalism itself, saying it does not deliver the best outcomes.

Within those barbs fed by misunderstanding and assumption, Hutton joins so many of the American left, who hear the word, “capitalism”, and either rage or cringe. The cause of so much damage to people, the cause of so much environmental damage – is the dreaded capitalism. Never mind that it is also the reason there are 90 different types of bread on the supermarket shelves or that it is the reason that clothing is still relatively inexpensive and easily replaced — we must see like Mr. Hutton, that capitalism is inherently evil. Everything it touches, businesses, politicians, and workers are worse off, Hutton would have us believe.

Oddly though – the tax revenue that the capitalism structure generates that allows the left’s dream of bloated and inefficient government programs – well, that is the only good thing that comes from capitalism. Somehow, running the funds through the filter of government who then divvy them out, changes the funds from merely evil capital, based on worker exploitation, to a wonderful means to a social end. Again, in a parallel with the left in the United States, Will Hutton seeks to use a crisis to further the false cause of enlarging the government’s reach and its strength.

I find it interesting that while the right, conservatives especially, often find themselves fitted with the mantle of being a backward-looking anachronism, the left on both sides of the pond, seem constantly to recycle their failed policies of Keynesian spending and bloated government structures. A strength of conservatives is to not only look to history for measures that work, but to look back, and abandon and prevent measures that have failed. Perhaps the left should  finally abandon the continuous failure that is Keynesian economics – but with as rabidly as some support left-wing politics, you have a better chance of having lunch with a Kentucky Derby winner…

Obama’s SOTU: We Must, We Might, I Want

“…and I want a fire truck, and a baseball glove, and a cowboy hat!”

So seemed to go President Obama’s State of the Union wish list. It sounded like Christmas with captive parents in the form of the Congress and a few Supreme Court Justices. Repeatedly, he went so far as to challenge Congress to pass bills, that he would immediately sign.

Interestingly, but hardly surprising to me, was the president’s line that the government should work for the many, not the few.

Why else was this State of the Union such a collassal waste of time for anyone who bothered watching it? Read more here for my thoughts and a few jabs…

http://www.conservativedailynews.com/2013/02/obamas-sotu-we-must-we-might-i-want/

Who’s got a bad case of the “gimmes”?

Mitt-ila The Hun

The man came from the east, and rode aboard a midnight black steed, with angry fire in its eyes. The steed seemed reluctant to allow anyone but its rider to even get close to it. The mount whinnied uneasily, and lived for moments it could swoop in and, with its rider cause confusion and destruction. Once its rider saddled up, they were unstoppable. Always riding all-out, and never looking back, they rode without care nor conscience.
One of the most infamous raids, that so many remember, came one day in the 90s, in the middle of the country. Mitt-ila with his steed, Bain, came to the steel mill, licking his lips, and casing everything that he would soon own and be able to plunder and turn asunder. Sparks flew from the horse’s hooves  as they rode onto the grounds. The horse and its master began the blood-letting – the guild members, their pay, the equipment – they began laying waste to everything in sight…Soon, their nefarious plans were complete, and the tiny factory was no more.

What is this? This is the Newt-would-approve-if-he-read-it-version of Mitt Romney’s time at Bain Capital. This is the, politically-expedient version of what happened in Kansas City. Mitt of course, the ardent anti-capitalist and destroyer of all that he touched, only wanted the companies Bain invested in for their liquidity values, right? I mean, why would anyone invest in a company that they may be able to resurrect, and restore to profitability (and make far more money, than just relying on the liquidity value)? Once a company is seen to have its best days behind it, the person who attributes this “un-profitable operating” designation could never have any ways of turning it around – its only value is in plundering anything and everything that still has any value. Right? So it is raid and plunder away.

Except – that is not always the way that business happens. I would venture to guess it is seldom that a capital company step in and buys a company solely for its liquid assets, before it has declared bankruptcy, when the investing company can buy it for a song. That seems like paying extra for the “privilege” of going through bankruptcy proceedings and haggling with creditors. With the intention of retrofitting and upgrading the facilities at Kansas City located “GST Steel”, Bain made investments and attempted to turn the troubled steelmaker around. After investments of $100 million were sunk into the plant, due to myriad mismanagement issues, tons of cheap Chinese-made steel (made and sold at a loss, to gain market share), and the debt-load created to save the plant, it still had to be closed. 750 people lost their jobs as a result.

It should be mentioned, but seldom seems to be, that the Chinese steel is probably more to blame for GST’s failure than any other factors, including: Bain Capital’s “raiding”, more competitive American steel foundries, and obsolescing equipment. Add to that, some of the most misguided management that I have ever read about (like hiring managers for this steel plant, that had previously worked in retail for Wal-Mart), and it appears that the factory was always doomed. Some 40+ other American steel companies went under in the same time GST was slowly rusting away.

My main issues with the attack of Romney (and attacks of him, under the guise of attacks of Bain) are the fact that supposed conservative and right-wing candidates are making the majority of them. The fact that some are using Romney’s time at Bain as a way to compare him to Bernie Madoff, and his criminal Ponzi scheme (that was James Clyburn), is also disheartening. As a matter of fact, Mitt wasn’t even with Bain at the time GST finally gasped and was shuttered. Now it’s like all hands on deck for a thrashing of the mechanism that built this country, and gave so many people the lives we enjoy.

The way that I see it, if a person is going to attack a function of capitalism, and stand behind their point, whether it is legitimate or not, it would also mean that the same arbitrary condemnation could apply to any function of capitalism. You don’t like paying some of your bills – then don’t, because you think it’s “unfair.” You don’t like having to pay a manufacturers’ makeup? Well, don’t pay it then – you’ve deemed it “unfair” too. When we slip into a mindset of the left, where, this is fair, that is unfair, this group over here has more than you (and you really deserve it more than they do), and that some big, bad, government boogie-man is piling on with those filthy rich fat cats, it is easy to find yourself getting angry. The trick is to channel that anger and frustration – almost like using that destructive feeling for something…Creative.

Insider Trading; Not for the Hoi Polloi

I made HOW MUCH from that tip?! Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

So, beginning with a CBS, 60 Minutes exposé this past Sunday evening, politicians began scrambling to attempt to explain their habit of using inside information to make themselves rich. So far, the biggest names involved are: former Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, Chief of Staff, Rahm Emmanuel, Senator Diane Feinstein, current Speaker of the House, John Boehner, and Representative Spencer Bachus. While the posts held by Pelosi and Emmanuel seem to lend the most leverage to playing the market unfairly, Bachus finds himself being held accountable by his own party. His seeming lack of knowledge of the stock market evaporated after he joined the House of Representatives.

Got a hot tip on how a new law’s fine print may affect a company, or how companies may benefit from pending legislation? Call your broker. While you are a member of the U.S. Congress, unbelievably, there is no rule against profiting. CBS.com notes, “Out of 975 federal entities, Congress and the Supreme Court are the only two that have no rules or laws prohibiting them from trading securities based on nonpublic information.” Things that have gotten traders on Wall Street hauled into jail, mean nothing to legislators in the United States. Raj Rajaratnam must be banging his head on his desk, knowing that he could have beat his insider trading case, if only he had run and won a Congressional seat first. For his efforts, Rajaratnam is estimated to have made somewhere around $19.7 million.

A simple trader, found guilty of insider trading. Serving an 11-year prison sentence.

The massive amount of backlash against these practices has lead to Rick Perry producing a new advertisement saying legislators guilty of these practices should be thrown into jail. Senators Scott Brown(R-MA) and Kristin Gillibrand (D-NY) have introduced legislation to prevent Congressman from partaking of the money-making activities. The “Stop Trading On Congressional Knowledge” or STOCK Act of 2011, will be introduced today. It bars not only legislative members from profiting on their inside knowledge, but executive employees as well. That would apply to the former Chief of Staff, Rahm Emmanuel, who made a bundle dumping Fannie Mae stock before the agency crashed and burned during the sub-prime mortgage crisis.

It is far from a partisan issue – everybody, it seems, is taking advantage of the inside info. Spencer Bachus is said to have shorted the market in 2008, just as the entire market fall hard. Andrew Breitbart has both lead the charge, calling for Bachus’ resignation, and closely monitored ongoing information about all the indicated, enriched legislators. Senator Feinstein invested $1 million in a biotech start-up, shortly before the company received a $24 million government grant. The following year, the company held an IPO where they netted $85 million.

Even putting stocks into a blind trust may not be enough of a bulwark against trading on privileged information – all a legislator would have to do is call up the holder of the securities, and tip-toe around subject matter that would affect the portfolio. A sort of “wink-wink, nudge-nudge”, buy or sell signal. Plausible deniability would be the order of the day. In the past, there has been legislation introduced in the House of Representatives attempting to ban Congressional insider trading. It never received more than 14 supporters.

Why The “Occupation” Will Fail

By now, most people have gotten wind of the “Occupy Wall Street” movement, and has been affected by its polarizing actions and beliefs. The protesters and their signs scream out at their collective outrage, and list their many grievances. While the movement is seen as something noble and worthwhile by some, by others, it is seen as a group of spoiled, petulant young people, intent on obtaining entitlements. Whatever the case may be, I feel as though there are enough fundamental problems with the “movement” that it lacks any chance to secure any of the real changes it seeks.

Too much diversity

Yes, there can be such a thing as too much diversity. In the case of Occupy Wall Street, signs and grievances run from: criticism of greedy, corrupt money makers, to the redistribution of wealth, to the high unemployment rate among young people, the elimination of capitalism, and finally, to the effects of lobbyists in Washington D.C.. Some media sources have even shown people dressed up in greasepaint and with torn clothing to resemble zombies. I am unsure what message that is supposed to represent – perhaps it has something to do with Halloween? To maximize their efforts, the group needs to focus on one or two main messages, and drive those home. As it is, the fractured, myriad concerns of protesters are doing more damage than any good. They must coalesce into fewer, more well defined issues to maximize their effort. As the movement appears now, it is unclear whether the protesters are anarchists (as some have claimed in the television media), socialists (as some in the television media have claimed), or just disgruntled young people, seeking a solution to the many problems the nation has run headlong into.

Pre-emption of the movement

The Occupation of Wall Street

While the original message may have started out of an on-line organizing force, in the last week, the protest crowds in New York have seen various other groups and “sympathizers” lend their support. During this spring and summer, unions saw governors and legislatures force their members to pay for more of their own benefits and retirement packages. In a well-publicized series of recall elections in Wisconsin, the unions were again rebuffed. The support for various unions may have never been lower, and along comes a popular movement of self-described disenfranchised citizens. The unions saw a golden opportunity to attach themselves to this movement and possibly earn back some support. Celebrities too, have seen fit to make appearances, and lend their support as well. These stars who “feel the pain” of the broke protesters, show up, and bring the cameras along. Suddenly, a photo op. breaks out, the stars swear that they know how the protesters feel, and the protesters are made to believe like these multi-millionaires and they have something in common. Cheap appearances for celebs threatens to undermine any messages.

The movement doesn’t have a leader

For a movement such as this, it strikes me as a disjointed group of people, in search of someone to lead them. Now, I am not talking about some fire-brand, urging the protesters to start chucking bricks through store fronts, but someone who can lead the throngs and either accept or reject support from those seeking to take over the movement. There have been a few scattered whispers that the protests are supposed to be modeled upon the Tea Party movement – which has no leaders, but is just loose nationwide groups – however, the Tea Party groups began growing and coalescing around the idea that taxes and spending were too high. There is the single issue that laid the foundation for a movement. It sounds as though many of the protesters are asking for more oversight any way — but government oversight is not what anyone needs at this point. Indeed, if people would stop and consider for a moment, government “oversight” lead to much of the current financial and economic mess the country finds itself in at the moment.

Where, Oh, Where Has The Leadership Gone?

As I sit here, somewhat stuck for a reason to write a post this week, and bemoan the fact our “leaders” in Washington D.C. act so completely inept, I heard an update on the administration’s plan to release an additional $5.5 billion by this time tomorrow, to “green” companies (H/T CNBC). This, despite the previous fiasco with California solar panel manufacturer, Solyndra. The administration continues to spend massive amounts of taxpayer capital as what amounts to venture capital. Of course, as more detail comes out on how the deals and loan rearrangements for Solyndra were handled, it has become apparent that venture capitalists would not have been so careless with funds that were their own. This continued path of carelessness and ineptitude has this blogger wondering – is this administration really that clueless, that they would double down over again on failed policy, not realizing what was happening, all the while building a case for their naysayers to claim there was crony capitalism at play? Or, more frighteningly, the administration does know what is going on, yet does not care?

Examples of Missing Leadership?

Examples of the missing leadership of this administration grow by the day. In my mind, the first failure was failure to seize on the groundswell of the “Green Revolution” in Iran – the president waited and waited. Given the best opportunity the United States has had in some 30 years to press for Iranian regime change, and our president does nothing. The president waited so long to even issue a statement for the Egyptian uprising, that when he did, it amounted to little more than lip service. He refuses to reconsider any of his failed policies, and seems to want to double down on most. He is the poorest example of “out of sight, out of mind” we have ever seen in the Oval Office.

With leaders like these, who needs enemies?

He finally decided to commit NATO aircraft to the Libyan cause after Gaddafi threatened to blow up Tripoli and resist any threat to his despotic regime. While this seems like the president has finally made a tough decision to commit military power where he thought it was needed, in doing so, it resulted in two serious consequences: he broke the War Powers Act, having not gotten Congressional approval for the military action. Another, very serious problem, is that some 20,000 missiles may be missing from Libyan stockpiles. These missiles are the ground-to-air variety, that can be used to bring down passenger aircraft by terrorists, or perhaps even converted for use as IEDs in other theaters.

As a result of the Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms’ “Operation Fast & Furious”, one Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent was gunned down in Mexico, and a United States Border Agent was gunned down in Arizona. The brilliant idea behind the plan was to arm Mexican drug and gun smugglers, and then somehow track those guns via serial number. As of today, the only actions taken against the implicated parties in the administration have been some resignations, and reshuffling of the same personnel responsible for this plan. When Congress (Darrell Issa) tried to obtain documents to investigate the scandal, they were redacted to the point of appearing like a piece of black construction paper.

Finally, the president continually touted the benefits of green technologies, and how it would build the future, and raise us out of the economic downturn we are in. After being closely connected to the principal private investor of Solyndra, and even holding a press conference at the factory, he has high-tailed it away from ties to the company. Perhaps even more telling, is that he has now chosen a completely different tack, and is touting petroleum and chemical based solutions – that is, paving new roads (with asphalt and tars, of course), and rebuilding bridges (with various weatherproofing chemicals/paints).

With all this occurring, the president now attacks his own base – “Take your slippers off…put your boots on…”, and for their part, they attacked him back (Maxine Waters said she did not know who he was talking to). It seems like the left is bordering on mutiny, and it’s little surprise to me. After all, they have been without a leader of any sort for nearly three years now…

Spend It Like You Stole It

The new omnibus jobs-infrastructure bill created and proposed by the president this month, promises to get Americans back to work and rebuild the crumbling infrastructure — all without needing any additional funding! By ending a few tax loopholes here, adding a little bump to certain income tax brackets there, it will pay for itself. Huzzah – the Commander in Chief has single-handedly rebuilt the nation and yet again, saved us from ourselves, just in the nick of time. Of course, the reason this whole measure was necessary in the first place were the filthy rich, who, saved and hid all their money, because they like to see the country struggle and fail (AKA the scary left’s boogeyman-narrative). Even if the millionaires and billionaires the Democrats love to hate, were that warped in their thinking, would you want to give any more money to this government? People like Warren Buffet and Mark Cuban’s protest that they would just love to pay more in taxes. The politicians love to use those investors’ claims to make a point that the government should take more from all of them. At least, that is what the democrats would love America to believe.

Pass this bill - it's all I've got!

Perhaps believing it to be a mesmerizing force, the president’s repeated chant of, “Pass this bill, pass this bill…” during his Congressional address fell on deaf ears, as Congress refused to act and quickly pass an irresponsible and un-read bill, unlike their predecessors. Obama will undoubtedly use this instance when he is on the campaign trail to tell his supporters, “Gee, I really tried guys, but those darned Republicans – they are playing politics and engaging in brinkmanship again…” His politics seem to grow more and more transparent and less realistic, as increasingly, his rhetoric grows more inflammatory and divisive. His track record as a leader and economic steward is already onion-paper thin.

His claims of caring about Americans’ hardships might have once been taken at face value, and given the benefit of the doubt – but when you hear the National Labor Relations Board may prevent thousands of new jobs from an aircraft manufacturing plant in South Carolina, it belies that claim. The union in Washington state would rather risk moving the entire proposed being operation sent to another country, it seems, than to share in the company’s prosperity, domestically. “Workers of the world, unite”, indeed. The current three-member NLRB has been appointed by President Obama, with one member a recess appointment, after being threatened with a filibuster for his Senate hearing (see: Craig Becker).

The president’s claim to care about green energy and renewable resources have fallen by the wayside as well. Having already given a sweetheart loan to a friend who owned a solar panel company in California, whose operation he visited in 2010. The now infamous Solyndra boondoggle cost 1,100 workers their jobs. The employees showed up to work as usual one day, and found the plant closed to them. The company had sought investment from private sources, but were rebuffed when the burn rate of the company was shown to be completely untenable(and I picture the private investors reading Solyndra’s financials, and belly laughing at them). One-half of a billion dollars of taxpayer money is now gone, used for capital expenditures and other miscellaneous costs, at a company that had no chance of success. And this administration still sits on an additional $15 billion that they cannot wait to give away. How is this possible? Press Secretary Jay Carney explains, “That’s the way government works…” Perhaps that is the way your government works, but in the private sector (I like to think of it as “the real world”), where you are responsible for your own money, you also try to minimize losses by skipping investments in a company that is already belly-up.

As much as the last Congress and Democratic supporters harped to Americans about Cheney’s Halliburton ties, and how staffers were too close to business, that they would understand enough about business to prevent the wanton waste of the country’s funds. It seems that they focused on energy companies being an evil, and of providing “obscene profits”. Of course, I wonder if Halliburton was a big Democrat campaign contributor if they would still care as much? As the scandal grows, and more people are implicated in the fiasco, the Democrats’ next election prospects seem as dim as the Solyndra plant they threw so much away on.

America’s Illogical Left

While the debt ceiling talks roll on, in the summer of America’s discontent, the left continues to suffer from serious cases of nonsense and double talk.  The various news sources do their best to put a positive spin on the impasse, continually assuring us that the parties involved are very close to a deal, only to have holes shot into their reports by John Boehner, who claims the president’s proposal and his own are light-years from agreement.  One side says that they simply must have tax increases to fund liabilities, or else Social Security check delivery cannot be assured (which I believe is nothing more than an easily checked, and debunked lie).  The left threatens that soldiers may not receive their pay or receive vital weapons and equipment they need.  The list goes on and on.  I am beginning to think democrats actually believe that if it weren’t for their presence in the chambers of Congress, the sun may not rise in the east one morning…It’s amazing to what lengths they are stretching rhetoric and rationality when they cannot get their way or get Americans to believe them.

Various left wing pundits have taken to using particularly vicious and vindictive slurs and attacks.  Whether it’s MSNBC’s Ed Schultz, Martin Bashir, or Keith Olbermann, the left seems all too willing to just say, “Hey, the hell with intelligent discourse – we on the left got nothin’, so let’s jump into the mud!”  Name calling and ad hominem attacks now seem to be the left’s standard operating procedure.  Targeting private citizens also seems to have become a tactic that they enjoy using – favorite targets include people like: Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin (who has still not entered the presidential race), the favorite boogeymen of left – the Koch brothers.  Apparently, targeting the people who they merely identify as threats somehow makes it alright to use the distasteful and disgusting methods that they do.

David Plouffe, advisor to the president, recently went as far as claiming that Americans will not vote one way or another based on the economy.  I will go as far as giving him credit that his belief may have worked in the 2008 presidential election (when the ambiguous “Hope & Change” ruled the day), but I doubt democrats will be able to spin fast enough to use tactics like those ever again.  Two years of empty promise and a pattern of disappointing results has killed the mantra “Hope & Change,” and it will be retired in infamy and disgust.  I wonder just what Plouffe and others believe will lead Americans to vote for the president’s re-election?  They should hope the electors either have poor short-term memories, or have been living in a cave for the past two years.

"Now, people when I say that look at me and say, 'What are you talking about, Joe? You're telling me we have to go spend money to keep from going bankrupt? The answer is yes, that's what I'm telling you."

The left’s nonsensical and indefensible positions on many issues run contrary to what most Americans thought they would ever see.  Things as simple as cutting spending to make the federal budget more tenable do not even seem to be subject to rational thought anymore.  Joe Biden famously claimed the way into the mess, is the same as the way out.  I know, I know – what?  To me, the lowly, typical, American idiot that the left must simplify things for, this is tantamount to shooting someone to cure their gunshot wound.  This type of belief and behavior seem to be endemic of the entire left.

I shudder when I think about the burgeoning scandal that the Attorney General Eric Holder and A.T.F. has committed.  Again, it’s the same rationale as Vice President Biden used: the way into the mess is the same as the way out.  Guns, purported to be bought from gun dealers and other sellers in the United States, were being smuggled into Mexico, for use by any number of warring Mexican drug cartels.  So, to stem the tide of guns into Mexico, did the Justice Department think it was smart to enforce gun regulations already on the books?  Of course not, it thought it was far wiser to start its own program of smuggling guns out of the United States and into Mexico, and tracking them via serial numbers, to find their exchange vectors.  Never mind that technology would allow them to implant tracking bugs into the stocks or other parts of the guns, or more significantly – that the whole plan is insanely difficult to complete and seemingly carelessly administered, they went ahead, and carried it out, self-assured of its brilliance.  Instead of learning of the tracks of the guns, they have found them all over the southwest, both in the United States and Mexico, and they have managed to get numerous United States agents killed.  It worries me if this program was thought to be a great idea – what in God’s name are they executing now, and how bad will the black eye it gives to America look?

“I’m from the government…”

The 40th president of the United States, Ronald Reagan

“…and I’m here to help”.  These words by Ronald Reagan were claimed to be the “nine most terrifying words in the English language”.  Simple in its approach, deep in its implication, he very well could be right.  I am hard pressed to come up with a situation which government has made better when they have finally decided to get involved.  Wonderful uses of the rights and privileges granted to the federal government pale when compared to the abuses and wastes of the same federal government.  Using federal troops to break racist policies in places like Little Rock in the Civil Rights era?  That was a wonderful use of the federal government by President Eisenhower.  I guess you could contrast that with the role of federal government in the Waco tragedy.

It is when the government seeks to use its enforcement powers and ability to compel people to act differently, that I take offense – and I think many other Americans should too.  I don’t know about you, but I have not felt as ordered about by someone since I was in grade school.  It seems as though the leaders of the last few years have felt it was in their own executive or legislative rights to tell (not ask) the American people what they may or may not do.  Few to no judicial challenges for the most part, seem to only have encouraged them to continually push their boundaries onto the people, without critically thinking how future leaders may warp the current rules to suit their own “mandates” to rule their constituents.  It seems as though even local governments are getting in on the act, passing and carrying out rules and regulations that have shaky bases for their existence.

Locally, I have seen bath salts recently banned – because the good legislators realize what a threat they pose to moist, supple skin?  No, because people with nothing better to do were mashing the salts and then snorting them to get high.  Brilliant.  So, ostensibly, to lower healthcare costs and prevent otherwise idiotic people from snorting their beauty products – no bath salts for anyone!  It is a good thing that the active ingredients that cause the highs are not found in anything else, or the government will have to start banning things like blush or Chapstick.  Also, I am pretty sure that the strung out people, so desperate for their fix will not turn to either something far stronger or more damaging, to get that fix.

In cities across the nation, local governments have taken it upon themselves to ban the use of trans-fats in foods.  Whether or not anyone has weighed the healthcare money saved by cleaning up greasy spoons, and weighed it against the costs of the real junk food junkies who might drive out of the locality to get their junk food fix, or simply eat something as bad from a bag, is unknown to me.  New York has passed a slew of laws, trying to force people to act one way or another.  Already seeing $5+ packs of cigarettes still being bought and smoked, they thought it would be a good idea to try to ban the actual act of smoking them nearly everywhere that they could.  Sounds great, right – I mean who wants to suck some hacking, coughing, phlegm-y, smoker’s breath, right?  So in the name of those put out by attending places that they know will have smokers, they have decided that their own rights are more important than the smokers’.

Senator Gront - (I) OH , sitting on the set of Meet the Press where he fielded tough questions about fire and mammoth-spear regulation.

All these rules seem to be simply designed to affect behaviors.  The biggest gripe I have, besides the obvious treading upon rights, is the enforcement mechanisms for the usually asinine government plans.  Either an existing entity, local or state police, or a newly invented body, must enforce these rules from on high.  If it is the existing entity – is this really a good way to change the way they spend their time?  If it’s a newly invented entity, is it really a good thing to waste money on?  The thing is, far too often, to me, there is no entity more subject to the laws of unintended consequence, than government.  Pass something, then maybe the people will not whine too loudly about it, and then pass some more.  No problem — heck, a caveman could do it (and haven’t the Weiner and Lee scandals proven that?)

Of Course It’s the Economy, Stupid

Let's hope this is on the president's summer reading list.

Well, of course it’s the economy dragging down the president’s poll numbers.  Rasmussen reports that the president currently has a -18 approval rating, even as rumors of a double-dip recession grow.  The spring and summer has seen his approval rating trend sideways in the best of times, and far more often, downwards.  The initial nudge he got from the elimination of America’s enemy number 1, Osama Bin Laden, has evaporated.  The reality of Americans’ paychecks (if they still have them) staying stagnant, while food and goods prices rise, has hit home in a big way.  Crude oil has broken through the $100 mark, and upset Americans even more, as it refuses to retreat to the $75 level we enjoyed just a year ago.  The administration again has seen its economic advisers shuffled, leaving failure in their wake.

For all the administration’s tweaks, quick fixes, bailouts, and creative accounting tricks, the nation still finds itself with a stubborn 9+% unemployment rate, and they try like hell to find any narrow ribbons of hope amidst the mess.  Policy makers in Washington continue to press their “solution” to the growing deficit by claiming increased tax income will somehow fix the mess (all while they continue to spend, mind you).  This is after their claim that the stimulus would keep unemployment below 8%.  The truth is, the only way that they are going to get increased tax revenue is to give some tax breaks to get people spending.  As things are, merely increasing tax burdens aren’t going to do anything with a stagnant economy, where less goods are being bought.  This means the liberals would probably tax income more.  But, wait, there is an election coming up – is the president foolish enough to risk his “mandate” for liberalism on his eroding people’s paychecks?  I doubt it, especially not with a weak approval rating.

So, what does the Obama administration do?  They claim that big business, their favorite boogey-man, is hoarding money, not spending it, but using it for bonuses and to make the president look bad.  Wait, business is hoarding the money, and giving it away?  Yes, those are the claims from the left.  That business is conspiring to make the president seem like a poor economic steward – that’s the party line.  It couldn’t be the spate of insanely damaging legislation passed over the democrat’s years with a legislative plurality, could it? No…  So how to get some of that big business money?  Tax them, of course!  But then, we are back to my conundrum of inactivity not providing an action for a tax to be levied.

So, as the president pays America lip-service, telling us that business is the boogey-man, and that we need jobs, Americans continue to grow further incensed and resistant to he and his party’s rhetoric.  November should have  been a huge clarion call to the democrats, but they seem unwilling or unable to comprehend the fact that their policies were largely rejected.  America spoke loudly at ballot boxes, and yet democrats see something in the economic darkness they speed headlong into.

You can't mulligan the economy, Mr. President

The GOP says that the reason for the lack of economic turn-around is uncertainty.  Spending a short time on various financial channels seems to bear this out – there is no talk of a huge, conspiratorial plan to “make the president look foolish.”  The simple fact is, that beyond setting basic guidelines to how individuals should act in an economy, government cannot simply issue an order to behave in a certain way (as they’ve tried with Obamacare), and expect people to follow blindly it, meanwhile having the fiat affect an economy whichever way they desire.  The bottom line is this: it’s the economy doing what it’s naturally going to do – anyone careless enough to try and get in its way is going to get run over – or run out of office.

Of Course – Drill!

The most benefiting answer for “when should we drill?”, although completely unworkable, would have been “ten years ago”.  Since that has been made continuously unfeasible by various politicians and special interest groups, now is as good a time as any to begin (any armchair economist will tell you that as something becomes more scarce, its price will rise, as will demand for the resource).  ”Where”, you may wonder?  Well, anywhere that the U.S. Geological Survey even suspects that might be a pocket of oil.  There is so much federal land that sits either idle or having received a protected status, will not be tapped, even as oil and gasoline prices continue to soar upward.

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Northern Alaska

Americans sit on massive amounts of natural resources, that, if we were to begin seriously exploring and utilizing, could have the ability to affect prices downward.  With the current administration’s rhetoric about environmentalism and “green jobs”, the amount of oil domestically produced could help the country ween its way onto another energy source (which escapes me now, but I am sure the administration policy makers and yes-men will come up with something comparable to the gasoline engine in their last two years in office…)

Let’s start with everyone’s favorite oil patch – way up north, in Alaska, it’s the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge.  Yes, it’s that green tundra with a half-frozen stream above.  Apparently, no companies are currently able to drill because doing so may affect the calving grounds of the Porcupine Caribou.  According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, there are at best 5.7 billion barrels of oil beneath the permafrost of ANWR.  Gamblers think there may be as much as 16.0 billion barrels, waiting to be tapped. [1]  Whether people realize it or not, drilling was actually approved in ANWR, in 1996, but then-president Bill Clinton vetoed the measure.  That’s right, we could have been driving around in our cars, burning sweet Alaskan crude for four years now.

Another big potential oil field is down in the northern part of the Lower 48 – the Bakken Formation, stretching across Montana and North Dakota.  The unrealized oil from this region is conservatively estimated to be around 3.6+ billion barrels. [2]  The area had previously been  identified as oil-rich, but U.S.G.S. estimates are know believed to have been too low.  Add to that, North Dakota has enacted a tax break for drilling, and now the region is finally realizing its potential – in fact, the Bakken field in Montana has more than doubled previous Montanan oil production.

One last area, amongst many resource-rich regions in the Continental United States, is the Anadarko Basin, reaching from Colorado, into Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas.  This deposit is a little different.  Instead of having the formerly mentioned regions’ massive oil reserves, the Anadarko Basin “only” has 495 million barrels of crude[3].  But it contains some of the nation’s largest natural gas reserves – with 27 trillion cubic feet of the stuff[3]!   To put this in perspective, that amount of natural gas could sate Americans’ natural gas demand for over one million years(if current annual demand holds steady).  Such a cheap and plentiful supply, and it’s only now really being explored and extracted.  Using various processes, natural gas can actually be converted into a liquid fuel substitute. (Using something called the Fischer-Tropsch process, invented and used in World War II Germany, sounds promising)

When it’s all said and done, I think that there is really no reason for this country to be so beholden to despots and harm-doers (both here AND abroad).  The Trans-Alaskan pipeline was supposed to endanger wildlife too, and yet now we find those same threatened caribou and other fauna, happily munch lichens and scrub underneath those heated pipes.  Eastern Montana, western North Dakota, and north-of-the-Arctic-Circle-Alaska aren’t exactly bustling places, and the companies seeking to extract and cash in on the resources aren’t going to endanger their leases just to cut some corners for a quick buck – why risk billions to save a hundred thousand?  Laws already in place are sufficient deterrents to environment-wrecking behavior.  As for the Senate and President?  Let the engineering and oil extracting companies do their jobs, whereever holds promise (as well as in the Gulf)!

1.  ”Potential Oil Production from Coastal Plain of Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: Updated Assessment.”U.S. Energy Information Administration. Energy Information Administration, 01 May 2000. Web. 6 Jun 2010 <http://www.eia.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/analysis_publications/arctic_national_wildlife_refuge/html/execsummary.html>.

2.  ” Assessment of Undiscovered Oil Resources in the Devonian-Mississippian Bakken Formation, Williston Basin Province, Montana and North Dakota, 2008.” National Assessment of Oil and Gas Fact Sheet. U.S. Geological Survey, April 2008. Web. 5 Jun 2011. <http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2008/3021/pdf/FS08-3021_508.pdf>.

3.  ” Assessment of Undiscovered Oil and Gas Resources of the Anadarko Basin Province of Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, and Colorado, 201.” National Assessment of Oil and Gas Fact Sheet. U.S. Geological Survey, January 2011. Web. 6 Jun 2011. <http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2008/3021/pdf/FS08-3021_508.pdf>.