Housing

I saw Henry Cisneros, HUD Secretary under Bill Clinton, on a business show yesterday. The topic was whether or not to start up another tax credit program for new home buyers. He was for them because construction has always been such an important sector of the U.S. economy.

Cisneros is an articulate, accomplished man - and emblematic of the Democrat brain lock that is worsening a bad economic situation. Henry (insert the sound of a face slap), we already have too many houses! If we don't build any more for a year (another slap), we'll still have too many! Wanna know what's going to get construction healthy again? (I can't describe the sound of shoulders being shaken, but that's what goes here.) Do you? The marketplace!

Politicians - my code word for Democrats - live in dread of market solutions because their fingerprints don't appear on the happy outcomes. There are, of course, some unhappy outcomes, which they live for ("Never waste a good crisis.") Each overswing of the pendulum is another opportunity to burrow deeper into the economy, to pump addictive, regulatory medicine into a body that only needed a good night's sleep.

These naturally occurring excesses in the economy should be welcomed. They punish the stupid and greedy (real estate speculators, for example), and then life goes on; nearly everyone a bit smarter and wiser. Think of market excesses as natural disasters. While nasty to experience, they serve a greater good. Florida would die without hurricanes; they recharge the water systems. Forests require fires to propagate. Floods are nature's way of saying, "Why the hell did you build a city below sea level? You can rebuild it, moron, but I'll be back."

America got drunk on hyper-consumption. Households are accepting their hangovers. This November, elect people who will force the cure on the government. Treat it as an intervention. The next (and last) speech I want to hear from Obama should begin, "My name is Barack."

Stealing

Webster defines stealing as, "to get, take, or give slyly, surreptitiously, or without permission." Sounds like the Progressive plans for redistributing wealth, except they aren't being sly about it. Does that disqualify it as stealing? I'm sure Bill Clinton would do a fine job parsing it that way.

Isn't conspiracy to commit a crime also a crime? Why aren't Obama, Pelosi, and Reid in leg irons? I heard Obama's campaign interview with Bill O'Reilly in 2008.When asked about his plan to redistribute wealth, Obama leaned closer to O"Reilly, smiled, and said something like, "C'mon, Bill, you and I have more than enough. What's wrong with spreading some of that around?"

That question contains the mind-blowing assumption that my wealth is Obama's to distribute. Want to spread some around, Barack? You have a checkbook, open it. Maybe get Biden to cough over more than 1% of his earnings for a change.

I don't question the noble intentions of Progressives. I share their aspirations for our citizenry, but I see individual success arising naturally from hard work, thrift, and discipline. They see it as a series of transfer payments from those who have worked hard, saved, and exercised discipline. In the end (and doesn't the end justify the means?) so what, right? Wow. There isn't enough room in cyberspace to list all the downsides, but the biggest is this: after government confiscates the wealth, who gets it and why? Those of us who watched in horror as the health care bill made its way through the congressional chow line understand exactly how the loot will be divided - politically. Democrats will identify purchasable voting blocks and create rules that stick the funnel down the right throats. The nation's vitality and swagger will sag a bit more, but they'll be more entrenched than ever, and that's the real goal.

Of all the things on this earth to fear, keep government high on the list. Your vote is the most powerful weapon against them. Find candidates who want to drive government back into its cage. Put these people in office and keep them there. If they ever succumb to the drug of power, throw them out and find a new bunch. The fight never ends. Stay tough.

Can't Stand Prosperity

Prosperity. Should be a good thing, wouldn't you think? It is until its evil twin, Complacency, takes over. This happened in the U.S. two generations ago. Early manifestations were things like auto and steel industry execs surrendering to ridiculous demands (thirteen weeks vacation, e.g.) from the unions. No reason not to. Fighting is such a messy business, and they had no real competition. Pump the new costs into the price of the products and go back to sleep until the next contract renewal. We all know how that turned out.

Today's "social justice" charade has the same foundations. Who the hell are "community organizers?" Who pays them? Where does the money come from? What's expected from them for the pay they get? The answer is that they are political operatives paid for by the taxpayer, and they are expected to deliver votes for Democrats, something they do quite efficiently. These parasites continue to exist - for now- because for generations, Prosperity fattened the population while Complacency stood guard. Growing shortages from the treasury each year weren't enough to jostle Complacency from its nap, so the lengthy slumber allowed an army of looters to organize and grow. Nearly fifty unopposed years of undermining the capitalistic structure that has sustained its life. No "benefit" (appeasement) given along the way has been received with gratitude. All are eventually deemed insufficient and are more evidence of the "meanness" of capitalism. Now the unthinkable has happened. The parasites have control, and working Americans are dumbfounded by the successful treachery.

If you believe the country's direction is suicidal, join the fight. Don't just point to this November, though. If Republicans take Congress this fall, the victory will be nothing more than a speedbump in the Progressives' momentum. Nothing accomplished by the Obama/Reid/Pelosi monster can be undone without sixty Republican senators and a Republican president. This means you have to stay focused for years. Your opponents will never let up, so neither can you. Commit your time, your money, and your big mouth to killing this army. Not just a slight cough and low-grade fever. Dead.

"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance." Thomas Jefferson Wake the hell up out there!

This Manchurian Candidate Got Elected

For those who've never seen it, The Manchurian Candidate is a movie about an American soldier captured by the Chinese during the Korean War. He's brainwashed and reprogrammed to be a lethal weapon in the Chinese plan to install a president they can control, thus taking over the U.S. The plot is uncovered, and the soldier commits suicide before he does any irreparable harm. 

For fun, change the brainwashing characters from Chinese communists to...let's say...Marxist college professors Cloward and Piven, and pastor, Jeremiah Wright; and let's throw in (like a bomb?) anarchist, Bill Ayres. Now we need a candidate. Let's use...Obama.You know, this is pretty good casting, especially Obama. He makes no secret of seeking the company and counsel of all these Marxists during his college years, and beyond. He even spent a block of his childhood in an Islamic country. Radical Islam is currently our biggest threat, so, yeah, he's perfect for the role.

Yikes... Other than the suicide, I think we're living the movie.

America, vote Republican this and every November. You'll occasionally elect someone too cozy with a crooked business, but those blips are easy to recover from. Bad Republicans will cost you money. Bad Democrats will cost you your freedom.

Greed

When is demanding more money for less work not greed? When it's done by a union. When is demanding to keep more of what you've earned greed? When it's done by a capitalist.

Alright, now that we know who the evildoers are, answer this: over the past fifty years, what has driven manufacturing out of the U.S.? How did public education become so bad? Who attacks unarmed opponents at political rallies? Whose votes do the Democrats continue to purchase with taxpayer dollars?

Obama says he knows how much money is "enough" for everyone. Do you? That was a trick question. If you're a union member, or part of the 50% of the country who pays no income taxes, the answer is: there's no such thing as enough. As long as one person has more than another, social justice is being thwarted. If, however, you're a capitalist, Obama's answer, as of today at least, is probably the Ben & Jerry's (ice cream) model - roughly ten times the amount earned by the lowest paid person in your organization. Over time, Progressive wisdom will undoubtedly tweak this to eight times, then five, then two, then parity. Ah, social justice at last. No other incentive is necessary.

Incentive! Spit after you say it. Progressives understand it's just a code word for greed. The absence of incentives in the public sector has nothing to do with its appalling performance. The problem, as anyone but a capitalist would know, is that every failed and failing program suffers from understaffing, and its Siamese twin, underfunding. Even with nothing to gain (or lose) by doing a good (or bad) job, the public sector presses forward, often absorbing the brickbats of unappreciative capitalists. Only capitalist refusals to pay their fair share of taxes are keeping these unnecessary, overpaid, Democrat-voting-block unionists from transforming America into the utopia envisioned by The Leader. (We love The Leader. If you're having any difficulty warming to him, try singing along with the choir of small children who were taught to sing his name and praises during the last campaign. It's still on YouTube. Keep a small bucket handy.)

To summarize today's lesson, government's insatiable appetite is not greed, or power lust. Only capitalists can be greedy. Make sure you understand where your candidates stand, and vote accordingly this November.

"No" is the right strategy

"No" or "No!" In the face of imminent danger, this is what a sensible person would demand. Republican candidates should embrace this as their 2010 campaign strategy (and beyond), not apologize. Seventy-five years of Father Christmas policies by both parties have finally set us at the edge of the roof, an overindulged child wearing a sheet as a cape, certain we can fly.

Unaffordable expansion of health care benefits, global redistribution of wealth under the laughable disguise of "climate" control, "jobs" bills targeted to unions in politically friendly states, eliminating the secret ballot for union certification, bloated government having the gall to tell businesses what they should pay executives. These and almost every other initiative of the Obama administration scream out for "No!" Job One for the Republicans: Apply the brakes. No other campaign promise should be necessary to win overwhelming support in November.