ch.annel2-i.s-n.ow-a.ngry

In England the history of the United States is the Revolution, the Crisis of Slavery, the New Deal, and the Civil Rights movement—the fulfillment, over time, of the liberal promises written in 1776, made good at last even to a people once considered chattels.

What? You don’t occasionally check Blog ‘o the West for an intelligent history lesson?

I’d vote for that. I mean, it’s still gotta be better than Zombie McCain.

The ObamacCain Campaign run is just hitting its stride. Please consider the following graphical presentation on the choices and change present in today’s presidential race:

ObamacCain Campaign

Reading a Reuters article about Madonna’s latest controversy, get to this gem in the closing paragraphs:

But David Horowitz, a conservative writer and activist, took a more dim view of Madonna’s latest controversy.

“We’re in a sad situation if we’re turning to entertainers for political wisdom,” he told Reuters.

Said the man who belongs to the party of Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger. The party that hails Ronald Reagan more than Lincoln.

But only in a round-about way. For your consideration, some quotes from the WSJ about the FDIC getting ready to tap the Treasury (i.e. taxpayers) for money to bail out banks, and by banks they ultimately mean us, the depositors, also known as taxpayers (article found on Mish’s GETAblog).

The last time the FDIC borrowed funds from Treasury came at the tail end of the savings-and-loan crisis in the early 1990s after thousands of banks were shuttered. That the agency is considering the option again, after the collapse of just nine banks this year, illustrates the concern among Washington regulators about the weakness of the U.S. banking system in the wake of the credit crisis.

Key points: the last time this happened was after THOUSANDS of banks failed during the S&L cock-up. This time, they’re getting ready to tap this authority after NINE banks have failed.

If that doesn’t scream “HOLY SHIT WE’RE TOTALLY FUCKED” I don’t know what does.  Nine bank failures in 2008 the equivalent of thousands of bank failures from 1990? I realized the numbers were pumped up by the Texas laws (every branch of a bank was its own ‘bank,’ so if a bank had a hundred branches in Texas, a hundred ‘banks’ would fail when it failed), but they weren’t pumped up that much. Case in point this pretty chart from CRblog, which shows bank failures by year, starting in 34 (if they had data from the 20s, it would probably dwarf the chart since banks failed multiply by the day sometimes, in the ‘roaring’ 20s). 2008 barely shows up on that chart, especially compared to the S&L mountain, and we’re already robbing Peter to pay, well, Peter.

An interesting post on the Mishlog about a new tax Britain introduced in order to try to force the owners of empty buildings to lower rents and increase occupancy (tax them higher when they’re empty, so they’ll lower rent to attract occupants) - a good idea, only it backfired completely and instead of lowering rents they’re just knocking over the buildings and leaving piles and piles of untaxed rubble and ever more blighted cities.

If you want lower rents, make a fucking law limiting the amounts that can be charged. I bet the British .gov was really patting themselves on the back for their governing brilliance when this was signed into law. I bet they’re really pissed off now, but what can they do at this point?

AP sez to me:

The federal government is telling emergency managers to be on the lookout for fake emergency and commercial vehicles, as security tightens in the two cities hosting this year’s presidential conventions.

For about $2,000 someone can use a computer, color printer, typewriter, barcode label printer, an electric tool for cutting and an engraving pen to fake vehicle identification numbers, stickers and titles.

The Secret Service does not have any specific information about these cloned vehicles being used for surveillance or terrorist purposes at the Democratic convention in Denver and the GOP convention in St. Paul, Minn., Secret Service spokesman Eric Zahren said. But the agency is aware of this type of potential threat, Zahren said.

The FEMA bulletin cites examples over the past few years in which 18-wheelers were disguised as Wal-Mart trucks and were eventually impounded. For instance, in 2006, Texas authorities stopped a fake Wal-Mart truck that was carrying 3,000 pounds of marijuana and about 450 pounds of cocaine, according to a report on cloned vehicles issued earlier this year by the Florida state intelligence fusion center.

First things first, I think people will have more to worry about from government spies on their ‘anti-American activities’ than terrorist spies. Also, engraving pens are really fucking hard to use, you’d need a computer controlled engraving machine to reach the quality of VIN engraving on a vehicle.

And it’s more likely that the Wal-Mart truck was a real one that was supposed to be importing cheap goods from Mexico, with the cheapest hire subsidized by drug money. Also, I like how their best examples of this are small-time crime like drug smuggling (because, let’s face it, 3000 lbs of pot and 450 lbs of coke would fuel San Francisco for under an hour) from two years ago.

And, lets face it, if we weren’t funding or providing harsh military repression in already fucked up countries, we wouldn’t have to worry about ‘terrorist’ attacks.  This is nothing more than election year pandering to try to muscle the GOP back into the national hardass spotlight.

Along with nine other agents, the company recovers up to five boats daily throughout Florida. Each is listed online for auction within a week; most are bought by foreigners.

This is your country on credit. Smoke it if ya got it, because it’s all going overseas and we’re going down the toilet.

First, a truism that NO ONE gets: The only easy money being had is the money going to the guy selling you the plan to make easy money.

Second, a Newsweek quote via the Mishblog:

The federal agency charged with backstopping pension benefits for 44 million Americans has understated the risks of its new investment policy, a congressional watchdog said Monday.

The PBGC said earlier this year that it would take a more aggressive investment approach by investing more in stocks and adding new alternative investments, such as real estate and private equity funds.

The agency, which has assets of $68 billion, hopes the strategy will help it close a $14 billion gap between those assets and its liabilities. Otherwise, taxpayers could be called upon to pony up extra funding, the director of the PBGC has warned.

As a well-educated taxpayer, I would like to call bullshit on this: taxpayers will not be ponying up the extra funding, foreign sovereign wealth funds will be loaning America money to pony up the extra funding. Taxpayers will be ponying up extra debt without any recourse or way to say no.

I say no taxation without at least a kiss on the back of the neck when we are being royally screwed in the asshole.

Remember how I said the fiscal stimulus was going to be absolute bullshit, not do a drop of good for our economy, and just put our nation further in debt, meaning that the 160 billion dollars will actually cost us around 200 billion in future taxes? From the Wall St. Journal:

Congress enacted the tax rebate program earlier this year because it perceived a growing risk of recession. In addition, it feared monetary policy alone would not be effective because of the dysfunctional credit markets. As American taxpayers know, most of the rebate checks have now been mailed and cashed.

Those of us who supported this fiscal package reasoned that the program would boost consumer confidence as well as available cash. We hoped the combination would cause households to spend a substantial fraction of the rebate dollars, leading to more production and employment.

The evidence is now in and that optimism was unwarranted. Recent government statistics show that only between 10% and 20% of the rebate dollars were spent. The rebates added nearly $80 billion to the permanent national debt but less than $20 billion to consumer spending. This experience confirms earlier studies showing that one-time tax rebates are not a cost-effective way to increase economic activity.

That’s right, our government is as fucking clueless as ever. And it wants to do more ‘good’ for us.

Well shit, even Iraq was invaded ‘with [stated] good intentions’  - and you see where that’s gotten us.

To paraphrase MC Hawking, “fuck, fuck, fuck the electorate.” And yes, I do mean electorate as in you and I the voters, because we’re the dumbasses that snoozed while electing C students (and that’s a gentleman’s C ) as the most powerful man in the modern world.