**WARNING POLITICAL RANT COMING**

I was exchanging e-mails with my BFF NJS, and he expressed that the future could be looking up after this election.

Not only did I disagree, but I did so vociferously:

don't count on the economy bouncing back. I am not an optimist on this one. The GOP will get in (the house) and successfully screw it up. More people will sit on their cash (gold, guns and bibles). Certainty and stability = good growth environment.

We will have another 3-4 years of uncertainty at least. If there is another "black swan" event, it could be longer. Throw in some government mandated inflation, and we will be lucky to beat Japan's lost decade.

I base my opinions on several things. First is what is going on in the country. People are pissed, scared, and confused. They know that something bad is coming, but what it is, no one knows. There seems to be a lot of talk about "something" and being prepared for it. Call it a Black Swan, SHTF, or zombie attack, folks are stocking up on gold, guns, and spam.

Second, people are giving up playing by the rules. Rules are for suckers. Just ask Timmothy Geitner (head of Treasury) about his taxes, and you get the feeling that they are for the little people. This pattern played out numerous times in the Obama administration.

Department of Justice is now just a political hit organization used to protect the New Black Panthers, and Democrat voting irregularities (overseas troops don't need to vote!).

Mortgage problem? Uncle Sugar will fix it for you, ooops.

Not here legally? No, you can't work, but you can go to a UC school at a severe discount!

Bail outs? Chrysler and GM? Healthcare mandates? Sub prime mortgages?

Illegal politicking in a polling place? Ah, she can do it -- she is Queen Michelle!

Insider trading? Who else knows what industries will be regulated and in what way.

They can't even follow their own rules.

Seems like those in charge make up things, screw it up, and then go on to put a fix it without working it through, causing another screw up. Almost like they want it this way. It is incredible to me that no one has called for a stop. If it doesn't work, let it fail and start something else new.

The crisis in confidence -- on both sides -- has lead to the Tea Party protests. Like them, I no longer consider myself a Republican. I would have change my voting status to DTS, but I got lazy and busy with other things. If the GOP screws up, who knows where it goes from there.

And that's the rub.

No one can seem to get a handle on it. No one. The new congress will come into town, inhale the swamp gas that permeates everything there, and simply fail.

They will fail to significantly curtail government power, spending, taxation, regulation, or any of the crap that the current congress has passed this year.

The system is rigged against them.

The house will be Republican, and the Senate will be Democrat -- or RINO at best. The White House will be in 100% Chicago thuggery defense mode. It will be nasty and ugly for the next three years at best.

And nothing will happen.

Obamacare will still be in place -- with a few face saving tweaks here and there. Taxes will rise (or the Bush tax cuts will expire). Regulation from the agencies will kick into overdrive ( EPA regulating CO2). A true vacuum at the top, while the bureaucrats get turbo charged up and the rest of the world passes us by.

Oh, and inflation will start kicking in as "quantitative easing".

Oh, and we no longer are seen as a world leader -- because we won't lead (that's just rude).

So, what's a business man to do? Sit on his gold, guns and spam.

Is there no hope? Not the way I see it. There are only downsides. The Obama fix is in, and the GOP is powerless in the next congress to do anything about it. Some other issue (black swan) will crop up and divert their gnat-like attention away from the necisary heavy duty work that needs to be done.

They are what they are.

Long term, who knows, but it won't be pretty. Will it be like Japan? We can only hope it would only be one lost decade. China? They are sitting on a cauldron that would put Tienanmen Square to shame. Europe? They are convulsing too.

Bottom line?

Click on the links for the articles that support my views. Feel free to disagree or give another viewpoint -- I'm a big boy, I can take it.

jc

Another Great Video

Do. Not. Piss. Off. The. People.

Tax time is comming...

While I have had some challenges with the tax man lately, this little vid I got from Instapundit via Skippy lightened me up.

Uggg, I gotta start Turbo Tax up again.

jc

The dam has broken...

OK, BHO gets the Nobel this morning.

What. The. F*#%.

BHO was in office for 11 days when he was nominated and voted the honor. That is 264 hours.

Again: What. The. F*#%.

Since he was nominated this is what he has actually accomplished:

• Divided the nation along racial, economic, class, political and just about any other line there is. Riots? Soon.
• Halted the growth of the economy (did I mention how many commercial properties are vacant locally?). Obamavilles? Soon.
• Increased the debt to levels that are absolutely mind boggling. Taxed up the wazoo? Soon (if not now).
• Started the long and painful retreat from our engagement from the middle east. We are still reaping the bitter cop of failure from our disengagement in South East Asia. Killing fields in Iraq and Afghanistan? Soon.
• Tanked, and utter gutting of the U.S. dollar. Hyper inflation? Soon.
• Trashed our standing in the eyes of our allies. Poland under the Russian boot? Soon.
• Nationalizing the health care system and working to change a center right nation to a left leaning nation that is permanently dependent on the state for bread and circuses. Currently in process -- Sooner than later.

While I try to not sound like a raving loon, Obama is so far left, that even some of his "independent" supporters must be scandalized at some point. Kids singing his praises in class and on TV, constant cooing from the press, and absolutely fawning of world "leaders" like Kadafi-Chavez-Akmadinizad all add up to a picture of a personality cult larger than Stalin's.

These are the things he has accomplished. What is to come? Nationalized industries. Gun bans. Ammo bans. Culture wars. Class wars. Just waiting for the next "crisis" for him to exploit to his advantage.

What amazes me is that he (and the Congress he rode in on) haven't actually done much. They have the votes. Just do it. Perhaps it is because they know that they are so far out that they may actually fear the center right nation that they now run. Thank God.

Gotta go rant at the yard for growing too much last night...

jc

Yep, I'm hacked...

Since I can't trust the GOP to stop the pile of crap "(government) stimulus bill" in the Senate, and I can't trust the California GOP from increasing taxes, I am seriously thinking of changing my party affiliation.

This comes as a disappointment to me, as I can remember that I sided with Ford when I was in the 5th grade, dogged my history teacher in the 7th (he was a draft dodger), and created a name for myself throughout college as a conservative Republican.

But when the media voted for McCain, and worshiped "The One" into office, and the respectful Republicans rolled over (as they were told to do by everyone in the beltway), they betrayed my trust.

My concern is that we have entered a brave new world of "the third way". This is the way of the fascist of Europe, Mussolini, Franco, and yes, that other guy. The world of government owning or "partnering" with publicly held companies to work together for the good of all. Decisions are not made in the board room, but out in public. Labor unions are encouraged, so that the workers have a voice in the means of production. The public health is taken care of by the state in an efficient manner.

All things are political because the state is all things.

What does this mean for me? Move out of state? Move out of the country? Nah, just hunker down, buy ammo, and prepare for the inevitable stagflation, increase in crime, and social unrest. Thanks for uniting us, our saviour Obama.

Obama Clause

How is he to pay for this?

jc

Obama Claus

October 30, 2008 11:00 PM

Once you get past the soaring oratory, to experience a speech by Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., is to be hit with an astoundingly lengthy list of promises.

"I don't know how any reasonable person" could think he'd really be able to accomplish everything he's pledging to do, said the mother-in-law of a colleague, a Missouri woman who intends to vote for Obama.

Just today in Sarasota, Fla., the Democratic presidential nominee said that he'd:

• "give a tax break to 95 percent of Americans who work every day and get taxes taken out of their paycheck every week";
• "eliminate income taxes on Social Security for seniors making under $50,000";
• "give homeowners and working parents additional tax breaks";
• not increase taxes on anyone if they "make under $250,000; you will not see your taxes increase by a single dime –- not your income taxes, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains tax";
• "end those breaks to companies that ship jobs overseas";
• "give tax breaks to companies that invest right here in the United States";
• "eliminate capital gains taxes for small businesses and start-up companies that are the engine of job creation in this country";
• "create two million new jobs by rebuilding our crumbling roads, and bridges, and schools -- by laying broadband lines to reach every corner of the country";
• "invest $15 billion a year in renewable sources of energy to create five million new energy jobs over the next decade";
• "reopen old factories, old plants, to build solar panels, and wind turbines";
• build "a new electricity grid";
• "build the fuel efficient cars of tomorrow";
• "eliminate the oil we import from the Middle East in 10 years";
• "lower premiums" for those who already have health insurance;
• "if you don't have health insurance, you'll be able to get the same kind of health insurance that members of Congress give themselves";
• "end discrimination by insurance companies to the sick and those who need care the most";
• "invest in early childhood education";
• "recruit an army of new teachers";
• "pay our teachers higher salaries, give them more support. But ... also demand higher standards and more accountability";
• "make a deal with every young person who's here and every young person in America: If you are willing to commit yourself to national service, whether it's serving in our military or in the Peace Corps, working in a veterans home or a homeless shelter, then we will guarantee that you can afford to go to college no ifs ands or buts";
• "stop spending $10 billion a month in Iraq whole the Iraqis have a huge surplus";
• "end this war in Iraq";
• "finish the fight and snuff out al Qaeda and bin Laden";
• "increase our ground troops and our investments in the finest fighting force in the world";
• "invest in 21st century technologies so that our men and women have the best training and equipment when they deploy into combat and the care and benefits they have earned when they come home";
• "No more homeless veterans"; and
• "no more fighting for disability payments."

This on top of his 30-minute infomercial last night, and the myriad other pledges and promises he's made throughout the last 21 months.

It's quite a list!

He does call for some sacrifices, though nothing that would equal the cost of these measures.

• "Washington is going to have to tighten its belt. It's going to have to put off spending on things we don't need. As president, I'm gonna go through the federal budget, line-by-line, and we're going to end programs that we don't need. We're gonna have to make the ones we do need work better and cost less."
• Of course, he'll soon be "asking folks who are making more than a quarter million dollars a year to go back to the tax rate they were paying in the 1990s before the Bush tax cuts."
• And in a way of attempting to head off at the pass any criticisms that there's no way the U.S. can afford all this, he says supporters should tell skeptics that ending the war will save the U.S. $10 billion a month.

The AP's Calvin Woodward took a look at Obama's assertion that he's "offered spending cuts above and beyond" what he's pledging to spend, and he concluded that's "accepted only by his partisans. His vow to save money by 'eliminating programs that don't work' masks his failure throughout the campaign to specify what those programs are -- beyond the withdrawal of troops from Iraq."

Even accepting the savings Obama pledges to bring, the bi-partisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget says Obama will add a net $428 billion to the deficit over the course of his term.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., too is making unrealistic promises. As the Tax Policy Center says of both candidates, "Both John McCain and Barack Obama have proposed tax plans that would substantially increase the national debt over the next 10 years, according to a newly updated analysis by the non-partisan Tax Policy Center. Neither candidate's plan would significantly increase economic growth unless offset by spending cuts or tax increases that the campaigns have not specified."

-- Jake Tapper and Sunlen Miller