US Political Nonsense

More evidence that this congress and presidency are in a rush to seize as much power as quickly as possible appeared as news organizations uncovered a bill aimed at allowing the president the power to shut down the internet for the private sector in the interest of national security.

Think if Iran had completely shut out the internet during the riots seen shortly after the recent election.  That would have meant that there would have been no information leaving that country in any form.  Does anyone remember that even the most reputable of news organizations were relying on social networking sites including Twitter and Facebook to gain knowledge on what was happening there?

This is a dangerous scenario were it to be passed and implemented.   Think if Obama or any future president decided to institute martial law and close down the internet.  No citizens would be able to relay information to anyone else.

The internet has eclipsed network news as the source of information preferred by the private sector.  This slaps blatantly as yet another attempt to leach power from the citizens of this country into that of our government.  We shouldn’t be letting this happen.  So why are we?  Does it really matter the party doing it?

CNet via Drudge

Now I am staunchly against the current inclination of whatever the Dems are calling “Healthcare Reform.”  All of my personal reasons aside though, there are those who have been spreading fear about what this reform could do to the system as it stands.  Sure, passing might not immediately cause these problems, but it would be very likely that it would be a gateway drug of sorts only inviting more interference and regulation from lawmakers drunk with the infinite possiblities of their power.

Me, I think that 99% of government solutions are not solutions in the least.  Call me a pessimist…

But given this, some of these fear-mongers should just keep quiet.  They are not helping the cause.  Like this report out of the Associated Press claiming that some in the GOP are suggesting that Dems would deny Republicans healthcare were the reform to pass.  Seriously?  I have no doubt that we will have a government picking and choosing who gets what, but doesn’t this just sound just a teeny-bit crazy?

People, give it a rest.  Let those with more legitimate concerns over this reform do the talking.

via Yahoo! News

Surprise, surprise. Joe Biden finally admits what I’ve been saying: that those politicians didn’t know what they were talking about when it comes to the economy.

“The truth is, we and everyone else misread the economy. The figures we worked off of in January were the consensus figures and most of the blue chip indexes out there.” he said on George Stephanopoulos’ program on ABC.

‘Misread’ is an understatement.  How about botched?

I only think that only one politician ever got it right. That person was Senator John McCain when he got flack for saying that he knew nothing about the economy. THAT is the sole reason I voted for him.  He admitted not knowing.  Of course that statement did change later during the campaign while he joined in on the meddling.

The issue is that we expect that the politicians should know about the economy, because we don’t. But even economists typically don’t know anything useful about the economy. Most of economics really is the study of past behaviors. Little can be done to truly predict what will happen in the future. Economists can only compare models and formulas in hope that by some stroke of luck, they get it right. Aside from that, they simply assert their own unproven theories as to what can and will correct issues.  Sometimes they win; sometimes they lose.

Unfortunately for us, few have the patience and tolerance not to demand action from our government when trouble arrives. It is extremely difficult not to when yourself or loved-ones suddenly lose income.

The problem arrises in that the government, in hopes and under pressure to fix the economy, invaritably cause further harm or at best only delay recovery.  Recent examples of this are found in both Sarbanes-Oxley and the stimulus packages.  Neither ’solution’ was successful in completing their intended purposes.

Sarbanes-Oxley was meant to solve the problems mirrored by the ENRON scandal, and the stimulus was meant to halt the precipitice decline of the stock market (only one minor indicator of economic health) and push down the growing unemployment rate.  Only the stock market seemed to stall in its free-fall.  Meanwhile corporations continue to layoff workers and look for ways to stop dwindling profits.

All of this while increasing the budget deficit, expanding government control, increases the national debt, and raises the burden upon taxpayers in the future.

Even the ‘hugely successful’ Cash for Clunkers program only drove up sales temporarily for the ailing auto-industry.  Were the two manufacturers in the deepest trouble really helped when Toyota, Honda, and Ford dominated the sales?  With it over, are we continuing to see sales to that sustained volume?  No.

Incidentally, Sarbanes-Oxley had a double-whammy effect on the stock market discouraging companies to go public here in the US and encourgaging them to choose foreign markets instead.

Overall, the best choice we have in fixing anything to do with the economy is to force the government to stay out of it.  Unfortunately for us, the government firmly believes that no one can be successful without their guidance.

So far the general consensus is that you either love Barack Obama, or he’s a Socialist. That’s the impression that I get when reading comments in chat rooms and blogs around the internet. The one thing I have not come across at all is the fact that, at this point in time, Totalitarianism Government sounds a lot more of what we are dealing with than a possible “Socialism” encounter.

Now I say this in the aspect of now, not when and if they tax the citizens that make over 250K a year. But, now in the GM and Citi takeover and the present health care reform. Also I don’t mean in any terrorist fashion but only in this quote below.

Totalitarianism (or totalitarian rule) is a political system where the state recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life wherever feasible.

Wikipedia

Now I know it hasn’t gotten that extreme. But with the Democrats hinting that they are going to push this through without Republican support, no saying what they would do next.

Whatever happened to representing your state or country and not your party?

Listening to the news, I hear a lot of talk about how we are seeing the end of the recession. Now mind you, I’m not the expert in the economics, but I’m slowly taking on an interest in that field, so I’m doing a lot of reading. I came across an inflation chart (seen below) that plotted the past eight and a half years of our inflation rates, at first I was kind of excited. I thought when I saw those negative percentages that they value of dollar was going back up in the aspect of foreign exchange.

Inflation Chart

The caption on the chart says that negative percentages reflect deflation. Below is what wikipedia had to say about deflation…

In economics, deflation is a decrease in the general price level of goods and services. Deflation occurs when the annual inflation rate falls below zero percent, resulting in an increase in the real value of money — a negative inflation rate. This should not be confused with disinflation, a slow-down in the inflation rate (i.e. when the inflation decreases, but still remains positive). Inflation reduces the real value of money over time, conversely, deflation increases the real value of money. Money refers to the functional currency (mostly unstable monetary unit of account) in a national or regional economy.

Currently, mainstream economists generally believe that deflation is a problem in a modern economy because of the danger of a deflationary spiral. Deflation is also linked with recessions and with the Great Depression. Additionally, deflation also prevents monetary policy from stabilizing the economy because of a mechanism called the liquidity trap. However, historically not all episodes of deflation correspond with periods of poor economic growth, while there are many examples of how strong rise in CPI immediately precedes or accompanies and economic downturn, such as Great Depression, the 1970-80’s, and the 2008 economic crash.

While I reading that I came across another phrase “liquidity trap.”

The term liquidity trap is used in macroeconomics to refer to a situation where a country’s nominal interest rate has been lowered nearly to or equal to zero to avoid a recession, but the liquidity in the market created by these low interest rates does not stimulate the economy to full employment. In this situation, any further increase in the money supply will not stimulate the economy any further. This is because any further injection of liquidity will no longer lower the nominal interest rate, as the nominal interest rate cannot drop below zero. This situation can lead to price deflation, which, according to many schools of economic thought, will make a recession even more severe.

Now, in my mind all this looks good at first glance, but then when I started clicking links and looking at more sites with relative information and it looks ridiculous. I wonder if Congress is going to look over this and take it into consideration before pushing more and more money out. What do you think?

“CyberBullying,” a term now being used frequently when a blogger, author, journalist, etc. speaks negative about another person online. Before it was “you really believe what you read on the internet?” to “will the Defendant please rise?” Liskula Cohen, a model originally from Canada but residing in New York City was the victim of defacing through the internet. Google owned blogging engine Blogger housed the blog that was making comments against her.

So what did she do? Took Google to court requesting the blog be removed from activity. Of course she won, the blog was taken down, the owner faces legal hardships through the future. Is this just the beginning of more internet blogs and websites closing down?

Via CNN

That’s right everyone, it is Bill Clinton’s birthday.  The former two-term President and liberator of journalists is 63 years old today.  Happy birthday to a man that despite giving us some of the precoursers to today’s economic downfall, is still very much a likable guy.  Looking past his political philosophy, I do like the man.

And also happy birthday to Tipper Gore, wife of Mr Clinton’s VP Al Gore.  We’re racking them in today!

Read carefully folks.  This article, written for the Wall Street Journal by Universal Health Services CEO, Allen B. Miller, makes quite a valid point in why we should continue to fight the Healthcare bill proposed by President Obama and Congress.

Universal Health Services is a company that runs hospitals; it does not provide insurance.

So when the hospital system is stating that a single-payer, government run system will harm them and the care they provide, one should be alarmed.

Especially enlightening is the assertion of the government only paying up to 94% of the costs of treating patients with government insurance.  As more fall under government care, the percentage will surely decrease substantially.  Can you or anyone you know actually get through the checkout with your merchandise trying to pay only 94 cents for every dollar owed?  Would you accept that for something you might be selling?  Once or twice, maybe.  Consistently?  I do not see that happening.

The current Healthcare reform proposed will certainly harm this country’s health system.  Do not assume otherwise.  Allowing it to pass may eventually mean the difference between recovery, and simply getting by.

I never assumed, much less even bemused that the National Enquirer would be a reliable source of information.  So when the story broke of Democrat John Edwards having an extra-marital affair, it got cataloged with all the other erroneous accounts of celebrity and government scandals.

So when it turned out true, people were surprised.  Honestly I think it was more that something out of the Enquirer was true.  Myself and many Americans have come to expect affairs from our politicians.

Now, Fox News is reporting that Edwards, through this affair with former campaign videographer, Rielle Hunter, did indeed father a child born over 18 months ago.  According to the report, a DNA test was performed and confirmed Edwards’ paternity.

Edwards had previously admitted to the affair after news was leaked, and also agreed to tests as well when Hunter became pregnant, though denying that he was the father.

Until now, aide for John Edwards, Andrew Young had claimed that he was the father (a claim supported by Hunter herself) while money was shoveled to Hunter’s company as the story quietly went away.

Surprise!  It will be interesting as more comes from this and the rumored grand jury investigation into the funds that changed hands surrounding this event.

I am sorry, Ms. Paglia.  I enjoy your columns and highly respect you as a writer, but I disagree deeply with how you view our President.

Consistently I see you paint our President with grace, elegance, and swagger befitting the great emperors of Rome.  Blame for folly falls squarely on the minions scuffling about the White House and the DC area according to your accounts.  Now while I gleefully agree with your opinion of the foolishness being displayed in Washington, I cannot help but to place the blame squarely on the poor leadership of our President himself.

I come from a family with many who have served in the military.  I have many in my family, including myself, who do, or have held positions of management.  Over and over I have heard the montage of good leadership qualities.  None are on display with Obama.

Leaders have control over those beneath them.  True leaders understand that their success is not possible without the success of those working for them.  Thusly, good leaders will foster the productive and remove the thorns.  Think “A Few Good Men,” but without the Code Red.

Think the Bush Administration.  Look past what you and I may think of policies (I am Libertarian and have issues as well) and observe what happened to those who went against their agenda.  Cold, callus, but good leadership.

Even in this day of personal investment and encouraging an entrepreneurial spirit in even the most trivial of employees, responsibility still falls on management.  I have experienced this myself during some of my own failings when supervising.

Even though I was responsible for millions of dollars of productivity, the burden of my responsibility pales in comparison to Obama.  He can ill-afford allowing for such petty displays of ignorance to be connected with him and those in his charge.

All he is doing is playing into the hands of critics citing that he was inexperienced to a fault.  You can call it simply guilt by association if you feel that the visage of our leader should not be tarnished so, but part of ourselves are the people we choose to have around us.

Then again, it could be that those around him are simply mirroring the exact behavior that Obama himself wants to display as our President.  That would make him a good leader.

But in that case, the future would be a much scarier place.

“Did you know this happened?”
“Yes, but it’s not my fault.”
“Are you in charge?”
“Yes.”
“Then it is your fault.”