GOVERNOR JACKSON IS RESTING A LITTLE EASIER IN HIS GRAVE

The Missouri Sovereignty Project has had its first candidate for Missouri Senator sign its pledge:

Jack Jackson, candidate for the 26th senatorial district, is the first Missourian to sign our pledge. Congratulations, Jack. And thanks for putting your good name on the line for the citizens of the Great State of Missouri.

The pledge that the Mr. Jackson signed reads as follows:

As a public office holder, or a candidate for public office, I affirm that:
1. All just political authority is derived from the People, and government may only be
established and maintained with their consent.
2. The People of each State have the sole and exclusive right and power to govern themselves
in all areas not delegated to their government.
3. A government without limits is a tyranny.
4. The Tenth Amendment defines the total scope of federal power as being that which has
been delegated by the people to the federal government in the Constitution, and also that which
is necessary and proper to advancing those powers specifically enumerated in the Constitution
of the United States. The rest is to be handled by the state governments, or by the people
themselves, as they determine.
5. In order for a federally-exercised power to be “necessary and proper” it must be a) something
that, without which, would make the enumerated power impossible to exercise, and b) a lesser
power than that which has been enumerated
6. The “Interstate Commerce Clause” in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, does not permit
Congress to regulate matters that merely affect commerce among the States. It only permits
Congress to regulate trade among the States.
7. The phrase, “general Welfare,” in Article I, Section 8 does not authorize Congress to enact
any laws it claims are in the “general Welfare” of the United States. The phrase sets forth the
requirement that all laws passed by Congress in Pursuance of the enumerated powers of the
Constitution shall also be in the general Welfare of the United States. This was affirmed by
James Madison in Federalist #41: “With respect to the words "general welfare," I have always
regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal
and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there
is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators.”
8. The federal government is not authorized to tax the People to raise monies for
unconstitutional purposes. Likewise, the federal government is not authorized to condition
funding to State or local governments on compliance with mandates which require them to do
what the federal government is not authorized to do directly.
9. When Congress enacts laws and regulations that are not made in Pursuance of the powers
enumerated in the Constitution, the People are not bound to obey them.
10. When the federal government exceeds its Constitutional authority, a nullification of the act is
the rightful remedy. Without that remedy, the People would be living in a tyranny, under the
unlawful and excessive control of one or more branches of the federal government.

A MODEST PROPOSAL

So, assuming that the economy doesn't implode, how could the government protect the dollar and honor its debt? Pay off the treasuries and basically abandon Social Security and Medicare here at home. There's no way we could ever honor the obligations to those two entitlements anyway so why not be honest and just cut them now? It would definitely give us some room to maneuver. Of course, I say why stop there? Return the government to the Constitutionally mandated limits that it is supposed to live in and a big part of our problems would disappear immediately. Sorry Mr. Obama, no healthcare for you.

MISSOURI SOVEREIGNTY PROJECT

"Our Mission
To render ineffective (or nullify), by Missouri legislation or Missouri Constitutional Amendment, any law enacted by the United States Government that suppresses, violates, interferes with, or deters any Missourian’s “…unalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty and pursuit of Happiness.”

Consider joining the Missouri Sovereignty Project. A return to Constitutionally mandated state powers would do more to reign in the federal Government than anything else we can do, while still maintaining the Constitution as it was written.

"WE'RE JUST ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL"

Our Natural Law rights to freedom of worship and freedom of belief must be suppressed at all costs. Our humanity and our relationship with God must be destroyed to make way for the state. We cannot be allowed to think or act independently. All for the good of the collective.

"A New Hampshire court has ordered a 10-year-old home schooler to attend public school for defending her Christian faith a bit too vigorously. The official said the girl’s “vigorous defense of her religious beliefs suggests strongly that she has not had the opportunity to seriously consider any other point of view.”

"In addition to homeschooling, the girl attends supplemental public school classes and has also been involved in a variety of extra-curricular sports activities…

But during the process of negotiating the terms of the plan, a guardian ad litem appointed to participate concluded the girl “appeared to reflect her mother’s rigidity on questions of faith”…

According to court documents, the guardian ad litem earlier had told the mother, “If I want her in public school, she’ll be in public school.”….

The guardian ad litem had an anti-Christian bias, the documents said, telling the mother at one point she wouldn’t even look at homeschool curriculum.

“I don’t want to hear it. It’s all Christian based,” she said."

Jerry Kane
American Daughter

Tim Hawkins

I was watching YouTube this morning and came across this guy. I'd heard him interviewed on the radio yesterday. He's funny. Look him up and have some laughs. I think he's a local boy , too. From St. Charles, I believe.

"MINE EYES HAVE SEEN THE GLORY..."

A war is in progress; all around us the battle rages. We don’t hear the screams or see the smoke, but we exist at ground zero. We are the prize, the goal, the end game; but we are also pawns in this battle, fodder for the cannon. We have a profound interest in this war, but few realize it. The winner takes all, the loser is vanquished forever, hopeless and destroyed. Strangely, the winner had been determined before the battle was begun, His opponent fighting vainly, driven by pride and hate.

Of course I’m talking about the war between good and evil; infinite good and absolute evil. The war between God and Satan; fought between angels and demons in the great unseen world of the spirits. This war is beginning to bubble to the surface. The astute observer is able to see the effects of this confrontation in the changes that we as people have undergone in our understanding of ourselves and the world around us. We don’t seem able to place ourselves in context. We’ve lost our sense of place in the world. I believe that this is a direct result of a concerted effort by Satan to drive us away from God and all that makes us special to him. I have noticed this most strongly of late in the issue of human rights.

Satan has enlisted his followers here on earth over the last two centuries to work to destroy God’s people and His church. This effort has taken many forms and involved many people and institutions. I believe that the satanic influence is known and understood by some but not all of those that do his bidding.

I believe we are being systematically dehumanized. We are most human when we are closest to our creator. Satan needs to drive a wedge, to peel us away from God, if he is to be successful in this battle. He wants to control us, Gods creation, to put himself in the place of God, to be worshipped and adored. To do this, he must destroy our belief in God and our relationship to Him and at the same time redefine our understanding of what it means to be human.

He has attempted this in two ways. He has demonized authentic religious expression and removed it from the public arena. Satan has also redefined human rights, removing from us the gifts of freedom that were bestowed by God. These two essential elements of our humanity have been replaced by the new, satanic religions of profit and the state.

Real faith has been replaced by temporal pleasure. Those on the right worship at the altar of unrestrained and predatory free markets while those on the left bow on their knees before an ever increasing state power that promises all of their physical needs will be satisfied. Both religions promise freedom from want and pain, pleasure for the asking and limited responsibility for our actions.

Real faith requires us to embrace suffering, for it was suffering that opened the door to our redemption. It requires that not only do we take responsibility for our actions but that we confess our sins and beg for forgiveness. Real faith offers us the freedom to strive for redemption and happiness, while never guaranteeing either. We are allowed to exercise our free will, to choose or reject evil. It is up to us.

The new religion offers us so much pleasure while asking so little in return. It offers to shelter and feed us, put clothes on our back and nurse us back to health. And what does it ask of us? Just our freedom.

The old religion says that we are free to do just about anything we want, as long as we don’t adversely affect anyone else, including God. We can practice religion as we see fit, enjoy the fruits of our labor, own property and have the right to defend it. We can say what we want and believe what we please. We can assemble peaceably with whomever we choose for whatever reason we desire. We can be secure in our persons and property. We have the right to be judged by our peers if we are accused of a crime. And we have a right to privacy, to be left alone to make our way in the world. These rules and many more not mentioned are called the Natural Law. These are the laws that are written on our hearts and understood intuitively by most people; given to us by God as part of our birthright.

The new religion, in exchange for temporal comfort, demands that we deny the Natural Law and that we replace our God given rights with civil rights, more accurately described as privileges, bestowed upon us by our new high priests, the politicians and corporate leaders that have occupied the judgment seat of the one, true God. These new priests tell us that we can no longer practice our faith, except in narrowly defined environments. We can’t speak of the old God in school, out in public or just about anywhere else these old fashioned ideas might upset one of the enlightened ones. We no longer have the right to defend ourselves against aggressors because, since evil is now defined by circumstance and not by any objective standards we are not capable of seeing into the heart of our assailant and therefore do not have the right to judge his intent. We have no expectation of privacy when an employer can demand a sample of bodily fluids as a precursor to employment. Be careful what you say lest it be judged a hate crime, injuring the group of the month and violating their special protections. A right to the fruit of your labor, the labor that you cannot be forced to provide without just compensation (slavery)? The new religion forces you to tithe through taxation, applying the fruits of your labor to support the interests of the state and private businesses, whether you agree to it or not.

The new religion preaches that there are absolutely no absolutes; all actions are viewed through the prism of benefit to the state and business. What’s good for General Motors is good for America (literally). We condemn Russia for invading Georgia over energy concerns while we kill thousands in Iraq for the same reason.

Americans and the rest of the world have whole heartedly embraced the new religion and cast off the old. We have thrown away responsibility and suffering for perceived freedom and comfort. We have reconstructed the Pagan temples of old and offered up our humanity as a sacrifice to the gods of fascism.

We have sold our souls to the one that would replace God. Satan is near to his objective; the world will bow before him.

Satan is in the process of tearing down the temples of the new religion. He is destroying the global financial system and causing the failure of the American experiment, the last bastion of God given freedom left. And his followers, well, they will be left with nothing except abject, soul consuming despair. Everything that they believed in will have crumbled, leaving them nothing to fall back on. Their money will be worthless and the state anarchic. All will be lost. Satan will enter the holy of holies. And the world will rejoice.

Those that held to the old religion will not have despaired. We know that Satan’s victory will be short lived. Notwithstanding, we have much hardship ahead. The end of the war is at hand. I don’t know when but I think it is close. We need to pray and ask God for strength and wisdom. We need to open ourselves to His word and listen carefully. We need to be prepared to act as we are told, no matter how hard or crazy something might sound. I believe God will make it quite obvious to those that want to hear that what we are hearing is from Him.

We are blessed to be witnessing the triumph of God as foretold by the prophets. We are watching the final act of a plan put in place by Satan long, long ago. Be alert and observant. Someday, when you’re old, somebody is going to ask, “Were you really there? Did you see it? Is it true what they say?” Like the apostles of old you will pass on the stories, the truth of the coming of the Lord. Be Prepared.

PREPARATION; IT'S NOT JUST FOR CRAZIES ANYMORE

"Thursday’s news of a sharp fall in the FDIC’s deposit insurance fund, which insures up to $250,000 per depositor in each bank, underscored the problems faced by regulators when contemplating the rescue or wind-down of institutions with trillions of dollars on their balance sheets.

The agency said its fund had fallen to just $10.4bn from $13bn in the quarter, the lowest level since March 1993 when the US was in the middle of the savings and loans crisis. The fund has been depleted by bank failures: regulators have shut 81 banks this year."
Financial Times

"The US banking system will lose some 1,000 institutions over the next two years, said John Kanas, whose private equity firm bought BankUnited of Florida in May.

“We’ve already lost 81 this year,” he told CNBC. “The numbers are climbing every day. Many of these institutions nobody’s ever heard of. They're smaller companies.”

Failed banks tend to be smaller and private, which exacerbates the problem for small business borrowers, said Kanas, who became CEO of BankUnited when his firm bought the bank and is the former chairman and CEO of North Fork bank.

“Government money has propped up the very large institutions as a result of the stimulus package,” he said. “There’s really very little lifeline available for the small institutions that are suffering.”
CNBC

Is anyone, anywhere still confident that their money is safe in the bank? When do people start demanding to withdraw all of their money and how long will it take for the government to shut the banks down?

The idea that we all need to have some food and other essentials stockpiled at our homes is not just for the crazy survivalist any longer. Prepare yourselves and your families for the day, which I believe will be here shortly, when your debit cards, credit cards and cash don't work. When everything shuts down.

Prudence is the key word.

"Aug. 27 (Bloomberg) -- The Federal Reserve argued yesterday that identifying the financial institutions that benefited from its emergency loans would harm the companies and render the central bank’s planned appeal of a court ruling moot.

"Harm the companies" eh? You mean reveal that they are and have been insolvent, and The Fed has been engaged in covering them up?

“What has the Fed got to hide?” said Senator Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent who sponsored a bill to require the Fed to submit to an audit by the Government Accountability Office. “The time has come for the Fed to stop stonewalling and hand this information over to the public,” he said in an e-mail.

The Fed is hiding the insolvency of banks. They, along with their handmaidens in Congress (which is where you work Mr. Sanders) even went further and twisted the arm of FASB to legalize intentional accounting distortions that I argue amount to fraud."
Market Ticker

WE HAVE BECOME LESS THAN HUMAN

"Utilitarianism has a hideous strength when it comes to medical ethics. If even a ghastly procedure can “save lives,” well, who’s to say it’s immoral?..."

"...Here in the United States, bioethicist Jacob Appel, writing on the subject in the Huffington Post, states, “The first striking feature of fetal organs is that their supply...is unlimited...pregnant women who provide fetal kidneys could do so repeatedly.”

Appel grants that abortions would likely rise as a result, but even so, he believes we have “a moral duty” to legalize the marketing of fetal organs. How nice, too, he says, that poor women could benefit by selling the organs of their aborted children.

And then, Appel dreams of a day that “scientific research may make possible farms of artificial ‘wombs’ breeding fetuses for their organs.”

Breakpoint

I think it safe to say that this sort of thinking would be in line with the thinking of John Holdren, the science czar. We have successfully divorced ourselves from real religion and the rules that were created to guide our actions. These have been replaced with the new religion, the religion of profit and worship of the state. The rules that guide us have been replaced, too. The new rules place the sanctity of life and the special place in creation that we hold as children and heirs of God in the wastebasket. Our only value lies in service to the state and the never ending quest for profit. When both the state and the economy collapse, and we have no faith in any other power, what will be left? Despair and a vacuum. Since nature abhors a vacuum (we haven't changed that law), how will it be filled? Who will be the new messiah? What sort of state will we worship at his behest?

JUST SHOOT ME, PLEASE

Everything considered, I'd just as well they shoot me with a gun as set me on fire. The military is supposed to have some sort of microwave weapon that causes people to heat up, used as a non lethal crowd control weapon. Maybe this is just the K-Tel version.

"A homeless man caught fire after U.S. police shocked him with a Taser gun, it has been revealed.

Daniel Wood, 31, was allegedly sniffing gas from an aerosol can as he ran through traffic when he was chased by two officers in Lancaster, Ohio.
One officer caught Wood and got him on the ground, where Wood continued to resist, according to the police report.

Another officer shouted a warning, then zapped Wood with the Taser, the report said.
Wood immediately burst into flames that covered his torso.
The officers were forced to drop their weapons and beat out the flames.

Wood said: 'My complete right half of my upper body is burned.
'I have bandages from my wrist all the way up my arm and across my chest.'

He admitted he had been inhaling vapours from a chemical cleaner in an attempt to get 'high'.
Wood had been resisting arrest by attempting to bite the officers and lashing out with his feet."
Daily Mail

HAPPY, HAPPY, JOY, JOY

"Every single sector of the real economy is deteriorating, whether it is unemployment, production, corporate profits, real estate, credit defaults, federal deficits, or construction. The discrepancy between fact and fiction is seen by the SPDR Homebuilders ETF (NYSEArca: XHB - News). Builders have nothing to build, yet XHB has rallied over 30% in less than 30 days.

With almost a year of housing inventory yet unclaimed, one wonders who is supposed to be buying homes? Unemployment rates - calculated the way the government used to do it before it was changed in the 1990s - pegs the real unemployment rate around 20%, or 30 million people. During the Great Depression, unemployment reached 25%, the non-farm peak figure of the 1930s clocked in at 35%.

If you think 30 million unemployed is bad, consider the following which puts a face on an otherwise stale statistic. Each of the 30 million unemployed US residents probably supports a family, whether a spouse with children, or just a spouse. Based on 2-4 dependants per unemployed worker, a range of 60 to 120 million Americans are already affected by unemployment; that's 20 - 40% of the US population."

Yahoo

I picked on realtor's yesterday and I'm going to pick on them again; along with politicians, journalists, investment professionals and everyone else selling economic snake oil to the American people. The world economy is in the tank and it's not coming out anytime soon. It is most likely going to get far worse.

Again, I'm just a carpenter. However, it looks to me like there are a whole bunch of people doing their very best to extract every last drop of private wealth out of the system. When all the gravy is mopped up off the plate they plan on retiring to watch some TV while the rest of us starve.

All of the happy, happy, joy, joy news about the economy that most see on TV is nothing but propaganda designed to sucker us in. When you see this crap come on cover your ears and make loud, childish noises to drown out the siren song. Don't get wrecked on the shoals.

SPARKY TAKES THE WHEEL

"The Federal Reserve Board’s decision today to elevate Denis Hughes, a New York labor union leader, to the role of chairman of the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York is an unusual choice, and also shines a light on a sometimes cumbersome law overseeing the governance of the Federal Reserve.

The Federal Reserve Act (section 4, paragraph 20) says that chairmen of boards overseeing regional Fed banks need to have “tested banking experience.” Mr. Hughes, who is head of the New York branch of the AFL-CIO labor union, doesn’t seem to have that kind of banking experience on his resume. He’s spent most of his professional life as an electrician and union leader."

Wall Street Journal

An electrician is now managing one of the twelve regional Federal Reserve banks; and New York no less.

I was hoping that as the economy collapses that the last one out would turn off the lights. Looks like we've got that covered.

WHICH LEVEL OF HELL FOR THE REALTORS?

"First of all, they have deliberately kept millions of already-foreclosed properties off the market (see “U.S. economic propaganda hits fevered pitch”). This accomplishes two purposes. It slows the collapse of U.S. housing prices through reducing the number of foreclosure sales (as well as write-downs on ALL their housing-related assets). Secondly, on an individual basis, until a foreclosure sale locks-in the losses which a bank has taken on a property, fantasy accounting rules allow these properties to be listed on the books of U.S. banks at their non-existent “bubble” prices."
Bullion Bulls Canada

I was watching the local news last night . There was a story about how home sales have increased in St. Louis and that prices, for the first time in 2 years, had risen. (Fox 2) OK, so lets assume that the story is right. It's getting towards the end of summer, you need to get the kids settled in a new school, prices and interest are cheap, we better do it now.

I was talking to a friend at church yesterday about the issue of banks hiding the true extent of defaults in the housing market. His wife is a realtor. He verified exactly what Bullion Bulls says above, that people are living in houses and haven't made a payment to the bank in over a year. The banks are not foreclosing for the the reasons listed above. I've seen this reported on other financial sites as well.

In the report on Fox 2 a woman states that she is buying now because she thinks that it is impossible for her not to make money on her investment in the years ahead. She believes the market is coming back. Even though the banks are holding MILLIONS of foreclosed properties off of the market and in addition, not foreclosing on millions more to falsely inflate the bottom line in their bookkeeping.

Based on my conversation at church the realty agents are well aware of this situation. Are they telling people like the lady buying the house that these millions of foreclosed properties will eventually have to be dealt with; that when this happens the value of her property will not go up, but down. Dramatically. Or, are the realty agents glossing over this, and using the media to sell their snake oil to the masses?

There's a special place in hell.

PRAY AGAIN FOR AMERICA

"Throughout this decade, the Wall Street banksters plundered more than $100 BILLION in fantasy “profits” from their global Ponzi-scheme – and then needed roughly twenty times that amount in government hand-outs to avoid a sector-wide collapse last fall. Then, as soon as that crisis (temporarily) passed, they began to immediately loot the taxpayer hand-outs, as well. At the same time, all of these fraud-factories have slashed their dividends to shareholders, adding to the massive losses of these investors from the melt-down in share prices.

One might think that these shareholders might be getting tired of being financially “raped” by these banksters. However, as I pointed out in “Explaining U.S. Market Psychology”, more than 50% of the shares of these fraud-factories are held by the wealthiest 1% of the U.S. population. These ultra-wealthy aristocrats are more out of touch with the real world than was Marie Antoinette – when she offered the starving French masses “cake”, just days before they chopped off her head.

While this is unlikely to occur in the United States (given the acute shortage of guillotines), it might be time for the Wall Street banksters to take heed of history.

They may own the politicians. They may own the regulators. And they may simply own most of America. However, they don't own the billion or so guns currently in the possession of an increasingly angry American population.

Massive economic suffering and a billion guns is a very dangerous mix!"


Seeking Alpha

IS NOW THE TIME?

From Larry Flynt (yea, that Larry Flynt) writing in the Huffington Post:

"I'm calling for a national strike, one designed to close the country down for a day. The intent? Real campaign-finance reform and strong restrictions on lobbying. Because nothing will change until we take corporate money out of politics. Nothing will improve until our politicians are once again answerable to their constituents, not the rich and powerful.

Let's set a date. No one goes to work. No one buys anything. And if that isn't effective -- if the politicians ignore us -- we do it again. And again. And again.

The real war is not between the left and the right. It is between the average American and the ruling class. If we come together on this single issue, everything else will resolve itself. It's time we took back our government from those who would make us their slaves."

Wow! Even from Larry Flynt, in the Huffington FREAKIN' Post! Is it possible that we, all of the American people, can put away our disagreements and find common cause to stand up to this government? Is now the time? Do we have the guts, the resolve, are we willing to risk everything, to "mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor?"Declaration of Independence

THIS BEATS ALMOST ANY SUMMER JOB HE COULD HAVE FOUND

"A former Helper Junior High School teacher charged with having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old male student paid her victim between $1,400 and $1,500 after the encounters, court documents allege."
Salt Lake Tribune

My wife says that she is sure she could have found a boy that would have worked for free.

YOUR MONEY IS BACKED BY THE FULL FAITH AND CREDIT OF THE UNITED STATES

"Guaranty Bank became the second-largest U.S. bank to fail this year after the Texas lender was shut down by regulators and most of its operations sold at a loss of billions of dollars for the U.S. government to a major Spanish bank.

The transaction approved by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. marked the first time a foreign bank has bought a failed U.S. bank.

The bank failure, the 10th largest in U.S. history, is expected to cost the deposit insurance fund an estimated $3 billion."
AP News

Alison Vekshin, writing for Bloomberg, indicates

"The failure of 77 banks this year is draining the fund, prompting the agency in May to set an emergency fee of 5 cents for every $100 of assets, excluding Tier 1 capital, to raise $5.6 billion in the second quarter. The agency has authority to set fees in the third and fourth quarters, if needed, to prevent a decline in the fund from undermining public confidence."

Vekshin goes on to report that 56 bank failures since March 31 have cost the FDIC an estimated $16 billion. (For comparison, in the 1st Quarter, bank failures only cost the FDIC $2.2 billion.) That $16 billion bank rescue would fully deplete the FDIC fund as it only had $13 billion at the close of the 1stQuarter. It’s possible the FDIC has already tapped into its line of credit at the Treasury Department without setting off alarm bells to the public."
Lew Rockwell

So what happens when the public understands that the FDIC is out of money, that their deposits can no longer be insured? If the government is forced to print more money just to cover the losses, isn't that still the same thing? The money a depositor receives when his bank fails has been devalued to rescue him. Does this sound like the FDIC guarantee that your money is fully insured?

MORE TEA PARTY PICS FROM CARNAHANS BRENTWOOD OFFICE

Photos by: Dan Usher

ST. LOUIS TEA PARTY AT CARNAHAN'S BRENTWOOD OFFICE

My brother and I went to the Tea Party protest at Russ Carnahan's office at 8764 Manchester in Brentwood, Mo. today. There seemed to be maybe 200-250 people there, with the majority seeming to be Tea Party supporters, although the pro healthcare side had a good turn out, too.

The curb surrounding the parking lot at Carnahan's office was filled with people sporting signs and smiles. There were people in the parking lot of Schnucks lining Brentwood Blvd, too.

Supporters of healthcare seemed to be mostly right at the intersection of Brentwood and Manchester with opponents spread out everywhere else.

The mood of all was good and lots of smiles were in evidence.

Bill Hennessy, I think, above, giving a rousing opening speech.

Dana Loesch giving an interview. The guy in the red shirt is either her husband or her trusty manservant. I'm thinking husband because he had that look we all get, the look that says, "I'm here for you dear, and will cart your stuff around as long as you need, but jeez, I'd rather have a beer."

Healthcare supporters surrounded by Tea Party Protestors.

FDR AND THE CATHOLIC CONNECTION

"Once, when asked his philosophy, Franklin Roosevelt answered simply, "I am a Christian and a Democrat."

As always with Roosevelt, there was more to it than that. He was not just a Christian, but a Protestant, an Episcopalian, a descendant of Huguenot and Yankee New Englanders on his mother's side. And he was not just a Democrat, but a New York Democrat, whose leaders and most faithful voters were overwhelmingly Catholic, especially Irish Catholic. There was a tension, always, between this Protestant patrician and his Catholic party, a tension that this congenial country squire and shrewd politician sought to resolve, with much success, but never with finality. There remained a tension between the Democratic party he created in his own image and the Catholics who were such a large part of its constituency, until the tie between them snapped some time in the late 1960s."

Inside Catholic

After reading this article, which I quite enjoyed, I'm struck with something; Roosevelt didn't bring the Catholics into the Democrat party as much as the Catholics caused the Democrats to swerve decidedly to the left. This may have been a happy coincidence of shared political goals or, as I think more likely after reading this article, a case of political opportunism reshaping the belief system of Roosevelt. It seems that he threw off long held familial political beliefs to accumulate political power. I'm not sure why this hadn't occurred to me before but I think that it may warrant further research.

Teddy Roosevelt was both Progressive and Conservative. I would have to say the same thing about FDR. Of course, this is judging by today's standards. In their time they were doing things that were far to the left of the average WASP Americans belief system. But not far removed from the beliefs of the newly immigrated European Catholic refugee. Interesting that the Progressive movement was able to gain the foothold that it did in the country at the same time as the greatest European immigration waves were washing on our shores. At the same time that the Irish Catholics were gaining political power in New York, Boston and even here in St. Louis, generally through the use of gang muscle. Michael Barrone's article shows the deep political ties that the Irish were able to wrap around Roosevelt. How much policy influence did they exert?

HOUSING HOCUS POCUS

From the Wall Street Journal:

"New-home sales soared in June from the previous month, the third increase in a row and supplying fresh evidence the housing market is beginning to recover from its long crisis.

Sales of single-family homes increased by 11.0% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 384,000 compared to the prior month, the Commerce Department said Monday. Though, year-over-year, new-home sales were 21.3% lower than the level in June 2008."

I'm wondering about this. When the media reports this surge in sales are they talking about sales contracts or permit applications. Those are two very different things. And how many of these homes are inventory homes, built on speculation and not sold. Builders are giving away the store to get rid of these. While they may be sales, they certainly aren't doing much for the economy.

"Home construction unexpectedly rose in June, the government said July 17. Housing starts increased 3.6% to a seasonally adjusted 582,000 annual rate compared to the prior month. The starts data also showed building permits surged, and single-family starts made their biggest climb in four years."

The rate of unemployment nationally is between 16%-21% depending on which figures you look at and who you want to believe. Banks are not lending. I was told by a developer from Chicago that he cannot get any financing through his bank. He was told by a bank examiner that the banks will not lend money to developers regardless of the governments insistence that they do so. They learned their lesson from the last time. Building permits surged. Whatever. Going from 0 to 1 could be called a surge but I wouldn't get too excited about it.

"Prices are down because of too much supply. The ratio of houses for sale to houses sold in June was 8.8. But inventories are shrinking. The ratio was 10.2 in May. At the end of June, there were an estimated 281,000 homes for sale. That's below 293,000 for sale at the end of May.

Cheaper prices and historically low mortgage rates are offsetting tight credit and a high unemployment rate. Another lure, for first-time buyers, is a government tax credit."

If the banks won't lend then the only place the money to buy houses can come from is the taxpayer. Somehow, someway the government is juicing the market. There is no other way to explain any growth in new home sales.

“Foreclosure activity continued its upward trajectory nationwide and in the majority of metro areas in the first half of the year, but there are some significant differences beginning to show up in the data,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac, in a release from the company.

Saccacio went onto say that cities such as Provo, Utah, and Boise, Idaho, which have maintained lower foreclosure rates up to now, saw foreclosure rates jump in the past six months, an indication that increasing unemployment rates are beginning to impact foreclosures."
Fox News

Foreclosures are still going through the roof in the residential market with the commercial real estate market poised to follow suit. Why should I believe the banks are lending money to support the so called surge in new home construction?

"From Marketwatch:

Resales have gained for four consecutive straight months, the longest streak of increases since 2004. "Momentum is building," said Lawrence Yun, NAR's chief economist.

In other news July remains the last full month before school starts and spring and summer are always the strongest months for home sales."
MarketTicker

Momentum is building in resales and new home sales. I guess you could say momentum is building in new car sales, too. What happens when the taxpayer monies are cut off in the cash for clunkers scam on Monday? The same thing that is going to happen in the home building business when whatever games the government is playing stop there, too.

I posted an article the other day about sales at Caterpillar. If construction was turning around, and the builders thought that the turn around was real and sustainable, Caterpillar would be accepting some new orders. This isn't the case. I know the construction business. These guys won't spend a dime unless they think they are going to get a decent return. I don't see anybody being rehired around here. The halls are filled with guys looking for work. Most of the contractors that I have dealt with for years are thinking about closing down. Major builders, such as Mayer Homes, have gone out of business. Subdivisions don't have any equipment sitting in them or holes being dug. They're mostly cleaned up and quiet. In the middle of summer, when everybody should be working. Don't tell me the housing market is surging. Somebody is feeding the public a line of crap.

LIBERTARIANISM IN A FALLEN WORLD

"A 1982 article, The Impossibility of anarcho-capitalism, was recently called to my attention. In it, the author, one Tony Hollick, argues that the "components" of anarcho-capitalism are:

1.A belief that a fully-fledged free-market private property based social order can be realised and maintained without the existence of a single, finally arbitrary system of lawmaking and enforcement which asserts jurisdiction over non-consenting parties.

2.A preference for the imagined advantages of that social order however conceived.

3.A willingness to advocate attempts to instantiate it as an actual experiment in the more or less foreseeable future.

This type of argument is typical of those who want to argue for states and the aggression states commit, while still adopting the libertarian label. It is a way of changing to subject away from the aggression they favor, by insinuating the presumption that the anarchist is for something, and thus needs to prove it before we abandon the current (statist) order and "adopt" the system known as anarchy. This approach tries to color anarchy as just one of many prima facie equally valid competing possible systems. Anarchists have the burden of proving we should "adopt" it just like a socialist bears the burden of proving we should adopt socialism. Thus, it is not surprising Hollick concludes, "One can only be struck by the similarities between 'socialism' and 'anarchism'. Partisans of every kind rush to show that their vision is uniquely realisable; and the visions cover the entire range of mutually contradictory systems and practices."

But, of course, anarchists don't advocate a "substitute system". We are not for something, other than respect for rights. Rather, we are an-archist, "without (belief in) (political) rulers." We simply are not persuaded that political action is justified. This is because we see that states by their nature commit aggression--and as we are libertarians and against aggression (see my What Libertarianism Is), we are thus against states."
Mises

It’s interesting that this discussion of secular religious belief systems can avoid any mention of Christianity. I’m Catholic. Before I have to hear about all of the abuses of the Church (state) let me just say, you’re right. But, I think these abuses just prove the authors point.

The Church serves two primary purposes, one sacramental and one judicial. It is the judicial with which I am concerned.

"If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. 16But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that 'every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. 17If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.” Mathew 18:15

The above passage seems to me to describe the real function of the state, that of final arbiter. Due to our fallen nature we need a final arbiter. The problem is that the State (Church), because it is run by those same fallen individuals, cannot seem to limit itself to its God given role. It always overreaches.

I have always believed that the American Constitution came closer to describing the true role of government than any document since the Bible. The idea of government as final arbiter of disputes regarding violation of our Natural Law Rights seemed to me always to be what the framers of the Constitution were striving for.

I think that the rule of subsidiarity as promulgated by the Church, the idea that all solutions to problems should emanate from the lowest level and only move up when no solution can be found pretty nearly fits the mold of libertarianism, or anarcho-libertarianism, if I understand your use of these terms correctly. This does presuppose the existence of a final arbiter, however.

Due to our fallen nature I don’t believe it is possible for us to function without some very limited government. The problem is, how do we keep that government contained? The Catholic Church and its abuses caused the Reformation and the abuses of the American government are about to cause something of an equally historic nature.

PROGRESSIVISM, EUGENICS AND THE CHURCH

This story helps to shed some light on the recent problems surrounding Obama's speech at Notre Dame. Looks like just another instance of the shattering of the Church in America. More whiffs of Pope Paul IV's "smoke of Satan". Read the Churches reply to this heresy here: Humanae-Vitae .

"In the July-August 2009 issue of New Oxford Review, Michael V. McIntire, a 1957 graduate of Notre Dame and former Associate Professor of Law at Notre Dame Law School, writes:

In the early 1960s, promotion of the eugenics agenda of John D. Rockefeller III and Planned Parenthood was being frustrated by the Church's stubborn moral opposition to contraception. Rockefeller and Planned Parenthood considered public acceptance of contraception to be the key to public acceptance of eugenics by abortion, euthanasia, and genetic manipulation, and they actively sought a prominent Catholic voice to assist them in successfully opposing the strength of the Church's teaching on that issue. Notre Dame became their willing accomplice in this quest."
Pernicious Papist

WHAT IF THE DEAD CAT DOESN'T BOUNCE?

As anyone who knows me will tell you, math is not my strongpoint. However, even a blind pig can root up a turnip every now and then. Regardless of the cheerleading in the media, these numbers tell me all I need to know about the state of the construction industry. Construction generally leads us out of recession. A 50% drop in sales year over year doesn't look like we're going anywhere.

Caterpillar Inc Releases Dealer Statistics for 3 months (May-July);

July Retail Machines sales -48% -filing
- July total retail machine sales -48% y/y (June -47% y/y, May -43% y/y)
- July total sales of reciprocating and turbine engines -33% y/y (June -32% y/y, May -21% y/y)
Market Ticker

PRAY FOR THE TEA PARTY PEOPLE

Just in time to rally the troops for the Aug. 22 Recess Rallys that are to be held all over the country, Obama is going to give a pep talk to his boys. For more info on local events see the St. Louis Tea Party website.

Obama To Rouse Purple SEIU Army In Conference Call

"The President is holding a live health care reform strategy meeting on Thursday at 2:30 pm EST. He’ll lay out our strategy and message going forward, and he’ll answer questions from SEIU activists and supporters like you."
Gateway Pundit

WHERE IS THE HOPE?

These sources come from a video posted by Victory Vision. Click on the link and it will take you to it. Anyone with money in the market really needs to start thinking about whether it's time to get out. I know, I'm just a carpenter. You don't have to be a financial genius to realize that something is wrong when the market goes up and there is nothing to support it; beyond happy thoughts and the massive infusion of our money by way of the government. Fortunately, I'm so broke I don't have to worry about this. The only market that sees my money is the grocery store. But, I know people that are still in, that still believe it's coming back. I don't want to see them lose it all, or at least a big chunk of it. Somebody tell me I'm wrong, that there is real reason for hope. This dumb, broke country boy just doesn't see it.

Retail sales outside of autos turned in a disappointing performance in July, underscoring concerns about the timing and durability of a recovery from the worst recession since World War II.

The Commerce Department said Thursday that retail sales fell 0.1 percent last month. Economists had expected a gain of 0.7 percent.
Yahoo

The number of U.S. households on the verge of losing their homes rose 7 percent from June to July, as the escalating foreclosure crisis continued to outpace government efforts to limit the damage.

Foreclosure filings were up 32 percent from the same month last year, RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday. More than 360,000 households, or one in every 355 homes, received a foreclosure-related notice, such as a notice of default or trustee's sale. That's the highest monthly level since the foreclosure-listing firm began publishing the data more than four years ago.
Yahoo

On a side street in an old industrial neighborhood, a delivery man stacks a dolly of goods outside a store. Ten feet away stands another man clad in military fatigues, combat boots and what appears to be a flak jacket. He looks straight out of Baghdad. But this isn't Iraq. It's southeast Detroit, and he's there to guard the groceries.

"No pictures, put the camera down," he yells. My companion and I, on a tour of how people in this city are using urban farms to grow their own food, speed off.
CNN

Stagnant unemployment, shrinking tax revenue and a struggling economy threaten to quadruple the size of last year's federal budget deficit, raising more questions about the timing of costly proposals to overhaul health care.
As the White House and Congressional Budget Office (CBO) prepare to release new deficit estimates this month, several economists say the news is likely to be as bad as or worse than forecasts.
USA Today

Home price declines in the U.S. accelerated in the second quarter, dropping by a record 15.6 percent from a year earlier, as foreclosures weighed on values.

The median price of an existing single-family home dropped to $174,100, the most in records dating to 1979, the National Association of Realtors said today. Total sales rose 3.8 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.76 million from the first quarter and fell 2.9 percent from 2008’s second quarter.
Bloomberg

Despite signs that the financial system has stabilized, banks remain threatened by billions of dollars of bad loans on their balance sheets, and more could fail if the economy worsens, a congressional watchdog reports.

In its latest assessment of the $700 billion financial system bailout, the Congressional Oversight Panel warns that banks still hold many risky loans of uncertain value. If unemployment rises sharply or the commercial real estate market collapses - as many economists fear - the banking system could again lose its footing, the panel says in a report to be released Tuesday.
AP News

In concert with the claims I made in the prior Martenson Insider post, The Fed bought $7 billion in Treasuries today and even more yesterday.

This is at the upper end of their recent range of already exceptional purchasing activity.

If things are so rosy that every single dip is being bought in the stock market with a vengeance, I wonder why these printing operations are really necessary?
Chris Martenson

Consumer bankruptcies surged in July to their highest level since October 2005 as U.S. households struggle under the burden of past debt and rising unemployment.

Total filings reached 126,434 in July, a 34.3% increase from the same period a year ago and an 8.7% increase over June, according to a report released Tuesday from the the American Bankruptcy Institute.

The number of filings was the highest monthly total since the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act went into effect in October 2005.
CNN

THIRD SHOT OF THE NEXT AMERICAN REVOLUTION

It's always interesting to hear from Gerald Celente.

YouTube

WE CAN TAKE CARE OF OURSELVES, THANK YOU

From 24th State:

"One of my commenters challenged me to discuss what I would support in healthcare. Here are fifteen points. Some are state, some are federal, but I am against new federal taxes, new federal bureaucracies, or single-payer, or other bloated government monstrosities in general. Here are 20 commonsense ways to address healthcare I would support."

Someone needs to explain to me where the government gets the authority to regulate the medical industry to begin with. That being said:

I like your ideas but how about these:
1) Insurance will only cover catastrophic loss. Like homeowners insurance, which would pay for a house fire but not installing a lock on the door.
2) Remove all government licensing requirements for medical providers. Professional organizations can provide certifications to those that want them. Let the buyer beware.
3) Get rid of FDA and all restrictions on sales of medicines and other drugs. The FDA didn't protect anyone from bad drugs and other stuff from China , so what do they do? Again, let the buyer beware and let the industry set up its own certifications.
4) Remove ALL non market driven forces from medical industry. Let the "invisible hand" work.

I understand the historical reasons for most of the system as we have it today and I also know that some, VERY MINOR, regulation may be needed. The problem is that this regulation should not come from government. Government has consistently proven itself incapable of doing anything right. I would expect to see some problems with a free market system as far as quality and dishonesty, however I believe that the market would go much further in reducing these instances than government regulation ever will; and it will do it more efficiently.

Bad doctors and bad drugs would quickly find themselves without customers. The internet has created an environment that allows for the rapid dissemination of information. We're big boys and girls now, we can walk by ourselves.

IF YOU CAN'T SAY ANYTHING NICE...

"In recent weeks we have seen disruptions at town halls, mob hysteria, arrests, death threats, and remarks that border on treason. Those who should be in control of the GOP remain mute or, even worse, they bless the hordes that take up pitchforks to puncture the idea of health care reform.

Yes, boys and girls, the anti-government tea baggers are being ginned up anew to squelch the president's health care plan. Sara Palin recently spoke of an “Obama death panel” that would decide when and how her parents and disabled child would die. Newt Gingrich—who knows better—endorsed her nonsense. High Priest of the GOP Rush Limbaugh took time out from rattling the cage of the birthers to compare Obama Health to Hitler Health of the 1930s. Scary stuff..."
Fired Up Missouri

Using invective as her slight of hand Ms. Carnahan, as would any good grifter, has gotten her audience to take their eye off the ball. Trying to make the people that are protesting this massive, unconstitutional expansion of federal power look like mindless simpletons doing the bidding of their masters, she undermines her own credibility on the subject. Obviously, Ms. Carnahan cannot make a rational defense of the proposed healthcare debacle so she resorts to accusing those that oppose her party with the same sort of misbehavior that we have become accustomed to seeing from demonstrators on the left.

From students at Columbia attacking representatives of the Minutemen during a speech to Ann Coulter being assaulted with pies thrown in her face. The Coalition for Social Justice and Nonviolence attacks a student at Tufts University and a union thug beats a man to the ground at a Russ Carnahan town hall meeting. These are the sort of activities we have come to expect from the left.

The Tea Party protestors, on the other hand, have not committed any acts of violence. Even when SEIU enforcers have struck they have not struck back. They have used their cameras as weapons, posting videos of the attacks on the internet for all to see. Have they been loud, obnoxious and rude? Sure. Compared to the violence that we see from the left, I would think this would be a welcome respite from the norm.

While partisans on both sides of the issue gird their loins and sharpen their swords for battle our masters in Washington rub their hands in glee. As we fight each other they slowly and inexorably take from us our freedom and our wealth. They use these sideshows as cover, a slight of hand, if you will, to get us to take our eye off the ball. We don’t notice what they are doing to us and we expend our righteous anger on each other instead of them, biting and scratching to no effect.

If we don’t put aside our differences, if only for awhile, we will find ourselves slaves to our masters in Washington, chained to the plantation of our own creation, helpless, toiling to create wealth for others while we subsist on the scraps of the failed welfare state.

SOME LIGHT AFTERNOON READING

Some words of wisdom, frustration and perhpas despair from Karl Denninger. This is well worth the read.

Market Ticker

"Let's juxtapose two stories. First, from Bloomberg:

Aug. 14 (Bloomberg) -- More than 150 publicly traded U.S. lenders own nonperforming loans that equal 5 percent or more of their holdings, a level that former regulators say can wipe out a bank’s equity and threaten its survival.

Ok. Now how about this one?

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Delinquency rates for loans and leases at U.S. banks increased to a record 6.49% in the second quarter from 5.58% in the first quarter, the Federal Reserve announced Monday.

So let me see if I get this right.

At 5% of non-performing loans a bank is at risk of being insolvent.

But the entire banking system in The United States had its non-performing loan ratio increase from 5.58% in the first quarter to 6.49% in the second, a record, and higher than the 5% level at which the survival of a bank(ing system) is threatened with collapse.

Hmmmm.... So should we take from this that the entire US Banking System is about to collapse?..."

NEITHER RAIN, NOR SNOW, NOR LACK OF PROFITS

“UPS and FedEx are doing just fine. It’s the Post Office that’s always having problems.” -- Barack Obama, Aug. 11, 2009
Bloomberg

The free market has created, through private investment and competition, companies with which the government run system cannot compete.

So let me get this straight; our healthcare system will work better when micro-managed by insurance companies and the government; well, really just the government because private insurance won't be able to compete. Based on the available evidence, that sounds about right. Just like the Post Office.

Didn't the head of the Post Office just get some kind of huge bonus this year?

Lawmakers also raised questions regarding recent news reports that Potter is paid as much as $800,000 a year. That is not correct, Potter said. He said his salary, set by Congress, is $263,575. He said the news reports were counting his retirement fund, the cost of his security detail and a $135,000 bonus that would be paid over 10years after he retires.
Newsmax

Good thing for the taxpayers that his retirement fund, security detail and bonus aren't paid with real money. It's just an illusion.

WE NEED SOMEONE TO LEAD

"Self-identified conservatives outnumber self-identified liberals in all 50 states of the union, according to the Gallup Poll.

At the same time, more Americans nationwide are saying this year that they are conservative than have made that claim in any of the last four years.

During Republican President George W. Bush’s second term, the number of self identified conservatives as measured by Gallup dropped, riding at a low of 37% as recently as last year.

Even though conservatives outnumber liberals in all 50 states, in 21 of these states self-identified moderates outnumber conservatives, and in 4 states the percentage saying they are conservative and the percentage saying they are moderate is exactly the same."
CNS

So, what does all of this tell us? That the Republicans will come roaring back and retake the House and Senate, with the Presidency to be secured in 2012? I don't think so.

We are seeing a reaction to the overreaching of the Democrats. If you look at what happened when Bush was in office you will see that the number of people identifying themselves as conservatives dropped, too.

It's the moderates that I find interesting. Those are the people Reagan brought into the Republican Party. Most probably come from a conservative Democrat background. They don't buy into the Progressive vision of the modern Democrat Party. These people are the key. If we could find a leader, someone that is not part of the two traditional parties, someone that knows why they believe what they believe and how to explain it, that person could get the moderates to rally around them and probably bring in most of the conservatives and maybe a few progressives. I believe that most of the moderates tend to favor the conservative cause, but not the neo-conservatism of the Bush's and their pals.

Most Americans want to be left alone. We may have different views on the role of government but the one thing that most agree on is that we are better off when government is kept at bay. Both the neo-cons and the progressives seem to want to jam it down our throats.

The time is right for a third party to finally have a chance to win. It just needs a leader.

RALLY 'ROUND THE BONNIE BLUE FLAG

"My mind was relieved by information that my resignation was accepted, to take effect on the 1st of June 1861. In our travel next day we crossed the line into the State of Texas. From the gloomy forebodings of old friends, it seemed at El Paso that we had entered into a different world. All was enthusiasm and excitement, and songs of "Dixie and the South" were borne upon the balmy air. But the Texas girl did not ascend to a state of incandescent charm until the sound of the first notes of The Bonny Blue Flag reached her ear. Then her feet rose in gleeful springs, her limbs danced, her hands patted, her eyes glowed, her lips moved, though she did not care to speak, or listen to any one. She seemed lifted in the air, thrilled and afloat, holding to the 'Single Star' in joyful hope of Southern rights."
General James Longstreet

The Joplin Independent carries an editorial by Missouri Rep. Ed Emery, R-Lamar (the town where Wyatt Earp had his first Marshall job and Harry Truman was born). It is short and to the point regarding states rights so I'll post it in its entirety. Something powerful is starting to brew in the states.

Here in my area Rep. Brian Nieves is hosting a 10th Amendment, State's Rights event in Washington, Mo on Thu. Sep. 10th at 7pm at Rennick River Front Park. I'm looking forward to this. I'm interested to see the turn out and reaction.

Anyway, here's the editorial:

It is federal, because it is the government of States united in a political union, in contradistinction to a government of individuals, that is, by what is usually called, a social compact. To express it more concisely, it is federal and not national because it is the government of a community of States, and not the government of a single State or Nation.--John C. Calhoun


Two hundred and thirty-three years ago, a group of men from states with different ideas and strengths convened to design a new form of civil government. Federalism emerged as the compact that became the U.S. Constitution. Federalism provided the protection of a central government while protecting the individualism and creativity of each state.


Delegates from the colonies engaged in lengthy debate and settled on what powers they would relinquish to a central government. Everything else they left to the states to decide and govern separately. The 10th Amendment became the codification of such an understanding: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."


Federalism was the ideal model for improvement because it acknowledged each state as a laboratory of ideas. No state had a monopoly on good public policy. States retained autonomy over education, business, religion, over how to address healthcare or poverty. None of these issues were debated to consensus as a part of the Compact, so the federation was granted no power over them. Such a system of government fosters experimentation and change. It is the governing structure of entrepreneurs, pioneers, and idealists.


A national government, on the other hand is the opposite of federalism. It reduces statehood to geography and fosters political posturing and prejudice. Such a governing structure is designed to protect and promote the status quo. It is by nature a hindrance to change because there are no "state-laboratories," no places to test new ideas or debunk old ones. Once nationalized, public policy becomes the best by default, not by performance.


Washington D.C. is actively indoctrinating America away from federalism and toward a nationalistic government - one size fits all. We must not stand idly by and allow Missouri to be swept up into failed public policies against our will just because a political elite demands that we conform. America did not begin as a nation of conformists, nor will it survive as such.


America's exceptionalism is rooted in individualism and the free flow of competing ideas, not in the genius of a monarch. As Missourians and Americans we must remember our roots, actively defend our Constitution(s), and promote Missouri ideas via our state legislative process. I believe Missourians do not want California, New York, or Chicago deciding our policies or our fate.

SHOW ME? DAMNED RIGHT

My wife bought the Sunday St. Louis Post Dispatch yesterday. I went right to the op-ed page and saw Kevin Horrigan's column. I’ve always enjoyed his writing. Haven’t read it in a while because we seldom get the Post; most of the news is available online and there just isn’t that much local stuff of interest to me.

Horrigan is upset that most Missourians don’t buy into the progressive world view. The condescending tone of his article is incredibly offensive and the way he distorts the history of my state is just wrong. He begins his article with Willard Vandiver’s “Show Me” speech (posted on the side bar) and laments that what it says is still true of Missourians, except for the part about Democrats. DAMN RIGHT. Proud of it, too.

Maybe Mr. Horrigan isn’t aware of this, but the only reason Missouri was a Democrat stronghold for all those years was because Abraham Lincoln was a Republican. The Republican Party represented the progressive view. The Democrats were the conservatives, you know, states rights, segregation, leave us the hell alone, that sort of thing. The party of George Wallace, not Nancy Pelosi.

Horrigan fails to say, because maybe he doesn’t know, that most of the old Democrats (at least the rural, unenlightened by progressive ideals and thought kind) that live in the state still have the old views. Maybe, just maybe, this is why most younger conservatives have gravitated towards the Republican Party in Missouri. I spend a lot of time with old guys; farmers, construction guys, auto workers and so on. I would hate to have to tell Horrigan and the rest of his progressive Democrat buddies this, but, these guys don’t believe what you and your progressive colleagues do. They are much closer to John Birch than Harry Reid. They vote Democrat because their parents did; they always have and they’re just too old to change. Political affiliation is as close to religious affiliation as you can get. Most also don’t follow the news deeply enough to understand what the Democrat Party represents today

Horrigan interviews Jeffery L. Pasley, a teacher at Mizzou. Pasley says “There has been a long and throbbing vein of conservatism here..”. Personally, I've never seen anything throbbing, much less a vein, but I will readily concede that Missouri is a conservative state. Pasley goes on to say that conservative activism “does seem to grow up in places where you have lots of transplanted southern and rural whites living in a relatively diverse urban environment.” (Come on, this guy Pasley lives in Columbia, a town that is only marginally urban and an area that is certainly not diverse, at least once one leaves the ivory tower of the university. Do I sense an urban sophisticate progressive wanna be here? But I digress.)

Say what? Transplanted rural and southern whites? Maybe transplanted in the mid 1700’s. We started the damned place. If anything was transplanted here it was the European idea of large centralized governmental control that came with the German immigrants of the 1840’s. The original settlers of Missouri were mostly free traders and people that migrated through Kentucky. Daniel Boone and his wife both died and were buried here. Missouri was a frontier area, controlled first by the French, then the Spanish and then the French once again. It was always a wide open, toughest guy wins sort of place. The first businesses here were mining lead and trading pelts; raping the land in modern progressive parlance. We then had farmers that grew hemp, tobacco and cotton; some owned slaves. We voted to stay in the Union in a constitutional convention held in July, 1861. We still kept our slaves. Our Governor, Claiborne Jackson, refused to supply Missourians to the Union war effort and was chased from the state by Union forces. The Governor and the Congress were forced to convene outside of the borders of Missouri and voted to secede. We are one of the stars on the Confederate Battle Flag. Jackson was the only sitting Governor to lead troops into battle. Sorry Kevin, not much progressivism here.

Pasley goes on to say “The Show Me attitude does exist but instead of healthy skepticism, it seems to manifest more often as extreme indifference to new ideas or critical social and political thinking.”

Maybe we just know B.S. when we see it and due to our lack of education and our hayseed ways we just don’t think we need to waste a lot of time thinking about it. Shovel it up and get it out of the way. Crap isn’t going to turn into gold no matter how long you put your mind to it.

No matter how much urban elitists like Horrigan and his kind want it, Missouri will never be Massachusetts or Vermont. We’re different here; hard headed and independent. Missourians will speak their minds regardless of what anyone thinks. We are much more in the mold of Texas than Rhode Island. Missouri is, for the most part, a southern state, in attitude, outlook and summertime temperatures. We believe in being polite, going to church and helping each other out. We don’t much care for the modern welfare state or the idea that someone from someplace else can tell us what to do. We won’t sign on to the newest fad or belief system just because one of our self appointed betters thinks we should.

Mine and my wife’s families have lived here for over 150 years. I am a Missourian. My state before my country. We are what we are and don’t feel the need to change. Sorry if that bothers you, Kevin.

Flim Flam Part 2

A few days ago I posted a link to the article that the first excerpt below comes from. The blog basically describes a scam that could be pulled by major financial interests in an attempt to save their butts from the effects of the coming economic collapse. Read the article. It proposes an interesting, and I think plausible theory.

So I'm bopping around the net today when I come upon an article in the Wall Street Journal which is also excerpted below. Funny, when I hear China mentioned in the news it is always about how their frugal ways have allowed them to create this incredible economy; how they keep their money cheap so no one else can compete. The Journal article says that this isn't really the truth, that they have bought into the cheap credit model that we use, which is leading to our destruction.

If this is true, it would sure fit in with the scenario described in the first article.

I read a book last year called "Confessions of an Economic Hitman". The book described these sorts of tactics being used to control governments. I think I need to read it again.

What you need to do is--and bear with me here--send your best Wall St. salesmen and diplomats to China and sell them a bill of goods about how they can “modernize” with our help. The Cold War is over. Capitalism reins. You know us Wall St. types! It's all about the dollar! Have the radio scream the President sold out and sign them up to the WTO as you suck Asia into massive overcapacity and a deep, unbreakable reliance on the US and G-8 as customers while paving over the national independence of their life-giving water and farmland. Then, once they've tasted freedom and affluence, once they're unable to support themselves independently, you pull the plug not on them but YOURSELF. Implode your own middle class as above. Kill the bond markets, cause a run on your own currency, and default on the debts you owe them. Hey, it's the only thing you could do, right? Americans are just stupid, right? Wall Street is just greedy. It's all an accident, an act of God really. No one's to blame. It's classic Judo.
Of Two Minds

After second-quarter GDP numbers revealed a rebound in China’s growth rate to near the politically significant 8% level, it is easy to think nothing has changed. When the world grows, China grows, and when the world collapses, China still seems to grow. But don’t be fooled: China’s impressive headline GDP rate masks an important fundamental shift. Its growth is now fuelled by cheap debt rather than corporate profits and retained earnings, and this shift in the medium term threatens to undermine China’s economic decoupling from the global slump.

This logic might seem surprising given the conventional wisdom that China’s growth has always been fueled by cheap credit. Interest rates sometimes have been below inflation, making them negative in real terms, which is a common definition of cheap money. More striking still, the official cost of capital has consistently trailed the return. The implication is that companies can re-invest borrowed money for a higher return than they have to pay back to the banks. In this sense, bank credit is more than free.
Wall Street Journal

THE NEXT STAGE IS BEGINNING

"The Pentagon has approached Congress to grant the Secretary of Defense the authority to post almost 400,000 military personnel throughout the United States in times of emergency or a major disaster.

This request has already occasioned a dispute with the nation’s governors. And it raises the prospect of U.S. military personnel patrolling the streets of the United States, in conflict with the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878.

...these reserve units would amount to “more than 379,000 military personnel in thousands of communities across the United States,” explained

So the new proposed legislation would greatly expand the President’s power to call up the Reserves in a disaster or an emergency and would extend that power to the Secretary of Defense. (There are other circumstances, such as repelling invasions or rebellions or enforcing federal authority, where the President already has the authority to call up the Reserves.)"
Progressive

As our banking system is teetering on the edge of collapse, the Democratic and Republican parties are losing control of their push to force socialism on us and as the citizens of our country are taking to the streets in ever increasing numbers to protest government growth, isn't it surprising to find that the Pentagon wants to station troops in communities all across the country?

I don't want the things that I think are about to happen to be true; but I fear they are. Too many different, strange and nearly unimaginable pieces of a puzzle are beginning to snap into place.

"Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School will be the site of a National Guard riot control drill Thursday morning to prepare in the event of a panic over distribution of serum to treat the swine flu.

The school on Route 26 at the Paris-Norway town line has been designated by state officials as a distribution site for the H1N1 flu vaccine. The drill is to prepare for a worst-case scenario should the serum have to be transported from Augusta and people rush to get it.

On Thursday morning, four or five National Guard Humvees will travel from Augusta to Paris with vials of fake serum. The National Guardsmen will take on the roles of panicked citizens and military police and practice what they would do, such as using tear gas, in the case of a riot.

Local police chiefs have also been involved in the planning, Parker said. In a real event, local police would be in charge of security once the serum arrives in Paris. "We own it. We're in charge of providing security," he said."
Sun Journal

A few days ago I posted a copy of General Order #11, in a post titled "Think the Unthinkable". If you have the time I would recommend doing some research into the border war here in Missouri. Look closely at what life here was like and imagine how easily the same situation could exist today. We are about to return to something very much like those times, but with all of the modern technology of our government, military and law enforcement arrayed against us.

Pray when you go to bed tonight. Pray for guidance, strength, perseverance and the safety of your family and country. Pray that what I truly believe is coming our way is averted. Pray for forgiveness.

Everything has changed.