Free In Idaho!

So, Obama thinks we need some sort of “auto czar”?  And the NYT is raising an eyebrow about it?

The second part of Obama’s plan is the creation of an auto czar with vague duties. Other smart people have called for such a czar to reorganize the companies and force the companies to fully embrace green technology and other good things.

That would be great, but if Obama was such a fervent believer in the Chinese model of all-powerful technocrats, he should have mentioned it during the campaign. Are we really to believe there exists a czar omniscient, omnipotent and beneficent enough to know how to fix the Big Three? Who is this deity? Are we to believe that political influence will miraculously disappear, that the czar would have absolute power over unions, management, Congress and the White House? Please.

Please, indeed.  By the way, how’s Henry Paulson working out for ya?  The Bailout Czar, King of the Treasury, that George Bush gave us is really saving the world isn’t he?  No political influence and favors to cronies there.  Just a pure civic minded guy, working his tushy off for us little people, keeping the little people safe from moochers and looters, and the world safe for Democracy.

And really, Obama “should have mentioned it during the campaign”?  You’re kidding me, right?  The same Obama we just saw run the most honest, forthright, and honorable campaign in the history of American politics, thereby ushering in the Golden Age we’ve all been waiting for?  Just another lying politician, doing whatever it takes to grab the reins and gallop the horse in his own direction.

Auto czar… sheesh.  Meet the new boss.  Same as the old boss. 

Have you heard all the talking heads blathering on about the new jobless numbers that were released this morning?

WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation’s unemployment rate bolted to a 14-year high of 6.5 percent in October as another 240,000 jobs were cut, far worse than economists expected and stark proof the economy is deteriorating at an alarmingly rapid pace. The new snapshot, released Friday by the Labor Department, showed the crucial jobs market quickly eroding. The jobless rate zoomed to 6.5 percent in October from 6.1 percent in September, matching the rate in March 1994.

Unemployment has now surpassed the high seen after the last recession in 2001. The jobless rate peaked at 6.3 percent in June 2003.  October’s decline marked the 10th straight month of payroll reductions, and government revisions showed that job losses in August and September turned out to be much deeper.

Well, YEAH!  What did you expect?  Who needs to work anymore?  Obama’s gonna change it.  Obama’s gonna spread the wealth.  Obama’s gonna change the world.  Why worry about work when the government is gonna put gas in your tank, pay your mortgage, and take the profits away from the evil rich corporations and give it to US?!

Work?  Not to worry.  Dear Leader is going to fix that problem.  After all, it’s going to take millions of people to take care of all the unicorns and ponies.

Accountability.  What a thought.  Would that we had a little more of it in our daily lives, particularly our politics.  It is frustratingly absent in American politics, especially apparent now during the election season.  The finger pointing and blaming, the waffling and weaseling, the empty promises and behind the back finger-crossing… and need I shine the light on the media again?  Nah.  Bold cockroaches that they are, they no longer feel it necessary to scurry and hide.

Accountability.  Beyond our individual lives, the word also applies to the Leviathan that used to be our constitutional republic form of government.  What was intended by its founders to be a government which would facilitate the life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness of the American people daily grows from that helpful servant into a demanding and oppressive master.  How does accountability apply to the Leviathan you ask?  Because it is made up of men, and the call for accountability comes not just from other men, but from God.  I know, an unpopular idea today.  (And as an aside, it is one point where I question the idea that BHO is a Christian, given that he and his proposed government seem to differ greatly from traditional Biblical Christianity on such things as accountability to God, the sanctity of life, the nature of justice, and the source of salvation; a discussion we can save for after the election, if indeed we are allowed to have it.)

May I share a quote from Dr. R.C. Sproul?  This is from an article titled “Principles For Voting“, which I recommend as a refreshing step back from the endlessly repeated details of the current election; it is a call back to basic principles, and a reminder of the truth about who we really are as Christians, and the role our government has been given.

A few years ago I was invited to give the address at the inaugural breakfast of the newly elected governor of the state of Florida. And on that occasion I said to the governor elect, “Good sir, today is your ordination day. You have received your mandate to govern not from the will of the people, but from almighty God, who Himself establishes government and calls you His minister, not the minister of the church, but His minister as a guardian of the affairs of the state. And I remind you that you will be judged by Him in how you carry out your duties.” But in our time the separation of church and state has come to mean the separation of the state from God. It is one thing to say the state is not accountable to the church, it’s another thing to say the state is not accountable to God. And when the state assumes its autonomy and declares its independence from Almighty God it is not just the right but the duty of the church to call the state to task: Not to ask the state to be the church, but to tell the state to be the state under God.

Accountability.  A sobering thought.  At least, it should be.  Remember it next Tuesday, and beyond.

I found this over at Huckleberries.  It pretty well sums it up…

Scott Stantis/Birmingham News

This year, instead of compassionate conservatism, we are seeing compassionate liberalism taking center stage.  Compassionate conservatism was never anything more than a campaign slogan for middle of the road populist politician bullcrap.  And this year’s seemingly middle of the road populist politician bullcrap, hope and change, is actually a much more insidious evil. 

The Obaman Promise sounds marvelous, but it appeals to the worst nature of human beings; none of “us” will pay taxes, “we” will all have great healthcare, the government will be more than just kinder and gentler, and all the world will respect us again… it’ll be a veritable Garden of Eden, and we’ll all have plenty; we’ll hold hands, sing songs, dance around the golden calf tree of life.  We shall be as gods.  Or at least, Barry and his cronies will be.  Progress, socialist style.  Great quote from David Limbaugh

Do you suppose it has registered with class warfare-receptive Obama voters that Obama is deliberately turning the American dream on its head? Could it be any clearer that his message to the middle class is: Don’t aspire to achievement, success and wealth because a) it is immoral to have more than others, b) the government will take your wealth away from you and give it to others, and c) why bother to bust your rear end to make more when you can vote yourselves money from the public trough?

McCain gets this one wrong right now, because his answer to Obama is “now is not the time to raise taxes”.  Arrggghhh!  Idiot!  Today, tomorrow, who cares?  How many times does it have to be said?   Government wasn’t established to give us everything we need.  In America it has never been the task of Government to “level the playing field” or to “spread the wealth around”.  Do you honestly believe that any human being, or even the Government for that matter, has any right or business telling you how much you can have, how much is “enough”; more than your neighbor is more than you need, and we’re going to take it from you and give it to someone else?  The idea that Government has the duty and the power to make sure “those behind you” get a piece of your hard work and success is pure and simple socialism.  It appeals to two distinct types of people, those who will not work for themselves, and those seeking power who will use the promise in order to attain office.  We seem to have a surfeit of both this year.  Because, after all, lobster and caviar taste a whole lot better when everyone else pays for it than when you have to earn it yourself.

The cure is worse than the disease.  It will NEVER be a good idea to nationalize any portion of the U.S. economy, but once you have “the Federal Reserve” I guess it was only a matter of time before some President decided to play the hand and take over the banks.  And no, I don’t believe this is only “partially nationalized”, nor do I believe it will be “temporary”.

The U.S. government is dramatically escalating its response to the financial crisis by planning to invest $250 billion in the country’s banks, forcing nine of the largest to accept a Treasury stake in what amounts to a partial nationalization.

Partial nationalization? Sorry. They either are or they aren’t, because there’s no “partial” about it.

Doesn’t anyone else have a problem with this?  It was what?..a week or so ago we had this major panic attack that the world was coming to an end if we didn’t immediately accept making Hank Paulson the King of Money?  And threats of martial law if the Congress didn’t go along?  And we were going to buy up “toxic mortgages”, right?  So we could get the economy going again.  But today, nah, we aren’t doing that now, we’re going to “buy” banks instead now.  And we’re going to force them to “participate”. 

The Treasury Department’s decision to take equity stakes in banks represents a significant reversal, coming just weeks after Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. had opposed the idea. In a momentous meeting yesterday afternoon in Washington, Paulson, flanked by top financial regulators, told the executives of nine leading banks that they needed to participate in the program for the good of the national economy, two industry sources said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Don’t you love that “not authorized to speak publicly”? 

I guess what is eating at me is the fact that none of these guys have a clue what they are doing, how we got here, or even whether any of these cures has the slightest chance of doing what they think they will.  And not one of them understands the Law of Unintended Consequences, which basically states that once we were only screwed, but now, with the government taking over, we’re screwed five ways to Christmas.

A year ago, if anyone had told you that by the time mid-October 2008 arrived the Dow would be down 35% and a Republican President would be leading the nationaization of U.S. banks, you would have laughed yourself silly and made black helicopter tinfoil hat jokes… it’s not so funny anymore though, is it?  What’s it going to look like in a year?  And what are we leaving our kids?

Thank you Senator Mike Crapo, for voting against the “crap sandwich” bailout bill.

And thank you again, Representative Bill Sali, for voting against it as well.  Hold your ground sir, it looks like it’s coming at you again.

You other politicians… you’d better pray this works like you think it will, because if it doesn’t, this nation will be in the toilet even worse than it is today.  The thought that we are tossing a huge piece of the Constitution over this fills me with dread.

This gentleman gets it.  Do you?

Are you PO’d yet? Why not?

Still think it’s the Republican’s fault?

Think Obama can fix it?

Then you’d better watch this

thanks Rodger!

Maverick…on embryonic stem cell research.

(CNSNews.com) - Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign has enlisted the aid of Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) in reaffirming McCain’s support of taxpayer funding for embryonic stem cell research in the face of an Obama for President campaign radio ad that accuses McCain of not supporting stem cell research.

“The fact is John McCain has been a champion for stem cell research, which holds the promise of curing devastating diseases like cancer, diabetes and heart disease,” Specter said in a press release put out by the McCain campaign on Wednesday. “John McCain bucked the majority of our party in standing strong with me in urging the Bush Administration to lift restrictions on stem cell research, and last year voted to overturn the Bush policy.”

Just being his loveable old, maverick self. 

Hey Maverick.  Read the papers.  You might find out you’re behind the curve here.  Instead of hacking off “your” party, why not take a position that REALLY says “reform” and support government funding for this research instead?  You’ll thank me if you take my advice.

A breakthrough in stem cell research reported Thursday could render moot the divisive political-ethical debate over the use of cells culled from human embryos.

A team of Boston scientists announced that they have developed a safe way to generate pluripotent stem cells (iPS) that are functionally similar to embryonic stem cells, but are derived from adult cells. A previous technique had a cancer risk.

The breakthrough involved using mice cells, but if it can be repeated in humans, it could pave the way for treatment of a wide range of genetic diseases. The ultimate promise is to one day develop therapies using a patient’s own cells to cure disease.

I’m not a huge supporter of government funding every research scientist in the country, but this might be a good investment for somebody with a little cash (which we taxpayers DON’T right now).