Sunday, December 28, 2008

Caroline Kennedy

It does amaze me that people who thought Palin was unqualified to be a Senator are now saying nothing about Caroline's qualifications for U. S. Senator. And as you know I am pretty liberal. What say you all

Sunday, December 21, 2008

MTP

For those who watched MTP today, Ms. Rice clearly articulated the Bush doctrine as related to Iraq. History will judge this action favorably.

Friday, December 19, 2008

Blago

Mark - Does this guy stand a chance? I wish I had his balls - this guy doesn't blink.

Watching the Talking Heads

It has become apparent to me that the GOP is about  to change it's tune. With the responsibility of governing, they have "bailed out" banking and just today gave autos a life line. The Treasury has been very accommodating with respect to the money supply. I have supported all of that, as has the White House.

Soon, the torch will be passed and the GOP will have no responsibility for anything (which is about all they can handle). At that moment, they will begin to rail against all "bail outs" and any fiscal policies other than tax cuts. This will please the Limbaugh/Palin/Ganem base, but it will completely surrender the center to the Democrats. 

Bill Clinton handed George W Bush a nation at peace with a significant surplus. Dubya is now handing Obama a nation at war with a near trillion dollar deficit. Lets see what happens.  

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Infrastructure, yep, that is what will save us.

Cool hand Luke is going to find it much harder to govern than complain.

Oh, and gitmo, not closing.

Oh, and war, lets just finish what we started, so says the new administration.

Oh, and taxes, let's just keep things as they are.

Oh, and...

Barack Obama-san - WSJ.com

Today in Investor's Business Daily stock analysis and business news

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Here we go again

Mark, a question for you as a conservative voice of reason. Any opinion on how long it will take for corruption and government mismanagement (of course with associated improper economic distortion) to mess up the "new" green economy?

What a joke. They just won't learn. If we want it, we would buy it. Autos, Health Care, Education, Infrastructure; government touches it, it balloons and grows inefficient, then they start blaming the lack of resources, try and make it bigger and mess it up even more. Then there is a crisis. And don't forget the corruption and improper union influence.

Green Is the New Color of Lobbying - WSJ.com

Friday, December 12, 2008

FWIW - Auto Bridge Loan

I liked Corker's plan. UAW being too smart by half.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

The Blago scandel continues

If you Obama fans out there believe that there is not anything here that can touch the exalted one than you better be praying.

Rahm Emanuel took over Blago's congressional seat when he became Governor. Obama, Emmanuel and two other machine Dems were key players in Blago's first run for the Governor's seat. This circle is fairly tight and there is a lot of wheeling and dealing including family members in the graft taking place.

Blago's wife was the real estate agent on the Tony Rezko, Obama real estate scandel. Blago, Emmanuel and Obama all have ties to Tony Rezko. This is the initial problem that Blago has been under investigation for since 2004.

It should be interesting when Blago starts to negotiate his plea agreement and what information he is going to reveal about his fellow Chicago machine mates.

Allegedly Rezko is also starting to sing like a canary. Prison tends to make some tongues loosen up.

It looks like Jesse Jr. might have some serious problems according to the tapes. He is not a target yet but soon could be.

Remember we have had a Daly as mayor for 42 out of the past 53 years in Chicago. Richie is about to surpass his Dad's 21 years in office. Fitzgerald is after Daly as well. They also have Luis Guttierez caught in a big real estate scandel.

The real betting will now be on whether Obama commits the Clintonian act of firing Fitzgerald like Clinton fired the Arkansas AG that was investigating Slick Willie and Hillary.

I am waiting to see the radical left start attacking their hero in the Scooter Libby affair Patrick Fitzgerald in the ultimate act of hypocrisy.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

The Constitutionality of the Filibuster?

Mark - now that you are back - do you care to opine on the constitutionality of the (longstanding) Filibuster rule? As I previously mentioned, I've never supported it as it is undemocratic and adds a level of complexity to an already difficult  process.

No, Hags, I'm not just piping up now that my team is in power. It just happens to be topical.
As I also previously mentioned, I don't think 60 is a "filibuster proof" number with respect to the composition of the body. Depending on the legislation, you can't count on the Democrats sticking together nor can you assume that no Republicans will be peeled off. I recently heard an analyst describe the Senate as a group of roaming tribes that often gathered regarding specific issues rather than party.  

Chicago Tribune goes bankrupt!

What a great day for the conservative McCormick family. They squeezed more money out of Sam Zell when they sold the properties to him than what they were worth. Then they see the left leaning Zell change the Tribune from a somewhat conservative newspaper to a left wing rag like the LA Times. So now Zell is seeing a lot of the old line Tribune subscribers drop their subscriptions and wondering why. The ghost of Colonel McCormick is now smiling. We already have a rag in Chicago named the Sun Times any idiot could figure out that when you change the Trib to be like the Sun Times you have created a recipe for economic disaster. My only wish is that Sam Zell had more of his personal net worth tied to the price of Tribune stock.

Some interesting facts about the last election

Professor Joseph Olson of Hemline University School of Law, St. Paul , Minnesota , points out some interesting facts concerning the 2008 Presidential election:

Number of States won by: Democrats: 20; Republicans: 30

Square miles of land won by: Democrats: 580,000; Republicans: 2,427,000

Population of counties won by: Democrats: 127 million; Republicans: 143 million

Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by: Democrats: 13.2; Republicans: 2.1

Professor Olson adds: "In aggregate, the map of the territory Republican won was mostly the land owned by the taxpaying citizens.

Democrat territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in rented or government-owned tenements and living off various forms of government welfare..."
Olson believes the United States is now somewhere between the "complacency and apathy" phase of Professor Tyler's definition of democracy, with some forty percent of the nation's population already having reached the "governmental dependency" phase.

And now we have already seen Obama back off of his campaign pledge to tax the rich and give more to the poor. Obama ran the most disengenuous campaign in recent history. His use of "class warfare" which is backed up by the statistics was shameful, especially because it now appears that it was all smoke.

Chicago Machine Politics and the Coming Admistration of Thieves

I have been sitting back for the past few weeks reading some of the posts with amusement and now I can already say that I told you so! Obama is crooked just like Blago, Ryan, Hastert, Daly, Rostenkowski, etc. The media did the American public a major disservice by running interference for our future President and shielding us from his past. We have already seen that Obama's and Axelrod's stories about Blago are different. I doubt we will ever learn the whole truth since the press is so far in the bag. What we do positively know that has been underplayed is the relationships between the convicted felon Tony Rezco and Obama and Blago. I tried to tell everyone how crooked and arrogant Chicago Machine Politicians are and now we are already being entertained by them and Obama has not even taken the oath of office.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Blagojevich

If even 10% of the allegations are true, this guy needs to go to the pokey for a very long time.

Monday, December 8, 2008

Reality check.

The government has no idea how to make a car.

The government has not idea how to build infrastructure, or run health care.

I supported this stupid bail out as a means to untie the system, not to take over private enterprise. I take it back!

Let them go bankrupt, they are anyway. They will be replaced by something better.

If we wanted Eco-cars we would be buying them. We won't at $1.50 gas.

Free enterprise is no longer part of the discussion and it should be (in fact it should be the only discussion)

Friday, December 5, 2008

Auto Workers Real Wages

The average GM assembly-line worker makes about $28 per hour in wages, and I can assure you that GM is not paying $42 an hour in health insurance and pension plan contributions. Rather, the $70 per hour figure (or $73 an hour, or whatever) is a ridiculous number obtained by adding up GM's total labor, health, and pension costs, and then dividing by the total number of hours worked. In other words, it includes all the healthcare and retirement costs of retired workers.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

BIG THREE BAILOUT

Well, finally the truth comes out in the hearing, from Sen. Bob Casey. The Auto workers do not make 73.00 or 75.00 an hour with benefits. A lie spoken enough is taken for truth.
Number two the costs of wages and benefits of the workers amount to 10% of the the car's costs.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Gitmo

We used to have some nice Libertarians on this blog who opined about "rights"

Well it turns out the "O" may not close Gitmo and retained the Sec of Defense.

The war? About the same.

I'm just saying...

You Heard it Here First!

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/12/01/clinton.replacement/index.html

New Visitor Center

Rest easy boys the government is watching over your bail out money...did you see/read where the new visitor center in Washington is only 4 years behind, and only 100% over budget in opening today...that would be from a bid of 310 million to a final cost of $620 million...not to worry these are the clowns that are watching out for you...give me a break
Riegels Rants

Monday, December 1, 2008

The Nobel Laureate Answers

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/01/opinion/01krugman.html?_r=1&ref=opinion

California

Get ready boys the next bailout after those stupid dips in the auto industry will be California...they will be running out of cash in the next couple of weeks and will get on the list, so they can run out again and then get back on the list...is it ever going to stop...if you want to invest in anything invest in INK, as the Government is going to be using a lot of it
Riegels Rants