A very nice article on the decline of the left

An article by Walter Russell Mead in the American Interest on decline of liberalism in America; some highlights:

“The blue model is breaking down so fast and so far that not even its supporters can ignore the disintegration and disaster it now presages. Liberal Democrats in states like Rhode Island and cities like Chicago are cutting pensions and benefits and laying off workers out of financial necessity rather than ideological zeal. The blue model can no longer pay its bills, and not even its friends can keep it alive. Our real choice, however, is not between blue or pre-blue. We can’t get back to the 1890s or 1920s any more than we can go back to the 1950s and 1960s. We may not yet be able to imagine what a post-blue future looks like, but that is what we will have to build. . . . There are a lot of reasons to be nostalgic for the old days (especially for the white males who were, far and away, the biggest beneficiaries of the old system), but there are also good reasons to bid the blue model good riddance.”

Please, go read the rest of that; because in a sense, this article says much of what I have written in the past on my old blog. Basically, that the left went off the rails years ago; along with organized labor, when they shifted from offense to defense. Since then, they have gotten worse and worse. A perfect example was in 2008, that whole thing with Hillary and Obama was a perfect manifestation of the class warfare between Man and Woman, Black and White; it all got to be a bit too much for me. Which is why I left them.

The sad thing is, the left, as it were, got even crazier after Obama was elected. It was as if the arrogance of the left went through the roof; they had the media, the white house, congress —- everything — and what did Obama do with all that favoritism? He blew it! I believe the grassroots left knows they were played; the establishment left does not really care, they are getting paychecks; but the people I know, the bloggers, are not happy.

Which brings me to my last point; I really wish this process between Newt and Romney would finally end and the Republican Party would get behind one of them. This whole populist versus establishment fighting is wearing very thin with me. It has nuances of the left’s class warfare; which I really do not get into at all. Do not misunderstand me here; I am all for airing someones dirty laundry and misdeeds, but to wrap it up in a package that the left would approve of, is not a way to fight a battle.

In other words; Florida’s primary cannot come quick enough!

Mitt Romney fires a shot across Newt Gingrich’s bow

Looks like Mittens is feeling the heat, perhaps from the flip flops and/or because of the recent polls and is firing back.

ORMOND BEACH, Fla. — Mitt Romney landed here Sunday with a simple message: Newt Gingrich is a failure and a fraud. And a disgrace. And a hapless showman.

Standing under a brilliant orange Florida sunset, Romney delivered his longest sustained critique of the South Carolina primary winner to date — ticking through a list as if he were reading off Gingrich’s Wikipedia page, and undercutting each item as he got to it.

“Speaker Gingrich has also been a leader,” the former Massachusetts governor said. “He was a leader for four years as speaker of the House. And at the end of four years, it was proven that he was a failed leader and he had to resign in disgrace. I don’t know whether you knew that, he actually resigned after four years, in disgrace.

Romney continued: “He was investigated over an ethics panel and had to make a payment associated with that and then his fellow Republicans, 88 percent of his Republicans voted to reprimand Speaker Gingrich. He has not had a record of successful leadership.”

Then Romney got into Gingrich’s post-congressional career.

“Over the last 15 years since he left the House, he talks about great bold movements and ideas,” he told the crowd of several hundred people gathered at a building materials company here. “Well, what’s he been doing for 15 years? He’s been working as a lobbyist, yeah, he’s been working as a lobbyist and selling influence around Washington.

via Mitt Romney: Newt Gingrich is a ‘failed leader,’ ‘disgrace’ – Reid J. Epstein – POLITICO.com.

To be clear, Newt Gingrich is not a saint and as Geller put it, “He is a son-of-a-bitch, but he’s our Son-of-a-bitch.” I know that personally I would rather vote for someone like Newt and hold my nose, than to vote for some idiot racist Mormon who worked for a Latin-American financed company that acted as corporate raiders. I am sorry, but that is simply Anti-American; the very idea that an American would sit at a table with Latin Americans to devise a plan to destroy American businesses is absolutely asinine and for this Mitt Romney should be held accountable. However, because Fox News and others are in the tank for that creep, you will not hear a word about it and that my friends is the tragic thing about corporate media.

So, yes, you can put me in the “anyone but Mitt Romney” category.

Local CBS Station catches Solyndra destroying million bucks worth of parts

This is millions of dollars of your tax money, going square down the drain. Angry

The Story via CBS in San Francisco:

FREMONT (CBS 5) — After filing for bankruptcy last year, Fremont solar company Solyndra still owes American taxpayers half a billion dollars. But CBS 5 caught them destroying millions of dollars worth of parts. At Solyndra’s sprawling complex in Fremont, workers in white jumpsuits were unwrapping brand new glass tubes used in solar panels last week. They are the latest, most cutting-edge solar technology, and they are being thrown into dumpsters. Forklifts brought one pallet after another piled high with the carefully packaged glass. Slowly but surely it all ended up shattered. And it’s not a few loads. Hundreds of thousands of tubes on shrink-wrapped pallets will meet a similar demise. Solyndra paid at least $2 million for the specialized glass. A CBS 5 crew found one piece lying in the parking lot. Solyndra still owes the German company that made the tubes close to another $8 million. So why is a bankrupt company that owes a fortune to creditors, including American taxpayers, throwing away millions of dollars worth of assets?

I do believe that the last line of that story. has pretty much become a metaphor for the President Administration. Gee, I wonder if my commenter “Dusty” still believes that I simply do not know what I am talking about. Dusty?

Others: Atlas Shrugs

Video: New Santorum SC Ad, “Easy Answer”

This comes via Time:

Personally, I think the ad reeks of desperation. What do you think?

Others: The Other McCain, Hot Air and USA Today

(H/T Memeorandum)

Two Instances of Republicans kissing up to black voters

Both of these idiots must be really desperate. 🙄

Instance one, Newt Gingrich sucks up to a black Church in SC:

GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich faced a round of tough questions in a campaign event before an African-American church in South Carolina on Saturday.

Gingrich spoke with members of the Jones Memorial A.M.E. Zion Church in Columbia, S.C. for an hour according to media reports.

Many of the questions focused on a statement from the former House Speaker in December that “really poor children” have bad work habits, a remark which attracted criticism from civil rights groups.

“Really poor children in really poor neighborhoods have no habits of working and have nobody around them who works, so they literally have no habit of showing up on Monday,” Gingrich had said at a campaign event.

Since when does a white man, running as a Republican go down to SC and grovel before a bunch of blacks, who will most likely not vote for him anyhow? This reeks of nothing more than USDA choice desperation. I personally do not believe that Newt owes these idiots a thing at all. Gingrich spoke the truth, and if they do not like it — screw em. 😡

Instance number two, Mitt Romney is trying to buy the black vote in SC, I guess:

SUMTER, S.C. — Amid shaking hands and signing campaign posters, Mitt Romney did something he has never done before on the ropeline: He took out his wallet and handed a wad of cash to a woman waiting to shake his hand.

The woman, 55-year-old Ruth Williams, says she has been following the Romney campaign since he arrived in the state on Jan. 11, when she said she received a message from God to track him down.

“I was on the highway praying and said, ‘God just show me how to get [my] lights on,’ and I pulled up to a stop sign and his bus was there,” said Williams, who has been unemployed since last October. “And then God said, ‘Follow the bus,’ and I followed the bus to the airport.”

According to Williams, she followed the campaign bus to the Columbia airport on Wednesday, the same day Romney was arriving from New Hampshire. When Romney wasn’t on the bus, aides told her to go to the rally scheduled in Columbia later that day. When she showed up, Romney found her to say hello and pulled over South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley to say “hello” too.

“He was kind to me and he made Gov. Haley come see about me,” Williams said. “He stopped doing everything.”

I have a shiny twenty-dollar bill that says that the only thing this woman was thinking is, “I found me a stupid honky that will give me money!” Nice going Mittens. Try to buy the black vote; modern-day slavery, all that is. I figure Mittens does not own a plantation for her to work on and that stuff is illegal now, so he figures he will just buy her vote. 🙄 Smart, real smart Mittens.

In short: We….are….so…..screwed. 🙁

What’s next? Perry allows some black man to wash his car? 🙄

Others: Michelle Malkin, Hot Air, The Strata-Sphere, Outside the Beltway, Mediaite, Taylor Marsh, Washington Post, The Lonely Conservative, The Hinterland Gazette and CNN — CNN, The Politico and The Hinterland Gazette

Cross-Posted to Alexandria

Federal Reserve leaders laughed and joked while housing marker crashed

This is why the federal reserve needs to be reigned in or better yet, ended:

The leaders of the Federal Reserve went around the room saluting Alan Greenspan during his last day as chairman of the central bank. Then Timothy F. Geithner, the future Treasury secretary, made a prediction.

“I’d like the record to show that I think you’re pretty terrific, too,” Geithner, who was president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, told Greenspan amid laughter on Jan. 31, 2006. “And thinking in terms of probabilities, I think the risk that we decide in the future that you’re even better than we think is higher than the alternative.”

On Thursday, the Fed released transcripts of its meetings in 2006, offering a new window into what was on the minds of some of the nation’s top economic and financial thinkers just ahead of the financial crisis and subsequent great recession. The transcripts, which are customarily released after five years, show that Fed leaders, armed with the best economic data available, had little idea of what was looming less than two years off.

Trusted to look toward the future and make decisions to keep the economy strong, they spent some of their time patting their leader on the back and even found time to joke about what turned out to be early-warning signs in the markets. While Fed officials — including several who are in key positions today — were aware that the nation’s rapid increase in housing prices was coming to an end, they significantly underestimated how much damage the popping of the real estate bubble would cause in the rest of the economy.

In his first meeting as Fed chairman, in March 2006, Ben S. Bernanke noted the slowdown in the housing market. But he said he shared the view that “strong fundamentals support a relatively soft landing in housing,” adding: “I think we are unlikely to see growth being derailed by the housing market.”

The year began with adulation all around for Greenspan. In that January meeting, Roger Ferguson, then Fed vice chairman and now head of the TIAA-CREF financial services group, called Greenspan a “monetary policy Yoda. — Greenspan image tarnished by newly released documents – The Washington Post

So far there is only one person even talking about the Federal Reserve and his foreign policy is horrible. So, nothing will change. In other words, business as usual. So much for that Tea Party eh?

(via HotAir Headlines)

Hannity to Perry: You sound like the #OWS crowd!

I have to hand it to Hannity, when he is right, he is right. I wrote the same thing. Which means I actually agree with Sean Hannity! Horrors! 😯

Video: (Via Mediaite) (H/T to HotAir Headlines)

Money quote:

Perry began the segment attacking President Obama, but Hannity quickly shifted gears to the “very harsh words” Perry has had for Romney. “It almost sounds like Occupy Wall Street,” he noted, “it doesn’t sound like someone who is governing Texas as a conservative.”

“There is a real difference between venture capitalism and vulture capitalism,” Perry replied, adding that “venture capitalism we like; vulture capitalism, no.” He justified his attacks saying that “the fact of the matter is he’s going to have to face up to this at some time or another.” Hannity wasn’t satisfied with this answer, asking Perry whether he was saying “that Mitt Romney is a vulture capitalist, that he is unethical.” Perry specified that he thought what happened with two specific companies bought by Bain was “irresponsible,” and that “the folks in South Carolina agree with that.” Hannity replied that it was still “as severe as they can get” as far as attacks go, though Perry insisted there were places where Bain had “destroyed people’s lives.

Rick Perry, making the Democrats arguments for them. Nice Ricky….real nice… 🙄

Obama’s World? — Fines for Bio fuel that does not exist is stupid, says… The New York Times?!?!

When the Obama lead Government loses the New York Times, something is horribly wrong:

WASHINGTON — When the companies that supply motor fuel close the books on 2011, they will pay about $6.8 million in penalties to the Treasury because they failed to mix a special type of biofuel into their gasoline and diesel as required by law.

But there was none to be had. Outside a handful of laboratories and workshops, the ingredient, cellulosic biofuel, does not exist.

In 2012, the oil companies expect to pay even higher penalties for failing to blend in the fuel, which is made from wood chips or the inedible parts of plants like corncobs. Refiners were required to blend 6.6 million gallons into gasoline and diesel in 2011 and face a quota of 8.65 million gallons this year.

“It belies logic,” Charles T. Drevna, the president of the National Petrochemicals and Refiners Association, said of the 2011 quota. And raising the quota for 2012 when there is no production makes even less sense, he said.

Penalizing the fuel suppliers demonstrates what happens when the federal government really, really wants something that technology is not ready to provide. In fact, while it may seem harsh that the Environmental Protection Agency is penalizing them for failing to do the impossible, the agency is being lenient by the standards of the law, the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act.

The law, aimed at reducing the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions, its reliance on oil imported from hostile places and the export of dollars to pay for it, includes provisions to increase the efficiency of vehicles as well as incorporate renewable energy sources into gasoline and diesel.

It requires the use of three alternative fuels: car and truck fuel made from cellulose, diesel fuel made from biomass and fuel made from biological materials but with a 50 percent reduction in greenhouse gases. Only the cellulosic fuel is commercially unavailable. As for meeting the quotas in the other categories, the refiners will not close their books until February and are not sure what will happen.

The goal set by the law for vehicle fuel from cellulose was 250 million gallons for 2011 and 500 million gallons for 2012. (These are small numbers relative to the American fuel market; the E.P.A. estimates that gasoline sales in 2012 will amount to about 135 billion gallons, and highway diesel, about 51 billion gallons.)

Even advocates of renewable fuel acknowledge that the refiners are at least partly correct in complaining about the penalties — Via NYT: Companies Face Fines for Not Using Unavailable Biofuel – NYTimes.com

It is very obvious that the attempt to inject politics into our economy has failed. This means vote different in 2012.

Others: National Review, The Enterprise Blog, Weasel Zippers, The Volokh Conspiracy, Doug Ross and The Jawa Report

Humble request to ZeroHedge

I really hate having to criticize other bloggers. Because I happen to know that Blogging is a tough thing to do without some idiot outsider criticizing your work. It sucks and I know I do not like it when people do it to me. However, I believe this one is highly warranted.

I posted here last night about a possible pop in China’s economy. So, this morning, I happen to go over to ZeroHedge’s site and see the following headline:

“China Is Proud To Announce It Is Reflating The Bubble – Will “Actively Push” Investors Into Stocks”

Here is the little problem with the above story. There is NO reference link to the story at Bloomberg. The nearest thing I could find was a story similar in nature, but included nothing that was referenced in the story above. I am not accusing Zerohedge of lying. But, something is quite fishy here. Either Bloomberg reedited the story, because maybe part of it was fished out as bogus or someone at Zerohedge took some editorial liberties.

Either way, the story got bounced around the Alex Jones crowd a bit and I wanted to fish it out and see if it were true or not. However it is quite hard to do that, when there is no reference link to it. So, to the guys over Zerohedge; guys, please, links to stories or they’re not true, is that too much to ask?

Thanks,

-Pat

Is China’s Economy about to collapse?

This is not the first time I have heard this, but:

Which does China face? A popped real estate bubble could exert a big drag. Housing construction exceeds 10 percent of GDP. That’s historically high, says Lardy. At a similar stage of economic development, Taiwan’s housing investment was 4.3 percent of GDP. In the recent U.S. real estate boom, housing peaked at 6 percent of GDP. In China, housing stimulates much consumer spending (furniture, appliances) and accounts for 40 percent of steel production, notes Lardy. Land sales are also a big revenue source for local governments. All would suffer from a housing bust.

There are mitigating factors. Outside Beijing and Shanghai, it’s unclear that housing prices are “out of line with household income growth,” says economist Eswar Prasad of Cornell University. Chinese buyers also typically make large cash payments for their properties. Compared to United States, a housing bust is less likely to become a banking crisis as mortgages sour.

Whatever happens, China’s economic model is reaching its limits, as Lardy argues. It has relied on exports, promoted through the controlled exchange rate, and investment, including housing, subsidized by cheap credit. Meanwhile, Chinese savers have been punished by the low returns on deposits. This dampens their incomes and consumption spending. The trouble is that the global slowdown threatens exports and housing’s excesses threaten investment. Unless China can switch to stronger consumption spending, its economy will slow — or it will achieve growth by becoming even more predatory toward other countries. — Is a Chinese economic slump on the horizon? – The Washington Post

Go read that whole thing, because this is the best case for this belief. The funny thing, the people over a GoldSilver.com have been saying this for a while:

Go check them out and get into Gold and Silver; before you lose it all.