Political Class Dismissed

-Doug Hornig makes the great point in this article that subprime mortgages were only one type of unwise loans that banks made. As explained in the book ‘Meltdown’, the banks were pressured into making these bad loans by government policy and money printing. The subprime loan collapse is what pushed most of the bad banks over the edge in 2008, but another larger set of significantly questionable loans will come due in 2010.

from escapefromamerica.com:
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All of this wreaked havoc in the derivatives market. Sellers of these exotic packages could no longer establish what they were worth. Buyers couldn’t determine a fair price and so stopped buying. As the ripples spread through the world financial system, trust disappeared and liquidity dried up.

Now consider that the base cause for all that dislocation was the subprime sector. And how big is that? Not very. Subprime mortgages account for only about 15% of all home loans. Their influence has been way out of proportion to their numbers, because of derivatives. Here’s the good news: the subprime meltdown has about run its course. These loans were resetting en masse in 2007 and the first eight months of ’08. Now they’re pretty much done.

And the bad news? No one in the mainstream media seems to be asking what should be a pretty obvious question: What about loans other than subprime? Truth is, the banks didn’t just trick up their subprime loans. ARMs were the order of the day – across the board.
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It’s not until May of 2010 that the next wave really hits. From there to October of 2011, the resets will be coming fast and furious. That’s 18 months of further turmoil in the housing market, and the beginning is still nearly a year away! (Although the months in between are likely to be no picnic, either.)
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Article by Doug Hornig

Anyone who believes a government can provide good quality unlimited health care for hundreds of millions of people is completely out of touch with reality.  Especially when that same government can’t fix crumbling bridges, patch potholes, find the source of an E. coli outbreak for months, has an $11 trillion debt, and is trying to spend its way out of a depression with borrowed funds.

As we move further from the Age of Enlightenment, when reason was used to guide authority and during which our Bill of Rights was written, we are now chin-deep in the Age of Insanity.

Biggest WNY Tea Party Yet
Join your fellow Patriots in over 1300 cities!
July 4th—Noon to 1pm
Niagara Square Downtown Buffalo

Speakers:
Len Roberto
Rus Thompson
Jim Ostrowski

You will hear specific ideas on how to turn America and New York State around.

Groups involved incude:
Buffalonyteaparty.wordpress.com
PrimaryChallenge.org
TeaNewYork.com
PoliticalClassDismissed.com

For more information, write to ilkitty@roadrunner.com or go to http://buffalonyteaparty.wordpress.com/

Print 100 fliers to pass out.
http://politicalclassdismissed.com/teaparty/teapartyflyer.pdf

From vimeo.com, linked at lrc blog:
Vice Chancellor of the University of Buckingham (Britain’s only independent university), Terence Kealey is a vocal critic of government funding of science. His first book, ‘The Economic Laws of Scientific Research,’ argues that state funding of science is neither necessary nor beneficial, a thesis that he developed in his recently published analysis of the causes scientific progress, ‘Sex, Science and Profits.’ In it, he makes the stronger claim that not only is government funding not beneficial, but in fact measurably obstructs scientific progress, whilst presenting an alternative, methodologically-individualist understanding of ‘invisible colleges’ within which science resembles a private, not a public, good.

Video

-This is one of the most important libertarian videos I have ever seen.

Freddie Mac announced Wednesday that it would offer loan-to-value ratios on home mortgage refinancings of up to 125 percent for qualified borrowers.

The announcement comes as the Obama administration raised the maximum allowable loan-to-value (LTV) ratio from 105 percent.

Thompson, Roberto, Ostrowski.

Tom Bauerle, WBEN.com

9-11am today.

AM 930 Buffalo.

I am writing a book on K-12 schools in America. I would like to interview, or even receive emails from:

1. teachers who have taught at both public and private schools.
2. parents whose children have used both systems
3. students who have attended both.

Confidentiality assured.

If you would be willing to be interviewed, please send me an email at jameso@apollo3.com. Include your cell number.

I would also be happy to receive your thoughts by email. Basically, I am interested in how you would compare your experiences in private versus public schools. Again, confidentiality is assured but I do need your full name and town.

Thanks!

You are a very smart woman–

Voting for the lunatic asylum insane cap and tax bill may cost you your seat.

This bill gives the federal government totalitarian powers over us and all for the sake of a theory which I believe is total bullshit.

Seriously, the hallmark of hard science is the ability to predict. Has GW been proven by that standard? Don’t we have to wait 50 or 150 years to find out if it’s true–which, by definition, means WE DON’T KNOW IF IT’S TRUE NOW!

I reviewed Judge Andrew Napolitano’s Dred Scott’s Revenge for THE NEW AMERICAN. Did I like it? Check out the review!

Judge Andrew P. Napolitano is the host of the Fox News online show Freedom Watch (which might soon be televised) and also is a co-host of the Fox News Radio show Brian and the Judge. Napolitano has a diverse group of followers made up of traditional conservatives, libertarians, and constitutionalists.

Even though Napolitano has been working as a legal analyst for Fox News since 1998, he hasn’t been afraid to challenge the establishment status quo. He has articulately and passionately criticized practically all of the unconstitutional innovations of the “War on Terror,” which have been embraced by the “conservative” mainstream media. His principled positions have drawn the ire of members of the establishment right but earned him the admiration and respect of his faithful fans. Click here for the full review…

Surgical wait times down but Canadians still waiting more than 17 weeks for treatment

Release Date: October 7, 2008

CALGARY, AB—The median wait time for Canadians seeking surgical or other therapeutic treatment dropped to 17.3 weeks in 2008 from 18.3 weeks in 2007, according to new research published today by independent research organization The Fraser Institute.

“Despite the small improvement, many Canadians are still waiting 121 days or more for necessary medical treatment. Is this something we should be proud of? Absolutely not. A seven day reduction in total waiting times is far removed from the goal of providing timely access to health care,” said Nadeem Esmail, Fraser Institute Director of Health System Performance Studies and co-author of the 18th annual edition of Waiting Your Turn: Hospital Waiting Lists in Canada.

“Politicians of all political stripes are failing Canadians when it comes to health care. Rather than trying to find real solutions, we’re presented with a medical system offering low expectations cloaked in lofty rhetoric.”

The hospital waiting list survey measures median waiting times to document the extent to which queues for visits to specialists and for diagnostic and surgical procedures are used to control health care expenditures. The report measures the wait times between seeing a general practitioner and a specialist, the time between seeing the specialist and receiving treatment, and the total wait time.

This year’s report shows the main decrease in wait times occurred in the time between a referral from a general practitioner and consultation with a specialist, which decreased to 8.5 weeks from 9.2 weeks.

More

And that ain’t all.

I’m tired of the newbies.

The Supreme Court has reversed Judge Sonya Sotomayor’s decision which prevented the promotion of white firefighters in New Haven, Connecticut.  The District Court originally agreed with the firefighters that the promotional exam was valid and not discriminatory.  Judge Sotomayor, on appeal, reversed the District Court’s decision, which led to the subsequent appeal to the Supreme Court.  You can read the slip opinion of the Supreme Court here.

After reading the slip opinion, I found it a bit disturbing that Sotomayor found the exam discriminatory against minorities and biased in favor of white men.  The City of New Haven paid in independent company $100,000 to develop a fair and relevant exam.  The exam was written below a 10th grade reading level and comprised of two components, written and oral.  The oral part of the exam was graded by 3 panels, each consisting of 1 white and 2 minority members.  A competing company, that also develops promotional exams, was of the opinion that this exam was fair, relevant and nondiscriminatory.

I can only conclude that Sotomayor’s rich Latina life experience led her to believe that any exam in which white men disproportionately score better than minorities must be discriminatory.  Do we really want someone like this on the Supreme Court?  I also find it disturbing that a President who was a civil rights attorney and taught constitutional law would nominate such a person for the Supreme Court.

Global Warming Is a Fraud
by David Deming

As the years pass and data accumulate, it is becoming evident that global warming is a fraud. Climate change is natural and ongoing, but the Earth has not warmed significantly over the last thirty years. Nor has there been a single negative effect of any type that can be unambiguously attributed to global warming.

As I write, satellite data show that the mean global temperature is the same that it was in 1979. The extent of global sea ice is also unchanged from 1979. Since the end of the last Ice Age, sea level has risen more than a hundred meters. But for the last three years, there has been no rise in sea level. If the polar ice sheets are melting, why isn’t sea level rising? Global warming is supposed to increase the severity and frequency of tropical storms. But hurricane and typhoon activity is at a record low.

Every year in the US, more than forty thousand people are killed in traffic accidents. But not one single person has ever been killed by global warming. The number of species that have gone extinct from global warming is exactly zero. Both the Antarctic and Greenland Ice Sheets are stable. The polar bear population is increasing. There has been no increase in infectious disease that can be attributed to climate change. We are not currently experiencing more floods, droughts, or forest fires.

In short, there is no evidence of any type to support the idea that we are entering an era when significant climate change is occurring and will cause the deterioration of either the natural environment or the human standard of living.

More

Ron Paul takes Washington and Obama to task.  Anyone who watches this, and is an American, and doesn’t agree with Ron Paul, needs to do a lot of reflection because this video is aimed at YOU!

Biggest WNY Tea Party Yet
Join your fellow Patriots in over 1300 cities!
July 4th—Noon to 1pm
Niagara Square Downtown Buffalo

Speakers:
Len Roberto
Rus Thompson
Jim Ostrowski

You will hear specific ideas on how to turn America and New York State around.

Sponsored by:
Buffalonyteaparty.wordpress.com
PrimaryChallenge.org
TeaNewYork.com
PoliticalClassDismissed.com

For more information, write to ilkitty@roadrunner.com or go to http://buffalonyteaparty.wordpress.com/

Nothing But the Truth.

You may get both best supporting actors out of this movie. Matt Dillon is solid as an asshole federal prosecutor. But the previously unknown to me Vera Farmiga is otherworldy as the outed CIA agent. Jail is depicted as the hell it is, contrary to the myth among some white suburbanites that it’s a picnic.

1930 Unemployment rate, 1 year after the stock market crash: %8.5

Top depression unemployment rate, in 1933: %25

Current unemployment rate, 9 months after the bank crash, calculated using the method used 80 years ago:
%17.5

Chart

Obama in April 20th interview with Fortune:
The truth is that there is plenty of blame to go around. Many Americans took out loans that they could not afford. Others were enticed into loans they did not understand by lenders trying to make a quick profit. Investment banks bought and packaged these questionable mortgages into securities, arguing that by pooling the mortgages, the risks had been reduced. Credit agencies stamped these securities with their safest rating when they should have been labeled “Buyer Beware.” And as the bubble grew, there was almost no accountability or oversight from anyone in Washington.

Addressing this crisis will require change across the spectrum, not just from corporate America but from Washington and Main Street as well. We need to update our regulatory structure with sound rules of the road that reward drive and innovation instead of shortcuts and abuse. We also need to invest in the drivers of productivity that will make our businesses more competitive in areas like health care, energy, and education.
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History has shown repeatedly that when nations do not take early and aggressive action to get credit flowing again, they have crises that last for many years instead of many months.
Fortune.com

Obama is clearly saying that a lack of restrictions on American’s freedom to do business as they please caused the economic crises. He goes on to say that the government needs to heavily pressure banks to loan money to avoid a lengthy recession. Both of these claims are the exact opposite of the truth. Too much government control of the economy, especially money production and banking, caused the crises. This is simply a fact, for both this crises and historically, that is as well documented as the earth going around the sun. For the undeniable facts of the matter read this.

Btw-when he says ‘We also need to invest’ what he means is the government plans on spending a lot more of your money, on projects run by the friends of politicians like Brian Higgins. With this latest energy bill, they are pulling one of the most ludicrous con jobs in the history of the world. I have more respect for Egyptians building pyramids to enhance the after life of the pharaoh. Windmills and solar panels are a complete joke compared to the power producing capacity of coal and nuclear plants. Tax money spent on windmills and solar panels is nothing but political pork and a cover to for a massive tax increase on energy. Get ready for no lights on cloudy, windless days.

A couple weeks ago a plan was also hatched to give the Federal Reserve the power to take control of the operation of pretty much any business it deems necessary to. It’s getting a bit more challenging to explain to the public how much freedom they are losing, because among other reasons the language of these power grab bills is getting more vague and all encompassing. It’s easier for the average person to understand when the government says ‘You aren’t allowed to buy wine on Sunday’ versus ‘We can dictate the operations of any business we choose to in a financial emergency.’ With the unsaid implication that they get to decide when and what an ‘emergency’ is.

Skyrocketing energy tax bills, medical choice and quality close to being outlawed, business takeovers at will with no appeal. America is facing a man made economic catastrophe for years to come.

ps-Tom Woods recently made the great point that US GDP is significantly smaller than what it is officially claimed to be, because none productive military-industrial complex and other government spending is included in the total. When you consider that fact, the pyramid building schemes mentioned in this post, and the massive government money printing that has happened, it’s very hard not to conclude that Faber and Schiff are right that a hyperinflation like currency collapse will happen, possibly even this fall as mentioned by Jim Rogers. Remember that the libertarians at PCD warned you about this, when the government claimed that the economy is turning around thanks to it’s money printing, spending and regulating.