Political Class Dismissed

They have realized that their little 2.5 square mile community, relatively poor and mostly Hispanic has been parasitized by a gang of thieves calling itself a government. The Bell political class fed itself well, surviving as long as it did behind a curtain of secrecy with deaf ears to the inquiries of concerned and suspicious residents. Only time will tell what other secrets the investigation of the City of Bell government will expose.
Bell is a microcosm of what goes on in other cities and towns, county and state governments and of course the federal government where the tax feeding scams of a much larger plutocracy are far more complex to the point of being almost incomprehensible to the average person on the street. The people of Bell have held their own Tea Parties of sorts and I’m sure they will succeed in ridding themselves of all the vermin that infest city hall. They are poorer for their experience, but I hope wiser.
For the larger Tea Party movement, I wonder. I see too many being lured by big government party hacks, offering them nothing other than a lesser of two evils.

Something funny from Tom Woods for all who have ever tried to debate some big government loving progressive (Zombie).

Elena Kagan wasted no time Tuesday in living up to her stance that nominees should demonstrate candor, unequivocally stating that she does not believe the Constitution can be interpreted strictly by the “original intent” of its framers.

“The constitutional law that we live under does develop over time,” she told Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee who immediately expressed concern with her view.

“In [some] cases, the original intent is unlikely to solve the question, and that might be … because we live in a world that’s very different from the world in which the framers lived,” Kagan said. “In many cases, precedent is the most important thing.”

The big news today is that The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reports that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, better known as the stimulus bill, has created millions of jobs and in fact has had an even bigger economic impact than expected.

If you actually read the report, you will find some troubling statements, including:

Estimating the law’s overall effects on employment
requires a more comprehensive analysis than the recipients’
reports provide. Therefore, looking at recorded
spending to date as well as estimates of the other effects of
ARRA on spending and revenues, CBO has estimated the
law’s impact on employment and economic output using
evidence about the effects of previous similar policies on
the economy and using various mathematical models that
represent the workings of the economy.

I’m sure every democrat from Obama down will be screaming to the heavens about what a wonderful job they did.  Perhaps I missed something, but the phrase various mathematical models could mean just about anything they want it to mean.  It appears that an old adage applies here - Figures don’t lie, but liars do figure!

Illinois can’t pay its massive debts, can’t pay the telephone bills, the rents, the entitlements, can’t even pay for bullets. Another success in modern economic liberalism.

“Illinois isn’t bothering with the formality of issuing IOUs, as California did last year. It simply doesn’t pay.

Plenty of states face major deficits as the recession continues. They’re cutting services or raising taxes or expanding gambling to close the gap. But Illinois is taking the extra step of ignoring bills.

Right now, $4.4 billion worth of bills, some dating back to October, are sitting in the Illinois comptroller’s office waiting to be paid someday.”

More here at MSNBC

The next time one of these phony anti-crony capitalism lefties complain about crony capitalists and the need to regulate them, they should be reminded that they voted not audit the source of all crony capitalism.

Here’s one member of the left who for once did a fine job along with his visual aids showing what kind of evil the FED is up too.

And I thought his acting skills were especially bad during the last presidential campaign. This takes the cake!

Utah Senator Bob Bennett lost his bid for re-election at the at the GOP nominating convention in Salt Lake City.

The Christian Science Monitor reports:

“The “tea party” movement has carved a major notch in its political pistol grip.
At the GOP nominating convention in Salt Lake City Saturday, Sen. Bob Bennett (R) of Utah came in a distant third behind two other Republican candidates vying for the Senate seat Mr. Bennett has held for three terms.”

Bob Bennett, a Republican Party establishment candidate has been a target of constitutional conservatives and libertarians in the Tea Party movement as “No Friend of the Constitution”.
Endorsements for Bennett by the NRA and Mitt Romney had no effect in staving off his defeat.

The recently passed law in Arizona giving the police greater latitude to fight illegal immigration has come under attack, primarily as a knee-jerk reaction from the left.  Everyone pretty much acknowledges that illegal immigration is a significant problem that has not been addressed effectively at the federal level.  Perhaps there is good reason for that.

Most states do not possess the problems from illegal immigration that plaques Arizona.  That would include a significant amount of crime attributed to the illegals.  A solution to the problem in Arizona might not be the same as what New York might need.  In that vein, the concept of States’ Rights can play an important role.  The government of Arizona has determined what they believe is the proper solution for their state.  It does not affect residents of other states.  I would expect that the same type of law in New York would raise even greater concern since the needs are different.

Federal one-size fits all solutions are rarely, if ever, effective.  Arizona should be viewed as an experiment.  An experiment that can be evaluated over time to aid in the development of effective policies for other states.

The Austrian Bob Murphy smacks down the Keynesian Paul Krugman at The Daily Reckoning

At his popular New York Times blog, Paul Krugman is at it again, offering a very misleading analysis of deficit spending. Without technically lying, Krugman perpetuates the myth that Herbert Hoover insisted on budget austerity in the midst of the Great Depression. Then Krugman interprets a chart with adjectives that show his eyes can only see what his Keynesian theory will allow.

“Mr. President, we miss you.” Wow! What a strange movement, a fantasy world based on a groveling admiration for the last president, the biggest progressive Republican POTUS in our lifetime no less. And an open letter to Obama chastising him for well…doing much of the same things Bush did. False memories, is there a cure for that?

Keith Olbermann like most liberals live in a bubble of their own imagination.

The Wall Street Journal editorialist is correct; Andrew Cuomo himself is personally responsible for much of the current recession due to his reckless management of HUD and his grossly negligent encouragement of Fanny and Freddy while he was the HUD Secretary in the Clinton years. In those years, and during the Bush years as well, HUD obtained mortgages for folks it knew or should have known could never pay them back, and Fanny and Freddy encouraged the banks to give out cheap loans to borrowers with bad credit because Fanny and Freddy—in essence the taxpayers—guaranteed re-payments of the loans. Cuomo should have known that this could not last. Unfortunately, the statute of limitations has run on Cuomo’s misdeeds, and he can neither be prosecuted not sued for them. As for his pursuit of Ken Lewis for the fraudulent acquisition of Merrill Lynch (ML), there, too, Cuomo is not doing his job. The pursuit should he an indictment of Lewis, Sheila Bair (head of the SEC), Henry Paulson (then Sec. of Treasury), and Jeff Lacher (head of the Richmond Fed). Bair, Paulson, and Lacher all conspired to threaten Lewis to force him to buy ML for about $17 billion more than it was worth. That coercion was a crime: Both the coercion and the acquisition were criminal acts. Suing Ken Lewis because he harmed Bank of America (B of A) is absurd. Lewis has an indemnity agreement with B of A, whereby it must defend him and cover any judgments against him for all civil lawsuits. So, if Cuomo is suing Lewis because B of A wasted $17 billion by buying ML, what he is accomplishing by suing in such a manner is that if he wins, B of A will pay the judgment! On the other hand, if he had indicted Lewis and the federal officials, and they were convicted, public policy prevents any indemnity. The answer to all this is that Cuomo is running for Governor, and just wants bragging rights.

Source

Currently in a House Subcommittee is H.R. 450 with 60 co-sponsors.  The bill is to require a constitutional cite authorizing any and all legislation.  Not surprisingly, none of our local representatives have signed on, this includes Higgins, Slaughter and Lee.    The number one job of our elected officials is to uphold the Constitution.  It is the failure to do so that has led to the economic and societal problems we face.  I will hold out hope that Chris Lee will see the light and sign on to this vitally necessary proposal.  I hold no hope for Higgins and Slaughter, they only know how to plunder.

The Senate version of the bill, S.1319, also has no cosponsors from New York.  Shame on Schumer and Gillibrand.

Their authoritarian Utopian present and our future.
Some progressives believe we should adopt the British political system. Why? “the party in power having the ability and right to enact its agenda”
Here in the U.S. the cry of the progressives is that winning an election is a mandate from the people (as long as progressives are in power), that the party in power has the right to enact their agenda. Here we can see from Sean Gabb what the perversion of the law and custom into a divine right of the majority party has done to the UK.

I was born in a free country. People could speak as they pleased and live without constant supervision. If a policeman knocked on my parents’ front door, their only worry was that he might have bad news.

I now live in a police state. Recent legal reforms have completely displaced common law protections and all offenses are now arrestable. If I am accused of so much as dropping a sweet [VDARE.COM: U.S. = candy] wrapping on the ground, I can be arrested and taken to a police station. There, I shall have my fingerprints and a DNA sample taken. Even if I am released without charge, these records will be kept indefinitely. They will also be shared with several dozen foreign governments, who will often regard presence on a DNA database as evidence of a criminal record.

The natural response is that sensible men do all that is needed to avoid any police attention. That means prompt obedience to commands that may have no legal basis. And what is that but a police state?

I now live in a country where I have to be aware that private meetings and even private conversations are subject to paid informers and can lead to prosecution and professional ruin.

READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE AT VDARE.COM

In 2002 we were entertained by the fictional movie Minority Report.

In the future, criminals are caught before the crimes they commit, but one of the officers in the special unit is accused of one such crime and sets out to prove his innocence.

In 2010, our government is contemplating turning fiction in to reality.

As part of stringent measures to beef up airport security, US authorities may use an Israeli-made mind-reading scanner that allegedly predicts whether a passenger is a potential threat or not.

However, when government aggresses, it is considered legitimate and “a victim may not legitimately defend himself against such violations.” Democracy legitimizes this government aggression because the violence is sanctioned by a majority of voters.

This decivilization process that Hoppe describes continues in fits and starts. The uneducated continue to live in never-never land, believing that each new ruler means change and that their lives and happiness can safely be put in the hands of a kind and caring government. But government’s current ham-handedness – with its bailouts, money printing, and rights violations – has alerted more than a few individuals to do what comes naturally: defend themselves and prepare for the worst.

Read it all.

The Obama Ministry of Propaganda has been quite busy recently ratcheting the fear campaign to new levels.  At stake is greater government control over our lives and distractions from real problems, like impending socialized health care.

The following video is a sad testament to the police-state that is evolving around us.

HT LRC Blog.