Political Class Dismissed

In light of the survey of 238 scholars ranking FDR the best President, I thought illustrating the popular misconception worthwhile.

In 2004, two UCLA economists decided to study the Great Depression, under FDR, to find out why it lasted as long as it did.  Here are their conclusions:

“Why the Great Depression lasted so long has always been a great mystery, and because we never really knew the reason, we have always worried whether we would have another 10- to 15-year economic slump,” said Ohanian, vice chair of UCLA’s Department of Economics. “We found that a relapse isn’t likely unless lawmakers gum up a recovery with ill-conceived stimulus policies.”

Empirical evidence is proving them correct.  Bush started, and Obama has continued, another ill-conceived set of stimulus policies and we are in the midst of another protracted recession/depression.

The politicians are more than willing to go along with this charade.  It enables them to increase their power over businesses and individuals while rewarding favored segments of the economy and placating the foolish cry of voters who believe the government needs to “fix things”.

Thanks to Sam Hoyt, and I say that sarcastically, “A bill . . .  to expand New York’s historic preservation tax credits passed the Legislature on Wednesday and is expected to be signed into law soon.”

We don’t need more special-interest tax credits that cost everyone else money, we need less State spending and lower taxes!

People wonder what a Paladino Governorship will be like. The status quo challenges him based on irrelevant and fabricated issues. Perhaps we only need to look toward New Jersey to get an idea what Carl in Charge would be like.

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.

Allegations of racism are a classic tool of liberal/progressive/democrats. It allows them to marginalize potential candidates without any substantive facts. Yes, some emails were passed on containing some adult/dark humor, however, that does not mean the person is a racist.  Liberals need big government to further their agenda because that agenda does not represent individual liberty, nor do they acknowledge that big government programs enslave people to the state.  The very people they claim to be protecting, while hurling the bullshit charges of racism, are the very people who are hurt the most by the liberal/progressive agenda.

Kudos to WNYMedia.net, not for journalistic acumen, but for playing the role of political assassin for the Democratic Party. Carl Paladino was more than willing to take on the tough issues facing New York State’s terrible financial condition. That would have forced Andrew Cuomo to answer tough questions, once he finally announces he is running. Now, Prince Andrew can slither into place without worrying about pissing off his progressive comrades.

WNYMedia’s actions have fanned the flames of racism and guaranteed that this election will not focus on the tough positions that our status quo politicians refuse to face.

Their latest attempt to paint themselves as innocents who are just exposing the “truth” is contemptible and self-serving.
The real losers, thanks to WNYMedia, are the residents of the State of New York. Even if you agree that the emails should knock Paladino out of the race, the residents are still the losers because the tough questions requiring tough answers just got swept under the rug.

I’ll finish up my opinion piece with a quote culled from BuffaloPundit’s recent blog post:

It’s more about sending horsefucking videos around town. Seriously, that is a video that I cannot ever unsee. I only wish that I could.

I can’t imagine an adult writing that comment, it sounds like it was written by an eight year old.  He would have us believe that he was harmed for life.  Perhaps some psychological counseling would enable Mr. Pundit to “unsee” that horrific, graphic joke.  Give me a break.

Note the Prince Andrew connection.

The Ellicott Square Building was packed as people anxiouslyy awaited Carl’s official announcement to run for Governor of New York.

Tea Party address March 27, 2010 Bufalo, NY

It was a sunny afternoon with a gentle breeze blowing the fresh air of freedom over the Tea Party at the Inner Harbor in Buffalo, New York.   Carl Paladino was a featured speaker who was cheered-on to run for Governor of  The State of New York.  Carl let the people know that he is fed up with the self-serving stewardship of Albany, and the people enthusiastically agreed.

Several hundred people were present to support a return to a sane, fiscally responsible government.  Click here for more information and resources for restoring individual freedom.

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

The lesson has yet to be grasped by Washington D.C., Albany and Wall Street, who prefer to be parasites on the backs of the industrious.

The Great Thanksgiving Hoax
Mises Daily: Saturday, November 20, 1999 by Richard J. Maybury

Each year at this time school children all over America are taught the official Thanksgiving story, and newspapers, radio, TV, and magazines devote vast amounts of time and space to it. It is all very colorful and fascinating.

It is also very deceiving. This official story is nothing like what really happened. It is a fairy tale, a whitewashed and sanitized collection of half-truths which divert attention away from Thanksgiving’s real meaning.

The official story has the pilgrims boarding the Mayflower, coming to America and establishing the Plymouth colony in the winter of 1620-21. This first winter is hard, and half the colonists die. But the survivors are hard working and tenacious, and they learn new farming techniques from the Indians. The harvest of 1621 is bountiful. The Pilgrims hold a celebration, and give thanks to God. They are grateful for the wonderful new abundant land He has given them.

The official story then has the Pilgrims living more or less happily ever after, each year repeating the first Thanksgiving. Other early colonies also have hard times at first, but they soon prosper and adopt the annual tradition of giving thanks for this prosperous new land called America.

The problem with this official story is that the harvest of 1621 was not bountiful, nor were the colonists hardworking or tenacious. 1621 was a famine year and many of the colonists were lazy thieves.

READ ON AT MISES.ORG

The following excerpt is a pretty good description of the changing political landscape.

“In her statement announcing suspension of her campaign in the special election for New York’s 23rd congressional district, Assemblywoman and liberal GOP nominee Dede Scozzafava refused to throw her support behind a fellow Republican, Doug Hoffman, who is running on the Conservative Party ticket in this particular race.

“That was one more example of the ‘closed tent’ mentality of big-government, establishment Republicans who have worked long and hard to keep conservatives out of power at the national, state, and local levels.

“The GOP leadership’s backing of Ms. Scozzafava was a slap in the face to Tea Party activists, town hall protesters, and conservatives across the country. The Washington GOP establishment’s abandonment of fiscal responsibility led directly to the election of Barack Obama as President and Nancy Pelosi as Speaker. The American people see the GOP leadership and establishment every bit as much a part of the problem as the Democrats.

“Doug Hoffman and NY-23 is an earthquake in American politics, and is the first of many challenges to establishment Republicans that we will see for the 2010 elections and beyond. The stupid decision by Republican leaders to pour $900,000 into the NY-23rd race against a conservative has unleashed a fury that will lead to new GOP leadership.

As a libertarian, this shift does not represent all of my views.  But, it does signal a seismic shift in the right direction.  Utopian progressive policies have led this country to the brink of destruction.  Without fiscally conservative changes there will be no United States of America in the near future.  Libertarians are a large part of this movement and will have plenty of opportunities to influence a return to the respect for individual freedom.

The first half of the existence of the United States resulted in the fastest and largest creation of wealth ever seen in the history of man.  That happened without massive government intervention because it allowed innovation and opportunity to flourish.  The second half of our country’s existence has witnessed the squandering of our wealth in direct proportion to the increase of government control of virtually every facet of our lives.

Big government has never been able to sustain itself over the long run.  Do you want an economic renaissance based on freedom or the death of our country by thousands of bureaucracies?  The choice is yours - vote this Tuesday.

The tragedy of so many intellectuals in the contemporary world is that while opposing extreme forms of totalitarianism, they are themselves half-totalitarian; that is to say, they express a desire for a society which is half-controlled, half-regimented, half-planned, part capitalist, and part socialist. This strange hybrid they will find (indeed, have found) to be a Frankenstein monster which, ironically, they have a great responsibility for creating.

— George S. Schuyler, Black and Conservative [1966]

Soak-The-Rich Strategies Backfire In State After Deficit-Ridden State
By STEVEN MALANGA
Posted 10/07/2009 06:13 PM ET

When David Paterson became governor of New York after Eliot Spitzer’s hooker escapades, the former state senator from Harlem shocked New Yorkers by declaring that taxes were too high and that he had many friends who had left the state because there were better opportunities elsewhere.

New York had to grab control of its spending rather than continue raising taxes, said the former state senator with a long tax-and-spend track record, in what amounted to the equivalent of ideological heresy.

Still, as a political lightweight and accidental governor, Paterson quickly got rolled by the big-government wing of his own party, which passed a budget for this year with $6.1 billion in projected new taxes and fees, led by sharply higher rates starting for those earning more than $200,000 a year.

Asked if the budget made sense in the recession, an outgunned Paterson said: “None of this makes sense.”

READ ON

It’s interesting how modern day redistributionist social justice demagogues sound so similar to Huey Long.

Democrats seemed to be getting a bit worked up because Pataxki might challenge Gillibrand for the Senate seat.� Seriously, is there really any difference?

Louis Slaughter attacks Debra J.M. Smith who called into a liberal Rochester radio show to voice her opposition to the Obama healthcare bill. Debra states her opposition on Constitutional grounds, that the U.S. Constitution does not grant the federal government the power to provide for the general welfare, which she is correct. Slaughter goes bat-shit off the deep end at such right wing extremist talk and launches a gratuitous attack on Debra, saying:

“I know who you are. I know exactly who you are. You are the woman, too, who believes that everyone with AIDS should be put on an island to die.”

That was embarrassing Louise. Tsk Tsk

The talk show host also thinks the preamble, which he reads out loud is some kind of grant of federal authority. Were all liberals cheated by government schools? Michael Boldin explained the preamble very succinctly and correctly on September 5th right here on PCD in his post Misunderstanding the Preamble:

“The preamble lays out the intentions or the reasons for the Constitution. It does not grant one ounce of power to the federal government.”

Slaughter also thinks the oath of office she took to “to protect and defend the Constitution” also included “to provide for the public welfare, and common defense”. Talk about making stuff up! Actually Louise that wasn’t in your oath, not by a long shot, but in Section 8 - Powers of Congress it does state that the Congressional powers include “provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States”. Got it Louise? Comprehension of the English language may not have been your strong point in school but “general Welfare of the United States” is not the same thing as your imaginary socialist power “provide for the public welfare”.

Debra has the audio of her confrontation with Louise Slaughter and the equally not very bright talk show host on her web site at debrajmsmith.com.

The photos pretty much speak for themselves.  You will see security for the Erie Basin Marina denying us access to public property, backed up by a contingent of police officers from a city where shootings are becoming commonplace.  I guess real crimes can’t compare to shielding Dale Volker from the media and a few protesters.

Read more »

“Never had people who should be on my side doing this, so its kind of funny” - Dale Volker

Baldwinsville, New York, Mayor Joe Saraceni has banned gambling in the city’s senior center. Seniors had been playing low-stakes card games for years, something Saraceni admits is legal. But he says the games violate the center’s rules.  (RT Reasononline)

The amount being bet was peanuts, as the original article states:

Pinochle players, who met once a week, were betting $1 each that ultimately was divided among the winners. Bridge and pitch players would play for 50 cents. There might be impromptu low-stake Texas hold’em games. Bingo players, who met up to three times a week, were paying a dime for a card.

MORE PHOTOS HERE