Video, Quote and Word of the Day

legerdemain

sleight of hand

Sometimes I give myself admirable advice, but I am incapable of taking it.

Mary Wortley Montagu

Council Nominations

The Council Submissions are up.

Council Submissions
Mere Rhetoric - Obama: We’re Giving Iran More Time Because Of Their “Unsettled Political Situation”
Joshuapundit - Navy SEALS Face Court martial – For Capturing Wanted Terrorist
Right Truth- Bible verse attributed to Barack Obama
Bookworm Room - Being a contrarian and NOT buying (or being) green
The Provocateur - The Put Back Amendment
The Colossus of Rhodey - Hard to argue? Not really
The Razor - The Weak Horse Named Obama
Rhymes With Right - A question I’ve been raising
The Glittering Eye - The Green and the Black
Soccer Dad - Clinton’s faulty memory, part ii
Non-Council Submissions
Submitted By: The Watcher – Ken Blackwell/American Spectator Blog- Welcome Back Carter
Submitted By: Soccer Dad – Daled Amos - State Department: Obama Administration has accomplished more than 8 years of Bush
Submitted By: Joshuapundit – Robin of Berkeley/American Thinker - The Wilding of Sarah Palin
Submitted By: Right Truth – the Chessler Chronicles - Why is America still allied with Saudi Arabia?
Submitted By: Bookworm Room – The Strata-Sphere - Alarmist hide truth about (lack of ) global warming
Submitted By: The Provocateur – HSA Scoop - The only real solution to health care reform
Submitted By: The Colossus of Rhodey – Edge - 36 Arguments for the existence of God
Submitted By: The Razor – Sultan Knish - Obama goes Mao
Submitted By: Rhymes With Right – Quin Hilyer/ the American Spectator Blog - Justice Depart ment Recusal List
Submitted By: The Glittering Eye – New Atlanticist - Obama and Afghanistan: No good choices
Submitted By: Mere Rhetoric – Freaknomics - Shovel ready or ready to shovel?

Morning Market Report

We had a somewhat monumental piece of economic data today. The weekly first time jobless claims fell below 500,000 for the first time since last September. The most recent number is 466,000. On the other hand, durable good orders fell in October, and last week, mortgage applications fell yet again despite having near all time lows. Oil is trading at $76.08. Gold is at an all time high of $1180 an ounce after India announced it may buy a great deal of Gold. The ten year U.S. Treasury is currently at 3.31%. The yield spread between the two and ten year is steady at 2.58% and the three month t bill is back to paying zero interest after paying a negative rate for a couple days.

The Dow along with the other two indices are about even so far this morning after about a half hour of trading. Markets in the Far East were generally up. The Hang Seng was up .84%, the NIKKEI in Japan was up .43%, and the broader Chinese index was up 2.06%. In Europe, the FTSE in London was up .3% and the DAX in Germany was up .03%.

In currencies, the dollar is mixed. It's up by .57% against the Euro, up .56% against the British Pound but down 1.16% against the Japanese Yen.

Wade Rathke Sets the Record Straight

This article had a rather startling observation by former Chief Organizer Wade Rathke about ACORN, the organization he lead for nearly four decades.

The scandal-plagued grassroots group ACORN may not survive another year,
its longtime leader said Monday.

Wade Rathke, who began the Association of Community Organizations for
Reform Now in 1970 and stepped down last year, spoke at the University of
Memphis.

ACORN became a punching bag for conservatives after allegations of voter
registration irregularities surfaced last year, spawning investigations in
several states.

Then came a video recording showing ACORN workers in Baltimore giving
advice to a couple posing as a prostitute and her pimp.

I was surprised by this statement because when I spoke with Rathke he made a point not to second guess or make too many statements that disparaged his former group. (he was however critical in regards to the firing of his common law wife Beth Butler but in general stayed away from criticism)

I emailed Rathke and he told me that he was essentially quoted out of context. Rathke said that he was simply quoting from

ACORN's lawsuit 10 days ago on defunding. Nothing more.

In fact, ACORN did file a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Congress' cutting off funds to them. In that lawsuit, according to Rathke, it was ACORN's position that the organization wouldn't survive for another year. Rathke didn't mean to suggest that he believed this.

In fact, he also told me that he told the reporter that he hoped that this wouldn't happen, something the reporter, Chris Conley, didn't include in the piece. This is a small point however Rathke has been careful in his statements toward his former organization and this one was taken completely out of context.

I finished the piece late and haven't had a chance to speak with the reporter. I'll update if we connect.

The Republicans Purity Test

The Republicans want to go back to their roots, and they want to do it in writing. So, they've created what has been dubbed a "purity test".

1) Smaller government, smaller national debt, lower deficits and lower taxes by opposing bills like Obama’s “stimulus” bill
(2) Market-based health care reform and oppose Obama-style government run healthcare;
(3) Market-based energy reforms by opposing cap and trade legislation;
(4) Workers’ right to secret ballot by opposing card check
(5) Legal immigration and assimilation into American society by opposing amnesty for illegal immigrants;
(6) Victory in Iraq and Afghanistan by supporting military-recommended troop surges;
(7) Containment of Iran and North Korea, particularly effective action to eliminate their nuclear weapons threat
(8) Retention of the Defense of Marriage Act;
(9) Protecting the lives of vulnerable persons by opposing health care rationing and denial of health care and government funding of abortion; and
(10) The right to keep and bear arms by opposing government restrictions on gun ownership

Now, I like most of these and I've long called for something like this in writing. I called for the Republicans to get a contract with America style policy platform for the 2008 elections.

The only thing I don't like is the terminology. The idea of purists means that the party wants to rid itself of all non believers if you will. Newt Gingrich could have called his contract with America the Republican's purity test and it wouldn't have been nearly as effective. If the Republicans keep the principles in place but change the title of this to something like a contract with America, it will be more effective.

How Many Ways to Soak the Rich

The Democrats seem to think that everyone of their spending programs should be paid for by the rich. The next in line will be the war in Afghanistan.

Michigan Sen. Carl Levin (right), a Democrat and the chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, is arguing that wealthy taxpayers should perhaps shoulder
the cost of sending additional troops in Afghanistan.

In an interview for Bloomberg Television's "Political Capital With Al Hunt," the senator suggests funding additional troops with an "additional income tax to the upper brackets, folks earning more than $200,000 or $250,000."

The problem, of course, is that President Obama already wants to let the Bush tax cuts expire on the wealthiest. That would put them at 39.6%. Then, Harry Reid wants to add a sur tax on the really wealthy to pay for health care reform. President Obama wants to remove tax credits for the rich only. Now, the Democrats want to pay for the war by taxing the rich.

The rich aren't stupid and their pockets aren't endless. You can't continue to tax them for every spending program you come up with. The problem here is that the Democrats have a lot of spending programs they want to implement. Those cost money. They don't want to tax anyone but the rich. You can go to that well once, maybe twice, but after that the well is dry.

In the real world, the so called rich have options. They usually figure out a way to avoid paying taxes. That's especially true when the taxes are punishing. After the Democrats are done, the so called rich will have 60% of their income taken away in some states, like Cali and New York where the income tax approaches 10%. No one will pay that willingly. They will avoid it at all costs.

This latest scheme will wind up being as effective as all tax the rich schemes, not very. In fact, it isn't really all that effective politically either. People aren't stupid. They can see that when politicians get addicted to spending, it's their own taxes that are next. Democrats can't hide from what they are, tax and spend. They're coming for your taxes soon.

Somewhere Between the Left and Right Lies the Truth

About a month ago, I wrote a piece that was itself a response by Huffington Post to criticism of Fox News. (I know say that five times really fast) The Huffington Post put up ten Fox News distortions and I challenged all ten. For the most part, the piece I wrote was accurate except for one of the ten. That was number 6. In number 6, there was a segment between Trace Gallagher and Bill Sammon in which they claimed that three portions, vital in their view, of the Patriot Act were about to be removed by the Obama administration. Huffington Post challenged that notion and linked to a piece written by Julian Sanchez of the Cato Institute. I challenged Huffington and Sanchez and said that this was a matter of gray.

In fact, it isn't. After speaking to Mr. Sanchez, I wrote a follow up. In fact, only one of the three provisions was being removed and that provision had never actually been used yet. Why did I get it wrong so badly the first time? It's because I initially came in with the mindset that Fox News wasn't distorting and Huffington Post was trying to demonize them. I like Fox News and I find most criticism to be patisan in nature. I had a perspective and I tried to make the facts fit my perspective. I was in fact corrupt in my reporting. Fortunately, I was able to speak with Mr. Sanchez and get the real story and write a follow up.

Unfortunately, the nature of our media today is such that everyone starts with a perspective and then make the facts fit that perspective. On top of this, it's just as pervasive on the right as it's famously been pointed out on the left in the so called MSM. My own example is just one.

In fact, media is by nature corrupt when their agenda is anything but trying to reach the truth. If you are writing from the perspective of the right, then your entire perspective is perverted. You immediately see the left as your enemies. The best example of this is how the conservative media treated the SEIU protests of the banks. The SEIU protesters were referred to as "thugs". They were demonized, marginalized, and ridiculed. At the same time, the same conservative media treated the tea party protesters as heroes. One set of protesters are thugs and the other are heroes. Of course, that's a perverted perspective.

I saw this on display in full force on both sides during the aftermath of the mortgage crisis. The New York Times et al immediately perpetuated the narrative that unscrupulous mortgage brokers took advantage of unsuspecting borrowers and that's what caused the crisis. Meanwhile, the conservatives immediately latched onto the Community Reinvestment Act. Other liberal media immediately latched onto the concept of "deregulation".

In other words, the entire financial crisis, the most important story since September 11, 2001, became nothing more than a fantasy land for the media to apply their biases and create a narrative to fit those biases. It was all just too much for me who spent my time in mortgages through the boom and the crisis.

Back in 2005, I was in the middle of doing a loan for a borrower. I suggested that they not buy a property more than $125,000 because I didn't think they could afford it. That borrower nearly didn't work with me because they wanted to buy a property that was $150,000 and they didn't think I would do such a loan for them. I did convince them to work with me on the $150,000 property. I refinanced the same loan a third time earlier this year, plus several of their friends. It was also the last time I ever suggested a limit to a potential borrower. That may only be one story but I could spend three full blog posts recounting stories of borrowers getting themselves in trouble through no fault of their mortgage professional. The idea that the crisis was caused entirely because mortgage brokers took advantage of those that didn't know any better is an obscene distortion.

It's only slightly less of a distortion, however, than the idea that the CRA caused the crisis. If it did, it was the most Orwellian law of all time. I didn't hear about it until after the crisis when commentators, who closed exactly zero loans themselves, started blaming it for the crisis. I learned about the CRA from Wikipedia. That's because the CRA didn't apply to mortgage brokers. It only applied to retail banks. Yet, retail banks didn't get involved in sub prime. So, how does the CRA create the sub prime crisis even though it doesn't apply to sub prime? That's a fancy trick and an Orwellian one. That's because the CRA is 99th right after the lint on my shirt in responsibility for this crisis. It's a creation of this crisis in the minds of Sean Hannity, Thomas Sowell, and Thomas Woods, all three have combined to close exactly ZERO loans in their lives.

As for deregulation, well first, you have to have a specific deregulation to blame. Deregulation is a concept. In reality, there must be specific laws that were deregulated. Yet, there's never been anyone, short of Paul Krugman, that have identified a specific set of deregulations for the crisis. Krugman went all the way back to the beginning of the 1980's for his specific set of deregulations. That was yet another Orwellian trick. Some law no one had heard of that was repealed in the 1980's caused a crisis 25 years later.

(for my perspective on the crisis check out my white paper)

It's not just the financial crisis. That's just what convinced me that the conservative media was no better than the MSM, just more sanctimonious in their criticism. For eight yeas, the liberal media blamed Bush for everything from snowfall, to clouds, to the fact that the New York Yankees didn't win a World Series in a given year. Now that Obama is president, the conservative media is giving him the exact same treatment and they don't even notice. Is it really true that in nearly a year on the job, everything that Obama has done is wrong? Is it really possible? It's just as likely as the same being true of Bush.

I noticed that when the conservative media began to attack Obama mercilessly for his trip to Copenhagen for the Olympics. The conservatives set up a tails you lose heads we win scenario. Because he went, he was suddenly taking his eye off the ball. He was doing something extraordinary and unnecessary. Never mind the fact that every head of state for each of the four finalist cities was going. Never mind that he wouldn't even be there for a day. In fact, the whole affair was a non story that was turned into a story. We can even go back further. You all remember the Alabama Maersk. You remember how one of our snipers on orders from the Commander in Chief, shot three of them dead and we took the other prisoner and they're awaiting trial. Well, some on the conservative media still managed to criticize Obama on this point.

After four days of floating at sea on a raft shared with four Somali gunmen, Richard Philips took matters into his own hands for a second time. With the small inflatable lifeboat in which he was being held captive being towed by the American missile destroyer USS Bainbridge, and Navy Special Warfare (NSWC) snipers on the fantail in position to take their shots at his captors as soon as the command was given, the captive Captain of the M.V. Maersk-Alabama took his second leap in three days into the shark-infested waters of the Indian Ocean.

This diversion gave the Navy Special Warfare operators all the opening they needed. Snipers immediately took down the three Somali pirates still on board the life raft, SEAL operators hustled down the tow line connecting the two craft to confirm the kills, and a Navy RIB plucked Philips from the water and sped him to safety aboard the Bainbridge, thus ending the four-day-and-counting hostage situation

....Instead of taking direct, decisive action against the rag-tag group of gunmen, the Obama administration dilly-dallied, dawdled, and eschewed any decisiveness whatsoever, even in the face of enemy fire, in hopes that the situation would somehow resolve itself without violence — thus sending a clear message to all who would threaten U.S. interests abroad that the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue has no idea how to respond to such situations, and no real willingness to use military force to resolve them.

Let's think about this for a minute. All good guys are safe. All bad guys are dead or captured. That sounds like a good outcome. It sounds as though the Commander in Chief handled things just fine. Yet, there were conservatives that still criticized.

Of course, the liberal media is not immune from this sort of nonsense. Last week, Chris Mathews opined that there were no black people at Sarah Palin's book signing. There were, however, thousands of white people of all sexes and ages. Think about this. We have the first black president and Palin opposes everything he stands for and Mathews thinks its illuminating that no black people showed up.

The week prior he actually asked, in the context of Nidal Hasan, if it was a crime to contact Al Qaeda. Yeah, it's a crime especially if you're a member of the military. For two months in 2005, New York Times became nothing more than story after story about the scandal at Abu Ghraib. The MSM dedicated more than 100 stories to the launch of Air America. They've dedicated exactly two stories to the meteoric rise of Glenn Beck, and one was disparaging. You could count on dozens of Iraqi stories weekly from the MSM during the years of 2003-2006. Then, 2007 hit, the surge worked and suddenly that story didn't matter any more.

Did you know that the years 2003-2007 were booming for our economy? You didn't if you only got your news from the MSM. Did you know that President Bush opposed federal funding for embryonic stem cell research? You wouldn't if you only paid attention to the MSM. If that's where you got your news, you'd think he was against stem cell research. Not against funding it mind you, just against it.

The right isn't any better. The folks at Hot Air spent the last four years complaining about how the MSM selectively chose their headlines for economic news during the Bush administration. What does Hot Air do now? They pick and choose which financial data they report. Ed Morrissey has a nasty habit of reporting the WEEKLY first time jobless claims every three or four weeks. Once every four months or so he'll talk about the MONTHLY home sales numbers. That's right. What Ed will do is pick and choose which piece of economic data he chooses. How does he pick it? He waits for a bad one and talks about that. Sounds like exactly what he's been complaining about for four years.

Of course, Michelle Malkin is the poster child for this sort of journalism. The nexus of my beef with her comes from this attitude. (the story is quite long and so please read the link if you need the story) Michelle Malkin hates President Obama. She hates ACORN. She's convinced the two are inseparable entities. That's why Anita Moncrief was perfect. Anita Moncrief linked the two in a way that Michelle Malkin knew was true all along. That's why Malkin could care less that Moncrief committed theft, stole and was fired. It's why she could care less that it was only after Moncrief was fired that she "discovered" all this wrong doing. Michelle Malkin has a view of the world and she's determined to let the facts fit that view.

The right way to report is to get the facts first and then draw conclusions. Unfortunately, our media draws conclusions and then finds the facts to back up those conclusions. It happens because journalists have created agendas that they feel are more important than the truth. That's why newspapers bury stories. They don't want the truth out because the truth doesn't fit into their other agenda. The minute that journalists stop seeking the truth, they are, by nature, corrupt. Instead, they seek to reinforce their view of the world. Make no mistake, this happens on the left and on the right. Somewhere in the middle of it all lies the truth. Hopefully, there will be someone that seeks that.