From CNBC:

A new study obtained by CNBC says Americans are $6.6 trillion short of what they need to retire.

The study, conducted by Boston College’s Center for Retirement Research, says savings have been squeezed by declines in stock and housing values…

Not really, of course – I mean, we haven’t been squeezed by low stock and home prices. Those prices should never have been as high as they were. That was all fake wealth built up by a financial system which is geared towards rewarding the least productive enterprises. What is squeezing us is the lack of wealth creation – the lake of making, mining and growing things here in the United States.

That hole in our retirement budget is the money we should have made over the past 20 years or so, but didn’t make as we shipped our factories to China, our mines to Chile and our farms to Mexico. This is a disaster on a lot of levels – not just for the retirees who will be short of cash, but for the young who will find themselves competing with older workers who simply don’t have enough money to quit working. The whole thrust of our economy these days is towards people having to scramble just to stay even – we need to change that.

To make that change we have to return to sound money, careful investment instead of rampant speculation, balanced budgets and intensive re-industrialization. In short, we’re going to have to get back to work, save our pennies and act like adults in order to get out of this mess. The big problem we have right now is that the financial Powers That Be don’t want to give up their fiat-money, usurious gravy train…and the political class doesn’t want an America of self-sufficient Americans who have no cause to ask government for help.

Still, we’ll get the ball rolling on change come this November 2nd – just a first, baby step in the right direction, but you have to start somewhere.

Still a bit of establishment hand-wringing over the O’Donnell win – Kevin Williamson over at NRO gives the good advice:

About Christine O’Donnell: No strong opinion about the candidate, though I understand the reservations about her. I do not much weep for RINOs and rather enjoy the sight of them going down in flames.

What this really should communicate, I think, is that the Right needs a lot more Club for Growth–style candidate-recruiting efforts. If conservatives do not like O’Donnell, then they should be out identifying better candidates to run against vulnerable RINOs — because somebody is going to run. These incumbent takedowns are going to inspire a lot of new people to get into electoral politics, many of them without the sort of experience or backgrounds that Establishment types are comfortable with. Power, like nature, abhors a vacuum.

The proper job of those who feel that O’Donnell is a sure loser wasn’t to back Castle, but to find someone better than both Castle or O’Donnell. Understand this if nothing else out of 2010: politics has become a free for all. A catch-as-catch-can wrestling match where nothing can be taken for granted. This is not a cycle of “Republicans win, Democrats win, Republicans win” politics – this is a new thing…the GOP is no longer one of America’s two major parties, it just happens to be the party that the people are willing to use, provisionally, to express their views at the polls.

The Democrats, holding power and with a supine grassroots, is so far out of the game. Once they are out of power, what the TEA Party has done to the GOP will start to be done to them by some group which, fed up, will start agitating at the grass roots. Things only appear to be the same – everything has actually changed.

O’Donnell is not a sure loser in Delaware. Heck, Pelosi isn’t a sure winner in San Francisco. Not any longer. Even the prospect of a serious primary challenge to Obama must be envisioned. And don’t be surprised if the eventual GOP nominee in 2012 is someone you’ve never heard of. This isn’t politics as usual, this is revolution.

If you don’t like what is happening, don’t complain – get in there and fight it out. There are no restrictions any longer and there is no power elite who will be able to keep the lid on you. Ideas are to be presented to the people, and they will get to decide who wins – and everyone had better get used to that.

UPDATE: Did Catholics carry O’Donnell to victory?

HAT TIP: Gay Patriot

Big Government has the audio – here’s the transcript of the message left on the donor’s voice mail:

This is, uh, Eleanor Norton, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton. Uh, I noticed that you have given to uh, other colleagues on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. I am a, um, Senior Member, a twenty year veteran and am Chair of the Sub-committee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management. I’m handling the largest economic development project in the United States now, the Homeland Security Compound of three buildings being built on the uh, old St. Elizabeth’s hospital site in the District of Columbia along with uh, fifteen other, uh, sites here for, that are part of the stimulus .

I was, frankly, uh, uh, surprised to see that we don’t have a record, so far as I can tell, of your having given to me despite my uh, long and deep uh, work. In fact, it’s been my major work, uh, on the committee and sub-committee it’s been essentially in your sector.

I am, I’m simply candidly calling to ask for a contribution. As the senior member of the um, committee and a sub-committee chair, we have (chuckles) obligations to raise, uh funds. And, I think it must have been me who hasn’t, frankly, uh, done my homework to ask for a contribution earlier. So I’m trying to make up for it by asking for one now, when we particularly, uh, need, uh contributions, particularly those of us who have the seniority and chairmanships and are in a position to raise the funds.

I’m asking you to give to Citizens for Eleanor Holmes Norton, PO Box 70626, DC, 20024. I’ll send you a follow-up note with appreciation for having heard me out. Thanks again.

That is what they do, boys and girls – and this also signals just how desperate the Democrats are getting.

This is what we’re fighting against. And, yes, I’m sure some Republicans do it, too. But we’re already changing that. Unfortunately, the Democrat rank-and-file lacks the spirit to start up a TEA Party movement (they do tend to only follow orders…and as they haven’t been ordered to fight against the establishment…), the only way we’re going to clean up that side of the aisle is by ejecting it from office.

Come on, November: hurry up and get here!

From The Hill:

…Reid said Coons would have won even if Rep. Mike Castle (R) had prevailed over O’Donnell.

“I’m going to be very honest with you — Chris Coons, everybody knows him in the Democratic caucus. He’s my pet. He’s my favorite candidate,” Reid said…

Thanks, Harry, I had been a bit worried that we wouldn’t pull it off in Delaware.

Not worried any more.

Last night’s primary results put the seal of victory on an amazing political story. Starting out as just a few people gathering here and there in March of 2009, the movement has grown to the point where it has now de-facto captured the Republican party and is set to place an indelible stamp on American politics on November 2nd.

It should be recalled just what has happened. Back in March of 2009, the liberals treated the TEA Party with scorn. It was just a few die hards who couldn’t accept the New Order of the Obama Administration. As it grew from strength to strength, the dismay on the Democrat side grew and developed in to a white-hot hatred of the movement.

Meanwhile, over in GOP-establishment land, things weren’t going much better. There was some thought that the movement could be co-opted by the establishment and used as a mere fund-raising and GOTV adjunct to the RNC. But then the TEA Party showed itself unwilling to take orders and it started knocking off one establishment GOPer after another, ending with last night when the Establishment’s man in Delaware was crushed by an overwhelming turnout among Delaware voters…these voters having not turned out for a GOP primary before, and seemingly quite willing for a fundamental change…not just a change from “D” to “R” after the candidate’s name.

Officially, Democrats rub their hands with glee – sure that an internecine battle is coming where the GOP will tear itself apart. They are short of the mark, as usual – the battle has already happened, and the TEA Party won. To be sure, there are still some Establishment types out there who will provide fodder for this Democrat meme, but the fact of the matter is that the grassroots of the GOP has gone TEA Party, and is insisting upon genuine change…and is willing to face defeat in this or that race if that is what it takes to get the Establishment out of power.

The polls show increasing GOP strength heading in to November. Reports are that Democrats are pulling the plug on their efforts in blue Pennsylvania as Toomey, a TEA Party favorite, starts to run away with the Senate race there. In spite of what you hear in the MSM, the fact is that Democrats are working a political triage, trying to figure out whom they can save from the wrath of the voters.

What will happen on November 2nd is unknown and unknowable at this point. All signs point to strong GOP gains – but the particular number of seats gained is less important than the fact that the political times are a-changing. The TEA Party has revived support for constitutional government, balanced budgets, an end to political gamesmanship. Come what may on November 2nd, that reality will remain – and will carry over to 2012 and beyond.

From The Hill:

A Rep. Mike Castle (R-Del.) campaign source confirmed to The Hill late Tuesday that the longtime congressman will not be endorsing Christine O’Donnell.

The Tea Party-backed O’Donnell defeated Castle for Delaware’s Republican Senate nomination.

After the stunning primary loss, Castle’s campaign also said the longtime congressman is not interested in waging a write in bid this November.

In Alaska, Sen Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) is contemplating an independent write in campaign after she lost to Tea Party backed Joe Miller in the August GOP primary.

Its like these people just can’t get over the fact that they were passed over by the people. Murkowski and Castle are becoming emblems of all that is wrong with the GOP establishment.

What this points up to is a need for a party rule change – something we’ll have to do at the Convention: make it so that primary challengers are encouraged, and make is so that the State and national party groups are neutral during the primary, and back whomever the nominee is. That would essentially make it so that there no longer is an establishment-backed candidate to be huffy when they lose.

From Fox News:

Florida GOP Senate nominee Marco Rubio has jumped to a 16-point lead over independent Charlie Crist, according to the latest Fox News poll, as Republicans make gains across the country on dissatisfaction with President Obama’s agenda…

At this point, only a surrender by the Democrat – withdrawing from the race and endorsing Crist, would give Crist a chance. And even that would be dicey as at least some of Crist’s voters would shift to Rubio in such circumstances. Seems that people don’t want RINOs in or out of the Republican party these days.

The Ruling Class had better beware – the people are coming for you.

Who would have known that a 30 second soundbite of a February 19, 2009 broadcast, on of all places, MSNBC, could have so changed the political landscape.

This election cycle is by far the strangest in my 50 years on this earth. I’ve seen a lot of infighting among different factions in the democrat party before, but never in my lifetime (well, at least since the election of Ronald Reagan) have I seen such infighting among Republicans.

Don’t get me wrong. Since Bush 41 infamously broke his “Read My Lips” pledge, movement conservatives have had plenty of beefs with the establishment of the GOP. But with seemingly no where else to go, and assuaged by the constant assurances by the establishment that their concerns would eventually be addressed (but that they just had to veer to the left in order to get elected by ‘independents’), movement conservatives patiently waited election cycle after election cycle while their agenda was perpetually back-burnered by the increasingly arrogant and increasingly statist Old Guard of the Republican Party. Movement conservatives, the driving force behind the landslide elections of 1994 when Republicans took over the majority, and again in 2002, when Republicans added to their majorities in the mid-term elections (a feat rarely witnessed in the annals of U.S. History), were constantly taken for granted as RINOs like John McCain, Lincoln Chaffee, Mike Castle and Susan Collins constantly ‘reached across the aisle’ (read: capitulated); resulting in increasing government intrusions, and the rendering of the size of government to behemoth status.

Then along came 2006, with both houses reverting to democrat control, culminating into the mother of all wakeup calls- the election of Barack Hussein Obama in 2008.

But then came Santelli.

Suddenly, it wasn’t just your traditional conservative activists who were screaming that the sky was falling. More and more ‘Joe Sixpack’ Americans were opening their eyes and recognizing the multi-trillion dollar rhinoceros of unsustainable debt that was precariously perched upon their dining room tables, waiting to eat themselves and their progeny alive.

Curiously, Folks like Ron Paul and Sarah Palin weren’t looking so much like whacked out extreme nutjob outsiders anymore.

More and more people (especially college-aged kids) were tuning in to the Constitutionalist message and turning out en masse at their local caucuses and political gatherings. The organization demonstrated by the Ron Paul factions at these functions was nothing less than stunning, and something that the Republican establishment were ill-equipped and ill-prepared to deal.

From Searchlight Nevada, to Dover, Delaware, to the Jersey shore, to Boston Massachusetts, to Washington D.C., gathering after gathering of people who previously were content to merely sit on their couches and gripe were now an active force to be reckoned with, and have made it clear that they shall NOT be ignored. No longer will blind trust be extended such that just because there’s an R next to an elected official’s name, that that official will necessarily be a worthy steward of their precious liberties. Going one step further on the old Reagan ‘Trust, but verify“ policy during the glastnost and perestroika days of the Cold War, to Tea Party activists, with respect to their elected officials, the catch phrase has necessarily become “To hell with trust; we want verification.”

What we’re witnessing today, despite the screaming and gnashing of teeth of the Establishment is yet another revolution; here to date unlike any other seen. Unlike the Reagan revolution, this movement is not led by a central figure. Unlike the Republican Revolution of 1994, this revolution is not led by a small coterie of a party establishment; rather, this revolution has as its focal point a general awakening; a collective, bottom-up realization that the liberties we have enjoyed for the past two and a half centuries as Americans are unbelievably fragile; and must be defended not only from enemies who wish to destroy them from without, but also from those who wish to destroy them from within, up to and including Republicans themselves.

In every sense of the word, we are now entering uncharted waters; a very real brave, new world, the likes of which have not been navigated since the dawning of the American Revolution. For far too long Americans have slumbered and/or stewed in the notion that “You can’t fight city hall.” But if the election of Barack Hussein Obama and the ensuing events that have taken place even into this very evening have taught us anything, it is that ordinary Americans can not only fight City Hall, they can win.

With 81% of districts reporting, O’Donnell is leading Castle 54% to 46%. In 2006, O’Donnell got 2,505 primary votes out of 14,386 cast. So far, she’s gotten 26,102 out of 48,312.

UPDATE: With 98% reporting, O’Donnell 53.2%, Castle 46.8%; she wins…Total turnout so far, 56,973.

UPDATE II: Just for comparison, the 2008 GOP Presidential primary, heavily contested between McCain, Romney and Huckabee had a turnout of 50,237. People in Delaware are on fire, it would seem.

UPDATE III: Rumor is that the NRSC will not back O’Donnell in the general election…meaning they won’t spend any money there. A monumentally stupid move by the NRSC. They don’t have to spend much, but they should make the bow to the party base which has chosen O’Donnell. This smacks of spite, if true.

Interesting:

…The latest Pew Research/National Journal Congressional Connection poll, sponsored by SHRM, conducted September 9-12 among 1,001 adults, finds that 58% favor a proposal that would allow workers under age 55 to invest a portion of their Social Security taxes in personal retirement accounts that would rise and fall with the markets; 28% oppose this proposal. Majorities across all age groups – except for those 65 and older – favor this proposal…

Shows that there is a willingness to look at new ideas in this matter – though, of course, it is hard to get to action as Democrats will just lie like a rug about what is happening. Democrats don’t want to give up their lie about Social Security…it provides a nicely dependent class of voters who can be relied on to vote Democrat.

But the GOP does have an opening here. By moving carefully and firmly towards test programs and other baby-steps, we can prepare the public mind for, first, partial privatization and, eventually, full privatization. Ultimately, it is the only way to solve our debt crisis and to save a social security which has become demographically unsustainable.