And the corrupt Ruling Class continues to perpetuate itself in this liberal bastion:

Former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, just elected mayor of Chicago, is calling his victory “humbling” and “most gratifying.” He also is thanking retiring Mayor Richard Daley for his lifetime of service to the city.

Emanuel he says he is ready to meet the challenges head-on to “make a great city even greater.” He also says he just talked to President Barack Obama, who sends affection for his hometown…

Ah, at least another four years of kickbacks, bribes, government employees working on political campaigns (on the clock, no less) and the general ooze of Chicago corruption. Nothing changes! The Ruling Class is pleased as punch.

From the LA Times:

The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Index shows a 2.4% decrease in December from the same month in 2009 and 1% from November, the fifth straight month of declines.

With foreclosures high and demand weak, home prices in a majority of the nation’s largest metropolitan areas posted fresh lows in December and pushed a widely watched index of real estate values close to a double-dip decline…

The only reason I can see for “close” in that report is an MSM determination not to admit to a double dip until ordered to by Obama. Its just absurd to say “close”…housing prices are contracting, again. Of course, for us here in Las Vegas, this is no news…poking around town the other day I saw the same model house that I bought in 2002 for $179,000 and sold in 2005 for $249,000 going for $120,000. Meanwhile, an investor bought a property which originally sold for $370,000 in 2005 for $110,000. We’re completely toast as far as housing goes…and there is no upside on the horizon. It is fully expected that prices here will continue to drop for at least two more years.

Meanwhile, food and energy prices continue their inexorable rise, wages are stagnant or down, unemployment remains high and looks to go higher and places like China teeter on the edge of financial melt down. And no one in power seems to have the foggiest notion of what to do about it. Grim times are coming.

From Rasmussen:

…A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 48% of Likely U.S. Voters agree more with the Republican governor in his dispute with union workers. Thirty-eight percent (38%) agree more with the unionized public employees, while 14% are undecided…

My bet is that the Democrats will call off the dogs on this as they realize that each day teachers are out “sick” on taxpayer funds to go on a rampage just makes more people mad at unions…and Democrats. We’ll see how long it is before the Wisconsin State Senators get permission from the party bosses to go back to work (don’t even for a moment think that this walk out was just a spontaneous action…this was coordinated from day one). But the left will not give up this fight – as I said before, they can’t: if this law passes, then the unions will no longer have the muscle to shove Democrat policies through, and Democrats will see a huge drop in available campaign funds and manpower. This is the sort of fight which is for all the marbles. But, there’s also more polling news:

Republicans now hold a nine-point lead over Democrats on the Generic Congressional Ballot for the week ending February 20, 2011.

New Rasmussen Reports telephone polling finds that 46% of Likely U.S. Voters nationwide say they would vote for their district’s Republican congressional candidate, while 37% would choose the Democrat instead…

As we head in to the budget battles – and the battle of Wisconsin and other State budgets – the GOP is clearly holding on to popular support for budget cutting and government reform. The people are now getting an actual look at the GOP in action and are liking what they see. Not that its all perfect, but the general trend is towards a more conservative viewpoint on the great issues of the day.

All we have to do to win – including winning in 2012 against Obama – is to keep pressing them. Force the left to defend the liberal bastions and by that very action make them odious to the American people. For too long we’ve allowed Democrats – like Obama – to get away with “centrist” talk…as we head in to 2012, make Democrats defend corrupt union contracts, Big Government boondoggles and all the rest of the horse poop Democrats have shoved in to America while talking a centrist game. We’ve got them to the edge of the cliff – now we just have to push them over.

UPDATE: New Wisconsin Senate rules will require Senators to pick up their pay checks in person…a nice way to get the Fleebaggers to come home…

From Memri via PJ Tatler:

…Qaradawi has cleverly praised the Egyptian army for its restraint, and is calling on the citizens and that very same army to “liberate” Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Sheik Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi: A message to our brothers in Palestine: I harbor the hope that just like Allah allowed me to witness the triumph of Egypt, He will allow me to witness the conquest of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and will enable me to preach in the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Oh Allah, allow us to preach in the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Crowds: Amen.

Sheik Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi: Allow us to enter the Al-Aqsa Mosque safely.

Crowds: Amen.

Sheik Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi: Allow us to enter the Al-Aqsa Mosque without fear.

Crowds: Amen.

Sheik Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi: Accomplish this complete victory for us.

Crowds: Amen.

Sheik Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi: Oh, the sons of Palestine, rest assured that you will be victorious.

Crowds: Amen.

Sheik Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi: The Rafah border crossing will be opened for you. This is what I demand from the Egyptian army and from the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces…

The Al-Aqsa Mosque is, of course, on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem – and as Moslems can already safely enter and preach there, the presumption must be that Al-Qaradhawi means, “after the Jews are dead”. Meanwhile, the Rafah border crossing is the border between Egypt and Gaza…meaning that Al-Qaradhawi wants the Egyptian army to go in to Gaza.

This man Al-Qaradhawi will be nothing but trouble for us – and it looks like he’s already got quite a following in Egypt.

As it becomes clearer that Gaddafi’s regime is using massacre as a means of asserting control – including the widespread use of air power against the rebels – the question arises: do we have a duty to intervene? Or are we to sit by and be gravely concerned and do nothing?

It is a tricky situation – any US action may be used by Gaddafi to generate “rally ’round the flag” feelings among his people. On the other hand, if we do nothing, more people will die. Taking out Libya’s air force would not be that difficult an operation and such an attack could probably be mounted within 24 hours of “go” from the President. A show of force like that, crippling a great deal of Gaddafi’s ability to strike his own people, might convince the balance of the Libyan army to opt for the rebels – Gaddafi goes, violence ends…no US troops on the ground so we’re not responsible for rebuilding, Libyans can start to sort things out for themselves.

This does not mean we’ll get a pro-US government in Libya. In fact, its just as likely we’ll get an anti-US government which will turn facts around 180 and use our attacks as a means of generating hatred of us. But the thing here is that people are dying – a brutal tyrant is massacring his people and we can make a strong move to get him to stop. The question is, should we?

My view is that we should – when we have the power to strike at evil, we must strike at it. Doing the right thing is usually a hard choice – and most of the time when you really set out to do the right thing, you’re going to get absolutely nothing directly out of it for yourself (longer term, of course, consistently doing the right thing is the only healthy way to live). Most of the time, we shy away from such clear cut actions as “bad man, vulnerable, lets take him out”. And the state of the world reflects our long term unwillingness to use our power in such a manner.

But, maybe its time we changed?

America lives – and as long as we have men like that, she always will.

This is what happens when liberals are left in charge for too long:

Swift and severe changes are coming to Detroit Public Schools.

State education officials have ordered Robert Bobb to immediately implement a financial restructuring plan that balances the district’s books by closing half of its schools, swelling high school class sizes to 60 students and consolidating operations…

Detroit, it must be remembered, was once upon a time the richest city in America – perhaps the richest city in the world. It was a first class city where the job got done…and then liberals took over. After decades of taxing and regulating business out of the city and buying votes with welfare of various types, the city is now a hollowed-out shell of itself. A place where there are serious proposals to consign a third of the city to criminal gangs…and now, closing half the schools.

Liberalism is entirely destructive because it refuses to understand that the family is the center of our civilization – unless your policies are geared towards preserving the family, all you do will end up badly. And preserving the family is not just a social matter, it is also a matter of what sort of taxes and regulations you place upon business…because for a family to live, it must have a place to work.

Getting rid of liberalism will be a liberation akin to winning the Civil War.

Well, because if we win there, the left loses everywhere – from Politico:

…If Walker, who is trying to curb collective-bargaining rights, and Christie, who is attempting to overhaul teacher tenure, manage to succeed, they’ll only embolden their counterparts elsewhere — and potentially do grave damage to what is one of the Democrats’ most important financial and grass-roots constituencies. Florida Gov. Rick Scott and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, among other Republicans, are watching carefully, bracing for similar showdowns.

Much of the attention in Wisconsin is devoted to Walker’s proposal to strip state employees of the right to bargain collectively for anything besides their pay and to make them pay more for their health care and pensions.

Yet another element of the legislation could have even greater political consequences. The Republican would end the automatic deduction from their workers paychecks and make the unions collect the dues themselves, a move that would almost surely result in less cash flowing into labor coffers. It would block unions from collecting money from consenting wokers’ paychecks for political operations, and it would force annual elections on whether state workers even want a union, a lethal threat to public-sector labor…

And that, my friends, is what this is really about for the left – raw, political power. Remember, if this law is not passed, 10 to 12,000 public sector employees could be laid off. Wisconsin kids are losing many days of education. The unions are suffering a public relations catastrophe over this. So, why are they keeping it up? Because if the public sector unions lose their ability to game the political system, the jig is up for Democrat party and the larger political left – there will be, at that point, no large, powerful interest group determined to defend Big Government…the whole reason for existence for the Democrat party would evaporate, and the political left would have few means remaining to insert leftist dogma in to America via back room deals and regulatory fiat.

They will fight this tooth and nail – if they fail in Wisconsin, they’ll just carry it on elsewhere. They’ll force Obama to defend them. They just won’t quit, because they can’t. This is the Ruling Class at bay, and they won’t go quietly.

Of course this is also our grand opportunity – our chance, and maybe our only chance, to really kick out the support for Big Government. This is our chance to change the dynamic from an endlessly expanding government to a continually shrinking government. The future, as far as I can see it, looks good right now.

UPDATE: And when I say they’re mad, I mean they are really mad. Unfortunately, they are stupid, too…as these dimwitted yet angry posters show.

And so this story really got me interested – from Zero Hedge:

We thank Sean Corrigan of Diapason Securities for bringing our attention to the MIT Billion Price real time inflation Index (first reported here) who points out that based on the ongoing surge in prices, which have increased by 1.25% in the last 45 days (December 31, 2010: 101.085, February 14, 2011: 102.353), a simple annualization indicates a 10.6% increase in prices in 2011!…

As I was pumping that gas – which worked out to $10 for three gallons – I wondered if anyone in government is paying attention? I mean, seriously, does Bernanke or Obama not realize it is happening? Or is it that they don’t care that it is happening? If gasoline prices, alone, keep rising as they are then we’ll be at $4 a gallon long before summer…and that will crush our economy as bad as a similar price spike did in 2007. And keep in mind that the really bad effects of such a jump won’t hit for months…in other words, won’t hit until the 2012 election campaign is heating up. You’d think that this sort of knowledge would concentrate their minds a bit.

It could be, of course, that pretty much our whole Ruling Class is out to lunch on this – haven’t seen a lot of GOPers harping on the issue, you know? But for those of us who have had a net decline in purchasing power over the past couple years, such a price rise is devastating…and the lower you go down the economic scale, the bigger the hit. Ruling Class types who have had either stable or increasing pay just might now be seeing it…especially as so many of them probably don’t even fill their own tanks up (but we do – a friend of mine was “fired” by his wife from grocery shopping because he was spending too much money….we’re all now just waiting for her first trip to the store in years and bracing for the results of sticker shock; all sorts of my favorite foods remain unbought by me these days unless they are on special).

Catastrophe is creeping up on us – and I bet it will be “unexpected” in the headlines and economic “experts” will say that the crash came out of nowhere and that no one could see it coming…

From Bloomberg:

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party suffered its worst defeat since World War II in Germany’s richest state, losing control of Hamburg in the first of seven state elections this year that threaten to limit her scope to tackle Europe’s debt crisis.

The result in Hamburg, the city-state of Merkel’s birth, underscores the challenge she faces trying to balance public opposition to bailouts for debt-wracked states against pressure from investors and fellow euro countries to lead the way in stemming the debt contagion. She faces three more state ballots next month on either side of a March 24-25 European Union summit called to form a comprehensive plan for the crisis…

Keep in mind that the German economy is doing pretty well right now – Merkel, unlike our President, decided that spending a bazillion dollars on “stimulus” wasn’t the way to go…so, Germany is completely out of recession. Furthermore, in the overall good German economy, Hamburg is experiencing a boom – and the people of Hamburg really have no one but Merkel’s Christian Democrats to thank for this happy state of affairs…and yet the Christian Democrats were buried 21.6% to 48.5% by the leftist Social Democrat Party. Its the worst showing by the CDU in Hamburg since 1946.

Germans, I guess, are tired of having their hard work, careful savings and rational banking system being used as a piggy bank for their profligate neighbors in the European Union. And, in the end, why should Germans vote to tax themselves to bail out people who were just living fat without doing the work? This is a bit of a watershed for post-war Europe – since WWII, the Germans have been extremely eager to prove that the past is over and Germans are good Europeans. In large measure, they have succeeded at this…Germany is an integral part of the world community. But it has come at a price – and that price is proving too high financially for the German people.

The problem is that without free flowing cash from Germany, the whole scheme of bail outs in the European Union is entirely unworkable. Of course, it never was workable to begin with…but with the Germans all in with their stellar credit rating, it seemed like bail outs might work. If the Germans are to back away from more bankster bail outs then no one out there is going to believe that France can be a pillar of financial propriety. We’ll see how this plays out, but this could spell ultimate doom for the European Union as a financial entity.