Month: September 2011

How Political Payoffs are Done

Mark Noonan15 Comments

From MSNBC:

A retired Chicago labor leader secured a $158,000 public pension — roughly five times greater than what a typical retired public-service worker in the Windy City receives — after being rehired for just one day of active duty on the city payroll, local news reports said…

…Gannon, former president of the Chicago Federation of Labor, was able to take a long leave from a city job to work for a union and then receive a city pension based on a high union salary. That arrangement is allowed under a state law signed by Gov. Jim Thompson on his last day in office in 1991, according to an investigation by the Tribune and WGN-TV.

The change has enabled a couple dozen labor leaders to become potential millionaires.

What is different in Gannon’s case is that he became eligible for the especially lucrative pension deal only because the city rehired the former Streets and Sanitation Department worker for one day in 1994, before granting him an indefinite leave of absence, according to the investigation. He retired from the city job in 2004 at age 50…

Now, don’t anyone out there think that any Joe Shmoe can get a job, work a day, go on indefinite leave and then collect millions in pension benefits.  This is something entirely reserved only for those the government wants to pay off for one reason or another.  I don’t know what services Gannon rendered in order to secure such a massive amount of money for no work, but it was probably pretty stupendous…and probably something the politicians of Chicago and Illinois would prefer we never find out about.  And this is just a tip of the iceberg in the total playbook of how to bribe of payoff in politics.

One other way which Matt and I discovered in writing Caucus of Corruption is to donate to powerful politicians who either run un-opposed or against token opposition.  You’ll be surprised how many such there are in politics…and even more surprised in how much money they raise for their re-election campaigns.  You become un-surprised about it when you find out that their campaign staffers, at very high salaries, are spouses, children, family members and long-time cronies.  In other words, you don’t directly bribe Congressman X, you donate to his campaign and he pays his wife $100,000.00 a year to be a campaign “consultant” against a non-existent or quixotic opponent.  All perfectly legal, just as Gannon’s pension, but always it is a bribe…it is a means of giving in return for getting without the public finding out just what sort of nauseating filth is going on.

And it is on and on like that all through politics.  To be sure, plenty of Republicans engage in it…but it is endemic in the Democrat party.  If you found me a Democrat who had never engaged in any sort of shady practice, I’d be surprised…pleased, but surprised.  It is endemic over there for two reasons – for generations Democrats were in power and never really had anyone call them to account; secondly, Democrat electorates have proven almost impervious to corruption…no matter how corrupt a Democrat is, he can usually win re-election if he’s in a strongly Democrat district (for instance, Barney Frank had a live-in whore working out of Frank’s DC townhouse; Frank fixed 33 of the whore’s parking tickets and wrote a letter on his behalf to the parole board…a GOPer who had that would be forced to resign in days; Frank has been re-elected 11 times since that scandal).  Year by year it has built up – first go ahead and do it; secondly, you never (or, at least, rarely) get punished for it.

The thing to remember is that if the MSM actually did its job and relentlessly investigated the corruption in government, it would be front page headlines every day that some senior politician is on the take…even if the take is “legal” in the sense that corrupt politicians have set up the laws and regulations to make it so, but still crooked as all get out.  Nine out of ten of the crooks would be Democrat, of course…and that is why the MSM doesn’t do its job.  It doesn’t want to implode the Democrat party in a sea of corruption stories.  And, so, it just continues…but, perhaps not for long.

The real fear in the Ruling Class is that someone will get elected next year who doesn’t care about the Ruling Class and is willing to unleash law enforcement on those who have broken the law, as well as ruthlessly exposing those who keep within the law, but are clearly taking/giving bribes and payoffs.  The Ruling Class is afraid that their time at the hog trough might be through…that is the real genesis of the Wisconsin protests and recall elections.  The Ruling Class was frightened that the corrupt deals, bribes and payoffs might come to a screeching halt…as, indeed, they will now that Wisconsin government doesn’t have to roll over to corrupt public sector unions.  If you think Wisconsin was bizarre, just wait until a TEA Party-backed candidate comes to the White House…these people will go ballistic.

But ballistic only because they are afraid they won’t get free money and an easy time in life.  That is what must be remembered.  They’ll talk like they are fighting for the little guy but all they are really fighting for is their bribes, kickbacks and payoffs…they will be upset that maybe they won’t ever get a chance at millions of dollars in taxpayer money for working a day.    There are probably 30 to 50 million people like that in the United States…who are either already living off the taxpayer or dream of doing so…on a larger or smaller scale, but still the goal is to get money they didn’t earn.  This is the core constituency of the left…and they are worried sick they might be kicked off the taxpayer’s teat.

And, glad to say, it looks like that is what will happen…a revolution is brewing in this nation.  Those who have been paying the freight for a corrupt, lying, morally degenerating Ruling Class have had enough…we’re taking it all back next year, and we’ll fix this nation and restore our greatness.  This will result in a lot of leeches having to get real jobs, but that is all to the good…it’ll teach them to be better Americans.

HAT TIP:  Mish’s

Team Obama: Dumber by the Day

Mark Noonan14 Comments

From Investors.com:

The 48-year-old Brent Spence Bridge spanning the Ohio River near Cincinnati isn’t much to look at. But for President Obama, it’s become a rallying cry for his $477 billion jobs plan.

He referred to it in his Sept. 8 speech to Congress, saying “there’s a bridge that needs repair between Ohio and Kentucky that’s on one of the busiest trucking routes in North America.” …

…Although some press accounts have described Brent Spence as “crumbling,” and the White House says it’s an example of “urgently needed” repairs, the bridge isn’t falling apart. In fact, it’s designed to last for decades more…

The bridge does have a problem – its too small for the amount of traffic crossing it.  So, the plan is to build an additional bridge next to it…but that isn’t scheduled to start for three for four years, putting it outside the Obama timetable of two years for the projects in his jobs bill.  In other words, the bridge doesn’t in any way relate to the things Obama wants to do…only a bonehead would go there as an example of “crumbling infrastructure” that you want to repair right away.  This is right up there with using a company that is outsourcing jobs as a backdrop for your bill to create more jobs.

Its like the Obama people just don’t care – they just want their photo ops and sound bites and are expecting that the MSM, as it did in 2008, will keep a lid on any criticism.  Trouble is, the New Media has grown exponentially since then and Obama no longer has the ability to be a “stealth candidate”.  We know all about him – and we’re tired of him.

2012 can’t get here fast enough…and I’m really looking forward to it.

 

Out and About on a Thursday Morning

Mark Noonan22 Comments

Just too many issues to write about and, as it turns out, I’m not feeling very well…bad headache, upset stomach.  Can’t explain it.  Haven’t listened to Obama talk for days.  But, since I’m not up to writing anything worth reading, here’s a few bits and pieces for you to ponder and discuss:

Fast and Furious:  Dead border patrol agent is “collateral damage“.

Shocking News:  Even Catholics have the right to free speech!  Who woulda thunk it?

Will the left’s rank anti-Semitism and growing alliance with Islamo-fascism finally propel American Jews in to the GOP?  Time will tell.

Conservative House GOPers kill continuing resolution – and a good job, too.  Democrats want more spending without cutting anywhere…our more weak kneed GOP leaders are willing to go along with it.  Hopefully the leadership will now listen and pass a bill with some genuine cuts in spending.

Cost of raising a child rises 40% in past decade.  Thanks, Federal Reserve!  We really appreciate the inflation!

Arab Spring Update:  Syria slides towards civil war while regional players angle to pick up the pieces.  Glad we don’t have that cowboy Bush in office…much better to have a President like Obama who will just let things fly out of control and allow our enemies to profit…

Not sure how much we should really put in to this, but one financial guy is saying we should watch the Hang Seng stock market…down 17.5% since August and he says it usually leads the rest of the markets…if this is the case, then the S&P (off 9% of late) has a lot further to go down.

Marines ticked off at brass which is more worried about careers than the needs of the Marines…it actually turns on what sort of underwear the Marines want to wear.  As for me:  any Jarhead can wear any kind of skivvies he chooses.  Why are our officers even worried about it?

Only 19% say the US is heading in the direction.  I figure that 19% reflects how many Americans have had three or more drinks on any given day the pollster calls.

From IMAO:

Come to think of it, Obama can still run on pretty much all the platforms he ran on in 2008: Close Gitmo. End the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (and now also Libya). Turn around this horrible economy. End the incompetent, divisive leadership of the current president. Sucks to be the incumbent, huh?

Enjoy the day!

The Big Government Economy-Killer

Mark Noonan18 Comments

From Real Clear Politics:

From Peter Schiff’s prepared remarks to Congress. Schiff is the CEO of Euro Pacific Capital.

In my own business, securities regulations have prohibited me from hiring brokers for more than three years. I was even fined fifteen thousand dollar expressly for hiring too many brokers in 2008. In the process I incurred more than $500,000 in legal bills to mitigate a more severe regulatory outcome as a result of hiring too many workers. I have also been prohibited from opening up additional offices. I had a major expansion plan that would have resulted in my creating hundreds of additional jobs. Regulations have forced me to put those jobs on hold...

Not that I’m too interested in bigger financial firms…but the main thing is to understand that more people would be working today if government didn’t have insane regulations.  It is like this all up and down the economy…pushing up costs, driving down wages, ensuring that businesses either never get started, or don’t expand if they already exist.

It is time, I think, for a re-codification of US law.  Figure out what we really want as law, pass that and in that same act repeal every other law and regulation on the books.  A bit of wisdom and we can probably do the whole thing in a couple hundred pages…and dispose of tens of thousands of pages which serve only to empower un-elected bureaucrats and give lobbyists the ability to create or expand loopholes for those who have deep pockets and no honor.  This isn’t, by the way, about changing the Constitution in any way…just repealing all the laws and regulations we currently have and replacing them with a smaller number of laws, easily understandable by all Americans.

Simplicity and predictability of law is required for their to be justice…and, indeed, respect for law.  By doing things like fining someone for hiring “too many” employees, all we’re doing is engendering contempt for law.  The next firm so situated will just try to bribe their way out of it (via donations and lobbyists to write special rules just for them), or they’ll open up the firm in a foreign country.  The average people are also losing their respect for law…and how can it be otherwise when each of us likely violates several federal laws and regulations each day?  Tear down the legal and regulatory structure and replace it…that is the only way we’re going to clear out this part of the mess.

 

The Execution of Troy Davis

Mark Noonan20 Comments

Actually, it has been temporarily stayed, but no one knows for how long…could be that Mr. Davis will be executed later today, or tomorrow…but it could also go on quite a long time.  After all, last month we passed the 20th anniversary of his conviction.  I admit that until a little while ago, I had never heard of Mr. Davis – but this article over at Hot Air brought it to my attention, especially as it details Reagan FBI Director Sessions’ assertion that Mr. Davis should not be executed.

Reading the article, I have to say I’m quite unimpressed with the exculpatory evidence.  Seems like the usual litany of claims made by someone trying to get off from their crime.  Someone else did the actual dirty deed, witnesses have changed testimony, yadda, yadda, yadda.  Probably 99% of those on death row have similar claims.  Looking a bit further in to the case, I find – in my view – the most crucial evidence being that the ballistics for the murder match the ballistics for a previous armed robbery, for which Mr. Davis was convicted.

There is, of course, that chance that Mr. Davis lent his weapon to someone else who then murdered the cop (off-duty police officer Mark MacPhail), but this is highly unlikely.  What is incontrovertible is that Mr. Davis was doing a lot of things in 1989 (the year of the crime) as he shouldn’t…to put it to you all quite harshly, if by some chance he didn’t actually kill the cop, then he can choke on the irony of it all.  There is no one responsible for Mr. Davis being on death row other than Mr. Davis – he was living a life a crime, and such a life brings with it grave risks.  Had he never run afoul of the law, then he almost certainly would never have been convicted of any crime, let alone one which would result in a death sentence.

What really got me thinking over this case was the way the HotAir article concluded:

…The judge at the evidentiary hearing concluded that, “While Mr. Davis’s new evidence casts some additional, minimal doubt on his conviction, it is largely smoke and mirrors.” That’s an excellent reason to keep him locked up while he tries to prove his innocence, but “additional” doubt — even if it’s minimal — is an equally fine reason not to apply the needle lest you deny him the chance, especially when you have the shadow of someone else’s confession looming over the proceedings. Like Guy Benson says, “There are no do-overs here.” This, in fact, is how I suspect most opponents of capital punishment are made — there’ll always be some who blubber at the thought of the state imposing lethal justice on the Ted Bundys of the world, but the rest move by inches as nagging doubts in cases like this drag them towards abolition. Even if Davis is probably guilty, why not save lethal injection for the guys who are definitely guilty? I’ll never understand that.

Indeed – and that is part of the reason I’m opposed to the death penalty (the other part is that I hope those who commit crimes eventually beg God for forgiveness…I don’t wish to be even in theory part of cutting a man down before he’s had every possible chance to repent).  But the problem is that those who either oppose the death penalty – or who are approaching opposition – go about it entirely the wrong way.  As per usual in these cases, we had the “no justice, no peace” people out in force…curious how they never shout that for the innocent victims of crime; they never seem to demand justice for them and are quite peaceable about the people murdered, raped and robbed by criminals.  Seems that only criminals make such people want justice.  Funny, huh?  Anyways…they’ve got it all wrong.  If you want to end the death penalty, don’t argue in favor of the condemned who are usually pretty bad people, even if you want to argue they didn’t do the actual crime they are to be executed for.  What you want to argue for is justice…that those who commit crimes will pay a high price for it.  Do that, and all demand for the death penalty will evaporate.

Because you want to know what gets peoples goat?  It isn’t that criminals are breathing, but that they are breathing and not having a bad time of it.  Among the routine stories of our times are stories of convicted felons in prison having cable television, exercise rooms, access to booze and drugs and generally lots of time to loaf around and eat food they didn’t earn.  That is what ticks people off…but if we make prison a place of no amenities and hard labor, then it will be judged sufficient punishment for criminals, and the public support for the death penalty will dry up.  Don’t, as it were, try to get Davis off…try to get him transferred to a prison-striped uniform and out in the hot sun breaking rocks, 12 hours a day, 6 days a week.  He’ll be alive, he certainly won’t be executed, he’ll still be able to argue his case in court that he’s innocent…but he won’t be in any condition to make non-criminals figure he isn’t being punished.

The desire for justice is innate in human beings.  Even when we are at our worst, we still tend to desire an equitable outcome. That people will get what’s coming to them.  The death penalty in the United States is just the desperate expedient of people who were sick and tired of mealy-mouthed liberals letting murderers out of jail after 12 years back in the 70’s.  Get rid of the mealy-mouthed liberals, make prison a harsh but just experience, and the people will relent of their desire to execute.  It is as simple as that.

UPDATE:  Mr. Davis was executed at 11:08 pm, Eastern.  I am sorry for it.  May God have mercy on his soul and comfort his friends and family in this hour of trial.  May God also preserve and strengthen the family and friends of officer Mark MacPhail.

Our Really Lousy Housing Market

Mark Noonan25 Comments

From Zero Hedge:

In its schizophrenic manner, the media across the country lamented the housing-starts numbers, which were ugly: 571,000 annualized in August, down 5% from July, down 5.8% from August 2010, and down 75% from its peak of 2.3 million in January 2006. But for the housing market to heal, that number should be near zero for years.

18 million vacant units, that’s the problem. While some people dispute that number, everyone agrees that the inventory of vacant units is huge. Whether it’s 18 million or 12 million doesn’t change the problem. It only changes the duration of the healing process. This is the hangover from the housing bubble when the industry built millions of units for speculators who never had any intention of living there. And now, no one lives there…

Believe it or not, even out here in Las Vegas some new homes continue to be built – and I can’t see why.  To be sure, if someone actually came up to a home builder and specifically ordered a new home built, I could see that.  But we’re actually arguing right now over whether a developer should be able to start a new, high-end housing development near Red Rock canyon (I’m forthrightly opposed…first off, because we don’t need additional housing in the metropolitan Las Vegas area, secondly because I don’t want to see the Red Rock area marred by another round of cookie cutter houses…and if you do come to visit Las Vegas, do head out to Red Rock; you’ll not be disappointed and its not a long drive…you can even go horseback riding out there).  That aside, the article is right – we should be building zero new homes…now and for  many years.  We’re already glutted…and now that the courts have ok’d it, the banks are about to proceed with another very large round of foreclosures.  The problem will get massively worse before it ever gets better.

As for what to do with all the construction workers – my best idea for them is to shift them over to manufacturing, farming and mining…and, of course, whatever related construction will be necessary for an expansion of those industries.  We simply do not need houses…not only are we over-built but we’re running out of people to put in the houses, anyways.  The Boomers are retiring and, if anything, downsizing their housing…the follow-on generations are much smaller.  The idea that housing will be a core component of American wealth creation is over with  – it won’t be, not for another 50 years, and even then only if we throttle the Culture of Death and start having children again. There will always be a need for some home construction, of course…houses do deteriorate over time, but we’ll not need as much home construction as before.  And perhaps our home builders instead of throwing up cracker box houses can work on building houses designed to last a century with no major repairs?  More brick and stone, less drywall and stucco-over-chicken wire?  Housing which uses wind and solar to provide some  of their own electricity?  Houses that dispose of more of their own waste?  Maybe houses with bigger lots and built to make a neighborhood look normal rather than manufactured?  Just a thought…

A complete re-working of our economy will be necessary in order for full recovery to occur.  As I’ve endlessly harped upon – Making, Mining and Growing things.  We can’t live on home construction, auto manufacturing will never be as premier as it once was…and the cool, electronic gadgets are nice (and we should strive to lead the world in this area) but they can’t provide the literal tens of millions of jobs we’re going to need.  Only getting out there in to factories to make our own mundane items – clothes, tools, etc – and mining our own wealth out of the ground and growing not only our own food, but the world’s food will do it.  And in order to get there, we have to re-work our tax and regulatory systems to ensure that those who are willing to make, mine and grow things are left unhindered and, indeed, fostered by government action.  And even then, good people, it will be 20 years before American prosperity returns fully.

But, we can do it, if we want…now, do we want to?

Liberal States Worst for Business

Mark Noonan36 Comments

Another example of the results of applied liberalism – from the Chicago Tribune:

…Nearly one quarter of the survey’s 322 respondents said Illinois had one of the least favorable business climates, according to Development Counsellors International, which specializes in economic development and tourism marketing.

Taxes and high costs were among the factors that contributed to the state’s poor showing in the survey. California was deemed to have the worst business climate, followed by New York and Illinois…

…Texas, North Carolina and South Carolina were viewed as having the best business climates, according to the survey.

It is just a simple fact of life – the more taxes and regulations you throw on business, the harder it becomes for business to exist.  Liberals are steadily killing the goose which laws the golden eggs.  The only businesses which can do well are those who donate heavily to liberals…and in return such businesses get tax and regulatory breaks.  But, still, the overall effect on business is chilling…and the worst effect is not so much the actual taxes and regulations, but the fact that taxes and regulations can be increased or changed on a whim.  Some liberal State legislator gets a burr up his butt and all of a sudden a new tax is laid or another onerous regulation imposed.  Because of this, business either flees to friendlier jurisdictions or, at best, just stands pat and never expands.

We are getting a very useful course of instruction right now – our States are pretty much divided between Red and Blue.  Not too many States with a really divided government.  And, so, the experiment is proceeding…liberalism being applied here, conservatism being applied there.  In a few, short years the inescapable results will be in, and the people will be able to see, finally and for good, which set of policies actually works.  And not just in a purely business sense – the stunning turn around in Wisconsin following upon Walker’s reforms are showing that even in government action, applied conservatism provides better government at a lower cost.

We’re watching the process of liberalism killing itself off…it can no longer hide behind conservative forces coming to liberalism’s rescue.  No more can some like an uber-liberal Dukakis in Massachusetts claim a  liberal “economic miracle” which was actually brought about by Reagan policies nationally.  No longer can a liberal President take credit for welfare reform and a balanced budget brought forth by a Republican Congress.  Liberalism is out on its own…and it is failing, with no one to blame but liberalism.

We might be witnessing Liberalism’s last year…and it may come about that it will never trouble us again, at least through our life times.

HAT TIP:  Mish’s

Fast and Furious Body Count: 200

Mark Noonan3 Comments

From Townhall:

In a conference call this morning with Chairman of the House Oversight Committee Darrell Issa, reporters were told the Attorney General in Mexico has confirmed at least 200 murders south of the border happened as a result of Operation Fast and Furious.

“I would be remiss if I didn’t mention, as the Attorney General in Mexico is so concerned, she’s made the point that at least 200 Mexicans have been killed with these weapons and probably countless more,” Issa said.

Eleven crimes in the United States have been linked to Operation Fast and Furious up to this point. Issa said he expects as the investigation in the operation continues, more crimes connected to Fast and Furious will come to light and be exposed. This is not surprising, considering out of 2500 weapons the Obama Justice Department allowed to “walk,” and that only 600 have been recovered…

This, my fellow Americans, is a stain upon our national honor – it was we, through our government, which allowed these weapons to flow to Mexico.  We did it deliberately – and, why?  My view, as I’ve said before, is that it was a sick attempt to reinvigorate the gun control forces in this nation.  Not being able to get any traction as all the gun control ideology has proven false, someone cooked up a plan to arm Mexican criminals and then blame honest, innocent American gun dealers for the weapons…we were never supposed to find out that the weapons were purchased by the US government and illegally transferred to the drug gangs.

In order to restore our national honor in this matter we simply must get to the bottom of it – we must find out exactly who ordered this program to go forward and, in the best case scenario, ensure they see the inside of a jail cell.  People are dead because someone in DC made an egregiously stupid decision…we owe it to the dead to punish the guilty and ensure it never happens again.

Poll: Obama Leads Palin by 5 Points

Mark Noonan23 Comments

From the Miami Herald:

…After trailing Obama by more than 20 percentage points in polls all year, the new national survey, taken Sept. 13-14, found Palin trailing the president by just 5 points, 49-44 percent. The key reason: She now leads Obama among independents, a sharp turnaround.

Overall, the gains among Republicans “speak to Obama’s decline among independents generally, and how the middle is not his right now,” said Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion, which conducted the national survey…

She is not even an announced candidate and she’s been the victim of a three year long slander campaign which did not even spare her children from the muck…and she’s only five points back of The One!  This is the kind of poll which is going to make Democrats reach for the antacid.

 

Solnydra Exec’s to Take the 5th

Mark Noonan4 Comments

And I don’t mean a nice bottle of Scotch – from Reuters:

Solyndra LLC’s chief executive and chief financial officer will invoke their Fifth Amendment rights and decline to answer any questions put to them at a Congressional hearing on Friday, according to letters from their attorneys obtained by Reuters.

In the letters sent to the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, attorneys for Solyndra CEO Brian Harrison and CFO W. G. Stover said they advised their clients not to provide testimony during the hearings.

The bankrupt company’s $535 million federal loan guarantee is being investigated by the House Energy and Commerce Committee…

Which means, of course, that someone broke the law somewhere along the line…if you are honest as the day is long and have nothing to be ashamed of (or are of sufficient moral courage to admit to error, regardless of consequences), then you don’t take the 5th.  I know it is one of our bedrock rights…there is nothing wrong with refusing to answer as it might incriminate yourself.  But if you don’t answer, it means there is something incriminating going on.  Period.  End of story.

Likely they are keeping their mouths shut as their lawyers try to figure out whether any of them can get jail time for what happened…and their lawyers will likely demand some sort of immunity grant before they openly testify.  We can’t give it to them…they might take it and then just lie about what they know.  And we need to know what happened – only the threat of jail time will really get them to talk.  And if the genuinely turn State’s evidence, then we can consider being lenient…but nothing until we know for sure whatever they end up saying is completely factual.

What we need to know is just how the loan was made – who asked whom and why was it approved.  If there is criminal liability, then we need to ensure that everyone who made the decision sees the inside of a jail…and ultimately we need to know what the President knew, and when he knew it.  Maybe Obama is completely clear of this and it was rogue subordinates…but only a full investigation with complete White House cooperation can show that.