Greek credit default swaps are going through the roof as no one really believes the Greeks have controlled their spending.

The Irish are unwilling to mortgage themselves to the European Central Bank…but this, in turn, puts all of the Eurozone at risk.

Wal Mart can’t shake off the sales doldrums.

China’s running ’round like a chicken with its head cut off as everyone tries to figure out just how high Chinese inflation is (hint: its probably a lot higher than the official government better-agree-with-them-or-we’ll-shoot-you numbers).

Interest rates are rising in spite of the Fed’s efforts.

Government employees owe billions in delinquent taxes.

Portugal goes to the brink of default.

All in all, I get the distinct impression that no one really knows what is going on, or has even the first clue of what to do – mostly because they are all trying to shore up a failed economic model based on usury and fiat money.

Will they hold the line this time as they did in the spring? Possibly – but one day it will all be done; it really can’t go on forever.

But, we already knew that:

A House ethics panel has convicted Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) on 11 of 13 counts of violating House ethics rules.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), the chairwoman of the adjudicatory subcommittee and the full House ethics committee, announced the decision late Tuesday morning following an abbreviated public trial of the 20-term lawmaker and nearly six hours of deliberations.

“We have tried to act with fairness, led only by the facts and the law,” Lofgren said. “We believe we have accomplished that mission.”…

We’ll now see if they’ve learned anything at all from November 2nd. Expulsion from the House is the proper answer to this; censure is the bare minimum…but will they end up just slapping his wrist? We shall see.

Great news, if it works out – from NRO’s The Corner:

…Without naming names, DeMint cautioned that those who continued to support the earmarking process would be help accountable by the American people at the polls. “This is just the beginning,” DeMint said. “2012 is going to make what just happened look small if we continue.”

Phil Kerpen, AFP’s vice president for policy, was more explicit. “They have to ban earmarks,” he said of Senate Republicans. “Any Republican who does not vote to ban earmarks will have a primary challenge.” Kerpen urged the fired-up crowd to “keep the heat on” senators who may be wavering; cries of “They’re next!” were shouted back in response…

…DeMint said he was “optimistic” Senate Republicans have gotten the message and told reporters on a conference call earlier today that “we probably have the edge by a vote or two.”

I’m not sure if that means DeMint figures he’s got enough to pass it through the Senate, or just enough to ensure the GOP caucus goes on record against earmarks. Either way works out fine, for us. Better, of course if we could get a ban on earmarks (or even a two year moratorium on them), but as long as the GOP shows the American people that we’re serious about cutting the waste, we’re on solid ground.

The American people spoke very loud and clear on November 2nd – Government must be reformed to reflect the will of the American people. This is not a time for politics as usual – we need to clear out the rot, and banning earmarks is vital for this. Not just for the amount of money (which is relatively small compared to total government spending), but as a signal that the message has been received, and a new game has come to town.

A bankrupt nation needs a government which clearly understands what the people want. We are probably in for some very hard times over the next few years, even if things go well for us. In order for people to have an retain faith in government – indeed, in our way of life – they must see that the people in government understand. Spending cuts, rooting out corruption, tax reform – all of these, and more, are what the American people want, and we’d better give it to them…or face a tidal wave of anger in 2012 and beyond.

That is the percentage increase in federal workers making over $180,000.00 per year over the past five years – from Zero Hedge:

…The numbers are stunning: those earning over $150,000 in the past five years have grown from 7,420 to 82,034, a 1,006% increase. More shockingly, those earning over $180,000 has surged from just 805 in 2005, to 16,912 in 2010: a 2,001% increase. And it is on the background of this that Congress is planning on giving 2.1 million federal workers another 1.4% across the board pay raise! Additionally, it appears that the bulk of the gains have taken place since Obama took office…

This is the sort of insanity we’re dealing with. We’re a bankrupt nation – there is no money left; we’re faced with making harsh choices on what to keep and what to let go, and here’s the federal government larding up the payroll. At a time when Americans in the private sector wonder if they’ll even have a job, federal workers are experiencing a boom. This just can’t go on – the government can only prosper if the American economy prospers, but we’ve got a situation where a dying economy is forced to splurge on an out of control government.

Naturally, our liberals are fully behind this – the more government workers get paid, the more dedicated they are to expanding government, and the more union dues are available as Democrat campaign cash. Your tax dollars at work – paying Democrats to stay in charge so they can take more of your money to lavish on themselves!

At the minimum, there should be a 10%, across-the-board pay cut for all government employees…20% for all elected officials; no cuts to members of the armed forces and armed law enforcement. Even such a cut would be symbolic – but at least a bow to the fact that the people are hurting. If the government can’t do even this in solidarity with the people, then it is no good, entirely.

Or money printing, as it really should be know – from the Wall Street Journal:

A group of prominent Republican-leaning economists, coordinating with Republican lawmakers and political strategists, is launching a campaign this week calling on Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke to drop his plan to buy $600 billion in additional U.S. Treasury bonds.

“The planned asset purchases risk currency debasement and inflation, and we do not think they will achieve the Fed’s objective of promoting employment,” they say in an open letter to be published as ads this week in The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times…

And, of course, they won’t achieve their stated objective – ie, higher employment. But what if that is not the real objective? What if the objective is to just devalue our currency until the debt we have outstanding becomes next to worthless? Sure, this would ruin the middle class, but the rich would be fine, the poor would be no poorer than they are now and, most important, Big Government would be out of debt and thus able to resume growing.

Why think like that? Because I can’t imagine that Bernanke is really that much of an idiot. I mean, come on! He tried trillions of this last year and it gave us absolutely nothing. Europe is back on the cusp of sovereign default, China is getting hit with inflation as a precursor to their collapse, Australia’s housing bubble has finally burst…everything is going to heck in a hand basket, and Bernanke wants to print more money? What for? Even if it “worked” it wouldn’t work because the global economy is about to go in to a tailspin – and we already know by recent experience that it won’t work. And, so – I do wonder if the plan is just to get rid of debt by making US paper worthless…

I am glad that some GOP lawmakers are taking a hard look at Fed policy, but we’ll have to see if there’s any follow through. We must audit the Fed and, in my view, abolish it – but, at the least, audit it. Find out where the money has gone. And establish some Congressional controls over monetary policy (yes, I know; Congress is filled with idiots, too…but idiots we can fire every two years, unlike the Fed). We really need to get a handle on this – sincere belief in Keynesianism or sick plan to screw our creditors, the end result will be the same: utter disaster.

Seems that Bob “Who Are You?” Etheridge has, at long last, fallen to Renee Ellmers per Powerline:

…Ellmers now appears to have prevailed over Etheridge by 1,489 votes, and should be certified the winner by the North Carolina authorities on November 23. Etheridge has demanded a recount that would be completed before certification of the results takes place. In the meantime, Ellmers is planning to take office with the new Congress…

I guess bullying kids didn’t quite play as well as Etheridge might have liked. This victory, though delayed, is a bit sweeter than the rest as Etheridge, during his rage over the kids who dared to ask him questions, just showed the Ruling Class for the out-of-touch tyrants they are.

Talk about getting desperate – from USA Today:

In case you were wondering if President Obama will seek re-election: Top adviser David Axelrod confirmed today he will leave the White House in the first half of next year to start organizing Obama’s 2012 campaign.

“Sometime in the spring, late winter, early spring, I’ll be going back — coming back here — to Chicago and beginning to work on that project,” Axelrod told Fox News Sunday today…

Translation: “if we don’t do something quick, we’ll have Obama calling President-elect Palin by 8pm, Eastern on November 6th, 2012”.

A first term President always has an eye on the next election – its natural. But, usually, a President doesn’t start the ball rolling until, oh, October or November of the year before. Its not like a sitting President has to gear up for the primary season, right? Normally, that is a coast and you don’t start really putting your plan together until (a) you’ve got a fix on the condition of the country and (b) have a good idea of the two or three people you’re most likely to be fighting on the other side. Moving this soon signals that Obama and Co know that they’ve lost the country and need to essentially start from scratch on selling Obama to the American people.

It would be just too good to be true to think they’d try to run on Obama’s record. Leaving aside that sort of suicidal run, we have to expect that Obama’s plan will be to in some manner demonize the GOP. To do for the national GOP what Reid did to Sharron Angle here in Nevada…just rip and shred to the point where even a horrifically unpopular incumbent can come out on top. We already know that Obama’s people are muck-raking the possible GOP contenders – Axelrod’s job may be to set up a smear campaign against all of them, and then let it go once a real front runner emerges.

Our best defense against this is to settle on our nominee fairly quickly. We’ll have to see how that comes out – a lot of people want a crack at Obama. And that is fine – but we rank-and-filers should be exerting pressure on all the GOP prospects to hold fire on each other and reserve that for Obama and the Democrats. GOP to GOP, it should all be kept on a high road, and let the primary electorate decide. Once a few primaries have come and gone, if there’s a front runner, then all the rest should gracefully bow out.

Outside of the nominee, conservative groups should look to hammer Obama in independent expenditures starting in December of 2011. This should be done for two reasons – to remind people just how lousy Obama has been, and to force him to expend resources defending himself, as opposed to attacking Republicans. Pressure must be kept up on the Democrats while we Republicans determine whom are nominee will be – we can’t leave the field clear for the Democrats as that allows them to define us, perhaps disastrously.

Still and all, it is a clearly much weaker Obama heading in to 2012. We must have no illusions – beating a sitting President is extraordinarily hard and we must work on the assumption that Obama will be re-elected in 2012. We can, however, beat him – and beat him very badly, if we keep stout hearts, lay aside internecine bickering and remember that we’re doing this for America, not for the Republican party.

From Politics Daily:

North Carolina Rep. Heath Shuler said Sunday he would challenge House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for the leadership of the Democratic minority in the next Congress although he acknowledged that he does not have the votes to win.

“We’ve just come off the largest … loss for the Democratic Party in almost a century,” Shuler said on CNN’s State of the Union. “And to be able to put Speaker Pelosi as minority leader is truly … unacceptable for our party.”

“If she doesn’t step aside then … I’m going to press forward,” he said…

Which is honorable and, unfortunately, pointless. To be sure, Democrats are absolutely insane to think of re-installing Nancy Pelosi as leader. I can only figure they are either so insulated from reality – or so afraid of crossing her – that they can’t think straight. It isn’t just words when we Republicans say we’re delighting Nancy will remain – its a gift which will keep on giving for us. It makes it almost a certainty that we’ll retain the House in 2012, even if the economy turns around and Obama is re-elected…no one is going to vote for people who will put Pelosi back in the Speaker’s chair, and there’s an end on it.

Really, what Democrats with any sense have to do is walk out – form a new party. As long as the power dynamic within the party is such that Nancy Pelosi can be leader, there will be no reform which will make Democrats palatable to the broader electorate. If Shuler wants to do something useful, he should lead this walk out. Taking a quixotic stand against Pelosi, and then calling it a day, will be, at best, just a worthless gesture…at worst, it will be something done mere to make himself electable in 2012.

The far left owns the Democrat party – they and their fat cat sponsors like George Soros. There’s no place there for people who want what is best for America.

Seems that Charlie raided his own PAC stash:

Congressman Charles Rangel, whose ethics trial starts tomorrow, appears to have improperly used political-action committee money to pay for his defense.

Rangel tapped his National Leadership PAC for $293,000 to pay his main legal-defense team this year. He took another $100,000 from the PAC in 2009 to pay lawyer Lanny Davis.

Two legal experts told The Post such spending is against House rules.

“It’s a breach of congressional ethics,” one campaign-finance lawyer said…

But it doesn’t matter – Rangel was re-elected, and the House Democrats will dispose of his case before the GOP gets in. So, its all good, you see? Corruption? That isn’t important! What is important is that a tool of the special interests remains in office so that taxpayer cash can continue to flow. Geesh, do we have to draw you a picture here?