From Pajamas Media:

…On July 26, Reuters reported that only three cargoes of gasoline had arrived for the month — coming from Turkey and China — and a fourth was expected to arrive soon from Venezuela. Between 11 and 13 cargoes of gasoline normally arrive during this time of year, so this is a major drop.

Security forces have been deployed to major gas stations to prevent them from becoming scenes of discontent. On July 23, there were clashes in Tehran when those waiting in a long line at Roosevelt Gas Station greeted the security forces by shouting “Death to dictatorship.”…

The corrupt regime in Tehran is suffering the normal fate of such things – increasing inability to provide the basic needs of the people. Some last longer than others, but all regimes which are not at least to some extent free eventually have this problem. And this problem for Iran presents us with our best opportunity in at least a decade to bring the Iranian regime to heel – and perhaps even engineer its destruction.

This is the pressure point for Iran – they must import most of their gasoline. Plans have been set afoot by the Iranian regime to end this vulnerability (which plans may or may not work – corrupt regimes also have a problem in getting things done even in emergency situations), but for right now and for at least many months, we can exert huge pressure on the Iranian regime without having to engage in direct, military confrontation. We can hold up all gasoline shipments to Iran – we control the seas, absolutely – and no gas, no ability of the regime to continue suppressing the Iranian people.

We can force them to give up their nuclear program in return for allowing gasoline to arrive. We can force them to cease supporting the terrorists in Afghanistan and Iraq. We can pretty much make the leadership of Iran dance to our tune – but only if we act swiftly and firmly.

And I’m afraid that “swift and firm” just doesn’t exist in our government right now – we could be blowing a golden, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

From Reuters:

Foreclosures rose in three of every four large U.S. metro areas in this year’s first half, likely ruling out sustained home price gains until 2013, real estate data company RealtyTrac said on Thursday.

Unemployment was the main culprit driving foreclosure actions on more than 1.6 million properties, the company said…

It is a strange thing – I know people who have essentially not done anything (no payments, no discussions with lender, etc) for nearly two years, and no action has been taken against them. I also know people who got foreclosed on very fast. The thing I see in the home lending business, from my point of view, is a complete lack of understanding coupled with rank incompetence – at the banks, it does appear that the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing.

Be that as it may, the problem is so large that even with banks using “extend and pretend” as much as possible with home loans, the number of foreclosures continues to sky rocket. I bet that if everyone who was 90 days or more late got a foreclosure notice, it would amount to millions of people.

There is no cure for this in the sense of any expectation of swiftly stabilizing prices, followed by a steady increase. Until we really allow things to fall flat – or work out alternative methods of essentially sending our housing market through bankruptcy reorganization (“cram down” or my more recent idea of working out a leasing program for foreclosed homes) – we won’t reach the bottom on housing prices. But here’s the really bad news: once we reach bottom, we won’t climb out any time soon – perhaps not for a decade or more.

The reason for that is pure demographics – even if the economy improves, it’ll be several years before wealth and credit are rebuilt to the point where the pool of eligible buyers is sufficient to clear out existing inventory. And even at that point, there will still be a negative drag on home price increases as the Boomers retire and start to die off. Such people will not be looking for big, new homes – if anything, they’ll be looking to downsize…and as they die of old age, the upcoming generation will prove too small to make up the difference in demand.

All is not gloom and doom – this situation will keep homes cheap for people just starting out in life, provided they can get jobs – but it is a harsh situation and we should meet it squarely. No more illusions about a rapid recovery; no more idiot theories that home prices will rebound towards 2006 levels; no more price supports for a dead housing market.

Amazing one one gets in the mail – especially if a friend of yours is registered as an Independent in Nevada.

Someone else picks up on it – only a short 16 months after I first noted this:

The Internet is a large-scale version of the “Committees of Correspondence” that led to the first American Revolution — and with Washington’s failings now so obvious and awful, it may lead to another.

People are asking, “Is the government doing us more harm than good? Should we change what it does and the way it does it?”…

Or, as I put it:

… We don’t want our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor destroyed to placate the false gods of group-think, environmentalism and grievance-mongering.

Liberalism won the 2008 election, but it did not win the right to dictate to the whole nation how it shall live…we didn’t vote once and for all for Obama’s vision of America…

The fundamental flaw in the Obama Administration – and liberalism as a whole – was the presumption that the 2008 result was definitive. They really thought that the majority had voted for liberalism. The fact of the matter is that the people who gave Obama his victory voted not for liberalism, but against a worn-out GOP and in favor of fundamental change in the way government does business.

“Change” didn’t mean “spend even more money on a failed governing theory”. It also didn’t mean “in the first non-white Administration, harp endlessly upon racism”. It further didn’t mean “hey, now we can be even more corrupt than before!”. Most importantly, it did not mean “the people a ticked off about Bush’s TARP, so lets do even more of it!”.

It is our good fortune – such good fortune as can easily be classed as God’s grace – that our Founders set up a system where by even in our current condition, we can have a revolution at the ballot box. And we will have one – its starts this November, and it will go on for a generation. We will restore America – we will be free, now and forever.

So, what does having a root canal have to do with either the price of tea in China or whether or not you get a good blog entry for the AM? Nothing with the former; for the latter, it just means my jaw hurts and I’m tired – so no good entry.

On the other hand, there were a lot of great subjects to cover:

FDIC Friday – bank failures hit 106 for 2010.

Democrats are raking in lobbyist cash.

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) joins Rangel in ethics hot water.

59% still back the Arizona immigration law.

And Iowahawk takes on that creepy birthday card for the President thing.

From CBS:

While BP took a $17 billion loss in the second quarter, the financial news isn’t all bad for the beleaguered oil giant.

That’s because the amount the oil company set aside to cover the costs of the oil spill will end up saving the oil giant $10 billion in U.S taxes, according to an msnbc.com report…

This just goes to my point about corporate taxes – they are utterly pointless. Corporations don’t pay them – even if you manage to get a dollar from a corporate bank account in to the Treasury, it is just going to be taken out of the pockets of consumers or employees, or both. Better to just give it up and seek revenues elsewhere.

This should make our liberals have a hissy fit – both in the fact that its humorous as well as having a kindness to Sarah Palin they are incapable of:

The troops are in the thick of it:

In a summer of suffering, America’s military death toll in Afghanistan is rising, with back-to-back record months for U.S. losses in the grinding conflict. All signs point to more bloodshed in the months ahead, straining the already shaky international support for the war.

Six more Americans were reported killed in fighting in the south — three Thursday and three Friday — pushing the U.S. death toll for July to a record 66 and surpassing June as the deadliest month for U.S. forces in the nearly nine-year war…

Keep them in your prayers – always remember that while we are safe here at home, the best of America is overseas, fighting for us.

Pajamas Media has the run-down on the absurd reasoning from Senator Leahy.

What is happening here is a desperate attempt by Democrats to make this go away – everything is falling apart for them and they don’t want to have a case which promises to upset their own side if pursued – they need donation and as much enthusiasm as they can get from their base. This would be eroded greatly if they went after the truth about the NBPP.

And so, law and justice will be set aside – Democrats have more important hings on their mind…such as their own power and wealth.

This is Obama’s America. How do you like it?

From Rasmussen:

…A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 68% of U.S. voters now believe the United States should continue to build a fence on the Mexican border. That’s up nine points from March when the Obama administration halted funding for the fence and the highest level of support ever.

Just 21% oppose the continued building of the border fence.

Support for the fence is strong across all demographic groups. But while 76% of Mainstream voters think the United States should continue to build the fence, 67% of the Political Class are opposed to it…

Not much more be said than that – the people who presume to rule in our name are, once again, completely off the ranch. Remember, even people like me who do favor a path to citizenship for illegals and a guest worker program are in favor of strict border security. It takes a complete out-to-lunch elitist to be opposed to border security.

And thus the real battle of 2010 – not so much Republican vs Democrat, but People vs Powerful. In this year, the GOP is just the convenient vehicle of popular discontent. And if the GOP doesn’t understand that they are being sent do DC to do the people’s will, then they will be in their turn tossed out.

It is time for we, the people to completely reclaim our government – to make it our servant, not our master.

UPDATE: Amnesty without a vote?