I’d like to think that Crist has put this issue to bed – unless he’s a bald-faced liar, he has. And yet, the rumors that he’ll bolt the GOP and run as an independent just won’t die:

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist dodged another question Wednesday about whether he would run for the U.S. Senate as an independent, the Associated Press reports. The question referenced this story in today’s Wall Street Journal on how some of his advisers are pushing Crist to abandon his lagging Republican primary campaign.

Others are now wondering: How could Crist make such a move after his manager campaign, Eric Eikenberg, so vehemently denied it just last week. Eikenberg’s statement last week included this line: “To put these rumors to rest once and for all, as we have said countless times before, Governor Crist is running for the United States Senate as a Republican. He will not run as an Independent or as a No Party Affiliation.”

Which would, once again, seem to put an end on it for this story – but it keeps going and going and going. It could be, of course, that Democrats are keeping the drumbeat up in order to split the GOP vote – which is about the only way the Democrats could win in Florida this year.

Be that as it may, it is clearly decision time for Crist – his best move is to bow out gracefully and either try again another year, or wait for a Cabinet post in President Pal…errmmm…I mean, a Cabinet post in the next Republican Administration. Keeping at this forlorn race just hurts Crist’s chances elsewhere – while running as an Independent would mean the end of his career.

Its just as bad as you thought:

f you listen to certain politicians and talking heads you might get the impression that the federal fiscal sky is falling. Unfortunately, unlike Chicken Little, they may be right.

The Treasury Department recently issued the 2009 financial report of the United States government. Whereas there is lots of talk in Congress and in the press about the federal budget, the annual report was released to near silence. That’s too bad, not only because the annual report is untainted by creative accounting but also because its message is too important to ignore.

That message is that the sky is indeed falling…

Do read the linked article – but to nutshell it, our government is in the hole by at least $57.4 trillion dollars. If we don’t change course, then mere interest on government debt – just the interest! – will eat up 10% of GDP by 2040. That might seem like a long way off, but its when my grand-daughter will be trying to make a living and, presumptively, raise a family.

I’m not going to sit still for this – I’m not about to allow liberals in 2010 to steal the future of 2040. Revolutionary change is necessary, and it will be accomplished.

A hate-filled, kook-leftist, of course:

As you may suspect, crashtheteaparty.org was not created by a Republican or an independent, but instead by someone with a red-tinted sickle to grind. In this instance, the suspect appears to be a conspiratorial 36-year-old from the Pacific Northwest named Jason Levin. He started promoting the site on April 8 on his personal Twitter account, but failed to do an adequate job of covering up his personal information when he registered the domain five days earlier. He later attempted to cover his tracks, but the original information was quickly disseminated around the internet by those who wondered who was behind the group…

…Levin…is a middle school technology teacher who isn’t impressed by his students or his current job. He promotes a Firefighters for 911 truth site, which establishes his own conspiratorial bona fides as a truther. He indulges in his dislike of Republicans in general and in Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck in particular. Predictably, he doesn’t like Fox News. Other tweets on Mr. Levin’s page indicate that he is pro-ObamaCare and loves Keith Olbermann. Interestingly enough, he claims to not be a Democrat — presumably, his views are further to the left.

This is the core opposition, boys and girls – absolute screwball, nutcase leftists. Used to not be like this. Our toughest fights actually used to be with people like retiring Congresscritter Stupak. But back in 2003, Democrat leaders, gulled by Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11, allowed the insane to have a seat the table, and here we are.

They are hoping to “expose” us – what will actually happen is we’ll expose them. I’m going to one of the Tax Day TEA Parties, myself, and I will be armed with my video camera…we will find any of these idiots who show up and we will expose them for what they are. Be sure to do the same, yourself – do not attend a TEA Party without a means of recording what happened.

As we roll towards November and things stubbornly refuse to get better for the Democrats, we can expect ever more desperate tactics from the left. Brace yourself for it – and keep a clear eye on the goal. Don’t get mad – get to the polls.

A junk bond rally:

Record U.S. junk bond sales and a rally in leveraged loans are chipping away at the $1.2 trillion wall of maturing debt that’s threatened to cause a surge in defaults…

…Market watchers from Fridson to Bank of America Merrill Lynch strategist Oleg Melentyev to Robert Khuzami, the director of enforcement at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, have used the term “maturity wall” to describe the wave of bonds that need to be refinanced in coming years…

To translate from the Banksterese: companies are up against a wall of debt which is coming due in 2010 and 2011. This debt will cause a lot of companies to fail – so, they need to pay off the debt. Except they can’t – so, they’re selling junk bonds to refinance it.

They are refinancing low interest debt with high interest debt.

Its like a credit card balance transfer for idiots. Or, in this case, for the idiots who run our larger corporations and are only hoping they can kick the can down the road until they get their golden parachute.

All of this will be fine – if the economy goes on a massive boom and allows these companies to earn enough money to not only keep up with current expenses but also provide the massive amounts of money that will be needed to redeem these bonds at maturity. And if the economy doesn’t go on a rampage?

Then, they’re screwed. Won’t be able to redeem – will have to either refinance at an even higher rate, or go belly up.

This is the sort of thing I see which convinces me that we’re not in a recovery. We are in a speculative bubble fueled by easy money from the Federal Reserve and the US Treasury – as well as central banks around the world. Heard today that China will post 11.7% growth – its either a complete fraud (ie, made up numbers by Chinese apparatchiks who don’t want to bear ill tidings to the Central Committee), or a massively overheating economy which cannot sustain itself. Its like that all over the world – growth fueled by funny money.

Until the proof comes crashing down ’round our ears, I’ll have no way to show the boosters of this that they’re fools. You can never convince a speculator that he’s got it wrong until he’s selling apples on the street corner, as it were. But this cannot go on – at some point, the system will hit overload and the crash will be spectacular. Today, tomorrow, next week, next month, next year – one day, certain, it will happen.

I tend to think that once we get in to the junk bond rally phase, we’re probably not too far off the crash.

This one being the story that Red States have higher rates of abortion:

What about Koppelman’s arguments about culture, contraception, and sex education? Well, once again the data clearly show that Koppleman is incorrect. Data obtained from the Alan Guttmacher Institute shows that the 31 states that were won by George W. Bush in the 2004 election had an average abortion rate of about 12 abortions per thousand women of childbearing age. The 19 states that John Kerry won had an average abortion rate of over 20. The results were similar when data from the Centers for Disease Control was used.

Furthermore, the five states where John McCain received the highest percentage of votes in 2008 had an average abortion rate of 6.9. The five states where Barack Obama received the highest percentage of votes in 2008 had an average abortion rate of 22.6. Overall, it seems clear that politically conservative states have, on average, lower abortion rates, than their more liberal counterparts.

One of the recent pro-abortion arguments is that pro-abortion policies lower abortion rates (I know: its stupid on its face, but work with me here – we’re dealing with liberal “thinking”). By pouring out money for contraception, sex education and such, liberals claim that people then have less recourse to abortion – and then some liberals cooked the statistical books until they got the answer they desired.

This is a common tactic on the left – making stuff up and then dressing it up as a study in order to advance a bit of leftist ideology. Global warming got on like this, too.

Slander is pretty much all they’ve got over on the left side of the aisle. Time has passed them by, the truth is against them…like all ruling classes losing power, they are fighting a desperate, rear-guard action against revolutionary change.

It won’t work – we’ll be kicking them out. Soon.

But only if you’re Moslem:

SCOTLAND YARD has bowed to Islamic sensitivities and accepted that Muslims are entitled to throw shoes in ritual protest — which could have the unintended consequence of politicians or the police being hit.

News of the concession by the Metropolitan police has come to light amid a series of trials of more than 70 mostly Muslim demonstrators who were charged with violent disorder after last year’s Gaza protests outside the Israeli embassy in London.

Miserable, gutless cowards. Churchill is spinning in his grave.

Things are just booming out there, let me tell ya:

Perhaps the best remedy for sky-high office vacancy in Las Vegas should come in the form of a steel wrecking ball.

Like the residential and retail markets, the office market is overbuilt, with nearly 50 million square feet of inventory and a vacancy rate of 23.4 percent in the first quarter, compared with 19.6 percent vacancy a year ago, Las Vegas-based business advisory firm Applied Analysis reported…

…”In the coming months, we expect commercial real estate prices to decline further and we’re not seeing any true recovery until the end of the year to early next year,” Hillis said…

One of the things I get to see in my daily commute is a sign – one of those “putting America to work” signs with the thinly disguised Obama campaign logo. Been there for the better part of a year – still haven’t seen the work we’re supposed to be put to. Maybe Barry can have us all working at imploding building and plowing Las Vegas under? Last one in town take down the Obama sign?

On a more serious note, do read in to the stories on the economy – you’ll find the common thing being not so much gain, as not losing quite as fast as we were before. This is what is driving things like the stock market – cleverly written stories which seem to report good news and thus fool the gullible. The gullible seeming to be heavily represented by stock market investors, these days. Can’t really blame them – its all they know. They don’t know how to create wealth and if the stock market doesn’t work, they’re sunk.

Victor Davis Hanson has an interesting article over at Pajamas Media – a tour, as it were, through recession-plagued California. Rich, poor and middle class areas are surveyed. The strongest impression I took away from it is of a weak people kept afloat by massive government spending – but, now, the government is broke. Eventually, they checks will stop coming – and, what then?

Then, boys and girls, we’re going to find out who the real Americans are. Who has retained the spirit which founded and built this nation, and who we’ll be ashamed to call our fellow countrymen.

So much for people liking it after its passed:

Three weeks after Congress passed its new national health care plan, support for repeal of the measure has risen four points to 58%. That includes 50% of U.S. voters who strongly favor repeal.

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely voters nationwide finds 38% still oppose repeal, including 32% who strongly oppose it.

We are not, of course, a nation governed by polls. The people get to make their statement every other year in national politics and the results of November, 2008 will hold true until this November, regardless of how much change there is in the national political dynamic. That said, it is clear that Democrats have made an error – a big error. The only question remaining: is it a fatal error?

Only time can really answer that question, but we can see the outline of things. Clearly, the Obama theory that people would fall in love with it once passed has proven false. Far from fading away, the outrage over the manner in which ObamaCare was passed continue to fuel anti-liberal enthusiasm. Republicans get ever more white-hot in their passion, Independents swing ever more strongly towards the GOP and the TEA Party continues to grow and capture the imagination of the American people.

All the ingredients exist for a political tsunami to sweep away the old ways of doing things. We’ll just have to see if the GOP comes up with the leaders and the plans to make it happen.

This example from Los Angeles:

…(LA Mayor) Villaraigosa’s City Hall operations spend nearly $8 million a year — $1.8 million more than predecessor Jim Hahn, and $1.4 million more than Mayor Richard Riordan before him. In early February Villaraigosa seemed quick to make a dubious order to cut 1,000 workers from the city’s payroll, a move he might not have authority to make. But his own budget has been somewhat of a sacred cow.

Alvarado used California Public Records Act requests to find out that the mayor spent a whopping $9 million on his office, staff and salaries in 2008-2009 fiscal year. The mayor’s office, according to the report, employs 173 workers. Hahn had 121. Riordan had 114.

Villaraigosa’s operations employ 12 deputy mayors (who have once assistant each), 10 financial advisers, eight communication advisers, seven energy-and-environment advisers, six transportation advisers and three international-trade advisers. The biggest divisions inside the office include neighborhood community services, with 25 employees, executive services, with 23, and legislative and intergovernmental relations, with 19.

And do keep in mind that Los Angeles is broke. Bankrupt. Hasn’t got a pot to p*** in. Turn out the lights and close the door – the liberal show is over. But there goes the liberal Mayor, with 12 deputy mayors, each with an assistant.

This is how liberalism works in practice – just pile it on and spend, spend, spend. It doesn’t matter – money is magical and there will never be an end to it. You can always tax “the rich”, to make up any shortfall – but don’t tax the actual rich, because then they’ll get mad and might not invite you to the cool parties in Beverly Hills and Malibu. Doing that could also jeopardize your ability to get a high paid job once you leave office.

Los Angeles is relatively small scale – DC is massive scale. But its all of a piece – its all the same. Make Villaraigosa President and Obama Mayor of Los Angeles, and there wouldn’t be anything different happening in either place. Obama’s staff is also quite bloated – heck, so is the First Lady’s.

Once again, its all just magic play money and you’ve got to find jobs for all these people – you can’t expect liberal-arts graduates from elite universities to work in the private sector, you know? Who would want them? But they’ve got to be employed – and where better than in high paid, low-work government jobs where they can mouth liberal jargon and burnish each others resumes?

It is this that we fight against. No, liberals, I’m afraid its not because we’re a bunch of knuckle-dragging, toothless, racist gun- and Bible-clingers. Its because you freaking idiots are ruining the nation – and we have to rescue this Great Republic, from you. We don’t hate you – we pity your asinine worldview and wonder how in heaven’s name you managed to become so out of touch with reality – and yet still call yourselves the “reality-based community”?

And we’re going to clear you out – starting in November.

The headline:

Unified by hatred of Obama, GOP still searches for challenger

Not a chance that we may be unified by love of country? How about us being unified by our opposition to Obama’s liberal policies?

Nope. Not in MSM-land – there, the only reason to oppose Obama is because you hate him, which also implies, of course, that you’re a racist who just can’t stand the thought of a black man as President.

This is what we mean by “media bias” – in the way stories are selected and presented, rather than in any direct attacks on our side. Just glance at the headline over the morning cup of coffee and you’ll get an impression of the world which is at variance with the facts – and that is just what the MSM wants: people not tuned in to reality, but tuned in to the MSM narrative.

Why? Because that is what helps liberal Democrats and that is all the MSM exists for, as far as politics goes.