From Wired:

By late 2003, even the Bush White House’s staunchest defenders were starting to give up on the idea that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

But for years afterward, WikiLeaks’ newly-released Iraq war documents reveal, U.S. troops continued to find chemical weapons labs, encounter insurgent specialists in toxins, and uncover weapons of mass destruction…

Which is not entirely news – we’ve known for years that quite a lot of WMDs were found in Iraq. What wasn’t found was brand, new stockpiles of WMDs…but, they were there; as it turns out, at the end of the day, the intelligence services were right in that Saddam retained WMDs and was working to reconstitute his WMD program. Now that a pinko site has put the word out, will liberals admit they were slandering Bush over the issue?

I doubt it.

P. J. O’Rourke provides the answer:

…They don’t just hate our Republican, conservative, libertarian, strict constructionist, family values guts. They hate everybody’s guts. And they hate everybody who has any. Democrats hate men, women, blacks, whites, Hispanics, gays, straights, the rich, the poor, and the middle class.

Democrats hate Democrats most of all. Witness the policies that Democrats have inflicted on their core constituencies, resulting in vile schools, lawless slums, economic stagnation, and social immobility. Democrats will do anything to make sure that Democratic voters stay helpless and hopeless enough to vote for Democrats…

Behind the joke there is the truth – that when you wallow in moral depravity for long enough, you start to think it worthy. In other words, if you become a creep and work at it, creepiness will eventually be seen by you as a virtue. Democrat leaders lie all the time, they use slander whenever necessary, they cheat at the ballot box at every opportunity…and they think this is good.

So, our job is to boot them out of power – hopefully, once they are out, they’ll start to think about things and come back to a sense of honor.

Over at Zero Hedge, Jim Quinn has an excellent piece which explodes the Keynesian myths about the Great Depression, as well as those myths being peddled today as a cure for the current one. The crucial thing to remember is that the mechanism which got us in to the Great Depression is the same which got is in to our current mess:

…They don’t call the 1920s roaring because money wasn’t flowing freely and consumers were practicing frugality. The newly created Federal Reserve expanded credit by setting below-market interest rates and low reserve requirements that favored the big Wall Street banks. The Federal Reserve increased the money supply by 60% during the period following the recession of 1921. By the latter part of the decade, “buying on margin” entered the American vocabulary as more and more Americans overextended themselves to speculate on the soaring stock market.

The 1920s marked the beginning of mass production and the emergence of consumerism in America, with automobiles a prominent symbol of the latter. In 1919, there were just 6.7 million cars on American roads. By 1929, the number had grown to more than 27 million cars, or nearly one car for every household. During this period banks offered the country’s first home mortgages and manufacturers of everything – from cars to irons – allowed consumers to pay “on time.” Installment credit soared during the 1920s. About 60% of all furniture and 75% of all radios were purchased on installment plans. Thrift and saving were replaced in the new consumer society by spending and borrowing…

Sound familiar? Its pretty much what we did from 1993 until 2008; vastly increase money supply and go on a borrow and spending binge (public and private) which boosted the economy with a false glow of health, but all the while catastrophe was impending as the bills came due. Do keep in mind that there is plenty of Republican as well as Democrat blame to go around here; don’t get too hung up on blame games. Fundamentally, it was the economic system – erected by the Federal Reserve – which got us in to the Great and current Depression.

The article goes on to note that the “cure” for the Depression (old and new) has been the same…massively increasing the same sorts of activities which caused the problem. Hoover is blamed in dishonest histories of the era as sitting there doing nothing and it took FDR’s big spending New Deal to get us moving – as the linked article points out, Hoover increased per-capita federal spending by 88%; it didn’t work, and all FDR could think to do was double and triple down (as Obama seems to want to do now) on the same failed, easy money policies. They will have the same effect now as they did then – a temporary boost to GDP which will lead to further and worse disaster down the road.

It was, ultimately, the disruptions of the First World War which set in train the economic crisis which the Federal Reserve (and other central banks) set to “cure” by easy money policies. Wealth having been massively withered away by war, populations having lost between war and disease at least 60 million fit, young people (a majority of them in the most advanced, industrial societies), there was no chance the world was going to get out of it without at least a generation of strained economics. This was not something completely new to human experience – in post-Napoleonic Europe, there was economic depression for 15 years. You don’t just walk past earth-shaking events without getting a scratch…though the Keynesians (old and new) believe you can.

We got lucky post-WWII in that there was a population boom which stimulated American production allowing us to build up real wealth for the first time since pre-WWI. But as the population boom leveled off and the global economy rebuilt itself (especially Japan and Germany, which had been literally blown to pieces in WWII), the strain resumed on the American economy. We had a choice – hunker down, retrench and continue to build wealth until we were past the crunch, or go on another binge of easy money. The Federal Reserve (with the gleeful agreement of the Banksters and Bureaucrats) opted for a binge of easy money. Lowered tax rates in the 1980’s helped rebuild a bit of American wealth, but starting during that time and accelerating in the 90’s, we started to move our wealth to Third World nations while using easier and easier monetary policy to keep up an illusion of wealth here at home.

As I’ve said before, we can only work our way out of this. First, we must admit that we’re broke – not only out of money, but massively in debt. We have to retrench – balance our budgets, slash our taxes, ease our regulatory burden. We have to allow asset prices – home, stocks, everything – to reach their real value (which is still a lot lower than they are now) and then we have to get to work making, mining and growing more of our own stuff. It will take a generation to get back up to genuine prosperity – the generation we should have given in 1919, but have continually put off for nearly a century. The piper must be paid, and while we can whine and moan that we’re stuck with the bill, there’s just nothing for it but for us to do the right thing.

And especially if the possible law breaker is the brother of Kentucky AG and Democrat Senate candidate Jack Conway:

A Jefferson County prosecutor was tipped off by Louisville narcotics detectives twice in the past two years that he was under investigation for possible drug use or trafficking, according to police records obtained by The Courier-Journal.

When investigators learned of the leaks and interrogated the two detectives and the prosecutor last March, all three initially gave false or misleading statements about what happened, those records show. The statements of Matthew C. Conway, the prosecutor, were made under oath…

While Jack Conway is asserting that his only involvement was to advise his brother to seek legal counsel, that just doesn’t ring true. Matthew Conway is an attorney: he knows to consult an attorney when the cops are snooping around. What, other than tipping his brother off to the investigation, could Jack Conway have said to Matthew? Meaning, what could he have said to his brother that his brother, as an attorney, wouldn’t already know?

Something is mighty fishy here and the people of Kentucky have a right to all the facts before November 2nd.

From Clear Capital:

Clear Capital (www.clearcapital.com), is issuing this special alert on a dramatic change observed in U.S. home prices.

“Clear Capital’s latest data shows even more pronounced price declines than our most recent HDI market report released two weeks ago,” said Dr. Alex Villacorta, senior statistician, Clear Capital. “At the national level, home prices are clearly experiencing a dramatic drop from the tax credit-induced highs, effectively wiping out all of the gains obtained during the flurry of activity just preceding the tax credit expiration.”

This special Clear Capital Home Data Index (HDI) alert shows that national home prices have declined 5.9% in just two months and are now at the same level as in mid April 2010…

As we all – and I really think it was “all” conservatives making this point – said back when the tax credit was enacted and then extended, all it was going to do is advance home sales a bit, provide a short boost to prices and then move in to a big drop in home prices. Here’s something a little bit new, I guess: we’re not going to say, “I don’t want to say ‘I told you so'” because, well, we really, really want to say, “I told you so”. Because we did. Because anyone who believed the tax credit would actually help the housing market was a fool.

So, there!

Now, what do we need to do? We need to essentially have our housing market go through a bankruptcy reorganization. Early on, I strongly favored a “cram down” of home mortgages to fit market value, but now that values have dropped so much (and I bet there’s at least a 20% further drop coming), it is likely too late for any such action to be effective. The reason I advocated that was as a means of keeping houses off the market and thus sustaining over all housing prices. The crash (or re-crash, if you prefer) is here and I don’t think we can stop it. So, now I’m of the opinion that we should just let things fall where they may and look to other means to clear out the vast supply of housing which is going to not only continue to drive down prices, but prevent any rebound.

As I explained over at Noonan for Nevada, my preferred solution for lowering supply is to set up mechanisms which will induce people – investors and former home owners – to enter in to long term leases of the foreclosed properties (long term is at least 2 years, but I’d really prefer it to be 5). This gets people in to a home (or keeps them in it if we simply allow the banks to lease the house back to the foreclosed home owner, if he can afford it, at all) and gets that home off the market for 2 to 5 years – supply is greatly lessened, downward pressure on prices drops and there is a chance for recovery of value (though we’ll never, in our life times, see home prices back to their 2005-07 level in real terms).

Whatever we do, it can’t be another subsidy for a failed system. You can blame whomever you wish for the mess (me? Banksters and Bureaucrats working on human greed at all levels caused the problem), but assigning blame doesn’t fix the mess. We need to think anew and act anew to get out of this – we need real change, not “please save the idiot banks” band-aids.

HAT TIP: Mish’s

Latino conservatives:

As this article over at Pajamas Media points out, just in 2010 Obama’s support among Latinos has dropped from 69% to 55%…and this is just the beginning. Eventually, a majority of Latinos will be voting conservative. Why? Because that is what they are – you’re trolling for votes among illegals, we’re working for votes among Americans, and that means all Americans. I like our chances a lot better than yours.

When Democrats say they are “for the people,” then why do they need to resort to dirty tricks to help their opponents lose?

Lying negative ads are one thing. They have become staples of political campaigns, like it or not. Both sides do it. Why? Because no matter how much we say that they don’t work, they do. But that is not my point really. My point is, this is a midterm election, and midterm elections are usually bad for the party in power. This election in particular has been framed as a referendum on Barack Obama and the Democratic agenda. While Democrats largely avoid talking about Obamacare and other legislative victories, Republican candidates run strongly on undoing the damage done by the Democrats.

Democrats know they have an unpopular agenda, and they don’t care. They would rather impose their agenda by force than listen to us, we the people.

The New York Times reports on more evidence of desperation of the Democrats to remain in power despite their unpopular agenda: backing third-party candidates to siphon off votes from Republicans:

Seeking any advantage in their effort to retain control of Congress, Democrats are working behind the scenes in a number of tight races to bolster long-shot third-party candidates who have platforms at odds with the Democratic agenda but hold the promise of siphoning Republican votes.

The efforts are taking place across the country with varying degrees of stealth. And in many cases, they seem to hold as much risk as potential reward for Democrats, prompting accusations of hypocrisy and dirty tricks from Republicans and the third-party movements that are on the receiving end of the unlikely, and sometimes unwelcome, support.

In California, Republicans have received recorded phone calls from a professed but unidentified “registered Republican” who says she is voting for the American Independent Party’s candidate for a House seat, Bill Lussenheide, not for the incumbent Republican, Mary Bono Mack.

The caller says she is voting that way because “it’s time we show Washington what a true conservative looks like.”

The recording was openly paid for by the Democratic candidate for the seat, Mayor Steve Pougnet of Palm Springs.

Wow. Anything to win, right? There are similar stories across the country. is this really how bad politics has become? Democrats are so addicted to power they will stoop lower and lower  to no end just to try to hold on to it.

I’d rather lose honestly than win by dirty tricks. The will of the people is more important than personal ambition. It’s too bad Democrats don’t feel the same way.

UPDATE, by Mark Noonan: And what happens when patriotic citizens uncover voter fraud? They get sued, of course.

From CNA:

The possible innocence of an executed Texas man has renewed the debate on the death penalty in the state with the most executions in the United States.

Cameron Todd Willingham was executed in 2004 after being convicted of the murder of his three toddler daughters by setting his house on fire…

…Dave Atwood, founder of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and author of the book “Detour to Death Row,” spoke to CNA about the case and the death penalty debate.

Willingham “may be innocent,” he said, noting that his coalition has not taken a definite position on the case. However, it is supporting the court inquiry and the investigation of the Texas Forensic Science Commission…

As long time readers know, I am opposed to the death penalty. My view on this is comes about because…

1. Always err on the side of mercy.

2. You can’t un-do an execution.

3. No one can see all ends – even the worst murderer might have some good he can do before he dies.

Supposing that we’ve got here the one in a million event: an actually innocent man being executed. Given that, does his death mean we end the death penalty? No. It merely means the death penalty will be tied up in courts and death row inmates will spend even longer amounts of time waiting to be executed. The reason for this is the reason we have a death penalty , at all: because it is just.

One must remember why the public back in the 1980’s became so supportive of the death penalty. This surge in support came about because of the unjust way criminals were treated in the 60’s and 70’s – they weren’t being sufficiently punished for their crimes. Year after year the public heard endless stories of perfectly hideous criminals being let out of jail by liberal judges on various technicalities…and the criminals then went out and did even worse deeds. It is good to remember that “unjust” doesn’t mean just unfair treatment to the accused…it also means when the guilty don’t pay their proper price.

The chances that an actual innocent man was executed are vanishingly small. As the justice system is run by human beings, it is always possible for error for slip in…but between arrest and death there are so many barriers erected by law that the chances of a completely innocent person going all the way to death are very small. But, it can happen – and suppose it did in this case?

It won’t change a thing. The people will still be in favor of the death penalty because it is right that if you take a life, you should lose your life. Right, but not necessary – and, indeed, not as right, in my view, as allowing the criminal to live in hopes of his eventual repentance. The only way to end the death penalty is to set the punishment system for murder and rape to be so hard that it is seen as every bit as just as taking the criminals life.

Over the years, I’ve put my views out on this. The basic concept is that if you commit one of the most horrid crimes, you are to be deprived of all comfort. You’ll work long hours at boring, back breaking labor; you wont’ have any luxuries, at all; life will be reduced to the bare minimum. As the murder took all earthly comforts from the victim, so he looses them in his turn. The ultimate hope is that by this regime the criminal will eventually reflect and understand – and beg forgiveness for his crime.

As long as anti-death penalty advocates keep working the justice system angle in their actions (always trying to poke holes in the prosecutor’s case rather than addressing the moral aspect of crime and punishment), so they will fail in their efforts. Justice must be done – and if anti-death penalty people won’t give just alternative to death, then death will continued to be dealt out with popular approval.

From NRO’s Campaign Spot:

One of my readers, Charlie, takes a look at the early voting numbers from 2008 and compares them to the early voting numbers in 2010, or at least so far.

He finds, “in every state where there is partisan split data for both years, the Republicans have gained in early voting.” The shift in partisan turnout has ranged from Republicans gaining 4.2 percentage points from the 2008 numbers (West Virginia) to 27.4 percentage points in the 2008 numbers (Florida).

(The stunning figure is that 52.8 percent of the more than 778,000 early votes in Florida this year come from registered Republicans.)…

That Florida number is a shocker – and shows that a GOP tidal wave is heading towards the Sunshine State. If you read the linked article, there is a whole list of States with excellent numbers for the GOP. This is just a continuation of what we saw through the primaries as GOP turnout was massive while Democrat turnout was anemic.

And this, in turn, is why Obama and the Democrats are spending the last 10 days in Democrat strong holds: they are trying to fire up the base to show up on election day, hoping that a huge November 2nd turnout will at least partially counter the massive GOP gains in the early vote. It may work, but I doubt it – I think that on election day the pattern will hold and the GOP turnout on that day will also be higher than expected, while Democrat turnout is low.

Nothing is over until its over, of course – the victory can’t be won, if it is to be won, until November 2nd. Lots of things can happen, but the events all year have shown an increasing rejection of all things liberal and Democrat in the United States. Don’t pay too much attention to polling data from now until November 2nd – partially because turn out models may be way off, partially because the Democrats will try to cook up at least some polls to give a false sense of momentum to their dispirited base.

Work for victory, don’t forget to vote, drag a friend to the polls with you…and then we’ll leave the rest of it in the hands of God and see what comes.