Allahpundit (who is getting waaaay too much linkage from me these days, but he’s been on some really good issues) talks up the Supreme Court case regarding those blackguards of Westboro who engage in vile protests at military funerals:

Glenn Beck: We must defend Fred Phelps’s right to picket soldiers’ funerals

Must we? Even the Supreme Court sounds like it’s not sure. Via McClatchy, a report on this morning’s oral arguments in the hotly anticipated Snyder v. Westboro Baptist Church case. Does a scumbag have a right to be a scumbag on the street outside a fallen hero’s funeral?…

To me, there is a very simple test to be applied here. If you really want to know what a right is, then ask yourself: would I die for it? In such a case as that of Westboro, we should ponder whether or not a young soldier, slain on a battlefield and, perhaps, leaving wife and children behind in this world without his help and guidance, would choke out his last words and say, “I’m pleased to die so that lowlifes can shout ‘God hates f***’ at my funeral”. If you can answer that in the affirmative, then you’re a purblind idiot we need pay no further attention to.

We’ve allowed a lot of nonsense to encrust our thinking over the past few decades – everyone is shouting for this, that and the other thing, claiming they are rights, when they are really just personal desires…and often narrow minded and selfish personal desires, in to the bargain. I’m sitting here safe and dry while much younger men and women are laying their lives on the line for me – I’ll not have them shed their blood for nothing…I won’t allow the noblest sacrifices of youth to be given up for shit.

Not only do Phelps and his cretins not have a right to engage in disgusting demonstrations at military funerals, they should all be flogged within an inch of their lives for even trying such a thing (yes, I know this makes twice this week I’ve come out in favor of flogging…and, yes, I further realize that being a man I probably could not survive an inquest in to my own life without earning a few stripes on my back…but I’m not going for “non-hypocrite” here: I’m going for a bit of vigor in defense of decency). It is high time we started to put the nauseating in their place – this nation is built by patriots to be a place for patriots to live in honor, liberty and peace…it is not a clown shop where cowards and mountebanks get to live off the sacrifices of others.

Enough is really quite enough – it is time to smack down the insects like Phelps and let them know that men and women of honor and courage won’t be having any more of their garbage.

Allahpundit links to the news:

I’ve been trying to tell you that it’s time to get out in front of this issue.

And now … it’s too late.

Some pollsters and party officials say Democratic candidates in California are benefiting from a surge in enthusiasm among young voters eager to back Proposition 19, which would legalize marijuana in certain quantities and permit local governments to regulate and tax it.

Party strategists and marijuana-legalization advocates are discussing whether to push for similar ballot questions in 2012 in Colorado and Nevada—both expected to be crucial to President Barack Obama’s re-election—and Washington state, which will have races for governor and seats in both houses of Congress.

Its not just that, of course – Democrats are also hoping marijuana legalization will provide the revenues to keep Big Government going a bit longer. Boil it down, and the Democrats’ hope is that if they can legalize the process whereby people ruin their lives, they’ll reap electoral benefit. That does really say is all about the rank immorality of the Democrat party these days – and keep in mind that I favor legalization of marijuana…I just don’t have any desire to have the GOP benefit from such a thing…

The argument against Obama is unanswerable – it all depends, now, on whether or not people will draw the right conclusion on November 2nd.

From Michael Barone:

…why are Democrats less enthusiastic? And why has “the progressive donor base,” as Democratic consultant Jim Jordans reports, “stopped writing checks”?

I don’t think it’s just because the economy remains sour or that President Obama failed to jam a public option in the health care bill.

I find a more convincing explanation in an offhand phrase in a subordinate clause in a brief article by Adam Serwer of the Center for American Progress on the Washington Post’s opinion pages. “There’s no question,” Serwer writes, defying anyone to disagree, “that Obama has completely reversed on his promises to roll back Bush-era national security policies.”…

And that may very well be it – for 8 years the liberal leadership hammered endlessly upon the Chimp McSmirk BusHitler theme about how we’re choosing war and violating civil liberties in an orgy of Islamophobic insanity…and Obama ran, explicitly, on changing all that. That reality has forced Obama to essentially continue most of Bush’s policies in this area doesn’t matter – they want the “gulag” in Gitmo closed!

This is what comes with using flat out, bald-faced lies to make a political point…if you do have followers dumb enough to believe the lies over a long period of time, they will continue to believe them even when you don’t need them any more. Welcome to your own problem, Democrats – and, next time, maybe try telling the truth?

Obama’s Communist mentor.

Joe Manchin, future loser, attempts to distance himself from Obama – by suing him over coal mining. Is this an example of hope, or change?

Just what does the “enthusiasm gap” portend?

Work hard for victory, Republicans – because, remember, if its close, the Democrats will try to steal it.

Global Warming Hoax Update: heading for the coldest winter in 1,000 years.

Hispanics note motivated to vote in 2010?

Helpful advice for our Democrats.

From Housing Story:

A leading mortgage analyst predicts over 11 million homeowners will default and lose their home if the government fails to take more radical intervention.

Amherst Securities Group LP, one of the most respected names in mortgage research, has trumpeted an ambitious call-to-government arms in its October mortgage report.

“The death spiral of lower home prices, more borrowers underwater, higher transition rates (to default), more distressed sales and lower home prices must be arrested.”

The authors dismiss recent talk of mortgage performance improvement as statistical sleight-of-hand magically conjured by modifications…

Normally, an “ambitious call to government arms” is to be avoided – but, in this case, it will take government action. If you go in to the linked article, you’ll see some suggestions (including forced reductions of principle balance), not all of which I agree with. Back in July I put out what I think is the best plan possible, though I am sure others can be devised.

To nutshell my idea, I would have foreclosed houses being placed in a pool to have them leased out for two to five years, if at all possible to the people who were foreclosed on. The idea here is to keep the houses off the market, thus allowing a bit of stability to come to the housing market – while also allowing people to stay in their homes, resume paying for their residence (while going through foreclosure, a person doesn’t pay at all – while once foreclosed, the rent would be significantly less, in most cases, than the previous mortgage payment), and rebuild their credit so that in a few years they can re-enter the home buying market. The key thing to understand here is that while the economy is down, demand cannot recover – so, as we can’t help demand, we must reduce supply.

I would also change a few other things to redress the balance of power between borrowers and lenders. Right now, lenders pretty much run the show, especially as they can afford pricey legal counsel while most borrowers can’t. As a for-instance, I would allow genuine “deed in lieu of trust”, so that a borrower could surrender the property to the bank with no adverse credit and no residual balance to pay – this, I think, would make the banks more willing to actually work with distressed borrowers who really can continue to make at least some payments (a lot of people have reduced income rather than no income in this economy). There are other things along this line which can be done.

Housing in America has utterly collapsed. The only reason houses retain any value at all is because we’re essentially pretending that they do. Given the real inventory of unsold homes in America and the paucity of demand, everyone’s house is pretty much worthless except at fire-sale prices. Eventually this will all catch up with us and the resumption of the housing crash would be devastating to an already very weak economy. Better to act pro-actively to find new solutions to a problem which was decades in the making.

We can’t allow things to drift, nor can we count on the banks to fix it, nor dare we allow liberals to run a class-warfare program where foreclosures are just stopped (that would be even more disastrous than allowing them to continue – if there is a moratorium on foreclosures, a lot of people would stop paying just because of that). We have to think about what we want, and then have the courage to act. Right now, I doubt we have anyone in charge who has either courage or intelligence – but that may change soon.

That definition of insanity – doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result – applies. From Bloomberg:

The Bank of Japan may have acted first in a new round of central bank action to prop up the global economy as recoveries in industrial nations falter.

The unexpected decision by the Japanese central bank yesterday to drop its interest rate to “virtually zero” and expand its balance sheet follows the U.S. Federal Reserve’s move toward more unconventional easing. Bank of England officials will consider further stimulus tomorrow, while the central banks of Australia, Canada and New Zealand are among those now holding fire on further interest-rate increases…

To translate from the MSM-ese:

“Governments around the world poured trillions of dollars over the past two years in to the bankrupt global financial system to revive the economy. It didn’t work. They are going to do it again.”

This is sheer insanity – the world is already over burdened with debt, and now we’re going to see massive printing of money and other fiscal tricks in order to buy up yet more worthless assets from a completely insolvent global financial system. The only way out of this is to admit that we’re broke and that a great deal of debt won’t get repaid – if we do this right, and balance our budget, then we can at least keep from defaulting on our own sovereign debt…but no matter how you slice it, the “too big to fail” banks must fail (well, strictly speaking, we must admit that they have already failed and let the free market take its course).

This is not to say there is a painless way out of this. In fact, it is an admission that we must have some pain. Printing up money and buying worthless assets is an attempt to say we can get out of this painlessly. We have to understand that we screwed up – an economy based on services and fueled by debt simply can’t work. An economy must be based on producing things and investing carefully saved money – that is what we used to have, and its the only way to fix the problem. It will take 10 to 20 years to really set things right, and two or three years just to revive wealth creation…but the longer we wait before starting, the bigger will be the ultimate crash and the longer it will take to get out of it.

And, once again, here is another reason I’m a revolutionary – the fools governing us and running our financial system are simply too blind and too compromised to do what is right..only an overturning of the Ruling Class will allow new leadership to arise which might have a clue on what to do.

HAT TIP: Mish’s

Even the presidential seal knows Obama isn’t worthy of the title.

The presidential seal has fallen off President Barack Obama’s podium and clattered to the stage as Obama delivered a speech to a women’s conference.

The president was joking with the audience and getting some laughs when he realized what happened. “All of you know who I am,” he quipped.

Obama told the audience that somebody in the back was really nervous, referring to the staffer who hung the seal on the front of the lectern so precariously.

The seal fell about halfway through the president’s remarks to Fortune magazine’s “Most Powerful Women Summit” Tuesday at Carnegie Mellon Auditorium in Washington.

There’s symbolism for you.

The news from the AP:

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie rallied conservative activists in Iowa late Monday, saying his success in a Democratic state shows his tough-talking, smaller government message resonates with all voters.

Fanning speculation that he’s considering a 2012 presidential bid, the Republican spoke to about 700 people at a fundraiser for former Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, who is challenging the Democratic incumbent for his old job back…

Ok, Governor; you’ve said you weren’t interested in being President, and that is fine…but now that you’ve gone to Iowa, it’ll take a Shermanesque denial in order for anyone to ever believe you don’t have Presidential ambitions.

As for me, I’m cool with this – and it would be interesting to have Christie in the race for 2012. Here may be the man who could win 60% of the vote…

From Fox News:

Republican Sharron Angle seems to be solidifying her support in her bid to unseat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in Nevada.

In the latest Fox News battleground state poll of likely voters, Angle drew 49 percent to Reid’s 46 percent. As voters make up their mind with four weeks to go until Election Day, Angle seems to have the edge…

You non-Nevadans just can’t imagine the level of vituperation launched against Angle by Reid and his minions over the past two months. She’s been hammered relentlessly by a series of lies and half truths, all designed not to make anyone like Harry Reid, but hate Sharron Angle. And after all this, Reid is still faltering.

The reason is that people have had enough of Harry Reid and the Ruling Class. No matter how much slime Reid its Angle with, the fact remains that Nevada is currently an economic basket case, and Harry Reid has been at the top of our political class for far too long to not bear responsibility for it.

Meanwhile, Angle has clearly articulated the most important point: she’s one of us. Angle will go to DC to represent the people and State of Nevada, and no one and nothing else. Often in Carson City the vote in the State legislature was 41 to Angle…she being the only dissenter for whatever crack pot, big government programs and taxes the Ruling Class was imposing on the people. We are confident that if push comes to shove, in the Senate it will be 99 to Angle…she will not break faith with us and I think the people of Nevada are coming to realize this, and thus she’s going to win.