Just one of George’s favorite songs:

He was the child of George Childs and Barbara Jane Noonan. Born in Massachusetts, he took this as an omen that he was to be patriot and a defender of the spirit of 1776. This is, perhaps, what made him a life long rebel and a problem for both of his parents.

An engaging personality, a rapier-like intellect and a determination to have his way with every problem often led to stunning success, but more often led to a compounding of problems until they became overwhelming. George was the archetype of the black sheep of the family. But for all the trouble which followed and surrounded him, he could also bring gifts beyond price to those who knew him.

As his mother pointed out shortly before her own death in 2003, without “Georgie” in our lives, we would have had fewer adventures, and learned far less of the world and what was in it. The world, when George was leading the way, was an enchanted fairy tale – even though such tales often led to an ogre or other peril, they also led to magic castles, and dreams to astound. It was, after all, George who introduced me to that great consolation of my life, The Lord of the Rings – and he who built ever more incredible stories upon even that sublime foundation.

George had his own demons and could not shake them. In the end, they played a role in leading him to the path upon which he found his end – but his end was, nevertheless, brought about by a man who decided that George’s life was not worth anything. It was a savage, brutal attack which ended the life of our brother. The prayers of our family, now that our brother has gone, will be for the salvation of this man of wicked deed, yet still capable of salvation.

George is survived by his daughter, two grand-children (one just three weeks old – a lovely, little girl who has her grand-father’s chin), two sisters and three brothers. We here in the Noonan family thank all of you for your prayers during this time and wish all the best in the world for you.

From US News:

One of Washington’s principal supporters of the Tea Party movement, former GOP Majority Leader Dick Armey’s FreedomWorks, has been receiving death threats and profanity-laced phone calls as it gets involved in the fall elections. The number and intensity have reached such heights that the organization is leaving its downtown location near the FBI and moving to a high-security building near the U.S. Capitol.

“FreedomWorks and Dick Armey receive dozens of threatening and harassing calls and E-mails each day. Many imply violence and use of weapons,” spokesman Adam Brandon tells Whispers. “As we get closer to the election we expect the harassment to increase.”…

Keep it classy, liberals.

Just the violent acting-out of liberals who are watching their world crumble – the victory of 2008 is turning to ashes in their mouths.

Next time, liberals, try to be honest – campaign on what you really want to do; then, if you manage to win, you won’t get this sort of populist backlash. Lies can work – but only for a while, and once they’re found out, people get very, very angry.

So says Morgan Stanley over at Bloomberg:

Investors will face defaults on government bonds given the burden of aging populations and the difficulty of securing more tax revenue, according to Morgan Stanley.

“Governments will impose a loss on some of their stakeholders,” Arnaud Mares, an executive director at Morgan Stanley in London, wrote in a research report today. “The question is not whether they will renege on their promises, but rather upon which of their promises they will renege, and what form this default will take.” The sovereign-debt crisis is global “and it is not over,” the report said…

Mr. Mares is correct – this, though, is just Establishment types playing catch up with the real world. That noted financial expert, Mark Noonan, talked up this very issue here, here, here and here.

The only thing we have control over is whether or not we’ll prevent this from happening here. We still have a (rapidly shrinking) window of opportunity to get our own fiscal house in order. If we balance the budget and institute policies which will encourage wealth creation, we can weather the storm. It will still be hard – don’t get me wrong; there is no easy fix…no easy way out of this. But we can prevent, I believe, the worst-case scenario of an American default. But only if we act swiftly – and that, my fellow Americans, will require a lot of new people in DC.

Thus spoke the Duc de La Rouchefoucauld-Liancourt to Louis XVI when the king said that storming of the Bastille was a revolt – a Ruling Class which didn’t understand the depths of the crisis. I believe our own Ruling Class is similarly out to lunch on what is happening. Event after event in 2010 has indicated a brewing revolution in American political affairs and yet the people in charge continue on as if they’re going to weather the storm. As if, that is, we’ll vent a little bit and then let them get back to normal. Ain’t gonna happen.

Right now, a political unknown is leading in the vote count (PDF) in the Alaska GOP Senate primary. My bet is that Joe Miller pulls it off – but even if he ends up not quite making it, the fact that he’s got this far is a harbinger of things to come. He’s an unknown who had only two things going for him, TEA Party and Sarah Palin support.

Yesterday, I couldn’t watch or read much news as I was on the road – but I did hear some TV talking head opine that Murkowski’s expected big win shows that Palin Power is fading. Yeah, right – Palin Power isn’t derived from Sarah Palin, but from the people who admire her as a gutsy spokeswoman for average folks…until those folks are happy, Palin Power will be phenomenal – as will be the influence of the TEA Party.

If Senator Murkowski loses, she’ll be the third sitting Senator in 2010 to be ousted in a primary. I cannot recall this ever happening – it may never have happened ever before. But if it has happened before, I bet that it’ll be found as precursor to massive changes in the political system. Incumbent Senators are simply not rejected in the primary in any common political climate.

The only thing which can be expected now is that the results will surprise everyone in November. People who were supposed to win in a walk over will lose while some who looked in danger will triumph. Democrats, being the party in power will bear the brunt of the voter’s anger, but don’t be surprised if a few entrenched GOPers fall before the wrath of the people…as some already have. It is the Ruling Class which is being rejected – from coast to coast and border to border, the winds of change are blowing to hurricane force.

Biden says a lot of stupid things, but sometimes I can’t tell if he’s lying, or if he is just too dumb to understand what he is saying.

Biden conceded that the economic recovery was not proceeding as fast as the administration had hoped, but claimed there was “no doubt we’re moving in the right direction.”

The right direction?

Positive gross domestic product readings and other mildly hopeful signs are masking an ugly truth: The US economy is in a 1930s-style Depression, Gluskin Sheff economist David Rosenberg said Tuesday.

Writing in his daily briefing to investors, Rosenberg said the Great Depression also had its high points, with a series of positive GDP reports and sharp stock market gains.

But then as now, those signs of recovery were unsustainable and only provided a false sense of stability, said Rosenberg.

Rosenberg calls current economic conditions “a depression, and not just some garden-variety recession,” and notes that any good news both during the initial 1929-33 recession and the one that began in 2008 triggered “euphoric response.”

You know, for most of the Bush years, we saw unemployment go down toward 4%… that was what I call the right direction.

Yeah, I miss Dubya.

Looks like the economy will be the major top o’ the day – mostly covered in the previous entry, but anything else you’d like to talk up will be here. Sorry I can’t get more out here for you guys, but I’m on the road this morning and may not have a chance to blog a lot until, perhaps, tomorrow.

Inquiring minds want to know – and Mish links to an answer:

…Our suspicions have been confirmed — the recession never ended. Macroeconomic Advisers produces a monthly U.S. real GDP series and it shows that the peak was in April, as we expected, with both May and June down 0.4% in the worst back-to-back performance since the economy was crying Uncle! back in the depths of despair in September-October 2008.

The quarterly data show that Q2 stands at a +1.1% annual rate (so look for a steep downward revision for last quarter) and the “build in” for Q3 is -1.5% at an annual rate. Depending on the data flow through the July-September period, it looks like we could see a -0.5% to -1% annualized pace for the current quarter…

I’m also one of those convinced the recession never ended – that when all the data is added up, it will be shown that the private economy continued to contract all through 2009 and 2010. The stimulus didn’t work – not even for a minute. It is always good to keep in mind that the data you get on economics, when it first comes out, amounts to no better than an educated guess…with the “educated” believing that Keynesian economic theory is valid, thus their presumption that there simply must have been growth because we spent all that (borrowed and printed) money. This is why we see, month after month, downward revisions of previously positive economic data – and, very often, upward revisions of the bad news.

There is too much debt, boys and girls – federal debt, State debt, local debt, personal debt. This debt is piled on an economy which has shipped its factories to China, its farms to Mexico and its mines to Chile. We simply don’t have the base of wealth necessary to provide the rapid consumption necessary to keep GDP genuinely positive – only a resumption of American domestic production of actual goods (not services and not silly froth like “green jobs”) will allow us to climb out of this…and even then, it will additionally require a balanced budget. No more debt!

Debt is our enemy – it is the enemy of prosperity, it is the enemy of American national security, it is the enemy of freedom. We should, honestly, amend the Constitution to forbid any government entity from contracting any debt whatsoever. We won’t do that, but that is how serious the problem is – and if we don’t face up to what we need to do, we’ll just bury ourselves deeper.

I’m not a doomsayer about the United States – the TEA Party has shown that the true American spirit lives…we will overcome this. But we need a complete change of government policy – a night and day sort of paradigm shift – in order to make it happen.

UPDATE: Seems that the Federal Reserve governors are divided on what do to. Bottom line – some want to insanely do what they’ve already done, others want to change course.

But we’ve got a bit of a family tragedy on-going here – my oldest brother, George C Noonan, III, was set upon in Los Angeles and is now on life support. Its not so much at this point a prayer for a cure as a prayer for a holy death (though, of course, where there is life, there is hope). The police did catch the perpetrator, so at least he won’t be able to do it to anyone else, but the pain is still very great on our end. George has one adult child and two grand-children, so please keep them in your prayers as well.

UPDATE: We’re finally getting everything coordinated and will probably be together in Los Angeles tomorrow or Saturday. The latest is that George is suffering and may linger as long as a month on life support, so it is time to make that decision. Thanks for all your kind words and especially keep praying for a 21 year old who will have to make the final decision.

UPDATE II: The end is drawing near. Please pray for the peace and repose of the soul of George.

Those are the numbers, respectively, of Democrat and GOP House seats at risk in 2010 – from Pajamas Media:

…The RCP survey suggests that 108 of the Democrats’ 256 seats are at risk, while only 15 of the Republicans’ 179 House seats are in play. If one removes seats that RCP believes are competitive but likely to be retained by the party currently in control, 86 Democratic-held seats and only seven Republican-held seats are in play. With a net shift of 39 required to give the Republicans control of the House, and the generic ballot polling showing the biggest leads for the GOP in the cycle (several in the 6-7% range, Rasmussen at 12%), it is not hard to see why many analysts are increasing their estimates of the size of the potential Republican gains…

Quite honestly, the Democrats could lose not just all those 108, but even more – it all depends on who turns out. Polling models are dependent upon past election results and the skill of the pollster in reading political tea leaves – in other words, a bit of facts and a bit of guess work. In order not to look like a fool, smart pollsters are very cautious in their guess work. If the polling models being used hold true in November, then we won’t see much difference between the final polls and the actual results – but if things become optimal for the GOP (ie, we get the best turnout we can, Democrats get the worst they can), then the final results could be astounding.

But, best not to work on that assumption. Lots of things can happen over the next 10 weeks – but things are clearly bright, and brightening, for the GOP.

The hardest task for the GOP is in the Senate. The linked article notes that Joe Lieberman might be induced to caucus with a 50 seat GOP, so even a net gain of 9 might do it…but even getting that sort of a net gain is going to require one heck of a good GOP year. We might get it, but nothing is sure.