Mish has a long, interesting article on the subject. I recommend reading the whole thing, but to nutshell it:

Canada, faced with the global recession, has gone on a spending binge and has massively inflated its housing market. While Canada’s banks are technically in good shape, this is only because the toxic assets have all been shoved off to the government…which will have to either massively increase taxes or cut spending to make ends meet. Guess which way liberal Canada is heading? Towards higher taxes, of course.

But the fundamental problem is that the government has created a housing bubble in Canada and not only will it collapse, it must collapse. The only question is, when? And the problem for us is that Canada is a major purchaser of American goods and services – our best customer might be heading for the poor house for a while, and that means our already battered economy will take another big hit.

Exit question: which will cause the “double dip” recession to hit – the collapse of China’s real estate bubble, or Canada’s?

If this were a GOPer…

FOX25 has learned that Congressman Barney Frank was present during a marijuana arrest at James Ready’s home in Ogunquit, Maine. Ready is well-known for his relationship with Congressman Frank.

According to a police report, police charged Ready with marijuana possession, cultivation and use of drug paraphernalia in August of 2007. Ready admitted to civil possession and paid a fine. The remaining charges were dismissed in 2008.

Sources tell FOX25 that when Frank was questioned he told police that he did not live in the house and that he only smoked cigars.

I ain’t buying that – it just explains too much of what we get out of Barney these days. And it makes me feel better – I hate to think that Barney’s absurdities go un-noticed, but having the explanation being that everyone’s stoned over there is comforting…

As Instapundit put it, had this been Sarah Palin’s third cousin, it would not have been more than 2 years before it got in to the public square and, of course, it would have been a massive political firestorm. But, as Matt and I discovered in writing Caucus of Corruption, when Democrats do bad things, its ok…because they have compassion…you know, like Hollywood’s compassion…

Liberals seemed determined on suicide:

Thus the stimulus bill fell far short of what many economists — including some in the administration itself — considered appropriate. According to The New Yorker, Christina Romer, the chairwoman of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers, estimated that a package of more than $1.2 trillion was justified.

Meanwhile, the administration balked at proposals to put large amounts of additional capital into banks, which would probably have required temporary nationalization of the weakest institutions…

We didn’t give enough money to the UAW, banks and State governments to cover their budget shortfalls – so goes liberal “thinking”. Two things about this:

1. If the Donks lose next year and Obama in 2012, the left will say the same thing they say about Carter in 1981: He lost because he wasn’t liberal enough.

2. Liberals are impervious to facts.

The first such case I’ve heard:

The New Hampshire Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday in a lawsuit that calls into question the legal protections available to independent Web sites that cover news.

The case involves mortgage lender Implode-Explode, a Las Vegas-based site launched in 2007 that publishes stories about the meltdown of the mortgage industry. The court did not make a final decision on the case Wednesday, but one of its options could be to send the case back to the lower court for further review and litigation on specific points of law.

The dispute began in November 2008 when The Mortgage Specialists Inc (MSI) won a temporary injunction requesting that a confidential document, “2007 Loan Chart,” be removed from Implode-Explode’s site, ml-implode.com. MSI also requested the identity of the source and of a commenter, “Brianbattersby,” who they allege made defamatory comments about the company and its president.

Implode-Explode removed both the loan chart and the comments, but refused to either provide the identity of their anonymous sources or promise to refrain from posting the document again in the future.

At issue: is a blogger a journalist? If you read the rest of the article, it does appear that the blog obtained valid information indicating illegal practices at the lender which were then confirmed upon regulatory investigation. This is what journalism is supposed to be about – finding out what is going on, and then reporting it to the public. The tip off to the blogger does seem to have been a leaked document the blogger did not have a right to see – but journalists are always getting documents they don’t have a right see, so no great problem provided the courts recognize the blogger as a journalist.

Continue reading →

I say both.

After news broke out of the shooting at the Fort Hood Army post in Texas, the nation watched in horror as the toll of dead and injured climbed. The White House was notified immediately and by late afternoon, word went out that the president would speak about the incident prior to a previously scheduled appearance. At about 5 p.m., cable stations went to the president. The situation called for not only his trademark eloquence, but also grace and perspective.

But instead of a somber chief executive offering reassuring words and expressions of sympathy and compassion, viewers saw a wildly disconnected and inappropriately light president making introductory remarks. At the event, a Tribal Nations Conference hosted by the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Indian affairs, the president thanked various staffers and offered a “shout-out” to “Dr. Joe Medicine Crow — that Congressional Medal of Honor winner.”  Three minutes in, the president spoke about the shooting, in measured and appropriate terms. Who is advising him?

Anyone at home aware of the major news story of the previous hours had to have been stunned. An incident like this requires a scrapping of the early light banter. The president should apologize for the tone of his remarks, explain what has happened, express sympathy for those slain and appeal for calm and patience until all the facts are in. That’s the least that should occur.

Ed Morrissey posted a transcript of Obama’s opening remarks… it is truly insulting how long it takes him to actually address the attack on our troops.

Is Obama really that dumb? Or is this a case of “once a douchebag, always a douchebag”

Okay, I am not all that surprised by Obama’s inappropriate behavior. This is the same jackass who went to Dover recently just to get a photo-op. Obama constantly disrespects the military. His delaying his decision on Afghanistan is costing lives. The guy just doesn’t care about our troops, he only cares about his image.

UPDATE: Newbusters reveals that the man Obama gave a shout-out to for being a Congressional Medal of Honor winner, isn’t a Congressional Medal of Honor winner.

Bad enough for a floundering Democrat to call a legislative session for what will likely be a round of budget cuts, fiscal hocus-pocus and tax increases – worse that he’s also putting legalization of gay marriage on the agenda:

New York, November 6, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Gov. David Paterson has convoked an extraordinary session of the New York State Legislature to address the state’s soaring budget deficit, as well as to pass legislation that would legalize same-sex “marriage.”

Paterson issued a special proclamation Thursday announcing the special session would convene on November 10 at noon. He said the legislature would take up consideration of the Governor’s $5.2 billion “Deficit Reduction Plan” – a proposal which promises steep cuts in government spending – along with several other items including the same-sex “marriage” bill already passed by the Assembly.

Oh, but New York is liberal and so legalizing gay marriage is ok…sure, but please recall that Maine just rejected gay marriage on Tuesday. All Paterson is doing is ensuring that the social conservatives of the GOP are absolutely on fire to defeat him and the rest of the Democrats in 2010. 1,000 points for sticking to your liberal guns, governor, but minus a million for spectacular poor timing.

Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad – and our Democrats are completely ’round the bend these days.

Its not getting better out there:

Regulators have shut small banks in Georgia and Michigan, bringing the number of bank failures this year to 117 amid the struggling economy and a cascade of defaults on loans.

But the stock market is higher and the banks are making great profits! Ummm…is this really what you liberals voted for?

Some more hopeychange:

All of those twentysomethings who voted for Barack Obama last year are about to experience the change they haven’t been waiting for: the return of income tax bracket creep. Buried in Nancy Pelosi’s health-care bill is a provision that will partially repeal tax indexing for inflation, meaning that as their earnings rise over a lifetime these youngsters can look forward to paying higher rates even if their income gains aren’t real.

In order to raise enough money to make their plan look like it won’t add to the deficit, House Democrats have deliberately not indexed two main tax features of their plan: the $500,000 threshold for the 5.4-percentage-point income tax surcharge; and the payroll level at which small businesses must pay a new 8% tax penalty for not offering health insurance.

This is a sneaky way for politicians to pry more money out of workers every year without having to legislate tax increases. The negative effects of failing to index compound over time, yielding a revenue windfall for government as the years go on. The House tax surcharge is estimated to raise $460.5 billion over 10 years, but only $30.9 billion in 2011, rising to $68.4 billion in 2019, according to the Joint Tax Committee.

This is just another way for liberal Democrats to steal more of our money without the inconvenience of having us know they’re doing it. Never underestimate the rank dishonesty of a liberal politician – remember, Obama ran as a centrist – they will lie, right to your face and while you know they’re lying, if they think they can get away with it. This is what comes from having people who don’t believe in absolute right and wrong – if you don’t hold to such a thing, then there’s nothing wrong, and so lying to advance your cause is just cleverness…and a way to beat down those fools who believe that lying is wrong. Pelosi and Obama have said that their health care experiment will not cost any additional money. That is a lie, and they know its a lie – and so they are restoring to scams like this to plug the gap.

It really is “welcome back, Carter”. 28 years after Ronald Reagan saved us from a second Carter term, the people who were young, liberal zealots at the time (and Obama was one of them, though not in any official position at the time) are determined that Carter’s plans be carried out. How else can we explain the kowtowing to enemies, the insults to friends, the massive new spending, the crushing tax increases pending and, now, this back door way to pick our pockets? Heck, now that Daniel Ortega is setting himself up as re-dictator of Nicaragua, Obama will even leave his successor a Sandinista tyranny, just like Carter did. All we need are the really bad clothes and a revival of disco and our misery will be complete.

Hmmm…

Democratic Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu is out as keynote speaker for the Palm Beach County Democratic Party’s annual fund-raising dinner next week because party leaders dislike her stance on health care reform, county Democratic Chairman Mark Alan Siegel said today.

Landrieu, a moderate who recently described herself as “extremely concerned about a government-run, taxpayer-funded, national public plan,” has not committed to voting to cut off a likely Republican filibuster and forcing a vote on the legislation.

Democrats need 60 votes to invoke “cloture” and force a vote.

“We just didn’t want to have a keynote speaker who’s not committed to cloture. It would have just been wrong,” said Siegel…

Well, Senator, you can always join Lieberman as an Independent.

It has just been announced that the unemployment rate has hit 10.2 percent.

Can anyone here tell me how many jobs “saved or created” that comes to?

Can anyone here tell me why the White House still thinks the stimulus was a success?

Anyone? Anyone?

More on this later…

UPDATE, by Mark Noonan: Is unemployment now a leading, rather than lagging, indicator? Perhaps it is, in the new, global economy.

UPDATE II, by Mark Noonan: Remember this, liberals?

On the eve of Friday’s jobs report that could see the unemployment rate reach 10%, these are words that the president’s speechwriters probably wish they could rephrase.

“Economists from across the political spectrum agree that if we don’t act swiftly and boldly, we could see a much deeper economic downturn that could lead to double-digit unemployment and the American Dream slipping further and further out of reach.”

President-elect Barack Obama, Weekly Address, Jan. 3, 2009.

Well, we did exactly what you and your dimwitted, liberal leaders wanted – and it failed. Admit it. Now, lets cut some taxes and spending and MoveOn.

And, of course, if unemployment remains in the double-digit range for the next 12 months (and it is expected to), then this will come in right handy next November.

UPDATE: Obama on the stimulus, back in February:

[…] the biggest measure of success is whether we stop contracting and shedding jobs, and we start growing again.

So, we can all agree that the stimulus was a total failure.