From CBS:

The number of banks at risk of failing made up nearly 12 percent of all federally insured banks in the final three months of 2010, the highest level in 18 years.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp said Wednesday that the number of banks on its confidential “problem” list rose to 884 in the October-December quarter, up from 860 in the previous quarter. Those are banks rated by examiners as having very low capital cushions against risk…

In reality a majority of those 884 are probably insolvent and just kept alive by the FDIC’s part of “extend and pretend” for our financial system. The FDIC simply doesn’t have the resources to take over all the banks which have failed and so lets them limp along until the funds become available…the only way to make a clean sweep of it would be to go to Congress to get a 1980’s style Savings and Loan bailout…but there is no possibility that Congress will bail out another bank.

Fundamentally, the entire financial system is insolvent – even the big banks, primary beneficiaries of both the Federal Reserve money printing and the TARP bailout, are really not in good shape. A lot of their “assets” are garbage (failed loans which the regulators allow them to keep on the books at face value even though they’ll never collect the principal) and so all the “profits” they’ve made are just a means of masking the reality. All will be well as long as they stay just as they are now – in other words, as long as there isn’t, say, a big jump in unemployment, a big spike in inflation, another downturn in housing, etc.

Oh, and did you hear the news of late? Seems like we’re probably going to get a big jump in unemployment as summer comes in, inflation is going ahead at, perhaps, a 10.5% clip and housing is entering a double dip.

Hold on to your hats, good people.

Just keeps getting worse over there, it seems – from the AP:

Oil prices rose to fresh two-year highs near $96 a barrel in Asia on Wednesday amid trader concern a violent power struggle in Libya could disrupt crude supplies.

Benchmark crude for April delivery was up 47 cents at $95.89 a barrel — the highest since October 2008 — at late afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract jumped $5.71, or 6.4 percent, to settle at $95.42 on Tuesday.

In London, Brent crude for April delivery gained $1.08 to $106.86 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi on Tuesday called on supporters to attack anti-government demonstrators as protesters backed by defecting army units claimed control over almost the entire eastern half of the country, including several oil-producing areas…

It might not be possible for either Gadhafi or the rebels to swiftly win – which means the turmoil keeps up. This is not looking good.

More pressure on Senator Ensign to quit.

Can individuals sue to stop federal actions on 10th amendment grounds? The Supreme Court will decide.

California’s teacher pension system is bankrupt. As we keep telling you liberals, you can’t just keep spending forever.

A rather slow motion yet rapidly spreading run on the banks in Korea. Fuse lit for the next financial crash? Time will tell.

Is the National Association of Realtors putting out bogus home sales data? Could be they are over-stating sales in 2010 by 20%.

Dr. Bernard Nathanson, NARAL founder but eventual convert to Catholicism and Life, has died. The healing power of Christ was exhibited in Nathanson’s life – a life which went from lying for abortion “rights” (and many of the lies Nathanson invented to advance abortion are still used by the pro-aborts to this day) to telling the truth for life.

Coptic Christians call for a secular Egypt. I hope they get it, but I don’t think they will. The ultimate resolution may require a partition of Egypt as there has been with Sudan…allow the Jihadist lunatics to have their own country to wreck, let all the non-Moslems form a rational, civilized State.

From CNS:

Two-thirds of the eighth graders in Wisconsin public schools cannot read proficiently according to the U.S. Department of Education, despite the fact that Wisconsin spends more per pupil in its public schools than any other state in the Midwest.

In the National Assessment of Educational Progress tests administered by the U.S. Department of Education in 2009—the latest year available—only 32 percent of Wisconsin public-school eighth graders earned a “proficient” rating while another 2 percent earned an “advanced” rating. The other 66 percent of Wisconsin public-school eighth graders earned ratings below “proficient,” including 44 percent who earned a rating of “basic” and 22 percent who earned a rating of “below basic.”…

So, union-run, gold-plated public education systems don’t work. Who would have thunk it?

All of us, of course. We all know that the public school system is a failure – that it provides sub-standard product at a high price. This is because of the unions. The unions, it must be remembered, are not interested in whether or not the kids learn anything – such a thing is entirely irrelevant to union goals. Unions are interested in having the highest number of unionized employees doing the least amount of work possible for the highest possible pay and benefits package. This is just a fact of life; there is no escaping it.

And, so, the only way to fix education is to bring in another force which will counter-balance the claims of the unions. In this, Governor Walker and the Wisconsin GOP has hit the jackpot – terminate the ability of the unions to work out back room deals with bought politicians. This forces the unions to campaign for public approval for their plans, and by bringing in this public force to counter the union force, there is a chance that some actual efforts will be made at education. This is not union-busting (if it were, we’d be passing laws banning public employee unions) but a simple attempt to bring balance and democracy in to the running of our schools.

And they are our schools. Make no mistake about that. They don’t belong to the teachers. They don’t belong to the unions. They don’t belong to the government officials. They belong to us – they part of the property of we, the people. And we thus have the absolute authority to force them to be run in our interests…and our interest is in highly educated kids, not well paid union workers, nor politicians grafting with the union bosses.

The union stooges will not deter us. The corrupt union bosses will not scare us off. The Fleebagger Democrats will not arrest the march of reform. We will have our way in this matter. The time for real change has come.

And the corrupt Ruling Class continues to perpetuate itself in this liberal bastion:

Former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, just elected mayor of Chicago, is calling his victory “humbling” and “most gratifying.” He also is thanking retiring Mayor Richard Daley for his lifetime of service to the city.

Emanuel he says he is ready to meet the challenges head-on to “make a great city even greater.” He also says he just talked to President Barack Obama, who sends affection for his hometown…

Ah, at least another four years of kickbacks, bribes, government employees working on political campaigns (on the clock, no less) and the general ooze of Chicago corruption. Nothing changes! The Ruling Class is pleased as punch.

From the LA Times:

The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Index shows a 2.4% decrease in December from the same month in 2009 and 1% from November, the fifth straight month of declines.

With foreclosures high and demand weak, home prices in a majority of the nation’s largest metropolitan areas posted fresh lows in December and pushed a widely watched index of real estate values close to a double-dip decline…

The only reason I can see for “close” in that report is an MSM determination not to admit to a double dip until ordered to by Obama. Its just absurd to say “close”…housing prices are contracting, again. Of course, for us here in Las Vegas, this is no news…poking around town the other day I saw the same model house that I bought in 2002 for $179,000 and sold in 2005 for $249,000 going for $120,000. Meanwhile, an investor bought a property which originally sold for $370,000 in 2005 for $110,000. We’re completely toast as far as housing goes…and there is no upside on the horizon. It is fully expected that prices here will continue to drop for at least two more years.

Meanwhile, food and energy prices continue their inexorable rise, wages are stagnant or down, unemployment remains high and looks to go higher and places like China teeter on the edge of financial melt down. And no one in power seems to have the foggiest notion of what to do about it. Grim times are coming.

From Rasmussen:

…A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 48% of Likely U.S. Voters agree more with the Republican governor in his dispute with union workers. Thirty-eight percent (38%) agree more with the unionized public employees, while 14% are undecided…

My bet is that the Democrats will call off the dogs on this as they realize that each day teachers are out “sick” on taxpayer funds to go on a rampage just makes more people mad at unions…and Democrats. We’ll see how long it is before the Wisconsin State Senators get permission from the party bosses to go back to work (don’t even for a moment think that this walk out was just a spontaneous action…this was coordinated from day one). But the left will not give up this fight – as I said before, they can’t: if this law passes, then the unions will no longer have the muscle to shove Democrat policies through, and Democrats will see a huge drop in available campaign funds and manpower. This is the sort of fight which is for all the marbles. But, there’s also more polling news:

Republicans now hold a nine-point lead over Democrats on the Generic Congressional Ballot for the week ending February 20, 2011.

New Rasmussen Reports telephone polling finds that 46% of Likely U.S. Voters nationwide say they would vote for their district’s Republican congressional candidate, while 37% would choose the Democrat instead…

As we head in to the budget battles – and the battle of Wisconsin and other State budgets – the GOP is clearly holding on to popular support for budget cutting and government reform. The people are now getting an actual look at the GOP in action and are liking what they see. Not that its all perfect, but the general trend is towards a more conservative viewpoint on the great issues of the day.

All we have to do to win – including winning in 2012 against Obama – is to keep pressing them. Force the left to defend the liberal bastions and by that very action make them odious to the American people. For too long we’ve allowed Democrats – like Obama – to get away with “centrist” talk…as we head in to 2012, make Democrats defend corrupt union contracts, Big Government boondoggles and all the rest of the horse poop Democrats have shoved in to America while talking a centrist game. We’ve got them to the edge of the cliff – now we just have to push them over.

UPDATE: New Wisconsin Senate rules will require Senators to pick up their pay checks in person…a nice way to get the Fleebaggers to come home…

From Memri via PJ Tatler:

…Qaradawi has cleverly praised the Egyptian army for its restraint, and is calling on the citizens and that very same army to “liberate” Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Sheik Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi: A message to our brothers in Palestine: I harbor the hope that just like Allah allowed me to witness the triumph of Egypt, He will allow me to witness the conquest of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and will enable me to preach in the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Oh Allah, allow us to preach in the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Crowds: Amen.

Sheik Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi: Allow us to enter the Al-Aqsa Mosque safely.

Crowds: Amen.

Sheik Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi: Allow us to enter the Al-Aqsa Mosque without fear.

Crowds: Amen.

Sheik Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi: Accomplish this complete victory for us.

Crowds: Amen.

Sheik Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi: Oh, the sons of Palestine, rest assured that you will be victorious.

Crowds: Amen.

Sheik Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi: The Rafah border crossing will be opened for you. This is what I demand from the Egyptian army and from the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces…

The Al-Aqsa Mosque is, of course, on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem – and as Moslems can already safely enter and preach there, the presumption must be that Al-Qaradhawi means, “after the Jews are dead”. Meanwhile, the Rafah border crossing is the border between Egypt and Gaza…meaning that Al-Qaradhawi wants the Egyptian army to go in to Gaza.

This man Al-Qaradhawi will be nothing but trouble for us – and it looks like he’s already got quite a following in Egypt.

As it becomes clearer that Gaddafi’s regime is using massacre as a means of asserting control – including the widespread use of air power against the rebels – the question arises: do we have a duty to intervene? Or are we to sit by and be gravely concerned and do nothing?

It is a tricky situation – any US action may be used by Gaddafi to generate “rally ’round the flag” feelings among his people. On the other hand, if we do nothing, more people will die. Taking out Libya’s air force would not be that difficult an operation and such an attack could probably be mounted within 24 hours of “go” from the President. A show of force like that, crippling a great deal of Gaddafi’s ability to strike his own people, might convince the balance of the Libyan army to opt for the rebels – Gaddafi goes, violence ends…no US troops on the ground so we’re not responsible for rebuilding, Libyans can start to sort things out for themselves.

This does not mean we’ll get a pro-US government in Libya. In fact, its just as likely we’ll get an anti-US government which will turn facts around 180 and use our attacks as a means of generating hatred of us. But the thing here is that people are dying – a brutal tyrant is massacring his people and we can make a strong move to get him to stop. The question is, should we?

My view is that we should – when we have the power to strike at evil, we must strike at it. Doing the right thing is usually a hard choice – and most of the time when you really set out to do the right thing, you’re going to get absolutely nothing directly out of it for yourself (longer term, of course, consistently doing the right thing is the only healthy way to live). Most of the time, we shy away from such clear cut actions as “bad man, vulnerable, lets take him out”. And the state of the world reflects our long term unwillingness to use our power in such a manner.

But, maybe its time we changed?

America lives – and as long as we have men like that, she always will.