Blogs For Victory

From the AP:

President Barack Obama’s $30 billion small community business lending program faces one big challenge: many of the community banks and businesses it’s supposed to help don’t want it.

The lending program is part of a bill that passed the House of Representatives on Thursday and now awaits the president’s signature. The legislation contains a mix of tax cuts and credits aimed at helping small businesses. The centerpiece of the bill is an effort to make billions of dollars available to community banks for loans to small businesses…

…Bank executives say their customers don’t want loans, even at low interest rates, because the sluggish economy has chilled expansion plans. Some say the federal money isn’t worth it because they fear it will come with too much regulatory oversight.

“We have taken a strategic decision not to have our primary regulator, the government, also be a partner in our bank,” said William Chase Jr., CEO of Triumph Bank in Memphis…

That is the first intelligent statement I’ve seen from a banker in quite a long while. Mr. Chase seems to have learned the lesson – when Uncle Sam comes bearing gifts, think “Trojan Horse”.

The flaw in the Obama plan is that it is geared toward identifying what Obama and Co think should be done. The trouble is that no one in DC can really know what should be done. The US economy is 300 million people all doing things day by day which no one can track. The smartest people in the world in possession of the most detailed analysis of the economy can’t figure it out – its simply impossible. Too many variables.

This is why if you’re going to cut taxes, at all, they should be cut across the board. When you do that, you simply allow people an easier time of doing whatever it is they prefer. The economy is not some esoteric thing separate from the people – it is, simply, the people living their lives. Right now, the people are laboring under straightened finances and this has caused economic growth to grind to a halt – and we may, indeed, slip back in to full blown recession (with the caveat that, federal number crunchers aside, we may never have really left it).

Leave more money with the people and they’ll immediately gain greater flexibility as well as greater ability to make long term plans – recovery is automatic under such circumstances because the people don’t just sit around waiting for government permission to create wealth. They just do it, unless the government prevents them (which is, essentially, what government has been doing these past two years).

Outside of the financial straight jacket we’ve got on, the biggest threat to the economy is our debt – and investors can perceive that we’re fast approaching a fiscal brick wall. So in addition to across the board tax cuts to get things moving again, we need to seriously and deeply cut government spending. If we do this – cut taxes and spending – then we’ll be in a real recovery in less than a year, and on the road to returned prosperity in two or three years.

Obama’s little program is just more of the same economic idiocy – it not only won’t fix things, it will make them worse. And people see this.

HAT TIP: Mish’s

From the Miami Herald:

With a little over a month remaining before the Nov. 2 election, the three-way race for U.S. Senate is turning into a two-man race — for second place…

…Rubio is favored by 40 percent of likely voters, up from 38 percent last month; Crist’s support has dwindled to 28 percent from 33 percent, according to the Mason-Dixon Research & Associates survey of 625 likely Florida voters. The margin of error: plus/minus four percentage points…

Good to keep in mind that once upon a time the TEA Party-backed Rubio was supposed to be a sure loser. The more “moderate” Crist was supposed to win – and the GOP was to pay the price for getting “extreme” and backing someone as out of the mainstream as Rubio.

Guess that bit of talking point hasn’t worked out as well as thought..

This shows that a solid conservative can build support – and shows a path for victory exists even for O’Donnell in Delaware. She’s doing it smart – saying goodbye to the national media and spending all her time building support in Delaware, which is the only place it matters for her.

We can win, everywhere, if we just try – we don’t need to water down the message. It is falsehood to say that strong conservatism can’t win. Strong liberalism can’t – outside of a few strange districts and a couple odd States – but conservatism can. Why? Because conservatism is true and is in tune with bedrock American values. We’ve blinded ourselves with a series of lies about what is possible in politics – and Rubio is showing the way out.

Some thoughts from me as to why the “save the RINO’s” crowd is wrong – the TEA Party is representative of bedrock America, and we must adhere to the values and desires expressed in that movement.

The TEA Party does not set policy – that is for people in the regular political parties to do. What they are doing is calling people to account…the American people want their country back. Whichever party most firmly grasps this and best demonstrates that they will do just that, will win.

In this case, about the funding of an anti-Israel Jewish group. Soros? George Soros? Never heard of him – yeah, right:

The Jewish-American advocacy group J Street, which bills itself as the dovish alternative to the influential American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) lobby, has secretly received funding from billionaire George Soros despite previous denials that it accepted funds from the Hungarian-born financier and liberal political activist.

Tax forms obtained by The Washington Times reveal that Mr. Soros and his two children, Jonathan and Andrea Soros, contributed a total $245,000 to J Street from one Manhattan address in New York during the fiscal year from July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2009…

J Street, itself, is just another “if only Israel wasn’t so bad” liberal group. It provides media air cover for those who want to be anti-Israel, but are still concerned about becoming flat-out anti-Semitic (a lot of people on the left don’t care any longer about that – being anti-Semitic seems to be developing in to a test of purity on the left; but, some still do…and so, J Street). As such a group, no one really need concern themselves with that they say – but it is rather typical of leftist groups that they can’t seem to get by without lying.

Nor, it seems, can they get by without taking money from even the most disreputable sources. George Soros is a liberal financial shark who made his money by figuring out how to legally steal it via financial manipulation. He is not a very nice man, as far as that goes – and on top of that, he doesn’t provide anything of worth to average people. He doesn’t make anything other than money for himself – and, of course, for the various kook-left causes he backs. If J Street wanted to be in any way respected, they would have told Soros to pound sand…but, they took his money, instead.

A web of lies and corruption have been spread around America today – and we can start ripping them asunder on November 2nd.

As long as the “right” people are being discriminated against – Christopher Coates’ testimony from Hot Air:

In the spring of 2009, Ms. King, who had by then been appointed Acting AAG for Civil Rights by the Obama Administration, called me to her office and specifically instructed me that I was not to ask any other applicants whether they would be willing to, in effect, race-neutrally enforce the VRA (Voting Rights Act). Ms. King took offense that I was asking such a question of job applicants and directed me not to ask it because she does not support equal enforcement of the provisions of the VRA and had been highly critical of the filing and prosecution of the Ike Brown case…

The Brown case was, according to Coates, “…some of the most outrageous and blatant racially discriminatory behavior at the polls … that I have seen or had reported to me in my thirty-three plus years as a voting rights litigator…”. This is what comes of playing racial politics for generations. We have built up a system where voting rights violations (as well as more conventional voter fraud) is routine on the Democrat side of the aisle. Its ok, you see?, because white people are inherently racist, and must be made to pay, forever, for actions done long ago.

Justice is the absence of injustice. Just as even the smallest bit of falsehood makes a whole thing untrue, so does the smallest bit of injustice make justice disappear. Oil and water mix better than justice and injustice. When we said, “and justice for all” back in the days of Jim Crow, we were not stating the truth about our nation – as long as someone was denied the right to vote because of his skin color, we did not have justice in voting. We then fixed that by banning the use of race as a qualifier for voting…but, now, liberals have put it right back in there.

Just as once upon a time dark skin could mean you’d not have your right to vote respected, so now having light skin can cause the same problem. While not, at the moment, as widespread as Jim Crow, it is spreading – and our nation because ever more unjust as it spreads.

We will not take a step back, liberals. We will not let you replace one racial tyranny with another. We, at least, have learned our lessons – that all people, regardless of skin color, are our brothers and sisters. We will not let you divide us and foster hatred among us – we are Americans, and all of us will be secured the right to vote per the Constitution and laws of the United States of America.

Mish notes a report about the 7,000,000 or so people who have exhausted their unemployment benefits and asks:

With the exception of those opting for social security, some 7 million people who want jobs and once collected unemployment benefits, now have no job-related income.

Think those 7 million people are about to go on a spending spree? Think those forced into social security are about to go on a spending spree? Think the self-employed with no income are about to go on a spending spree? Think the 26 million unemployed or under-employed are about to go on a spending spree? Think the countless millions of working Americans barely scraping by are about to go on a spending spree?

Well, I don’t either…

…People are broke, yet Congress opts to punish those still working by letting tax cuts expire. Is this amazing or simply par for the course?

Par for the course, I’m afraid. It must be kept in mind that Democrat leaders don’t actually care about people – they talk about caring; they’ll run whole campaigns on the theme of their concern for the poor and working people, but they don’t really care. G. K. Chesterton once ventured to explain why this should be:

Among the rich you will never find a really generous man even by accident. They may give their money away, but they will never give themselves away; they are egotistic, secretive, dry as old bones. To be smart enough to get all that money you must be dull enough to want it.

The leaders of the Democrats are rich – some times, quite fabulously. While Pelosi and Co will talk about the GOP favoring the millionaires and billionaires, the fact is that most of such are on the Democrat side. How many conservative billionaires can you name? How many billionaires are sponsors of conservative groups? Democrats are the party of the rich – they’ve just got the brass to attack “the rich” while they sleep on piles of money.

But as rich people, the only thing they really know about is money – so, they’ll spend money and give money and do all sorts of things with money. But money, of itself, tends to attract people who don’t always have the best interests of others at heart. If you’re flashing the cash at a problem, that cash will be taken…but its no assurance that the cash will be taken for the problem listed. In this case here, all the Democrat spending – and they’ve spent trillions over the past couple years – has not managed to get in to the hands of the poor nor the middle class.

If they would, as Chesterton observed, give themselves away they would have better ensured the money went where most needed. As it was, it mostly ended up in the vaults of millionaires and billionaires as well as lining the pockets of well heeled union bosses and various liberal groups.

We can change this, if we change the government on November 2nd. The choice is ours – but I’m hoping we might get a new set of leaders who will, perhaps, have the ability to see things from the point of view of those who are suffering.

Just incredible – from Elizabeth Crum over at NRO:

…Nevada’s Senate candidate forum ended in a loud shouting match and fist fight between supporters of Harry Reid and Sharron Angle…

…As the forum opened, attendees were asked not to applaud or shout out questions or comments during the event. Harry Reid answered questions via a pre-taped 30-minute interview, and then Sharron Angle answered a moderator’s questions live on stage…

…once Angle appeared. Most of the 800-member audience jumped to their feet, half of them cheering, half loudly booing as she and the moderator took the stage. Even once all were seated and Angle began to speak, many in the crowd were quite boisterous and some became increasingly bold and uncivil as the event continued.

Angle was repeatedly shouted at as she tried to answer questions. Scornful remarks, sarcastic questions, and accusations including “Liar!” were shouted by Reid partisans. The moderator politely asked for order, twice, but it had little effect on the more raucous members of the crowd…

Eventually, as Angle was giving her closing remarks, a fist fight erupted as Reid supporters started leaving early. The bottom line is this:

1. Reid didn’t show up and just sent a video.

2. Reid’s supporters tried to make it impossible for Angle to speak.

So – set up: Reid wanted a platform and the ability to say that he’s engaged in debate, but he didn’t want Angle to have a chance to look good on any video clips. So, his people went there with what only can be considered an intentional desire to wreck the forum.

This is the way the left behaves – they don’t want debate; they merely want people to hate and be divided…in the resulting chaos, they hope to bamboozle a plurality to back Reid (in Nevada, you can vote for “none of these” – Reid’s only hope is that a lot of Independents check that box, thus allowing him to squeak to a win with 43 or 44% of the vote).

It won’t work, Harry – we’re on to you, and Angle is the next Senator from Nevada.

So, Democrats invite Stephen Colbert to testify before Congress. This is done on the strength of Colbert’s having done a comedy bit in regards to a pro-illegal immigrant campaign about how hard farm labor is and how gringos will never do it. Not exactly an earth-shattering issue and, in fact, nothing but the merest political gamesmanship.

This was done, almost certainly, in order to draw MSM attention away from Christopher Coates testimony (PDF) regarding the criminal irresponsibility of Holder’s “Justice” Department in regards to voter intimidation by the New Black Panther Party. If there ever was an earth-shattering issue, the failure of the Justice Department to enforce voting rights laws would be it – but the Democrats would prefer we not notice, and the MSM is easily made to play along with Democrat desires.

But just to be sure, the Democrats decide to make a circus of Colbert’s appearance, just to be sure that the MSM knows what to report on – from Drudge:

REP. CONYERS TO FUNNYMAN: ‘I’m asking you to leave the committee room completely, and submit your statement’… MORE… Rep. Lofgren steps in: ‘Many are eager to hear his comments’ … Colbert mugs: ‘I’m here at the invitation of the chairwoman, and if she would like me to remove myself from the hearing room I am happy to do so. I’m only here at her invitation’…

These are the people governing our nation, my friends. Complete and utter idiots who are playing games while America suffers. It is a curious thing that before Revolutions, there appears among the Ruling Class a sense of unreality – a conviction that all will be well, and thus no need to concentrate on what is really happening. I think this is because Ruling Classes tend to get filled with stupid people, while those few who have a bit of intellect simply can’t face up to the fact that the party is over.

November can’t get here fast enough – the defeat of the Democrats will be a mercy to them; they’ll no longer be able to embarrass themselves quite so badly.

Totally chickening out on taxes:

Democrats abandoned plans to vote before Election Day on extending Bush-era tax cuts for the middle class while eliminating them for better-off Americans, spooked by protests from vulnerable incumbents and bleak prospects for passage.

With time running out to plan for 2011, the delay raises uncertainty for small businesses and individual taxpayers over their future liabilities. It also sets up a titanic battle over taxes after the election…

They are simply afraid to move – afraid to extend all or part, so they just run away from it and hope to salvage enough to be able to so something after November 2nd. This is all the proof anyone needs that the Democrats not only are in deep trouble, but know it.

This is a Ruling Class at its wits end – going to be a fun few weeks coming up, boys and girls.