Blogs For Victory

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.

Charles Krauthammer explains it better than any I’ve seen:

…Radical Islam is not, by any means, a majority of Islam. But with its financiers, clerics, propagandists, trainers, leaders, operatives and sympathizers — according to a conservative estimate, it commands the allegiance of 7 percent of Muslims, i.e., more than 80 million souls — it is a very powerful strain within Islam. It has changed the course of nations and affected the lives of millions. It is the reason every airport in the West is an armed camp and every land is on constant alert.

Ground Zero is the site of the most lethal attack of that worldwide movement, which consists entirely of Muslims, acts in the name of Islam and is deeply embedded within the Islamic world. These are regrettable facts, but facts they are. And that is why putting up a monument to Islam in this place is not just insensitive but provocative…

The only thing I’d add to that is the fact that while almost all Moslems are not terrorists, the evidence clearly indicates that we, in the West, are incapable of determining which particular Moslems will or won’t become a Jihadist. There is no patter to who joins – long-domiciled Moslems in the West; Moslem who are rich; Moslems who are poor; Moslems who have never committed a crime; Moslems who have a rap sheet a mile long; Moslems straight out of the middle east; Western converts to Islam; Moslems who until just yesterday were acting like Westerners; Moslems from the worst Islamic tyrannies; Moslems from comparatively moderate Islamic nations. We can say who is recruiting, we can determine where the appeal of the Islamist message lies – we just can’t tell who will fall for it.

To then try to separate the wheat from the chaff becomes an impossible task – any Moslem, any where, might wind up being an enemy or a friend, and may change sides back and forth. Given this, great care has to be taken in dealing with Moslems – with the most important thing being a clear assertion on our part of strength. Flabbiness invites contempt and people – especially the gullible sorts of people who would go in for jihad – like to be on the winning side.

By standing firm against the mosque – while maintaining our respect of Moslems as individuals and for those truths which Islam adheres to – we are showing the Moslems of the world our strength. While a few – and invariably these are in the enemy camp – will loudly complain, most reasonable, decent Moslems will both understand and respect us for standing on principle.

This War on Terrorism is only partially a military conflict – it is primarily a conflict of ideas. And ideas are not sold entirely on their merits but also on the public perception about the ideas. Who wants to subscribe to the ideas of people who won’t even stand up for themselves? We spoke in our Declaration of Independence of our manly firmness in resisting tyrannical demands – we must be just like that in confronting and dealing with Islam. Do that, and we’ll be half way home on defeating terrorism.

Its like they think we’re not bankrupt:

Next month’s opening of the Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools will be auspicious for a reason other than its both storied and infamous history as the former Ambassador Hotel, where the Democratic presidential contender was assassinated in 1968. With an eye-popping price tag of $578 million, it will mark the inauguration of the nation’s most expensive public school ever.

The K-12 complex to house 4,200 students has raised eyebrows across the country as the creme de la creme of “Taj Mahal” schools, $100 million-plus campuses boasting both architectural panache and deluxe amenities…

The news report goes on to note several other profligate, white elephants in the LA school district – and reports, as if its shocking, that a lot of the most expensive schools are in low-performing school districts. Might come as a shock to an MSMer, but to anyone living in the real world, its easy – of course that is the case…the reason they have $578 million schools is because they are failing system. A system run successfully would never dream of wasting that much money on a mere school building.

We teeter on the edge of complete financial meltdown – and Los Angeles is spending more than half a billion dollars on a school. They just laid off 3,000 teachers – and they are spending more than half a billion dollars on a school. They just got a federal bail out – and they are spending more than half a billion dollars on a school.

Does anything else need be said? Is more proof required that the Ruling Class must be shown the door?

From today’s Mass readings – I thought it very appropriate given the burdens we all face, and the extra burdens my family has been carrying of late:

Brothers and sisters,

You have forgotten the exhortation addressed to you as children:

“My son, do not disdain the discipline of the Lord

or lose heart when reproved by him;

for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines;

he scourges every son he acknowledges.”

Endure your trials as “discipline”;

God treats you as sons.

For what “son” is there whom his father does not discipline?

At the time,

all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain,

yet later it brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness

to those who are trained by it.

So strengthen your drooping hands and your weak knees.

Make straight paths for your feet,

that what is lame may not be disjointed but healed. – Hebrews 12:5-7, 11-14

All of us balk at the troubles of life – but wisdom dictates that we accept the good and the bad and remember that the bad, even if deliberately caused by others, is permitted to happen, at least in part, because we are to learn from it.

There will be an “unexpected” drop in home sales reported next week. Remember, it is going to be unexpected – so, look surprised when the MSM reports it to you.

GOP up by 7 in Washington State senate race. This is another one of those 2010 races we GOPers were supposed to have no chance at all.

MSM is starting to notice China’s real estate bubble – they are still behind the curve as they are just now getting around to noticing its existence. The fact that it has already burst still escapes them, for the most part. Good question to ask, however: does China’s government buy a couple more years of political peace by sustaining absurdly high real estate prices, or risk potential revolution by allowing the crash to happen right away?

Charlie Cook has a prediction about the outcome of the mid-terms which Democrats may read and Republicans must ignore. No, seriously – all you darned Republicans out there stay off that link! Now, why did you go an click it? For crying out loud – just remember: don’t get cocky.

Miss USA – a Moslem – understands the necessity of not building the mosque at Ground Zero. This makes her both very pretty and very smart – pity our liberals can’t muster the same IQ as Miss USA.

2010 Democrat campaign strategy: Run Away!

From the Associated Press:

The rate at which U.S. homeowners fell behind on their mortgage payments remained stubbornly elevated in the second quarter.

In the three months ended June 30, the number of mortgage holders 60 days or more behind on their payments was 6.67 percent, credit reporting agency TransUnion said Tuesday. That’s a big jump from 5.81 percent in the second quarter of last year, and well above the historical norm of 1.5 percent to 2 percent…

Later in the report the MSM earns its Slavish Devotion to Obama Award by spinning that late payments are rising slower than they did last year. Woohoo! We’re not going bankrupt quite as fast as we were last year! Give Obama a second term!

The fact of the matter is that unemployment is increasing and people are exhausting all resources to maintain mortgages with eliminated or reduced income – adding to the mix is the increasing willingness of people to just walk away from their “underwater” mortgage in “strategic default” (meaning you can pay for the house, but choose not to). This situation will only get worse until new ideas start to be implemented aggressively in what will amount to a bankruptcy reorganization of America’s housing market. Long time readers know my preferences, but just about anything which doesn’t involve either bailing out the banks nor attempting to maintain artificially high home prices should be on the table – we need to think and we need to act. The Keynesian dogmas of a dead, liberal economic system simply won’t do the trick.

HAT TIP: Mish’s

Whatever it costs, we should put this out on TV every day from now until the election.

HAT TIP: The American Catholic