Blogs For Victory

As the economy starts to tank and visions of a Republican Congress start materializing, Democrats are starting to press for a stimulus which, they hope, might keep the economy afloat until after election day – from The Hill:

…In letters, interviews, and public statements, President Barack Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other senior Democrats are now raising red flags that the economy could falter without additional stimulus efforts.

Obama urged congressional leaders in mid-June to pass an extension of tax breaks and unemployment benefits, and up to $50 billion in aid for states and local governments. Without Congress acting, Obama said the economy could “slide backwards.” …

It is already sliding backwards, its just that it’ll be two or three months before the slide shows up in the GDP numbers. The money for the States and local governments is to keep government employees on the job – all I can see tells me that the Democrats biggest fear is an unemployment rate of more than 10% come election day. As it stands right now, quite a lot of government employees are going to get the boot from our bankrupt States…unless Obama Claus slides down the chimney with magical federal money.

All is to be subordinated to keeping Pelosi in the Speaker’s chair and some Democrat as Majority leader (they are already getting ready to write off Reid, I’m sure). The liberals are deathly afraid of both having their agenda derailed and Republicans in charge of government oversight – too many crooked deals have happened too recently. They don’t want them looked in to by anyone who would want to find the truth.

Our job, as Republicans, is to block them at every turn – no amount of stimulus will fix what wasn’t fixed by the previous, much larger stimulus and, indeed, any attempt to do so will just make matters worse. We daren’t allow Democrats to further mortgage our future just to try and save their political hides. Fight them out toe to toe, and let the voters decide in November.

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security…

From CNN’s Anderson Cooper – when you start ticking off liberal MSMers like Cooper, you know you’ve really stepped in it:

Really miss having a great President.

…I therefore invite the good people of the United States, on the approaching 4th day of July, in addition to the usual observances with which they are accustomed to greet the return of the day, further, in such manner and at such time as in their respective localities and religious associations may be most convenient, to mark its recurrence by some public religious and devout thanksgiving to Almighty God for the blessings which have been bestowed upon us as a nation during the century of our existence, and humbly to invoke a continuance of His favor and of His protection.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this 26th day of June, A. D. 1876, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundredth.

U. S. GRANT.

From Rasmussen:

Voters trust Republicans more than Democrats on nine out of 10 key issues regularly tracked by Rasmussen Reports…

The really curious thing is that Democrats are more trusted on ethics. Yes, the party of Reid and Pelosi is more trusted than the GOP. This shows not strong Democrat ethics, but just how badly we screwed up. We must always remember this – how we lost the public’s trust and how hard its going to be for us to earn it back.

The rest of the poll, though, is a disaster for Democrats trying to stave off defeat in November. Republicans hold an 11 point edge in health care, 9 points on the economy, 16 points on taxes, 10 points on abortion, 17 points on national security, 15 points on immigration – and even by two points in education. Democrats have entirely wrecked the glow of good feelings they had on election night, 2008 – the bottom is out of the political tub for them

Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation: conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war. . .testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated. . . can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war.

We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate. . .we cannot consecrate. . . we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.

It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us. . .that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion. . . that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain. . . that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom. . . and that government of the people. . .by the people. . .for the people. . . shall not perish from the earth. – Abraham Lincoln, November 19th, 1863

…Of all the dispositions and habits, which lead to political prosperity, Religion and Morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of Patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of Men and Citizens. The mere Politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connexions with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked, Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths, which are the instruments of investigation in Courts of Justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition, that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect, that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle… – George Washington, September 17, 1796

From Rasmussen:

Republican Pat Toomey continues to hold a modest advantage over Democrat Joe Sestak in the race to replace Arlen Specter as U.S. senator from Pennsylvania.

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in Pennsylvania shows Toomey attracting 45% of the vote, while Sestak earns 39%…

There are 11% undecided, so its still anyone’s race – but it is clear that Democrats are on rocky electoral ground that someone as conservative as Toomey can be leading in a moderately blue State like Pennsylvania. Just another indicator that in 2010, one would rather be a Republican when running for office.

From Gordon T. Long via Tyler Durden over at Zero Hedge:

As horrific as the gulf environmental catastrophe is, an even more intractable and cataclysmic disaster may be looming. The yet unknowable costs associated with clean-up, litigation and compensation damages due to arguably the world’s worst environmental tragedy, may be in the process of triggering a credit event by British Petroleum (BP) that will be equally devastating to global over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives…

From what I gather, BP is a large corporation with a lot of fingers in a lot of economic pies. As BP’s exposure has grown while the Gulf oil spill has unfolded, money people have started to aggressively reposition themselves away from BP – this creates a risk of what can best be described as a financial heart attack: BP and associates wind up without sufficient funding to carry on, the whole thing collapses and takes down who in heck knows what.

Not a pretty picture – but, also, not at all unexpected by me. BP really screwed up and does have to pay, but I’ve figured for a while now that BP simply can’t pay the full cost of what the Gulf spill will require. While we might think of BP as an oil-company cash machine with unlimited resources (well, “we” don’t think that – but Obama and his Democrats sure do), the fact of the matter is that BP is finite and even if they have revenues in the tens of billions, they have costs only a bit less than that…and now a huge charge has been added at a time when oil prices are flat or down.

Is there a way out? No. No politician will argue that BP should be let off the hook. There is no way for BP to really make everything good. BP will fail in some way, shape or form – and then we’ll all find out just how exposed the financial system is to a BP collapse.