Blogs For Victory

Remember that, fellow Americans – no matter what you see or hear, everything is just peachy keen. So, please ignore this:

Gold futures – as well as spot metal – extended record highs shortly before futures floor trading opened in New York on Monday.

A markedly weaker U.S. dollar was mainly behind the surge.

In recent trading, December gold was up $11.70 at $1,107.40 an ounce after hitting a most-active record of $1,111.70. Nearby November gold hit $1,109.30, a front-month Comex record. Spot gold also hit a fresh all-time peak of $1,111.15 an ounce as the U.S. dollar weakened against the euro.

The continued record extensions are bolstering fund expectations that gold prices will keep rising, said George Gero, vice president with RBC Capital Markets Global Futures.

In addition to dollar woes, stronger equities futures and crude prices were helping gold, Gero said.

People are hiding their wealth – converting our rapidly devaluing currency in to gold and oil so that no matter what the government and banks screw up next, they’ll have something left. Of course, not all of us can do this – in fact, most of us can’t. We have to hold on to our ever more worthless dollars because we have to pay the day to day bills and don’t have a lot of surplus cash to shovel in to thousand-dollar-an-ounce gold or seventy-dollar-a-barrel oil.

As I’ve always said, pay very little attention to what people say – people with money are telling us that the economy is getting better…but what they are doing with the money (betting it on stocks, taking profits and converting the results in to commodities) is a much more powerful statement than all the glad-handing about “green shoots” and other references to Happy Days Are Here Again. We’ve got a dead economy, and all we’re waiting for is the burial.

Obama and his bankers hope to finesse things and figure that some how, some way, the wherewithal will be found to get Americans consuming again – thus allowing China to sustain its bubble and keep buying US bonds so we can finance our continued finessing of the economy. See the circle? Well, its a circle jerk. We, the people, are playing center.

Time for us to break out of this – to get past the idiots who brought us here and start laying our plans to build an economy based upon hard work, savings and real wealth. It’ll be a lot more boring – not quite as many X-Boxes under the Christmas tree – but once we do it, we’ll never have this problem again.

Ah, but China is a giant on spindly legs, just as Japan was in the 80’s. A quote from a related article over at Mish’s pretty much tells the tale:

All my young in-laws are rushing in to buy condos putting life savings down as well as laying down additional borrowed family cash down and then paying way more to buy each month than it would cost them to rent. It’s as if the boom crash in the west never happened and they believe themselves immune.

Indeed – the tip off, for me, was some tens of millions of dollars being paid for an apartment in Hong Kong. When people are being that stupid with money, a crash is inevitable. But the bankers are counting on it – especially those most heavily invested in China.

What astounds is that it is certain that no major entity is doing business in China without providing bribes and kickbacks to the elite. It is certain that China’s government is lying about economic and government spending statistics (China’s announced military budget, for instance, is a laughable lie). China is a corrupt, cruel government which makes its living by cheating its own people and ripping off western economies, especially ours. And here we go – and why? Because the money men still think they can get easy profits out of China. So does the Chinese government, which has essentially ordered this madness to happen. And easy profits are all they care about – because that is how you get the swell bonuses which buys the pretty toys which make you a better person than everyone else…

It will come crashing down – and the latest replacement for the United States will be shown to be the absurdity it always has been.

We reported earlier that Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan attended the same mosque at the same time as two 9/11 hijackers, but now we’ve also learned that he “had been attempting to make contact with people associated with al Qaeda.” months ago, and federal officials were aware of it.

It is not known whether the intelligence agencies informed the Army that one of its officers was seeking to connect with suspected al Qaeda figures, the officials said.

[…]

Investigators want to know if Hasan maintained contact with a radical mosque leader from Virginia, Anwar al Awlaki, who now lives in Yemen and runs a web site that promotes jihad around the world against the U.S.

In a blog posting early Monday titled “Nidal Hassan Did the Right Thing,” Awlaki calls Hasan a “hero” and a “man of conscience who could not bear living the contradiction of being a Muslim and serving in an army that is fighting against his own people.”

According to his site, Awlaki served as an imam in Denver, San Diego and Falls Church, Virginia.

Does this information point to Hasan being just a guy “who snapped” or a guy who thought long and hard about what he planned to do?

The real tragedy here is that this could have been prevented. For liberals who convinced themselves that Bush either knew 9/11 was gonna happen and didn’t do anything about or just ignored the warning signs, I’d love to know how they feel about the fact intelligence officials were well aware of Hasan’s actions months ago and nothing was done about it.

Perhaps we need to be asking what did Obama know and when? Or was it just political correctness that let this happen? There was clearly plenty of warning and actionable intelligence. But nothing happened.

After 9/11, no one knew what lay ahead for this country. We can only guess at how many attacks on U.S. soil were foiled thanks to the efforts of the Bush administration and our intelligence agencies, It appears that symbiotic relationship designed to keep us safe has broken down..

I guess Obama is just too busy.

While it’s easy for the left to claim a short term victory out of Saturday night’s vote in the House, I am sitting here calmly, knowing very well Obamacare is heading down a long path to nowhere.

For starters, it won’t pass the Senate. Moderate Democrats in the Senate won’t go for it.

Second, the far-left isn’t pleased. They want taxpayer-funded abortions. A bill that doesn’t mandate this is of no interest to them. NOW is already mobilizing against the current version. Any legislation with pro-abortion measures simply cannot pass, yet one House Democrat is confident the Stupak amendment won’t be in the final version. So, that razor-thin victory for Obamacare will became a comfortable defeat. Meanwhile, in the Senate, Joe Lieberman promises to join a filibuster of any bill the public option, some far-left Democrats won’t support a bill without it.

Third, once details about this bill (which wasn’t given the promised window of transparency) are widely known and discussed, you won’t see as many House members so willing to vote for it after they’ve heard a mouthful from their constituents.

With mid-term elections coming up, and polls showing lack of support for government-run health care, I am not worried about Saturday night’s vote.

And he still won’t make it up for weeks:

President Barack Obama is nearing a decision to send more than 30,000 additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan next year, but he may not announce it until after he consults with key allies and completes a trip to Asia later this month, administration and military officials have told McClatchy…

…The plan would fall well short of the 80,000 troops that Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, suggested as a “low-risk option” that would offer the best chance to contain the Taliban-led insurgency and stabilize Afghanistan.

It splits the difference between two other McChrystal options: a “high-risk” one that called for 20,000 additional troops and a “medium-risk” one that would add 40,000 to 45,000 troops.

The officials, all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss internal administration planning, cautioned that Obama’s decision isn’t final, and won’t be until after administration officials discuss it with the NATO allies at a Nov. 23 meeting of the alliance’s North Atlantic Council and its Military Committee…

This has gone well beyond dithering – this has gone all the way up to vacillation; and there is no worse error a leader can make. To make any decision – even a bad decision – is better than making no decision at all. Obama seems deathly afraid of coming down on one side or another and the sense I get is that his aides are working it out amongst themselves and just trying to get something which will allow the issue to fade away, at least for a while.

The trouble is that real, flesh and blood American soldiers – as well as Afghans and allies – will have to pay a price for whatever decision Obama makes, or fails to make. People will die, no matter what Obama does – but upon Obama’s decision rides the answer to whether or not they’ll die in vain. We have a war which can be won and the troops are ready to win it – all they need is the word “go” from President Obama. What they might get is “maybe”.

Oh, for just an hour of President Bush back at the helm!

What are we to do about the creeping liberal-fascism in our country?

Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair; the rest is in the hands of God. – George Washington

Just that – and if we do it, then we’ll have done all we can.

Entirely unsurprising, and the very last wake up call we should need:

Hasan, the sole suspect in the massacre of 13 fellow US soldiers in Texas, attended the controversial Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Great Falls, Virginia, in 2001 at the same time as two of the September 11 terrorists, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt. His mother’s funeral was held there in May that year.

The preacher at the time was Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born Yemeni scholar who was banned from addressing a meeting in London by video link in August because he is accused of supporting attacks on British troops and backing terrorist organisations.

Hasan’s eyes “lit up” when he mentioned his deep respect for al-Awlaki’s teachings, according to a fellow Muslim officer at the Fort Hood base in Texas, the scene of Thursday’s horrific shooting spree.

We have to find out about all of these Moslem entities and figure out who is producing jihadists and who isn’t. Those who are must be, as I’ve said, deported if foreign, and removed from any sensitive position, if American. We can’t afford to allow things to just drift – more innocent people will die, if we do.

Told you guys this would happen:

…On Friday, when most of the basic facts (of Ft. Hood) were available, Mr Obama tried again. It was scarcely any better. He began by offering “an update on the tragedy that took place” – as if it was an earthquake and not a terrorist attack from an enemy within – and ended with a promise for more “updates in the coming days and weeks”.

Completely missing was the eloquence that Mr Obama employs when talking about himself. Absent too was any sense that the President empathised with the families and comrades of those murdered.

…Mr Obama needs to show Americans that he can relate to what they’re going through, and take responsibility.

It could do him good to show he has a bit of fire in his belly. Perhaps he might make a decision or two based on gut instinct and deep conviction. In other words, maybe he should try being a bit more like Mr Bush.

Our ship of State has been adrift on the crucial things (unemployment, War on Terror) and excruciatingly concentrated on relative trivialities (health care)…and about all things, President Obama dithers and passes the buck and allows others to lead the way. We don’t have a proper Commander in Chief – we’ve got a Orator in Chief; a plastic icon incapable of connecting with actual events.

Gonna be a long three years…

James V. DeLong explains why. Highly recommend this article, as well as DeLong’s The Coming of the Fourth American Republic.

I can’t find anything to dispute with either article and both track exceptionally well with my own views.

But will it pass the Senate?

Hours after President Obama exhorted Democratic lawmakers to “answer the call of history,” the House hit an unprecedented milestone on the path to health-care reform, approving a trillion-dollar package late Saturday that seeks to overhaul private insurance practices and guarantee comprehensive and affordable coverage to almost every American.

After months of acrimonious partisanship, Democrats closed ranks on a 220-215 vote that included 39 defections, mostly from the party’s conservative ranks. But the bill attracted a surprise Republican convert: Rep. Anh “Joseph” Cao of Louisiana, who represents the Democratic-leaning district of New Orleans and had been the target of a last-minute White House lobbying campaign. GOP House leaders had predicted their members would unanimously oppose the bill.

We’ll have to have a talk with Cao – but my bet is that since the Stupak amendment passed, he felt it was ok to vote for the bill as it didn’t do the morally reprehensible thing if having taxpayer funded abortion. Its still horrible policy, however, and Cao voted the wrong way.

I like how the MSM says Democrats “closed ranks” – 39 of them broke ranks and joined the GOP. That is a fractured party being ruled by ideologues – and we’re going to whack ’em hard next year.

Now – anyone want to guess on whether or not they’ll get 60 votes for cloture in the Senate? I think Harry will try by passing the most watered-down bill possible and then using the trick of the conference committee to ram through Obama-care, Pelosi-style.