It is not about OWS, it is about Financial Tyranny Part 3-The violent dishonorable defense of a Vampire Squid!

A Vampire Squid sucking on the face of humanity is not worth protecting. A justice system that ignores such evil while committing acts of violence upon those engaged in Constitutionally protected Free Assembly makes a joke out of itself!
The term “Vampire Squid” is taken from a very insightful article by Matt Tiabbi, that accurately shows in detail the practice Goldman Sachs has of manipulating markets to the detriment of the rest of humanity.

But so what? Don’t Paulson, Geithner, Rubin, Summers, Thein, Steele, Cramer, Bolten and Blankfein all have the Freedom to be as rich as they want to be? Who cares that it is an oligopoly backed up with taxpayer dollars to such a degree that Smith’s Perfect Free market competition does not apply. Who cares about the rest of us are getting hosed by their various pump and dump schemes (tech bubble, housing bubble, gas price bubble) and then paying for their bailout with tax money. They have a right to be rich! And if those dirty hippies protesting don’t see that…why then they can just go…go…go…get a job at McDonalds’s! And don’t cry when the police come and bust your heads you…you…you commies!

Clearly the rights of Blankfein and company to as much wealth as they can cheat out of the system are more important than a protester’s rights of Freedom of Assembly. That’s what the Constitution says! And if it’s not what the Constitution says then that’s what it means! You…you…you commie, fascist, socialist Obamanazis!!

I’m going to stop the ventriloquist act I was doing out of my own asshole for the past few sentences to get serious. (Coming up with such asinine rhetoric is exactly that easy) Violence in defense of these oligarchs is a serious matter. To recap recent events-
On October 28, Oakland police assaulted protesters with tears gas, flash-bang bombs, rubber bullets and bean bag projectiles. In this assault they critically injured Scott Olsen, a two-tour Iraq War veteran, giving him a concussion.
On November 5, Oakland Police injured two-tour Iraq War veteran and local businessman Kayvan Sabeghi with repeated blows from police batons.

There have been many arrests of people who have been obeying the terms of their particular permit. The fact that the First Amendment rights of these protesters have been so grievously abridged is highlighted by the other fact that many in the media who decry them have used the Constitution as a mere buzzword in their past rhetoric.

But I think that the hypocrisy of the media that defends the Vampire Squid is well established. But what of those who have sworn an oath to serve and protect and wind up committing these atrocities in defense of the Vampire Squid?

If you are sympathetic to those who committed these acts of violence and are reading these words please consider that wonderful things have happened when soldiers have stood down and refused to act against their own populations.

For example, during the 1991 Soviet coup attempt, Major General and hero of the Soviet Union, Viktor Karpukin was ordered to enter the Russian White House and assassinate Boris Yeltsin. He refused to do so when he saw the civilian casualties that would entail. The direct result of this was the fall of tyrants who had attempted a coup on Mikhail Gorachev.

Consider also how far this corporate dominance had gone already. Wells Fargo, one of the largest banks in this country, has recently been implicated in financing drug gangs in Mexico. Those same drug gangs doubtlessly have allies and members in Oakland and other cities. Police have to deal with those allies on those days when they are not attacking Americans in parks for using their Freedom of Assembly.

That is correct, the institution the police are defending is bankrolling their most organized enemies.

And on the other hand of the War on Drugs is the privatized prison complex. These are companies who have one customer-the taxpayer. Adam Smith’s Perfect Competition does not apply for that reason alone. Like Defense contractors, they can and do take a small amount of the tax money they get and lobby for more tax money and against any serious reform of the current situation. Although not formally a part of the Vampire Squid that police are defending right now, they profit from the burden of police departments of drug offenses and immigration.

By the way, were we to legalize marijuana, we would take away the market from these violent thugs, decrease the police workload, open up a new tax base, and have less tax money given to privatized prisons. Sounds like a great idea to me. So, of course, it has no elite political support. The only thing that historically changes public pressure like that has been exactly what the protesters are doing now-activist organizing!

On each of a policeman’s uniforms is an American flag, The Constitution that flag represents clearly allows for Freedom of Assembly and the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances. Allowing the Vampire Squid more freedom than a citizen/taxpayer/protester is an abomination. Enforcing the “rights” of the Vampire Squid at the expense of those protesters is telling the world and posterity that the cop in question does so do not take the flag on his uniform seriously.
Not only that, but if these tyrants remain unchallenged, humanity is in serious danger. Leaving aside Nuclear War, Ozone Depletion, Permafrost melting, feeding and watering 7 Billion people and the other long term dangers of human survival-let’s concentrate on one Soil Erosion. If we keep up blind subservience to short term traders and do not adjust for reality, we will not be able to feed the human race. (Pages 8-15)Will it be easier or harder to change things in a future where we ignore the actions of these tyrants?

Various Occupy Wall Street groups have advocated similar demands. Among those are measures to protect humanity from this Vampire Squid that will eventually kill us all. If you are part of the human race, you should be on their side.

If we can’t break free now, when will we?

It is not about OWS, it is about Financial Tyranny! Part 2-Shermer's Penalty Flag

It breaks my heart when someone I admire goes along with conventional wisdom. Michael Shermers career has been one of knowing the truth and having it set his readers free. When he jumps on the dishonest Bash OWS bandwagon I must call foul.
The best treatise I’ve ever read on Libertarianism is Mind of the Market by Michael Shermer, the creator of Skeptic magazine. It is a brilliant tour-de-force of behavioral economics, business comparisons and evolutional psychology. In it he makes the best case I’ve heard for the proper relationship between markets and governments. Property rights are important, but a just and fair legislative and legal system is also needed to uphold them (I am paraphrasing!). I couldn’t agree more. It’s a lot like a Football field. We cheer and love athletic accomplishment, but the referees are a needed part of what goes on. It is an absurd suggestion to allow this kind of fast violent sport without the oversight of referees to insure that everything is conducted in a just and fair manner.

That is the proper role of government. And it has become corrupted, unfair in the application of its rules, to our detriment, very recently. The Occupy Wall Street Movement is bravely addressing this issue as I write. And it is being met by some of the snidest, unfair, and dishonest commentary that I’ve ever read coming from by the elite punditry. If this were football, I’d have to call foul and throw a flag.

And a good referee has to throw the flags not only on players he dislikes, but on players he likes. He must throw a flag on a player he likes and respects. I’ve read Mr. Sheremer’s recent column, “Occupy This” and…
Whistle blows!

Intentional Straw Man! 10 yard penalty, repeat 2nd Down!

Discussing this foul let’s examine one by one, his “points of political and economic significance”, -

1.” no one went to jail because they didn’t break any laws…If you want someone punished for the meltdown you have to first change the law.”

Oh, but people did break the law. The poorly trained “robosigners” processing mortgages were not acting on their own volition! Someone set up a systemic breaking of the law in fraudulently processing foreclosures. If you attacked it as a real criminal operation…y’know bust the lower level thugs to get their cooperation, find the mid management types who systemically hired the robosigners to break the law, and work your way up the food chain we would find a lot of villains in this crisis who deserve prison time at all levels. The DOJ has yet to do this!

2. "The only reason to work on Wall Street is to make a boatload of money. That’s the whole point of playing the market.”

The outrage is NOT directed at people playing the market and winning a boatload of money! Michael you are so much a better player than this. Hacking away at the same man of straw that pundit like Will Cain hacks away at is beneath you. It’s like Peyton Manning intentionally grounding a football. You are a better player than that and you know it.

The problem the protesters have is with the huge amounts of theft, fraud, and market manipulation that has been committed by white collar criminals over the past 15 years and they have been very clear about this point.

3.“crony capitalism, which is nothing like the libertarian vision of real capitalism”.

Here you make an important difference, but do not go far enough. You admit some sympathy to the Wall Street protesters. You are very quick to term what has been going on as crony capitalism. And you are correct!

In the mid 1990’s there were 4 banks that now have become Citigroup, there were 11 banks that have merged into what I now JP Morgan Chase, there were 13 banks that merged into what is now B of A, and there were 9 banks that merged into what is now Wells Fargo. That did not happen in a vacuum, it happened because of political corruption, gaming the legislature, and well entrenched crony capitalism. HR 1489 (reinstating Glass-Stegal –justly separating commercial and investment banks) is on the list of Occupy Wall Street demands. If you really are against crony capitalism (aka oligopolies and monopolies) why not help Occupy Wall Street instead of jump on the dishonest pundit bandwagon?

4. “Wall Street CEOs and their resident COOs, CFOs, traders, and the like, make too damn much money, hundreds of times more than the gap used to be between the highest paid and lowest paid members of corporations.”

Once again, you express some sympathy for the OWS protesters, but then ignore the fraud, theft and market manipulation behind many of these fortunes.

And there is a fundamental mistake in your challenge to “How much should the top earner earn?” It exempts the inhuman creation we call corporations. The way they game the system by using offshore tax loopholes is not insignificant. Especially seeing as how that tax burden is shifted to the rest of us.

B of A, that same B of A that wanted to charge a $5 a month Debit fee, was the recipient of a $1 Billion dollar tax rebate last year. I would want time to research a proper answer to the question of where the line of excess should be drawn. But allowing a $1 Billion dollar gift of tax money to company with the history of B of A is excessively evil, much so, than any pot smoker you ran into in New York.

5. “I agree that all competitions must be regulated by a well-defined set of rules that are consistently enforced with penalties assessed without prejudice or bias, from sporting contests to stock market trading.”

I agree too, Mr.Shermer. That’s why I had to throw the Straw Man flag on this piece. Here you do admit that you see corruption. And you admit that allowing Barry Bonds to police a steroid enhancing program while he is still playing (continuing the sports metaphors)is stupid. That is precisely what people are shouting in the streets about!

Right now we have a situation of mega trading houses that can trade worldwide 24/6. They can have multiple trading desks. They can hype one security at one desk while shorting a derivative based on that security at another desk. Which is exactly what Goldman Sachs got away with regarding mortgage securities.

When I read Mind of the Market I was very impressed. I was seeking a good example of Libertarian thought. The examples of Libertarianism to which I had been exposed were extremely poor. Well funded, think tank tested sophistry that cherry picked evidence, denied global warming, ignored the externalities in economic equations, and rationalized the pollution of our world, the potential death of our species, the return to robber baron days of economic serfdom. I knew that there had to a Libertarian out there somewhere who actually lived in the real world! And you did not disappoint with that book.

I was so impressed that I bought a Vote Libertarian bumper sticker and had in on my car during the 2008 campaign.

I saw the way Libertarianism was going shortly after the election with the ascent of Glenn Beck and what could have been a movement that ended the War On Drugs (I still maintain that the most eloquent argument against the War on Drugs I’ve ever heard was by conservative economist Milton Friedman) and reversed the Patriot Act provisions was changed into a rebranding of the policies that almost destroyed our economy.

I wound up tearing that sticker off my car and spitting on it. But I still loved that book! And I love (and quote ) Skeptic magazine. That’s why I can say that this column was not worthy of you Michael. I know that you are better player than that.!

If only you would be willing to turn your skepticism on crony capitalism instead of defending it!

It’s not about OWS, it’s about Financial Tyranny! Part One-The Decentralized Demands

The coverage and commentary of the Occupy Wall Street protests has been exactly what could be expected from people who alarmed us with Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq and placated us with a housing market that is only going up.
The Decentralized Demands

The common denominator running through the “journalism” covering this entire Occupy movement is the snide derision and outright lies that seems a prerequisite for covering the story, all the while missing the point about the very real outrages that have motivated the protesters. The country can survive some Civil Disobedience en masse and it can survive the occasional pot-smoking protester stereotype that actually does something harmful. The country as we know it is in serious trouble if we let the outrages which provoked these protesters to begin with stand.

A man who goes by the initials J.G. has said-“Capitalism, despite its magnificent virtues in the short term – above all, its ability to adjust to changing conditions has several weaknesses… The finiteness of natural resources is simply ignored, and pricing is based entirely on short-term supply and demand. More generally, because of the use of very high discount rates, modern capitalism attributes no material cost to damage that occurs far into the future.” (Call this Quote 1).

There will be more on J.G. later. But before we talk about J.G. and “class warfare” and sharpen our pitchforks while yelling “commie”, let’s take a look at Occupy Wall Street (or at least Occupy Chicago’s) list of demands. Is there really anything that’s out of line in these requests?

1. Pass H.R.1489 and reinstate Glass Steagal!

Eliminating Glass Steagal-the Depression era safeguard that separated investor banks and commercial banks is directly to blame for this crisis and the misery it caused. It was repealed as a final act of a lame duck Congress in 1999 and led us over a cliff very fast. This is not an unreasonable demand!

2.Repeal Bush Tax Cuts for the Wealthy.

The 1% had quite a party for a decade thanks to an illegitimate Presidency. Deficit concerns are lessened when we increase the tax base. Warren Buffet feels they should pay their fair share. This is not an unreasonable demand!

3. FULLY INVESTIGATE AND PROSECUTE THE WALL STREET CRIMINALS!

This one might be problematic. When you make fraud (like Goldman Sachs hyping the very Securities that it was shorting) legal, prosecuting someone for a crime is problematic. But the fact that it is problematic is inexcusable. When former CFTC head Brooksley Born first met Alan Greenspan (the villain at fault for this mess) whether or not fraud should be illegal, Alan Greenspan replied that he did not feel Fraud was a priority (at about 16:00). When massive scale Fraud is legal, that needs to be changed. That’s not the fault of the pot smoking hippie the news media has singled out as representative of this movement, it is the fault of paid off Congressmen who allows it and the lobbyists who bribed them!

4.OVERTURN CITIZENS UNITED v. US.

This horrible piece of Judicial Activism has already proven cancerous to our democratic electoral process. In a state of the Union Address, President Obama cited the negative effect of having foreign corporations able to influence our elections and “Justice” Scalia famously shook his head and said “Not True”. If it is not true, then why did the exact thing warned against come into existence, give money to Mitt Romney and then evaporate? This decision was a horrendous injury to the American People by the Supreme Court and needs to be overturned fast!
5. PASS THE BUFFET RULE ON FAIR TAXATION, CLOSE CORPORATE TAX LOOPHOLES, PROHIBIT HIDING FUNDS OFFSHORE.

I have no problem with that. Neither does Mr. Buffet. And I am still waiting credible Point A to Point B evidence that inconveniencing corporations costs jobs. Where there is demand, there is hiring to meet the demand. Demand is what needs to be nourished and the Buffet Rule can help.

Let’s return to J.G. at this point. J.G. says that "If we want to dig out of our current morass,
don’t we have to change this equation and isn’t the most direct way of doing this to divide the pie more evenly?
That would mean lower income and sales taxes for the bottom 75% of earners and higher taxes for the top 10%!
We have allowed the vagaries of globalization and the plentiful supply of cheap Chinese labor to determine our
income distribution, which has become steadily steeper, to the point where we have become one of the least
egalitarian developed societies. Wouldn’t it be better for us to decide deliberately and by ourselves that income
distribution which creates the best balance of social justice and incentive to work? " (Call this Quote 2)

He adds that“The wasteful status quo has powerful allies in the present corporate and political system. We do not easily accept bad news, nor do we easily deal with long horizon problems. …we are not particularly good with numbers, especially when it comes to probabilities, compound growth, and discount rates. We have a capitalist system that reflects our weaknesses; one that is fine-tuned only for the present and immediate future” (Call this Quote 3) I agree with J.G. which is why I quoted him.

And, kind reader I will reveal more of J.G. as we go on. Even though you may have an image of J.G. at this point with a knit rasta cap carrying an OCCUPY sign in one hand a Guy Fawkes mask in the other, please hear him out. Maybe you can envision the tents set up around the park and a hint of marijuana smoke in the air as I quote him. But do bear with me. J.G is worth quoting.

6. GIVE THE SEC STRICTER REGULATORY POWER, STRENGTHEN THE CONSUMER PROTECTION BUREAU, AND PROVIDE ASSISTANCE FOR OWNERS OF FORECLOSED MORTGAGES WHO WERE VICTIMS OF PREDATORY LENDING.

The new Consumer Protection Bureau has had an uphill battle since it was proposed, despite the fact that one of the key factors in the Real Estate Bubble was the way in which sub prime mortgages were sold to people. A predatory sell of an ARM to someone who cannot afford it is a devastating event in his or her life. Shrugging and saying “caveat empor” to someone who is suckered into dumping a lot of money into one of these crooked deals is callous, drains the tax base, and leaves parasites in high places.

7.TAKE STEPS TO LIMIT THE INFLUENCE OF LOBBYISTS AND ELIMINATE THE PRACTICE OF LOBBYISTS WRITING LEGISLATION-

This mess was started by the repeal of Glass Stegal. Which was dropped in at the last minute by a lame duck Congress. The creation of “Too Big to Fail” Banks was directly related to this repeal. This didn’t just magically happen. Banks had been working to repeal Glass Stegal since the 1980’s. We need to not only correct the mistake, but remove the mechanism by which it happened. There is no reason something too big to fail (and exist) should be able to influence Congress to this malevolent degree! The protesters are not out of line with this demand.

8. ELIMINATE RIGHT OF FORMER GOVERNMENT REGULATORS TO WORK FOR CORPORATIONS OR INDUSTRIES THEY ONCE REGULATED.

J.G says that “Capitalism does not address these very long-term issues easily or well. It seems to me that capitalism’s effectiveness moves along the spectrum of time horizons, brilliant at the short end but lost, irrelevant, and even plain dangerous at the very long end.” (call this Quote 4)Well said J.G. If Timber executive write the forest regulations, if Oil executives write the oil safety guidelines, if military contractors write their own checks and if private prisons influence immigration and drug laws, we don not have a democratic republic-we have a legal looting of the wealth of the United States of America.

9. ELIMINATE CORPORATE PERSONHOOD

We are coming up upon an event Science is terming “the Singularity”. It is referencing hypothetical future emergence of greater-than-human intelligence through technological means. It is absolutely vital that we recognize our first attempt at creating a “person” although merely a legal one has resulted in creating a monster. I’ve addressed this issue in my piece- “We should implement Asimov's 3 laws to protect us from our inhuman creations-not robots but corporations.”
10. INSIST THE FEC STAND UP FOR THE PUBLIC INTEREST IN REGULATING PRIVATE USE OF PUBLIC AIRWAVES to help ensure that political candidates ARE GIVEN EQUAL TIME for free at reasonable intervals during campaign season.-

We are witnessing the need for this in the unfair and dishonest coverage of the Occupy Wall Street movement. And if you wish to comment on OWS, it seems to be a prerequisite that you adopt a snide, derisive and condescending tone. We need the Fairness Doctrine back! I addressed that in “We’re feeling the effect of treating mass Libel and Slander as protected Free Speech right at this moment."

11. REFORM CAMPAIGN FINANCE WITH THE PASSAGE OF THE FAIR ELECTIONS NOW ACT (S.750, H.R. 1404)

Bought and paid for prostitutes to K Street are unfit to lead us through the daunting challenges ahead of us. The current campaign finance system requires that our elected representatives become these prostitutes. So I’m all in favor of reforming it.

12. FORGIVE STUDENT DEBT-

Want stimulate the economy, y’know increase demand so there is more hiring and more jobs? This is a great way to do it. The burden of debt for a college education is a major drain on many people throughout there adult lives. (Particularly if the degree was worthless in the job market.) What’s more the interest and structure on many of these loans means that they wind up being paid back in a very unfair and lopsided manner where the amount paid over decades is greater that the tuition. I say, after 2 decades, you’ve got your return on investment for this loan and what remains can either be forgiven or restructured to reasonable payments. What’s more, after we do that, that frees up the money that would have been servicing a loan to purchase goods and services!

There is nothing in these demands that I disagree with!
And as to J.G., I have a bit of a surprise. He’s not part of the 99%. He is very firmly a part of the 1%! Jeremy Grantham(Quote 2 is on page 5) is the Co Founder and Chief investment Strategist of Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo-a Boston Based Asset management firm that directs investors on a “return to mean” basis. That means he steers investment money way from bubbles and still makes money for them. The piece I quoted from him also has an excellent bit on how these short term bubble machines justly protested by Occupy Wall Street will kill our species eventually through soil erosion!(Quote1 was on page 2-Quote 3 was on page 3-Quote 4 is on Page 1)

Now is the time to admit they don’t work and fix our mistake!

We are at a turning point in our species. A minority of traders with a history of destruction in the name of short term profits has control of our media, our fortunes, our resources and our world (One of them recently boasted as much on the BBC-at about 2:38) and if left unchecked will kill humanity in the name of short term profits. That is the relevant issue not the caricature of protesters and victims of the system drawn by elitist pundits!

An Apology from the RNC to the American people!

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An Apology from the DNC to the American People

The Democratic National Committee would like to take this opportunity to sincerely apologize for President Obama’s milquetoast stands on important issues. He takes the party base for granted, and is just as bribable as a Republican on issues that are important to the American people! We are sincerely sorry that we must now watch him walk back in to the 2012 Presidential nomination with so much compromise and betrayal of campaign promises as his record.

It has been a disgusting spectacle to watch over the past few years hasn’t it? A landslide victory was won over the Republicans after 8 years of George W. Bush’s illegitimate rule. Only to see that after inauguration, the foulest parts of our system could easily bribe and control the Democratic leadership as well. Those that did not wish to concede to the minor reforms after Congress justly altered a demonic profiteering Health Care System bought themselves a “grassroots” movement to turn the tide the other way. And this was met with compromise, caving in, and often kowtowing to people who did not and will never vote for Obama.

As we speak, citizens are organizing in the Occupy Wall Street movement. There is justifiable outrage at Goldman Sachs selling and promoting Mortgage backed Securities at one of their investment desks while simultaneously shorting those very Securities at another desk. This led directly to the AIG bailout. They managed to profit heavily off of the economy going under. The Department of Justice has been pitiful in its response. This is the same Justice Department that is cowardly refusing to enforce the law when any Right Wing preacher endorses a candidate from the pulpit-
And when can the Justice Department under Obama be called on to enforce the law? Why when it breaks a 2008 campaign promise of course! The Pharmaceutical industry is currently in Stage 3 trials of Marijuana based drugs like Sativex and that means it can’t have voter approved Medical Marijuana dispensaries selling a plant at a lower price.

Obviously Obama and Holder’s DOJ is a cruel and insipid joke under these circumstances. We could have had a Republican in office and had this kind of big government intrusion over State’s rights for the benefit of a corporate crony happen! We’re sorry. We really are. We are the sorriest excuses for public servants because we promised the opposite and then screwed over our base of supporters!

And it has certainly been sickening to watch hypocrites like Boehner, Cantor, and Ryan cite cutbacks in Federal and State jobs as what is needed to “create jobs”! But we are no better. As this is written, “Free trade” agreements with Colombia, Korea and Panama are being railroaded through Congress. These agreements have a history of sacrificing GDP for gains in speculative markets. At a time of high unemployment we are going to be shipping more jobs overseas for corporate profits. One of the bright spots in the 2008 debate was McCain calling a Columbia “Free Trade” agreement a no-brainer as he asserted that country that taxes its cocaine is helping us try to stop the flow of drugs into our country that's killing young Americans. The 2008 Obama responded “the history in Colombia right now is that labor leaders have been targeted for assassination on a fairly consistent basis and there have not been prosecutions.”
But if a Free Trade Agreement is signed into law, not only can Obama join Boehner and Ryan in the shameful “We-have-to-cost-ourselves-jobs-to-create-jobs” club, but it will be his signature drying on a treaty with a government that targets labor leaders and doesn’t prosecute!
And then there was letting Cap and Trade die and coming out for oil drilling in the Gulf (essentially giving the middle finger to every environmental activist that canvassed for him) right before the largest oil spill ever. It was directly linked to corporate greed and negligence. Granted Obama did get a whole 3 billion dollars set aside from BP to deal with this mess. But to the DNC’s shame, no one was arrested for their negligence!
You have no idea how ashamed we are to have this man walk back into our party’s nomination. Our only hope really is for a national replay of the Nevada Reid vs Angle contest. A dismal sold-out center right Democrat vs a raving lunatic who endorses a theocracy! It’s as though the attitude of Democrats once elected is “Screw you, what are you going to do? Vote Republican?” It’s no wonder that you’ve taken to the streets.
Only know that despite the ads you will see over the coming year, we here at the DNC are so sorry it’s come to this, we really are!
We are honestly so fucking sorry!

Why you shouldn't consider a President Perry if you really care about small government!

Forget the abysmal environmental record, the rigged numbers regarding employment, and the shallow demagoguery that should shame every decent Christian who sees it. The real reason you can't call yourself a small government conservative and work or vote for a President Perry is his record regarding guilt and innocence under his administration. It is a model of corruption, incompetence, and dangerous abuse of power that no sane person would wish to apply to the Federal government!

The Death Penalty is probably the most egregious act of power a State, any State, can commit. Never is the collective will of a tax-funded bureaucratic collection of insulated tyrants more naked than when it chooses to extinguish a human life. And I have been on both sides of this issue. I can completely empathize with the outrage of the family of a murder victim and cannot say that I wouldn't join their ranks if something horrible like a murder took away someone close to me. But I also do not approve when the State commits the exact same crime. What's more (I know I'm going to sound like a Libertarian saying this, but I'm not), when the cruel brute force of something like the State takes an innocent life, it shows all of us what an unthinking monster deserving of restraint it truly is.(Now the question of whether or not Private Enterprises display the same characteristics is one for another day)
The administration of the State of Texas by Rick Perry provides us with a textbook example of how this unthinking monster needs to be restrained when it comes to not only the Death Penalty but the protection of the well connected and guilty.

In 2004, Cameron Todd Willingham was executed by the State of Texas for alleged arson in a fire which took the lives of his three daughters in 1991. The evidence that the fire was arson were based on the techniques used by the local authorities in Corsicana, Texas. While he was on Death Row, a fire science expert got a chance to look closer at the case and determined that there was no evidence for arson. The report was sent to Rick Perry's office and the request for a 30 day stay so the evidence could be reviewed was denied. Cameron Todd Willingham was executed as a direct result of this inaction.

Texas Forensic Science Commission was formed by the Texas legislature to investigate bad science in murder investigations and abuses of power. They hired two independent experts and determined that there was no evidence for arson in this case.

Perry's response?

In October 2009, when the commission was about to accept a verbal report of one of these scientists, Perry removed Commission members and canceled that presentation.

I don't know about you, but I don't need to go any further!.Turning a blind eye to that inaction and coverup by Rick Perry, while at the same time mouthing Fox News talking points about “freedom”, railing against “Obamacare”, and listening to a carefully rehearsed Heritage Foundation presentation about Liberty makes a joke out of anyone who supports Perry. That's because that kind of behavior is exactly the kind of abuse of power that the Founders wanted to prevent. And turning a blind eye to it can only bring about a tyranny by empowering people like Perry more.

But wait, it gets worse! We've seen how a State headed by Rick Perry treats the innocent, how does it treat the guilty?

The legal tradition of Separation of Church and State usually receives lip-service and derision in far right circles. And to be fair, it is a good idea made of legal precedent, not actually in the Constitution. The Constitution only mentions religion twice and neither mention is a positive one. The State of Texas recently experienced a national headline making case that illustrates the need to separate Church and State.

FDLS leader and convicted child molester Warren Jeffs was recently sent away for life in spite of Rick Perry's actions not because of them. The members of the FDLS church were in charge of many aspects of life in those small rural towns. Call the police on Warren Jeffs? Hah! That's just not going to do a lot of good when then the judge, the sheriff, the deputies, the administrators are all members of the FLDS.

In an upcoming book-Profit's Prey (as of this writing it is available for e-book release) by private investigator Sam Browers (the lead investigator who is responsible for bringing down Jeffs), it is revealed that the initial 2008 raid of the FDLS's YFZ ranch resulted in every Texas Child Protective Services official that had anything to do with the case being either fired or reassigned. The molested child “wives” were then returned to their molesters. If that action did not come from the Governor's office then it can not be an excuse that he knew nothing of it. Complicity or Ignorance-both are equally as foul when dealing with the raw power of a State!

I've seen in my own line of work accused thieves and accessories to theft be fired just for proximity to a case. The reason is usually that they were either participants or too stupid to see the obvious. Either way, they don't belong in that position. The same thing standard has to be applied to Rick Perry when it comes to firing public servants so as not to embarrass well connected supporters.

The returning of molested children to their molesters is flat out inexcusable! Government small enough so it can't enforce the prosecution of institutionalized child rape is nothing to be proud of!

With Rick Perry's Texas, we have a proven record of the innocent being persecuted (and in this case killed) and the guilty being protected. That is exactly the kind of behavior that we never want to see in an elected official. And now we have him being endorsed as a “Tea Party” candidate? We can expect exactly what we got from the last Texas governor to be installed in the White House if we turn a blind eye to this proven record of State abuse.

Oh and come to think of it, the last time we believed a Texas Governor who promised a small government we had -

A CIA agent exposed for blatant petty political revenge. And a presidential pardon of the political hack responsible.

Voter Machine Fraud in the reelection campaign that was never completely investigated.

An attempt to privatize Social Security that was followed by an admission that privatization would do nothing to help solvency.

Money delegated to fix the levies in New Orleans after decades of crumbling diverted to foreign affairs. Then we had Hurricane Katrina flood the city who then had to endure two weeks of anarchy, death and sewage water.

A National ID act passed so as to take Driver's License standards away from the states.

A politically motivated firing of US Attorneys who were prosecuting Republicans while at the same time ignoring prosecutor misconduct against Democrats!

An expanded deficit three times (a lot of which is no-bid military contracts) that of what Obama spent to deal with the mess he inherited.

Private contractors murdering civilians in an occupied territory.

Appalling conditions in Walter Reed hospital. It shows the degree to which people like our Texas Governors actually “Support the Troops”.

Torture at Ahu Grahib and other shadow facilities that did not reveal any worthwhile information. (They are brazenly lying when attributing this to finding Bin Laden). This was followed by no prosecution for the bureaucrats in charge.

The ignored warning in August 2001 that there was an attack planned by Bin Laden in the USA.

A projected tax surplus spent and this country needing China in order to keep our economy going.

The record of ex-Texas Governors in the White House actually being small government speaks for itself. And Rick Perry is so “small government” that he-

Took Texas from $49 billion in spending when he entered office to $90 Billion in spending now.

Maintains a higher Debt to GDP ratio than California-Perry's Texas rate is 22.9% with debt per citizen at $10,645 and Left Coast California (Pelosi's home) is 18.7% with $9932 in debt per citizen.

Has doubled the state debt. Can you imagine what the US debt will look like if he gets a hold of it?

Has spearheaded efforts to lease roads to foreign corporations. That means taking something the taxpayer paid for and giving it to a foreign corporation so they can charge a toll on something that used to be free and was paid for by the taxpayer.

So, Rick Perry is small government in talking points and campaign slogans only. And he has a proven record of covering up for the guilty if they are well connected while ignoring the victims and killing the innocent then covering up his actions.

Are my fellow Americans that easy to mislead that they can seriously consider this man as a potential president? This kind of political monster is so evil that I could find myself voting for Obama just to keep him out of office.

And I think that is just what Obama is counting on. A national replay of Reid vs Angle.

Well, Mr. Santelli..., Are YOU listening?

In a recent interview, Rick Santelli made the assertion that it was because of the Tea Party the USA wasn't downgraded to BBB status by the same geniuses at Standard and Poors who saw Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns as solvent companies worthy of high ratings. In the middle of another vanity rant in front of CNBC's cameras (this time filled with meaningless sports metaphors) Mr. Santelli tells us "Don’t get caught up in the minutia. All this BS." Well one man's minutia is another man's important detail. When confronted with the Conventional Wisdom world of pundits that is run by vain rants in front of cameras using focus group tested sound bites, the details have never been more important.

But this time, there is a reason that the vain elitist pundit does not want us looking at the details. According to Standard and Poors' Research Update- they lay the blame at the Republican Congress specifically the Gang of Twelve. They site failure of Republicans in Congress to raise revenues as a cause for concern that the Bonds may not be paid. In Standard Orwellian Doublethink he turned the situation on its head with an exact reversal of the facts and claimed the Tea Party was to be thanked for avoiding a BBB rating. And typical of a concise TV pundit presentation, no evidence is ever presented to back that up (although I'm sure mises.org is busy cherry picking those facts right now).

As I mentioned in my Where are we on the Deficit Football Field piece-we are nowhere near default. You can go to the CIA World Factbook and look at what our external debt is is in relation to our GDP. You can compare this with other countries. There are countries with higher ratios of external debt to GDP and they have no run on their bonds. This was an entriely contrived crisis (the goal of which is not fiscal solvency but killing socially beneficial programs) which Standard and Poors reacted to by correctly saying whom was at fault.

And if we were to go in the other direction, we could immediately do something direct about unemployment (Government workers and contractors do spend money and there is a multiplier effect). We could put people back to work repairing our infrastructure. We could eliminate many states deficits and have adequate fire, police and schools. Rick Santelli would throw a fit. But look at his behavior in February 2009 when a meager stimulus was being pushed through Congress to deal with the worst financial crisis in recent history. Mr. Santelli and others like him are going to throw fits no matter what is done (especially when cameras are present). As we recently saw in the "debt crisis" debate, there is no appeasing him or those like him, so it should not even be attempted.

At the time where Mr Santelli did his famous "Well, Mr. Obama..." schtick in front of the CNBC cameras, the think tanks that spread a message similar to his were busy rebranding the policies that had brought us to this point, and part of that playbook was saying "Failed" Stimulus instead of Stimulus especially when there were cameras shooting video. It was February 2009.

There are problems with taking the Dow as an indicator of economic health, but as a general yardstick, I'll use it now merely because it is so widely used. In Feb 2009, the Dow was at 7,600 approximately. The Stimulus failed so much that the Dow turned around and headed up to 12,500 in the space of two years. Unfortunately, it was not enough to deal with unemployment. Unemployment and underemployment are the true bites, the true measure of human misery. of any recession. To Mr. Santelli it is merely a number on a page and a higher ration of impoverished souls he must look at on his limo ride to and from the Chicago Board of Trade. He has a very important job of investing people's money until it is all gone, so I'm sure that added stress on his limo ride is very harsh on him!

But let's put a move like that in historical perspective, The Dow was at 7,600 in November 1997 and passed 12,600 in February 2007. That's some failure! Ten years (with wartime and deregulation caused housing bubble stimulus) worth of stock improvement in just 2 years is impressive. If it had been big enough to put people back to work, the Democrats would never have had to give away my Medicare benefits to Washington elitists in order pay for the Afghan and Iraq occupations.

So now, The Dow has dropped down to where it was last December. That's all the value and economic progress of this entire year evaporated because no one stood up to the "Gang of Twelve" freshman Republicans. And as a quick History lesson, didn't they welcome Obama into office with a cry of "I hope you fail!"? Regardless of the Unemployment, Underemployment and misery of their fellow citizens, they want Obama to face reelection with a poor economy even if they have to be the ones who kill the recovery personally.

As of this writing, I can't say how low it is going to go. No one can! I think I can say with some accuracy, that just as these creatures of publicity were using "Failed"Stimulus just as the stimulus was, in fact, succeeding...they will refrain from using Failed Austerity just as the Austerity they recommend is in the process of failing. It is the nature of the hypocrite.

And one doesn't have to dig far to find hypocrisy behind these loud narcissistic buffoons. Going beyond Mr. Santelli, the leader of Tea Party Nation, Judson Phillips, just revealed to the world something he believes would solve our economic problems-shovel ready projects! That's right, when confronted with the possibility of going from 11 to 9 carrier task forces, Mr. Phillips turns Keynsian! He said, "Thousands of employees would be hired for the steel mills that would provide the steel for the hull and various sub contractors would hire thousands. Do you know what that means?It means they would receive paychecks and go out and spend that money. That would help a recovery. That is a shovel ready project!"

So applying that proven form of economic cure to something that helps people instead of killing them and protecting our oil empire is Socialism and we can't have that, because we'd wind up like the victims of Stalin?

Actually repairing our infrastructure so we can compete with other countries is unthinkable as long as we have this deficit?

I have to compromise my Medicare in my old age with a worthless private voucher so Defense Contractors get to keep raking in millions, while killing civilians in other countries and drinking vodka out of each other's butt?

I have to say enthusiastically and loudly HELL,NO!!

And just to put things in perspective about just how contrived this crisis and these cuts really are-Look at this breakdown of the deficit

Obama and his "out of control" spending at a time when most of nation desperately needs that spending, is $2.4 Trillion. The incompetence and failure of George W. Bush (Iraq and Afghan wars, tax cuts for the rich, Housing bubble) account for $6.1 Trillion. If we absolutely HAD to cut the deficit (we don't) we could easily cut from the Bush part and still have enough money left over to put paychecks in Americans hands again and reclaim our place as the greatest nation on Earth.

Rick Santelli won't like it. Neither will Judson Phillips. But until I see them behave like loud narcissistic buffoons when a Defense bill is being considered or when a proposal to raise taxes on the people and entities who actually have money, there is zero reason to give them ANY credibility!

All revolutions provoke reactionaries. The Left should have realized this and not let them rebrand their failed policies so fast!

If Mr. Santelli wants to use Sports metaphors, here's one that should be considered. The Boston Red Sox went from being the losers everyone joked about to winning two World Series in the past 7 years when they embraced William James' Sabremetrics. It was a revolution in sports statistics that is still being felt. When Grady Little, their manager failed, they brought Bill James into the organization embraced his philosophy and have not looked back!

Mr. Santelli, Judson Phillips, Grover Norquist and others are the Grady Littles who screwed up and now feel entitled to have thier jobs back even as the market is getting massacred immediately after getting precisely what they wanted!