Why Do People Like Sarah Palin Again?

It seems like a legit question to me. Why do you like or support Sarah Palin? It doesn't seem like she's done much in the way of actual notable political anything. She has no foreign policy experience, and quite frankly, she seems more likely to talk about her kids and her makeup than anything of political relevance. So, why would you even start to think she'd make a good President of the United States?

Today in Politics...

It's blog time once again, folks. I meant to do some blogging over the weekend, as the proverbial fan is a very dark shade of brown after this weekend... but I was busy apartment hunting and doing lease paperwork and such. 

In slightly positive news, the Missouri Highway Patrol retracted a document in which they linked conservative groups with domestic terrorism. Mentioned by name were the folks (such as myself) who agree with and are active for the causes championed by Ron Paul. 

The document was originally released last month by the Missouri Information Analysis Center. The name of this government agency sends chills up and down my spine, as thinking of it reminds me in too many ways of 1984. The agency is meant to be a collaborative "fusion center" for government agencies in Missouri and around the country when dealing with national security issues, namely militia movements. 

The document suggests that domestic militias often oppose immigration, abortion, and federal taxes; it is "not uncommon", according to the report, to support third-party political candidates, such as Ron Paul.

Pardon me, but as an American citizen, I have a Constitutional right to make my voice heard. Just because my voice happens to find harmony with a political figure who, by modern standards, is neither Republican nor Democrat, that should not allow some asinine, privacy-violating government agency to associate me with terrorists. The political movement in which I am active does not condone nor does it encourage violent or aberrant behavior. It encourages it's members to grow support for the cause using the Internet and other resources to educate people. I reiterate, it's our Constitutional right to do so.

I know I'm not alone in this belief, because Campaign for Liberty called upon its members to peacefully make known their grievances relating to this document. It was subsequently retracted. 

I mentioned how this particular agency reminds me of 1984. The government in this story controls everything, from the newspapers to the manufacturing. Everything is controlled and manipulated by the government. The book is absolutely horrifying, yet I see the real government of the United States heading right in that direction.

Take, for example, the proposed bailout of the newspaper industry. Yeah, you read that right. We've nationalized (read: socialized) the mortgage industry, the banking industry, a heaping chunk of the insurance industry, and the auto industry (more on that in a minute), and now we'd like the government to control the newspapers too. Well, perhaps "we" as the American public wouldn't like to see that, but the government probably would. Essentially, the government would allow the newspapers to become non-profit organizations with a bunch of tax breaks. So, the government offers the newspapers money (tax subsidies) in exchange for semi-nationalization of the industry. Does that scare anybody else? That's not too many steps away from our very own Ministry of Truth.

Sorry to all the journalists out there who work for newspapers, but the industry is dying and we need to allow it to do so. The industry has been going under for quite some time; it really has nothing to do with the current state of the economy. Simply put, why wait to read today's news in the paper tomorrow when I can just go online and find it right now? The news-reporting model of the newspaper is outdated and will never see a comeback in the age of the Internet and 24-hour news networks. I think the bigwigs in the industry realize this, but they are either too stubborn or greedy to let it happen. Alas, they ride the wave of companies requesting government bailouts and try to get their share of the pie.

Dominoes Pizza is currently running a line of commercials that show the CEO poking fun at companies who are looking for bailouts. while its jest is obvious, it's still sobering to be reminded of it every time Heroes goes to a commercial break.

In perhaps the most horrifying turn of events from the weekend, the Obama administration has forced Rick Wagoner to retire. For the unfamiliar, Wagoner was the CEO of General Motors. In a speech given at the White House over the weekend, Obama promised us that he is absolutely committed to the survival of the U.S. auto industry, but he feels the industry is not moving in the correct direction fast enough. 

This comes after the announcement that GM and Chrysler requested, and were turned down for, additional bailout funds. As part of the original auto bailout approved by the Bush folks, the two automakers received a total of $17.4 billion in bailout funds - $13.4 billion to GM, $4 billion to Chrysler. GM requested another $16.6 billion and Chrysler requested another $5 billion. Obama said "no", a decision I approve of. He did, however, say that the government is now backing the warranties on all US-made automobiles. So, in reality, if you purchase an American-made vehicle (particularly from GM and Chrysler - Ford did not receive a bailout), you might as well be purchasing from the government. 

Let's go back to the original statement though. Obama's administration has forced GM's CEO to retire and appointed a new CEO, who happens to be the old COO. They also appointed a new chairman of the board. In his speech Obama said, “Let me be clear: The United States government has no interest in running GM; we have no intention in running GM." Soooooo, all that forced reorganization stuff, that's not actually considered "running" GM? Do I have that right?

Like I've been saying since the beginning, while I agree that GM (and Chrysler, for that matter) is very much on the wrong course, it is not, nor should it ever be, the the place of the government to make hiring and firing decisions. That is so far beyond the scope of what the founding fathers had in mind in literally bewilders me that our country has come to this. Under the guise of "change," Obama is literally trying to take over the private sector. If the past has taught us anything, such a system is bound to collapse under the weight of its own greed and depravity. 

What's more, the government is now bailing out the companies that supply parts to the American car manufacturers to keep them afloat. MagicMoney at work here, folks. We don't have it, but we're spending it anyway.

I'm going to derail this train of thought before I end up writing a novel. As always, I encourage all my readers to be more active in politics, because now it's more important than ever. Start educating yourself at the Campaign for Liberty. 

Idiotic Government News - Another $1 Trillion in MagicMoney

Yet again, the government, in the form of the Federal Reserve, has made a poor decision while spouting "save the economy" as the reason. The Fed is now looking to "pump" another $1 trillion+ into the economy. They're accomplishing this by purchasing treasury bonds and mortgage securites. According to the International Herald Tribune:

Having already reduced the key interest rate it controls nearly to zero, the central bank has increasingly turned to alternatives like buying securities as a way of getting more dollars into the economy, a tactic that amounts to creating vast new sums of money out of thin air. But the moves on Wednesday were its biggest yet, almost doubling all of the Fed's measures in the last year.

There you have it. MagicMoney at work again. Has nobody in the US's central bank (now there's a socialist term for you) heard of the inflation that comes with printing too much money? Anybody? Hands?

Never mind how the Fed is keeping interest rates artificially low. Never mind that the Fed's only real idea here is that the economy can be saved by increasing banks ability to loan out money to consumers - as if we actually need more debt - even though credit is a big portion of what got us here in the first place. Never mind that despite the government's "efforts," banks are lowering credit limits (one of my cards just got lowered by $400 for no real reason and with no notice) and raising interest rates and fees. 

The government's "best efforts" are failing, and failing miserably at that. It is beyond ridiculous that the people this country elected (and in some cases, the people put into power because they were friends with the people we elected) refuse to sit down and actually think about a way to solve this problem. No, the government is, and has been since this whole thing started, is in reactionary panic mode. 

Take, for example, AIG. Who hasn't heard of these bastards by now? We, the taxpayers, have pumped $180 billion into that company to save it from going under. Let's timeline this:

• AIG gets $85 billion in bailout funds
• AIG Executives take $440,000 taxpayer-funded weekend retreat, execs say they will do it again soon
• AIG receives second bailout of $37.8 billion, public outcry forces AIG to cancel second retreat
• AIG execs take $86,000 hunting trip, financed by taxpayers
• After meeting with New York Attorney General Anthony Cuomo, AIG agrees  to reduce expenditures, including a $10 million severence package for it's former CFO. These cut expenditures include cancelling over 160 conferences/events that would have totaled more than $8 million.
• By this point, AIG has used about 3/4 of its $123 billion in bailout funds.
• AIG receives yet another $40 billion in bailout money. This comes after AIG posted a 3rd quarter loss of $24.47 billion dollars. In their press release, the Fed and Treasury state that this additional bailout is necessary "to keep the company strong and facilitate its ability to complete its restructuring process successfully." When did the restructuring begin exactly? This additional funding brings the total AIG bailout to about $163 billion, which means taxpayers own about 79.9% of AIG stock.
• AIG execs hold $343,000 seminar. Execs state that meetings like this are "necessary". AIG CEO issues a statement also calling the meeting necessary.
• AIG sends letter to NY AG Cuomo promising that the 7 top execs will not get bonuses. Everybody else will, but those guys don't get raises. Instead of bonuses, AIG execs get "Retention Payments". Because they don't make enough money as it is.
• AIG posts 4th quarter losses totalling a whopping $62 billion. 
• AIG announces that it will use $165 million in bailout monies to pay bonuses. Lawmakers and taxpayers get upset. The sad part here is that the bonuses are being paid out to the executives of the Financial Products division, which was the division responsible for bringing AIG tumbling down. AIG says they have to pay these bonuses for retention purposes, and because they are contractually obligated to. 
• NY AG Cuomo starts investigating, issues subpoenas. It is discovered that these "retention" bonuses are being paid to people who left the company.
• House Financial Services Subcommittee holds hearing about AIG.
• AIG CEO Edward Liddy requests half the payments be returned, calls payments "distasteful."
• It is made known that President Obama and Congress have been aware of these bonuses for months. 
• Finally, the House and Senate both plan to vote for taxing any bonuses paid to AIG execs or any exec that works for a company the governement bailed out under TARP a whopping 90%.

Isn't all that exciting?!?!? Isn't it funny that despite the fact that our economy is taking a grand nosedive, we can focus this much attention on one company? Obviously what they're doing here is wrong, but there's a bigger picture to all this. These bailouts aren't doing anything to stimulate the economy. The news is riddled with sotries about banks using bailout funds to fill their own coffers, not to provide money to customers, as the bailout funds were designed to do. You have companies like AIG abusing the money we are giving them. The bailout plans are obviously failing, so we instead just pump more money into things like buying securities and bonds, using money that actually doesn't exist. Both plans, the bailouts and the buying, hinge on the idea that we can "make" as much money as we want, but here is a simple fact: every dollar printed reduces the global value of the dollar. When you print trillions of those dollars, just think of how much the value of the dollar is going to plummet. 

I would call yet again for America to start paying attention to what is happening to the country around them. Apathy no longer cuts it - we all need to be involved or this country is going to keep right on spiraling out of control. You can start educating yourself and immersing yourself in ideas and solutions at the Campaign for Liberty.

There's my rant for the day. A thank you shout-out to The Consumerist who do a great job at tracking these things, and all issues relating to consumers, and being snarky about it.