The Threat Remains

Say it ain’t so!

Even though the United States elected a man the entire world could love. A man of change and the last best hope for hope. A man who wowed em’ in Berlin and had Parisians weeping with joy in their bouillabaisse. A man who had the whole world eating out of his hand like tame little does. Even though this man of vision and change is residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue the Taliban still wants to blow stuff up and kill people in Washington DC. Go figure.

Since taking office just a few short months and a few trillion dollars ago, Barack Obama has signed a presidential directive to close Guantanamo Bay Detention Center. Began the process to relocate and repatriate the murderous thugs housed there. Promised an accelerated plan to remove troops from Iraq. Dropped any use of the term “war on terror” and made sure his Secretary of State did the same thing. Made a video explaining to Muslims around the world that this new president wants peace and understanding and is looking to bring relationships between America and the Muslim world back to the glory days of yore.

He stopped all the straight talk of President Bush which was erroneously blamed for inciting violence and creating all the bad karma around the world and replaced it with the smooth rhetorical babbling of a true pacifist. And still the leader of the Pakistan chapter of Taliban R’ Us has announced his intent to carry out terrorist attacks in the U.S. capital.

Baitullah Meshud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban said “Soon we will launch an attack in Washington that will amaze everyone in the world.” It is believed that Meshud and the Pakistan Taliban have ties to al Qaeda and have been responsible for numerous terrorist attacks within Pakistan over the past several years.

During the Bush presidency any time a terrorist with a bad attitude made any kind of disparaging remarks about the U.S., Democrats were quick to blame George W. for their bloodlust. But now that we have a full fledged pacifist in the oval office folks will have to start looking for new excuses for terrorist behavior. I am certain that GW will continue to get the blame for a while like a bad terrorist hangover, but even for the biggest Bush haters that will only be plausible for so long.

Meshud claimed responsibility for the recent murderous terrorist attacks within Pakistan and said they were due to increased American military drone attacks on Taliban and al Qaeda strongholds. He unfortunately did not explain all the other murders for which he and his merry band are responsible over the past 4 or 5 years.

The ongoing financial crisis has taken up most of the headline ink in newspapers and air time on news shows since the new president was elected. The critical point to this most recent dire threat is that whether or not we use the term “war on terror” there are still folks out there that are just looking for an opportunity to kill Americans. They don’t care if GM files for bankruptcy or if the AIG executives give back their bonuses. They are looking to kill, period.

All the “Why can’t we all just get along” video tapes in the world will not deter these zealots bent on the destruction of America and all that we stand for. The threat is real. These guys do not believe in change and their hope is for our demise.

It remains to be seen if al Qaeda has the necessary personnel and plan in place to actually carry out their threat. But with President Obama installing a political hack like Leon Panetta into the post of CIA Chief, politicizing almost every department concerned with national security and quietly eliminating the program that allows private pilots to carry firearms on commercial flights there may be more to this threat than just a Taliban chief having a bad hair day.

I hope the 7 years of safety we enjoyed under the Bush administration after 9-11 is not the change we were promised.

The Devil His Due

Is this the change we have been waiting for?

In what can only be described as the nationalization of what was once American private industry the President of the United States has seen fit to relieve the CEO of General Motors of his job. And he did it in a most gutless and cowardly way.

While the president once again sat before the adoring news media television cameras he had his aides announce the sentence and carry out corporate beheading. As Obama sat with CBS newsman Bob Schieffer discussing his discontent with the progress automakers have made in reconfiguring their union controlled business, “administration officials” met with Rick Wagoner and informed him he would need to step down if GM was to receive any more financial assistance from Uncle Sam Obama.

This action can certainly be interpreted as change and is also another addition to the long list of historic firsts. It makes it abundantly clear why Ford CEO Alan Mulally has gone to such great lengths to avoid accepting government handouts. General Motors made a deal with the devil and now the devil wants his due. Where is Daniel Webster when we need him?

Regardless of what you think of Rick Wagoner, his past job performance, his experience or his abilities going forward, it is beyond chilling to witness the federal government’s usurpation of the General Motors board of directors and the share holders voting rights.

Wagoner accepted the sword offered him and dutifully fell upon it having been unable to negotiate a financial tourniquet with the autoworkers union. Union officials saw no reason to use their old methods of strong-arm tactics or negotiate in earnest with the major auto manufacturers now that they have their hit man in the White House.

During his tenure at the helm of GM Wagoner made some serious mistakes as far as new car designs and the public’s fickle love-hate relationship with big cars and trucks. But in his limited defense Wagoner was playing poker with a pinochle deck from the start. It was under his leadership that GM began to make small but significant steps in renegotiating union contracts that his predecessors had agreed to in an effort to keep labor peace. While the actions taken under Wagoner’s leadership were not sufficient to allow GM to become globally competitive in labor costs they did paint a bulls-eye on him, with the union only waiting for the right marksman to take the shot. They got exactly what they were looking for in this past presidential election and it only took him 60 days to pull the trigger.

The Obama administration is going to great lengths to appear to be playing hardball with the GM and Chrysler management. The reason behind this is apparent only if you look beyond the current rhetoric to the likely outcome.

In his speech the day after Wagoner got the axe, Obama made it clear where his allegiance lies. "The pain being felt in places that rely on our auto industry is not the fault of our workers... And it is not the fault of all the families and communities that supported manufacturing plants throughout the generations... Rather, it is a failure of leadership." I agree with the president. But the failure of leadership was in their inability to successfully negotiate labor contracts that allowed the company to maintain profitability against the headwinds of a global marketplace.

This new tact taken by the Obama administration will have the exact opposite result of what the rank and file is looking for. It is unlikely that any legally constrained restructuring of these companies will allow them to continue to carry the oppressive legacy costs and unrealistic union pay scales and health insurance. But with the actions and comments made today this president of hope and change is laying the groundwork for the blame game to follow. He hopes to change the attention from what he promised on the campaign trail to blame the automakers management for the outcome.

The decision the board needs to make seems clearer now than ever. GM must free itself of the old union contracts that are bleeding them dry and it must also free itself of the parasitic federal government. The only way to do that is through the bankruptcy court. There will never be any security, independence or meaningful growth at this or any company as long as nearly every business decision is debated in the inept halls of congress and second guessed by a man who has never held a private sector job in his adult life.

Let this be a valuable lesson for all companies in the future. Beware the politics of liberal socialism.

Compassionate Silliness

Ok. To be clear. Cancer is bad.

I am in no way trying to minimize the impact that cancer has on its victims or their families and friends. Nor am I trying to minimize the dedicated work countless doctors and scientists are engaged in trying to rid this planet of cancer’s scourge.

But the various color ribbon brigades or the rainbow of rubber bracelets being sold at almost every venue imaginable is just another example of how proper marketing can satisfy our need to feel good about ourselves without really doing anything.

The biggest campaign is the pink ribbons that adorn everything from women’s high end fashion to bowling balls. Retail stores have major sales with a “portion of the proceeds” going to benefit breast cancer research. I defy you to go through a Sunday newspaper and not find at least one advertisement that boasts support for breast cancer.

It’s not that I am against breast cancer research, or any cancer research for that matter. I doubt someone dying of colon cancer will sit back and say “Well at least I don’t have breast cancer”. Colon cancer is equally devastating but it wouldn’t make as catchy a marketing campaign and would probably have a far less attractive ribbon.

The point is that while all cancers are worthy of a cure, we as consumers gleefully contribute to these causes without the slightest idea of where the money is going, what it will be used for and most importantly how much of each dollar is actually going to the charity. I know for a fact that several of the major retailers that hold pink ribbon sales with the “portion of the proceeds” caveat actually donate only fractions of one percent to the charity. The intent behind the sale is far more about the advertising benefit than for the charitable contribution.

It’s not just cancer that has such exaggerated innuendo marketing. I used to donate regularly to what I thought was a disabled veteran’s organization. They would deliver a box of plastic garbage bags to my door for a $50.00 donation. The same grandmotherly voice would call me every few months, God blessing me and thanking me each time. It wasn’t until I carefully read the receipt that I came to realize that the veterans were only getting about a buck from my $50. The majority was going to the fundraising company and old Granny, who was probably also one of Dionne Warwick’s psychic friends and Mistress Dominique on a 1-900 number. I now only make donations directly to organizations and not through fund raisers that keep the lion’s share of the donation.

It’s all about the marketing. Americans are the most compassionate people on the planet, but we are also usually looking for a means to contribute so we can feel good rather than get involved in a truly meaningful way. The term “It’s the least I can do” did not come about by accident.

The same principle of marketing was in full force this past weekend with the absurd observation of “Earth Hour”. The sole purpose of this silly display was to make us feel good about ourselves and to continue the assault on common sense that the corporate friends of mother earth have been perpetrating since they discovered there is money in it.

We live in a world where over half the population has never used a telephone. There are people who still use dung to construct their home and use the left over bricks for heating and cooking fuel. 30% of the earth’s population doesn’t know the earth is round and most of them don’t know that the earth is a planet. Do you really think you are benefiting this earth by having McDonald’s dim the light bulbs in the Golden Arches for an hour?

Instead of turning off the house lights for an hour one day a year how about turning off the kids video games for one hour a week and just talking to them or reading them a good book.

It may not save the planet, but it will make living on it a whole lot better. At least until the sun’s rays creep through the holes in the ozone and cook us like lobsters.

In the mean time, it really is the least you can do.

Risky Buisness

BREAKING NEWS !!! RISK IS RISKY !!!

Treasury Secretary Tim 1040 Geithner has his secretarial undies in a bundle regarding risk-taking on Wall Street. Without going into all the boring details, let’s just say he is against it. Or at least his boss is against it and he, being the good soldier, is taking on the yoke of this remarkably socialistic plan as his own.

Geithner is calling for sweeping government regulations and increased governmental oversight of the risk taken by private sector financial businesses by the most inept financial minds on the planet, the US Congress.

It was of course under the Democratic direction and weak kneed Republican opposition of Congress that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were summarily tasked with undertaking enormous risk in the low income and subprime mortgage markets. When this house of cards eventually met its inevitable collapse under the weight of increased defaults of these welfare mortgages, causing real estate values to plunge and mortgage bonds to become worthless, the whole world felt the pain of congressional incompetence.

Wall Street certainly carries some of the blame for getting caught with their pin striped pants down. But only for not adequately forecasting the effect this governmental folly would have. It is however important to remember that for every loser on Wall Street betting the housing market would continue to go up, there was a winner betting the other side. The recent government bailouts were so the losers could pay the winners. To state now, as they are, that all of Wall Street was wrong and in need of government guidance is as false as the supposition that it was Wall Street greed and not congressional incompetence that led to the whole collapse in the first place.

Secretary Geithner’s newfound aversion to risk is so profound it’s a shame he doesn’t have a position in the National Security Administration or the CIA. As Tim 1040 continues to tatter his tunic about reducing financial risk on Wall Street the real risks to America’s safety and security continues to increase by land and air unabated.

Both funding and political resolve for increased protections along the US – Mexico border are slowly eroding. Even as the FBI publishes their investigative reports showing a dramatic increase in drug cartel armies invading border towns on a murderous rampage, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lays blame on American drug users rather than Mexican drug kingpins. American intelligence estimates that the Mexican drug cartel armies are equal in numbers to the entire Mexican military.

In the United States drug dealing street gangs comprised mostly of illegal Mexicans aliens have increased at a record pace in the last 3 years. Gang activity has risen over 35% in the last two years and their reach into the United States has expanded over 14%. It is estimated that in areas comprised predominantly of Hispanics nearly 60% of all gang members are illegal aliens. The Salvadorian gang MS-13 has spread throughout the United States. The FBI’s MS-13 Gang Task Force chief Aaron Escorza reported that because of the “revolving door” on the border, membership of MS-13 gang members remains at about 10,000, even as illegal alien members are deported new illegal aliens take their place. And still congress debates the need for increased security along the Mexican border.

In the sky, President Obama is quietly ending the federal firearms program designed to allow commercial airline pilots to carry firearms.

Earlier in March the president diverted some $2 million in funding from the pilot training program. Since pilots were allowed to carry firearms after the 9-11 attacks there has not been one instance of improper use of a firearm by a pilot. Complaints received involved less the 1% of the overall officers in the program and all have been disproved. There have also not been any additional hijack attempts. Do you suppose that is by coincidence?

70% of all commercial pilots have a military background. Yet the approval process to allow more pilots carry a firearm has come to a halt without explanation.

While the Obama administration tries to reduce risk on Wall Street the risk on Main Street is real and growing.

I wonder if this Nero knows how to fiddle.

The Great Communicator

“Who you are speaks so loudly I can’t hear what you’re saying” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

In what has become an almost tiresome noting of historic firsts the President of the United States Barack Obama made an appearance on NBC’s Tonight Show with Jay Leno. His intent was to deflect outrage at the ongoing AIG saga and make an early pitch for his near $4 trillion budget, but in a rare moment of unguarded candor this president showed a side of his character rarely seen in public.

Mocking retarded participants in the Special Olympics, Barack Obama compared his marked inability to bowl a respectable score to a Special Olympics event. His meaning was clear and his intent was equally so. So much so that this teleprompter president’s staff switched into immediate damage control mode. Even as the president’s plane was heading back to DC, his press aides were working the accompanying media by re-explaining that the president’s remarks were in no way derogatory to the retarded but only a bit of self-defacing humor poked at his lack of bowling prowess. The President called the Director of the Special Olympics from his plane to offer his personal apology even before the taped interview aired that evening.

It was a valiant effort to deflect criticism, but the explanation was as shallow as the comment was demeaning. I understand that this president of hope and equality for all was trying to poke fun at himself. But he did so by using the retarded as a sarcastic example of poor performance. By comparing his inability to successfully perform a task to a group of handicapped athletes he actually made them the punch line and the butt of his joke. The audience was no longer laughing at a president that can’t bowl. They were laughing at the mental image of retarded kids poorly performing in athletic events. Certainly not a comparison that should have been made by a thoughtful self-biographing leader of the free world, but perhaps a pretty good look inside this president’s thoughts when they are not written by someone else and read off a teleprompter.

Take just a minute to reflect on the media reaction if George W. Bush had said something similar. Or if Dick Cheney would have explained that the hunting accident where he shot his friend in the face with bird shot was “Like a Special Olympics hunting trip.” I doubt the press would have ignored it or passed it off as an unfortunate gaffe, as they are with Obama. An example was evident as CBS radio news ran audio clips the following morning of the president’s comments about his bowling. They edited out his demeaning comparison to the Special Olympics and made no mention of it in their initial reports. Directors at the Special Olympics have attempted to turn this disgrace into a positive by using the publicity to get their message out. I hope they are successful.

Much has been said and written about this president’s ability to communicate and touch an audience with his rousing oratory. But the words he is using during those rallies of adoration are all preplanned and honed to a razors edge to extract every last ounce of emotion. The problems come for this “Great Communicator” when he goes off the script and does not have a teleprompter to remind him of what exactly it is that he thinks.

Barack Obama has written two books about himself and has spent the last two years publicly speaking at campaign events. He certainly has a command of the English language. One would think that a man who based his entire campaign on hope and change could have come up with a more appropriate reference for self-degradation. How about something like “Yea, but no matter how bad I bowl Joe Biden still has to lose” or “The only guy I can beat at bowling is Rush Limbaugh”.


It was interesting to get a rare unedited inside view of the personal thoughts of Barack Obama when they are not written and displayed with notations on where to place the emphasis.

Not hopeful. Not uplifting. But interesting.

How About NO!

Notice to the learned elected officials looking for more of my money: How about NO! Does NO work for you?

It is almost surrealistic in its scope, but there doesn’t seem to be any government body in this country that is not looking to raise taxes in the midst of the most depressed economy in 60 years. The federal government is looking to me for more, my state government is looking to me for more, my county government is looking to me for more and my local government is looking to me for more.

Between payroll taxes, property taxes, sales taxes, usage taxes, capital gains taxes, business taxes, fuel taxes, sin taxes, social security taxes and local government fees and licenses I’m already giving away more than half of what I earn. There is no more to get. I’m taxed out!

I don’t give a damn right now about life on Mars, global climate studies, wetlands conservation or the California spotted titmouse. I couldn’t care less about the space station, gangbanger tattoo removal, the national census, South Carolina teapots or the size of my carbon footprint.

I am not debating the worthiness of any project. But for the love of God, when people are struggling to make ends meet and don’t know if they will be able to pay their mortgage, or whether they will even have a job in 2 months, it’s not the time to add to our burden with increased taxes.

There will be plenty of time to pick up where we left off buying $2000 toilet seat covers and $15,000 hammers, but right now the American economy is spiraling downward and the American taxpayer is heading down with it. I’m just trying to buy food and put gas in my car so I can get up early every morning and go to work. Don’t share my wealth, share my work ethic!

I was approached by a panhandler the other day, who pushed his tattered coffee cup in my face and said “Hey buddy, can you help me out. I’m broke.” I looked at him and said “I owe money on my mortgage, my credit cards, my kid’s school, my car payment, my doctor, my insurance, my utilities and the twenty other bills that come due every month. You’re not broke. You’re even.”

In my home state of Illinois the newly installed governor is proposing a 50% increase in the state income tax. In Chicago the new Board of Education president has suggested increasing property taxes to pay for the union teachers pay increases. In Cook County they just raised the sales tax by 40% and are now looking for another increase in sales taxes and property taxes to make up for their bloated budget short falls. In my home town they are raising the local taxes and fees to cover their increased spending on things like new sidewalks and new government buildings.

Governor Quinn has stated that we need to face the realities of a tax increase. The reality is my home has lost 40% of its market value. Where the hell is my tax decrease based on the assessed value?

With my 401K now less than a 201K and my income slashed due to the collapse of almost every business sector in America I am looking at every possible way to reduce my expenses. Businesses as well are cutting back on every imaginable expense from reducing payroll to using both sides of the copy paper. The only entity in the entire country that isn’t looking at cost and spending reductions are those bodies we install with authority spend our money.

I support the efforts of groups protesting this outrageous tax and spend at a time of national financial emergency. If it makes you feel better to send your representative a tea bag then be my guest. But instead of teabags what we really should be sending is recall notices so some of these fiscal nitwits can truly feel our pain.

The only thing this latest round of government taxing and spending has stimulated is my complete contempt.

Mathew 22:21

''Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's; and to God the things that are God's."
Mathew 22:21 - New American Standard Version
Even for Roman Catholics who only use their bible to as an objet d’art, most know these words of Jesus from the New Testament. Perhaps Chicago’s Cardinal Francis George may want to pay a little bit more attention to the rendering and a whole lot less to the rhetoric.

The Cardinal spoke at a prayer forum held at a local Roman Catholic Church this past weekend and called on the Obama administration to enact “comprehensive immigration reform” that is “fair and compassionate”. He called for a complete abolishment of immigration raids on illegal aliens and the businesses that employ them and stated that “Such reform would be a clear sign this administration is truly about change…”

I agree with the Cardinal. Ignoring the laws, those who break them and disregarding the Constitution of the United States would be change. Cardinal George and the other Cardinals within the Roman Catholic Church could start turning pedophile priests over to legal authorities for prosecution rather than just transferring them to continue their monstrous behavior in other unsuspecting parishes. That would be a change too.

The prayer rally was also attended by the best friend an illegal alien ever had, Democrat US Rep. Luis Gutierrez. Gutierrez had just returned from his meeting with the president and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Luis G. had skillfully tried to tie the current economic crisis with illegal immigration stating that the economy is too fragile to deport 12 million illegal aliens who are here spending money. Of course this absurd statement does not take into account the fact that illegal immigrants are a much greater drain to the system than a benefit. On a daily basis just the governmentally supported health care illegal immigrants receive is staggering, not to mention every other form of tax based support they receive. I find it interesting that the pro-illegal immigrant faction no longer is claiming that illegal immigrants only take jobs that no American would do. A claim that may finally be seen as an absurd misrepresentation, particularly in today’s tight job market.

I have no personal ax to grind with Cardinal George. I commend the Roman Catholic Church for all the good work it does around the world. But in matters of law enforcement and what should or should not be done to protect this country the RCC lost its ability to hold the moral compass years ago. And they lost it both outside and inside the church. Roman Catholics flocked to the poles in support of Barack Obama regardless of his stance on the killing of unborn children. The church spoke out against it but Catholics, as usual, paid it no mind.

I have no argument with the church for giving aid and comfort both spiritually and physically to any person in need. But for the church to come out with a stated position supporting the non-enforcement of immigration laws is patently wrong, unless of course the church is willing to pick up the expenses.

And that may be the key to this whole debate, money.

It would be nice to see the Cardinal speaking out on a regular basis against the slaughter of the innocents. Perhaps he could raise the public consciousness as to the moral and spiritual devastation abortion brings to not only those directly involved but to whole cultures and communities. It would be nice, but there is just no money in it.

A majority of Mexicans are Catholic and as such an important part of the cash donating Catholic community. In a time of economic despair the Cardinal must look at who is most likely to help make up the shortfall in the Sexually Abused by a Priest Fund and who will not.

Because sometimes you have to render to the victim of your own lack of legal ethics.

Who's On First

OK! Let’s get it straight. Who’s on first, What’s on second, I Don’t Know is on third. The left fielder is Why, Center Field is Because, the pitcher is Tomorrow and the catcher is Today. Wrap it up with a shortstop named I Don’t Care and you have the makings of a great comedy sketch or the minutes of last meeting between Treasury Secretary Tim 1040 Geithner, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and President Barack Obama.

After a solid month of vitriol being spewed from every corner of Washington DC in the direction of Wall Street the Treasury Secretary is about to unveil his long awaited plan to rid the credit markets of the toxic waste clogging every financial institution’s aorta.

Congress has successfully misdirected the public’s rage toward Wall Street in order to keep their own actions from gathering too much unwanted attention. The congressionally orchestrated fury has reached such a fever pitch that AIG is warning their employees to not display their company name badges in public lest they risk a confrontation and the possibility of physical harm.

Even though voters are mad as hell with the recent spending binge and deficits this congress has seen fit to heap on the backs of the next 3 or 4 generations of taxpayers, most of the public still believes that the economic collapse was caused by greed on Wall Street. Very few are looking at the actions of congress that led us to the brink of national bankruptcy, but instead are listening to their rhetoric and that of the lapdog media which repeatedly places the onus on unscrupulous Wall Street investors taking too much risk and making too much money.

It is before a backdrop of increased governmental restrictions and oversight of investor risk and rewards that Tim 1040 Geithner steps before the microphone to finally announce the details of his toxic asset removal plan. Geithner made a hugely promoted statement several weeks ago that was as thin on details as it was bloated on rhetoric. Stock market investors reacted immediately to this muddled attempt by dumping investments and sending the market into a tailspin.

The new announcement will likely be stronger on details as it would be impossible to have fewer, but it is anticipated the new plan will rely heavily on the same investors that congress has been demonizing for the past several months.

With the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office announcing their projection of national budget deficits in excess of $9.3 trillion dollars over the next ten years, and congress showing no signs of reining in their outrageous spending binge, investors may be less than eager to participate.

It is clear that the single most important action congress can take in stabilizing the credit markets is to remove the toxic assets they created with their misguided attempt to alter credit reality through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. But now looking to the same investors whose compensation they have capped, whose bonuses they have unconstitutionally taxed out of existence and whose methods and motives they have duplicitously and fallaciously vilified, to make the plan work would be almost comical if it weren’t so sad.

There is no incentive for major investors to get involved in a program of high risk without having at least some ability to project a suitable return. The Democratically controlled House and Senate have shown that they have no hesitation at changing the rules in the middle of the game. There is no reason to believe that they will not do the same here if public sentiment becomes negative toward those who could actually make money out of this mess. With deficit spending and budget shortfalls in the trillions of dollars it seems a much safer investment to bet against the US dollar than to invest in it.

That is of course if anything could be considered a safer bet in the “Who’s on first” routine this administration and congress are currently playing.

The BIG Question

Where the hell is all this money coming from?

Do you remember when Jay Leno used to pitch Doritos’s? At the end of each commercial he closed with the tag line “Don’t worry, we’ll make more”. It seems to me that the Federal Reserve might be in line for a copyright infringement lawsuit because they are using the same tag line.

Each new dawn brings another group of companies being artificially propped up by unprecedented governmental largesse. It has become blatantly apparent that there are absolutely no limits to the level of deficit spending or corporate nationalization this congress or presidential administration are willing to heap on the backs of taxpayers yet unborn.

As the learned members of congress claw their way toward open microphones and television cameras, like brides-to-be at a Filenes Basement wedding dress sale, to renounce the recipients of the hundreds of billions they have already given away, they bring with them the now tired rhetoric of hope for a brighter tomorrow thanks to the hundreds of billions still to be spent. The biggest question that has yet to be asked or answered is “Where the hell is all this money coming from”?

It’s a vitally important question that nobody inside or outside the halls of congress seems to be asking. The federal government is not a profit center. They market nothing but hot air and according to Al Gore we have too much if that already. At what point will folks begin to realize that the government cannot give a single dime away unless it takes it from somebody else.

The front page picture of both the Wall Street Journal and Investor’s Business Daily showed embattled AIG CEO Edward Liddy appearing before a US House committee with a group of organized protesters holding bright pink signs behind him. The sign over Liddy’s left shoulder, written in black magic marker said “GIVE OUR $ BACK”. Catchy phrase, catchy sign, completely inane. Neither Liddy nor AIG took our money away. It was given to them by our congress. If you want to stop a robbery you first have to identify the robber.

And that may indeed be the exact reason the President and his congressional cronies are making such a public display of their feigned outrage at AIG. By deflecting attention away from the fact that it was congress and the Fed that developed the AIG bailout plan it keeps the heat on the recipient and off the flawed plan and its creator.

Congress and the President knew exactly where this money was going and what it would be used for. It was reported over six months ago. AIG’s books are public record. It wasn’t until the voting public got wind of the expenditures that suddenly congress went from dodging a bullet to hiding the smoking gun.

Congress and the Fed are like a dysfunctional codependent couple feeding off each other’s weakness and dysfunction. The latest group to be voted most likely to be nationalized is the auto parts manufacturers. Congress has developed yet another bailout plan consisting of over $5 billion tax dollars to keep these companies solvent through what appears to be the immanent bankruptcy of General Motors. The problem is that many of these companies have been teetering on the brink or been in and out of bankruptcy themselves for the last ten years. Allowing GM to go BK and keeping their suppliers artificially functioning will only delay the inevitable. The business plan is fatally flawed and has been for years within the automotive market. Pumping in an additional $5 billion dollars worth of debt will only allow these companies to continue for about $5 billion dollars worth before reality sets in again. The new national debt level will exceed $2 trillion thanks to the non-stimulating spending plans and temporary bailout measures taken by congress and the president. This will only further weaken the US dollar delaying any real economic recovery and making it far less likely that anybody will be buying the cars these parts go in to.

The recipients of this automotive bailout will be the next group of executives taking the heat from congress for accepting the money. They will quickly discover what many in the banking industry learned the hard way. In order for congress to sufficiently display themselves as feeling the taxpayer’s pain they must first transform from the perpetrator to the victim.

If you want your $ back just take a look at whose hand is in your pocket.

The Political Jungle

It sucks to be the slowest zebra.

But in God’s perfect world of natural selection the swift and healthy zebras survive and procreate while the slow or careless zebras get served with toast points at a lion’s dinner party. The point is that there are winners and losers in these scenarios of survival. Even though the careless zebras suffer the ultimate penance for their carelessness, the lions benefit from their loss. It is the law of the jungle, survival of the fittest.

Unless of course the zebra happens to be designated as too important to fail, in which case congress steps in and provides him with life saving assistance. That action, regardless of intent, throws off the whole balance of a perfect program. It allows the careless zebras to live another day and forces the lions to go hungry until they too need assistance to prevent them from perishing. Such is the case with the current imbroglio centered on the bailout of AIG.

Aside from the fury being directed at AIG for their use of $165 million in taxpayer dollars to pay contracted bonuses to employees, the latest AIG outrage is focused on who they paid off with the bulk of the $105 billion they received.

Professional politicos and the media alike are investigating payments to foreign banks like Societe Generale of France, Deutsche Bank of Germany, Barclays of Britain and Switzerland’s UBS. These foreign financials received a collective $53 billion, or just over half of the bailout money given to AIG.

Several major American concerns also received AIG payment such as Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup. In all the American banks were repaid approximately $27 billion. There was an additional $12 billion that went to municipalities covering their guaranteed investment agreements. The outrage being directed at these payments is beyond my ability to comprehend.

AIG was once the biggest, fastest, smartest zebra in the herd. But resting on its legacy of being the smartest it lost focus of the risks in the environment in which it lived. It became careless of the risk and too slow to react once it became apparent, causing it to almost be devoured. The bloodletting of this giant would have been brutal, and while the hungry lion/creditors would have feasted on its lifeless carcass there would not have been enough left to sate any of the hungry diners.

In stepped congress with a bailout plan whose sole intent was to satisfy the entities that were owed their due from AIG’s loss of focus. As is the case in the law of the jungle, for every loser there is a winner. Where AIG had bet wrong on the housing and mortgage markets these other banks had bet right. While AIG invested heavily in credit default swaps that predicted continued growth in the housing market these foreign and American concerns had invested equally on its decline.

For politicians to shamelessly attempt to garner favor with the American public by feigning outrage at the payments to foreign banks is disingenuous if not downright disgraceful. Anybody with the IQ of a houseplant could have figured that a company named the American International Group, or AIG, would have international debts that would be paid out of the bailout funds. I simply can’t imagine what else congress thought AIG would do with all that money if not use it to pay their debts.

The reality is that the AIG bailout is probably the single best stimulus package congress put in place. By giving AIG $105 billion they saved not only this business from certain death, but equally as important the money was used to repay debts at other troubled financial firms helping to bolster their ailing capital as well.

Unknowingly congress not only saved the careless zebra but they also fed the hungry lions. But even when they actually do something correct somehow this congress can find a way to make it look bad.

This AIG zebra had better learn quickly that a lion looking for a bite is nowhere near as dangerous as a congress member looking for a sound bite.

Because in this political jungle its survival of the feckless.

Twice Chewed AIG Cabbage

As my old friend Amos used to say “I don’t chew my cabbage twice”.

Having recently commented on the AIG bonus fiasco I am not inclined to re-masticate the same topic. But the political response and media coverage has gone from absurd to obscene while remaining silent on the most important piece to this puzzle.

Congress had the ability to prevent this whole scenario from playing out and chose not to.

Democrat Representative and Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee Barney Frank is calling for the immediate firing of the derivative traders at AIG that invested in the credit default swaps. These CDS’s collapsed along with the rest of the credit market and caused AIG to begin sinking faster than the Lusitania taking all hands on board down with it. And many hands that weren’t in board as well.

Now Iowa Republican Senator Charles Grassley if calling for the AIG executives to either apologize or commit Hari Kari in a public display of remorseful suicide. Grassley’s spokesman later explained that the Senator was of course speaking only rhetorically.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and the Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell have both spent time in front of the media microphones to state their outrage in called the bonuses “appalling”.

Shoemaker stick to thy task.

We are above all else are a nation of laws. Laws alone give us the recourse to protect ourselves from unexpected billing practices and unscrupulous businessmen. It is the function of the House of Representatives and the Senate to create those laws. In the case of AIG and their binding commitments to pay bonuses to employees Congress sat on their collective hands and did nothing. Well, nothing but write a check for $105 billion in taxpayer dollars.

Prior to the collapse of all things financial AIG entered into legally binding contracts with their employees. As part if these contracts bonuses were guaranteed to prevent these employees from jumping ship and going to a competitor. This is not unusual, as a matter of fact if anything it is standard procedure within some industries. Some bonuses are performance based, some are not. These bonuses were not.

Had AIG actually gone toes up and been forced into bankruptcy it is likely that most of these contracts would have been null and void or at best these employees would have had to join the long line of unsecured creditors and wait to settle for pennies on the dollar, if there were any pennies left.

Congress came to the rescue of AIG to the tune of $105 billion and kept them out of bankruptcy court thereby keeping all of AIG’s financial responsibilities intact. That includes these employee bonus agreements, like them or not.

The newly installed CEO of AIG Edward Liddy sought legal counsel in an attempt to avoid paying the bonuses but was informed that there was no legal way to prevent it. The reason there was no legal way to avoid fulfilling these contractual obligations is that Congress gave them no legal means to circumvent their obligation. It was up to the learned legal scholars in the halls of congress to devise legislation that would have prevented the $165 million three ring circus we are witnessing today.

Instead of the wringing of hands, tearing of cloaks and wagging of fingers perhaps Congress may want to convene a meeting to draw up legislation that will prevent this payment or at the very least prevent future payments. The latest idea of an exclusive taxation on only those paid by this bailout money is fatally flawed in both concept and design. But there are measures which can be taken that would survive a constitutional challenge and more importantly keep the money in the company being bailed out.

Nobody said it would be easy. But when you give away $105 billion you may want to find out exactly who you’re making the check out to.

Bailing Failure

Brace yourself boys and girls for this once in a lifetime headline.

BigFrick agrees with President Barack Obama and Congressman Barney Frank, at least in part.

The recent admission by AIG that they plan to use part of the huge taxpayer bailout they received to pay $165 million in bonuses to their derivative traders is beyond any possible justification. The fact that this sum is only a fraction of the $105 billion they received makes absolutely no difference to me. The fact that newly installed AIG CEO Edward Liddy has announced that neither he nor any of the executive officers of the company will receive bonuses for 2008 also leaves me yawning.

In defending the bonuses Liddy stated that these bonuses must be paid due to contractual obligations and that he has received advice of counsel to do so or risk being sued. My personal advice to Mr. Liddy is let em’ sue.

The president and his congressional pal Barney Frank are calling the bonuses outrageous, I couldn’t agree more. But after that unifying moment we must part company again as my outrage is not directed toward AIG.

I certainly don’t blame Liddy for the bonuses as he was only installed after the near collapse of this company. I also don’t blame the traders who are in line for the bonuses for expecting that they will be paid in accordance to their employment contracts. There is nothing illegal about them getting paid or about the company paying them. And their my friends is the problem.

In the years leading up to the collapse of the credit markets savvy derivative traders became involved in the riskiest of derivatives known as credit default swaps. This very complex form of investment is basically an insurance policy betting either a company will or will not default on its credit obligations. Traders who are well versed in this complex market can make obscenely huge sums of money for both the companies they represent and themselves, which they did. It made perfect sense to lock these traders into contracts when the times were good before the congressionally mandated introduction of welfare into the credit markets sent everything financial into a death spiral.

AIG was the largest insurance company in the world so it made perfect sense that they would be involved in this insurance-like investment. The problem with credit default swaps, as with any insurance policy, is that once the insured risk begins to go south there is very little that can be done to cut exposure. It would be like your homeowners insurance company calling to inform you they were cancelling your policy whenever the tornado warning sirens start blowing.

As the depths of the credit infection began to become apparent and the world credit markets collapsed the insured companies began to default on their obligations leaving AIG holding a 5 pound bag of ever increasing bad credit default policies. The loss was so great that it would have put this mega-company into bankruptcy and left all those that had bought insurance from them without the ability to collect on the policies they paid for. AIG also manages some of the world’s largest pension funds, which also would have gone up in smoke. Some of these pension funds include teachers unions, countless federal, state, county and local government employee unions and the pension for the US Congress. Not surprisingly there was widespread support among congressional members to keep this company afloat. But that is all they did.

Chanting the mantra “Too Big To Fail” Congress pumped more than $105 billion into AIG with no restrictions. Maybe out of tunnel vision, maybe out of panic to try to control the impact a failure the size of AIG would have in the broader market or maybe out of sheer ignorance of what they were doing, Congress had the ability to create laws that would have overridden these employment contracts and prevented this type of taxpayer funded bonus but chose not to.

Congressman Frank has said the traders involved in these derivatives should be fired rather than rewarded. He also said he would do all he could to get that done. While I agree with rescinding the reward I disagree completely with the idea that these folks should be fired and especially that Congress should in some way have a hand in that.

If Congress doesn’t want these legally contracted bonuses to be paid then it is up to Congress to pass legislation that makes it illegal to do so. Without this type of legislation AIG will be only the first of many federally bailed out companies to use taxpayer dollars to pay for employee bonuses.

President Obama and Congressman Frank made some good sound bites today. Let’s see if they are equally adept at putting together some good legislation.

Otherwise the traders at AIG won’t be the ones taxpayers will be looking to get fired.

Team Obama

Release the comedic hounds!

I am neither an economist nor an equities advisor. My investments in the stock market have lost considerable value and I am pretty much in the same boat as every other investor. The recent collapse of the credit markets has caused over one trillion dollars in lost equity. That’s real money, lost by the Joey Small Potatoes investor like me and the historic investing icons like Warren Buffet, Jim Cramer and one who spells it Icahn with a first name of Carl.

Almost nobody saw this collapse coming or dreamt it was even possible with the exception of the now past Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, who warned Congress of the exact scenario that has played out over the past three fiscal quarters. Greenspan gave his dire prediction to the House Financial Services Committee as part of his warning regarding the congressional mandate of Fannie May and Freddie Mac to increase the number of high risk, low income and minority mortgages. Greenspan also strongly urged congress of the need for congressional oversight of Fannie and Freddie to monitor the artificially inflated prices of the real estate market and the ever increasing risk of mortgage and credit defaults.

Greenspan’s warnings were completely disregarded and bills calling for oversight introduced in the Senate by John McCain and the House by Elizabeth Dole were tabled never to see the light of day. House Chairman Barney Frank claimed the calls for oversight and risk reduction was “a solution in need of a problem.”

The infection of welfare into the credit markets changed the rules of the game and most investors and investment advisors were caught playing by the outdated rules of faulty historic precedent.

Most news organizations have covered the Wall Street bloodletting without detailing either the genesis or the players involved. But it is remarkably interesting that the biggest news coverage has been saved for the feigned outrage of a comedian anchoring a fake news show and the new found target of his caustic wit CNBC.

To be sure, Jon Stewart is a funny, funny man. His excellent comedic timing and easy going, sometimes slapstick delivery, make him one of the top comedians performing today. But Stewart has taken to berating and belittling CNBC and several of their most notable financial advisors and reporters with a new found zeal. It seems strange that a comedy show on a comedy channel that celebrates the comedic misrepresentation of current events stories would focus so much attention onthe very unfunny Wall Street collapse. The vast majority of the fan base for the Daily Show wouldn’t know a 401K from a can of WD40 and think a credit default swap is something you can do on EBay. So why dedicate so much air time to attacking financial advisors and the financially focused network they work for?

The answer is really pretty simple and can be summed up in two words, Rick Santelli.

Santelli made the mistake of speaking his mind during one of his reports from the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. “The Rant” as it was described by news organizations, concerned the blatant unfairness of the Obama mortgage bail out benefiting folks that bought houses they couldn’t afford or got mortgages by submitting untruthful information.

The point he made was completely accurate, although politically incorrect, in its description of tax dollars going to benefit folks that shouldn’t have been given the loans in the first place.

It wasn’t the fact that Santelli’s comments were met with rousing approval from the traders on the floor around him that concerned the president’s administration as much as it was that the points he made began catching on with an agreeing American public. “Why should you have to pay for your neighbor’s house with four bathrooms when you can only afford a house with two?” Santelli said. Even the president’s press secretary attacked Santelli and assured the enquiring press that the president knew more about the credit situation than a guy who has spent his entire career in the trading pits.

Shortly after Santelli’s comments got legs and were carried around the country the Democrats started bringing out their heavy hitters to destroy it like a bug with a baseball bat, But the coverage of these poorly worded and blatantly partisan rebuttals did not help slow down the Santelli Express. So Democrats took to the one place they knew that could kill this story, Comedy Central’s Daily Show. Polling data shows that the majority of this audience gets the majority of their current events news from this fake current events news show. They also knew that Jon Stewart’s celebrity status and the premise of his fake news show would get their misguide message out to the masses without having to actually explain how Santelli was wrong.

Santelli originally agreed to go on the show, but later decided he had already dug too deep a political hole for his bosses liking. He changed his mind and backed out. This only helped Stewart to redirect his fake new ire at another CNBC icon Jim Cramer. Stewart's repeated attacks back and forth with Cramer eventually forced Cramer to be a good soldier and walk into the ambush to publicly fall on his CNBC sword.

The next day’s nationwide headlines joyfully touted that Stewart (see David) had defeated Cramer (see Goliath) for recommending stocks that eventually broke down and in the case of Bear Sterns collapsed completely. Of course the repeated warning aired on the Cramer show and every other CNBC show advising that these are just ideas and you stand the chance to lose your money was completely ignored in the public flogging.

The segment ended with Stewart instructing Cramer to have CNBC remove the ad line “In Cramer We Trust” so that he could go back to making fart noises and funny faces. It should have ended with a voice over of the President saying “I’m Barack Obama and I approve this message.”

Stewart claimed to be troubled by “what CNBC advertises itself as and what it is”.

I guess I can say the same thing about the Daily Show. It’s apparently gone from a sometimes funny fake news show to the media enforcement arm of the Obama administration. I can’t prove that the Daily Show had any direct contact with the Obama camp, but Stewart and his writers certainly knew their duty and they do’d it. It also seems at least coincidental that the Daily Show was just one of the many shows that came out with the same agenda at the same time.

The mortgage meltdown was not the only issue affecting the credit collapse. Companies that expanded too fast and carried too much debt or those that thought they at least had some risk management when trading in the risky credit default swap market were also contributing factors. But the infection of welfare brought into the credit markets by Congress was the nitro laced funnycar fuel that allowed the worldwide credit markets to spiral downward with such velocity that it left the brightest minds on Wall Street wondering what the hell just happened.

If the Daily Show wants to really be a fake news show maybe they could fake a little honesty and balance, kind of like the regular media news outlets do. Stewart could bring on Barney Frank along with the copious quantities of his videotaped quotes regarding Fannie May and Freddie Mac cooking their books and taking huge risks with American tax dollars. He could also ask Frank why he continually blocked all efforts to install oversight into this rat’s nest of global deception. I’d even watch that one on pay per view.

The message has been sent by the Democrats loud and clear to any news organization that dares to question the new messiah. Step out of line and if the regular Democrat hit squad media don’t get you the comedians will.

Jon, I still trust Cramer will give me more of an opportunity to earn back what I’ve lost than you will. But I wish you good luck with your fart noises and funny faces.

Murky Waters

You remember California Democrat US Congresswoman Maxine “Murky” Waters, don’t you?

The Maxine Waters who tried to blackmail Shell Oil by telling them if they didn’t lower gas prices she would fight to get them and other American oil companies taken over by the federal government and nationalized.

The Maxine Waters who made it onto to the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington’s list of the most corrupt lawmakers two recent years in a row.

The Maxine Waters who filed a petition with the Federal Communications Commission to have the license pulled for Los Angeles television station KTLA and the Los Angeles Times newspaper after they ran a series of negative reports on her citing her corruption and nepotism, knowing that even if they were successful at defending themselves it would cost them tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees.

The same Maxine Waters who defended the black rioters as they looted and burned Asian and white store owners businesses in the 1992 Los Angeles riots claiming they were just some baby momma’s getting some shoes and formula and claimed their actions were understandable.

The Maxine Waters who restated her allegations that the CIA and other federal agencies are aiding and abetting drug dealers to sell crack cocaine and other drugs in the black community.

The same Maxine Waters who lambasted the CEOs from the first eight large banks to receive TARP funds and opened her comments by saying "To the captains of the universe sitting here before all of us, all of my political life I have been in disagreement with the banking industry.”

Well apparently she actually has not been in disagreement with ALL of the banking industry, only the ones owned by white people. It turns out Ms. Waters and her husband have in fact been fairly large supporters of the black owned OneUnited Bank.

At one time Ms. Waters and her betrothed had as much as $2 million invested in OneUnited Bank. Ms. Waters had used her legislative muscle to help in the formation of OneUnited out of a conglomerate of several smaller black owned banks in California. She also made sure that these black owned banks were not bought up by white owned banks prior to the OneUnited formation. Ms. Waters and her husband certainly put their money where their mouth was when they helped expand this new bank to other states including Massachusetts and Florida. Maxine’s husband even served as a director as Ms. Waters secured meetings between the bank and Treasury officials.

The conflicts of interest run even deeper as Ms. Waters helped this particular bank both as an individual lawmaker and from her seat on the House Financial Services Committee. Even her colleague and the chairman of the committee Barney Frank has asked Maxine to just “stay out of it” when it came to aid for OneUnited. But as always this Maxine Waters does not take kindly to being told what to do and boldly continued her efforts to the benefit of OneUnited and her own pocketbook.

Maxine has been quick to condemn bankers for their extravagant spending while receiving federal TARP funds. She has however been silent when it came to OneUnited, which also received TARP money, while still spending on things like a Porsche for one executive and the $6.4 million beachfront home for the chairman in Pacific Palisades, California just outside of Malibu.

As a matter of fact at a hearing Waters praised one of OneUnited’s senior execs as “typical of the young brilliant minds that have been amassed at OneUnited.”

What she didn’t mention was her personal financial stake in the bank or the fact that these young brilliant minds had invested almost all of their capital into Fannie May and Freddie Mac and now, without federal financial support, would be considered insolvent. When asked about OneUnited she simply referred to them as “just a small bank”.

Yep, just a small bank that happens to be making Ms. Waters a lot of money.

The Great Swami-Obama

Albert Einstein said “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results”. I’m afraid I must disagree and say “Insanity is watching somebody doing the same things over and over and actually believing that it represents change.”

With a stroke of the pen the new president has signed into law the ominous omnibus spending bill that has more pork in it than a McRib sandwich topped with bacon.

“I’m signing an imperfect omnibus bill because it is necessary for the ongoing functions of government” said the president. “But I also view this as a departure point for more far-reaching plans.” And here I thought the historic election and inauguration of this messenger of hope and change was the departure point. Apparently the departure point to “Changeville” is a few exits after the departure point to “The Same Old Crapsville”.

Actually the departure point is 8500 exits after, because that is the staggering number of individually earmarked pet projects in this bloated $410 billion spending spree.

At what point will the American taxpayer begin to realize that this is their money. The federal government has no funds of their own. Every dollar they get is a dollar somebody else has earned and paid in taxes. They are not a profit center and probably will not be holding a mega-sized bake sale. Republicans had been pressing the president to veto the bill and live up to his commitment to stop this type of drunken sailor spending (my apologies to drunken sailors everywhere). But that was not to be.

Instead of change what we got was rhetoric. Instead of action what we got was another opportunity for a photo op and time for this wordsmith president and his barely drinking age speechwriters to talk a good game but forfeit when it comes game time.

What the president did today took the skill of a master magician and more smoke and mirrors than a Siegfried and Roy Vegas revue. Like a master of prestidigitation the president has learned the art of deflection and misdirection. “We can't have Congress bogged down at this critical juncture in our economic recovery" said the Great Swami-Obama. And with a wave of his hand POOF the focus on 8500 earmarks was gone along with almost half a trillion tax dollars.

But this magic act, which has worked so well for the thoughtful autobiographer, is only capable of inspiring awe in those who are truly looking to be fooled. And as the debt continues to pile up and any sign of actual economic recovery continues to get pushed farther back the number of audience members satisfied with hocus pocus will grow slimmer and the number of folks demanding results will grow.

While signing this budget buster into law the president called on Congress to enact a series of overhauls to tamp down the scope of earmarks. Apparently the president is unaware that the pen is mightier than the sword and if he wants earmarks to be tamped he has got the biggest tamper on the block.

The president then trotted out his favorite and now very tired expression “the old way of doing business”. He has used that expression so much that just repeating it again is becoming the old way of doing business. He said “This piece of legislation must mark an end to the old way of doing business, and the beginning of a new era of responsibility and accountability that the American people have every right to expect and demand.”

Actually Mr. President, we had every right to expect and demand that the moment after you said “I do” two months ago.

Human Waste

American aphorist Mason Cooley is quoted as saying “Human society sustains itself by transforming nature into garbage.”

Perhaps if he was still alive today he would revise his statement to say “Nature is overcome by turning humans into garbage.” And if he wouldn’t say it, I sure will.

The unfortunate and ghastly truth is that today that is exactly how we view our most helpless and dependent humans, the ones not yet born. The medical terms embryo and fetus have replaced baby, infant and child in everyday vernacular. The terms once reserved for medical professionals are now bandied about by school children. The words have changed but more importantly changing the words has numbed the public consciousness. The change in mind set was mandatory if the pro-abortion political action committees were to succeed. It sounds far more acceptable to abort a fetus or an embryo than to abort a baby or a child.

And after they are aborted they are no longer human. They are now trash, disposable, garbage, bio-hazardous waste. The terms being used to justify harvesting these tiny human babies makes them sound much more like a wart or a tumor that was removed than a baby who had his or her future snuffed out in the name of science.

That is exactly what our new president is doing in justifying the new harvesting program of baby stem cells and overturning George W Bush’s ban on creating new lines of stem cells. As has been repeated countless times by those supporting this end of life “these embryos were simply going to be disposed of – trashed - thrown away (you pick the transitive verb) anyway. We might as well use them in the name if science.”

By its very nature science has no morals. It is facts and mechanics, equations and data. Science is not necessarily heartless but it is cold. Experimentation and test results are the goal. Fitting pieces into a puzzle and discovering what the big picture looks like is the game. Morality has no place in science, especially if it stands in the way of that next big discovery.

I am actually grateful to the pioneers of surgery that paid grave robbers to bring them fresh corpses for their scientific exploration of the human body. As repulsive as the idea of robbing a grave was, the unfortunate buried treasure being dug up, having lived all the days of their life, was no longer in need of the human shell from which their soul was released. And the use of those buried bodies hurt no one but has literally saved millions. That was until some more mercenary grave robbers figured out that it was a lot easier on their back and a lot more beneficial to their pocketbook if they just kill someone and sell the body than it was to wait until they were dead and buried and dig them back up. At that point it went from revolting behavior for the sake of science to capital murder for the sake of a few bucks. The mercenaries were caught, tried and hung. It seems that even in those dark ages of scientific discovery they understood the important difference between using that which is already dead and ending a life to make it so. Unfortunately, we in this age of advanced enlightenment have lost the ability to distinguish between the two.

It is not a question if left vs. right, liberal vs. conservative. It is a moral question of that which is right vs. that which is wrong. The business of harvesting human embryos just got a stimulus package from the American taxpayer thanks to this new president and his misguided interpretation of science over morality. And that priority is simply and unequivically wrong.

No one will ever know what these living, growing human babies would have become.

Maybe the answer to all our scientific questions lies in their potential rather than in their stem cells.

Racism or Capitalism

Racism or Capitalism that is the question.

Whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles. And by opposing end them. To buy black, to spend white no more, and by a purchase to say we end the heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to – tis a consummation devoutly to be wished. To buy, to spend; to spend, perchance to dream.

But is this dream racism or capitalism? Ay, there’s the rub.

My apologies to Shakespearean purists for my unabashed rewrite of his lyrical soliloquy. But the opening scene of act three of Hamlet seemed to fit perfectly into the opening scene of act one of “Ebony Experiment”.

The Ebony Experiment is at this point the commitment of a single upscale black couple to spend their money only in black owned businesses for a year.

The Andersons are a successful couple currently living in an upper middleclass racially mixed suburb of Chicago. Maggie Anderson grew up outside of Miami and earned an MBA and a law degree from the University of Chicago. Her husband John Anderson is a financial advisor who grew up in Detroit and holds a degree from Harvard University and an MBA from Northwestern University.

They decided the best way for them to support the black community was to make an exerted effort to spend their money exclusively in black owned businesses. They are obviously bright folks who knew their idea would be both controversial and challenging.

Maggie drives past numerous grocery stores on her 14 mile trek to Chicago to shop at a black owned grocery store. They travel even farther to get to Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood to buy vitamins from a black owned business there. They even travel to communities as far as 50 miles away to buy gasoline cards from black owned gas stations which they use to fill up their cars locally. Commitment is clearly one quality this couple is not short on.

They have hired a public relations firm to create a web site promoting the Ebony Experiment and have tapped researchers from Northwestern University to study the impact. They are even looking for financial backing to get this experiment out to the masses and see if they can take it beyond the borders of Illinois.

But as committed as they are to the challenge of even finding suitable black businesses in which to shop, they are at the same time being challenged by the slings and arrows of alleged racism.

Some respondents to their web site have gone so far as to threaten to retaliate by ceasing to do any business with black owned companies and to make every effort to avoid hiring black employees.

From what is being portrayed it appears that the Andersons don’t have the same restrictions on how they make their money as they do on how they spend it. But is what the Andersons are doing racist or is it simply capitalism at its finest? Capitalism means that the spender gets to vote with his wallet on what and where he will spend his money. Certainly there are whites that avoid going into black owned stores simply because they are black owned stores. I guess if the whites are considered racist for doing so than the Andersons must be considered racist for doing the exact same thing.

What they are doing is certainly not illegal, at least not yet. And I would have a hard time considering it to be immoral. I am a capitalist through and through and I believe capitalism provides the ultimate voting experience. The Andersons worked hard and now enjoy the fruits of their labors. If they vote to spend those fruits only at a black owned market then so be it.

But while perhaps magnanimous, how could it not be considered racist if their spending decisions are solely racially motivated with the intent to support one community at the expense of another. The Andersons say the Ebony Experiment is not racist.

Would a rose by any other name smell as sweet?

I guess it depends on the color of the rose.

Cut The Cards

“It’s still a matter of trust, but verify. Play, but cut the cards” – Ronald Reagan

When dealing in the seamy world of international politics Reagan had the key. He knew first hand that just because the dog is wagging his tail doesn’t mean he won’t bite you. Time and again we have learned the hard way that talk is cheap but actions define character. One of my favorite quotes is by Ralph Waldo Emerson when he said “Who you are speaks so loudly that I can’t hear what you’re saying.”

Unfortunately in the new administration of hope, all contexts to historical truth has either been forgotten or abandoned. It’s becoming apparent that while I draw my worldview from quotes by Reagan and Emerson the new Messiah and his equally clueless Secretary of State draw theirs from Rodney King with his famous “Why can’t we all just get along?”

It’s not that I am against getting along. It’s just that I like to have at least a little proof that the other party is equally committed to the deal. Trust but verify.

Even the Democrats favorite war mongering whipping boy George W Bush was duped into believing the Vlad the Impaler Putin was a man he could trust. Bush was verbally tarred and feathered by the Democrats and their faithful press companions for that misplaced trust. It was a mistake that he rued making but one that he was willing to correct as he made every effort to protect our NATO allies from the Soviet Union mentality of this Russian dictator.

Reagan too was well aware of the threat posed by our then Cold War enemies having witnessed the building of the Berlin Wall and having been keenly instrumental in its demolition.

But times have changed and more importantly American foreign policy mentality has changed. In a show of completely misplaced trust Hillary Clinton presented Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov with a push button that had the Russian word for “RESET” printed on it. Well at least that’s what it was supposed to say. In a show of completely misplaced competence the button actually translated to read “OVERCHARGE”.

How humiliating that the entire State Department of the United States of America doesn’t have a single translator capable of coming up with the right Russian word for reset. Well perhaps not in the entire State Department, but at least amongst those this new Candlewick of Albatross cared to ask (give it a minute, you’ll get it). How do you think Americans would react if the situation was reversed and the Russians gave us a button that said OVERCHARGE instead of RESET? I’m guessing it would have been pretty much the same as the Russian reaction, cordial and understanding on the outside and the confident knowledge that you are dealing with a completely incompetent nincompoop on the inside.

Clinton had just come off her whirlwind tour of Europe, mispronouncing almost every officials name along the way. Proclaiming that American democracy was older than the rest of the worlds. Talking about setting up friendly relations with Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Turkey and the militant Palestinian terrorists. And telling Israel that their attempts at protecting their own safety were “unhelpful” to the peace process.

She then arrived in Russia where she publicly discussed withdrawing American support for a missile defense shield designed to protect our NATO allies from the same fate that befell Georgia when Vlad the Impaler decided to make a point. All this capped off with a button that said OVERCHARGE.

Her complete lack of historical facts and her just roll over and play dead pacifism had some European ministers applauding her ability to sound like them. “What you said could have been said by a European” they said. Somebody please tell me how that’s a good thing.

The traveling press corps accompanying Clinton on her country to country embarrassment has repeatedly reported on how she is being met with smiles by the foreign diplomats.

These guys aren’t smiling at her. They’re laughing.

stop, Stop, STOP!

Well dip my hair in Clorox bleach and call me Susan Powter but would somebody please STOP THE INSANITY !!!!!

You can’t swing a cat in Washington DC these days without hitting a politician holding a media rich press conference damning some financial institution. I fully expect the next piece of legislation proposed on the floor of Congress will mandate that all bank presidents must grow a long black mustache and spend at least half their day twisting it at the ends while chanting “You must pay the rent”.

Throughout history there have been numerous occasions where the “money lenders” have been fallaciously vilified in order to deflect negative public sentiment away from governmental shortcomings and onto an easy target group. For those not familiar with history let me assure you that this tactic has never ended well for anyone concerned.

The insanity of this constant fatuous objurgating of any and all things financial is not only doing great harm to the American banking system, but it is doing great harm to the American psyche as well. If people are convinced that banks and greedy bankers are the source of all their pain how likely are they to spend or invest? How likely are we to pull ourselves out of this housing slump if the house buying public is afraid of the mortgage providing banks? How likely are we to pull ourselves out if this economic collapse if people are afraid to spend for fear that banks will come in the dead of night and repo all their stuff. This incessant haranguing is not being done to support small businesses or even large businesses. Businesses understand that they operate on profits not charity. It is being done to influence the public mind set and create a negative, victimized group conscious. Democrats are following their play book to the letter by making victims of the public at the expense of the banks who themselves are actually victims of governmental fiduciary mismanagement through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The poster boy for the Democrats small business victims is Joe Zucchero, or better known in Chicago as Mr. Beef. Zucchero has been serving the Chicago staple Italian beef sandwich for 30 years from his now yuppie filled River North location. Friends and patrons to Mr. Beef have been rallying in support of the beef stand and using it as an example of nasty banks not loaning money to worthy small businessmen. A neighbor of Mr. Beef even created a supportive video of the owner and his business which has been drawing huge attention on the internet and cable news stations.

One of Mr. Beef’s faithful supporters is the querulous US Congressman Luis Gutierrez who invited Zucchero to Capitol Hill to testify how his malevolent bank was forcing him into bankruptcy. The bank being pilloried by Gutierrez is Midwest Bank who received $85 million in TARP funds last November. According to Gutierrez this bank is a prime example of how banks who received TARP funds are still refusing to extend credit to their victimized clients. “Even if you have a business that makes money, they will not extend you credit” said the Congressman. He also talked at length about Mr. Beef being a “humble establishment” with lines of hungry diners going out the door.

But the story goes much deeper than a poor beef stand guy getting screwed over by a big bad bank. Zucchero already has three loans totaling more than $650,000, and while Mr. Beef claimed in his congressional testimony that he has never defaulted on a payment, documentation shows that he and his business partner defaulted on both their October and November loan payments. It was this default that caused the bank to begin foreclosure proceedings and refusal to renegotiate the debt. It also turns out that Mr. Beef and his business partner are in default of an additional $300.000 loan they used to open a new beef stand location last March. While this new loan is not with Midwest Bank, anyone with the slightest understanding of credit risk can see why it would be viewed as a negative for extending them more credit.

Is Congressman Gutierrez really proposing that because Midwest Bank received TARP funds from the government they are now obliged to extend credit to a guy that owns a beef stand and is already in default for just shy of a million dollars in loans? This Democrat poster boy of victimization does nothing but prove that Democrats simply refuse to accept or acknowledge that it was poorly conceived loans to poor credit risks in the housing market that got us in this credit crisis in the first place.

As somewhat of an Italian beef aficionado myself I can understand Congressman Gutierrez desire to help Mr. Beef. A good beef sandwich is a thing of beauty. But even with my limited math skills, I can figure out that you would have to sell a whole bunch of them to pay back a million bucks in bank loans and I can certainly understand how a bank could come to that same conclusion.

And how is Mr. Beef celebrating his public admission of being a loan repayment deadbeat? Well he’s giving away free beef sandwiches of course.

Honest to God, you can’t make stuff like this up.

Capitalism and the Big Rod

Capitalism is probably the most powerful force in the universe.

It truly is the ultimate voting experience where people get to vote with their hard earned dollars for the things that make the most sense.

Voters complain about politicians they don’t like, but somehow they still seem to get elected or reelected. This is usually because some special interest group dumped a ton of cash into the candidate’s coffers in hopes of getting a little quid pro quo once he or she is elected. The recent election of the new Messiah is a perfect example.

Voters bought the promise of hope and change and elected a guy with absolutely no qualifications or background in executive decision making, economics or world affairs to be leader the United States and most of the free world. But they bought the rhetoric because it didn’t cost them anything to buy it.

The United Autoworkers Union and the Teamsters Union are powerful forces to be reckoned with when it comes to getting politicians elected. They certainly proved their worth to the Obama campaign and are now beginning to reap the benefits. But all their money and organization can’t get people to vote with their wallets to buy the products their union members provide. Congress is now looking to bail out the Big Three unionized automakers only because the consumers won’t.

Consumers have the ultimate authority over life and death in a capitalistic society. Products and services consumers like succeed and grow and the ones they don’t go away. A savvy marketing campaign can be the difference between success and failure of a free market product. But even the best marketing campaign in the world can’t make a success out of an inferior or unpopular product. Eventually the law of numbers catches up and its fate is decided. It’s all about the money.

Such is the case as well in the most recent edition of “Rod Blagojevich Superstar”. In Illinois and around the country people are questioning how a guy who just got the heave hoe from the governor’s mansion can be getting a six figure book deal. The answer is simple; it’s all about the money.

Lightning Rod Blagojevich is currently the Illinois version of Monica Lewinski. He is scorned and ridiculed but still somehow like a six car pileup that people don’t want to look at but feel they have to. He also spent time in the office of power until political fallout brought him to his knees.

Illinoisans and folks from around the country are shocked and outraged that he has been give a six figure book deal from Phoenix Books to write a tattle tale tell all “exposing the dark side of politics”. Even the Illinois Senate has been caught up in the frenzy by debating legislation that would prevent the ex-governor from making a profit from his flagitious two terms. The outrage is real, but to me very confusing.

When then ex-president Richard Nixon wrote his first book after leaving office news programs were packed with reports of protests and outraged protesters. But the book was a best seller and even spawned a second book. Conversely ex-governor James McGreevy wrote a book that almost nobody bothered buying after leaving the New Jersey governor’s mansion and his female wife to explore his new found gay lifestyle.

The beauty of living in a capitalistic society is that we as consumers get to decide the fate of the products that we don’t like. Phoenix Books paid Big Rod big money because they think the book will sell. If it doesn’t sell, the company suffers a humiliating loss, both financially and in the public sentiment. The key is does Phoenix Books know what the book buying public wants to read more than the book buying public? It’s all about the money.

If you don’t like the ex-governor and you don’t like the fact that he is going to make some dough from snitching on those that impeached him, don’t buy the book. But if this book is a financial success you can bet there will be a second and a third etc.

The Blagojevich series could be the next Harry Potter. But the public is the ultimate wizard maker in this fantasy.

Because it’s always all about the money.

Victim ad Infinitum

Question: At what point do you become responsible and stop being a victim?
Answer: When you’re a Democrat, apparently never.

It hasn’t taken long for the political party in control of both houses of congress and the White House to find some new way to claim they are the victim.

They tried to claim they were the victim of partisanship, bad luck and a lack of understanding by the press and public during the confirmation process for new Obama cabinet nominees. But you can only repeat the poorly premised excuses regarding cavil objections to the nominee’s deceptive and inaccurate income tax filings for so long before you stop sounding like a compurgator and begin sounding like a defense attorney making a plea bargain. After Tim 1040 Geithner was confirmed as Treasury Secretary the Dems tried to pass off a few more nominee mea culpas before abandoning the whole “They didn’t know the gun was loaded” defense and forced the high powered tax cheats to fall on their swords and quietly fade away.

Then they tried to claim that they were the victim of partisan politics when Republicans en mass refused to support the $1.2 trillion in new earmark riddled spending. But rather than keeping the particulars of those packages in view long enough to let the public consciousness seize the euphoria of hope and change, allowing John Q. Citizen to actually begin reading the line items of this fallacious financial free-for-all, they decided to abandon that publicity stunt as well. “We need to put an end to the partisanship in Washington” swiftly faded into “We just need to move on”.

Now comes the new president’s chief of staff Rahm Emanuel with the latest edition of victim lamentation. And it’s not even a politician or official member of the opposing party that is causing such lachrymose. The newest target in the Democrat’s cross hairs is the conservative intransigent Rush Limbaugh.

Not that Limbaugh hasn’t been the target of Democrat disparagement before; I’m guessing his picture has been one of the most requested images in the Democrat character assassination firing range for a number of years. But that was when they were the underdog fighting against the oppression of those that would keep the sun from shining. It appears that Democrats now find themselves in the unfamiliar position of complete control of both the legislative and executive branches of government but still in need of retaining their status of victim.

Rahm Emanuel, the bare knuckles political pugilist of Chicago and Illinois Democrat politics, has taken the lead in attacking Limbaugh for openly admitting that he wants the new president’s socialistic agenda to fail. At a recent Conservative Political Action Committee, Limbaugh repeated his position saying “What is so strange about being honest and saying, I want Barack Obama to fail, if his mission is to restructure and reform this country so that capitalism and individual liberty are not its foundation? Why would I want that to succeed?”

A conservative desiring failure of this most liberal president’s policies? Stop the presses!

For his part, Emanuel did the Sunday morning talk show circuit claiming “Our goal….is to continue to reach out, and it’s our desire that Republicans would work with us and try to be constructive rather than adopt a philosophy of somebody like Rush Limbaugh who is praying for failure” (cue ominous musical crescendo here).

After much haranguing about the Democrat’s desire to end partisanship and the president’s commitment to put an end to earmarks, when asked about the blatant partisanship displayed in the recent $412 billion dollar spending package added to the $1.2 trillion total in new earmarked spending Emanuel kept to the script and claimed that was yesterdays news and we need to just move on. That’s “last year’s business” he said. He was also remarkably quiet regarding the 16 earmark projects he is personally responsible for in this spending package. Among the projects bearing Emanuel’s name include a million dollars for the Chicago Adler Planetarium, another million for street rehabilitation in a strongly union Chicago suburb and money for a Children’s Museum. So much for an end to ramrod partisanship and earmarks.

The obvious intent of Democrats pinning the mantle of Republican spokesman on Limbaugh is clear. They have lost their convenient whipping boy in George Bush and now desperately need to remain victims in the eyes of the society of victims they have created as their loyal base. “We understand your struggle against oppression. We are oppressed too.” is the message they are trying to send. Pay no attention to the fact that Democrats have been in control of congress and therefore had ultimate control of the budget for the last two years prior to the current economic collapse.

It’s tough holding the reins of power where you are judged by your accomplishments or failures rather than your rhetoric. It’s hard being responsible.

Unless you can also be a victim.

Who Do You Trust

It all comes down to who do you trust.

Since the completion of last week’s Northern Trust Open golf tournament, newspapers and television media talking heads have been hammering the sponsoring financial institution for allegedly wasting taxpayers’ money on lavish travel expenses, entertainment and accommodations. Story after scurrilous story is disseminated instructing taxpayers on the appropriate level of outrage they should be feeling.

Perhaps I wasn’t as informed as I should have been or maybe my alarm didn’t go off that day, but I completely missed the voting for spokesman of the taxpayers. My congratulations to all of them on apparently winning that contest.

Their sententious pieces regarding Northern Trust, while certainly in step with the blanket vilipend treatment most financial institutions are currently receiving from the press, is not only naïve it is inane.

I have absolutely no personal interest in Northern Trust financially or otherwise. But even a brief look through their books would allow a casual observer to note their excellent balance sheet and successful business strategy. Comparing Northern Trust to JP Morgan Chase or other much smaller banks, as many have done, may help to stoke the flames of indignation but is factually extraneous.

Northern Trust did indeed accept $1.6 billion in TARP funds, but it was done as a means to insulate rather than to bail. It was also done by consensus so as not to call attention to the banks that truly needed the cash influx to keep from going toes up. With over $3 trillion in assets under custody and over $575 billion in assets under investment management, the $1.6 billion received is a mere fraction of their overall value. A value they continue to nurture and grow.

As the liberal Democrat congress and their cohorts in the media continue to demand that the CEO’s of financial institutions use the self service pumps to fill their American made hybrids, Northern Trust continues to gain market share through sound business practices and targeted business expenses.

Northern committed to the golf tournament damned by these ne’er-do-wells long in advance of the current market meltdown and as a good and reliable business partner kept up their end of the bargain. In a time when confidence in financial institutions has dropped quicker than an Oldsmobile in the Chappaquiddick, Northern Trust used this opportunity to entertain their business clientele and assure them that they are still a strong viable financial institution that appreciates their clients continued support.

The president and his faithful flock in congress have repeatedly justified the $1.2 trillion in new earmarked spending as a way to stimulate the economy by claiming that you have to spend money to make money. To this the media applauds with breathless admiration and agreement. But when a business that is in the business of making money does the exact same thing they are held up to ridicule and censure.

Unlike the story writers and news anchors that continue to mete out contrived outrage without even a scant sense of facts, fairness or economic reality, I do not speak for America’s taxpayer’s in toto. But as a taxpayer myself I would much rather my tax dollars went to the banausic endeavors of a Northern Trust, where they may actually stimulate a profitable return on the investment, than to the torpor pork barrel policies of congress, who in large part contributed to this financial meltdown with their mismanagement of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and have them spend my money on NASA space shuttles, digital television converter boxes and tattoo removal machines, all in the name economic stimulus.

As if from Stephen Vincent’s story “The Devil and Daniel Webster”, Northern Trust has notified the Fed of their intention to return the TARP funds and reclaim their corporate soul rather than to foolishly abandon their business practices to satisfy this congressional and media feeding frenzy. They may also want to suggest an appropriate deposit area into which the money could be inserted.

Perhaps the Obama administration can use this returned cash to pay off the $160 million they spent on the inauguration party.

Now there’s a guy who knows how to entertain.

Black Male

It’s interesting how these conversations work.

A few days ago I wrote a piece about our new Attorney General’s contention that we are a “nation of cowards” when it comes to race and that “….if we are to make progress in this area, we must feel comfortable enough with one another, and tolerant enough with each other, to have frank conversations about racial matters that continue to divide us.”

My point was then, and remains that it is nearly impossible to have a truly frank discussion about race or pretty much about anything else that involves blacks and whites without the threat of being called racist by those that have no other defense. Blacks have become very comfortable simply refusing to acknowledge obvious facts to the contrary and immediately claim racial prejudice as being the underlying issue. The race card trumps all others and is an easy excuse to any and all behavior and situations. Less than a week after writing the piece a group of black politico’s, preachers and pundits in Chicago and elsewhere have gone to extreme measures to prove this premise 100% correct.

The lightning rod for this latest round of racial despair is the new Senator from Illinois Roland Burris. Burris was installed by the now infamously impeached Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich to fill the vacated Senate seat of Barack Obama. Burris is a lifelong Democrat office holder who appeared to have no excess baggage that would preclude him from taking over as Senator. But the main reason he was tapped to fill the spot was because he possessed the most important qualification, he is black. It was repeatedly chanted throughout the black community and by the card carrying political correctness enforcement squads that this seat must be filled by a black simply because it was being vacated by a black. Pay no mind to the fact that if this same argument was used to fill the vacancy of a white politician it would be deemed completely inappropriate and racist.

The problems began to surface shortly after Burris was finally and reluctantly seated in the US Senate. Burris had appeared before an Illinois special committee investigating then Governor Blagojevich for corruption. Burris was asked specific questions regarding his relationship with the governor and his crew of fundraising henchmen.

Burris, on tape and under oath, denied having contact with the governor or his crew regarding either the Senate seat or any special fundraising requests. All of which are untrue. Since making those statements under oath Burris has publicly changed his story four times and has filed amended affidavits twice more redefining his activities. The more the story evolves the more it is obvious that Burris has developed his skills in the “Pay for Play” game of Illinois politics to an art.

He not only failed to admit to his dealings with the disgraced governor and his fundraising brother, he also failed to detail how his son was given a sweet state job as senior council for the state’s housing authority. His son’s state paid $75,000 per year job includes overseeing mortgage programs for low-income home buyers and anti-foreclosure initiatives.

Roland Burris II, because Roland Burris I simply couldn’t find enough things to put his name on, should have some insight into these mortgage programs as he was hired shortly after facing foreclosure of his own house. He was also recently slapped with a $34,000 tax lien by the I.R.S. for failure to pay income tax, which should make him eminently qualified to serve on the Obama cabinet.

Regardless of the sordid facts of this whole imbroglio the Chicago City Council Black Caucus is screaming racism and warning white politician’s that if they continue with this investigation they will be out of work come the next election.

Illinois Congressman Danny Davis has joined the chorus and said that there is considerable support for Burris in the black community so whites should just leave him alone. A group of black ministers and community leaders held a press conference warning whites that if they continue to seek a Burris resignation “…they gotta come by us and we will not forget”.

This is truly nothing but racial blackmail. Leave the black guy alone regardless of the facts or we brand you as racist.

Perhaps if our new Attorney General is looking to open a dialog about race he may want to start with the blackmailers.