The Savage Republican

A larger carbon footprint from burning the midnight oil...I'm sure

Those intrepid ABC reporters are at it again, wasting no time in discovering a document, more than likely the Golden Key, that will send Sarah Palin crashing to earth!
Nixon had his Oval Office tapes, Bill Clinton a stained blue dress. And now Sarah Palin has this document from ABC that is a torpedo at her waterline.
And I am of course convinced beyond any doubt that ABC is searching and demanding with equal vigor access to the documents that Obama wants to keep hidden regarding his complicity with Bill Ayers' with the Annenberg Challenge ( Ayers is a convicted American terrorist who Obama just describes as "a guy who lived in my neighborhood") .
Well, let's see what Stanley Kurtz has discovered, or not as the case may be, shall we?
Maybe Mr. Kurtz could enlist the help of those even minded, non-biased ABC truth seekers?
BTW, here is the text of an email I sent off to Mr. Kurtz:
Dear Mr. Kurtz:

I noticed over at Hot Air that ABC has discovered a document that they represent as putting the lie to Sarah Palin’s version of “Troopergate” (article here).

Perhaps the courageous truth seekers of the fourth estate currently residing at ABC might be willing to help you pry loose the documents you’ve been seeking from the University of Illinois at Chicago regarding Barack Obama’s relationship with Bill Ayers and their work on the Annenberg Challenge?

Should that be the case, I’ll be diligent in watching for low flying sows and boars.

Best regards,

Labels: fearless journalists

Timing is everything...and the 35W Bridge

I got up this morning at 3:15 a.m. to get ready to pickup my Mom for our great adventure to cross the 35W Bridge.
My concern was that we would get there too early when I heard that MNDOT and the Highway Patrol were going to slow down the crossing. After I picked up Mom, I had planned to get to the Bridge by going over to Hiawatha Avenue and coming in from the south. We heard on the radio that the Highway Patrol was not letting anyone line up for the Bridge crossing. So, I took a detour south on Hiawatha to make sure we didn't get to the Bridge too early. It worked out well.
As we approached the Bridge, it appeared that befitting a new bridge, there was a traffic jam. Well, as we got a bit closer, we saw about 100 yards ahead of us a whole slew of flashing lights and I realized that we were behind the rolling barricade composed of MNDOT trucks and Highway Patrol cruisers that were opening the Bridge. This meant that Mom and I were one of the first 100 cars across the Bridge!
And as took low quality videos with my cell phone:
Here is the approach (the flashing lights you see to the mid center right is the rolling blockade):

Here we are on the Bridge:

And here we are at the end of the Bridge from the south(you'll notice that the rolling blockade has exited to the right at the University/4th Street S.E. exit):

And here we are on the immediate return trip from north to south (and zip-zap and we're over the bridge!) As we exited at East Hennepin for the return trip, I asked Mom if she'd be interested in a real first: the first accident on the new 35W Bridge. She decided that that would not be a resume enhancing event for her.:

I have no idea what the background noise is as on my original you hear my Mom and me in the background.
Well, anyhow, it was a momentous morning.

B,B,B,B...and Thoreau Part III

Power Line and Ed Morrissey over at Hot Air have the best short explanations of the one of the trunks (not roots) of the current financial disaster brought to you the people under the marble dome in Foggy Bottom.
BTW, the real roots of the crisis: no constitutional authority for Congress in all this. Congress functioning as a democracy rather than a constitutional republic.

B,B,B,B...and Thoreau Part II

It as if they haven't learned a thing:

"Fed rescues AIG with $85 billion loan for 80% stake" (There is no place, repeat no place in the Constitution that allows this or even hints at the government owning an insurance company)

"Pelosi orders wide Wall Street probe" (Notice, not a probe of the crisis, but only of Wall Street).

If I may translate: "Trust us not to investigate ourselves, ignore history and economists and blame Bush, Wall Street, Big Banks, greed, Republicans all in one move."

Bridges, Banks, Bernake, Band aids...and Thoreau

"There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root" Thoreau
Last week, as we heard the news that the new 35W bridge would probably be completed this week, my Mom and I planned on driving across it the first day it was open for public traffic. We were returning from the funeral of a classmate of my Dad's who had also become a friend of Mom's and we took the scenic route across the 10th Avenue bridge that parallels the 35W bridge. I commented that they should open the 35W bridge at 2:00 a.m. so as to avoid traffic jams. when I saw the 5:00 a.m. opening, it occurred to me that at 2:00 a.m. the drunks would still be out being bottle brave and stupid. At 5:00 a.m., they'd be either sober or sleeping. So, I'm planning an early morning pickup of Mom and a cell phone camcorder recording of "Amendment X's Most Excellent Adventure on the New St. Anthony Bridge... With His Mom in Tow". What does this have to do with my blog title? I'll get to that now.

When the bridge went down, and I've blogged on this, that many people said that it would take five years to replace. well, I've got enough construction background to be dangerous and have faith in real American know how and ingenuity , so I corrected the five year people. I said that if the government got out of the way, the bridge could easily be built in under two years. So, the powers that be "fast tracked" the new bridge (read: got the hell out of the way by cutting and burning a whole slew of red tape and regulations. In other words, they struck at the roots of inefficiency and delay) and "Shazamm and Kazowee!!!". The Bridge is done in under a year from start up. I truly love being wrong to the good side.

The "banks": Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, WAMU, Bear/Stearns, etc. So, what happened here? In a word: government. In a phrase: insuring the moral hazard. The thought on Wall Street "They bailed out Bear/Stearns. They'll bail out us." Like the floods in North Dakota in the 1990's, people kept building their houses on the flood plain of the Red River of the North because, well after all, the government would step in and help them build anew. Insuring/ensuring the moral hazard. The big wakeup call on Wall Street: Secretary Paulson said to the meeting of bankers on Saturday:"No government money guys. Find a way out of this yourselves." And scramble they did. The little known secret is that this was a hand grenade with the pin pulled and the spoon released. It was going to explode. It happened to explode now. It was all set up during the Clinton years with the silly notion of "affordable housing" which means "welfare/subsidized housing" and "the right to own a house". People who couldn't buy the house they were in were given loans. Freddie Mac and Fannie May were the major underwriters of loans and/for mortgages that people couldn't pay back. Then Bear/Stearns, Lehman Brothers, et al started to issue "mortgage backed securities". Then Alan Greenspan started to flood the market with low interest rates to banks and the banks went out and loaned money like there was no tomorrow. The bubble was created. And no bubble lasts. When the bubble burst, it was a ripple effect. And we see the disaster now: the government created the bubble, then protected the bubble and now blames everyone else when the bubble bursts. And Bernake has started down the same path as Greenspan. Who pays for it all? You do. I do. My widowed eighty old mother does. The single Mom does. The newlyweds do. The retirees who depend on their retirement funds.
The good news: Secretary Paulson stood by that line in the sand and said "No bailout boys." The bad news: McCain and Obama have no clue as to the real problem. They will pile on new regulations that will finally fix what all the old regulations didn't. They will "make Wall Street pay". They will cut at the branches of the problem but not strike at the roots. They will put a new band aid on the old band aid but not treat the underlying wound. How do I know? John McCain just said that people need to held responsible (I agree); that Wall Street has been reckless and will be held responsible. Nothing said about Congress being held responsible. Nothing about holding the Federal Reserve responsible. Nothing said about the executives at Freddie Mac and Fannie May and their huge contributions to left wing Democrats. But Wall Street responds to the market disruptions and distortions from Washington and then Wall Street is "held responsible".
My point on all this plus the 35W bridge? Things work well/best when the the government is out of the way.
But "holding Wall Street responsible", "holding Big Oil responsible" make for a better sound bite then "The Congress and the Federal Reserve are out of control and need to be regulated". Well, Congress is regulated-by Article 1 section 8 of the Constitution and the 10th Amendment in the Bill of Rights. Sorry- Congress is supposedly and is supposed to be regulated by...oh,forget it. People like me are ignored.
A few links for further reading:
Cato Institute
John Lott
Investors Business Daily
Masters of the Universe
Hot Air
Be sure to listen to Glenn Beck on CNN in the evening this week as he exposes the financial disaster that is engulfing America and what really needs to be done. And next week he'll be talking about energy.

As I look at this mess and what McCain and BHO and Congress will and will not do and as I look over the horizon at the looming three hundred foot tsunami headed for us called Social Security and Medicare, I'm reminded a quote from Will Smith in "I, Robot"-"Yah know, somehow saying "I told you so" just doesn't seem to cut it!"
And I fear that that is what I and others will be saying in a few years.

See I told you so.

Amendment X often criticizes my eating habit -
Such as my latest discovery "Chick Fried Bacon"
(Winner Best Food Texas State Fair)

But science proves that maybe us Meatatarians are onto something:

Eating veggies shrinks the brain
MELBOURNE: Scientists have discovered that going veggie could be bad for your brain-with those on a meat-free diet six times more likely to suffer brain shrinkage.

As a proud member of PETROV (People for the Ethical Treatment of Rutabaga and Other Vegetables) I feel vindicated.

The Savage Republican

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Friday, September 19, 2008

A larger carbon footprint from burning the midnight oil...I'm sure

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Timing is everything...and the 35W Bridge

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

B,B,B,B...and Thoreau Part III

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

B,B,B,B...and Thoreau Part II

Bridges, Banks, Bernake, Band aids...and Thoreau

Monday, September 15, 2008

See I told you so.