It's a Barnum & Bailey World

Just as phony as it can be.  This is my assessment of the supposed "gaffs" that Mitt Romney made on his three nation foreign tour from which he just returned.  These malapropisms were all manufactured by a increasingly desperate left-wing press to tarnish what was a very successful trip for the presumptive Republican candidate for President.  According to these knee-jerkers, they were:

- In England, when specifically asked, Romney questioned just how prepared this country was for its summer Olympiad.  These were not harsh critiques, but just repetitions of headlines that had graced the London tabloids for days prior to his visit.

- In Israel, Romney noted that the economic progress that Israel has made since its independence was a reflection of its culture.  He did not specifically contrast this with the fiscal malaise that the Palestinian people are subjected to, but this didn't stop the main-stream media from jumping to this conclusion and attributing it to Romney.

- After a robust reception in Poland by its leaders and its adoring people, Romney was slimed by proxy when one of his aides brusquely asked screeching reporters to please respect the solemn nature of the site that was being visited (the Polish Tomb of the Unknown Soldier).

This clearly ushers in the silly season for the U.S. (and British) Fourth Estate ... and, given the direction of The Barry's sinking poll numbers (see: Rasmussen Poll), I suspect it will continue to get even more make-believe as our days shorten into the fall elections. 

Ever since the Watergate scandal, many of our nation's reporters have felt that it was their solemn duty to pick our Presidents ... and then guide the narrative so that their readers knew for whom to pull the voting-booth levers.  This time I do believe they will be foiled ... and saddened as their readership continues to dwindle.  (As it ceases publication, Newsweek's final cover story is that Romney is a wimp ... how indicative ... how sad.)

Faceless Sources

Brian Williams recently quoted an "unnamed source" as saying that Mitt Romney wanted to name an incredibly boring white guy as his Vice Presidential candidate.  Mitt had a clever retort.  See: Brian Williams Interview. Also recently in England, an "unnamed adviser" to Romney said that Romney appreciates the U.S./Great Britain Anglo-Saxon heritage better than Obama.  See: Washington Post Story.  This clearly reeked of total make-believe.  No political adviser with half a brain would say such a stupid thing.

So, here we go again.  The liberal news media is allowed to concoct any cockamamie quote and attribute it to some phantom or unattributable associate or insider or political appointee, etc.  Then the red-state politician is asked to respond to these rumors or charges as though they were real.  Then, his or her response is reported in a way as giving credence to the original chimera and to slime the politician.  (It occasionally even happens the other way around ... to liberals.) This is journalism at its worst.  How any fair-minded reporter can pull one of these cheap stunts (and not immediately have to take a hot, soapy shower) is beyond me.

I would like to offer the following advice to Romney (and other politicians) in the upcoming debates and media interviews -- if the questioner will not name the source of any scurrilous or leading comment, refuse to rise to the bait ... unless and until the source is named and when the quote was given.  And follow this up, if this info is not forthcoming, by unapologetically questioning the professionalism of the reporter.

Mika Brzezinski

Don't comment if you can sigh. Don't sigh if you can wince.  Don't wince if you can scowl.  Don't scowl if you can grimace.  (Or, alternatively, you can completely ignore those on the right by tweeting with the White House for your marching orders.)

What Are the Chances ...

that the Federal Reserve Bank will initiate a third round of Quantitative Easing (QE3) anytime soon?  The New York Times weighs the pluses and minuses in a thoughtful analysis (see: NY Times Article).  Basically quantitative easing consists of the Fed issuing more debt and, simultaneously, buying it up so that more money is placed in circulation.  This makes the stock market go up, drives down interest rates even further, and weakens the dollar.(which seems acceptable since the dollar has been kicking the Euro's backside of late.)

However, the Fed is just one horse in an economic troika team that includes the fiscal side of the federal government and U.S. industry.  These other two horses are clearly not pulling their weight ... the administration and Congress because they are locked in a cage-match fight over whether Keynesian economics will ever work (it won't) ... and U.S. industry because it sees the new-taxes cliff looming in January and a much smaller chance that Obamacare will vanish (also add a hostile-to-business Obama administration).

My guess is that there is a strong possibility that the Fed will pull the lever on QE3 no later than its September Open Market meeting for no other reason than it too is a political animal (as we recently discovered the Supreme Court to be).  Fed Chairman Bernanke (and his sidekick, Little Timmy Geithner at Treasury) want to keep their sinecures and there is almost no chance that they will if Romney is elected.  Therefore, despite QE1 and QE2 not really pulling the U.S. out of the financial doldrums, Bernanke will force through QE3 to at least give Obama a fighting chance for four more years.  This is all The Barry will need to pulverize fully the U.S. economy.

Dogcatcher

Even though Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and Debbie Wasserman-Schultz have refused to release their tax returns, they still insist that Mitt Romney release more than the last two years of his (see: Breitbart Story).  To rub salt into the wound, Harry Reid said that, because of his reticence, Romney was not suited to run for dogcatcher.  This comes from a man who has refused for over three years to fulfil his Constitutional duty in the Senate and pass a federal budget.  I suppose that Reid is preparing the way in case Romney wins the Presidency this coming November.  Perhaps, if so, he will send Romney a dogcatcher's net ... and start barking.

California Dreamin'

San Bernardino, Stockton, Mammoth Lakes, Compton … this is a list of the cities/towns in California that have recently gone bankrupt … or, are about to slip under the fiscal waves (see: Fox News Story). Expect many more … and, very possibly, the state of California itself will give up the ghost. Yes, spending and accounting shenanigans are partly to blame for these problems, but may I suggest a much more structural issue? Two of these bergs are in the Central Valley, the vegetable/fruit basket to this nation. Or, at least, it used to be. The economic health of this region has been greatly sacrificed to save the Delta Smelt, a small endangered fish that has caused our federal government to impose onerous water restrictions on the farmers there (see: Central Valley Water Crisis). Without water, crops won’t grow … and, without crops, farmers are impoverished … and, without agricultural income, taxes can’t be paid … and, without tax income, bergs go bankrupt. It’s that simple.

And since Central Valley agriculture was a large part of California’s fiscal strength, this short-sighted eco-suicide is one reason that the whole Golden State itself is on the ropes. Another reason is that oil exploration and extraction in California has been seriously curtailed by these same tree-hugging limousine liberals who claim to care for the downtrodden … while, at the same time, trodding them down. Will Governor Moonbeam recognize and remedy these problems? Keep California dreamin' …

A Bridge Too Far

Statism has become the central ideological tenet of the Democrat party. First Hillary Clinton wrote “It Takes a Village.” Then Elizabeth Warren went on a fund-raiser rant on how every successful company requires the government figuratively (and literally) to pave the way (see: YouTube Video). And now, Obama has echoed these same state-centric thoughts in his recent speech in Roanoke, VA when he also said that no important economic progress happens without the Federal government first greasing the skids. (see: Politico Story). Both Elizabeth Warren and The Barry used the analogy of how the government has built this country’s roads and bridges and therefore its investment has allowed many other companies to prosper. Balderdash! This is total socialist claptrap. I don’t believe (nor should you) that the government built roads expressly so that United Parcel could come about and prosper.

I learned many years ago that there is a fundamental difference between “necessary” and “sufficient” conditions. Yes, that fact that the government has built infrastructure has been a necessary condition for many capitalistic endeavors to prosper. But it has not been a sufficient condition. What has interceded and extended this initial condition has been entrepreneurial imagination, risk-capital investment, managerial expertise, and the hard work of the employee base of these enterprises. For Hillary Clinton, Elizabeth Warren, and Barack Obama to dismiss these sufficiencies as unimportant is an insult to all the Americans that have created the greatest economy in the history of mankind. Although roads and bridges are used in industry and commerce (good), they are also used to transport contraband, kidnappers, and bank robbers (bad). And, although public school teachers have inspired future entrepreneurs, so have private school teachers … in fact Thomas Edison was home-schooled.

May I suggest that following the leftist tirades of these three bubble-headed ideologues is the surest way to our economic collapse … and, unfortunately we already seem to be well on our way.

Something Stinks

Ben Bernanke was testifying in front of a Senate Banking Committee yesterday (see: Miami Herald Article) and he was squirming.  He looked and acted chagrined when the subject of the recently disclosed manipulation of the Libor (London Interbank Offered Rate, a key worldwide interest rate benchmark) that has cost the Chairman and CEO of Barclays Bank their jobs.  It also probably has cost numerous players in the financial markets over the last four years billions, maybe hundreds of billions of dollars ... all because of illegal manipulation of this rate.  And, it seems that the Federal Reserve Bank of New York was on to this scandal as early as 2008 and possibly earlier.  This was when Little Timmy Geithner was running the New York Fed and Bernanke was running the whole Fed Reserve Banking shebang.  Their failings were obvious because, with a few phone calls, these two men could have, and should have killed this monumental malfeasance in its tracks.  But, it appears, they chose to emulate Penn State's Joe Paterno by conveniently looking the other way for all these years.  To me this is shameful behavior and emits a miasma that is not befitting of Bernanke.  Given Little Timmy Geithner's past tax peccadillo's, his lack of decisive action here does not seem out of character.

The feeble excuse that Bernanke offered was that such manipulation allowed these banks to appear, in 2008, financially stronger than they really were (a good thing?).  This then morphed into clear criminal behavior.  What good are regulators if they don't regulate?  Today Little Timothy Geithner also testifies in front of Congress and I expect him to be his old elusive self.  And when this scandal fully erupts (see: WSJ Article), I hope that, this time, these rats cannot run down the hawsers to their East Hampton and Martha's Vineyard get-aways.  I strongly suspect that they need to be fitted with some black and white stripped overalls and given an extended vacation in Leavenworth.  And don't be surprised if Congress's response is to demand more regulations ... quickly echoed by Elizabeth (Pow Wow Chow) Warren.

The $30 Billion Man

Mark Zuckerberg just refinanced his $6 million+ Palo Alto home with a 1.05% mortgage (see: SF Chronicle Story).  This clearly proves that old adage:  "To those who expect much, much is given."

Sit-Down Strike

The U.S. Navy's new aircraft carriers are being built without urinals ... apparently to accommodate the unisex nature of our new seamen-ship (an oxymoron?)  See: CNN Story.  And I don't think it will take too much longer before the gender-benders there will insist that males sit down when pee-ing.  Perhaps Obama will enlist the "wee wee up" police to enforce such an emasculating edict on our carriers?

Drumbeat

The majority of media in this country have taken up the Democrat drumbeat to get Mitt Romney to release more than two years of his federal tax returns.  Since the Democrats run the IRS, I would imagine that there is good reason to do so (even though such snooping shenanigans are illegal.) They must know that there is something in there to embarrass Romney otherwise why the continued rat-a-tat?

I don't remember the same insistence in 2008 for releasing Obama's college records, or the explanation for his bizarre Social Security number (see: SS# Issue), or numerous other potential embarrassments in The Barry's past (isn't snorting cocaine a felony?)  But then pointing out such uneven treatment in the U.S. media is, in itself, old news.

Should Romney release more tax returns?  I think he probably should ... but only and not until Obama comes clean himself on his own numerous hidden skeletons.

Top 10 List

When Mitt Romney is inaugurated next January, these are the top 10 things that I would like to see him do in his first hours as President:

1) Kill or disable, in whatever ways possible, Obamacare.
2) Make all Obama's czars account for what they did during their tenures ... then fire them and their staffs.
3) OK the Keystone pipeline and restart all offshore drilling.
4) Fire all the political appointees in the Justice Dept. and insure that all Fast & Furious documents are not destroyed.
5) Stop all pending Energy Dept. loans and start an audit on all outstanding ones.
6) Restart the the missile defense shields in Poland and the Czech Republic.
7) Halt all foreign aid to Egypt, the Palestinian Authority, and Pakistan until and unless they accede to our demands.
8) Restore the bust of Winston Churchill to its place of honor in the White House.
9) Cut all Cabinet Dept. budgets to 2008 levels + 10%.
10) Count the White House silverware.