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Special Report

Obama’s Latest Monstrosity

By on 7.21.10 @ 6:09AM

Today he signs the 2,315 page Dodd-Frank financial regulation bill into law — thanks in part to the Republicans’ unwillingness to resist when resist they could have.

The 2,315 page Dodd-Frank financial regulation bill that President Obama will sign today should not be called “financial reform.” Instead the bill, which passed the Senate 60-39 last week when Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown joined Maine Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins to grant cloture, should be called what for what it is: pages and pages of massively costly, counterproductive and possibly unconstitutional mandates on nearly every type of business except for those government-sponsored enterprises at the root of the crisis. And while the bill claims to crack down on excesses on Wall Street, its harshest impact will likely be on Main Street businesses that had nothing to do with the meltdown.

A front-page Wall Street Journal article this week noted that “far from Wall Street, President Barack Obama’s financial regulatory overhaul… will leave tracks across the wide-open landscape of American industry.” The Journal notes that “the bill will touch storefront check cashiers, city governments, [and] small manufacturers.”

But one thing it will leave totally untouched is the government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which new research by Congress’s Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission and other bodies shows was even more of a prime factor in the subprime boom than originally assumed. The Federal Housing Finance Agency now reports that Fannie and Freddie purchased 40 percent of all private-label subprime securities in 2003 and 2004. Indeed, according to Edward Pinto, housing scholar and Fannie’s former chief credit officer, millions of mortgages to borrowers with credit scores of less than 660, considered by prominent researchers to be the dividing line for subprime loans, had been labeled by Fannie and Freddie as prime going back as early as 1993.

Rather than wait for Congress’s own Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission to issue its report in December to examine the role of the GSEs and other causes, Congress passed a bill that will not prevent future bubbles and imposes untold costs that will put the country in danger of slipping back into a recession.

New collateral requirements on derivatives could cost U.S. companies as much as $1 trillion in lost capital and liquidity, according to the International Swaps and Derivatives Association. And as the WSJ piece notes, these costs would hit not just big banks, but farmers who use derivatives to hedge the price of their crops and fuel for their tractor. The new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau could also hit retailers that issue credit tangentially related to their business, such as small stores that offer layaway plans.

On the other side of the retail ledger, some of the biggest retailers also got an unjustified mandated benefit with the Durbin amendment that puts price controls on the interchange fees they pay to process credit cards. This corporate welfare for fat cat merchants will mean higher costs to consumers, community banks, and credit unions.

In addition, the bill contains provisions that will empower special interests at the expense of ordinary shareholders and that may exceed the limits of the U.S. Constitution. The bill’s “orderly liquidation” authority will allow the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department not only to bail out firms whose failure is deemed to be a threat to “financial stability,” but to actually seize firms that are not even asking for a bailout.

The “proxy access” provisions would override longstanding state rules in corporate director elections and force companies and their shareholders to subsidize director elections of special-interest shareholders — such as unions, environmentalists and others. This would give progressive groups leverage to cut deals with management to push through agenda items, such as the “card check” abolition of secret ballots in labor elections and carbon cap-and-tax reductions, that they can’t get through the halls of Congress.

The silver lining is that the more people found out about the potential unintended consequences of this bill, the less popular it became. The bill cleared cloture with the bare minimum 60 votes that it needed. In the House, almost all Republicans, as well as 19 Democrats, voted no on the final bill.

Brown’s vote was certainly disappointing to those who supported him and expected him, if not to be conservative on every issue, at least to be one who doesn’t go along with phony big-government reform. But other ostensible conservatives in safe seats who would eventually vote against the bill also share much of the blame for smoothing passage. Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and retiring Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) became the media’s favorite Republicans in the spring by constantly making comments to the effect that they agreed with “90 percent” of the bill, and it would take just “5 minutes” for the parties to resolve their differences.

Their soft-pedaling of the disagreements, rather than sounding the alarm about the bill’s flaws, made the parties’ differences seem trivial and gave red-state Democrats, as well as Brown and the “Maine sisters,” cover to offer their support. In the end, both Corker and Gregg would become more vocal in their criticisms — Gregg gave a particularly impassioned floor speech last week calling the derivatives rules “simply a punitive exercise” that will “make it harder for Americans to be competitive” — but the damage of their playing to the cameras had already been done.

Republicans also should have insisted on Fannie and Freddie reform from the beginning as a precondition to negotiation on any bill. The bill’s lack of action on the GSEs became a valuable talking point in the end in communicating to the public that this bill was anything but “reform.” Given Dodd and Frank’s allegiance to the GSEs, insistence on action from the beginning may have stopped the bill in its tracks.

As a result of the growing skepticism of the bill, a few of the most horrific provisions publicized by the Competitive Enterprise Institute and other free-market groups — such as those that would have hurt angel investors and ensnared manufacturers in the definition of “financial companies” — were dropped. And one genuinely pro-growth reform was adopted.

That measure, which was added over Chairman Dodd and Chairman Frank’s objections, helps fix costly and counterproductive provisions of the last “financial reform”: the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. This provision will permanently exempt smaller public companies — those with market valuations of $75 million or less — from the law’s section 404(b), the mandate of an audit of a company’s “internal controls.” This requirement and the rest of Sarbox did nothing to stop the accounting schemes at companies like Lehman Brothers and Countrywide, but instead frustrated honest entrepreneurs with audits of trivial items like possession of office keys and number of letters in employee passwords, and cost the U.S. economy $35 billion a year. (I wrote about Sarbanes-Oxley’s burdens and lack of investor benefits in my paper, “SOXing it to the Little Guy.”)

Thanks to this relief, many smaller companies should once again be able to afford the cost of going public and get the financing they need to grow into the next Microsoft, Facebook or Google. That is, if they don’t get strangled by the other mounds of red tape in this bill.

In this bill, much arbitrary power is delegated to an army of new regulators. In the end, it was heartening that many informed citizens and their lawmakers did their own due diligence on this bill, and weren’t stampeded into supporting a measure labeled as “getting Wall Street.” They will need to continue this scrutiny in examining the mounds of regulations to be implemented under the bill’s authority.

About the Author

John Berlau is Senior Fellow for Finance and Access to Capital at the Competitive Enterprise Institute and blogs at OpenMarket.org.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (158) |

Ret. Marine| 7.21.10 @ 7:05AM

Yeah this is a financial "reform" bill, just like barneyfwank saying the GSE's were in no such trouble of imploding upon themselves and taking down out financial house of cards with it.
Revenge is best served cold steel style.

RetiredVet| 7.21.10 @ 1:53PM

Please, no ad-hominem attacks.

Ret.Navy| 8.8.10 @ 10:00AM

If I feel it necessary to call someone a three-legged frog with questionable companions that is my right. It may reflect my lack of social politeness but still well within my rights. Let's focus on the Frank/Dodd fandango with Fannie & Freddie.

Turtle

vtwin| 7.21.10 @ 12:07PM

I just watched the signing ceremony for the Financial Reform Legislation. Clearly, another legislative victory for President Obama, another legislative victory for the Democratic majority in the Senate, another legislative victory for the Democratic majority in the House, and another legislative victory for the American People.

George True| 7.21.10 @ 12:54PM

Vtwin: Hello!!! McFly!!! Is anybody in there ??? Vtwin, did you even READ the article?? No, obviously not. You just regurgitate the leftist talking points like a good little robot.

Fannie and Freddie CAUSED the bubble and subsequent meltdown in the real estate market, mortgage market, and the equity markets. This is all in the Federal Register. It is a known fact. Now, you are entitled to have your own opinion on this, but you are not entitled to make up different facts. As the article stated, this bill "reformed" everything EXCEPT that which was actually responsible for the market meltdowns.

On six different occasions between 2001 and 2007, prominent Republicans including George W Bush and John McCain went before the house and senate finance committees and begged them to reform Fannie and Freddie before they brought the whole economy down. And Barney Frank and Chris Dodd essentially called them racists, saying that the evil Repubs were trying to prevent minorities from having the American dream of home ownership. Again, it is all in the Federal Register, if you care to look it up, which I know you don't, because leftists like you never do their homework to try to find out the actual facts of any given matter, because facts are stubborn little things that get in the way of your ideology

And now, the very people responsible for the meltdown, Barney Frank and Chris Dodd, have pushed through this horrific so-called financial "reform" bill which reforms NOTHING but gives big government even more of a stranglehold on the free market that it already has.

No doubt, since you are a leftist you think this is a good thing. But mark my words, it will not do one good thing for any average American, it will only benefit Big Government and Big Business that is in the pockets of Big Government.

Once again, I don't know why I keep trying to teach a pig to sing. Doesn't work, and it just annoys the pig. Have a good trolling day, Vtwin.

Generalissimo Motors| 7.21.10 @ 2:19PM

You can't expect anything else from vtwin. The only people that can afford a v-twin now are the hard corps lefty, never retire UAW "workers"

carnot| 7.21.10 @ 6:28PM

another legislative victory for the millions to be added to Obama's unemployment lines over the coming years.

Ken Roberts | 7.21.10 @ 8:38PM

Did the bill have were the sitting democrats could just keep their seats instead of having to defend them?, because if that was not in there they might as well pack their bags for the trip home now.

Purpleguy| 7.21.10 @ 9:09PM

If you really understood the " House of Cards", a book, and a documentary on CNBC, you would know that it was the over leveraging of Wall Street, and the greed incentive to award more and more risky loans that exposed our economy to such great risks. Sure, there were people that took out home loans on a shaky financial footing, and shame on them. But it was the Big Boys with Billions and Billions of our dollars that bet the farm (CDOs and CDSs) and lost our money - not the little guy or the Freddie and Fannie GSE's backed by government that caused the huge drop in confidence that led to the economic collapse.

GavInTucson| 7.21.10 @ 11:36PM

There were no "risky" loans, as Freddie and Fannie were telling the banks that they'll cover the bad loans, courtesy of the "good faith and credit" of the U.S. Government.

Haven't you been paying any attention to this the past few years?

Ret. Marine| 7.22.10 @ 5:10AM

Hey simpleton, do you not reconize the fact that the legislation demanding these outfits to give loans to the people who could least afford them was the main problem. The fact that these institutions make money must grab your little commie butt hard. Never mind the way on which they were forced to go around the usual ways of making money, your commie masters made it almost impossible for them to earn an honest life and you call it greed. Good grief you really do need to get a better education.

Purpleguy| 7.22.10 @ 10:07PM

Ever hear of short selling? Do you know what CDS instruments are? How about a CDO? Hedge Funds? Go learn something, then come back and lecture ...

Carol| 7.21.10 @ 7:06AM

Brown, Snowe and Collins aren't Republicans - they're RINOs. They are progressives and could never be trusted to begin with.

Snowe was the one to advance Obamacare in the Senate committee.

She's part of the "club" and hates this country as much as anybody that sides with Obama.

vtwin| 7.21.10 @ 12:23PM

Oh, don't get your panties in a twist; Olympia Snowe doesn’t “hate this country”, and neither does Obama, and I serious doubt any member of Congress does.

John II| 7.21.10 @ 12:37PM

But Twitty: Why do YOU hate this country? Is it perhaps just an extension of your self-contempt?

carnot| 7.21.10 @ 6:29PM

you have no idea what's in their minds.

Sharon| 7.22.10 @ 3:56PM

Obama hates the USA because he can't make it a Socialist country. I say IMPEACH Obama now..

Purpleguy| 7.21.10 @ 9:11PM

So they're with you or they're against you, huh? Seems like I heard that before - and you lost... Keep it up .. 11/02/2010.

carnot| 7.22.10 @ 9:36AM

we know you hate this country. we get it already.

Purpleguy| 7.22.10 @ 10:05PM

Because I don't agree with you? Really? Are you high?

Streetfighter| 7.21.10 @ 7:35AM

I simply don't understand what these people gain by passing such poor legislation. Is there that much money under the table?

Why didn't the 39 who voted nay more vocal?

martin j smith| 7.21.10 @ 7:46AM

Voting for this bill and reasons why it is absurd I do not have to regurgitate. I will raise this issue for the political future of this nation:
The Republican Party and what they did or did not do.

First as a whole still then Republican Party are acting like WINOS--winning is no option. THYERE IS A NEED FOR NEW UNAFRAID LEADERS--NOT STUPID ONES--BUT WHO ARE GOOD POLITICALLY STRATEGIC THINKERS, WHO KNOW HOW TO USE PROPAGANDA AND HOW TO COUNTER ATTACK. This is what the Republic Party needs to be relevant in the future. The three who voted for this bill, the others who are too quiet --this Party must be given needles in the b-hind. One way is to primary those who do not vote "for the people" or at least to expose and embarass them. The other is to get word out to voters even in Maine what this is a;ll ,about. I suspect Maine is asleep.

Melvin| 7.21.10 @ 8:08AM

The three horseman of the apocalypse, Dodd, Frank, and Chucky.
These three more need to be in jail next to Lindsay Lohan, for fraud and money laundering, than being sitting members of Congress.
Also people realize that Congressmen and Senators do not create legislation at least not in the sense that we think they do. Legislation is created by lobbyists and special interests months and even years before it is brought to the floor to be debated and eventually voted upon.
This is why that thousands of pages of the Health Care Bill literally popped up overnight to be horse traded and pushed for a vote.
This is why many of us get utter the expression, "Where the hell did that bill come from and now their voting on it."
Demcorats as far back as 2006 read the political winds and they new they were going to win and win big. So every single socialist, Marxist, feel good idea that every single Liberal Democrat Lobbyist and Special Interest wanted the Democrat Party Leadership told them, "Start creating legislation for us to push the minute we control the White House and both chambers. We got one shot at this and one shot only, so have your legislation waiting in the wings to act on immediately."
Hence the shotgun approach, with legislation. Overload the opposition party because they will not be able to counter with any effectiveness on every single piece of legislation that is brought to committee.
This isn't the days of Thomas Jefferson and George Washington anymore. When government means, "Fast Track," that is exactly what it means.

Rmm| 7.21.10 @ 9:35AM

It is becoming more apparent every day that this was the strategy coming right out of the gate. While the Lefties have the "numbers" this BS will be rammed thru, and it will be slowly picked apart in the future by the courts.

Pat| 7.21.10 @ 12:47PM

Melvin and Rmm, you’re too right in your conclusions, along with a healthy amount of cynicism, but dead on. The problem is the average Joe can’t buy a “piece of the action” – lobbyists are expensive to employ. On average, hiring someone to speak on your behalf in D. C. runs about $40,000 a year and that’s just for part time work – a full time lobbyist working exclusively for your interests is far beyond the financial reach of all middle class Americans. For powerful politicians like Dodd, personal favors are eagerly granted by private industry, their phone calls requesting special help rocket through the switchboard straight to some vice president who has the juice to actually do something “nice” for them. But, for us average Americans, we’re locked out of the process, we don’t have the wealth to buy our share of government “consideration” and we’re powerless to grant special legislative benevolence to special interests in return for personal favors.

Since, as average taxpayers, we’re helpless to eliminate the corruption in our “democracy”, the answer may lie in “The Lobbyist Fund” – a pool of money collected from everyday Americans and used to influence our politicians in the accepted fashion. You pay into the fund, maybe through weekly payroll deductions like your 401-K – you then have access to bribes, influence, working girls (or boys in Barney’s case) procured for those receptive politicians eager to help – and all extended on your individual behalf. Want your very own section of the federal tax code? A little help getting a favorable mortgage rate from Fannie Mae? Other taxpayers and businesses forced by law to use your professional services or purchase exclusively from your business? Like a mutual fund, The Lobbyist Fund, allows the average American to buy their very own politician through the power of combined resources - a modest beginning sure - but far better than being forced to watch helplessly from the sidelines while personally paying for the stadium’s upkeep and the players’ salaries.

vtwin| 7.21.10 @ 12:31PM

“These three …need to be in jail next to Lindsay Lohan.” NO, NO, PICK ME, PICK ME!

Curtis Rasmussen| 7.21.10 @ 3:18PM

It figures. Vtwin's morals are in the toilet along with the drunken, hard partying, drug addled skank that is Lindsay Lohan.

Purpleguy| 7.21.10 @ 9:13PM

So, elections have consequences... and that's new, how?

Nooner| 7.21.10 @ 9:31PM

As the Moonbat Democrats will soon find out, 'elections have consequences'.

Purpleguy| 7.22.10 @ 10:04PM

Oh, yes... we're oh so worried about Nevada, Kentucky, Florida, Illinois, and now Colorado ... I think you was a countin' yor chickens 'fore they hatched.

Ryan| 7.21.10 @ 8:14AM

Though I oppose the bill in general, I'm in "wait-and-see" mode on the capital requirements issue. I suspect that it overreaches, but one wonders if there isn't a good idea in there somewhere...

Purpleguy| 7.21.10 @ 9:14PM

I agree, there's too much hyperbole from both sides to know what is actually going to be put into action - but they did pass what they said they would ... along with many other bills.

GavInTucson| 7.21.10 @ 11:44PM

No, they didn't pass what they claimed they would. This bill was supposed to be about finance reform, and if Freddie and Fannie aren't included, then it isn't reform at all.

Freddie and Fannie got this mess started with the sub-prime fiasco.

carnot| 7.22.10 @ 9:38AM

these bills have all sorts of discriminatory legislation that is tangential to the covering bills purpose.

Purpleguy| 7.22.10 @ 10:02PM

You really should pick up "House of Cards" or if you're lazy or cheap, watch the CNBC documentary version of "House of Cards"... to know what really happened. They were a part of it, of course, but it was oh so much more that caused it. Herd mentality was a prime factor.

Kelly Staples| 7.21.10 @ 8:37AM

Dodd and Fwank . . . could it be true love?

Nooner| 7.21.10 @ 9:32PM

With Ted Kennedy now passed, what would you put in the sandwich? Nah, I don't wanna know...

Melvin| 7.21.10 @ 8:55AM

People, for those of us that remember back when we had the Congressional Post Office Scandal 1991ish, legislation was passed to make sure that it wouldn't happen ever, ever again.
The Savings and Loan Crisis 80's & 90's, legislation was passed to make sure that it wouldn't happen ever, ever again.
Enron Scandal 2001, legislation was passed to make sure that it wouldn't happen ever, ever again.
The Great Depression, 20's,30's and 40's, legislation was passed so that it wouldn't happen ever, ever again.
Guess what, it happened since then again, and again, and again.
No amount of legislation can be passed to stop political corruption and or bad economic policies.
If anything legislation facilitates bad economic policies and fosters more easily hide-able corruption.
Just the mere fact that Frank, Dodd and Schumer are involved should be evidence enough that this legislation is bogus which will lead to the theft and laundering of more tax payer dollars.
This is what happens when we have a revolving door between the Wall Street.

MHK| 7.21.10 @ 12:01PM

"No amount of legislation can be passed to stop political corruption and or bad economic policies."

Yes it can. It's called Term Limits.

Grzmlyk| 7.21.10 @ 1:18PM

I think term limits is a laudable concept, but it is no panacea; remember, 99% of the permanent fixtures in Washington DC are NOT elected officials; each senator has a staff that, in some cases, approaches 1,000 people. These are the people, along with the permanent lobbyists, who dream up, write and ensure the passage of legislation. Term limits would do nothing do depopulate their ranks.

Indeed, one of the unintended consequences of term limits might be that these unelected, faceless bureaucrats will have even more power, and whoever the revolving door of elections brings in every few years will only be the temporary face on the multi-headed leviathan of "staffers" and lobbyists wielding the real power.

Ken (Old Texican)| 7.21.10 @ 1:42PM

God bless, GRZ

I was hoping someone else would bring up the term limits fallacy.
Sir you are precisely...precisely on point.

May I ask if you would address with me the referenda idea I brought up...ie every spending bill would require a congressional district -wide referendum for every single district in the country.

It is the only alternative I can see to get off the slippery slope of communism...except national sit downs and civil non-compliance...and worse.

Grzmlyk| 7.21.10 @ 1:56PM

Hi Ken:

Well, I'll have to think about that - my guess is that our professional redistributionist class will be hard at work figuring ways to circumvent the will of the people and that if congressional district, or a majority of its voters - stand to benefit from the spending bill, we might be right back where we began.

That's why it's always called "pork" when federal money goes to that other guy's district, but it's always called "necessary infrastructure improvement" when it goes to our own.

And the logistics of such referenda would be a challenge - in the best of times, even for consequential elections, you're lucky to get a 40% turnout. And we've seen how the Democrat machine, which literally holds the levers of voting machinery across this country - can make it very easy to steal elections.

But I would have to do some more reading before I would reject it out of hand.

I kind of feel about spending referenda the way I feel about campaign finance reform, and the way I feel about submerging something in water: no matter how tightly you seal it, somewhere, somehow, eventually, money or water will enter through some crack and get the contents all wet.

But the status quo clearly is not working, so I shall do some pondering.

Anthony| 7.21.10 @ 3:31PM

G. I favor term limits as well. Your point is a vaild one, and quite frankly, is the only solid argument one can make against term limits.
As you correctly point out, term limits are no panacea, as human nature, being the creative driving force behind humanity that it is, is always able to find ways around obstacles.
I would say however, that any set of conditions that could bring this tour de force into political reality would also be able to control the same bureaucracy that is a creature of the current political status quo.
In any event, I submit things could not get much worse.

Tom| 7.21.10 @ 10:20PM

There is no Senator that has a staff anywhere near 1000. The average staff size for both the House and Senate are well below 100. Even if you include committee staff the number would be no where near 1000.

Purpleguy| 7.21.10 @ 9:17PM

That's partially true. But when the legislation that is passed is subsequently watered down in its implementation, or outright reversed, you get the result you complain of.

Grzmlyk| 7.21.10 @ 8:57AM

Yet another arrow to the heart of America.

I guess the siren call of Washington's version of reality is simply irresistible.

Again, it's the zeitgeist that is at fault here - our culture and our media have fetishized a completely alternate reality. In this upside-down world, the highest value anybody can have is "CARING." That’s why granting almost two years of unemployment benefits is the lynchpin of Obama's "summer of recovery." Logic, anyone?

Oh, I forgot: Under the rubric of liberalism - as the great economist Nancy Pelosi pointed out - open-ended unemployment benefits are the greatest economic stimulus money can buy. Besides, it's not her money. Or Paul Krugman's. Or Harry Reid's. Or Bob Schieffer's. Or Barack Obama's.

Who cares anyway? Our government has long since stopped caring about hemorrhaging dollars. That's so outré, darling. What do they give a shit if the ship sinks? As long as they have their life preservers, let it sink. Let the hoi polloi drown amid their bread and circuses.

But by all means, pay obeisance to our culture's collective false consciousness and the stupid, vanity-saturated voters will swallow whatever you shove down their throats - and not only thank you for the privilege, they'll even ask for more.

Every value, every last shred of morality, is now unimportant as long as you make an ostentatious show of "CARING." Rape little boys, embezzle a million dollars, kill a couple of people, hey - shit happens. As long as you CARE about the downtrodden, that's all that matters, baby.

And "CARING" in America means you earn "goodness" points by authorizing one group to steal from another group to give a third group its money. That is what qualifies as "good" in our world today.

Sure, you have to ignore the utterly destructive consequences of this action - even among its supposed beneficiaries - but that's not important. What's important is that the elite - and the wannabe elite - feel good about themselves. If fiddling while Rome burns gets your rocks off, then close the window and pick up your bow.

The only evil in America anymore is the charge - not the actuality, mind you, but just the charge - of racism. Well, that and being a tea partier or a conservative; you are beneath contempt then. Inside the beltway, nothing spells evil like R-e-p-u-b-l-i-c-a-n, of course - ironic indeed, since Republican politicians are no different from Democrats; they're all playing the same game, it's just that Republicans always wear the visiting uniforms.

The GOP is happy with its lot of playing the Washington Generals to the Democrats' Harlem Globetrotters. And why not? It's all a show and, hey, the checks clear.

The only difference is that Republicans just rape the taxpayer a bit more gently. Maybe afterward they say, "hey, you'd better put some ice on that."

I tire of hearing talk radio hosts go on and on about how all we have to do is elect the "right" people who will stand up to this suicidal insanity.

Gee, isn't it funny that they say this every goddamned election cycle? Have they noticed that we never achieve a critical mass? Ever. Time and time again it is proven that, once a politician moves to Washington, regardless of the letter after their name, their DNA is instantly corrupted and they become brand new tumors in the cancer of totalitarianism.

And, just as icing on the cake, our popular culture fawns over the endless legions of no-nothing celebrities and the reigning "glitterati" who never miss an opportunity to cream their jeans over totalitarian dictators and who can't wait to implement a Stalinist regime here - get rid of the bad apples and FINALLY, there will be a, what is the phrase? Oh yes. A Master Race in which all evil and selfishness are expunged from human nature, and only the collective will matter (except, of course, for those select pigs who are "more equal" than the other animals on the farm).

Nothing says compassion like the enslavement of one half of the population and the murder of the other half.

Has an entire country ever voluntary sold itself into slavery? Guess that's the last "first" for this tower of Babel once known as America.

Suicide with a smile.

Newbie| 7.21.10 @ 10:08AM

So what is the solution?

Grzmlyk| 7.21.10 @ 10:38AM

Well, you should ask "Old Texican." He claims he has a magic wand that will solve everything effortlessly, and yet he refuses to unsheath it for some reason. Guess he's benefitting in some way from the status quo.

But for us grownups, the truth is inescapable: There is no solution. We should fight, of course, even as the doomed passengers on flight 93 fought their Muslim hijackers, even as the defenders of the Alamo fought to the last man. Surrender is not an option.

We could amend the constitution - term limits, strip senators and congressmen of the life-long perks that catapult them into the elite class, abolish government unions, disassemble agencies like the the Dept of Energy, the Dept of Education, etc. Amend the constitution such that lobbyists aren't the real power brokers (along with unions). Tort reform. Recapture education such that the period from Kindergaten - college graduation isn't one huge Marxist indoctrination session. Remap our culture such that one squeaky wheel in a room of 100 doesn't get her way such that the other 99 people have to bow to her demands, however insane they are. Roll back environmentalist legislation. Stage a conservative coup of a significant swath of the mainstream media by taking over CBS, NBC, ABC, NPR, PBS, NY Times, LA Times, Chicago Tribune, USA Today, AP.

None of this, of course, will happen; entropy only works one way. It is an immutable law of physics, and it seems to hold for nations as well.

The only hope is that after America's institutions are all reduced to rubble, something sturdier will arise from the ashes. I, for one, think the constitution DID turn out to be a suicide pact. Brilliant document, but it collapsed under its own elastic and mutable nature. If that weren't the case, we wouldn't be where we are now.

As a result, America as it once stood is a relic of the past and the toothpaste will not go back in the tube.

A quote from the 18th century that is attributed to Alexander Tytler (its true provenance remains a mystery) says it all:

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years.
Great nations rise and fall.

The people go from bondage to spiritual truth, to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependence, from dependence back again to bondage."

Kurt| 7.21.10 @ 11:12AM

My thoughts exactly, you can't beat government subsidized laziness(non-producers) it just multiplies until it eventually kills the host(producers)!

Grzmlyk| 7.21.10 @ 11:22AM

I totally agree, statism works exactly like a malignant cancer. One of nature's paradoxes is that it succeeds when it kills the host - thereby killing itself as well.

Liberalism IS societal cancer, and we have entered the stage of metastisization; when it spreads to the vital organs, the only one who benefits is the undertaker.

In our case, that's China.

John II| 7.21.10 @ 11:37AM

And, as a quick literary aside, don't forget the kinds of people to whom statism most appeals. The only truly appropriate thing about this monstrous piece of "legislation" is that it's named after two of the most shamelessly degenerate members of Congress.

Grzmlyk| 7.21.10 @ 12:19PM

Absolutely, John II - two of the most egregious criminals who've ever entered Washington, and that is saying a lot; it is a supreme irony. Both Frank and Dodd should have been cooling their heels in prison for the last 25 years at least.

The problem, as I see it, is that statism appeals to average Americans now. The degenerates and the pawns and the crooks will always gravitate toward statism. Unfortunately, it's the ranks of the fools that have swelled to overflowing, and that's what killed America.

Average people, people who look like you and me, pay taxes and ostensibly love their kids are STILL supporting Obama in droves. And even when the last of them turns on Obama - well after it's far too late to have saved this country - it doesn't change the fact that a preponderance of people in this country willfully chose a false consciousness over reality.

It is those people, people like so many of my former friends, who tipped the balance in this country, whose guilt and vanity and refusal to face the world as adults that became the acid that ate through American Exceptionalism and at whose feet the death of America can be laid.

Every single person who voted for Obama should be charged with treason, because even though they'll go scot-free, and even though most of them STILL pat themselves on the back for voting for the hip black dude who "cares," they are GUILTY - not of the white privilege that flatters their moral vanity, but of TREASON.

May they be doomed to inhabit in the world they've created throughout eternity.

John II| 7.21.10 @ 1:15PM

Ordinarily I'd be reluctant to wish THAT on anybody, but I recall a great comics panel titled "Hatlo's Inferno," which ran in syndication for half a decade or so back in the 50's, drawn by Jimmy Hatlo--a companion piece to Hatlo's famous and much longer running "They'll Do It Every Time."

James Hatlo(w) himself was the son of a Scottish immigrant--a printer, as I recall. Hatlo died in the early 1960's, just about the time when I was studying the theology implicit in his great "Hatlo's Inferno."

I presume his own background was Calvinist, but the idea that the damned create their own hells right here on earth was refined by Aquinas (and dramatized by Dante in the next generation)-- and doubtless made perfect sense to me because of my youthful exposure to Hatlo's hilarious panels depicting the punishments appropriate to familiar types of miscreants, ranging from tax collectors to insurance salesmen to politicians of many stripes to rude bank clerks to laundry owners who over-starch collars.

No need for malediction, Grzzy. They WILL be so doomed . . .

Grzmlyk| 7.21.10 @ 1:22PM

From you cogent lips to God's ironic ears!

I thought I was pretty up on the history of TV, but I gotta say, James hatlo(w) is a new one on me. I'll have to check it out - sounds like he's up my alley!

Grzmlyk| 7.21.10 @ 1:24PM

Oops - sorry - I saw the word "syndication" and my mind immediately went to television. I see that it was a printed comic.

Google, here I come.

Ken (Old Texican)| 7.21.10 @ 2:46PM

GRZ wrote...

""None of this, of course, will happen; entropy only works one way. It is an immutable law of physics, and it seems to hold for nations as well""

Grzmlyk| 7.21.10 @ 10:38AM
""Well, you should ask "Old Texican." He claims he has a magic wand that will solve everything effortlessly, and yet he refuses to unsheath it for some reason. Guess he's benefitting in some way from the status quo. ""

Ah, GRZ...
That sorta' hurts my feelings.

First the "entropy" myth.

SIR, God is STILL creating our universe. The astrophysicists and astronomers confirm it. New Stars are being created every day.

As a Christian, I look forward to visiting some of them in eternity...maybe even lend a hand to the peoples there in Jesus' name.

__________
Now the "unsheathing"...not of a magic wand...but the sword.

I run a national company, GRZ. I have already taken my family on to a cash basis. I have taken the Morman food storage program literally, even though I am not Mormon, and asked my employees to do so. (two years self sufficiency...$800).

You obviously have not gone to my web-site and read my "inaugural" articles there.
( www.myteamusa.org )

In any event, "the sword" is simply this: "Producers cease producing"....until the communists say uncle.

GRZ, I don't want a shooting civil war. Been there, done that....over seas. It is nasty and unpredictable.

Literally shooting a couple of dozen Senators and Reps could get the job done. Remember the snipers in DC?
Just friking shoot some congressional traitors...and send the message loud and clear...."vote your constituent's wishes, (via referendums) or get shot?"

...heh...change the "incentive plan".......vote for your constituents or get shot!

OK, GRZ
You have now goaded me into a late night visit...again...from feds or their goons.

So you just keep on writing that we are toast.

I ain't toast.....until the communists silence me or kill me. Screw 'em.

One request: When, (not if), they silence or kill me, please document my post today....and "remember the Alamo".

Are you up to it, GRZ?

Grzmlyk| 7.21.10 @ 4:08PM

Lots to chew on there, but entropy is not a myth; all states move toward chaos. It's why you can't unstir food coloring once you've mixed it with water. it's why ice cubes melt. It's why we age. it's why cars fall apart rather than get better. It's an immutable law and one that God made on purpose. Why I do not know, but you might as well talk about the myth of gravity; ok, debate it if you want, but you have to obey it.

New stars being created does nothing to disprove entropy,w hich is the second law of thermodynamics. The first law is that energy is neither created nor destroyed - the same amount of energy exists in the universe today as existed the moment after its creation. New stars are actually recycled from the energy and matter of old stars.

As for the sword: Like all magic wands, easier said than done, which means it's not a magic wand at all. I agree, going "Galt" would be a good thing. But it won't happen. It's the same reason sanctions don't work against clearly rogue nations - because someone somewhere will take rush in to supply the business that is cut off. And in our global economy, we simply cannot quarantine ourselves as easily as we could have 100 years ago. Recall the Berlin Airlift.

But yeah, I'd love to see a capital strike. I even think it would be effective. But then what? What happens once the dog catches the car it's been chasing? It's human nature that's at fault here; if we all moved to a parallel universe and started America all over again, the likelihood is that we'd wind up in the same predicament. It's human nature. It's entropy.

Actually, the measures you are taking look to me like you think what's going to happen is not very far off what I think is going to happen - an irrevocable break with the status quo brought on by economic collapse. So your actions tend to support my thesis - the shit's going to hit the fan and all of this handwringing and race baiting and poltical correctness will be supplanted by real issues of subsistence.

It is that collapse in which opportunity lies. Because i still believe - and the current mortgage and itnerest rates confirm it - that politicians are simply not going to stop this train to oblivion.

Ken (Old Texican)| 7.21.10 @ 7:51PM

Grz,
Working capital...has already gone "galt"; over a year ago.
I see us in a momentary "pause", before the wheels come off entirely with the hugundous tax on capital and growth kicking in January 1st.

The "snake" is now busily eating it's tail. (creating hyper-inflation/deflation).
Maybe just maybe, a Republican congress can glide us in to a soft landing if we stay on their butts.

Otherwise, I foresee blood in our streets when essential goods/services break down and folks get desperate....with a hostile world ready to pounce.

I would not mind low referenda turn-out. Perhaps a majority of voters would be then be above an 80 IQ.
Up until November 2008, warts and all, The United States was a community. Right now we are two diametrically opposed camps of "takers and givers". The communists, (pardon the shorthand), have the pedal to the metal on that premise.

GRZ,
Our whole economy now rests upon "affordable energy". It really does. Even our farming companies count on affordable fertilizer...derived from oil/gas.
(Heh, shoot a greenie before breakfast. It is your most important meal of the day.)

Truly, the amazing thing is that the communists have so far have kept their crap from hitting middle class families' kitchen table.

Once that sloppy fecal matter does hit the family table on a broad scale, what is the family leader going to do?

The communists believe the family leaders will bow down...and I think two thirds just might. But oh my God...what about that other third who quietly say..."hell no!"
GRZ,
I'm too damned old and crippled up to be a sojer. (sic).
My wife is world famous for giving disabled children a whole new future. I have helped her do that for the last ten years....and train others to do so as well.
Sir, loving donors are now "running for the hills", and I cannot blame them.

November is the nut-cutting.

Are we freemen...or are we slaves?

Ken Roberts| 7.21.10 @ 9:01PM

What brilliant sayings you have ,the tooth paste won't go back in to tube , you can't unstir food coloring ,wow! it is so deep what you say . have you ever thought about being a late nite show host ,you would knock'em dead. So according to you and a few others we might as well stop worrying about it and capitulate . Not me I believe in the American people and they will rise when it is time. and if not we don't live forever man, enjoy what you got left . At least if you can't come up with a solution or an idea, keep the tooth paste in the tube and don't open the cap. Don't buy any food coloring . And get something to eat and drink. Excuse me whilst I go check on the tube of tooth paste in my drawer . Go down fighting never give up or in .

Tom| 7.21.10 @ 10:23PM

No form of government lasts forever. So the fact democracies don't is meaningless. The Soviet Union was certainly not a democracy and it lasted less than a century.

Clinton nee Publius | 7.21.10 @ 11:23AM

The real solution is a central banking system and a commercial banking system that are self-sustaining and self-regulating in nature. This is not possible to create under the current system, so this is why we see corruptions such as these taking place. There is only one banking system design that is both self-regulating and self-sustaining in nature - the INSTICERT system defined under Lovellian Economics.

The INSTICERT system is the only system that provides a capital market exchange that will never crash, companies that cannot ever be bankrupt, investments that are fraud-proof, a currency that isn't based on faith, a credit system that does not discriminate and a commercial banking system that is crash-proof. Lovellian economics is the only solution for these problems as well as the issues we have with government corruption and fiscal spending (google it).

Purpleguy| 7.21.10 @ 9:18PM

Why fight it? Might as well get on the gravy train... Neither the Republicans or Democrats will stop it, so hop on board!!

John II| 7.21.10 @ 9:39PM

Neither Republicans NOR Democrats, Purp. Your smug irony would be slightly more effective with correct grammar.

Purpleguy| 7.22.10 @ 9:59PM

Duh, ok, Ms Grammarpus

Gess Whaut| 7.21.10 @ 9:25AM

If The British Subject Signed It - It's NOT a law.
In the Supreme Court Case--Tuan Anh Nguyen v. INS--Justice Ginsberg made the following statements ... affirming that the world recognizes "birthrights" of the Father (not the mother), and bloodline rather than birth place as the foundation for inherited citizenship by birthright. Thus Obama was born a British subject and irrefutably ineligible to be President of the U.S.

PolishKnight| 7.21.10 @ 10:02AM

I need to change the password on my luggage!

As an IT worker, the requirement for a certain number of letters and numbers in a person's password is a favorite pet peeve of mine. It reminds me of politicians embracing windmills, biofuels, and global warming ultimately making these into mainstream scientific ideas. Rather than enhance science or technology, big politics pushes it back.

OK, enough gripe and some explanation: In the old days, back in the 1980's and 1990's, passwords were stored on servers and even in spreadsheets in the form of a "hash" or code. It would be like you taking a Dick Tracy decoder ring and using it to make a secret message. This was fine back in the days when computers had the same capacity as a modern cell phone, but today these codes and hashes can be cracked in seconds.

To try to thwart such attacks, it was recommended to make the password more complex so that it took longer for computers with access to the public code to crack it... until security minded companies just did away with storing the coded passwords in public or insecurely altogether. In addition, if you try to guess your password more than three time unsuccessfully, it's locked.

So there is now absolutely no reason to make a password key complex provided it's not a word that can be guessed easily in a few tries. (Hint, Spaceballs Command: change your luggage combination!)

On the contrary, the requirement to use a combination of letters and numbers tended to encourage people to use their birthdays in their password which is the WORST thing they could do.

Grzmlyk| 7.21.10 @ 11:05AM

Polish Knight, of all of the things in this world that conspire to drive me into a mental institution - and that includes politics, hypocritical "friends," rudeness for its own sake, poor quality of customer service, technology that doesn't do what it promises, greed, politically-correct bigotry, taxes, the maddening deliciousness of fast food, lousy TV programming, an incontinent dog and my crazy sister, NONE will put me in a strait jacket faster than the password issue.

I scream a primal scream at least once a day. I belong to so many things, each with its own password, and of course they change regularly. Honestly, I'm not kidding: If liberalism doesn't kill us all, the password cluster f**k will paralyze us.

My favorite is now, if you don't recall your password to some site and click the button marked, "Forgot your password?" it doesn't SEND you your password. God forbid. No, it sends you to a page where you have no choice but to CHANGE your password. Multiply this by a dozen sites a week and very soon you are stark raving mad.

I spend half my waking life dealing with this issue.

ARGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! I would say I feel better after that scream, but I'm about to log onto Comcast.

Ken Roberts| 7.21.10 @ 9:08PM

you are so right on the pass words use robo form or something like it and never forget it again they have free ones that do the same but if ten is all you need robo form has free ware version. done that and been there. pass words are an insane thing.

Purpleguy| 7.21.10 @ 9:23PM

"If liberalism doesn't kill us all, the password cluster f**k will paralyze us. " - are you kidding? You are able to express your opinions because the Founder Fathers were liberal minded people borne of the Enlightenment and imbued with the philosophies of Locke and Rousseau. The Bill of Rights is not, nor ever has been a conservative document, neither is the Declaration of Independence or the US Constitution itself.

Thank liberals for your freedoms today... ! Now think on that.

Nick| 7.21.10 @ 9:27PM

No, PurpleJackass, Thank Christ the Lord for the freedoms the Founders fought for.

The so-called "enlightenment" came from the father of lies, Satan.

carnot| 7.21.10 @ 9:28PM

how true...why modern Liberals never cease celebrating their love for natural rights theory....

nice try though.....

Purpleguy| 7.22.10 @ 9:58PM

So you are advocating returning to the 13th - 15th century? That sounds eerily like the Islamofascist, Osama bin Laden... doesn't it?

carnot| 7.22.10 @ 2:22PM

yes....biometrics and tokens work so much better when one is wearing MOP gear! sarcasm aside....and recognizing that the password adminstrative difficulties you speak of are accurate....

- transtion is happening

- there are costs associated with every system including developing new interfaces and training operators/maintainers

- Federated solutions really aren't there yet (in the sense of deployment)

politics is only one dimension. there are people INSIDE government who understand the issues you are talking to....but it's more complex than finding a less onerous algorithm or enigmatic adminstrative structure

PolishKnight| 7.21.10 @ 10:05AM

It's important to remember that one of the biggest sections of the bill is the creation of a whole new set of racist and sexist quotas and set asides. Conservatives should not give the left a free pass on their racist agenda of buying votes from non-whites and women via racial and sexist entitlements.

Marek| 7.21.10 @ 11:34AM

I represent a number of non-depository lenders, such as finance companies and retailers that offer their own installment payment accounts. These entities are highly regulated and licensed at the state level. They are audited by those regulators and will lose their right to do business if they violate the law. This blatant power grab will allow the new Consumer Financial Protection Agency to pre-empt all those laws and make rules based on its own discretion. All it has to do is deem a practice "abusive" and they can outlaw it. No where is "abusive" defined. How do you operate a business with that sword hanging over your head? Our consumer finance system works extremely well- blue collar and middle class people use it to buy furniture, autos, school supplies, and for emergencies. If our masters in Washington (who know nothing about this business or any other for that matter) impose arbitrary rules that make it impossible to make a profit, these lenders will close up shop. The consumer will be left with unlicensed lenders who will not follow Truth in Lending, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and on and on. More likely they will follow the Law of Don Corleone or a similar process. This is an enormous power grab by the Ruling Class. They took GM, health care, all student loans and now they have the consumer economy- oh did I tell you one of the things the new agency wants is reports on every loan so THEY can make sure it is "properly" underwritten even though it is not their money at stake. My lenders didn't cause the recession and don't make loans they don't think will be repaid. It's a sad day for America- Thanks to the 3 RINOs that made this possible

Grzmlyk| 7.21.10 @ 11:41AM

A very sad day for America.

As I say, stick a fork in us - we're done.

This is why Rush Limbaugh hoped Obama would fail, but Obama has succeeded. Which means he's turned America, in 18 months, into another third-world klepotocracy and steered us into a death spiral.

And still most of my friends are quaking with orgasmic joy over what Obama hath wrought.

For the life of me, I don't understand why so many Americans do a gleeful jig as they walk toward the guillotine.

You'd think at least they'd care about their children; but they're the ones placing their kids' necks in the path of the blades.

Astonishing, depressing, disheartening.

John II| 7.21.10 @ 12:24PM

That reminds me: whatever became of the trollster who went by the nom de idiot "Obamarules"? Did he/she/it get religion, or just change his/her/its name to, say, Purpleguy?

The late Malcolm Muggeridge spoke frequently of the "liberal death wish," an accurate enough term alluding to the nihilism and despair that lurk beneath the Left's projects. But the term begs the question of the ontology of it all. Why do so many people who believe in nothing seem hellbent on forcing their emptiness on the rest of us?

Grzmlyk| 7.21.10 @ 12:52PM

Because, John, in my opinion - and VTWIT above is a perfect example - they have a dual purpose in life: one whose road ends in nihilism and destruction, and another that manifests itself in insatiable need to control other people; they cannot stand being part of the rabble, so they strive mightily to subjugate a class of people beneath them.

That is, in my mind, the dominant trait of the liberal. It's why they always cream their jeans over totalitarian dictators. The left loved Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Mao, Pol Pot, Ortega, Castro, Chavez, etc. It never fails; show me a tyrant in a uniform lording it over his subject peoples and I'll show you a gaggle of giggling bobby soxer liberals squealing with delight.

Because although the fools never seem to trace the road of Marxism to the end of the map - suicide - what they really get off on is giving their lives meaning by forcing YOU to bend to THEIR will. That is rapture for a liberal.

Obama's a great example - he doesn't care that the "change" he's delivering is destructive; no, what matters to him is OBAMA. Now little Barry is a big man because he's had an impact. And we all know that destroying is easy; any fool can destroy a beautful structure. But how many can design and build one? that's much harder; these sociopaths take the path of least resistance in their desire to have an IMPACT that gives their pathetic lives meaning.

It never ceases to amaze me how thoroughly liberalism is the exact opposite of what it claims to be; and yet the fools like VTWIT - well, I'm guessing he's a beneficiary of government lucre - never recognize it.

God has a very dark sense of humor.

Ken (Old Texican)| 7.21.10 @ 1:52PM

GRZ
Please see my "unsheathing" above in reply to you.
God bless

John II| 7.21.10 @ 1:56PM

Twitty and Purp and the late Obamarules sound more like the beneficiaries of government education. The whole damn system needs to be privatized at least up to the 12th grade, with the teaching profession truly professionalized (i.e., performance-based salaries and no unions) and the state's role restricted to providing vouchers, enforcing sensible truancy laws, and overseeing third-party legal venues for resolving disputes among private parties (between good teachers and far fewer administrators, for example).

Well, we all have our fantasies.

Grzmlyk| 7.21.10 @ 2:43PM

If we privatized education, that would go a very long way toward correcting our sick, suicidal culture with a single stroke.

Throw in putting the brakes on entitlements and a non-punitive, non-redistributionist tax structure and America would be a beacon once again.

But of course that's not what Obama and his legions of keystone communists want. They want to smash this country into bits.

And the Good Liberals who have been seduced by the false consciousness look at that shards of our country and think that, somehow, Humpty Dumpty is more valuable as a shattered entity.

It's very easy to tear at our own flesh out of a sense of moral vanity and "white guilt." Once China comes knocking at the door to evict us, and Islam comes to behead us, these fools are going to miss old Humpty.

Purpleguy| 7.21.10 @ 9:34PM

Sorry to bust your bubble, Chuckles - but all the dictators you mentioned jailed, tortured or killed the educated and elites (in other words, the liberals) in their societies. The purveyed to the macho, tough types some might call troglodytes who were violent and had no problem taking up arms for their dear leader - much as y'all talk about revolution and toting your guns. Liberals were nowhere to be found around Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini or Mao - saying it doesn't make it so. Who do you think the brownshirts were like or the SS or Gestapo today? Aryan Nation, Skinheads and the like - and you think they are liberals? Please - you need to wash your brain if you believe that.

Now, if you want to say liberals are namby, pamby bleeding hearts that love everyone you'd be wrong also... but I'm sure you believe that too.

So how does it feel to know you are more like the SS than the Founders of our Country?

carnot| 7.22.10 @ 2:43PM

fascinating series of exchanges. not sure your social psychology is on the mark...but it's close. I grew up in the DC/MD area, in an academic family, attending HS in the wealthier burbs, and "mixing" with the personality types that in lrge emasure fill out the ranks of the liberal left. I too have been perplexed by their behaviors. Here are some random observations:

- most, not all, tend to their own personnel welfare/security (and their kids') FIRST...before turning to you and me and lecturing what is best for us to do

- there is a barely concealed violence to many of these people; they actively HATE and wish inhuman ends for those who do not acquiesce to their views on ends and means. anyone who frequents Liberal blogs or has Liberal friends (not all mind you) knows this is a cultural attribute of this crowd. the same, of course, happens on the right. the interesting thing is that these appetities are nearly absent among the better educated on the right - not so the Left.

- these folks universally judge on the basis of intentions...not outcomes

- I know some of the leading lights (present and past) in the Liberal community. many more than you might think are visiting shrinks and suffer drug issues...symptoms of deeper fissures in their psyches...their ability to deal with environment, context.....OTHER PEOPLE

- you are right about the will to power. it truky is astounding

- they aren't complete people - they very often (again...not all) seek confirmation, approval, understanding in the soothing words of others. they can't locate themselves with any real purpose and meaning. they acquire significance, in this personal void, by destroying others.

- finally, acknowledging the obvious, many...many...many...are very good, compassionate people. that said, these folks find personal solace in the notion that they are righteous in their goals ....but aren't too steeped in the consequences or costs of the methods adopted by the political expression of their hopes.

there's a whole lot more. I am most struck generally by the violence of these people and their willingness to blind themselves to the consequences of their methods through unfettered committment to the ends.

Purpleguy| 7.22.10 @ 9:53PM

Wow, something of substance at last ! I submit you describe what most of would consider the fringe on the left (yep, we have 'em, just like you do on the right). But mainstream liberals and progressive do not fit your negative description of them.
I might also say that you don't see liberals or progressives editing video tapes to falsely accuse Acorn members in a sting, display the same 5 seconds of tape over and over to portray the "new " Black Panthers, or the latest snarky display over Ms Sherrod, USDA and NAACP. You don't see liberals and progressives brandishing weapons at rallies or constantly talking about them as you do here ... so I would dispute your violent attitude you ascribe to liberals and progressives. There may be a few, but not what you alude to.
And, I can assure you, I neither require or desire anyone's approval for my actions. I am secure in what I know and understand the depth of what I don't know. I'm still trying to figure out what the right really thinks, and why they fall for propaganda that seems to fit what they want to hear, even when confronted by obvious refuting evidence. I still don't quite understand what or why the German people fell for that propaganda.

carnot| 7.23.10 @ 10:59PM

.....JOURNOLIST.......

Purpleguy| 7.21.10 @ 9:27PM

You're as wrong about the left as you can be, that is why you cannot see. Fixed News, Rush Loudmouth, Glenny - they all feed you 1/2 truths and sometimes lies, and you don't see it.

carnot| 7.21.10 @ 9:29PM

unlike you...of course....exemplar of the Left that you are.

Purpleguy| 7.21.10 @ 9:36PM

I just seem left to you, because you are so extreme right, the center is the left to you .... watch out, if you go any further to the right you're going to bump into the real left ...

carnot| 7.22.10 @ 9:41AM

not really. what you really strike me as is thoroughly shallow and overmatched in your thinking, organizational and verbal skills.

I love hassling you...but like most others on this blog..I don't take you very seriously. Frankly...you just aren't all that bright!!!!

Purpleguy| 7.22.10 @ 9:42PM

You really never have much to say of any substance do you ? I try to have a debate, but it's useless with those have no ammunition except name calling and ad hominem attacks.

carnot| 7.23.10 @ 11:03PM

you flatter yourself Mr Specious!

All you do is splatter invective across these cyberpages, align random "facts" without ever connecting the dots...assume what you don't know.

most of all....unlike...say....John II.....it's easy to see that you aren't all that clever...or well educated.

Purpleguy| 7.22.10 @ 9:56PM

It's simple to describe the liberal - we see injustices and want to right them. Not by picking up arms for revolution, but using the rule of law to correct the injustice in society. After all, we are a nation of laws, not of men. When men take up arms to get what they want, the destroy the very foundation of what they profess to defend. Sound like anyone you know on this site?

Nick| 7.23.10 @ 12:37AM

It's even easier to pick out a liberal in a crowd.

Just look for the lobotomy scar.

carnot| 7.23.10 @ 11:04PM

rule of law? bahahahahahaha. I suppose that is marginally correct if one makes up the laws as he/she moves along.

Purpleguy| 7.21.10 @ 9:25PM

Because finally, the government has put reins on the fat cats, connected and wealthy and reached down to the help the little guy who is at all their mercy wanting to grab everything the little guy has - that's why... You should remove the log in your eye, or you will never see.

carnot| 7.21.10 @ 9:30PM

blindered nitwit.....the fat cats are the government.

Purpleguy| 7.21.10 @ 9:37PM

Now that's a laugh, if it wasn't so sad in it's preposterousness - How many billionaires do you know in the government - anywhere?

John II| 7.21.10 @ 9:47PM

You've got a point, Purp. To my knowledge, there are no billionaires in government. But there ARE a hell of a lot of millionaires, who've never produced a single widget or a single attractive service in all their born days.

carnot| 7.22.10 @ 9:47AM

you can't be this dense...can you?

the biggest budget in the universe is.....GOVERNMENT!!!! the politicians are the fat cats running the debt ponzi schemes.

sheesh...you are so far gone in your own rhetoric you can't see the proverbial debt forest for the regulatory trees.

Purpleguy| 7.22.10 @ 9:39PM

Don't you find it amazing how the debts under Ronald Reagan, HW Bush and GW Bush in the last 30 years (Clinton had surpluses 1/2 the time) are completely ignored and only NOW you're worried about debt? Really? And you want to be taken seriously?

Have you never heard of a hedge fund manager? Or a Wall Street stockbroker? And you think the government workers are fat cats? are you high?

Nick| 7.23.10 @ 12:28AM

"(Clinton had surpluses 1/2 the time)"

A complete, unadulterated lie.

The national debt went up for every one of Bubba the pervert's budgets. He used Enron accounting tricks and the Socialist Security surplus to cover his pasty white backside.

Ms Jones| 7.22.10 @ 2:51PM

The government helps the "little guy" stay dependent on Big Government. Those "fat cats" you despise create jobs, create wealth and support a lot of charity. The Ken Lays and Bernard Madoffs of the world are the exception, not the rule.

Bruce | 7.21.10 @ 12:04PM

Never forgetting something my Daddy told me many years ago when I became eligible to vote for the first time and bemoaned the state of our Republic ... "Son - never underestimate the stupidity of the American voter." Of the many things he taught me, that one stands out to this day as axiomatic.

Petronius| 7.21.10 @ 12:20PM

People care not how heavily their wallets are taxed, so long as their minds are not. My advice to these lemmings is to hold on to their binkies. Mommy government is too busy taking what little Freedom we still have to pick them up and hand them back.

Oldefarte| 7.21.10 @ 1:31PM

Once again, this excellent editorial points out various instances where some supposedly conservative congressmen did not vote/act they way they're supposed to. This is universally the reason why the November elections are extremely important. Most of these conservative and moderate political representatives are not representing the public constituents in their home states, but rather the wishes of those of their national party leadership. When a Nebraska, Louisiana or Arkansas congressperson votes against the wishes of their respective home state citizens, something is definately out of kiltler/wrong and needs serious correction. These congresspersons, once elected, leave their state and go to Washington DC, where they become indoctrinated/brainwashed by not only their national leadership but the liberalism of the DC area in general. They simply forget who they should represent, and their homestate constituents are usually too busy in their daily lives to pay much attention. Now with the economy in the toilet thanks to the liberal extremists running our country, the tea party movement has exploded. It's one thing to congregate and voice opposition, but quite another to go to the polls at election time and VOTE. It's not WORDS that matter, but ACTIONS, and hopefully American taxpayer-voters will take proper action in November forward!!!!!!!!!!

Ms Jones| 7.22.10 @ 2:56PM

Just remember that a Republican, once sworn into office, is virtually indistinguishable from a Democrat. It used to be true that, to vote for a third-party candidate was like voting for the enemy. I do not believe this will be true come November--too many people are furious with the status quo, two party system. I recommend that those of us despairing over the death of our Constitutional Republic seriously consider and financially support viable independent candidates.

jack| 7.21.10 @ 1:41PM

Subsidizing US industries and bail outs must be outlawed. The US tax system must be scrapped for a flat tax on everyone with no deductions for anyone or any company. Thats the only way to stop grifters like Barney and Dodd. This new bill simply add a whole new layer of regs that government insiders can exact pay offs and bribes for.

Purpleguy| 7.21.10 @ 9:38PM

They saved your ass you idiot.

John II| 7.21.10 @ 9:50PM

You need a comma after "ass," Purp, to secure your vocative. Your sputtering is starting to show.

Purpleguy| 7.22.10 @ 9:16PM

Duh, okay, Miss Grammarpus

carnot| 7.22.10 @ 9:49AM

no they didn't...they added millions to the unemployment rolls.

Purpleguy| 7.22.10 @ 9:34PM

I'm sorry, but the facts don't agree with you. Check this link and you can figure it out for yourself, because you are wrong, of course. http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf

From 12/2007 when the Great Recession started until September 2008, we were losing up to 200,000/jobs per month. Then in September 2008, 4-500,000 jobs per month were lost, until we reached November-Dec-Jan-Feb 2009 we lost approx 750,000 jobs/month.
Now President Obama was sworn in Jan 20th, 2009. Since right after his swearing in we have lost fewer and fewer jobs each month, until Dec 2009 where we started gaining jobs.

I'm sorry for you if you can't read a simple graph and make sense of it, but you are simply wrong. The millions of jobs were lost by GW Bush and GW Bush SIGNED the TARP ... so place your fire at the right target (no pun intended).
Can you finally put the lies to bed ...?

Stan Redmond| 7.21.10 @ 2:14PM

There is only one thing left for complete control of the US economy. CAP AND TRADE!!! Up on the floor schedule next no doubt. Medical, Financial, and Energy and that's it. No more America as it was founded and as we've known. An America controlled by corrupt poiticians who have no concern for American citizens who have no recourse. Once these three laws work their way in to society Congress can then finish off the bill of rights. My lifetime will not see any administration untangle these monstrosities. It will take a collosal failure of the economy, like Greece, and a bloody recovery before a stupid citizenry (that votes for clowns like Obama) even begins to wake up.

Disgusting that Lohan's jail sentence is front page news when America just took a HUGE step toward fascism.

Stan Redmond| 7.21.10 @ 2:14PM

There is only one thing left for complete control of the US economy. CAP AND TRADE!!! Up on the floor schedule next no doubt. Medical, Financial, and Energy and that's it. No more America as it was founded and as we've known. An America controlled by corrupt poiticians who have no concern for American citizens who have no recourse. Once these three laws work their way in to society Congress can then finish off the bill of rights. My lifetime will not see any administration untangle these monstrosities. It will take a collosal failure of the economy, like Greece, and a bloody recovery before a stupid citizenry (that votes for clowns like Obama) even begins to wake up.

Disgusting that Lohan's jail sentence is front page news when America just took a HUGE step toward fascism.

Purpleguy| 7.21.10 @ 9:41PM

Wrong, Chuckie - we just put brakes on the real villains - Corporations, Multi-nationals in particular. I'm not sure it went far enough, but it the Republicans had actually supported America instead of their campaign donors it might have been even stronger. They missed a chance to be on the right side of history - again. Independents are not missing any of it either.

John II| 7.21.10 @ 9:52PM

The term "history" in the sense you're using it is an instance of the logical fallacy of hypostatization, Purp. You need to secure your logic as well as your grammar in order not to sound like a fool.

Always here to help.

carnot| 7.22.10 @ 9:51AM

finally..others are catching on how this chap spews conclusions in every direction without the faintest effort at cogent argument.

for the record...his new moniker: MR SPECIOUS.

Purpleguy| 7.22.10 @ 9:14PM

Not exactly a rousing rebuttal of my comments, is it? I thought you might have something more substantial to say, but alas, when you have no argument, you have nothing but baffleopia to intercourse with.

RetiredVet| 7.21.10 @ 2:19PM

By such instruments does the black market rise.

Ken (Old Texican)| 7.21.10 @ 2:51PM

Folks,
Please see my reply to GRZ above.

I unsheathed the "magic wand".

ramon hinojosa| 7.21.10 @ 2:59PM

what do really expect from these so high and mighty elected official with demogod attitude. they dont really care what happens to the people who voted them into office. they walk around with a dingle berry under thier nose thinking they know what is better for us.yea.

Ken (Old Texican)| 7.21.10 @ 3:15PM

ALL CHRISTIANS...

YOU GOTTA' GO HERE...AND LISTEN TO THE WHOLE DARNED THING!

http://www.colsoncenter.org/th.....uck-colson

God bless

JP| 7.21.10 @ 4:07PM

The Fin Reform Bill also allows bondholders to sue the major credit agencies if thier investments go bad. Just this morning I heard the three major credit rating agencies are begging financial clients NOT to use thier rating systems until they can "reform" how they do business. This can only mean that the vast majority of businesses will recieve low than normal ratings, which inturn will stifle investment. If investors cannot get the right info, they simply won't invest (well they will invest; just not with US firms).

The laws of unintended consequences are already hitting home.

Lisa| 7.21.10 @ 5:18PM

More taxes, more debt, more spending, more unconstitutional powergrabs, more government takeovers, more so-called "czars" that don't have to answer to the people, and - like the rotten cherry on top - a good old-fashioned shakedown of a private corporation to the tune of $20 billion! Yep, this is the "hope and change" that we have been waiting for!

Purpleguy| 7.21.10 @ 9:45PM

I wouldn't characterize them that way, but, yes, please, give me more - Energy policy and promoting green innovation, comprehensive immigration, common sense deep water drilling policy please. Bad actors need to be regulated, period.

John II| 7.21.10 @ 9:55PM

"Bad actors need to be regulated, period."

But we troglodytes would never think of regulating you, Purp. You need to make finer distinctions, so that you don't sound like a fool.

Free help always available.

carnot| 7.22.10 @ 9:54AM

dang! you're on a roll in this thread.

but, you must concede, rather like hunting a target that is lashed to a tree.

George S| 7.21.10 @ 5:39PM

Your taking aim at the bill without hitting the most damaging aspect of the legislation: the Consumer "Protection" Agency. This new government monstrosity will now get into the aspect of all credit transactions. Say you own a piano store. Not everyone can walk in and plunk down five, ten, twenty grand on a new instrument. So you hook up with a bank and so you can offer, say, no money down financing, or zero APR for 6 months, or whatever. That's between you and the bank. Now, the new Agency will get involved. If it only means an extra layer of paperwork, well, that's life and everyone can adjust. But...

... what if the government dictates from on high that they are 'concerned' that not enough minorities are learning the piano. Will the new agency force your lender to set aside money -- that may never be paid back -- to offer to lower income prospective Liberaces? Remember, you need a vehicle to offer your customers financing or you may not be able to stay in business and the banks need to lend money to do likewise. This is a cost that impacts all of us. Same thing applies to car dealers -- anyone who can write a check or pays cash instead of borrowing or leasing is looked upon as either a drug dealer or a tax cheat. Car dealers live off the credit points. What if the new Agency shows similar concerns that not enough low incomers can afford a new car because they have bad credit. Guess who winds up fixing THAT problem?

Now if this all sounds eerily similar to the Community Reinvestment Act -- the Act that had a lot to do with what got us into this mess -- then how is that reform? Seem that ACORN, Obama, Frank and Dodd just gave the statists the keys to economy.

Purpleguy| 7.21.10 @ 9:49PM

Wrong, oh wise one - the credit rating agency will give you a FICO score and if you don't pass high enough, you won't get any credit. That's the middleman.
Another unfounded fear that y'all love to spread like peanut butter. Don't you get tired of living in a world where you're afraid of everything?
You knew this President was going to do SOMETHING different than the last one... and you're surprised. Live it, love it, or leave it.

John II| 7.21.10 @ 9:59PM

"Live it, love it, or leave it." Ah, but there are further alternatives, Purp. Perhaps you'll still be around to discuss them after November 2.

By the way, you're not the same Purp who used to go by the nom de internet "Obamarules," are you?

carnot| 7.22.10 @ 9:56AM

and you know the forces are marshalling to undo what this President has "done". which isn't much. he has never displayed much in the way of legislative skills. he has delegated the actual details to Congress.

Purpleguy| 7.23.10 @ 7:35PM

In case you were unaware, go read Article 1 of the Constitution and tell us what the first paragraph says... after you've learned something then come back to the adults.

Tim*| 7.21.10 @ 6:18PM

The same culprits who failed to carry out their regulator duties and regulate are now writing regulations .

This Is Insanity Folks .

The inmates are running the insane asylum .

Ken (Old Texican)| 7.21.10 @ 7:56PM

Tim*
So what in the hell are YOU going to do about it?

Purpleguy| 7.21.10 @ 9:51PM

Incorrect - those who failed to carry out their duties where doing what their Republican masters wanted them to do... I don't think all the inmates are inside yet - one seems to have escaped, Timmy.

Tim*| 7.21.10 @ 9:57PM

Hey, It's Little Joe Bite Me !

Pat Fields | 7.21.10 @ 7:33PM

I was just reading this fascinating bit of analysis http://news.goldseek.com/Golde.....742400.php regarding the surplus of T-Bonds issued over the past two years beyond the deficits of the government by ... 1.5 Trillion ... in aggregate!

Now it was said that ... "The sack of these United States by the Fed is the greatest crime in history.” --Louis McFadden.

Ol' Lou obviously didn't anticipate how much greater crimes could be committed through the Fed by a thoroughly criminalized Congress.

Nate| 7.21.10 @ 8:31PM

Conservatives have taken a shine to berating the length of bills in Congress. The health care bill's page length was breathlessly reported by conservatives, as if such length made a prima facie case against it. Now the same panting and braying is commencing over the financial reform bill.

Look, folks.

Bills that pass through Congress are often very long. Legislation that governs the wealthiest, most powerful country that ever lived cannot be carried out on Sarah Palin's facebook page. It does require lengthy bills.

But here's the thing:

In most European democracies, and in Canada, bills like this are often very SHORT. Canada's bill that socialized health care was less than 50 pages long. But that's because these countries empower bureaucracies much more than we do. Our bills are so long precisely because representatives of the people have a say in nearly every jot and tittle of the legislation. The length is one of the virtues of our system, even though it makes the bill's difficult to understand and read for the average person.

Nick| 7.21.10 @ 8:50PM

Nate the dazi,

Bills get written by the special interests pushing the paticular legislation.

John Conyers admitted that he couldn't read the O'BamaCare legislation, let alone WRITE it.

Purpleguy| 7.21.10 @ 9:55PM

Very true ! It's common sense to any student of government or American history. Unfortunately, your very true words don't match most of the belief systems on this site. They refuse to see the real truth, but are more than willing to believe the worst presented by Fixed News and the like. They really think they love America, but they complain and tear down the very institutions that made America, and provided the civilization they live in - it's really odd they don't see it.

John II| 7.21.10 @ 10:04PM

I've read the relevant bills, Purp. Boy, was THAT a pain. They do indeed suck, so to speak.

But it's not so odd that YOU don't see it.

Free counseling always available to demented Lefties.

Purpleguy| 7.22.10 @ 5:19PM

Congressional Bills are destined to be large, complex in a democracy, to account for all the nuances and types of people and businesses it must account for in our country.

We've seen what a 3 page TARP program bill wrought. How'd that work out for us?

Nick| 7.22.10 @ 6:49PM

O'Bama pushed, and voted, for TARP, Einstein. He also voted for the bailouts.

In January, 2009, days before he was sworn in, President-elect Dither worked the phones of senators to get the other half of TARP funds released, $350 billion. He only got 52 votes out of his 60 democrat-seat senate.

How soon you bleeding heart liberals forget.

We are a Republic, by the way.

carnot| 7.22.10 @ 11:56AM

we'll sidestep the issue tha they are so long because there are so many riders unrelated to the scope of the bill.....especially these recent bills that are really targeting social agendas way beyond reducing health care costs or policing Wall Street malfeasance.

Jim| 7.21.10 @ 8:57PM

Wow. Great article. Thank you sir.

I'm beginning to think the first federal reform must be the 17th amendment.

The financial reform bill's effects could be worse than Obamacare.

Had enough yet?

WhiskeyJim| 7.21.10 @ 9:04PM

@Nate

Consider that at least with smaller bills, bureaucracies have a choice how to economize production and delivery. Congress NEVER reviews its pronouncements from Mount Olympus.

Never mind they were never gifted with the authority to make the bill in the first place. There is a simple reason for this beyond the desire for smaller government; federal republic's are not designed or structured to manage such things. It is impossible.

Tim*| 7.21.10 @ 9:06PM

First ,We Tea Party Rebels finance selected campaigns & seat Our Tea Party Candidates into Congress on November 2nd.

Second , We hope Non-Tea Party Republicans can scrounge up enough Conservative Candidates to Defang Democrat Libs in Congress .while not handing the ball off to CINO Republicans.

Third ,We keep our own counsel and not loose cannon threaten a violent gun rebellion in public.

Purpleguy| 7.21.10 @ 9:57PM

Go with Sharron, Sarah and Rand .. yea!

Tim*| 7.21.10 @ 10:05PM

The Court Fool , Purple Guy Has Arrived .

Entertain Us Buffoon .

Purpleguy| 7.22.10 @ 4:20PM

Can count on you for kind words and stimulating debate .. yep, sure can.

(Uncle) Tom in Michigan| 7.21.10 @ 10:00PM

It is becoming more and more apparent the problem with this country is career politicians.

I've had it with the Republicans (I've loathed the Democrats for decades). They are worthless, caring only for their own comfort (Thus, they are slothful, guilty of amortal sin equal to that of the Democrats - greed).

"A plague a' both your houses! " You g----n people have ruined the country.

David| 7.22.10 @ 1:19PM

Ken, thanks for the link to Chuck Colson.

The bills that have been passed since Bam Bam took office are so huge they have not been read and cannot be understood by our lawmakers. They are so complicated they simply cannot be understood.

So, who is going to be interpreting what the new laws mean. That's right, the courts at all levels. There is going to be so much litigation involving the new bills. Every little provision or word or term is going to be challenged in lawsuits. These recent bills are the leftists triumph in remaking American society via the courts rather than by our elected leaders. If the legislators have already admitted on television that they don't know what's in the bills and don't understand them, the courts will not even have to look to the INTENT of legislators. They will be free to make every single word mean whatever they FEEL it should mean.

Folks, it is coming. We are in real trouble unless those monstrous bills are repealed BEFORE the courts start getting involved. Once the courts declare the bills are legitimate, there is no going back. The courts will be forever running our lives from cradle to grave and womb to tomb.

NJK| 7.22.10 @ 4:51PM

Going along with the fraudulent "stimulus," and saddling generations yet to be born, was not enough for Collins, and Snow. They have to keep doing more, and more damage. And Scott Brown, has turned into a chump.

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