Reagan's Political Child?

Could there have been a more stunning announcement for Vice President than John McCain's choice? It was not the short list of Lieberman, Romney, or Paulente, but Alaska's Governor, the all-American girl Sarah Palin that struck Americans.

Sarah Palin is the attractive, energetic, and graceful woman whose 'gun-totin', hockey-playing (Karl Rove), mother of five whose conservative convictions gave meteoric rise to the improbable political prominence is the stuff of legend:

Average hockey mom, turned PTA mom-elected city council representaive-elected Walicia Mayor---

Appointed to the Alaska commission of Oil & Gas, Sarah Palin found corruption and reported it to the Governor. The Governor did nothing. She resigned in protest-not a good career move. Then, the former Mayor of 9,000 people filed and ran for Lieutenant governor. She lost. She then filed and ran against the empowered governor of the Republican primary.

She took on the GOP party machine. She fought corruption, waste, and fraud. The people believed her. She ousted the Governor of her own party in a primary election. She then beat the Democratic nominee, assumed office, and created the legend that has only just begun to grow.

How proud would the conservative Coolidge, the unheralded hero of limited government be, to have the corruption-busting woman on his ticket?

What about our beloved "Ike" in 1952 who entered the presidency attempting to reel in federal spending? No doubt the war hero tried. But Washington's dazzling complexities and leaching bureacracies from Treasury, the Fed, the Senate, and Capitol Hill with the heresy of Keynsian economics in vogue overwhelmed the administration's good intentions. Would Sarah Palin have made a difference as Eisenhower's Vice President?

How about the much maligned Warren Harding? Was it not Harding who appointed Charles Dawes as special counsel reporting directly to the President about finding and shuting down waste, fraud, and corruption in the early 1920's? A billion dollars later in savings of the people's money compelled Coolidge in 1924 to appoint Dawes as Vice President. Wouldn't Harding have been impressed with the beauty queen known as Sarah the Barracuda's corruption-busting resume' from Alaska?

America's Goliaths, Eisenhower and Reagan, have had their shot at eliminating fraud, waste, and corruption of federal government. Yet, even immortals such as these had an uncompliant Congress to contend with.

Indeed, even the 1824 Andrew Jackson who was the last president to eliminate America's national debt, just might have appreciated the company of Sarah Palin when dealing with those big-government Henry Clay and John Calhoun types.


So where are these common-sense conservatives today? They are few a far between. Peter, King, Jeff Flake, John Cornyn, etc...are drowned out by avarice officials placing their careers above country.

Dinasour conservatives such as Robert Taft, Barry Goldwater, and Ronald Reagan who promised more liberty and less government over the people, have found a beauty queen contestant to carry the fight for the people. In the image of 20th century conservative Republicanism, Sarah Palin, has arrived with resume' in hand:

First acts upon entering Alaska's Gubernatorial office:

• eliminate governor chauffer service telling employees that they can drive their own cars
• fire the governor's chef stating that "my children can make their own sandwiches"
• send $1200 of Alaskan surpluses to each resident of Alaska
• pursue and prosecute corrupt officials, including Ted Stevens, Republican Senator under investigation
• fight to dispense billions of dollars of oil to Americans paying $4.00 per gallon at the pumps
• veto spending bills equalling half a billion dollars as governor
• leading Alaska to a state budget surplus

Is it any wonder that the anti- "Pork & Barrrel" maverick, Senator McCain, may have met his political soul mate? Reagan, Eisenhower, Coolidge, and Harding would have thought so. Palin's campaign in runing for Mayor of little ole' Wasila was simple: "Eliminate wasteful spending and cut taxes for the people".

Prosecuting life-long politicians in the Alaskan "good old boy network" is dangerous to life, limb, and reputation. This mother of 5 children employed the grit and tenacity to do what politicians tremble at doing. She embarked on a path to destroy the political lives of those stealing from the people of Alaska. Do what is right said she, and end bribery, corruption, and theft from the people of Alaska.

What is the meaning of Palin now who is catapulted onto the national stage?

Palin, as a beginning crusader in Washington, will not stop. She can't. Its embedded in her DNA. Her passion for right and the common good is much like the demands of well-respected RFK 40 years ago, who received a bullet in the head while on the hunt to destroy injustice and wrongdoing. To fellow conservatives like Peter King, Ron Paul, Jeff Flake, etc...Palin's appointment is a breath of fresh air. To the rest of Capitol Hill's legislators, look out!

If Sarah, the barracuda, will chase down and prosecute evil in her own "good old boy" Republican party in Alaska, will there be mercy for any Republican or Democrat in Washington? Knees are shaking in Washington, elephants and donkeys alike, as they should be.

Israel had her Deborah. In a time when "Everyone did what was rigth in their own eyes", Deborah stood risking life and limb for country. She stood where men feared to tread. She led a fight in her day that most would not. Today she is called "Hero". She is a marvel.


Perhaps a bit less astounding than Joan of Arc, the unsuspecting and inspiring liberator of France from the grip of English conquest in 1429. Nonetheless, Sarah Palin has stormed onto the American stage with a record of rewriting Alaskan ethics and politics.

Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and all the big-time earmark representatives will see business no longer as usual. In our making, a legend is sprouting. She's the all-American girl whose legend has just begun to grow. Reagan's political disciples on Capitol Hill have become silenced lambs since the glory days of "Contract with America".

While the people's representatives have looted the treasury like Wild Bill Hickock, Teddy Roosevelt's types are riding into town for a showdown. Its McCain and Palin. Teddy Roosevelt charged San Juan Hill leading the famed Rough Riders into war in 1898. Washington will soon be under siege with a new Roosevelt-type ticket that will fight earmark and pork spending.

History does not make great men. Great men make history. The Vice Presidential candidate for the Republican party with her counterpart may be the prelude to the stuff of legends.

Barak Obama's Invesco Speech to America

With 85,000 people packing the capacious Field of Invesco in Denver to embrace "a new kind of politics" promised by Senator Barak Obama, the spectacular evening unfolded. Forty-five years this night it was Dr. Martin Luther King's message: "I have a dream" speech that reverberated across America.

Dr. King's message was a politics of love...peace....equality...where "men are judged by the content of their character; not the color of their skin."

As tears streamed down the faces of millions of onlooking Americans, Senator Obama fulfilled a partial dream. Senator Obama shared his "I have a dream" moment with all of us.

It was not merely politics that tugged hearts of those in the stadium and across our land. It was cultural change and acceptance. The campaign itself, is largely more about cultural awareness and a "personal discovery journey", than politics for many that will vote for the Senator. Senator Obama, now commands the full respect and allegiance of millions of Americans. He has been chosen to lead the Democratic Party in 2008.

In an evening rarely matched in American politics, the dichotomy of the evening oscillated between politics and historical transition into a new age of colorblind majority politics. White Americans trusting a black American for Commander-in-Chief surprises many, though it shouldn't. And there stood Senator Obama orating to the cheers of his followers.

Color matters less today. Ideas and content of character matters more. "A more perfect union today than yesterday" rings even more true today. Tomorrow's America will be more perfect than even today... Americans are excited. Americans are hopeful...and rightfully so.

Did the speech work?

It worked to the extent that politics is put aside. Senator Obama's improbable journey is summed up by Cicero's words to "Live as brave men; and if fortune is adverse, front its blows with brave hearts".
Successful or not in this campaign for the Presidency, Senator Obama has liberated millions of Americans to believe that this is their America and their dream as well. The Senator has fought to go where racial politics has prohibited entrance.

"Separate but equal" and the Jim Crow Laws are but dumped into American trash cans of history.

What Dr. King forty five years ago this night saw in his vision of America, is a promise fulfilled even more than many could imagine.

And the politics of the speech?

Promises littered the Senator's speech. Humphrey, Gore, and Kerry could have trotted out the same liberal mantra....Government must do more. Humphrey promised $1,000 free for every American. Gore promised lock boxes and tight Washington control over social security. Kerry promised tax hikes against the wealthy. And how is Senator Obama's policy proposals any different? Its not.

After all, the average workers need help. Roads need rebuilding. Infrastructure is crumbling. Incomes are falling. What the people can't do for themselves, government must do for them...more money for education...free college tuition...universal health care coverage...higher pay for teachers...

"Dire straights" might describe what the Senator's remarks feel like about the America we have all enjoyed.

In addition, didn't the Senator promise that Uncle Sam will play "we are our brother's keeper" role? The founding fathers wanted nothing of this role. King George III proved why. But, according to Senator Obama, Washington as "our brother's keeper" is the decent thing to do. Washington has the solutions to each American's dream. Hope is on the way?

Change that you can believe in embodies more government, more bureacracy, more policies, more money, etc... FDR and LBJ could have written the lines Senator Obama uses. The rich have had it good. Its the 95% of hard working Americans who must get the tax breaks. Corporate "fat cats" have lined their pockets enough. They need to have their taxes hiked.

Did the speech unify Democrats? No more than before the convention.

What mattered tonight was not politics. It was cultural progress. Republican and Democrat could celebrate, "One small step for an American; one giant leap for all Americans."

"The only thing that stands between a man and what he wants from life is often merely the will to try it and the faith to believe that it is possible," states Rich DeVoss, founder of Amway.

Barak Obama has tried. He has climbed the mountain. To the top yet, we do not know. But many little ones will now have giant shoulders upon which to stand to see the "union more perfect" than the yesterday.

American Dollar v. John Law's Doomers & Gloomers

Thomas Jefferson is reputed to have said that, “If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.”

Jim Cook of InvestmentRarities.com, who, in his essay, "Sweeping Towards Destruction", quotes George Washington warning in a letter, "Paper money will…ruin commerce, oppress the honest and open the door to every species of fraud and injustice."

According to Larry Beane in an essay "Dishonest Scales" found at LewRockwell.com, "From 1790-1913, the United States dollar was constant. It was tied to gold and/or silver. A dollar bought pretty much the same thing for Thomas Jefferson as it did for Teddy Roosevelt. A careful look at inflation rates from 1790-1913 shows some minor fluctuation, but for the most part, a 1913 dollar was the same as an 1850 dollar, and was the same as a 1790 dollar."

Didn't the Flying Money of China, John Law's experiment in France, Wiemar Republic, etc...show unequivocally that no matter what century, what empire, or what race of people, the privilege of debauching currency is enjoyed by all.?

Today's gold bugs, doomsayers, and the hide-everything-under-a-mattress crowd are a kind of strange fraternity of "Who's Who?".

They have predicted the hyper-inflation, depression, and demise of America for decades. Of course, the reasons are plenty. Not the least of which include the creation of the 1913 Federal Reserve, FDR's outright theft of the people's gold in 1933, Nixon's abandonment of the gold standard in 1971, imbalanced budget deficits in 31 of the last 34 years, and a national debt measuring in unpayable trillions of dollars--this is all true and real.

The George Soros', Jim Rogers, Peter Shiffs', Ravi Batras', etc...have bet against America...and they yet, may be right, one day.

Fiat currency always has to slouch toward destruction-right? But the dollar in the 20th century does reveal another side to the coin--

Would any American trade the luxuries of 21st century living for a 1200 square foot home, no air-conditioning, few restaurants, and an outhouse for a restroom in the 1920's? 1930's? 1940's? 1950's? etc... I think not. Since WWI and Bretton Woods, the dollar has eroded in value. Yet, we are precariously better off materially than in days of old.

Many doomers pontificate about the impoverished and helpless state American citizens endure. Don't buy it. Consider the following about Americans:

Are not more Americans attending college than ever before? Are not more Americans at the lower end of the socioeconomic scale better off than ever before? Are not more Americans accumulating wealth than ever before? Employment is near record highs. Record numbers of new businesses, sole proprietorships, and corporations are being introduced each year in America. With 86% of all Americans having health insurance, and all Americans having state-of-the-art medicinal treatment at hospitals and clinics every day of the year, can any reasonable person argue that America of yesterday is better off than today? Do not record number of Americans travel and have leisure time like never before? Yet, the dollar is only worth 1/20th of what King Dollar was worth seventy years ago.

So as "King Dollar" slides to peasant status, wealth accumulation, record home ownership, near record employment rates, record entrepreneurial opportunities, unprecedented access to capital, hospitalization, health care, mobility, leisure time, etc...all point to Americans living more like kings, not peasants. Does such living speak of perfection for all citizens? No. Americans do appear to eat more, have more, and live longer than ever before. Wouldn't King George III of England would salivate to have had the standard of living average Americans enjoy today.

Today's poor Americans of all persuasions are living as well as the average American family did in the mid-1960's. Candidly speaking, the least affluent Americans live better than King George III because the dollar has been available for exchange, lending, and investing in a land where private property has allowed the masses of people to accumulate wealth.

So bash Rothschild, Morgan, and Goldman for creating the Fed. Curse Arthur Burns, Greenspan, and Ben Bernanke for the printing of money that thieves us all. Throw rocks at LBJ, liberals, and the wild spending Republicans of the last eight years have engaged in. They have unconscionably spent the next generation's money. You can give me a rock to throw also. But it doesn't change the facts that follow.

More than 97% of American homeowners are not behind on payments or in foreclosure. The bulk of homeowners still have positive equity in their homes. Most Americans believe that tomorrow will be better than today. Most Americans have a choice of careers and jobs that are the envy of the world. Most Americans have their choice of physicians...Steak & Ale or Chili's...Delta or American Airlines...twinkies or ding dongs.

Oh-by the way, did we mention all of this as the dollar is worth only a fraction of its value in previous decades?

Alas-it also should be noted that not a generation of Americans since the Great Depression is worse off than any previous generation, even though traveling to Europe is extremely expensive today. Then again, maybe its high time the Europeans to do their part and come here instead since they receive several weeks of government mandated holidays each year.

If anyone stores their dollar away in a bank vault, they deserve to have trouble years later. The lesson of currency is that paper money is not meant to be a "BFF" (best friends forever) locket that you tuck away holding warm and fuzzy feelings about it for some rainy day. Use it or lose it is the motto.

However, for those who embrace individual liberty, ingenuity, and discipline, which are the high traditions of American values, dollars are tools to be used today to create wealth. Americans use dollars to save, borrow, and invest in ventures of wealth creation even while the currency slouches toward debasement.

Will there be a Panic of 1837, Boom and Bust of 1873, Panic of 1907, Depression of 1929, Crash of 1987, Credit Debt Obligation Crisis of 2008 again? Absolutely. What can we expect with imperfect government officials priming the pump? In spite of the CDO crisis, housing crisis, and market jitters reverberating around the globe, Americans still work, eat, worship, and enjoy life like no Roman, Spaniard, Mongol, or Englishman ever had with dollar sinking and all.

But statistics reveal that Americans under King Dollar rule are by far better off today than in days of our parents or grandparents when speaking of standard of living.

Doomers and gloomers rarely give credit in the modern finance system for things that have gone right.

Had there been no fractional reserve system pumping out more dollars in loans than there was gold or silver toward new ideas, free enterprise, and toward the general engagement of commerce, then general productivity would have suffered. Progress would have stifled. Employments rates would be much higher (see Europe). Wealth creation for the masses wouldn't be available.

The falling dollar since Dexter White and Keynes at Bretton Woods in 1945, has produced the greatest standard of living ever known to mankind.

On the day that the dollar goes the way of the Sterling, we should all toast its greatness. Imperfect men have, indeed, engineered the most remarkable economic growth during the twentieth century ever seen. In centuries to come, the dollar, the Fed, and elected officials will be remembered involved in a time when Americans prospered, invented, and created mass wealth like no people ever before.

The Meaning of South Ossetia?

With the eyes of the world transfixed on the Beijing's Olympics, pandamonium broke loose. South Ossetia, a Republic of Georgia province, declared independence from Georgia. Georgia immediately dispatched its military to quell the uprising for independence.


Then it was Putin's turn. Five-hundred Russian tanks, military jets, and and military personnel invaded President Mikheil Sakashvili's Georgian Republic. Georgian miltary forces were repelled out of their own cities; thousands of Georgian citizens in Tblisi, the capital, endured the bombing campaigns of Russian war planes. All of this during the Goodwill of the Olympics?


So what to make of Putin and the invasion? Seven years earlier George Bush stated: "I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straight forward and trustworthy and we had a very good dialogue. I was able to get a sense of his soul."

Since those famous words about Putin, he has jailed Karaspov and political opposition for power, shut down media outlets, nationalized Gazprom, and declared that democracy doesn't always have to be American style.

Senator McCain's recently commented, "I looked into Putin's eyes and saw 3 letters--KGB."

Who is closer to the truth-Bush or McCain?


Putin is rebuilding empire. With $120 oil, huge cash influx, and a new Russian spirit, Putin is reassembling empire beginning with the run-away republics of the 1990's. Putin has stated that the greatest geopolitical disaster of the 20th century was the implosion of political and economic Soviet Russia. Putin intends to recticy such a disaster.


In addition, it is Putin's Russia that has felt the slap of a superior America since 1990 Soviet implosion. Consider the following since 1990:


With 14 former Soviet states breaking away since 1990, the Bush Administration unilaterally debunked the SALT Treaty of five American presidents and is deploying a missile defense shield in the Ukraine and Poland - rolling runways, F-16s, bombers, and soldiers up to the borders of Russia.

Is it any wonder that Putin has called Bush, "A wolf in sheep's clothing"? Putin's 65% popularity amongst Russians comes from standing up to the Americans, who have treated Russia as a second rate power.


Putin's blood, indeed, boiled when America and her western allies backed a Bosnian plan to separate from Serbia. These are Slavic affairs. The Bosnians separated. The United Nations recognized the move. It is to be remember that Russians went to war in 1914 for Serbia. The blood ties are no less today between Serbia and Russia.


Countries have honor, like individuals. As Putin's Russia was discarded by the world as a world power, the motherland has wallowed in an identity crisis since Gorbacev's "Glasnost".

But Putin has slowly and autocratically used democracy to manipulate events with oil passing $100 per barrel. Who else is responsible for stoking the flames of nationalism in South Ossetia, where a small segment want nothing with being Georgian? Could it be that the Kremlin has plotted to back separatists to break away from Georgia? Moscow has sent munitions and military training as well as funded nearly 60% of South Ossetia's provincial budget in the name of secession from Georgia.


Putin has determined that if the Russians can't have Georgia as a pliable neighbor, then they will strip Georgia of its vital importance to the Bush administration and the west.


Yes-oil flows from the Caspian through Georgia. But its honor that matters most to Putin and his citizens more so.

Wasn't it the Russians who wathched embarassingly, as Serbia lost Bosnia, and could only twiddle their thumbs? Serbia was worth starting WWI to the Russians. In 2008, neither Medvedev nor Putin are about to lose all of Georgia to the west.

Putin has laid the mousetrap. Georgia's, Mikhail Saakashvili's bit with an untenable gamble. The Russian Bear has swallowed South Ossetia for good. Will the Americans or Europeans start a shooting war with the Russians for land in the Caucus Mountains? Thus, Sakhavili's cry, "The Russians are coming!! The Russians are coming!!" will go the way of the Sudentland just before WWII.

Will JFK's great demands to "bear any burden and pay any price" to defend America's allies across the globe have limits?

The clock is ticking...

The Russians are digging in. Missiles will be deployed in South Ossetia. And the west will likely do little to alter the course of Russian aggression this time.

Americans, however, have already encircled Moscow post 9/11 with an unbelievable geostrategic military cooperation of Uzbekistan, Kyrgystan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazahkstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan. Its amazing how well the "War on Terror" has worked out for the United States. That means boots on the ground, runways built, F-16's and bombers on alert each day eyeing Moscow and Beijing.

The Great Bear of Russia, though, is trying to rise from the ashes of humiliation and near bankruptcy in 1991, Russia's new found wealth and identity in the last 10 years has the country extracting oil in 11 time zones, beefing up its military, and attempting to reassert its role in the world.

Its the good old days again! The Cold War gave America an arch enemy to fight; its military a purpose for existence. And the bad boy Russians may be here to stay.

A New Nation Chinese Style?

Not since the Munic games of 1936 has such bewildering mystery surrounded the Olympic games. The 2008 Olympics is not Munic, but it is Beijing: the New and improved China.


The 3rd world China has slogged its way into the modernized, industrialized, technologically advanced, and civilized era of modernity. The country that bears 34 children every new minute, has its government officials pouring close to 100 billion dollars to erect 1st rate facilities while overhauling entire cities. In addition, the Communist political elites have promised to divert all rain with missile technology, eliminate polution for the games, and create a 1st world city for athletes and spectators alike.


The entire makeover is rather remarkable on the surface. It's the new promise of China. The old is gone; the new has arrived. Modern day history has little to say in flattering the Chinese. Maybe thats why many Chinese citizens would buy Thomas Jefferson's adage:


"I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past".


Jefferson's momento is exactly how the Chinese feel. Euphoria surround the country as the world gathers to to see the new and improved China. National pride swells in the streets. And the Olympics is the reflection of Chinese satisfaction. Satisfaction of what?


The great revolution of the 21st century is China's.


11% annual growth rates
millions of savers, investors, and capitalists going to work
large military buildup of naval vessels and army technology
space walks and moon landings in sight
2nd largest world economy


Such progress despite how little kindness modern history has been to the Chinese people. The subjugation of China by western imperial powers beginning with England that led to the humiliating Opium Wars of 1840 and 1856. These are not soon to be forgotten. Shoving opium down the throats of Chinese citizens only to have one-quarter of the male population addicted by 1905. The Quing Dynasty sought relief and signed the one-sided treaties including the Treaty of Nanking and Tianjin.


The net effect? Provisions included according to Wikkipedia "for the opening of additional ports to foreign trade, for fixed tariffs, the recognition of both countries as equal in correspondence, and the giving of Hong Kong to Britain. The British also gained extraterritorial rights."


Of course, Germany, Portugal, France, and the United States would have their turns opening up the land of China to western trade with additional ports. As India was the crown jewel of England, China became the harlot of Europe and the west. Humiliated, the Quing Dynasty signed agreements bringing about the Taiping Rebellion, Boxer Rebellion, and the downfall of the Quing Dynasty in 1912.


The 20th century brought bloodshed, chaos, and furthe pain to China. Japan's invasion and rape of Nanking in 1937, China's Civil War between Chang Kai Chek and Mao Tse Tung in the 1940's, and the economic disaster of collective communes in the 1950's, left China a nuclear power and a 3rd world nation.


The communists have ruled into the 21st century. But it was Mao Tse Tung who capitulated in the early 1970's seeing the disaster of collectivism. Thus, it was Chairman Mao who asserted, "what does it matter whether the mouse trap is blac or white as long as trap catches mice."


Politically silenced, but economically encouraged, the people were incentivized to create, develop, and earn money as the western capitalists did.


Entering the 21st century, the nation with a million man army that spends nearly 12% on its military budget, has an exploding economy that is the 2nd largest in the world.


Spain had its 16th century. France had its 18th century. England's empire where the sun did not set had its 19th century. America had its rule in the 20th century. Will the Asian Tiger rise to its place in our century, the 21st century?


Beijing's coming out party is but the beginning. And Jefferson's addage...."I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past" describes the mindset of 1.3 billion Chinese today.

"A Chicken in Every Pot...A Car in Every Garage?"

Candidate Herbert Hoover's slogan of 1928, "A chicken in every pot and a car in every garage" won him Commander-in-Chief for four years in the White House. Hoover's plan for America? Re-engineer America away from ferocious capitalism and risk and into the safe arms of Uncle Sam's central planning apparatus.


The result? It was an economic dive-- into recession and "Hoover Hotels". Monday morning quarterbacks understand that strong-arm central planning has its place--but its not in America. the text books usually associate economic centralized planning with Bolshevik Russia and Mussolini's Italy. Yet, as Hoover's slogan and centralized planning schemes were implemented according to his will, trade was destroyed, capital dried up, and ingenuity was stifled. Jobs were lost, industries destroyed, and ________.


Surely the next president would understand the problem- right?


But it was FDR whose inner counsel glowed with reports from Mussolini's Italy and the Russian centralized planning apparatus. They have no rich...and therefore, no poor. Feeding the masses--this is what they do through government planning and distribution systems.


FDR's inner-circle was inspired. The Europeans and the Russians were going to teach Americans how not to starve and to make sure all comrades of the motherland could have their needs met----


The people have to be fed. They must be clothed. They must be cared for. The state must intervene against the exploiters, the robber barrons, and the capitalists who are to blame for the stock market crash and "Hoover Hotels".


With no chickens in pots and no cars in garages, FDR single-handedly turned a Hoover recession into an FDR Depression. More government control....more federal aid...more help from D.C....more strong-armed tactics against corporations....


What Hoover had engineered with large government programs and interventionsist federal policies between capital and labor, FDR doubled in eight years. Huge government programs, tariffs, and federal interventionist schemes, dislocated capital, stifled ingenuity, and destroyed labor produced 25% unemployment.


So what does this have to do with Senator Obama?


He promises to re-design America "to be more fair for all Americans".
He promises to transfer wealth from the wealthy to the poor
He promises to tax dividends and capital gains at higher rates than today
He promises to hike income taxes on the highest wage earning Americans today
He promises to hand out $1,000 to every American family from the profits of oil companies
He promises to review NAFTA and free trade

The Senator from Illinois is not alone in his promises. Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Ted Kennedy and the entire wealth transfer gang have been harping for such utopian change forever.


McGovern's 1972 presidential bid uncluded free money to poor people in America. Hillary Clinton just finished promising the NAACP crowd $5,000 for every new-born baby in America. Walter Mondale in 1980 promised to hike taxes. Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and John Kerry promised the same shenanigans for the American people.


"LBJ all the way" didn't just promise to end poverty. Kennedy's Vice-president took the bull by the horn and jammed down America's throat government housing projects, welfare checks, food stamps, entitlement galore, etc..."The Great Society" and the expirement to eliminate poverty, disease, and ignorance produced 1 trillion dollars of debt and a destruction of work ethic like nothing seen before.


With Bear Stearns bailed out, 400 billion dollar in bail out money for homeowners, and Bernanke's discount window for financial institutions to drink from with cheap money, what exacly have we learned? We have learned that Reagan's America, where individuals have freedom and responsibility to live as Americans, is being challenged once again.


Will it be bread for the people? Or will the people demand their freedom to fail and succeed on their own at the ballot box this November? The prosperity of the 1920's found an end. Re-engineering America out of capitalism and into "no can't lose or fail" was Hoover and FDR's undoing in the 1930's.


The fresh face Senator Obama promises "a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage" but shouldn't Americans remember the last time a President made such promises in 1928?







Senator Obama, in an energy initiative speech, promises all Americans $1,000 each extracted from the windfall profits of big oil companies.









In addition, the Senator is being egged on to hike taxes including on income, dividends, and capital gains. The Senator promises "to make America a more fair place for all Americans." In the heritage of George McGovern 1972 who promised free cash running for office, and Hillary Clinton promising a $5,000 baby bond for new babies born in America if elected, the Senator has learned well how to run for office as a populist democrat.



The informed Harvard Law Review professor is a fresh face making a big splash in America. A hero to some, the post-racial hope to others, and an eloquent mystery man to others, Senator Obama delivers his message. What exactly is his message?



"Change that you can believe in" won him the Democratic primary. A fresh face and big splash doesn't change the equation. Trotting out old liberal quasi-socialist policies of McGovern, LBJ, and FDR, are supposed to be positive steps this time.



Hoover's governmental intervention programs all but assured a recession in 1929. FDR's policy-making counsel lauded Hoover's team for taking control of the American economy. What did FDR's team do? It proceeded to turn a recession in 1932 into and produce 25% unemployment, destroy capital formation, and dislocate capital from labor. More government programs, handouts, and federal help became the mantra of FDR. It took a world war to deliver the citizens of America from the clutches of FDR's socialist policies. And Democrats hail FDR as the greatest of all 20th century presidents?



"LBJ all the way" gave us "The Great Society". LBJ's 1960's promises to erradicate poverty, ignorance, and hunger was not only liberal, but Messianic in nature. Welfare money at the mailbox for votes at the ballot box gave liberals the impoverished vote.



And how does any of this history have anything to do with Senator Obama?



The Senator promises to strong-arm Americans, capitalists, and the wealthy for sure. "The automobile industry needs a partner in the federal government...." says the Senator.



The oil companies have made too much money off the backs of Americans. Big pharma companies ought to be regulated even further. Tax-paying Americans socking money away must have their divends taxed and their capital gains taxed. Waving his finger at all Americans to inflate their tires and tune-up their cars, the Senator explains that how badly he feels that gas prices have risen so quickly.



Drilling for oil is bad...inflating our tires is good.

When Harvard Scholars Attempt To Rescue Americans

Said Chaucer, "The greatest scholars are not usually the wisest people."

Enter Constititutional scholar and Harvard Law Review Editor and graduate, Senator Barack Obama:

"There are things you can do individually, though, to save energy," Obama said. "Making sure your tires are properly inflated - simple thing. But we could save all the oil that they're talking about getting off drilling - if everybody was just inflating their tires? And getting regular tune-ups? You'd actually save just as much!"

This is the wise judgment Senator Obama promises to have entering the White House as our President? With oil hovering at $125 per barrel, the Senator believes that Americans "can't drill their way out" of this crisis. Beside the thorny fact that very few cars require tune-ups anymore, what does inflating our tires do for Americans spending $4 per gallon filling up their gas tanks?

At best, its a 3% increase in gasoline efficiency.

According to Ken Sheperd, "Americans drive approximately 2,880 billion miles per year. If we average 24 mpg, we use around 120 billion gallons of gasoline in our vehicles. If, through perfect tire inflation, we improved our collective fuel efficiency by 1.5%, that would be 1.8 billion gallons. A barrel of oil produces around 20 gallons of gasoline, so the total savings available through tire inflation is approximately 90,000,000 barrels of oil annually."

In the same Missouri speech, Senator Obama reversed his drill for oil policy in seeking a compromise for "limited" drilling off of the continental shelf. In addition, the Senator promised each American citizen $1,000 derived from a windfall profit tax on Exxon Mobil record profits.

Inflate our tires solves our problem. Tune-up our cars. Tax Exxon Mobil. Unleash the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for of 90 billion barrels to reduce gas prices.

Apparently, drilling for oil is not a legitimate option. Tracking polls in California and Florida have recently shown a complete reversal. Citizens of these states have willingly stated a desire to see greater drilling in and around their respective states. Even a marginal politician would have common sense enough to grasp the "drill here - drill know - pay less" concept?

It is true that Senator McCain's design to have a "gas tax holiday" was cooky at best.

But is Senator Obama's "Air the Tires" doctrine any better?