Obama? No Merci Beaucoup!

FRIDAY SHOCK-- ZOGBY: McCAIN TAKES LEAD 48-47 IN ONE DAY POLL! CAN HE PULL IT OUT? ZOGBY SATURDAY: Republican John McCain has pulled back within the margin of error... The three-day average holds steady, but McCain outpolled Obama 48% to 47% in Friday, one day, polling. He is beginning to cut into Obama's lead among independents, is now leading among blue collar voters, has strengthened his lead among investors and among men, and is walloping Obama among NASCAR voters. Joe the Plumber may get his license after all.--DRUDGE


ALTOGETHER NOW: OBABA? NO MERCI BEAUCOUP!

He never met a tax he didn't like.
He's got crazy friends like Rev. Wright.
He'd rather give away the farm than fight.
No merci beaucoup.

Obama, no merci beaucoup,
Obama, no merci beaucoup,
Obama, no merci beaucoup,
No merci beaucoup.

He thinks oil should be against the law.
He runs down America.
He's ashamed of his own Grandma.
No merci beaucoup.

Hey you good people that work all day,
he's got plans to dock your pay,
and let his unemployed voters go and ___ it away,
No merci beaucoup.

My sentiments exactly.

Lyrics.

Then John Tamny writes about Obama Fear in the financial markets for The Financial Times and the complete ignorace most people have of the stagnantion and contraction that is coming to the economy if he's elected. We can't say we haven't been warned:

Mr Obama’s agenda is anathema to entrepreneurial capitalism. Protectionism and isolationism are central tenets of the Obama agenda. Neither is consonant with success in a global economy. Redistribution of wealth is central to Mr Obama’s populism. If we reduce the rewards associated with success and cushion the pain of failure, our incentives to work hard and innovate are diminished. Many observers decry the notion that the success of the wealthy “trickles down” to the poor. And yet, we are right now seeing that this cuts both ways: the pain felt by the wealthy today is “trickling down” to the restaurants, shopkeepers and businesses that keep our population employed.

And we ain't seen nothin' yet.

Liberal Elites Jong, Fonda Sweating It Out For Obama

"My friends Ken Follett and Susan Cheever are extremely worried. Naomi Wolf calls me every day. Yesterday, Jane Fonda sent me an email to tell me that she cried all night and can't cure her ailing back for all the stress that has reduced her to a bundle of nerves."

"My back is also suffering from spasms, so much so that I had to see an acupuncturist and get prescriptions for Valium."

"After having stolen the last two elections, the Republican Mafia…"

"If Obama loses it will spark the second American Civil War. Blood will run in the streets, believe me. And it's not a coincidence that President Bush recalled soldiers from Iraq for Dick Cheney to lead against American citizens in the streets."

"Bush has transformed America into a police state, from torture to the imprisonment of reporters, to the Patriot Act."
----Erica Jong

(Erica and I must be living on two different planets is all I can say. This country, a police state? What kind of KoolAid/Valium is she drinking?) More on the Second Civil War if Obama loses.

Protest at LA Times

UPDATE: Pajamas TV has more. Roger Simon interviews Ben Sharpio about Thursday's demonstration in LA. Then, Jennifer Rubin at Pajamas today explores what Rashid Khalidi believes and asks why the Times if running interference for Obama?

TO RELEASE THE SUPPRESSED OBAMA TAPE

Inspired by commentators on the Internet and cable TV, thousands of people e-mailed and phoned The LA Times to demand the release of a suppressed Obama tape. LA Times refuses to release the tape of Obama toasting a PLO operative along with William Ayers at a 2003 banquet. The Times insisted that they saw no extra news value in a tape that reportedly features Barack Obama praising former Yasser Arafat toady Rashid Khalidi at a 2003 going-away party.

In 2005, when Princeton University made public that it was considering hiring Khalidi, there was such an outraged protest over Khalidi's controversial political ties and alliances with terrorists that the school backed off hiring him.

The controversy at the LA Times stems from an article by Times staff writer Peter Wallsten that the newspaper published on April 10, exploring Obama’s relationships with Palestinian Americans and Jews in Chicago. The article explained how Obama had managed to be held in high esteem by both groups. It described a party in 2003 for Khalidi, a renowned scholar on the Palestinians who in the 1970s had acted as a spokesman for Yasser Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organization.

Two Democratic Women Dramatically Defect to McCain/Palin and Tell Why

MSs BUTTON AND LAFFERTY NOW SINGING A DIFFERENT SONG

If you don't read anything else today, take time to read this piece by long-time Democrat and former speech writer to Barack Obama, John Edwards AND Hillary Clinton on her recent defection to McCain/Palin. Her name is Wendy Button. More than worth the time. I'll be back to say more later. Meanwhile, a tidbit of Wendy's piece below:

"This drift started on a personal level with the fall of former Senator John Edwards. It got stronger during the Democratic National Convention when I counted the substantive mentions of poverty on one hand and a whole bunch of bad canned partisan lines against Senator John McCain. Some faith was lifted after Senator Hillary Clinton’s grace during a difficult hour. But that faith was dashed when I saw that someone had raided the Caligula set and planted the old columns at Invesco Field.

"The final straw came the other week when Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher (a.k.a Joe the Plumber) asked a question about higher taxes for small businesses. Instead of celebrating his aspirations, they were mocked. He wasn’t “a real plumber,” and “They’re fighting for Joe the Hedge-Fund manager,” and the patronizing, “I’ve got nothing but love for Joe the Plumber.”

"Having worked in politics, I know that absolutely none of this is on the level. This back and forth is posturing, a charade, and a political game. These lines are what I refer to as “hooker lines”—a sure thing to get applause and the press to scribble as if they’re reporting meaningful news.

"As the nation slouches toward disaster, the level of political discourse is unworthy of this moment in history. We have Republicans raising Ayers and Democrats fostering ageism with “erratic” and jokes about Depends. Sexism. Racism. Ageism and maybe some Socialism have all made their ugly cameos in election 2008. It’s not inspiring. Perhaps this is why I found the initial mocking of Joe so offensive and I realized an old line applied: “I didn’t leave the Democratic Party; the Democratic Party left me.”

THEN OVER at Greg Cotham's blog, he's posted another stunning Democratic woman's defection to the McCain/Palin camp. This time it's Elaine Lafferty, a former liberal, feminist elite who was once editor-in-chief of Ms. Magazine (!). It's really true. Read about Elaine's 'Palin conversion' on the campaign trail here. And you'll know why Elaine now thinks Palin is one very smart dame who's more than qualified for the job she's seeking and the one that she hopes she won't have anytime soon during a McCain administration. Actually Laffery calls Palin a 'brainiac."

"It's difficult not to froth when one reads, as I did again and again this week, doubts about Sarah Palin's “intelligence,” coming especially from women such as PBS's Bonnie Erbe, who, as near as I recall, has not herself heretofore been burdened with the Susan Sontag of Journalism moniker.

"As Fred Barnes—God help me, I'm agreeing with Fred Barnes—suggests in the Weekly Standard, these high toned and authoritative dismissals come from people who have never met or spoken with Sarah Palin. Those who know her, love her or hate her, offer no such criticism. They know what I know, and I learned it from spending just a little time traveling on the cramped campaign plane this week: Sarah Palin is very smart.

Neither of these women were predisposed, indisposed or otherwise disposed to being exposed to the real dirty truths in this campaign---and about Palin's huge capabilities--- which each of them happened onto by mistake. An open mind can be a shocking thing to experience. Right Wendy and Elaine? I know it once was for me.

UPDATE: Pans for Bam's informerical.

U.S. Closes Damascus Embassy

I interrupt my regularly scheduled partisan election coverage to say something is certainly going on between the U.S. and Syria. We conducted an air raid over northern Syria on Sunday that killed 8 people. More raids are expected. I think once our election ordeal is over, much will break loose in the Middle East before Bush leaves office in January, especially if Mr. Friendly--with his no preconditions foreign policy shtick---goes to Washington. I sure wouldn't want to be an American tourist in Syria or even Israel right now. This isn't getting much play in the MSM which is obsessed with getting its candidate elected. But I predict all eyes will be refocused abroad once November 4 comes and goes, irregardless of who wins. No wonder the blusterous Ahmadinejad has taken to his bed.

Meanwhile, I saw this on American Digest and think it's scary funny.

One thing's for sure. These losers sure don't feel that way about Bush and Cheney. And they wouldn't feel that way about McCain and Palin either.

Trust Him Baloney: Obama Apologizes For Being Late To Work Again

AND HE DOESN'T MEAN ONE WORD OF IT

You can get by with a lot when you're charming. Punctuality is obviously not Mr. Obama's strong suit. He's got better things to do and doesn't seem to mind being putting others through repetetive procedures and questions. But, he has the transcripts. A very self-important man for sure. And he's paying billions and billions to make himself important to the rest of us too. Can hardly wait for his self-important nonsense to begin.

You can file these under Obama's Greatest Baloney, just to name a very few.

I apologize for being late.... I'm going to make everything better...I'll change the world.... I'll restore faith in government.... I'm not going to raise your taxes (fair warning)....I'll give a new meaning to change and hope.... I'll take government campaign finance for the election.... I'll make government-run healthcare more affordable, trust me. I'm pro Israel all the way.

Conservative Voting Block Shrinking?

UPDATE BELOW
A true conservative, businessman, mentor and friend---who's also one of the finest fly fisherman/tiers around---sends a rather dismal e-mail commenting on why he believes conservative principles will increasingly be a tough sell in this country amidst changing demographics:

"Maintaining a Conservative majority in the U.S. is going to be a tough job even without a candidate like Obama:

"You start out with a large group of voters that are living off entitlements and other governmental gifts---which is growing every year--so they are not with you as conservatives anymore in any election.

"Generally a large bloc of government employees are not in your camp. They're already on the side of growing bureaucracy.

"Now you have to try to build a base from those people who simply wish to be left alone to make their own way and add those whose instincts suggest that the government rarely is the best place to go to have problems solved.

"Unfortunately some cataclysmic event scares them into abandoning their instincts and to listening to the change/hope baloney offered by a candidate like Obama.

"When we get a rejection of a conservative approach to governing and a leftist majority takes power, the country slides toward socialism and it's nearly impossible to bring it back to center. We probably will have to live with new leftist programs and only hope we can stop more new ones down the road. Repealing them just doesn't happen.

"Long run, leftist governments preside over declining societies and countries. The basic philosopy is to redistribute a stagnent amount of wealth rather than encouraging vibrant growth and wealth creation by regulating as little as possible and leaving as much wealth in private hands for capital accumulation to finance more growth and job creation. "

*********

Thanks, Paul. I think you're right but hope you're wrong about this. I do say that by education and information that we may be able to turn this around before it's too late. But many people don't want their minds change and don't care about a vibrant economy.

I'm also deeply concerned if not downright depressed about our country's slippery slide towards more, but not better government presence in every aspect of our lives----except of course in the life of a pregnant mother and an unborn child.

The saddest part of all to me is that the next generation---our children and grandchildren---who are excitedly rushing off to vote for an Obama, are the ones who will shoulder the unbearable burdens of this as times wears on. They will live vastly different and impoverished lives as the ponzi scheme of Social Security, Medicare etc. implodes like the credit crisis.

Unfortunately, we've lived in such sanguine economic times since WWII, that it's hard for many of them and us to imagine the kind of economic winter we're facing. It's hard envisioning 20 degree weather in 95 degree heat. Our children can't imagine what's coming. Wish I were in the ignorance is bliss category. But you, and I, aren't. That makes it doubly hard to watch.

UPDATE: Above writer e-mails back:

Jane, Your editing made my message coherent and readable. We make a good team.

Yes, The real effect of this damage is down the road. Our kids and grandkids will not have the opportunities to live their dreams that we've had. So much their lives will be controlled by law and regulation whose only real purpose is hamstring the doers and make a larger and larger part of the country dependent on government handouts.

I probably am a person left behind by the changes in the country and wish for a time whose views realistically will never again be widely accepted.Some things have changed that needed to change as the country got bigger and its role as the leading world power was realized. Still I think we've gone far beyond where we had to go to adjust to our new circumstances.

It's very difficult to preserve and advance our convictions when opposed by the educational system and the mass media. The relativism they've championed and successfully promoted makes winning over the younger folk tough. For example, this is the greatest country in the world but putting forth that statement invites derision at universities.

People instinctively are conservative but they are sucked in by promises of easy solutions to their difficulties. They know the postal service is a high cost poorly run operation but consider turning health care over to the state because politicians tell them that government will make health care more affordable and available which is rarely true.

You and I will somehow cure our depression and must continue our struggle. It's worth the punishment.

God bless.

Obama's Old Friend and Mentor---American Terrorist Billy Ayers

WEDNESDAY: Palestinians for Obama working hard. Meanwhile, LA Times refuses to release the explosive tape of Obama toasting PLO leader along with Ayers at a 2003 banquet.
The Times insisted that they saw no extra news value in a tape that reportedly features Barack Obama praising former Yasser Arafat toady Rashid Khalidi at a 2003 going-away party.


AGING HIPPIE. TERRORIST. COMMUNIST. SUSPECTED OF GHOST-WRITING OBAMA'S 'DREAMS OF MY FATHER.' MORE.
Don't think it matters that Barack Obama's political career started with a fundraiser in Billy Ayers living room in Chicago? Not worried by their long-term friendship? Don't think birds-of-a-feather flock together? Obama says the unrepentant Ayers did all his bad bombing stuff before he was eight, before they became good friends and colleagues, so, it doesn't mean anything. Do you really believe that?

Larry Grathwohl, a co-conspirator with Ayers and his Weathermen group and former FBI informant in the 60s, tells a chilling story to Bob Owens at Pajamas Media today of his days with Ayers and his group of terrorists.

Grathwohl, below, recalls how he and Ayers planned the extermination of 25 million Americans---"capitalists"---you know, the small and large job creators who pay 85% of our federal taxes and give tons of money to charities--- here in the US.

Whatever do you suppose they were thinking?

These terrorists decided that people who were capitalists but not put to death would be sent to "re-education" camps in the Southwest to be indoctrinated into the benefits of revolution and communism and...redistribution of wealth.

Again, whatever do you think these adolescents were thinking?

Did you ever wonder what would happen if all those hard workering entrepreneurs were killed who pay taxes into the federal treasury ? Maybe that's why countries like Cuba get poorer and poorer. They killed or send abroad all the driving forces of its economy that provide taxes and jobs.


Again, this is one of Obama's old friends, neighbors and colleagues. Below, Ayers and wife Bernardine defend and praise Ward Churchill.

Obama Babies

Indoctrination kid. Looks like he's not wasting any time learning how to use a diaphragm. Or is that a prophylactic he's being taught to put on a banana for the first time by lefty sexperts and child development gurus? Looks like he'll be ready for whatever new living constitutional right or redistribution of wealth---at taxpayers' expense---that may come his way soon from our Nanny babysitters.
Meanwhile, Silly Me, I prefer the kid below, who's got his priorities straight, putting open, unapologetic, raw and notorious self-interest and discovery before partisan politics. What's wrong with him anyway? Someone call ACORN to get his mind refocused!

John Tamny at RealClearMarkets writes on how Obama's plan to raise capital gains taxes is wrong again.

Tamny continues:

"In many ways a non-existent capital gains rate should appeal to Obama. He clarified to ABC's Charles Gibson his desire to raise the rate as something rooted in "fairness", but given the basic truth that there are no wages without capital, the only fair action to take with respect to lower-income workers would be to erase the tax on capital investment to zero. Abolishment of the rate would increase the amount of capital available for wages, plus it would increase the wage competition for what is always a limited supply of workers."

But he ends with a ray of much needed real hope:

"On a positive front, Barack Obama, if elected, will be positively restrained in what he does by the political economics of his desire to be a two-term president. That being the case, it is hoped that he'll cross the aisle on the all-important question of capital-gains taxes. A lower or abolished rate would be a big economic boost all else being equal, plus it would help Obama realize what are now simply campaign platitudes about higher wages and greater economic fairness."

Where's Obama's Money Coming From?

WEDNESDAY UPDATE: Obama's Untraceable Donations.

WHO'S SPREADING THEIR WEALTH TO OBAMA? FOREIGN SOURCES? FROM MIDDLE EAST?

For a man who talks a good game of spreading our wealth with impunity, he sure is raking in a lot of dough from unknown sources. No one seems to know or care where most of these credit card contributions originate.

And why isn't Obama giving some of this to the poor himself? He's got plenty of wealth to spread around. Oh, right! It's not his wealth he wants to spread around....it's ours.

Spread the Word: Spread the Wealth With Obama

"The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries."----Winston Churchill

As linked by Drudge today, here's a clip of Obama on Chicago public radio, circa 2001. He's blatantly advocating government spreading wealth as an extension of the civil rights movement. That's what he's talking about when he says he wants to change this country. Change the world. He's talking socialism. Never mind that wealth has already been being spread by the government for decades.

When do you suppose Obama will think enough wealth has been spread? When he, Joe The-Six-Term-Senator, Nancy and Harry---the most left-leaning, liberal lawmakers in America---say so? This is big time socialism-in-the-making. If we're not concerned, then I have to wonder.

Joseph Phillips, a conservative black man whom I had the pleasure of getting to know several years ago at the Claremont Lincoln Fellows Program in Newport Beach has a few things to say about Mr. Obama. Be Careful What You Ask For is the short version.

We can't say we haven't been warned.

Obama's Extreme Pro-Abortion, Pro-Infanticide Stand

DEFENDING THE INDEFENSIBLE
This is tough and heartbreaking to watch. How decent human beings can vote for this lefty boy-man for POTUS is beyond me. It's only one of numerous reasons I could never vote for him with his massive intention to enable adolescent behavior starting in the bedroom.

This from Jungle Mom's recent post on Obama's extreme position on abortion:

Dr. Robert P. George, the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University, wrote a piece for the Public Discourse - the Witherspoon Institute’s blog entitled “Obama’s Abortion Extremism” on 10/14/08:

Sen. Barack Obama’s views on life issues ranging from abortion to embryonic stem cell research mark him as not merely a pro-choice politician, but rather as the most extreme pro-abortion candidate to have ever run on a major party ticket.

Barack Obama is the most extreme pro-abortion candidate ever to seek the office of President of the United States. He is the most extreme pro-abortion member of the United States Senate. Indeed, he is the most extreme pro-abortion legislator ever to serve in either house of the United States Congress.

Yet there are Catholics and Evangelicals-even self-identified pro-life Catholics and Evangelicals - who aggressively promote Obama’s candidacy and even declare him the preferred candidate from the pro-life point of view.

The fact that some self-identified “pro-life” Catholics and evangelicals support him is stunning; saying that he isn’t pro-abortion, but pro-choice. After all who wouldn’t want a world without abortions? George examines their arguments and finds them wanting. George states that you simply can not say that about Barack Obama, and he gives compelling reasons in the following bullet points:

He supports repealing the Hyde Amendment which protects taxpayers from having to pay for abortions that are not necessary to save the life of the mother or are not the result of rape or incest.

He said that the first thing he would do as President is sign the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA). This would create a federally guaranteed “fundamental right” to abortion throughout the entire nine months of pregnancy. This legislation would nullify existing state and federal anti-abortion law and policies.

He opposed the partial birth abortion ban (unlike many “pro-choice” legislators) in the Illinois Senate. He then condemned the Supreme Court decision that upheld the ban.

*********

Thanks, Rita. As a country and people we're running headlong into electing a man we will deeply come to regret, surely sooner rather than later. God help us all.

Sunday: John Newton, Mentor to William Wilberforce

GOD MAKES CONNECTIONS BETWEEN PEOPLE FOR PURPOSES WE OFTEN CANNOT FORESEE OR UNDERSTAND AT THE TIME

WITHOUT WILLIAM WILBERFORCE there would have been no successful parliamentary campaign in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century for the abolition of the slave trade in England. But without John Newton, William Wilberforce would not have been engaged in such a role, for it was Newton who in 1785 persuaded the young MP not to give up his career in politics in order to enter the ministry.

It was Newton whose experiences as a former slave-ship captain provided Wilberforce with the authentic information he used to such devastating effect in attacking the slave trade. Above all, it was the bonding with Newton the gave Wilberforce that powerful combination of political motivation driven by Christian conviction that inspired his abolitionist campaign and enabled him to persevere through many years of defeats and disappointments.

Against this background it is clear that the relationship between Newton and Wilberforce was of pivotal importance for both historical and spiritual reasons. Yet John Newton's contribution to the life of William W. as a mentor, confidant, co-campaigner and close friend has often been underestimated.

The story of the collaboration between the two men began on December 2, 1785 when the Rev. John Newton, rector of St. Mary Woolnoth in the city of London, received a strange letter from William Wilberforce. Its emphasis on the need for secrecy was so mysterious that, but for the reference to Parliament, it could almost have come from a spy seeking to arrange a clandestin assignment:

"I wish to have some serious conversation with you. I have had ten thousand doubts within myself whether or not I should discover myself to you; but every argument against it has its foundation in pride. I am sure you will hold yourself bound to let no one living know of this application, or of my visit, till I release you from this obligation...."

-----Jonathan Aitken, John Newton from Disgrace to Amazing Grace

Cuba: Where "Change" and "Hope" Went to Die

HAVEN'T WE SEEN THIS MOVIE BEFORE?

One picture = million words = 50 years = abject poverty = dictatorship = loss of freedom = thousands of refugees.

Want government to do more for you? Why wait? Why not move to Cuba, where everything is a government service?

The rest is impoverished, brutal history in Cuba.

Charming and soft spoken, wasn't he? Champion of free speech and human rights for all. And heartened that other countries were supposedly in his camp with his beliefs. But somehow Fidel's words and actions didn't line up after he came to power, did they? And people here saw it coming. But the lambs went to the slaughter just as we feared they would. Don't say it's couldn't happen here. Many see it coming and hope and pray they're wrong. I happen to be one of them. Please pray for our country.

Beneficial Effects of Tax Cuts 101 or The Parable of the Stairs

FRIDAY: An Obama market panic? Should we fear Obama's tax and regulation policies and are the markets factoring this in now?

Yesterday I posted a little parable on how Obama's government redistribution of wealth plan works in simple terms. Greg Cotham at The End Zone came along, commented and called our attention to another little parable that James Lileks wrote four years ago on what he had done with his tax cut by building a new staircase. It highlights the economic realities of how tax cuts help individuals and the economy. Lileks tells the story of a childish Kerry campaign worker who knocked on his door with no grasp whatsoever of how the economy really works.

Here's Lileks post which I'll call....

PARABLE OF THE STAIRS (FOR DUMMIES), by James Lileks:

"A minor political note, if you’re interested in such things. The other day a young girl came to the door to solicit my support for her presidential candidate. I asked her why I should vote for this man. She was very nice and earnest, but if you got her off the talking points she was utterly unprepared to argue anything, because she didn’t know what she was talking about. She had bullet points, and she believed that any reasonable person would see the importance of these issues and naturally fall in line.

"But she could not support any of her assertions. Her final selling point: Kerry would roll back the tax cuts.



"Then came my Parable of the Stairs, my tiresome, shopworn, oft-told tale, a piece of unsupportable meaningless anecdotal drivel about how I turned my tax cut into a nice staircase that replaced a crumbling eyesore, hired a few people and injected money far and wide - from the guys who demolished the old stairs, the guys who built the new one, the family firm that sold the stone, the other firm that rented the Bobcats, the entrepreneur who fabricated the railings in his garage, and the guy who did the landscaping. Also the company that sold him the plants. And the light fixtures. It’s called economic activity.

"What’s more, home improvements added to the value of this pile, which mean that my assessment would increase, bumping up my property taxes. To say nothing of the general beautification of the neighborhood.

"Next year, if my taxes didn’t shoot up, I had another project planned. Raise my taxes, and it won’t happen – I won’t hire anyone, and they won’t hire anyone, rent anything, buy anything. You see?" I said.

“Well, it’s a philosophical difference,” she sniffed. She had pegged me as a form of life last seen clicking the leash off a dog at Abu Ghraib. “I think the money should have gone straight to those people instead of trickling down.” Those last two words were said with an edge. “But then I wouldn’t have hired them,” I said. “I wouldn’t have new steps. And they wouldn’t have done any work to get the money.”

“Well, what did you do?” she snapped. “What do you mean?” I said. “Why should the government have given you the money in the first place?” “They didn’t give it to me. They just took less in taxes of the money I earned. Then I turned around and invested it in a home improvement project that provided work and income to others.”

*****

What an embarrassing, ignorant and childish demonstration of the economic realities of freedom and capitalism this woman shows--all too commonly seen in voters today. She actually thinks capitalism is the enemy. Capitalism frees people from all manner of bondages. Two important points I'd like to note again:

First, the men who were hired by Lileks to build and supply materials for the new stairs all received income from the project which they in turned were taxed on. So in the end, there were more tax revenues than there would have been had there been no tax cut.

1.TAX CUTS INCREASE RATHER DECREASE TAX REVENUES FOR STATE AND FEDERAL GOVERNMENTS. What part of this don't the likes of Barack Obama, John Kerry and Nancy Pelosi understand? It's the way wealth is really spread around to help people and society.

Second, government doesn't create jobs or wealth. Prosperity happens outside government in the free markets of society and businesses 100% of the time.

2.CITIZENS AND BUSINESSES CREATE WEALTH, JOBS AND TAX REVENUES. GOVERNMENT BUREAUCRATS CREATE PAPER AND INEFFICIENCIES AND WILL NEVER MAKE YOU FINANCIALLY FREE AND PROSPEROUS.

Steve Forbes writes on how capitalism can and will save our economy.....if we let it. Well informed readers will want to know and read the whole thing.

Parable: Obama's Redistribution of Wealth 101 for Dummies

STEVE FORBES ON HOW CAPITALISM WILL SAVE THE ECONOMY...IF WE LET IT

PARABLE FOR OUR TIMES

Here's a simple story you can use to explain Obama's redistribution of wealth theory to your friends, neighbors and children:

Recently a woman was taking her grandson to lunch. Near the restaurant, they passed a homeless guy with a sign that read "Vote Obama, I need the money."

Once in the restaurant the woman noticed that their server had on a "Obama 08" tie. He had given away his political preference. When the bill came the woman decided not to tip the server and explained to him that she was teaching her grandson about the Obama redistribution of wealth concept.

The waiter stood in disbelief while the woman told him that she was going outside to redistribute his tip to someone whom she and her grandson deemed more in need--the homeless guy outside.

The server stormed off in a huff.

The woman went outside, gave the homeless guy $10 and told him to thank the server inside as she and her grandson had decided he could use the money more. The homeless guy was grateful.

At the end of this simplistic redistribution story, the grandson realized the homeless guy was grateful for the money he did not earn, but the waiter was pretty angry that the money he did earn was given to someone else -- even though the actual recipient deserved money more.

Beginning to understand this redistribution of wealth concept more clearly? Questions?

Thanks CA for idea.

POW John McCain

Obama's Chicken Button and Chimera of Leadership

It's always easier to recuse oneself rather than to take a stand. But isn't withdrawal a failure of true leadership? Doesn't strong leadership require strong self-definition? Isn't using the chicken button, except in rare circumstances, just another way path of weakness, failed leadership, or worse, no leadership at all? I fear we're about to elect a charming, smooth chimera of leadership rather than the real thing.

Thanks ladies, Fausta and Obi's Sister, for highlighting thes videos. Will keep it going.

24 Hours

Tuesday, J. Tamny still doesn't heart Ben.

Instructions for weekend: Click shut down. Walk away. Under NO circumstances. Pack car. No you can't take it--don't ask again. Remember roasted vegs, plums, Cabernet, warm clothes, hiking boots, camera. Forget Hank Paulson, Colin Powell, and that you ever heard of a bailout. Drive to mountains. Enjoy perfect air, blue skies, best friends, hidden retreat, starry night. Count blessings. Sleep like baby. Return safely, wondering Barry, who? Wasn't he a Beach Boy?

Carol put together persimmons, hearts a' bustin and privet berries for indigenous table arrangements.

Apple tarts to die for, made from scratch. Indigenous women born to eat apples....and brownies.....and whipped cream.......and........could someone please get that tacky can of redi-whip off the table? Our mothers would be twirling.

Dogwood berries. Birds-of-a-feather. Where political correctness goes to die, and no word left un-minced. A conservative hen summit of unheralded proportions.

Bill Hobbs says this thing's not over yet.

King Nebuchadnezzar, God Called Him "His Servant"

(For the record, I resist my own post here as much as you probably will. But we might keep it in mind, come November and beyond.)

Who's the most treacherous and dangerous world leader you can think of? The greatest threat to world peace today? I can think of several for my short list: Ahmadinejad of Iran, Chavez of Venezuela and Putin of Russia---they're a regular axis of personal apprehension when I think about it.

Which presidential candidate do you most fear getting elected? For me it's Barack Obama, hands down with his radical, liberal intention to implement economic justice (socialism), social engineering and fraternize with terrorists both here and abroad.

Whoever it is, you or I cannot regard any of these people with any greater fear, trepidation or disdain than the people of Judah had for Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon (now Iraq) in the Sixth Century Before Christ. When Jeremiah prophesied that Judah would be conquered by the Babylonian army and they and their Jewish king would be carried off to captivity, Judah's King Zedekiah threw the prophet in prison and reissued a new and false prophecy saying it just wasn't so.

Yet in Jeremiah 27:6 of the Old Testament, God describes Nebuchadnezzar as His Servant.

This had to be unimaginable for the people of Jeremiah's day. And utterly horrifying. To them Nebuchadnezzar was the epitome of evil and a murderous despot who ruled a ruthless superpower that was poised to overrun their lands, destroy their cities and carry them off into captivity---- which in fact happened.

How could God through Jeremiah possibly say Nebuchadnezzar was God's servant? As a matter of fact this was similar to another prophecy made by Isaiah about Cyrus the Great which called the conqueror, My servant, His anointed. (Isaiah 44:28, 45:1) Both of these rulers had vast power over huge territories in the ancient Middle East. And their decisions determined much of the course of known world history during that time.

From the human perspective, Nebuchadnezzar and Cyrus were the world's greatest despots and greatly to be feared and resisted.

But the prophecies of Jeremiah and Isaiah, as well as history, bear out that ultimately these rules were not in control of the final outcomes. God was. (Remember God turned Nebuchadnezzar into a wild animal that lived in the wild for seven years, before turning him back into a man who praised God for the rest of his life?)

Whether these kings admitted it or not, they were put in positions of authority by the Hand of God. As such they were God's servants, God's agents. And through their decisions they knowingly or unknowingly, ended up serving God's purposes in history.

If God is the King of all kings and rulers in the modern world, what does that say about today's motley and scary group of leaders? Ultimately God is in control---in spite of our fierce oppostion and apprehension. He will use them and us to fulfill His ends, move history forward. And He will bring many to Him in the process.

It is our responsibility to pray for this great outworking of God's plan, whether we understand it or not, and for knowing our part in it. This is no way negates the need for resistance or even war on our parts. It just means that we don't always understand the higher purposes of the unfolding of history. And with God, we can seek to know our personal part in it, whatever that is. Prayer greatly facilitates this at such a scary time.

**********
MEANWHILE THIS FOR MONDAY, so don't peek till then.
GOVERNMENT AND OUR POLITICIANS ARE NOT GOD, SANTA CLAUS NOR THE TOOTH FAIRY

Via, American Digest

Saturday, Beverly Hills Heifer?

AND BOVINE MAKES THREE
Organized by a Russian businessman, hundreds of couples took him up on his offer of $2,000 and a cow to jump start their married lives together. Not sure whether the cow's beads and bangles came with the deal or not.

H/T WSJ

McCain Hits Home Run With Fast Ball of Humor

"Maverick" I can do, but "messiah" is above my pay grade.---John McCain

Could this be the turning point for John McCain? I agree with my fellow blogger's astute opinion. If it continues, McCain just might get elected POTUS, after all.

Am willing to bet no matter what anyone says to the contrary, both Hillary and Bill will go to the polls and pull the lever for John McCain this year. Keep it up, John. This campaign has gotten far too serious and scary especially with Obama's talk of spreading the wealth around with plumbers, no less. Don't right leaning voters have the best sense of humors and highest happiness quotients anyway? It's time we used them.

Meanwhile, McCain hangs tough on Letterman and does it with a light touch.

Socialism Comes To America If Obama Wins

A GREAT DIVIDE HAS FORMED BETWEEN FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

Needless to say that I am concerned by the socialist direction our country is heading if Obama, the most liberal of senators, wins the White House in November. There may be a liberal SUPERMAJORITY in Congress. The change and its effects many highly emotional, often ignorant voters seem to want will be vastly different and greater than anything we can now imagine. It will fundamentally affect business and job creation, education, national defense, religion, health care and freedom of speech, not to mention how the fruits of our labors are used and distributed.

Because it affects the principles that underlie the framework this country was founded and became great on. We may think we are voting for people in this election and so keep the dialogue in the superficial realm of personalities and politics. But what we're really voting for are deeply held principles and way of life.

Like trying to imagine a predicted snowstorm and harsh winter on a warm summer day, it's hard to envision the cold, hard realities of socialism until they hit. The promises of socialism are light years away from the stark realities and far from what any of can now fathom.

The ultimate effect on every human being is a loss of choice and individual freedom to Big Government in every aspect of life. Most voters have no idea what's coming if this charming, smooth talking boy/man espousing socialist principles in the name of 'economic justice' is elected to lead the country. But we'd better and soon, if we want our lives to even remotely resemble what we now have.

Many voters don't care about freedom so much as they care about being taken care of by someone or something outside themselves and their communities, even if it means a loss of freedom. When that indigent voting block becomes the majority and elects leadership that wants to punish individual excellence, hard work and the creation of jobs, and wants to reward failure and victim hood and cotton to the myth of freedom of outcome rather than freedom of opportunity, we have a real problem on our hands. We have a great divide forming among our citizens.

And I mean a real problem, much greater than that of mere glib talk of racism or class warfare: it is a more fundamental difference in the principles we base our lives on: a fundamental question of whether we transfer power from the individual and groups of individuals to Big Government in every area of our lives. It is a fundamental power shift. It is a shift from democracy to socialism. And all of history bears out the toll it takes on all its citizens.

All this begs the question: Does government know better than we, our families and communities how to live our lives, raise and educate our children, make and spend our money? How a person chooses to answer these questions puts him on one side or the other of a great divide now polarizing American as never seen before, at least in my lifetime.

Today the WSJ has a piece that paints a very bleak picture. I hope we will take heed.

I pray that in these last few weeks before the election each of us does some heavy duty soul searching in the dark nights of the soul that goes deeper and beyond superficial politics, partisanship and personalities to the fundamental principles of how we want to live our lives in American today.

Meanwhile Back to Joe the Plumber

Bob Krumm on Obama's huge mistake with Joe the Plumber that may yet cost him the election.

Gallup Poll Shock: Obama 49% to McCain 47% today. Amazing, if true. Could it be voters are starting to wake up and see the out-of-control voter fraud associated with ACORN and Obama's campaign ---to the extent this country has never known? It's about time the FBI got involved. Has "Senator Government" peaked?

From ABC. And CBS. This Joe the Plumber phenomenon is one no one could have predicted. Who knows where it will go from here.

I'm posting this video again because I think it's salient and well worth repeating.

Michelle and Barack, Counting Chickens Before They Hatch?

OBAMAS MEASURING CURTAINS AND PLANNING GARGANTUAN VICTORY PARTY

It's very tempting to assume---whether you're on the left or right---that Barack and Michelle will be moving into the White House come January and the election is all but a done deal. However, there are still some pesky polls and naysayers indicating Obama hasn't yet closed the sale.

WARNING, UNDECIDEDS AHEAD

According to several polls (not the liberal MSM mind you) there are still a lot of undecided voters floating around the votersphere that could change the outcome entirely. To wit:

"Barack Obama holds a 7.3% lead in the Real Clear Politics average of all polls, but the latest Gallup tracking poll reveals that there are nearly twice as many undecided voters this year than there were in the last presidential election. The Investor's Business Daily/TIPP poll (which was closest to the mark in predicting the 2004 outcome -- 0.4% off the actual result) now says this is a three-point race.

"This week also brought a reminder that Sen. Obama hasn't closed the sale. The Washington Post/ABC poll found 45% of voters still don't think he's qualified to be president, about the same number who doubted his qualifications in March.
This is seven points more than George W. Bush's highest reading in 2000 and the worst since Michael Dukakis's 56% unqualified rating in 1988."

All this to say, intense campaigning is on the way, fasten seat belts. It's not over till it's over.

McCain, 'Senator Government' and Joe the Plumber

THURSDAY: Joe the Plumber: Obama's plan infuriates me. "I don't like it," said Wurzelbacher. "You know, me or -- you know, Bill Gates, I don't care who you are. If you worked for it, if it was your idea, and you implemented it, it's not right for someone to decide you made too much."

You go Joe! This guy really gets it. More.

Made it through the presidential debate tonight and managed to stay awake the whole time---barely. However, I'm fading fast and will have to pick this up tomorrow. Before I do, a couple of observations: am cheered by McCain's overall decent, if not at times halting, performance. One of his better early lines that kept me awake and that McCain needed to say:

"Senator Obama, I am not President Bush. If you wanted to run against President Bush, you should have run four years ago."

There's a clear distinction between Senator McCain, less articulate and charming, but extremely well informed and experienced, and Senator Obama, a smooth operator and glib communicator who comes across as knowing a lot of theory about government and finance.

McCain wants to cut spending and taxing by the federal government in a way that gets big government off our backs as much as possible across the board.

Obama would have big government---which he thinks knows what's best for us and therefore can handle our money better than we can---more involved in every aspect our lives. It was no accident that McCain's slip of tongue by calling his opponent "Senator Government" was one of the best lines of the night.

"This really gets down to the fundamental difference in our philosophies. If you notice that in all his proposals, Senator Government wants, Senator Obama wants government to do the job."

McCain should seriously turn this Freudian slip into a major theme in the remaining three weeks of the campaign. Turn Senator Government into a song sung across the land. Then put it on YouTube. He could even turn this slip into Halloween masks to scare the wits out people.

And as for Joe the Plumber, I'm sure he's feeling his oats tonight and will immediately be hiring a publicist to help him with all the book and movie deals that'll be flooding in tomorrow and perhaps to advise him on laying the ground work for his future presidential run in four years. He didn't want that plumbing business anyway.... See you tomorrow.

UPDATE: Thanks to my intrepid commenter, Vienna Va, who keeps me honest, it's Joe the Plumber, rather than Charlie the Plumber, as I wrote last night. I was thinking about my favorite plumber in Jackson Hole whom I've done business with for two decades. But come to think of it, maybe I should call Charlie the Plumber for a comment!

Joe says Obama is a damn good speaker but he likes McCain's platform more

DOW Down Over 700 Points Today, Yet The Glass Ceiling Breaks Again

Austrian rider Hannah Zeitlhofer sat atop a prized Lipizzaner horse at the Spanish Riding School in Vienna Wednesday. This is the first time, the 430-year-old school has allowed women to ride the world-famous breed of horse.

h/t(Leonhard Foeger/Reuters), WSJ

ACORN's Thugs For Obama, Our Taxpayer (!) Dollars At Work

Out-of-control. Totally. And illegal.

Howard Stern: Why It's Ridiculous to Talk Politics With Most People

Totally uninformed. Unbelievable. Correction: all too believable.

Rated R for language. Much of our electorate is clueless and wouldn't know an issue, a principle or even a candidate if it bit them in the brain. This is our deteriorating electorate.

de Tocqueville said, “In a democracy, the people get the government they deserve.”

And so we will. So we will.

IBD, Wake Up America

A nation that doesn't know history is destined to repeat its serious mistakes. People swayed by carefully crafted political propaganda relentlessly repeated and effectively delivered can easily lose their freedom and way of life. (Especially when their experience has not yet taught them otherwise.)

How often have you been told that "the direct causes of our financial crisis and subprime real estate loan mess were the greedy banks, big corporations and the failed economic policies of George Bush"? Nothing could be further from the truth.

Every American, young or old, should struggle with what and learn who was really behind the subprime loan disaster that threw our economy off track:

In 1977, Jimmy Carter and a Democrat Congress created the Community Reinvestment Act mandating that banks make more housing loans to lower-income and inner-city borrowers. It was for a well-intended social cause and even appeared to work in the 1980s.

But in 1995, President Clinton imposed even tougher regulations that forced banks to make dramatically more subprime loans to previously unqualified people with lower credit scores in higher-risk areas.

Government regulators rated banks by how well they performed in meeting these strict new CRA obligations. Failure to comply meant stiff penalties and limits on mergers, acquisitions and expansion.

Big Government forced the lowering of long-proven safe-lending standards. Most of the more than $1 trillion of new subprime CRA loans had adjustable rates. Many required no documentation of the borrower's income and little or no down payment.

For the first time, the Clinton regulatory rules allowed and encouraged lenders to bundle the new, riskier subprime loans with prime loans and sell these packages to other institutions. The first one hit the market in 1997. That tragic blunder let loan originators make their profits faster and eliminate any future risk for those lower-quality loans. It let them turn around and make even more CRA-type loans and sell them off in packages again, with little future risk.

It was a government-sponsored pyramid scheme, with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac providing the implied government backing by buying ever larger amounts of these risky subprimes.

Freddie and Fannie also became heavy donors to top members of Congress. These included Sen. Chris Dodd, a young Sen. Barack Obama and Rep. Barney Frank, who aggressively defended the highly leveraged, extremely risky lending against any reforms.

Ironically, the Bush administration repeatedly went to Congress in 2004, 2005 and 2006 to obtain stronger oversight and some limits on Freddie and Fannie's reckless subprime lending. And each time, it was voted down by Democrats in Congress, led by Frank, now chairman of the Financial Services Committee.

Bottom line: This whole mess was another Big Government program created, designed and run by Democrats. It started with great intentions but resulted in typically awful unintended consequences that materially hurt the very people they were supposed to help.

Worse, this incompetence put our financial system in jeopardy. It's reminiscent of LBJ's two lost wars — the War in Vietnam and the War on Poverty. (Vietnam was first lost in the liberal press who foisted defeat on the American people who bit---hook, line and sinker.)

Many government housing projects, though well-intended as part of LBJ's War on Poverty, later deteriorated into slums that became recruiting grounds to get very young new gang members.

That's how we got into this financial mess — and why the $700 billion rescue package was passed. But what about the future? What serious threats does America face in the next five years? The list isn't comforting:

Read the rest of this article here.

John Newton Writes Amazing Grace

John Newton's "Amazing Grace" is the most sung, most recorded and most loved hymn in the world. No other song, spiritual or secular, comes close to it in terms of numbers of recordings, (over 3,000 in the United States alone), frequency of performances (it is publicly sung at least 10 million times a year), international popularity across six continents or cultural longevity (234 years and going strong).....Yet among the billions of people who have enjoyed singing or listening to it, remarkably few have any knowledge of its origins, purposes, consequences or history.

"Amazing Grace" was conceived by Newton in late December 1772 as part of the preparations he was making for a New Year's Day sermon to his parishioners on January 1, 1773. The notion of writing a hymn in order to prepare for a sermon would have been alien to most eighteenth-century clergymen, but Newton was an ingenious innovator in this field of spiritual communication. In the previous two years he had been experimenting with the highly unusual activity (for a Church of England incumbent) of writing "People's Hymns." This activity stemmed from Newton's realization that the principal religious books of the established church, the King James Bible and 1662 Book of Common Prayer, were full of words and phrases that uneducated people found difficult to understand.

As his Olney congregation consisted largely of lace-makers, agricultural laborers, malting's workers, blacksmiths, carpenters and other artisans or tradesmen, Newton thought he could help them to understand the Scriptures if he amplified his sermons by writing simply worded hymns that illustrated the biblical passages on which he was preaching.

At the beginning of his curacy in Olney, Newton used the hymns of other writers such as Isaac Watts or John and Charles Wesley for this purpose. The first recipients of this biblical teaching through hymns had been the children of the parish......When Newton realized how effective the singing and learning by heart of hymns could be as a spiritual teaching aid for children, he expanded the practice to the adult members of his congregation....Although the hymn singing there proved popular, it was only occasionally extended into Olney church itself, rather than prayer meetings during the week, because the eighteenth-century Church of England frowned upon anything other than metrical Psalms (the Psalms set to song meters) being sung within consecrated buildings.

There was a particular reason why Newton might have chosen January 1, 1773 as a date on which to expound on God's grace. He was in the habit of regarding every New Year's Day as a milestone for spiritual stock taking.

Newton's diary notes for his sermon in Olney Church on this New Year's Day show that he developed the theme of his December 31 diary entry. For he began by emphasizing the importance of being grateful to God for his past mercies. Then he asked the same rhetorical question that David had asked some three thousand years earlier: "Who am I, Lord?"

Newton's answer took on autobiographical overtones clearly echoed in his just written hymn. For he declared that unconverted sinners were blinded by the god of the world (Satan) until "God's mercy came to us not only undeserved but undesired...... our hearts endeavored to shut him out till He overcame us by the power of grace."

----John Aitken, John Newton, From Disgrace to Amazing Grace

At The Crossroads of Destiny: An Historic Gem in Greenville, Ohio

Will be back later to write more about The Garst Museum, one of the most amazing little museums in America. It's a gold mine of our country's history circa 1792-1802, featuring American heros, treaties, maps, archeology, artifacts, art, stories and much inspiration for our troubled times. I had the great pleasure and privilege of visiting there this past week at the invitation of a friend who loves this museum with a passion and has been talking about it for years. Now I see why. Nothing I will write can begin to do this hidden gem justice. But for now, many thanks to Fred, Doc, Dave, Gary, Floyd, Dusty, Mike, Jean Louise, David, Annie Oakley, General Mad Anthony Wayne, Tecumseh, Little Turtle and Lowell Thomas just to name a few. What a combo!



Standing in front of a painting depicting the Signing of the Treaty of Greene Ville, 1795.

Our group lead by some regional historians stand around a replica of Fort Greene Ville, a pioneer fort built under General Anthony Wayne's command, at over 55 acres this was the largest wooden fortification ever built. It was a virtual city that housed over 5,000 people. It was here that the Treaty of Greenville was signed on August 3, 1795, bringing peace to the area and opening up the Northwest Territory for settlement. Fort Greene Ville was named for Wayne's fellow General Nathanael Greene. This was the birth place of the U.S. Army after the Revolutionary War.

IBD: Investors' and Capitalists' Biggest Fear: A Left Leaning Cure Being Worse Than the Disease, A Socialist Tsunami

Think the present crisis is scary and uncertain? There are many economists who fear the cure for our current economic woes will be much worse than the credit disease we're now suffering. Especially if Big Government continues to orchestrate things as they have in the banking industry for the past two decades (the very industry the feds have over-regulated into the ground). Could it be the markets---which always look ahead---are in free fall because it views a bleak future for us in, say, an Obama administration?

IBD takes a look today and sees the future with a socialist like Barack at the helm. Don't read this if you want to enjoy your Saturday. Please spare yourself if it's a beautiful day.

Some highlights:

It isn't only that the most anti-capitalist politician ever nominated by a major party is favored to take the White House. It's that he'll also have a filibuster-proof Congress led by politicians who are almost as liberal.

Throw in a media establishment dedicated to the implementation of a liberal agenda, and the smothering of dissent wherever it arises, and it's no wonder panic has set in.

What is that agenda? It starts with a tax system right out of Marx: A massive redistribution of income — from each according to his ability, to each according to his need — all in the name of "neighborliness," "patriotism," "fairness" and "justice."

Want more?

The businesses that create jobs and generate wealth are already discounting the future based on what they know about Obama's plans to raise income, capital gains, dividend and payroll taxes, and his various other economy-crippling policies. Which helps explain why world stock markets have been so topsy-turvy.

But don't take our word for it. One hundred economists, five Nobel winners among them, have signed a letter noting just that:"The prospect of such tax-rate increases in 2010 is already a drag on the economy," they wrote, noting that the potential of higher taxes in the next year or two is reducing hiring and investment.

It was "misguided tax hikes and protectionism, enacted when the U.S. economy was weak in the early 1930s," the economists remind us, that "greatly increased the severity of the Great Depression."

What these economists are all saying is a liberal, clueless president who knows nothing about business or finance may take the helm and give you a tax cut, but destroy your job by over-taxing those who create jobs and capital that make our free markets vital and prosperous.

What good is a tax cut on income if you have no job or income to tax?

We can't panic vote and watch the disease become worse than the illness. Or can we?

Video From The WSJ

"THIS IS A GREAT DRAMA OF OUR TIME---THE SUB-PRIME CREDIT CRISIS IS NOW THE AIDS VIRUS OF GLOBAL FINANCE. NO ONE KNOWS WHO'S BEEN EXPOSED OR 'SAFE' TO DO BUSINESS WITH ANYMORE. WHILE THIS COUNTRY WAS FOUNDED ON THE IDEA OF EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY, THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS EQUALITY OF OUTCOME (GIVING EVERYONE A MORTGAGE WHETHER THEY CAN AFFORD IT OR NOT). IT IS AND ALWAYS WAS A POLITICALLY CORRECT, UNWORKABLE MYTH OF THE LEFT---CARTER AND CLINTON---THAT'S NOW COMING HOME TO DEVOUR US." ---Webutante

What we're seeing this week is a transfer of fear from the credit markets to the stock/equity markets. Recession is guaranteed with the only operative questions being how deep, how long? And, can we stave off a depression?

I know this is dull and boring for many, if not most, of my readers and certainly my commenters. However, I think it's the Great Story of Our Time, the AIDS of Global Markets, bringing together finance, politics, psychology, values and government policies. I have to write about it as a long-time student of the markets and as a long-time, humble investor, long before I started blogging. I think everyone owes it to themselves to grapple as much as possible with what got us to this global meltdown. It was a long time in coming and will be a long time going.

There is no silver bullet, though there may be medicine that keeps us from certain death. We've suffered excesses of credit, not just in mortgages and banking, but also with credit card debt, home equity loans, consumer spending and debt, and business to business credit and debt. The good times have rolled for decades.

Remember the sexual revolution of the 60s and 70s? And the hangover, scars and sober learning many of us had in the following decades? The credit crisis is like the AIDS of Finance and we don't yet know how many individuals and institutions have been infected. It will bring the same pain, scars, and death to some and eventual learning and wisdom to others.

What doesn't kill us may cure us, if we're willing to be patient and reflective.

Some of this---like the policies of Carter and Clinton with the Community Reinvestment Act---was foisted on us by well-intentioned big government policies designed to create equality of outcome (which we all know is a fairy tale). And some of it is the result of human greed inherent in every one of us, on the left, right and middle of all races, sexes and cultural groups. Greed is an equal opportunity failure.

This financial epidemic is far, far from over. No one will come away unscathed. We can only hope some of us will get a lesson or two and come away better for it.

When it comes to easy credit, like easy sex, some of us may even become celibate and refrain from credit altogether. Other will only do it after making a commitment.

Uncharted Territory: Wickedest Bear Market in History

Friday 9:45: DOW OPENS -700, BRIEFLY TURNS POSITIVE. NOW AT -290: Nearing bottom?

Bush's Friday speech: The problem is that banks are holding huge losses making financing daily credit transactions impossible. The government is now using every tool necessary to get these credit markets moving again. The Fed is infusing billions of dollars of liquidity into system and lowering interest rates. FDIC expanding insurance of our money from $100,000 to $250,000. Responsible borrowers will be able to refinance their mortgages to prevent foreclosures.Our government is taking aggressive action and it will work. It will take time. It's an anxious time but Americans can be confident in their future.

We'll see if the public and global markets are reassured by this.

Friday: WORST WEEK, WORST YEAR ON RECORD: Panic selling continues worldwide as few understand the rescue and what it's designed to accomplish. The market first takes down the weak and over-inflated stocks, but near the end, it takes all the good ones. No place to hide before the tide turns and smart money comes back in. We may really be near a bottom however.

Wall Street as we know it---gone. Investment banks--mostly gone. Hedge funds---many gone. Auto industry---Ford, GM---nearly gone. Labor unions that loaded auto makers with excessive demands that pushed them to the brink---nearly gone.

Banks, the most heavily government regulated industry in American history---are now under attempted resuscitation by the very hands that almost killed them--- big government---prognosis unknown but some will be gone. Hank Paulson, President George Bush's greatest big government fixers---still among us.

Markets have fallen through all historical trends and records. We're in totally uncharted territory. Still, a bottom should come soon followed by a wild bounce.

Two silver linings give reason for some small optimism:

First: Treasuries are coming round, with long-term yields turning higher than short-terms for the first time in four years. There's been a wacky inverted curve whereby short-term rates produced higher returns than longer-term ones and it's needed righting which it now has. This is a cautiously optimistic sign.

Second: Gold is not shooting through the roof as it would again if we were going into a depression. If gold rallies wildly now for long, it would indicate ultimate panic. Instead, the dollar is continuing to slowly but surely make headway especially in relation to many foreign currencies. This is a cautiously optimistic sign and a reason to give thanks for small blessings.

One other positive is the price of oil and gasoline is also coming down. This will benefit the American people as we go into what may be a long, cold winter.

Friday is another day. We'll see what happens. I'll be there.