DADvocate

PsychoPhil has specifics on the children's arrow earmark.

Thank God Congress is protecting the children's arrow industry.

The one thing about Joe Biden and Barack Obama that turns me off the most is their slick, snake oil salesman styles. I keep getting the feeling that they're trying to sell me a bridge, to nowhere maybe.



Joe Biden's smile in his Katie Couric interview as he tells us how paying taxes is our patriotic duty gives me that same shiver down my spine (not leg like Chris Matthews) as fingernails scraping a blackboard. Obama's only slightly smoother.

In his smooth, eloquent voice Obama explains to us how he's going to turn turn American into nirvana. One only has to listen with moderate attention to realize he's blowing smoke. He can't do what he promises, no person can. And, he says whatever he thinks his audience wants to hear. He has no foundation.

In the same way that every sociopath cons people, Biden and Obama con voters everyday. My audacity is hoping the consequences of too many people falling for their lines aren't too damaging.

UPDATE: Listening to WLW radio I heard co-host Tracy Jones describe Joe Biden in the debate last night as looking like "someone lying to his wife." Guess I'm not the only one who gets that feeling.

Update below.

Robin Hahnel, economist, professor emeritus of economics at American University and currently visiting at Portland State University, predicts economic disaster if the Senate bail out bill is passed in its present form. On the Mike McConnell show on WLW radio Hahnel said this earlier today.

"This bailout is so badly designed and so aimed in the wrong direction. And fails to do the things that are absolutely necessary that I don't think that it is really going to substantially improve the prospect of avoiding a worst case scenario."

"What was required was a competent intervention. And this is anything but competent."

"Anybody who thinks they've actually come up with a competent response to the most serious economic problem this country's faced in 80 years is delusional because they have not."

More here in this podcast. Hahnel is about the last 1/3 of the podcast.

Hahnel went on to say that by the inaugaration of the next president we could be in the economic equivalent of a category 5 hurricane.

More comments by Hahnel from a couple of weeks ago.

He said today: "No, the government cannot walk away from the financial crisis and let the chips fall where they may. Wall Street, the Republican Party, and the neoliberal wing of the Democratic Party have created a mess so huge that at this point the ordinary person on the street would suffer terribly in absence of massive government intervention.

"However, there is every reason to believe the intervention Treasury Secretary Paulson and President Bush are urging Congress to sign off on would prove to be a disaster. (1) It is fundamentally different from the liquidation of failed savings and loan assets by the Resolution Trust Corporation to which it is being compared, and may well fail to stem the crisis of confidence. (2) While it seeks to put Wall Street back on its feet with a full pardon, it offers no comparable relief or pardon to citizens who have already or will soon lose their homes or suffered bankruptcy. (3) It maximizes taxpayer liability and minimizes opportunities to recoup taxpayer losses when financial institutions recover. And (4) at a time when investment priorities must shift dramatically to move us toward a carbon neutral economy, it would leave these crucial choices in the hands of the same people who squandered the nation's investment resources over the past two decades while feathering their own nests handsomely. In short, it is a Wall Street idea, peddled by a former Wall Street CEO, that is likely to prove as bad an idea as Wall Street's last bad idea -- deregulate us and allow us to run the nation's economic business."

But, don't worry too much, it's safe money that our Senators and Congresspersons will be doing just fine.

UPDATE: Need more proof of Congress' lack of sincerity in "solving" the financial crisis. Look at these ridiculous earmarks, aka "sweeteners."

The good part starts about 27 seconds in.

In football parlance "pancaking" someone means forcefully knocking them to the ground. Friday night my son pancaked a linebacker so forcefully that his coach made a point of playing the video for the team today. Here's the video I took. He is the leftmost down lineman for the white team. He pulls to the right and goes up the middle for the strong block. The play went for a touchdown.

My son is a 6'3" 250 lb sophomore with lots of promise. He's getting plenty of playing time on a good varsity team. They are ranked 4th in the state in 3A schools with a 4-1 record. The one loss was to a strong 6A school.

One of the greatest indicators of who wins or loses a presidential election in the U.S. is the economic conditions of the country. When the economy is good, the party in office usually wins. Bad economy, the opposing party wins.

Consider Barack Obama's close ties to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac executives. Consider the six figure campaign contributions from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to Democrats Chris Dodd, John Kerry and Barack Obama.

Consider Barack Obama's close relationship to ACORN and its role in relaxing mortgage requirements. Consider Nancy Pelosi's "harshly partisan" speech today, guaranteed to anger Republicans and lower the chance of the bail out bill passing.

I could go on for hours.

But look at the process and the context. The Democrats don't seem to want to drag out the process. The Democrats are spending more time pointing fingers than reaching solutions although they share as much or more of the guilt for policies dating back to Jimmy Carter leading to the crisis. Chris Dodd tried to earmark money for ACORN as a reward for them. Read the MSM. They're in hog heaven.

Look who's benefiting - the Democrats. They wanted this crisis. The MSM wanted this crisis. They wanted it hoping the economic conditions would give the election to Barack Obama. And, as shown my the actions of Pelosi and Dodd, they don't give a damn about you and me.

Watching Congress try to resolve the financial crisis is disheartening. Chris Dodd tries to divert money for a favorite liberal organization. The type of thing that contributed to the problem to begin with. Nancy Pelosi tries to play politics and calls Republicans unpatriotic. Funny how things have gone down hill so fast since the Democrats took over Congress.

I'm sure there's plenty of blame to go around but John McCain did co-sponsor legislation in 2005 to try to avert such a crisis as we now have. Barack Obama took $105,849 in campaign contributions from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. (At same link).

Ultimately, the people most responsible for the crisis are now "trying" to resolve it. Kinda like the fox guarding the hen house.

"Advertisements... contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper."

Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Nathaniel Macon, January 12, 1819

Today we could substitute TV or radio broadcasts for newspaper.

Consider the above quote along with Obama and his thug's attempts to crush anti-Obama ads in Missouri. Given the tremendous bias in the MSM in Obama's favor, it's the truth in the advertising that he fears most. Neither CNN nor MSNBC doesn't appear to be covering this story.


The ad in question.


The response from the governor of Missouri. Gov. Blunt's scathing comments reminded me of the Jefferson quote. (I once won a contest for knowing the origin of this quote.)

Hat tip to Instapundit.

A vote for Obama is a vote for loss of personal freedoms. Here is an account one of Obama's latest attempts for silence freedom of speech. He wants to set up a "community service program tied to educational funding where young people can be indoctrinated in such beliefs as heterosexism being a negative byproduct of "capitalism, white supremacy, patriarchy and male-dominated privilege."

Obama's "responsible fatherhood" platform will surely lead to more burdens on fathers with no increase in equality in custody rights or protection under the law. I don't understand why any man votes Democratic. The Democratic Party has robbed men of many of their rights over the past 50 years and built a legal system heavily biased against them.

A simple truism is that the government can't do anything for you without taking something away. Many of Obama's proposals will take away our freedom. Every time you hear or read one of Obama's ideas consider its impact on your freedom. You'll find none that will increase freedom and several that will decrease freedom.

The freedoms guaranteed under the Bill of Rights are what make this country greater than any amount of wealth.

OK, it really wasn't a hurricane, just the remnants of one, Hurricane Ike. Winds were officially clocked at 74 mph. The gusts up rooted trees, tore siding and shingles off of buildings, spread fires and generally wreaked havoc. Power was knocked out to 1.25 million Duke Energy customers plus some others not served by Duke Energy (like me).

As of today at 6:30 PM, over 400,000 still have no electrical power.


Screen shot of power outages for Cincinnati (Hamilton County) and surrounding counties. To worsen matters, many of Duke Energy's maintenance and repair workers were on their way or already in Texas to help out with damage there leaving the Cincinnati area undermanned.

Schools and businesses were also closed. With many gas stations unable to operate, others sustained long lines.

Photos HERE and HERE.

Nothing like what Hurricane Ike did to Texas but quite a surprise for Midwesterners who expect a local tornado or severe thunderstorm occasionally.

News stories HERE and HERE.

Fortunately, I was only without power for 8 hours. Most of Maysville, KY had no interruption in power which is where most people in this area shop and buy gas. It was so windy, though less so than Cincinnati, at my house that I was afraid to mow my yard for fear a falling limb would hit me in the head.

Update: There's a certain irony of living within sight of a power plant and not having any power. Kentucky Power has a plant across the river from the mouth of the creek upon which I live, about 1.5 miles from where I live. New Richmond, OH has a power plant on it's western edge but the town was still without power when I drove home last night.