Fenstermaker, Attorney for 9/11 Terrorist Seems to Have No Soul

Wow, I am not even sure how to describe what I saw on O'Reilly tonight.  Scott Fenstermaker, the lawyer representing terrorist Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, nephew of 9/11 mastermind KSM, gave one of the most cowardly, if not evil interviews I have ever seen. 

Repeatedly pressed to answer whether or not 3,000 innocent civilians were murdered on 9/11, Fenstermaker repeatedly said that the jury would decide that, and in fact multiple times strangely argued that the number was actually less than 3,000.  He even made a snide comment when O'Reilly challenged why he, three times, argued that it was less than 3,000 people, indicating that it mattered to the other 200 people who he presumably was arguing were not killed.  How a laywer, who's law firm is located "in the heart of New York City," cannot admit that the worst atrocity in the history of our nation was committed on 9/11 is absolutely sickening. 

Perhaps even worse, when asked if he would celebrate if his client was allowed to walk free, while first simply defiantly arguing that for political reasons that would not happen, Fenstermaker said that he would celebrate the fact that justice had been served.  With a straight face, he admitted his honor in representing the most despicable scum on Earth. 

As far as I am concerned, this man is a traitor to his country, and for his complicity in proudly choosing to defend a terrorist that threatens all of the liberties that Fenstermaker takes for granted, deserves a fate similar to that of the terrorist he is representing. Continue reading
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Daily Quips

Today's Daily Quips are brought to you by the labor unions: destroying American enterprises and beating people up since the Industrial Revolution.

From Breitbart With Love One of the heroes in this upside down world is Andrew Breitbart.  I had the privilege to meet him a year ago where he laid out his vision of a world in which conservatives could fight back through the media, be it in Hollywood or abroad.  His vision is starting to be realized, as the ACORN videos and their startling effect on the public have shown.  He is taking this ACORN story straight to the liberals, all the way up to Eric Holder, a man who seems to have been getting a lot of press coverage recently.  Keep fighting the good fight Mr. Breitbart!  

Those Loopy Louisianans In a story that reflects all too often the rule rather than the exception, we get the scoop from ABC News on how Mary Landrieu will be bought off for her healthcare vote.  First, one can't help but notice how arcane yet deceptive the language is in the bill.  Clearly it is something written by lawyers, intentionally set out to deceive the public.  Second, this is how politics works.  In its simplest form this case represents bargaining, but in its most nefarious it represents legalized plunder.  Third, Glenn Beck did a great job of showing how the DC game works in exposing good ol' John Murtha last night.  American politics makes a mockery of the public, but the public continues to feed at the trough of DC.

The Financial-Political Complex Mr. Corzine, another esteemed former Goldman politician looks to potentially be coming back into the financial fray as CEO of B of A.  And he thought governing New Jersey was hard.  Big Government picks up on Corzine's ties to Big Labor, and questions how that might impact his decisions as CEO.  As we know, the big financial institutions have always done business with the criminal community-organizers, and I would expect nothing less if Corzine does in fact take the job.  

Gangreen Michelle Malkin, another hero in the effort to expose the sheer and utter corruption of this administration specifically and the lefties generally writes about a global warming scandal that has recently come to light.  People need to understand what the Green Movement is.  It has nothing whatsoever to do with improving the environment.  It is about a power grab, plain and simple.  There will be a massive wealth transfer to companies that play along with the government in pushing green technology, and to the financial services sector that will make billions in trading revenues from the "carbon market."  The consumers will have to deal with the cruel tax of increases in energy prices, while politicians, energy-producers and bankers will have a field day.  I should note that GE is the face of all evil when it comes to this movement.  They are also ruining quality programming like The Office and 30 Rock with their green message.  Al Gore plugged global warming for a couple of minutes at the end of last night's 30 Rock for example.  And can they please stop with the green NBC peacock logo and green tickers.  Shameless, shameless propaganda. Continue reading
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Daily Quips

Given the massive volume of ridiculous news stories revealing the travesties occurring in this country on a daily basis, I have decided to start regularly posting my thoughts on selected pieces each day. I will continue of course to produce lengthier more substantive pieces as well.

Without further ado, I present today's Daily Quips:

As Pamela over at Atlas Shrugs highlights, AG Eric Holder gave his opinion on bringing KSM to justice in Manhattan, the site of his heinous crimes. Holder boldly asserted, "we need not cower in the face of this enemy. Our institutions are strong, our infrastructure is sturdy, our resolve is firm, and our people are ready." In light of the remarks of government officials such as Henry Paulson: "It’s a safe banking system, a sound banking system. Our regulators are on top of it,” Barney Frank (on Fannie and Freddie): "I think we see entities that are fundamentally sound financially" and Barack Obama: "But I do have an unyielding belief that all people yearn for certain things: the ability to speak your mind and have a say in how you are governed, confidence in the rule of law and the equal administration of justice, government that is transparent and doesn't steal from the people, the freedom to live as you choose. These are not just American ideas. They are human rights. And that is why we will support them everywhere," all signs indicate that we should be running scared. If a bigwig politician tells you things are safe and sound, things naturally must be in awfully bad shape.

Obama said "if we keep on adding to the debt, even in the midst of this recovery, that at some point, people could lose confidence in the U.S. economy in a way that could actually lead to a double-dip recession." Thank you captain obvious for the biggest understatement I have ever seen. First off, people are losing confidence in the USD and our economy as reflected in the rallies in foreign currencies and equity markets. Most importantly, the price of gold has been making new nominal highs on a daily basis. You think there might be consequences to quadrupling our deficit in less than a year of being President? You think there might be consequences to the fact that we have unfunded liabilities of over $100 trillion? The One may be the most enlightened President since George W. Bush.

The Press is doing everything they can to bring down Sarah Palin. Regardless of how you feel about her, and honestly I am not close to having fully formed a judgment about the woman, the hypocrisy of the media here is sickening. The double standard that the media employs when it comes to how they treat liberals versus conservatives, and in-particular wholesome middle-American female conservatives is abominable. The MSM has not fact-checked one thing about President Obama, yet they have repeatedly beaten Sarah Palin to death. I don't care what your political leanings, the behavior of the media towards the former governor has been and continues to be beyond disgraceful.

POTUS Obama is "furious" about the leaks coming from the Afghanistan deliberations. I agree with him, these leaks are harmful to our troops. Almost as harmful as the fact that it is taking him MONTHS of playing with our soldiers' lives to make a decision! Maybe if he had a firm grasp of the situation and acted accordingly there wouldn't be time for all of these leaks. I am all for taking the time to make a prudent decision but something tells me Afghanistan is more about politics than national defense for this administration.

Barry Ritholtz over at the Big Picture illustrates why we are doomed for a long and painful Depression. The more you see the policies being enacted by this administration, and compare them to those of Hoover and FDR, the more you get the sense that this isn't Barack Obama merely being naive, but actually intentionally trying to plunge us into the economic abyss. Continue reading
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Barack Obama is Ensuring a Prolonged Depression

President Barack Obama's success as reflected in the recent gubernatorial races appears ever more staked on the state of the economy. Unemployment recently reached 10.2%, though the more honest measure of U-6 shows the nation running unemployment at a Depression-like 17.5%. In response to these numbers, Barack Obama has said that "I will not rest until all Americans who want work can." Yet Mr. Obama's policies belie his words. In fact, what his administration is doing will ensure massive unemployment and endless economic stagnation.

To understand why I would make such a sweeping assertion, it is instructive to understand how our economy ended up in this predicament in the first place. For this, I must give a cursory explanation of the Austrian theory of the business cycle.

The interest rate is a price signal, no different from the price tag on any good. In a free market (which the US most certainly does not have), the interest rate -- the cost of capital -- is determined by the supply of and demand for capital. Individuals choose to consume or invest, and this dictates the amount of loanable funds in the economy, which businesses will use to undertake projects to bring goods to market for future consumption.

However, when a central bank like the Federal Reserve prints money, artificially lowering the interest rate and expanding the loanable pool of funds, producers are left with a false price signal. The interest rate will tell producers that consumers want them to undertake long term projects to bring goods to market. This artificially lowered rate will induce consumers to save less and borrow and spend more as debt is cheaper.

Resources are misallocated because of the conflicting demands of consumers and undertakings of producers, caused by the government-distorted (the Fed though nominally private is clearly an apparatus of the state) price signal of the interest rate. This leads to the bust, manifested for example in the empty houses and office buildings throughout the country.

Logically, one might think that the best way to fix this mess would be to liquidate the malinvestments of businesses, pay down our debts and start fresh. One might say that we must allow for the market mechanism to correct the imbalances and distortions created during the artificial boom.

Only neanderthals (i.e. policymakers in the pre-Depression era) would advocate the above. The enlightened Barack Obama and his team of trusty economic advisers, along with the ever-compliant Messrs Bernanke and Geithner have other ideas. Practically every single policy they have enacted is intended to stop the market from clearing out the wastes and excesses of the boom. The government has undertaken programs to encourage greater home ownership and keep people in homes that they cannot currently afford, and to buy more cars, fictiously propping up GDP numbers. They have bailed out failing enterprises. They have abrogated contractual obligations. They have created make-work, politically oriented and naturally often fraudulent and wasteful public works projects. They have also increased the money supply at an unprecedented rate, easing the Federal Reserve-controlled interest rate to a ridiculous 0%. They have done all of this while exponentially expanding a national debt which was already egregiously large.

All of these policies in their own way have prevented and will continue to prevent any sort of recovery. They are designed to stop markets from reflecting reality, continuing the distortions already created by government tinkering. History seems to be repeating itself, with Obama following Hoover and FDR's favorite anti-Depression prescriptions.

There are major costs to these programs. Besides the fact that government is prolonging the downturn by not allowing the gears of the markets to function, the government has created a major moral hazard in bailing out failed companies, hurt those successful companies who have been forced to subsidize the failed ones, and also in propping up failing enterprises, prevented entrepreneurs from putting the assets being tied up in unprofitable businesses to better use. The government has also completely misled both businesses and their investors by running roughshod over contracts in both the case of the AIG bonuses and the GM creditor boondoggle.

The government has also used its largess to "save or create 600,000 jobs," a number which is not only dubious but also fallacious. As Frederic Bastiat told us, the good economist examines not only what is seen, but the unseen. This arbitrary number of 600,000 hides the fact that government make-work projects and propping up of unsound ventures stops new and more profitable industries from springing up given the diversion of land, labor and capital in projects that would otherwise not exist. This prevents new job opportunities from being created, and also prevents workers from learning new skills to become viable employees in new and profitable businesses. At best, if there was no politicization, corruption, waste and the government was able to build things both solid and aesthetically pleasing, the government could merely divert resources. However they will not be meeting any type of demand of the consumer like a private enterprise because they lack the price mechanism of the market when undertaking their projects, which would show profits or losses. They are responding to the demands of political interests. Put more succinctly, we don't know how many jobs have been lost because of the ones that have theoretically been saved or created.

Not to mention the fact that the resources used to save or create these jobs (and for all of the other bailouts and programs enacted by the government) have to come from somewhere. They come from bilking the taxpayer, or future generations of taxpayers. Ventures that private individuals choose not to undertake with their own capital are instead created by the government.

In addition, low interest rates have not only kept banks alive which would have failed, but allowed them to generate profits on the taxpayer dime by borrowing from the government at 0% and either lending it back to the Federal Reserve or pumping it into the financial markets, where we see the results of continued monetary inflation in the increase in stock, bond and commodity prices. What this represents is a massive wealth transfer from the American people to the financiers, whose participants it should be noted prop up the government itself by underwriting and creating markets in its debt. Most important of all, in keeping interest rates artificially low, the government continues to distort the price signaling mechanism, which caused the whole crisis in the first place.

There are also major costs due to the debt that the government issues in financing their intervention. The massive increase in our debt undermines the creditworthiness of the country which will ultimately lead to an increase in interest rates as people lose faith in our government and in the viability of our economy to generate the funds necessary to pay down these crushing debts. The only way for the government to pay off these debts since they cannot do it honestly by directly taxing will be through the indirect tax of inflation, which as I have mentioned they have been doing since this crisis began and at an absurdly fast rate ever since the Federal Reserve was instituted. And again, this will continue the price-signal distortion.

So just to review, the government is preventing markets from adjusting, preventing businesses from going belly-up and their assets being put to better uses by more competent businessmen and women, creating wasteful public works projects, all while ruining the nation's creditworthiness and debauching the currency.

There is a last point which must be made. Besides the fact that the government's policies inherently either encourage non-productivity or reward bad actors which weakens the moral fabric of the people, as during FDR's presidency, market entrepreneurs (as opposed to the political ones who profit from the aforementioned government swindling) are genuinely afraid of this administration. To say that the GM bailout in addition to the coercion of the banks and most perhaps most notably B of A CEO Ken Lewis had a chilling effect is an understatement. People in business do not know how arbitrary or onerous government regulations will be.

As the government runs from one whimsical plan to another, all market participants can be sure of is that regarding regulation and intervention, there will be more, and that they will be soaked by taxes either direct or indirect. With businesses unsure of the economic environment but most likely rightfully anticipating (though in my opinion underestimating) an increase in outright socialism in the economy, this will surely quell economic growth.

Thus, we see that Obama's policies are not only misguided but also incredibly destructive. If we fail to work through the carnage caused by the government-induced boom, and instead try to continue down the path of unsustainability; if instead of letting the economy adjust and liquidate, painful as it may be, we try to continue the illusory boom, we will be doomed to years of unemployment, stagnation and ultimately the "crackup boom" of the economy. And this isn't even to mention the threats to our economy posed by national healthcare, cap-and-tax and even scarier Mr. Obama's foreign policy.

The only way to create jobs and fix a broken economic model is to release the entrepreneurial forces of America. Each and every one of these policies retards the necessary adjustment, depriving businesses of valuable assets that can be put to more profitable lines of work and consumers of receiving the products they seek.  President Obama is shamefully ensuring a prolonged depression to serve his political ends. Continue reading
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Robert Spencer Gets Attacked...by American Citizens

This evening at NYU I witnessed an act which was both disturbing and appalling. Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch, an erudite scholar on Islam and patriotic defender of our freedom was giving a talk on the ever-growing threat to the West of Islamists. In the midst of describing the ends of Jihad as promulgated by one of the foremost radical Islamic scholars of the 1970s, a grungy looking fellow stood up and yelled at Spencer "Should we just go bomb all the Muslims!?" and attacking him with other vitriolic and hysterical words. In creating this diversion, a couple members of the audience ran up and threw pies at Mr. Spencer and another panelist. The campus authorities quickly intervened, and as the officers dragged the cowards away from the stage, another (presumably accomplice) student filmed the the officers on his phone. Luckily, Spencer and his fellow panelist Elan Journo ended up largely unscathed.

This whole scene characterizes where we are in America today. A man gets attacked for merely repeating the words of a Muslim radical. Worse, American students are planted in auditoriums all across this country ready to quash any free speech that is not to their liking. This is especially dangerous when it comes to matters of Islam, because as Spencer later argued in his speech, by not allowing criticism of the religion, and worse censoring free speech, we are elevating Islam above our own culture. This plays right into the hands of the people who wish to impose Sharia law over us. How ironic that the leftists in this country are the useful idiots for a Jihad movement that wishes to crush all tolerance. Finally of course, it is most likely the police who will be in trouble because of a video probably bound for YouTube as we speak which will show the officers violently hauling out the innocent and naive college hippies.

Most disheartening is the fact that it is people like Spencer who are literally risking their lives to try to wake Americans up to the grave fact that our enemies both abroad and within are getting stronger, and that it is our own politically correct culture which is allowing them to do so both through violent and democratic means. Where do we stand as a nation when we have to be afraid to merely shed light on the beliefs of our enemies? Where do we stand as a nation when our own people quell free speech? Where do we stand as a nation when we cannot criticize an ideology that has been used to justify the killing of 3,000 innocents on our soil, and countless other innocents abroad? We are headed down a suicidal path if the lovers of liberty do not stand up and fight.

Update: Mr. Spencer's Response
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A Call to Arms

American populist angst has been rising for some time now. The optimist in me hopes that the Tea Party movement, and with it the rekindling within Americans of the vision of the founders and the defense of our Constitution can "fundamentally transform the United States of America" to coin a phrase from our old socialist pal in the Oval Office.

Yet while my heart tells me that there is a chance to turn this ship around, the overwhelming evidence that I have documented in my more sober if not brutally honest moments speaks to just the opposite. The progressives have been hammering away at our freedoms for well over a century, aggressively indoctrinating the citizenry with their perspicacious propaganda campaign. While our ideas are better, we have not adequately defended them.

Today it occurred to me that the perturbed conservatives I saw on Ailes' evil news network harping on the blasphemous spendthrift blowhards in Washington were missing the point in blaming our politicians for their actions. Sure I am just as outraged as the next fellow at the spending of taxpayer money on projects fraught with waste and corruption, the sheer arrogance of our leaders in running roughshod over our economic liberty and in general the out of control growth of the nanny state.

But just as it was these political leaders who were the great enablers for the bankers in the financial crisis, through the gobs of cheap government credit provided by the head of the banking cartel - the government's Federal Reserve, through their implicit guarantees of too-big-too-fail taxpayer protection and through their push along with the ACORN thugs for providing housing for even the least creditworthy among us, so too was it the American people that have enabled this government.

James Madison said of democracies that they "have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths." Perhaps more prescient, Marx posited that "Democracy is the road to socialism." But alas, this is the system that we allowed to take hold though the Constitution never once mentions it, and we the people, who were supposed to vigilantly defend our liberty, have allowed our government to devolve into an instrument whereby each group plunders each and every other group. And what is this instrument of plunder of government but a representation of the people?

Herein lies the problem with blaming the politicians. It is we that have elected these scallywags. Their sole goal is retaining power in office, future of the nation-be-damned. Like for the bankers, though they know the system to be unsustainable in the long run, what matters to politicians is reaping the rewards before the storm. It is the American public that has let them continue to be irresponsible, leaving us with over $100 trillion in unfunded liabilities. We have condoned the profligacy and pillaging of our rights.

Throughout history in this country there has been a constant battle waged between those who espouse liberty and those who would sooner trade liberty for tyranny than live in a society based on self-reliance, merit and morality. Even if we have voted against the bad apples, we are complicit in having not convinced our fellow citizens to do so. Instead, we allowed the so-called elites, the political entrepreneurs to take over Washington, D.C., promising the people healthcare, housing and the rest of the hogwash spelled out in the Second Bill of Rights. They debauched our great nation by our sanction.

Now let me turn from criticizing us Americans (I am as complicit in this lack of vigilance as all my Libertarian brethren), lest I start to sound like Barack Obama. What we must do as the antidote to the growing Leviathan is to fight the intellectual fight for liberty on every street corner, in every classroom and through every other media possible. We must infiltrate corrupt and destructive institutions and reveal the truth to our fellow countrymen. We must seek out candidates with no interest in political power - no desire to cut deals but a sheer wish to restore America to its rightful place in the world; to serve as honest and capable stewards aiming to leave a better country for their children and children's children. We must seek people willing to take unpopular positions with a firm and steadfast resolve, equipped with the knowledge of and confidence in the tenets of classical Liberalism. A good start would be to seek out those who have no desire to hold office.

Good government requires a populace that seeks good government. Further, it requires representatives with the courage to fight for prudent policy, not the petty politics of payoffs and plunder. Most importantly, it beckons those who wish to honor the vision of our Founders, in which the liberty of the most important minority, the individual is protected, in which free market capitalism is advanced through the protection of private property and contract rights and in which the defense of our citizenry and by extension the securing of our freedom is the highest priority of government.

Demoralizing as our situation as a nation may be as a result of a government that we have allowed to run amok, I should say that in some ways I am optimistic no matter what direction this country takes. Should we rally to fight the fight against the socialist sophists and begin to roll back the last hundred-plus years of disgraceful governance, we will succeed. On the other hand, if we continue to hurtle towards the day of reckoning of default and/or hyperinflation in von Mises' "crackup boom," the welfare state will collapse of its own weight, and those of us armed with the right ideas will be able to step out of the darkness and help lead the country back to peace and prosperity.

Either way, we must fight on every front to advance the ideals of liberty and engage the leftists (many Republicans included) in debate. We can no longer blame our politicians, but must heed our own advice and take the individual initiative and personal responsibility to ourselves battle to make this country once again a shining city upon a hill. Nothing less than the future of the nation depends on it.
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Credit Cards and the Collapsing Country

The policy of credit card companies charging an annual fee for those cardholders with solid credit is a good proxy for the state of the nation, and also a microcosm of both the progressive (read socialist) movement in this country and the unintended consequences of an economic policy destined to fail -- or succeed if you measure success by increased impoverishment.

Those two solvent, reputable, dare I say creditworthy institutions Bank of America and Citi are reportedly

starting to charge fees to reliable customers in response to a slew of new credit card industry regulations that will limit when banks can hike interest rates. Cardholders who get a new annual fee notice in the mail will be in a no-win situation.

"They can either pay that fee or they can close the account, and if they have had the account for a while and they close it, they are potentially going to hurt their credit card score," said Woolsey (Director of Consumer Research at CreditCards.com).

This response to government intervention provides great insight into the problems with regulations the government claims will help the consumer. By preventing banks from increasing their rates in response to a lack of creditworthy borrowers in the markets, those who have proved creditworthy customers over time will be forced to subsidize those less reliable to make up the difference, proving yet again that there is no such thing as a free lunch. We could examine the further consequences for the macroeconomy of these creditworthy people being incentivized to become less creditworthy or if nothing else losing purchasing power as a result of this policy, but the above synopsis should do.

This policy reflects what happens every time the government tries to set prices - in this case the price of credit. Some people are aided, while others lose as a consequence. Further, as with the way in which government seems to favor the debtor over the creditor today, here the less responsible is favored over the more responsible. Adding insult to injury, the more responsible cardholder must subsidize the less responsible one. In essence, this is the basis of the welfare state. Those who generate more wealth must have a significant percentage of it expropriated to help out those who do not create as much wealth. We can argue over whether wealth generators are more responsible than the indigent, but I think you understand my point.

As I have mentioned before though, this liberal system in the end devours itself. First, it is economically unsustainable. At some point, those continually forced to subsidize the reckless and feckless will either go broke or go Galt. As a consequence, so too will the whole system (go broke that is). Second, from a moral perspective, the values engendered in rewarding people for being unproductive and penalizing those who create will pervert society, leading to its malaise.

As I have harped on continually here, the problem with the development of a capitalist system is that if not constantly fought for on both economic and perhaps more importantly moral grounds, it ends up sowing the seeds of its own destruction. Wealth begets wealth until it begets redistribution of wealth. Redistribution of wealth destroys the mechanisms that create it in the first place and weakens the moral fiber of a society. Much like organisms in nature that grow beautiful and strong only to decay in old age, capitalism seems to grow great only to end in grief.


Tax the rich
Feed the poor
Til' there are no, rich no more Continue reading
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