recent history

Yesterday's big sell off wasn't due to the recent down-grading of the U.S. credit rating. Sure it played a very minor part in it, but if you look at the markets yesterday there is something very interesting the sticks out. Investors still rushed to buy treasury bonds, which drove the 10 year interest rate below 2.4% yesterday. This is a huge rejection of the S&P downgrade, but why the big fall in the DOW and world markets?

While we live in scary times in terms of the economy, we are even more so in uncertain times. No one knows what the economy is going to look like tomorrow, in 6 months or even in five years. There are no plans coming out of Washington to turn our economy around and that has investors terrified. Paul Krugman sums up the current problem very nicely:

Truly, our public discourse has been entirely about problems we don’t have, at the expense of dealing with the problems we do have.

Instead of arguing over how to deal with our problems, both parties have decided this is the time to engage in ideological war. Neither party seems to have a common goal in sight and that is the real problem and the investors are seeing it.

So how can we make this problem a hundred times worse? Well let's ask Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX). During a town hall yesterday, Burgess entertained an idea that is sure to not help fix our economy:

When one attendee suggested that the House push for impeachment proceedings against President Barack Obama to obstruct the president from pushing his agenda, Burgess was receptive.

"It needs to happen, and I agree with you it would tie things up," Burgess said. "No question about that."

I’ve been reading more on that Gallup poll from yesterday that shows more Americans now supporting health care reform than opposing it. For a refresher, here’s the results:

What’s interesting is the headline accompanying this poll:

By Slim Margin, Americans Support Healthcare Bill's Passage

I don’t really remember pollsters considering a 9% margin “slim”. Perhaps all the talk of the “60% majority” of the Senate has confused the people at Gallup.

Then we have those on the right trying to spin this away. For example, here is Allahpundit:

And so it came to be, after a day’s worth of nonstop coverage of History!, that ObamaCare’s gotten a bounce.

What is really interesting here is when you look back at recent history. In the heat of last summer, during those viral townhall meetings, we saw support for health care reform plummet. There was 24/7 news coverage of the yelling and screaming, but if you ask anyone on the right that coverage had nothing to do with the wavering support. Sorry guys but you can’t have it both ways here.

Fred Barnes, writing from his undisclosed la-la land location, is arguing that Paul Kirk won’t be able to vote after Tuesday. His argument:

But in the days after the election, it is Kirk’s status that matters, not Brown’s.  Massachusetts law says that an appointed senator remains in office “until election and qualification of the person duly elected to fill the vacancy.”  The vacancy occurred when Senator Edward Kennedy died in August.  Kirk was picked as interim senator by Governor Deval Patrick.

[SNIP]

But based on Massachusetts law, Senate precedent, and the U.S. Constitution, Republican attorneys said Kirk will no longer be a senator after election day, period.  Brown meets the age, citizenship, and residency requirements in the Constitution to qualify for the Senate.  “Qualification” does not require state “certification,” the lawyers said.

Certification doesn’t mean qualification – sure. What certification does mean is that the election is finalized, complete, done.

And what precedent? We just have to look at recent history for precedent. Rolland Burris was appointed to the Senate, but the Senate couldn’t seat him until he was “certified” by the state. The election isn’t over until that process is complete.

The only precedent I can think of would be in the recent Franken/Coleman circus. One thing the lawyers seem to be overlooking is the basis for which Coleman could not serve any longer. Those are laid out in article 1 section 3 of the U.S. Constitution:

If they do then tomorrow the Republican House leadership must denounce and censor Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina who decided to shout “you lie” to the President tonight.

I can not remember something like this happening in recent history when a sitting president addressed a joint session of Congress. This guy has no shown he has no respect for our country and hopefully the voters of South Carolina will show his ass to the door next year.

First we get this story from 9:19 am this morning:

South Korea's defense minister said Thursday that Seoul believes North Korea's missile launch is not imminent despite concern in the region that the communist nation would test-fire a long-range missile.

 "It is our judgment that a launch is not imminent," Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-ung told a parliamentary meeting in comments confirmed by his ministry.

Worries over a possible North Korean launch have grown in recent weeks after reports of activity at the country's launch site on its northeastern coast where U.S. officials say a Taepodong-2 missile — believed capable of reaching parts of the United States — is possibly being fueled.

Then an hour later, this report comes out:

North Korea is far along in its preparations for a test of a long-range ballistic missile and the United States hopes the North Koreans will "give it up and not launch," a senior U.S. official said on Thursday.

White House national security adviser Stephen Hadley told reporters it remained uncertain if North Korea actually planned to conduct a test-firing of the missile, which Washington has warned would be seen as a provocative act.

"I think what we've said publicly is we're watching it very carefully and preparations are very far along. So you could, from a capability standpoint, have a launch. Now what they intend to do ... of course we don't know. What we hope they will do is give it up and not launch," he said.

(sorry about the bad picture - it was taken off a cell phone camera in the evening)

Last night we had our monthly Butler County Democrats Club meeting. We were joined by former congressional and senatorial candidate Paul Hackett.

Besides being a highly motivational speaker, Paul brought up some very good points for us to consider going into this election season. We are at a time where the fight to retake our government lies within our hands. We can not place the responsibility solely on the hands of state and national leaders. We are all in this together, not just for ourselves but also for our children and grandchildren.

Paul talked about how we are the party of a strong national defense and smaller government. That sounds like an old Republican talking point but times have changed. The Democrats are showing they have a better view of what our national security should be. The Democrats also don't believe our government should be listening in on our phone calls, talking to our doctors, worrying about what is happening in our bedroom. Sadly the current leadership of our country does not think the same way. This means that the Democrats are for smaller government.

This is the message we all need to convey to people we know who are sitting on the fence, or are even moderately conservative. I am not talking about going after the Tom Delays out there. I am talking about going after the older Regan Republicans. The Democrat beliefs align more with those people now than the Republican beliefs do.

It seems that the talk amongst the religious community is
the end of days. Current situations which have occurred in recent history are
used to promote the prophecy of the rapture.

Kirk Cameron and the
Trinity Broadcast Network (TBN) are no
exception to this frantic craze that is sweeping the country. This weekend, 3200
churches around the country (see
this article on
TBN's wire service site wdcmedia.com) on are set to turn their chapels into cinemas as they
debut the movie “Left Behind: World at War”, the third installment in a series
of movies staring Kirk Cameron which deal with the final judgment.

The movies are based on best selling books by the reverend 
Tim LaHaye and
Jerry Jenkins. Cameron plays television reporter “Buck” Williams who
now finds himself as a post-rapture leader in a group called Tribunal Force.
This third movie also brings into it one other big Hollywood name, Louis Gossett
Jr., who plays the President of the United States.

This is the first time a motion picture has debuted inside
of churches. In my small southwestern Ohio town, the screen is set at three
churches for this history making event.

This makes me want to question the motives of religious
leaders even more. While I am not a religious person, I have read both the Old
and New Testament cover to cover, along with the Quran. I find religion an
interesting subject and keep my mind opened to all religions that make up our
planet.

In 1998 Bill Clinton made an appointment to the United Nations. He appointed Richard Holbrooke to be the diplomatic voice of the United States. For 14 months the Republicans in Senate continued to block Holbrooke’s appointment in what became “partisan bickering”

Holbrooke was offered the recess appointment during this time, however he declined it. Holbrooke felt that going to the UN without the backing of our Senate would jeopardize his credibility and authority. He also did not like the message it would send to the other 160 nations represented by the UN.

Here we are a few short years later, and President Bush jumps on the chance to give John Bolton the recess appointment to the same seat. Even though plenty of testimony has been given to prove John Bolton is not a man to be our diplomatic voice, President Bush continued to blame it on partisan bickering. Sadly enough, Democrats aren’t the only ones who question Bolton’s qualifications for this job. Republicans like George Voinovich also have voiced concern.

We are at a time when we need to improve our standing in the world and the President of this country feels that will be best done with a bully sitting at the UN. He is sure to alienate us from the world even more with his yelling and lying, which is a proven tactic employed by Mr. Bolton. This does not bother the President. He continues to not only ignore members of Senate, but also the people of this country and force his appointees.

We must hope that the United Nations does not base their overall view of the United States on a rogue leader that we have sitting in the White House. This leader has done nothing for the people, but only focused his attention on business and war. I truly feel sorry for our next President as he/she will have one hell of a mess to clean up!