Restoring Market Confidence

From the Presidents Press Conference:

My immediate task is making sure that the second half of that money, $350 billion, is spent properly. That's my first job. Before I even think about what else I've got to do, my first task is to make sure that my Secretary of the Treasury, Tim Geithner, working with Larry Summers, my National Economic Advisor, and others, are coming up with the best possible plan to use this money wisely…
...I don't want to preempt my Secretary of the Treasury; he's going to be laying out these principles in great detail tomorrow. But my instruction to him has been, let's get this right, let's create a template in which we're restoring market confidence.

Giethner Speaks, Market Tanks.
This is the tax cheat that had to be confirmed because he was the only one that could save the world. In typical Obama fashion he built up expectations and then Geithner comes up lacking. Am I sensing a pattern here? Larry Kudlow wonders if Geithner is ready even for prime time:

The day after President Obama’s big news conference, and on the day Treasury-man Tim Geithner unveiled his Bank Bailout Nation TARP III Plan, stock markets plunged in a vote of no-confidence, with the Dow dropping nearly 400 points.

The Comedy Continues.
The President is running around the country pissing like a puppy, screaming catastrophe at every opportunity, while trying to put lipstick on his stimulus pig. Let this be a lesson to you, the White House is no place for on the job training.

Flotsam and Jetsam: From the Desk of Mrs. Salmon

The Following was forwarded from Mrs. Salmon. The ending however left me dangling.

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. The conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life. Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups - porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain-looking, some expensive, and some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the coffee.
After all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: "If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is but normal for you to want only the best for yourselves that is the source of your problems and stress. Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In most cases, it's just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups and then began eyeing each other's cups."
Now consider this: Life is the coffee, and the jobs, houses, cars, things, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life, and the type of cup we have does not define nor change the quality of life we live. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee.
Enjoy your coffee. Being happy doesn't mean everything's perfect. It means you've decided to see beyond th

I kid you not this is how it ended. I NEED TO KNOW...See Beyond What Damn It?


Then there was this....


Saved the best for last.


Thx Babe

A Public Service Message from the CR Salmon

Every so often a chain letter lands in the inbox that actually offers some sound advise instead of Viagra and instant riches for you and your 10 best friends.

The Wallet:

The bedrock of our economic well being, our file cabinet, and in some cases the only evidence of our entire existence. Folded up into four square inches of cowhide and stored just inches from our... OK you get the picture. How many have had that sinking feeling, that flash of panic, as you reach into your back pocket and find nothing there except your right cheek. After you go though the ten stages of grief for you recent loss, now what do you do?


Plan Ahead:
Place the contents of your wallet on a photocopy machine. Do both sides of each license, credit card, etc. You will know what you had in your wallet and all of the account numbers and phone numbers to call and cancel. Keep the photocopy in a safe place. (NOT IN YOUR WALLET MORONS!)

Limit the damage:
We have been told we should cancel our credit cards immediately. But the key is having the toll free numbers and your card numbers handy so you know whom to call. Keep those where you can find them. (If you enlarge the photocopy the numbers should be readable)

Cover Your Ass:
File a police report immediately in the jurisdiction where your credit cards, etc., were stolen. This proves to credit providers you were diligent, and this is a first step toward an investigation (if there ever is one).

Call the 3 national credit reporting organizations immediately to place a fraud alert on your name and also call the Social Security fraud line number. I had never heard of doing that until advised by a bank that called to tell me an application for credit was made over the Internet in my name.

Thx Rick.

Rational Thought or the Politics of Fear

Iowa Broadcasters to the US Congress-Screw You!

Iowa television stations have decided that regardless of the delay Congress imposed on the switch to digital signals they are turning off the analog system on Feb 17 as planned. Good for them.

This event has been well publicised, free boxes have been supplied, and there is no way to know exactly how many sets are not digital ready.

It also costs the stations $30K a month to run parallel systems, a cost they should not have to bear. Only Iowa Public Television thinks its Ok to spend that money on a problem that may not even exist.

""Running digital only would save about $30,000 a month, Jennifer Konfrst, communications manager of Iowa Public Television, said. "But, as a public service industry, we think it's our role to help local Iowans make the switch.""

Those people that are not ready will get off the couch as soon as Judge Judy goes dark on the 17th. Robin Williams once pointed out there will always be a segment of the population that doesn't quite keep up. He noted that in the push across America when your wagon broke down somewhere in Oklahoma and you were to stupid or lazy to fix it that is where you stayed." Those in the 21 century too stupid or lazy to upgrade their TV will just have to listen to NPR.

Pelosi Part II

A couple days ago I wrote that it seemed to me that Nancy Pelosi is becoming detached from reality. Peggy Noonan at the WSJ has noticed it too although she is a little kinder in her assessment than I was.

One senses in a new way the disaster that is Nancy Pelosi. She was all right as leader of the opposition in the Bush era, opposition being joyful and she being by nature chipper. She is tough, experienced, and of course only two years ago she was a breakthrough figure, the first female speaker. But her public comments are often quite mad—we're losing 500 million jobs a month; here's some fresh insight on Catholic doctrine—and in a crisis demanding of creativity, depth and the long view, she seems more than ever a mere ward healer, a hack, a pol. She's not big enough for the age, is she? She's not up to it.

Aerial Wolf Hunting with Sarah

Photo: A10 Warthogs patrolling Denali National Park (click to enlarge)

This week Ashley Judd has gone after Governor Sarah Palin for the "senseless savagery" of aerial wolf hunting in order to either raise money for an animal rights (misnomer) organization, or to give purpose to her otherwise empty and pitiful life.

But Ms Palin said opponents such as Ms Judd misunderstood the Alaskan way of life and that aerial hunting was part of a state-managed "predator control" programme aimed at preserving stocks of moose and caribou, on which locals rely for food.

By controlling wolf and bear populations, she said, moose populations that have been at persistently low levels for many years stand a chance of recovery. Early results from six areas where hunting and trapping has been introduced show that moose populations are improving, according to the state's Department of Fish and Game.

"The ad campaign by this extreme fringe group, as Alaskans have witnessed over the last several years, distorts the facts about Alaska's wildlife management programmes," Ms Palin said. "Alaskans depend on wildlife for food and cultural practices, which can't be sustained when predators are allowed to decimate moose and caribou populations. Our predator control programmes are scientific and successful at protecting vulnerable wildlife.

"These audacious fundraising attempts misrepresent what goes on in Alaska, and I encourage people to learn the facts about Alaska's positive record of managing wildlife."

Art

I realized after I revamped the sidebar that I had unconsciously stolen the line "Spawn Till You Die" from Alaska artist Ray Troll of Juneau. So in hopes of avoiding some nasty copy write infringement battle here is a nod to the slightly demented art of Ray Troll.



Via: Borderline Sociopathic Boys

On the Road to Dystopia III

President Obama signed the Bush Vetoed S-Chip legislation yesterday. He obviously sees this as a foot in the door to universal health insurance.This newest entitelment will be paid for through a 65 cent increase in the cigarette tax which by my estimates comes up about 5 billion dollars short of the Schip 32.5 billion dollar increase.

I want to personally thank every single member of Congress who is here, abipartisan group who worked tirelessly worked tirelessly for so long that we could see this day. And I want you all to know that I am confident that, if we work together, if we come together, we can finally achieve what generations of Americans have fought for and fulfill the promise of health care in our time.

For those starry eyed conservitives that fawned over Obamas cabinet choices as proof that he was a closet post partisan centrist, his actions the last three weeks should be proof that he is truly an partisan egalitarian liberal to the nth degree.

Update: From Big Lizards: "President Obama offers symbolic post-partisanship only in style, never in substance. He invites Republicans to his pad to watch the Superbowl; but he doesn't invite them into the process of crafting the misleadingly labeled "stimulus" package. No, that minor trillion-dollar boondoggle will be written entirely by the Democrats, of the Democrats, and for the Democrats."

On the Lighter Side.

Via Ace of Spades

On the Road to Dystopia II

As if nationalization of the banking industry wasn't enough B.HO just announced that he is taking steps to cap the pay of Wallstreet executives at $500,000 per year. Admittedly Wallstreet has been less than discrete in their actions as the democrats made an effort to sytematically demonize Wallstreet and ferment class envy.

For those toiling away in the middle class the knee jerk reaction to this is easily, "screw them" but the reality is that this is the first step onto a very slippery slope. Unlike the Wage and Price controls of the 1970s (which did not control inflation as intended) these controls are strictly punitive plus if this is not challenged it sets a precedent that could be wide ranging. Interfering in the operations of private industry by presidential fiat has been found unconstitutional in the past and this order must be challenged.

The Oligarchy

An unabashedly honest look into the oligarchy of the Democratic Congress.

Via Politico: Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN) -- one of the lead Blue Dogs -- made a startling admission to lefty Liberadio on Sunday, suggesting the White House quietly encouraged him to buck House leadership on the stimulus.

Pelosi Needs a Mental Health Break

Is anyone besides me concerned with the mental health of Nancy Pelosi. She continues to display signs that she is just a tad detached from reality. Several months ago she declared on the floor of the Senate, "I don’t know what was so great about the depression, but that’s the name they give it." I discounted this as the ramblings of someone that was a little pumped by the opportunities she saw in the financial crisis.

Then last week she made a stuttering explanation for how funding abortion clinics would reduce costs and therefore be good for the economy. Now we learn from the Madam Speaker that if the stimulus plan does not pass 500 million jobs will vanish in America.

This is a disturbing pattern from someone who is arguably the most powerfull person in American. You have to ask yourself if she is up to the task of leading the congress and the political fight that is brewing with the Office of the President. It is evident there are signs that these pressures are having a detrimental effect on the person that is only two heartbeats away from the Presidency.

Getting to Know B.HO

The world has spent the last two years trying to figure out just who our new President is. He has worked very hard to be Mister Nobody but over the last few week the picture of the man is becoming clearer.

Last night in a pre Superbowl interview with Matt Lauer, Barry demonstrated that he is a bit of an ASS.

Obama spoke about the stimulus package, his favored team in the Super Bowl (the Steelers), the BlackBerry he uses and how he felt about being cut from the cover of US Weekly on which his wife and daughters appear.
"It's a little hurtful," Obama said.
"You got replaced by Jessica Simpson," Lauer said.
"Who's in a weight battle, apparently," Obama said. (laughingly)

In his effort to find his true self Barry has been going out of his way to imitate the greatness of past presidents. From recreating the Lincoln train ride to his inaugural, to last weeks oval office casualness in the style of Thomas Jefferson (it will be interesting to see if he starts meeting White House Guests in his pajamas). I am really struggling though to find an instance where a president, on national television, called a citizen a big fat cow. Nice Barry!

We also learned several weeks ago that now that the election is over Barry is going to get his daughters a dog. Ahh how sweet you say, but what does that tell us about the President? The Obama kids are 7 and 10 and no dogs were here to fore pooping on the Obama's carpet . Dogs take commitment, they need fed, housebroke, exercise, someone needs to clean up the yard, and they need medical care. In short you have to be a dog person. The Obamas of course want to maximize the happiness of thier children and their ideology says that the best way to do that is through some sort of government intervention. In this case they now have access to the White House dog handlers to handle all those puppy dog inconveniences and the kids get thier puppy. Nice Barry!

Finally, for the last two years we have been hearing about the death of the old political order. In Barry World, we were led to believe, we would move beyond partisan enmities and he would teach the world to sing in perfect harmony. Last week however we found what the new dynamic looks like in practice.

President Obama listened to Republican gripes about his stimulus package during a meeting with congressional leaders Friday morning - but he also left no doubt about who's in charge of these negotiations. "I won," Obama noted matter-of-factly, according to sources familiar with the conversation.

The attitude reminds me of an old drinking toast. " Heres to you and heres to me and if we should ever disagree...Fuck you and heres to me." Nice Barry

The Day the Music Died

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the death of Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and JP "Big Bopper" Richardson in a plane crash outside of Clear Lake Iowa.
The Des Moines Reginster has put together a good tribute.

When Landings Go Bad.

Winter Fun

Every kid should experience the snow fort.

Flotsam and Jetsam

The Return of Snowzilla. Sometimes you just have to say kiss my ass. Via The Anchorage Daily News





US Airway recovery photos Via Maggies Farm








The Alaska Airlines Salmon Jet




Thought for the day: Men are like fine wine . . . They start out as grapes, and it's up to the women to stomp the crap out of them until they turn into something acceptable to have dinner with. Via "The 16 Things it Took Me Over 50 Years to Learn" @ Last of the Few

Harkin Votes Against Geithner.

WASHINGTON, DC - Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) released the following statement tonight after voting against Timothy Geithner to serve as Secretary of the U.S. Treasury. “I strongly believe that, save in extraordinary circumstances, the President should have the right to select his own team. President Obama believes that Mr. Geithner is the best person for this job, and it pains me to go against the President’s wishes on this matter. “I believe that Mr. Geithner is a person of obvious talent and experience, and I bear no ill will toward him whatsoever.

However, after careful deliberation, I simply could not overcome my very serious reservations about this nominee for two reasons. Mr. Geithner made serious errors of judgment in failing to pay his taxes, and he made serious errors in his job as chief regulator of the financial institutions at the heart of the current financial crisis.

This was the issue that the Republicans should have been screaming from the mountaintops from the day that Mr Giethner was nominated. But nooooo. They pussyfoot around his tax malfeasance while the Wallstreet genius claims that he can't figure out how to use Turbotax (Hell even I can use Turbotax, make me the Secretary) when the real issue is that his fingerprints are all over the economic meltdown. Meanwhile we are led to believe that he is the only one capable of leading the economy out of the crapper. This is the "you broke it you fix it" method of human resource management. In the real world he would have been fired NOT PROMOTED!~~

I can't believe I'm saying this but I agree with Tom Harkin. The president should have wide latitude when he sends his nominees to the senate for consent, be they cabinet appointees or judicial nominees, but the purpose of the exercise is to determine if the candidate for the office is qualified and of good character. Mr Giethner is neither. It took the likes of Democrat Tom Harkin to point that out and the Republicans that voted for him failed in their responsibilities.

Message to the World

The following asinine "Message to the World" landed in the in box the other day.

Message to the World: Service Restored!

Dear World:We, the United States of America, your top quality supplier of the ideals of liberty and democracy, would like to apologize for our 2001-2008 interruption in service. The technical fault that led to this eight-year service outage has been located, and the software responsible was replaced November 4. Early tests of the newly installed program indicate that we are now operating correctly, and we expect it to be fully functional on January 20. We apologize for any inconvenience caused by the outage. We look forward to resuming full service and hope to improve in years to come. We thank you for your patience and understanding.

Sincerely,THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Not willing to let the reality impaired writer go unanswered I have crafted a more realistic message to the world.

Dear Arab World:

We, the United States of America, your top quality supplier of the ideals of liberty and democracy, would like to apologize for the 2001-2008 interruption of your caliphate restoration project which was proceeding splendidly before our little hissy fit in 2001. The technical fault that led to this eight-year interruption was the recovery of the previously misplaced Presidential testicles that were discovered in the Presidential humidor in late January of 2001. We want you to know that that whole War on Terror thing was truly a misunderstanding. So to facilitate your future successes the Presidential testicles are once again safely secured in the hands of our Secretary of State, the CIA is being converted into a Starbucks, and your friends visiting Guantanamo should be home in time for Hajj. We thank you for your patience and understanding in this matter and as always have a Happy Jihad.

Sincerely,
THE SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF AMERICA
dba. THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

A Look at Presidential Approval Ratings

Gallop announced that President B.HO has started his term with a 68% approval rating. That sounds pretty impressive, but how does it stack up with previous presidents in their first term.

(If anyone can tell me how to paste an Excel doc. into Blogger pls let me know)

Going back to JFK we find the following bounce ie. the difference between the presidential popular vote and the approval rating at inauguration at the beggining of the first term.

Presidential Bounce

Kennedy+22

Johnson +13

Nixon +17

Carter +21

Reagan +4

Bush I +8

Clinton +20

Bush II +7

Obama +15

Bounce Mean:
All Presidents +14
Democrats +18
Republican +9

All presidents gain some support as Americans typically rally around the new president. Despite reports of republican partisanship it is obvious that Republicans are more apt to wish the new president well by a 9 point spread. President Obama has a bounce only 1 point higher than the average of all presidents and 6 points lower than Carter that took over a similar political climate.

Bounce Median:
All Presidents +15
Democrats +20
Republicans +7.5

The more interesting figure however is that out of these nine presidents Obama falls right in the middle of presidential bounce despite reports of the messiahs overwhelming support. In fact rates in the lower half of the five democratic democratic presidents edging out Johnson for last place by 2 points. Johnson had Vietnam but what is it that prevented the hyped one from reaching the level of Kennedy or even a Clinton?

If there is one certainty B.HO will have to act and acting will lead to the inevitable decline as his predecessors show here.

"How Presidents Stack Up" Graph courtesy the Wall Street Journal

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/info-presapp0605-31.html

Presidential Election results courtesy:

http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/index.html

Presidential Approval Ratings courtesy: http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu/data_access/data/presidential_approval.html

The War is Not Over

One of those poor tortured souls released from Gitmo has taken over the "I kill you" concession in Yemen and our military just sent American aircraft over a sovereign nation and sent a missile down the chimney of some foreign citizens possibly killing women and children. I'll wager that the lefts black and white worldview will increasingly take on subtle shades of gray. President Obama is going to find that it is one thing to rail against the supposed abuses or failings of a wartime president in an innaugural address but it is quite another to uphold the oath of office.
What Obama does not understand and what George Bush was not able to articulate is that this conflict should not be viewed in the context of two wars. One war in Afghanistan and another war in Iraq. Or as Obama believes one war that is somehow a good war and the other a bad war. The fact is we have a war, what Samuel Huntington called a "Clash of Civilizations". (I know we shouldn't use terms like that lest we create more jihadis) In 1993 Huntington wrote;

“The interactions between civilizations vary greatly in the extent to which they are likely to be characterized by violence. Economic competition clearly predominates between the American and European sub civilizations of the West and between both of them and Japan. On the Eurasian continent, however, the proliferation of ethnic conflict, epitomized at the extreme in ‘ethnic cleansing,’ has not been totally random. It has been most frequent and most violent between groups belonging to different civilizations. In Eurasia the great historic fault lines between civilizations are once more aflame. This is particularly true along the boundaries of the crescent-shaped Islamic bloc of nations from the bulge of Africa to central Asia. Violence also occurs between Muslims, on the one hand, and Orthodox Serbs in the Balkans, Jews in Israel, Hindus in India, Buddhists in Burma and Catholics in the Philippines (and Sudan). Islam has bloody borders.”

Previous presidents handled the clash their way, with less than stellar results, and Bush handled it his. You can beat him up for it if you must but he, for the first time, changed the dynamics of a situation that is not going to end anytime soon. That begs the question, will we carry on with the tactics that have prevented another attack here in the US and has transformed the mid-east region or will we go back to the policy of sending in the FBI instead of the Marines. I vote for the latter.

I would like to commend Captain Sullenberger for a phenomenal piece of piloting. Well done captain.

The following video is an example of a typical water landing except this gentleman is demonstrating what happens when you fail to retract the wheels on your amphibs. I really hate when that happens.

Just More Proof of Global Cooling

CNN: A New Ice Age?

Happy Birthday Alaska!

It was going to take something special to bring me out of my blogging hibernation, this qualifies.

On this day in 1959 President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the final proclamation making Alaska our 49th state.


The Alaska Flag Song.
Eight stars of gold on a field of blue -Alaska's flag.
May it mean to you The blue of the sea, the evening sky, The mountain lakes, and the flow'rs nearby;
The gold of the early sourdough's dreams,The precious gold of the hills and streams;
The brilliant stars in the northern sky, The "Bear" - the "Dipper" - and, shining high,
The great North Star with its steady light, Over land and sea a beacon bright. Alaska's flag - to Alaskans dear, The simple flag of a last frontier.

"North to Alaska", at $7 million a bargain at twice the price.



Anchgorage Daily News: Someday soon, you might see an Alaska Airlines jet adorned with a most unusual sled team: a bounding dog with a curly tail roped to a bear, humpback whale and other Alaska icons.