Colorado Center Right Bloggers

July 28, 2008

There is a new group for Bloggers in Colorado. Check them out here.

Two Schools of Thought!

July 28, 2008

There are two ways of studying economic theory. One approach is mathematical, and has been much enhanced by the computing power available to the individual economist. The other is historical and relies on the accumulated understanding of economic theory and practice.

The events of 2007 and 2008 have shown the limitations of the mathematical method. The credit crunch was not foreseen by anyone that I read, but it came as a shock to the number crunchers — it took them completely by surprise.

It did not come as a shock to the economic historians, who happily settled down to discuss the resemblances between this credit crisis and earlier ones, going back to the South Sea Scheme in 1720 or the Wall Street Panic of 1907. The economic historians know that similar events had happened before, and had also learned, often by painful experience, that such events are quite common.

Neither group foresaw the actual events of August 2007, but the historians were quite able to put the credit crisis in a context of other crises. Even though both groups were taken by surprise, it was the mathematicians whose previous forecasts were stood on their heads.

By and large, historical economists, who follow the example of major English economists such as Maynard Keynes or W.S. Jevons, do not regard timing as any more predictable for economic shocks than for earthquakes.

One can say that there is a build up of stress in the system that will eventually have to be released. One cannot say that the release of pressure will occur next Tuesday or next August or even next century.

Some say the big earthquake will happen along the San Andreas Fault in California. It may come tomorrow; it may come before 2050; it may not happen for 500 years. We can usefully predict what and where, but we can very seldom predict when. This makes expectation difficult to quantify, though all markets are based on expectations

What we do know from economic history is that there is a cycle of debt that has to be relieved. In twentieth century history the war debts of the first war played their malign part in the European depression of the 1920s and eventually in the Great Depression of the 1930s. The Austrian School of Economics, and particularly Friedrich von Hayek, developed the Debt-Deflation theory of the business cycles. Hayek indeed foresaw the risk of a deflationary crisis as early as 1927.

Keynesian economics, as expounded in his General Theory, 1936, were criticised at the time for an inadequate appreciation of the negative aspects of excessive debt. Bankers of the Gold Standard era attached great importance to the balance sheet rather than the profit and loss account. I get the impression nowadays that people read the current account much more carefully than they do the capital account — partly because they think that off balance sheet financing has reduced the transparency of the balance sheet itself.

As a result, government balance sheets, bank balance sheets, corporate balance sheets and personal balance sheets have all deteriorated. Finance ultimately depends on the security of capital, and weak balance sheets, at any level, are exposed to risk and to problems of opportunity cost.

An old-fashioned banker would now be calling for strengthening of balance sheets at every level. But the liquidation of debt takes years to accomplish and diverts fund from current consumption. The 2007 credit crunch calls for liquidation of debt, but that is bound to have a deflationary effect.

Regards,
Lord William Rees-Mogg

Economic Schools of Thought

Stolen from

Fastracks boon doggle, again…

July 28, 2008

When will people learn? From gutting Tabor, to referendum “C” the Independence Institute is becoming almost prophet like in getting things correct. As opposed to Colorado government, both Democrat and Republican.

I wish this wasn’t the case, because it’s not exactly enjoyable to be proven right at the expense of Colorado taxpayers. In 2004 I ran the David vs. Goliath campaign against RTD’s 67% tax increase called FasTracks. Goliath won. We said it was plainly obvious that it was going to be underfunded and over-cost. Read what we wrote back then. Of course the corporate welfare machine behind the tax increase, and Mayor Hickenlooper in front of it promised the impossible again.

But as Kevin Flynn of the Rocky Mountain News reports:

RTD conceded Friday that it cannot deliver the FasTracks program as promised to voters four years ago. The program, originally budgeted at $4.7 billion when voters approved a sales tax to support it, rose to $6.1 billion last year and is poised for a substantial increase next month during budget talks with the elected board.

This is an unfortunate situation where we taxpayers are in no situation to continue to fund this massive failure, while no mayor is willing to push the project back or cut lines in their district. At this point, everyone is looking for a viable solution. In addition to my suggestion to ask the voters to kill it, the Rocky gave some other possible solutions:

Strategies that will be discussed soon include some, all or a combination of these:
* Going beyond the original completion year of 2017.
* Trimming some project elements such as was done with the West Corridor light rail, the first FasTracks corridor to start construction.
* Shortening some of the planned lines.
* Privatizing the financing and construction of more than the two corridors now being privatized.
* Asking the legislature for permission to go to voters for additional taxes.You can bet that TaxTracks, as Ari Armstrong of FreeColorado.com calls it, will continue to dissapoint its supporters and demand more and more taxpayer money to stay afloat. Those options above are upsetting, no doubt, but fleecing our wallets continuously for another decade or so is even worse. I say we put it to another vote and let Coloradans decide if they have had enough.

SOURCE

Accountability in Government?

July 28, 2008

Jon Caldara opens up a can of worms yet again over at Colorado’s Independence Institute. It seems that we will be re-visiting the idea of government accountability. It is to bad that the organizations below are so late in getting onto the band wagon. Jon has been at it for years!

Early this week, the Denver Post made an issue out of accountability in government.   This is the kind of thing that gets me excited!  The editorial is one part in a series called Open Government 2008 by the Colorado Press Association. At the end of the article there are links to the other pieces, all discussing open and transparent government. A few of the articles state that Colorado is ahead of the curve with our Sunshine Laws and Open Records Act. (Sidenote: Take a look at Colorado’s page on the Sunshine Review website). Pioneer or not, Colorado still has a ways to go in terms of accountability and transparency. As Justin Longo points out, yeah it’s great that we don’t have a huge and intrusive NJ style state government. Instead we’ve got over 3,000 local governments here in Colorado running around doing what they want, and it’s difficult to keep our eyes on each and every one of them. I’m thrilled that this is an issue to both the Denver Post and the Colorado Press Association, and I hope it continues to stay a hot topic as we continue to work on it here at the Institute.

source

Pinwheel Cars

July 28, 2008

Mark Udall has decided that all of us need to follow him down his yellow brick road. I just have to wonder what he does when the wind does not blow?

Boulder, CO — Today U.S. Senate Candidate Mark Udall announced his solution to high gas prices: the WindCar 3000, an electric car powered by a giant windmill atop the roof that can also serve to catch favorable winds.

“The WindCar 3000 offers a practical alternative to Colorado’s addiction to oil,” Udall said.”With gas prices around $4 per gallon, now is not the time drill or produce more oil in the U.S. Now is the time for forward-thinking individuals to adopt exciting new technologies and free us from oil.”

Source and story cont.

Texas Guard troops penalized for breaking lease

July 28, 2008

TexasFred found out about this and I applaud him for exposing it! Lend a hand and pass it on!

MCKINNEY – A North Texas couple is getting ready for their second deployment overseas.

They’re leaving to serve their country but instead they’ve been served with fees from their landlord.

“It’s a job, we have to do it,” said Chris Horvath.

But they’re leaving with added stress, since they’ve been in a fight with their apartment complex – McKinney’s El Lago development.

The couple, both of whom are sergeants in the Texas National Guard, are soon headed to Iraq.

Full Story Here:
Iraq-bound guards penalized for breaking apartment lease

These are the names and addresses I have so far, there are some inquiries being made by a contact I have that IS in the apartment business. I do know this much, the TAA, Texas Apartment Association has a specific clause in their contract concerning military personnel and their transfers and activations, and that clause is in favor OF the troops.

I called El Lago Apartments and spoke to a person named Stephanie, and according to her the El Lago Apartments doesn’t operate under TAA leasing agreements. They would discuss the matter no further.

EL LAGO PARTNERS LTD
434 S EUCLID ST
ANAHEIM, CA 92802-1247
(714) 520-9432

owners of

El Lago Apartments
3400 CRAIG DR
MC KINNEY, 75070
(972) 569-6700

I am trying to pin down something on this El Lago Partners LTD, I might not be able to get it all until Monday, I have *feelers* out.

I will also be contacting the National Guard Bureau Public Affairs On Call, PAO email (703)-627-7273 and the office of Public Affairs email (703)-607-2584 on Monday.

I hope some of you will post this on your blogs and get involved, this type of thing can’t be allowed to happen to our troops. No matter how you feel about Bush and the war in Iraq, this isn’t about him, it’s about our TROOPS, and they have no choice but to follow orders and go when and where they are ordered.

Please, get involved.

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“The Axis of Idiots”

July 27, 2008

Some people! For the love of God, no matter how hard I try, I can never express myself in quite this way…

Proudly Stolen from Earl 1911: I beat ya to it Fred! LOL!

“The Axis of Idiots”


Jimmy Carter, you are the father of the Islamic Nazi movement. You threw the Shah under the bus, welcomed the Ayatollah home, and then lacked the spine to confront the terrorists when they took our embassy and our people hostage. You’re the runner-in-chief.
Bill Clinton, you played ring around the Lewinsky while the terrorists were at war with us You got us into a fight with them in Somalia and then you ran from it. Your weak-willed responses to the U.S.S. Cole and the First Trade Center Bombing and Our Embassy Bombings emboldened the killers. Each time you failed to respond adequately, they grew bolder, until 9/11/2001.
John Kerry, dishonesty is your most prominent attribute. You lied about American Soldiers in Vietnam. Your military service, like your life, is more fiction than fact. You’ve accused our military of terrorizing women and children in Iraq You called Iraq the wrong war, wrong place, wrong time, the same words you used to describe Vietnam. You’re a fake. You want to run from Iraq and abandon the Iraqis to murderers just as you did the Vietnamese. Iraq, like Vietnam, is another war that you were for, before you were against it.
John Murtha, you said our military was broken. You said we can’t win militarily in Iraq You accused United States Marines of cold-blooded murder without proof and said we should re-deploy to Okinawa. Okinawa, John? And the Democrats call you their military expert! Are you sure you didn’t suffer a traumatic brain injury while you were off building your war hero resume? You’re a sad, pitiable, corrupt and washed up politician. You’re not a Marine. You wouldn’t amount to a good pimple on a real Marine’s ass. You’re a phony and a disgrace. Run away, John.
Dick Durbin, you accused our Soldiers at Guantanamo of being Nazis, tenders of Soviet style gulags and as bad as the regime of Pol Pot, who murdered two million of his own people after your party abandoned Southeast Asia to the Communists. Now you want to abandon the Iraqis to the same fate. History was not a good teacher for you, was it? Lord help us! See Dick run.
Ted Kennedy, for days on end you held poster-sized pictures from Abu Ghraib in front of any available television camera. Al Jazeera quoted you saying that Iraqi’s torture chambers were open under new management. Did you see the news, Teddy? The Islamic Nazis demonstrated another beheading for you. If you truly supported our troops, you’d show the world poster-sized pictures of that atrocity and demand the annihilation of it. Your legislation stripping support from the South Vietnamese led to a communist victory there. You’re a bloated, drunken fool bent on repeating t he same historical blunder tha t turned freedom-seeking people over to homicidal, genocidal maniacs. To paraphrase John Murtha, all while sitting on your wide, gin-soaked rear-end in Washington.
Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Carl Levine, Barbara Boxer, Diane Feinstein, Russ Feingold, Hillary Clinton, Pat Leahy, Barack Obama, Chuck Schumer, the Hollywood Leftist morons, et al, ad nauseam: Every time you stand in front of television cameras and broadcast to the Islamic Nazis that we went to war because our President lied, that the war is wrong and our Soldiers are torturers, that we should leave Iraq, you give the Islamic butchers – the same ones that tortured and mutilated American Soldiers – cause to think that we’ll run away again, and all they have to do is hang on a little longer. It is inevitable that we, the infidels, will have to defeat the Islamic jihadists. Better to do it now on their turf, than later on ours after they have gained both strength and momentum.
American news media, the New York Times particularly: Each time you publish stories about national defense secrets and our intelligence gathering methods, you become one united with the sub-human pieces of camel dung that torture and mutilate the bodies of American Soldiers. You can’t strike up the courage to publish cartoons, but you can help Al Qaeda destroy my country. Actually, you are more dangerous to us than Al Qaeda. Think about that each time you face Mecca to admire your Pulitzer..
You are America’s “AXIS OF IDIOTS.” Your Collective Stupidity will destroy us. Self-serving politics and terrorist-abetting news scoops are more important to you than our national security or the lives of innocent civilians and Soldiers. It bothers you that defending ourselves gets in the way of your elitist sport of politics and your ignorant editorializing. There is as much blood on your hands as is on the hands of murdering terrorists. Don’t ever doubt that. Your frolics will only serve to extend this war as they extended Vietnam. If you want our Soldiers home as you claim, knock off the crap and try supporting your country ahead of supporting your silly political aims and aiding our enemies.
Yes, I’m questioning your patriotism. Your loyalty ends with self. I’m also questioning why you’re stealing air that decent Americans could be breathing. You don’t deserve the protection of our men in uniform. You need to run away from this war, this country. Leave the war to the people who have the will to see it through and the country to people who are willing to defend it.
No, Mr. President, you don’t get off the hook, either. Our country has two enemies: Those who want to destroy us from the outside and those who attempt it from within. Your Soldiers are dealing with the outside force. It’s your obligation to support them by confronting the AXIS OF IDIOTS.
America must hear it from you that these self-centered people are harming our country, abetting the enemy and endangering our safety. Well up a little anger, please, and channel it toward the appropriate target. You must prosecute those who leak national security secrets to the media. You must prosecute those in the media who knowingly publish those secrets.
Our Soldiers need you to confront the enemy that they cannot. They need you to do it now.

Semper Fi,        J. D. Pendry – Sergeant Major, USMC, Retired

Same old arguments …

July 26, 2008

Mayor Daley of Chicago keeps the old anti-gun rhetoric alive with the same old worn out, and for the most part baseless arguments.In the name of safety he decides that freedom can be taken away.

He wonders about Firefighters and Police Officers responding to crime sceanes. Hate to tell you this mister mayor, but responding to a DV as they are called in Public Safety are, and always will be one of the most dangerous calls to go on. I know, I have been there and done that, and even have a T-shirt!

Bad things do happen in life Mister Mayor. Get used to it. I spent more than twenty two years in Public Safety and have seen those bad things countless times. I also saw what the result was when people were allowed to properly and effectivly defend themselves, their families, and neighbors. Guns save far more innocent lives when in proper hands, that is citizans hands, than they ever harm innocents.The comparativly few times that the things you talk about happen are outweighed by the good things by far.

If what I say is not true, then why are “gun friendly” cities and states so much safer than Chicago, D.C., and so on?

Southern Sass running for office!

July 25, 2008

re-stolen from Texas Fred

I’ve Decided To Go Into Politics

After a careful review of the options for the up-coming election:

(a) A man who can’t account for his money and wants ‘change you can believe in’ (but never says what the change is).
(b) A Republican that doesn’t seem to have Republican values.

I HAVE DECIDED TO BECOME A WRITE-IN CANDIDATE.

HERE IS MY PLATFORM:

(1) Press 1 for English is immediately banned. English is the official language. Speak it or wait at the border until you can.

(2) We will immediately go into a two-year isolationist posture to straighten out the country’s attitude. NO imports, no exports. We will use the ‘Wal-Mart’ policy: ‘If we ain’t got it, you don’t need it.’

(3) When imports are allowed, there will be a 100% import tax on it.

(4) All retired military personnel will be required to man one of our many observation towers on the southern border. (Six month tour) They will be under strict orders not to fire on SOUTHBOUND aliens.

(5) Social Security will immediately return to its original state. If you didn’t put nuttin’ in, you ain’t getting’ nuttin’ out. Neither the president nor any other politician will be able to touch it.

(6) Welfare – Checks will be handed out on Fridays at the end of the 40 hour school week, and the successful completion of urinalysis and a passing grade.

(7) Professional Athletes –Steroids – The FIRST time you check positive you will be banned for life.

(8) Crime – We will adopt the Turkish method: The first time you steal, you lose your right hand. There will be no more life sentences — if you are convicted of a Capitol Offense, you will be put to death by the same method you chose for your victim, gun, knife, strangulation, etc.

(9) One export will be allowed – Wheat — The world needs to eat. A bushel of wheat will be the exact price of a barrel of oil.

(10) All foreign aid using American taxpayer money will immediately cease, and the saved money will pay off the national debt and ultimately lower taxes. When disasters occur around the world, we’ll ask the American people if they want to donate to a disaster fund, and each citizen can make the decision whether it’s a worthy cause.

(11) The Pledge of Allegiance will be said every day at school and every day in Congress — right after a prayer to God.

(12) The National Anthem will be played at all appropriate ceremonies, sporting events, outings, etc.

Sorry if I stepped on anyone’s toes, (whoever wrote this may be sorry, I’m not) but a vote for me will get you better than what you have and better than what you’re gonna get.

Thanks for listening, and remember to write in my name on the ballot in November!

Proudly Stolen From:
Southern Sass on Crime » Going into politics

Colorado Civil Rights Initiative

July 24, 2008

This November, Colorado voters will decide if the state can discriminate against or grant preferential treatment to any group or individual on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of public employment, public contracting, or public education. Jessica Corry, executive director of the Colorado Civil Right Initiative, the force behind Amendment 46, and Brad Jones managing editor of Face the State join me on Independent Thinking to discuss the ballot measure and why it enjoys huge support in Colorado. Opponents of Amendment 46 either declined to participate or didn’t respond to repeated invitations. Tune in tonight at 8:30 p.m. to KBDI Channel 12; repeated the following Tuesday evening at 5 p.m.

Discrimination based upon color, creed, or orientation is immoral. Let’s end all of it in a single swoop. No preferences at all, of any kind, for anyone, anywhere.

source