George Ought To Help

Fairly short, and vague, but it seems to encapsulate many libertarian views (not the neuvo-Glen Beck ones) in a neat little package. Discuss...

The Taliban are the greatest enemy force we have faced since World War II

Great article I highly recommend...

Beards, Rags And Madmen - And The Art Of Good Soldiering
-- Chris Ryan, The Daily Mail

Winston Churchill once said: ‘The first virtue in a soldier is endurance of fatigue; courage is only the second virtue.’

Our greatest wartime leader was rarely wrong. The ability to carry on when you are almost dead on your feet, to continue to hold your ground when others have faltered, is what, I believe, goes to make up a good soldier.

Read more ....

S.E.C. Sat On Its Hands

Lehman Examiner to Testify That S.E.C. Sat on Its Hands

The court-appointed examiner who dissected the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy is expected to criticize the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday for its decision to “stand by idly” as the investment bank veered toward collapse.

The S.E.C. knew that Lehman did not have adequate liquidity but in essence did nothing, the examiner, Anton R. Valukas, says in prepared testimony released in advance by the House Financial Services Committee.

One of the most damning findings in Mr. Valukas’s 2,209-page report last month — that Lehman used accounting gimmicks to hide the extent of its indebtedness — was not known to the S.E.C. But Mr. Valukas wrote: “I saw nothing in my investigation to suggest that the S.E.C. asked even the most fundamental questions that might have uncovered this practice early on, before Lehman escalated it to a $50 billion issue.”

So, The Bush S.E.C. allowed a failed business to fail? or... he sat by munching pretzels so that Goldman could take out some competition? I guess your perception of conspiracy theories and hatred of Bush will matter on how you see this development. Perhaps the S.E.C. is just completely incompetent or to blame? Hard to tell the distinction between gross negligence and willful participation in failure.

There's plenty of blame to spread around. Both parties are culpable, and they all know it. Hell, half the Fed either has best friends in Wall Street, or they just left to run the Fed. Just ask Timmy Geithner and Hank Paulson.

They've made their grab at as much loot as they can get away with, and the second the game collapsed, there were dire warnings of Martial Law and tanks in the streets.

Here's an idea (One of my famous 'stop bitching, give us a solution' moments!)... We need to demand a forensic audit of the Federal Reserve and all large banks and investment houses; any evidence of wrongdoing found as a result of such audit to be immediately turned over to a grand jury for indictment and prosecution.

Firms which broke the law to have their banking and securities licenses revoked. People who broke the law to do some hard prison time with real criminals such as pederasts and hard core gangstas. Bank executives and government officials. And do some television specials to pop in and see how they're doing. Put it on HBO. That's reality TV worth watching. Might actually be a deterrent for those other folks who think that they'll get away with their schemes.

Let's Reinstate Glass-Steagall; firms speculating on the markets may be allowed to do so but not with the safety net of the taxpayer, and no firm propped up by the tax payer will be allowed to speculate. Any companies which do both to be broken up... and at their own expense.

Disallow all off-balance-sheet games. Require fancy derivatives to be traded on open markets.

Return to sane mortgage lending standards: 20% cash down, 24% front-end debt load, 36% back-end debt load. If house prices don't support sane mortgage underwriting, they'll just need to float down until they do.

Require unsecured lending to be backed by one dollar of excess capital for each dollar of unsecured lending. Karl Denninger is a good source to read more.

Nightlight Solar

Solar power installations in Spain were producing power at night.... Why? How?

…The prices paid for green energy were so high that it appeared to be profitable to generate that energy by shining conventionally fueled arclights on the solar panels.

Truth tends to be stranger than fiction:

Although the exact details are slightly different there is now an intriguing report of the scam in practice. The text is based on a machine translation of the original German text:

After press reports, it was established during inspections that several solar power plants were generating current and feeding it into the net at night. To simulate a larger installation capacity, the operators connected diesel generators.

“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” said one industry expert to the newspaper “El Mundo”, which brought the scandal to light. If solar systems apparently produce current in the dark, will be noticed sooner or later. However, if electricity generators were connected during daytime, the swindle would hardly be noticed.

As I said last time around, this is the insanity of greenery.

Here is the Google Translation of the article.

You too can generate energy with your solar system at night, all you need is an 850 million candlepower WWII era searchlight, now available for rent.

Hey, it’s not crazy. There are so many fees, taxes, add ons, etc to power bills in California now it is actually cheaper to generate your own electricity running a diesel generator than it is to buy it from PG&E. Anyone have a used diesel-electric locomotive I can buy? Thanks Watts Up

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Give the Villain his Check

President Obama and his fellow Democrats kicked off their newest campaign to vilify insurance companies in the final attempt to pull off their extremely unpopular healthcare-whathaveyou.

The Republicans, meanwhile, stood on the curb to point out that those very same insurance companies would get huge checks from the government if health reform is enacted. Wha? No way!

“(Health Insurers) will keep on doing this for as long as they can get away with it. This is no secret,” the president said. “They're telling their investors this – ‘We are in the money. We are going to keep on making big profits even though a lot of folks are going to be put under hardship,’” the President told supporters at a rally in Pennsylvania.

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, meanwhile, wrote to insurance company executives demanding that they justify premium hikes.

Neither bothered to note that the Senate health reform bill, which is the basis for Democrats' last chance at comprehensive reform, would give the insurance companies millions of new customers required by law to buy health insurance. It would also require insurers to cover everyone, regardless of age, gender or pre-existing condition.

To pay for the new insurance requirements the government would give to people money to buy insurance - $336 billion over the next ten years. That money, ultimately, would have to go to... insurance companies. Not individuals. But the folks they're vilifying in public, and handing checks to behind their backs.

Folks without employer-sponsored insurance who make too much money to qualify for Medicaid and less than about $88,000 for a family of four, would get tax credits to help them buy insurance on the open market. But the payment of the tax credits would be made directly to insurance companies. See page 37 here of the Senate Finance Committee's exhaustive explanation.

Now, remember when candidate Obama criticized a proposal by Sen. John McCain because it would send government help for people to buy insurance directly to insurance companies? Yeah. And when Hillary had the exact same plan? Yeah. This is that same plan.

“But the new tax credit [For Health Insurance] he’s proposing? That wouldn’t go to You. It would go directly to your Insurance Company – Not Your bank account," said Candidate Obama in October.

And yet that’s exactly what Democrats' proposal would do and why so many would prefer public insurance option to compete with the private market. Supporting the Senate bill will be tough for many liberal Democrats in the House.

To the Republicans’ (and Obama’s on the campaign trail) point about the payments going directly to insurance companies, remember that people with employer-sponsored insurance or current federal medical benefits do not usually get a separate check to buy insurance either. They pay premiums directly to the insurance company and so does their employer. The Senate proposal would create a similar relationship between people who don't have employer-based insurance and the government.

So why do Insurance companies, if they're set to receive more than $330 billion in government subsidies to insure people without insurance now oppose the Senate bill?

"Health plans proposed more than a year ago robust insurance market reforms and new consumer protections to guarantee coverage for pre-existing conditions. Much more needs to be done in the current legislation to address the skyrocketing cost of medical care, which is making health care coverage unaffordable for working families and small businesses," said Robert Zirkelbach, a spokesman from America's Health Insurance Plans, in a statement today.

He argued that health insurers should not be targeted by the President and their profits are lower by margin than other sectors in the health industry. But the President needs a villain, and you can't make Doctors and Nurses be the bad guys - that just doesn't work. And you need to find pond scum that polls worse than Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reed - which, on last count, I think Used Car Salesmen were polling at a 2 to 1 favorable rating over Congress - so Insurance Companies it is.

"For every dollar spent on health care in America, less than one penny goes towards health plan profits. The focus needs to be on the other 99 cents," he said.

Why not more sensible solutions - like HSA Accounts for everyone? Too complicated and Bush tried that. So, no way a sensible solution is going to be coming around the track anytime soon.

Sunday Comics

Politician Reform Movement

Our politicians have failed.

If you still believe that the Democrats and the Republicans are actually separate forces that represent their local constituencies you have fallen victim to their largest and most successful lie that they've ever perpetrated. It's so successful, that it's been going on for the last 233 years.

The idea that the government is here to help seems to be gaining some pretty serious traction lately.

The government is here to save us from the Great Recession, Carbon Dioxide, Swine Flu, and the Evil Satanic Insurance Companies... to name a couple off the top of my head. Don't even get me started on Katrina - but that's so last Administration.

Let's look at that track record of our gang in there now with a tiny bit of focus- First, the Great Stimulus. No one knows where the stimulus money is or if it's worked, or if anyone ever had any actual money for non-existent 'shovel ready' projects - or if it's just going straight in to bankrupt State government coffers that are empty because they spent like there was no tomorrow. What's the plan? Let's print more money. The Chinese will buy it, right? Not working? Well, we have to do a second stimulus plan - just to be sure. And we better give the Fed more power with less oversight while we're at it.

In the meantime, they've made the previous Bush deficit spending look like pocket change. There are two active wars on, there are US troops deployed in more than 150 ^[1] countries around the world, with more than 369,000 of its 1,379,551^[2] active-duty troops serving outside the United States and its territories. But the President canceled the F-22 Raptor because 'it cost too much.' He had to force the Congress to stop funding it. Wow. That's great work. It's like taking one deck chair off the Love Boat and to pick up some more speed. Way to stand up to military-industrial complex, you guys.

In saving us from the great evil of Carbon Dioxide - which you and I expel after we inhale oxygen - they're going to give us Cap & Trade -- which will add about $200 to your monthly budget. Since the Democrats have never heard of Milton Friedman, they don't know that if you tax a business then those taxes will roll off the evil corporation's back and onto their consumers. Look for increased gasoline, electricity, and natural gas prices in your utility bills. Also the price of you groceries and beer will increase as the prices reflect off the producers increased bill for utilities go up as well. Perhaps we'll see the end of 'cheap food'? I only wish I could afford to smoke, because I wouldn't be hungry anymore.

Not that it matters, Cap & Trade doesn't actually reduce carbon emissions - it only creates another commodities market and a way to shuffle the carbon emissions around. Everyone keeps on polluting. No matter, as long as Congressional buddies are making some money, right?

Oh, but they're going to protect us from Swine Flu! Just yesterday Janet Napolitano said that when school restarts in two weeks, Swine Flu is going to wipe us all out. Well that's a bummer. I guess that's their 'ultimate solution' to social security and unemployment, eh? Never mind the fact that as of right now, Global Swine Flu deaths have reached a staggering 1,100. That makes this pandemic more than 1/3rd as deadly as the 9/11 attacks! Watch out! Let's declare war on swine flu!

If you need to see more examples of your elected officials in action... The Government takes a couple grand of your money and gives it to your neighbor to buy a new car. The neighbor, declares program "successful" and "wildly popular." Welcome to the basics of Cash for Clunkers. Then, Congress runs out of money - without having even written one check. The computers crash. There's mounds and mounds of red tape. No one knows what's going to happen to the cars once they're brought in - and if they end up in the junk yard, the junk yard will be flooded with parts making their business model fall apart and need a Cash for Junk bail out. Yeah, that's our government in action.

My Soap Box Full of Solutions.

I've decided to get off my rump ass to stop bitchin' and start sayin'. In other words, to offer some solutions.

If the current government is going to wreck the health care and insurance industries without taking into account that a majority don't want the government to interfere with 19% of the GDP -- let's start talking about some real solutions... and we can do that by fixing our government. More importantly, Congressional Politician Reform.

If they keep pushing for more unchecked power, then I'm going to push back. Here's some great ideas I've come up with.

1. Volunteers Only. It works pretty well for our military - let's our Congress carry on that same kind of patriotic duty as well. There will be no money for our politicians either. But that's okay, because they're already multimillionaires anyway.

2. Term Limits. And since they're volunteering their time, we sure don't want to keep them locked into the humid atmosphere of Washington D.C. too long. Let's let them leave after they've taken a couple terms in the chair. How about three terms in the House, and two in the Senate. That's IF they really want to stay.... and convince enough people that they did a good enough job to be re-elected. So that'd be a max of six in the House, and 12 years in the Senate. I think that's fair.

3. Freedom of Information. All conversations will be recorded as part of the public record. No more back room deals, or letting the fraternity buddies write the legislation. All phones and cell phones are on 'conference' mode, and all their rooms are wired for sound. We can make it fun too, we can have camera crews follow around all of our elected officials all the time. You know, for a C-Span Survivor/Reality show for the folks back home. Even if no one except staffers from the John Stewart Show watch the raw footage - it'll make catching Larry Craig and the whole State of New Jersey a whole hell of a lot easier. Hey, if they can tape us with warrantless wiretaps - I say, let's do it to them. They're OUR employees after all - all I'm saying is let's keep it fair.

4. Campaigns. All campaigns will be on the very grass root efforts: Personal effort, no checks. If I want to make a sign or a billboard for my favorite candidate - awesome. Canvas the town. Knock on doors. Have a bake sale or a pot-luck. But let's not burden our elected officials with the trouble of having to set up a PAC or a campaign war chest. It's just too darn hard to keep track of what's okay for the campaign and what's okay personal use. Can I use campaign funds for mistresses and hiding dead hookers? Let's remove the gray areas for them. We'll just make our own signs and YouTube videos, okay? We'll just do it all for them. We'll set up some rules so that everyone has submission guidelines... we won't lie or use bad language. We won't be negative. And, hey, since the airwaves are the People's as well - let's mandate that PBS and NPR have to give every candidate some air time, for free and also for some debates. And we won't require it of the dog catcher - but we will for the Federal candidates. And you know, I think that the Networks can choose to not give away our air that we're letting them use. They have to air American Idol everynight, don't you know? Fine, and that's cool. But they either give back our airtime for the elections - or they can pay the American people a penalty through the FCC for NOT giving free airtime to local candidates. It's only fair.

5. Donated stuff not money. Office supplies, temps, and whatnot - if a corporation wants to win favor with bribes or sway one of our employees to vote a particular way - hey, that's really tough for us to stop! But instead of giving our Congresspeople skiing trips, or fancy meals or hookers and blow let's make new rules that will be that corporations can only 'donate' what they make. Oh, and it has to stay in their Congressional office, otherwise it'd be a gift and not a donation. So, if a company makes copy machines, then Senator Franken can use their donated copy machine. If a company sells a search engine, well, then maybe they can get him a computer with their search engine on it. Oil? Well, they can give him oil... but I don't know where he'd put a barrel of oil. Maybe in the closet? Remember, only tangible physical objects can be given to our members of Congress. I think that's only fair.

6. Leadership will be selected not by seniority but by tests. I haven't decided if these tests should be contests of the mind like Jeopardy or of physicality - like the Battle of the Network Stars. I think a combination of both - and aired on television would be quite excellent. At the very least, an essay in the form of op-eds in the New York Times, or a debate that would happen on Meet the Press. Internet voting and text messaging from the people would determine the Speaker of the House and also the President pro tempore of the Senate. "I'll take Constitutional powers for 400, Alex." That'd be geeky awesome. We can have Howard Dean and Paula Abdul advise the audience who would be a better Speaker, but it'll be up to the people to decide. Frankly, at least a minor written test would be better than the system we have now. We can't afford any more Nancy Pelosis or Newt Gingrich types running that House.

7. Simple Congressional Districts. This nonsense of redrawing districts to get pockets of nice people who agree with you, and not having exciting knuckle drag out fist fights for votes is just asinine. We need real debate and real solutions. No more goofing around with these insane Tetris looking districts. Square boxes for congressional districts in every state. Wyoming, you are just making it too easy. West Virginia, I know you're going to be a pain in the ass about this, but these are desperate times.

8. Internet voting for the constituents back home. Ross Perot was on to this idea back in 1991. He said that the Republic is just about technically ready to be a Democracy. Meaning the Internet was just about ready to let the People actually cast votes instead of their Congresspersons. Well, we don't want to take these guys jobs away - no matter how much they don't deserve them. But we can take the burden of all that hard reading and writing of bills that they don't seem to do that well, out of their job description. We'll require that they have to 'sell' the bill to the back home crowd, and allow the folks back home a chance to read the bill and to vote on it electronically to tell their Congressperson EXACTLY how to vote for said issue. No more of this 'I'll scratch your back on this one - and you get me on the next' garbage that's played out every day in the halls of Congress. Now our employees will know how the hicks and the yokels want a bill to be voted on. You blow it, then you have to answer to your bosses.

So, how's that sound to ya, Congressman? How about making that pledge to the American People?

Fixing Healthcare. My Solution.

Oh, here's how you fix health care in America. You force everyone to agree what a finger is worth at a certain age... Have some actuaries put a price tag on it. Then we go down the list of ailments and bad outcomes - coupled with age. You put a dollar amount in that graph. If there is a bad outcome - then that's what the doctor and the malpractice insurance company needs to pay. And that's only to be paid upon actual negligence, not just because you feel like suing. That's called tort reform. The President is against this idea and was booed in front of the AMA last month because he rejected it outright.

If you lower court costs and ridiculous payments for lawyers, then malpractice insurance premiums will fall dramatically. And then the price of healthcare will fall. Dramatically.

You also have to have a system in place to prevent bad doctors from practicing or teaching medicine. How about a three strikes and you're out plan? That sounds good. Kind of catchy. Three really bad outcomes that should have been obvious to a group of peers - and you must surrender your license and find a new profession. Just like the ambulance trailing trial lawyers and the insurance companies making a mint off of the worst doctors who are able to keep killing their patients.

Nah, that's just too easy.