WHY OBAMA WILL LOSE BY THE GALLON
How many gas stations do you pass by on an average day? For most folks it's several. Dozens every week, a couple of hundred or more every month. Every one of them throughout America is loudly displaying a campaign ad against President Zero. Look at the next gas station you drive by and you'll see the campaign ad shouting at you - wordlessly, for the ad consists only of numbers. It's the price per gallon. This is the best campaign ad ever - a daily infuriating reminder of what a ruinous loser Zero has been as a president, and what his presidency is costing you in real money. Plus it's free - neither the Romney campaign nor the GOP Super-Pacs have to spend a dime on them. All they have to do is turn the negative ad against Zero into a positive ad for Romney. The question is: Can they do it? Can Romney do it himself, and persuasively?
EUROPE’S DEBTORS MUST PAWN THEIR GOLD
The latest news from the EU Crisis Front: Southern Europe's debtor states must pledge their gold reserves and national treasure as collateral under a €2.3 trillion stabilization plan gaining momentum in Germany. The German scheme -- known as the European Redemption Pact -- offers a form of "Eurobonds Lite" that can be squared with the German constitution and breaks the political logjam. It is a highly creative way out of the debt crisis, but is not a soft option for Italy, Spain, Portugal, and other states in trouble. The plan is drafted by the German Council of Economic Experts and inspired by Alexander Hamilton's Sinking Fund in the United States -- created in 1790 to clean up the morass of debts left by the Revolutionary War. Flourishing Virginia was comparable to Germany today. Germany would have a lockhold over the fund, able to enforce discipline. Each state would have to pledge 20% of their debt as collateral. "The assets could be taken from the country's currency and gold reserves. The collateral nominated would only be used in the event that a country does not meet its payment obligations," said the proposal. This demand could enflame opinion in Italy and Portugal. Both states have kept their bullion, resisting the rush to sell by Britain and others. Italy has 2,451 tons of gold, valued at €98bn in March.
THE LARGER THE GOVERNMENT, THE FEWER THE JOBS
Many in the political class, including President Obama and many members of Congress, have an interest in confusing, rather than enlightening, the public. The effort to misinform about the growth in spending and the impact of government spending on job creation reached a new level last week when the president claimed he was the most restrained spender since President Eisenhower and that spending was up only a little more than 1 percent (over what?). A quick review of economic policy for the past 30 years, as can be seen in a glance at the table below, provides evidence that big increases in government spending do not create jobs but, in fact, do the opposite. The correct way to measure the impact of government spending is not to look at the nominal numbers, which include population and economic growth and inflation, but rather as a percentage of GDP (national output). 
ROMNEY-PETRAEUS?
In a Gallup poll May 23, more disapproved of Vice President Joe Biden (45 percent) than approved (42 percent.) In 12 swing states, Slow Joe was underwater 40-52, intensifying speculation President Barack Hussein Obama may dump him for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
While the president has an embarrassment for a running mate, Mitt Romney has an embarrassment of riches from which to choose. He can’t go wrong if he picks from among Governors Mitch Daniels (Ind), Bobby Jindal (La), Chris Christie (NJ), Bob McDonnell (Va) and Scott Walker (Wis), or Sens. Rob Portman (Ohio), Marco Rubio (Florida), and House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan.
But even if Slow Joe continues to commit a gaffe a week, I doubt he’d hurt Mr. Obama much, because people vote on the basis of what they think of the presidential candidates. So its unlikely any of the aforementioned Republicans would gain for Mr. Romney many votes he wouldn’t otherwise have had.
There’s one guy who could matter more, thinks former National Security Council staffer Paul Miller. When Gallup last polled on him in April, 2011, Americans rated Gen. David Petraeus favorably, 61 percent to 7 percent. That poll may have been what prompted President Obama to make Gen. Petraeus CIA Director.
THE OVERWHELMING BIAS OF THE MEDIA IS DANGEROUS TO DEMOCRACY
On Tuesday (5/22), the Los Angeles Times published a 1,300 word story on Ann Romney's fondness for horseback riding, emphasizing how expensive is the sport of dressage. Ms. Romney spent nearly $1,000 on a designer blouse, ABC News reported May 2. As a high school student in 1965, Mitt Romney played a nasty prank, the Washington Post reported in a 5,400 word story May 16. The story isn't accurate, said the sisters of the target of the prank, who died in 2004. For the "mainstream" media, nothing is too insignificant to report -- if they think it reflects poorly on Mr. Romney. But if it reflects poorly on President Barack Obama, no story is so big it can't be downplayed, dismissed or ignored. How dangerous to democracy is such blatant, undisguised bias?
HALF-FULL REPORT 05/25/12
For the first time ever, the HFR Hero of the Week is a dyed-in-the-wool Dem. A bio summary:
Played varsity football at and graduated from Stanford, Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, Yale Law School J.D. Home town controlled by corrupt Dem crooks, ran against the machine, elected mayor in 2006, had previous crook mayor prosecuted who was sent to federal prison. City one of the most crime-infested in America, as mayor he reduces murder rate to lowest since 1941. Saves a woman's life whose home was on fire, suffering second-degree burns. Reelected to second term in 2010, numerous awards for city's progress on economic revival and reducing drugs, crime and unemployment.On Sunday, May 20, he appeared on NBC's Meet The Press, denouncing on national television Zero's Romney-is-a-vampire campaign ad as "nauseating": "We're getting to a ridiculous point in America. I live in a state where pension funds, unions and other people invest in companies like Bain Capital. If you look at the totality of Bain Capital's record, they've done a lot to support businesses, to grow businesses. This kind of stuff is nauseating to me." Yes, he's the Mayor of Newark, New Jersey, Cory Booker. Another disaster week for President Cowpie.
MEMETIC DEFECTS AND CULTURAL FAILURE
Cap Haitien, Haiti. On a steep mountain top three thousand feet high above the north coast of Haiti, stands this staggeringly gigantic fortress: 
It is the Citadelle Laferrière, revered by the left's professional distortionists of history as "the greatest monument to black freedom in the Americas." What it really is instead is a monument to totalitarian insanity, and what makes such insanity possible-a culture's memetic defects. To better understand what this means in general (and thus how it applies to the USA), let's take a quick look at the horrific history of Haiti.
PUBLIC UNIONS FACE A RECALL, NOT WISCONSIN’S GOVERNOR
You should be careful what you wish for. What may be the most important gubernatorial election ever will take place in Wisconsin June 5. The labor unions who forced it must now regret having done so. Forty four states face budget shortfalls in the 2012 fiscal year (which for 46 states began last July 1). Wisconsin was the 6th most troubled, according to a 2009 analysis. For decades, spending by state governments has risen faster than the income of taxpayers. Pay and benefits for government workers is, after Medicaid, the biggest reason why. The average compensation per hour worked of state and local government workers is 45 percent higher than the average for workers in the private sector, according to a Cato Institute analysis of data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is because of a cozy arrangement between Democrats and public employee unions. Politicians get votes and campaign contributions from the unions, then pay off the unions from the public treasury. This game may be soon over.
THE DEATH OF JAPAN
Today (5/220, Fitch Ratings has downgraded Japan two notches to A+ -- just above Spain and Italy -- citing a surge in public debt since the Lehman crisis and the lack of any plan to restore fiscal probity. Key indicators are deteriorating on almost every front, raising concerns that the world's third largest economy is running aground after two "Lost Decades". Japan's debt has jumped by 61 percentage points of GDP since 2008, compared to eight points for the AAA bloc. Public debt is expected to reach 239% of GDP this year, uncharted levels for a major economy in peace-time. `Net debt' - subtracting Japan's vast holdings of foreign bonds - is nearer 137% but this is rising at an even steeper trajectory. "Japan's addiction to public sector spending is way beyond the boundaries or remedial `austerity'," said Dylan Grice from Societe Generale. "Political pressure on the Bank of Japan to crank the printing presses into top gear will become irresistible. We see no alternative."
DEMOCRAT THUGS AND REPUBLICAN WEENIES
Many Democrats (and some Republicans) are all atwitter about Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin deciding to move to Singapore to partially escape what he believes is excessive taxation. Leaving the U.S. is a much more extreme action than moving from a high-tax state to a low-tax state, but a record number of Americans gave up their citizenship last year. Sen. Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, and Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr., Pennsylvania Democrat - whose thought processes seem to be similar to those of King George III in 1776 - have denounced Mr. Saverin and introduced legislation to punish him and others who may wish to leave because of high taxes. It appears to me that this is nothing more than a modern version of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which demanded slaves be returned to their "owners," who were in effect imposing close to a 100 percent tax upon their slaves. Why don't more Republicans in Congress stand up to such Democrat thugishness -- most especially when it comes to the deficit spending that's bankrupting us and causing wealthy Americans to leave America?