HALF-FULL REPORT 10/03/08
Sofia, Bulgaria. Dr. Joel Wade couldn't write his column yesterday (10/02) because he was so nervous waiting for the Palin-Biden debate. He's feeling a lot better this morning. So are we all. You betcha. So let's lift a pint of Kamenitza beer in honor of Sarah Palin and the hope she has reignited the McCain-Palin ticket... ...Kamenitza is my selection out of a large number of excellent Bulgarian beers because of its advertising motto: Success in your hands (there's a picture of a hand holding a bottle), followed by the ad copy: Because you are successful, we present to you a Bulgarian beer with character. You would never, ever see such an ad in any country in Western Europe. In France or Germany, young people sneer at entrepreneurial capitalism as their purpose in life is to sponge off the state... ...Thus the garish irony of our election in November.
IS JOE BIDEN A PATHOLOGICAL LIAR?
"All you have to do is go down Union street with me in Wilmington or go to Katie's Restaurant or walk into Home Depot with me where I spend a lot of time and you ask anybody whether or not the economic and foreign policy of this administration has made them better off in the last eight years," said Sen. Joe Biden in the vice presidential debate to bolster his assertion he's in touch with the concerns of the middle class. That answer suggested otherwise. "It came as a surprise to us in Delaware that Joe Biden recently had a meal and talked with patrons at Katie's Restaurant on Union Street in Wilmington," said an email to National Review Online. "Katie's Restaurant closed years ago. It was on Scott Street in Little Italy." The people who fill up at his neighborhood gas station can't pay for a full tank of gas, Sen. Biden said. Sen. Biden lives in a 7,000 square foot estate on a four acre lakefront lot in Greenville, which is described as "northern Delaware's priciest area." Sen. Biden says things which are not true with passionate conviction. That's a polite description of a pathological liar.
1989: SERIOUS PEACE
This first week of October in 2008, we launch a new feature in To The Point. It is entitled How We Won The Cold War: A Personal Account of the Greatest Adventure of Modern Times. "Winning Cold War" for short in the left side bar. This calls for an explanation, and a confession. The confession first. I have absolutely no excuse whatever for not completing The Jade Steps. After completing 33 chapters, I have only the concluding last chapter and the epilogue to go, and I haven't done it. So I hope that by starting another book, it will force and embarrass me enough to finish the historical novel. How We Won The Cold War, however, is no novel. It's the way things really happened. It's the book my literary agent (and avid TTP'er) Theron Raines has said what I must write, the book I owe to history. The situation is this. I have completed the first six chapters, which I'll be posting for the next successive six weeks. They are setting-the-scene chapters which give me time to get back from my travels and get back to work (yes, this means finishing The Jade Steps as well!). Hopefully, so many of you will bug me so much to keep posting the next chapter in the series that I will actually get the book written to completion. So here we go with an Introductory Note and Chapter One, 1989: Serious Peace. Wish me luck.
THE ONLY GOOD PIRATE IS A DEAD PIRATE
Somali pirates got a shock last week: The ship they seized carried dozens of Russian-built tanks, along with a wealth of heavy weapons and ammo. It was more than they'd bargained for. As I write, the Ukrainian ship MV Faina sits at anchor off a notorious pirate port, its crew held captive by 30 or more Somalis. US Navy warships circle the vessel. Our helicopters buzz its deck. We don't want that weaponry falling into terrorist hands. The Somalis lack the facilities to unload 40-ton tanks, but the smaller weapons aboard would delight the local al Qaeda franchise. But we don't know what to do next. Which is ridiculous.
THE FIX IS IN FOR OBAMA
Who is Will, Good? Mr. Good Will -- who lists his employer as "Loving" and his profession as "You" -- has contributed 1,000 times to the Obama campaign. All the contributions have been in amounts of $25 or less. But they add up to $17,375 -- far more than the legal limit of $4,600 ($2,300 each for the primary and general election campaigns). Kenneth Timmerman, a reporter for NewsMax, discovered Mr. Good Will when he reviewed 1.4 million individual contributions in the latest Federal Elections Commission master file for the Obama campaign. Mr. Good Will said he was from Austin, Texas. When I called Directory Assistance, they could find no listing for him. Who is Pro, Doodad?
TIME TO RELEARN THE CONNECTION BETWEEN PROSPERITY AND FREEDOM
There is nothing new under the sun. The United States has endured major financial panics in 1837, 1873, 1893, 1907, 1929, 1933 and now in 2008. Most of these economic events had ideological and political consequences - as well as the inevitable economic play-outs. And, if history is any guide, contrary to the hope of some and the fear of others, this is not the end of capitalism as we have known it. But it is true that usually, major economic events have had political as well as economic consequences. For instance, the panic of 1893, which in some ways is similar to the current panic, was caused by overbuilding and sloppy financing of the railroads. The 1880s had enjoyed dramatic economic expansion, which lead to dangerous speculation. Once the railroad bubble burst there was a run on the banks, a contraction of credit, and European investors demanded gold for payments which forced the reduction in the value of the dollar.
DON’T THE POLITICIANS WHO CAUSED THIS CRISIS BELONG IN JAIL?
If government agencies pressure banks to give loans to people who are poor credit risks, do you view this as a failure of capitalism or a failure of government? A number of left-wing politicians and commentators have made the assertion that the financial crisis is a result of too much deregulation under the "capitalistic" policies of President Reagan. Those who make the assertion are either ignorant of the facts or being untruthful. What we have seen is not a failure of free-market democratic capitalism, but another failure of a government that destroyed the normal market mechanisms for dealing with risk. There have been many calls for the "greedy" to be punished, but the political "greed" for power and money is even more dangerous than excesses practiced by occasional business people.
HOW TO KILL PUTIN’S RUSSIA
Varna, Black Sea Coast, Bulgaria. I'm sitting on the veranda of my luxury suite at the five-star Flamingo Grand Hotel with a spectacular view of the Black Sea, and enjoying a glass of spectacularly good Bulgarian red wine. It seems odd that this place of such peace, beauty, and enjoyment is where to kill Putin's Russia - but it is, exactly right here. With Vladimir Putin using his oil billions and traditional Russian thuggery - murdering opponents, invading neighbors - to reignite the Cold War and reestablish the Soviet Russian Empire, it's time to think of ways to put an end to it. If we got rid of the Soviet Union, it should be child's play to get rid of Putin's Russia. And it is. Putin's Russia has a mortal vulnerability. Exploit that vulnerability, and he, together with his entire imperialist enterprise is done for. That vulnerability is not oil. It is...
SOUTHWEST WINTER RENDEZVOUS!
Any denizen of the TTP User Forum will instantly recognize "Cephren," the all-time champion poster. And any participant in previous TTP Rendezvous, such as last month's in Boston, knows Cephren is Chris Baldi, a hail-and-hearty fellow you'd have to try very hard to dislike. At Boston, everyone agreed that the Winter Rendezvous had to be someplace where there isn't winter, someplace warm, and that it should be out West. Last February it was in the East, in Sarasota. We had a wonderful time in Sarasota, and Chris promises us all an equally good time where he lives. Thus we hereby announce the Southwest Winter Rendezvous in Phoenix, Arizona, January 23-25.
HOW WE GOT INTO THIS MESS IN 7 STEPS
1. The Community Re-Investment Act of 1977 threw out the idea of a sound financial system in favor of affordable housing for the less well off. Folks who could not afford to borrow to buy a home were now the legislated target market for lenders; banks were legally forced to lend money to bad credits. Out went traditional and rational lending criteria like 20% down. Now, folks who could not afford it could buy a home for 0% down. So the banks fulfilled their, now lawful, obligation for making the initial loan but then, as soon as possible, sold the damn things off for a packaging fee. 2. The fundamentally corrupt regulatory process whereby the quasi government controlled wholesale lenders of Fannie and Freddie, and the large private mortgage packagers such as Countrywide, could and did buy any kind of legislation they wanted. The Chairman of the Senate banking committee, Chris Dodd (D-CT), is and has been the largest recipient of Fannie and Freddie political contributions. In addition, Senator Dodd got two sweetheart Mortgages from Countrywide. The recent heads of Fannie and Freddie were political appointees, mainly by Democrats: Franklin Raines, Jamie Gorelick, and Jim Johnson - all Obama advisors.