American Flag made in China, but we have bigger issues to worry about

ABC News: Lawmakers: Flags Should Be Made in USA

While I absolutely agree that any American flags our government buys should be made in America, is this really a priority issue, as our banks fail and our fuel prices rise, and the Taliban re-emerge in "forgotastan" our lawmakers are wasting our time and money on little things like this.

How about the people who buy the flags just get sent a memo to buy American and we get back to dealing with real issues.

It is exactly this kind of total lack of priorities that is tearing this country apart and putting so many who can't afford it in more and more debt.

Senators have nothing to worry about since their pension plans will keep them wealthy long after they leave office, but for most Americans this is a prime example of just how screwed up priorities in Washington are.

Pat Tillman cover up gets covered up

House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform investigation into the misinformation and attempted cover-up of of the friendly fire death of Pat Tillman has been derailed by what's described as a "near universal lack of recall".

Senior White House officials including former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, communications director Dan Bartlett, former Press Secretary Scott McClellan, and chief speech writer Michael Gerson seem to be loosing there ability to recall important events.

How convenient
"Not a single one could recall when he learned about the fratricide or what he did in response," says the committee's report.

The corruption and lack of will to hold the corrupt accountable just keeps marching on.

This man was a hero and a soldier and his memory and his family deserve better from there country.

Richard Myers former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of staff could recall when he first heard that the Tillman death might have been due to friendly fire, but conveniently was unable to remeber if he pass this information to Rumsfeld. LIAR.

These guys should all be burned at the stake.

Why would anyone re-enlist when this is what they can expect from the people they serve.

At worst they are all guilty of a conspiracy to cover this up, at best they are men who are mentally pathetic and if that's the case no wonder we are in such a mess.

Paynes Pain

Bush aid Stephen Payne selling presidential support

As I had already posted on this days ago I'll just re-iterate what I think the media is failing to report, the most important part of this video is not the library, I urge you to watch the entire video. Payne clearly discusses support of the administration for a deposed politician of a foreign power, a purchased endorsement.

An Open Letter to the New Yorker

As an avid reader of periodicals, including the New Yorker, a fan of art and expression in all it's varied forms, as an American and a voter, I am deeply offended.

I am offended that America has lost it's sense of humor and it's grasp on perspective.

I am offended and insulted by politicians and popular medias assertion that Americans are so stupid they wouldn't get the joke.

I'm upset that the men who would rule me can't take a joke and can't see the truth in front of them. That this piece of art and satire has done just exactly what it was intended to, open the dialogue on an issue, even Mr. Obama was afraid to address, that he isn't a Muslin but some Americans may still think he is.

I am offended by liberal readers of the New Yorker who didn't expect this and are offended.

And I am sick to death of people talking about art or any other form of expression as "not appropriate".

I'm offended by a society of robots who shudder with fear every time someone doesn't walk the line, and I am not surprised in the least we are in the mess we are now.

I would be offended if this issue wasn't addressed and Obama lost an election because this issue was never discussed. You have opened that discussion, Obama should be thanking you for this.

Keep it up, good for you.

We aren't the Brits, no queers allowed

Don't ask don't tell, that's the Policy of the US military, but not the British and that's why the American military is better, or at least that's the position of Senator Duncan Hunter, ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee.. As she put it in an interview with 60 minutes.

"The Fallujahs of the world, the Ramadis of the world that require heavy combat and lots of fire-fighting capability - those are the places the Americans go. The other countries tend to go to the so-called peacekeeper zones, where they have fewer fire fights and less contact with the enemy," Hunter says. "And the European nations show little will to send large contingents of their military people into dangerous places."

The British and other countries allow gays to serve openly, Britain has even allowed gay military personnel to march in gay pride parades in uniform. But according to Duncan. That's why they are pussies.

"The Fallujahs of the world, the Ramadis of the world that require heavy combat and lots of fire-fighting capability - those are the places the Americans go. The other countries tend to go to the so-called peacekeeper zones, where they have fewer fire fights and less contact with the enemy," Hunter says. "And the European nations show little will to send large contingents of their military people into dangerous places."

This is a huge insult to the British who have been involved in some of the heaviest fighting in a little place we seem to have forgotten about, Afghanistan. Our long term allies deserve a little better than this.

Ken L. of Roadtosurfdom.com makes a good if humorous point, a little perspective for us.

One thing is a bit of a worry though … the Iranians don’t just keep fags out of the military, they allegedly hang them. Does this mean the Iranians will be even more hardened warriors than all those good old straight GIs?

If we are going to fight the worlds wars we might actually need the help, not only of the gays in the British military, but of our own. With constant recruitment deficiencies and a reported 4000 gay personnel not re-enlisting because of don't ask-don't tell.

Many would rather have they help rather than rely on the clearly more expensive and risky practice of hiring private armies to do our dirty work.

There are certainly going to be soldiers who disagree with openly gay personnel serving, but many were opposed to having women serve and that certainly wasn't a mistake. If this country choses to fight a war against homosexuals, that's a fight it will lose.

It's time for us to grow up a little.

Fed steps in to stop shady martgage practices, is that a joke?

Several years to late for many families who feel they had not only been deceived but who are now starting to suggest that the value of there homes had been appraised much higher than they should have been The glorious Federal Reserver has decided maybe they should actually do something about it.

More and more people believe not only are we in this mess because of the unmitigated greed of lenders and a Fed that has failed to keep it's commitment to the people of the nation.

"Rates of mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures have been increasing rapidly lately, imposing large costs on borrowers, their communities and the national economy," said Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke.

"Although the high rate of delinquency has a number of causes, it seems clear that unfair or deceptive acts and practices by lenders resulted in the extension of many loans, particularly high-cost loans, that were inappropriate for or misled the borrower," Bernanke added.

He sounds like a man who's trying to catch up to reality. Who highered this asshole anyway. What seems clear is you're a moron.

"A lot of people probably already thought these rules were in place but they weren't," said Jim Gaines, a research economist at Texas A&M University's real-estate center.

You know rules like making sure the person you loan money to actually has a job. Like not being allowed to advertise "fixed" rates on loans when the "fix" is only a few months not the life of the loan.

Companies servicing mortgages, for instance, have to credit a mortgage payment to the homeowner's account on the day it is received.

This list goes on and on, and as you read through it you have to wonder how could these simple common sense rules not have been in place all a long.

The answer is simple, we allowed bankers to regulate themselves and they know how to milk the system for everything it's worth. To banks the average American is a number on a spread sheet.

But Bankers are crying foul, saying these regulations go to far, ARE YOU FRICKEN KIDDING ME? This is bottom of the barrel stuff, these should be the lowest standards. The bar should be much higher, and it will have to be raised if they expect any confidence in the economy or the nations banks, it will take even more to restore confidence in the Fed and Bernanke.

is the ICC just a joke?

President Omar al-Bashir isn't to worried about the ICC, it's been a largely ineffective and as Drima on PajamasMedia puts it.

what on earth does the ICC’s chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, plan to do after he gets his warrant? Walk into Khartoum and handcuff the Sudanese president?

If people in such influential positions are going to make such inflammatory rhetoric, then they better have the ability to act upon it. Otherwise they should avoid making such empty threats in the first place, because such foolishness can carry a high price.

Like the ICC the UN is largely ineffective at dealing with issues of human rights abuse because when they take a stand on an issue they rarely can or will back it up in any meaningful way.

According to wikipedia

As of 4 October 2007, the Prosecutor had received 2889 communications^[82] about alleged crimes in at least 139 countries.^[92]
After initial review, however, the vast majority of these
communications were dismissed as “manifestly outside the jurisdiction
of the Court”.^[82]

On 10 February 2006, the Prosecutor published a letter responding to complaints he had received concerning the 2003 invasion of Iraq.^[114] He noted that "the International Criminal Court has a mandate to examine the conduct during the conflict, but not whether the decision to engage in armed conflict was legal", and that the Court's jurisdiction is limited to the actions of nationals of states parties.^[114]
He concluded that there was a reasonable basis to believe that a
limited number of war crimes had been committed in Iraq, but that the
crimes allegedly committed by nationals of states parties did not
appear to meet the required gravity threshold for an ICC investigation.^[66]

2889 complaints about 139 countries it has no jurisdiction over. The ICC is just another parade.
Article 16 of the Rome Statute allows the Security Council to prevent the Court from investigating or prosecuting a case.

The court is funded using the same method as the UN and last year spent €80.5 million accomplishing virtually nothing at all, the 2008 budget was approved at €90,382,100. A lot of money for an organization with only 485 employees who get very little done at all.

During the negotiations that led to the Rome Statute, a large number of states argued that the Court should be allowed to exercise universal jurisdiction. However, this proposal was defeated due in large part to opposition from the United States.

California Screams about Bush Offshore Oil Scam

There seems to be a growing consensus among people in southern California. Lifting the offshore drilling ban on isn't going to help oil prices and we already have enough.

Many beach goers in southern California already stare out at oil rigs and tankers now and concerns run high about local impact of renewed drilling. Few believe it will have an impact on oil prices in a reasonable time frame.

"It took them years to build these things and they drilled for years before any oil came out." a beach regular who identified himself as Jack in Huntington beach said. Now in his 60's Jack said he grew up in the area and thinks of them as an "eye sore"

I took a trip to the Farmer's Market today and asked some random people what there thoughts were.

In general most people doubt they will make any difference, and many believe that this is "just another scam the president is pulling to make his rich oil friends richer," Janice, a student at UCLA told me.

As I waited in line for a coffee at Bob's Coffee and Doughnuts, I asked a young Hispanic gentleman behind me his thoughts. "The guys in the White House now are just crooks and they're taking as much as they can before they go."

Discussions with friends and neighbors reveals much the same sentiment. It's just the last in 8 years of Bush cash grabs. The executive branch and it's associates are just getting rich off our blood.

Governor Schwarzenegger opposes drilling on California shores and it seems many in SoCal agree that California should chose what is done with her shoreline. Bush should just go away.

Oil the scapegoat for US dollars weakness

Analysts are increasingly wary of the fundamental logic behind model-based financial trading,the link between the weakening US dollar and the sharp rise in oil prices as exaggerating the cause-and-effect.

"There are some arguments as to causation, but certainly not to justify the strength of correlation. To some extent oil has been used as a bit of a scapegoat to explain dollar weakness," State Street senior strategist Michael Metcalfe said According to reuters

"Anybody with a spreadsheet can throw out a correlation. It's a clear analytical error however to infer that correlation implies causality," said Steven Pearson, chief currency strategist at Bank of Scotland Treasury Services.

Many law makers and some experts blame hedge funds, pension funds and speculators for much of the rise in oil prices.

"There are people out there who have short-dollar, long-oil trades set up, that to a certain extent might be algorithmic or just react automatically to changes in those variables," Michael Waldron, Lehman Brothers energy analyst has said.

"If people do think in the short- to medium-term that there will be a
strong relationship between the two and they trade to capture that
relationship, it can reinforce the price movements."

The suggestion by a growing number is bad financial policy and a lack of regulations and enforcement of existing regulations are at the root of the issue.

"If you go back and look at the last 6-1/2 years and you ask what's behind the strength of the oil price, I would say it's the same thing that is behind the strength of other things and that was the extremely accommodative U.S. monetary policy," said Simon Derrick, head of FX research at Bank of New York Mellon.

Peter Beutel, president of oil consultancy Cameron Hanover, "At some point we'll come back to an era without the dollar mattering, I guarantee. Because we'd been going 25 years without this as a factor until last summer."

More and more this is on the minds of American tax payers, government failures and big money funds caused this problem and it's big money the government is now bailing out.

If they worked for me I would fire them all.

Californians want there money out of IndyMac

In a sweet farewell line up to bancorp and IndyMac, Californians send a clear message, we want our money enough is enough.

Pick and IndyMac branch and head down if you want to get some nice crowd shots. Hundreds of people began lining up five hours before the regulator seized bank opened Monday morning.

The bank, now in the hands of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp after customers withdrew $1.3 billion over the previous 11 days. But this banks were already collapsing, the bank run was just the final straw.

But unlike bank runs of previous decades this time people aren't doing it because they are afraid of financial collapse they are doing it because they understand now that the Fed is a complete failure. It is a failure in regulating the banking industry, it is a failure because it is run by the banking industry and most certainly it's a public relations disaster.

Far from being able to stabilize financial markets, it's further eroded American confidence by bailing out the top percentile and trusting them to filter this stability to the foundation. If the foundation gives the structure will fall.

Californians are sending a clear message to Bernanke, Paulson and the FDIC, you are not trusted.

Fannie and Freddie Paulson Plan a Disaster says Rogers

Bloomberg.com: Worldwide

Jim Rogers thinks Paulson's bail out plan for embattled Freddie and Fanny is an "unmitigated disaster".

Rogers, famous world traveling investor, author and professor says the largest US mortgage lenders are "insolvent" and in reference to the planned bailout and it's architects he doesn't mince words. "I don't know where these guys get the audacity to take our money, taxpayer money, and buy stock in Fannie Mae,'' Rogers, 65, quote by bloom continues. "So we're going to bail out everybody else in the world. And it ruins the Federal Reserve's balance sheet and it makes the dollar more vulnerable and it increases inflation.''

These companies were going to go bankrupt if they hadn't stepped in to do something, and they should've gone bankrupt with all of the mistakes they've made,'' Rogers said. "What's going to happen when you Band-Aid and put some Band-Aids on it for another year or two or three? What's going to happen three years from now when the situation's much, much, much worse?''

Rogers says the comodities bull market has a "long way to go" and is recommending investment in agricultural commodities.

In a bold accusation Rogers says the Fed and the treasury are "bailing out their friends on Wall Street but there are 300 million Americans that are going to have to pay for this."

He's going to take a lot of heat for these comments, but he's a hard man to attack, he's been right for a long time about the situation. By many he's considered a wise and honest man.

He's also right and while to collapse of these institutions would have devastating effects on the market, perhaps it's time 300 Americans bite the bullet and take there country back.

This is investor debt, across a global market, in the hands of the wealthies people in the world, let them pay for there own mess. The economic mishandling that has gone on for decades has cost tax payers enough, we have a war to pay for, enough is enough.

Obama Ego Bomb

Power Line: The resistible rise of Barack Obama

There is a decent break down here of a New Yorker article Ryan Lizza wrote about Obama's rise and a link to a Jonah Goldberg article discussing the enormity and consistency of one thing more and more people seem to be talking about in regards to Barack Obama. His ego.

I hold in my hand another testament to this, "The Audacity of Hope" penned by none other than The man himself. I read it for the first time on the Independence Day weekend, I figured I should catch up. Weeks later what stand out in my mind isn't the man or the platform he stands on. It's the effort he went to in constructing some of the most technically correct--and incredibly long--sentences the man weaves.

I'm not left with substance, just a feeling that a great deal of effort was put into trying to convince me he is a scholar among scholars and a visionary among the blind.

I am still recovering from the ego bruising, but that's another story. I want desperately to see something in our future beyond 100 years of war, but in the end of the day at least thats a plan.

The grand ideas, of taking care of our weakest and providing for our youngest, as a nation and a species is wonderful and I fully support it, but I can't stand on lofty ideas I need a plan, and a plan we can afford.

Ego is all I see from Obama and his most hardcore supporters, and it may carry him to election day but I doubt it will see him into the White House.

Ego, as a root motivation for human endeavor, in many ways is what's gotten us here.