Phrase of the Day

Well, really, poem of the day:

The Convert

After one moment when I bowed my head

And the whole world turned over and came upright,

And I came out where the old road shone white,

I walked the ways and heard what all men said,

Forests of tongues, like autumn leaves unshed,

Being not unlovable but strange and light;

Old riddles and new creeds, not in despite

But softly, as men smile about the dead.

The sages have a hundred maps to give

That trace their crawling cosmos like a tree,

They rattle reason out through many a sieve

That stores the sand and lets the gold

go free:

And all these things are less than dust to me

Because my name is Lazarus and I live. – G K Chesterton

Commercial Loans in Trouble

Just in case any of you liberals were still rolling around in green shoots and chanting “Obama will fix it, Obama will fix it”:

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said a potential wave of defaults in commercial real estate may present a “difficult” challenge for the economy, without committing to additional steps to aid the market.

Bernanke, testifying before the Senate Banking Committee today, urged lenders to modify “problem” mortgages to avert defaults. Christopher Dodd, the Connecticut Democrat who chairs the panel, told Bernanke that “some have suggested” the commercial market “may even dwarf the residential mortgage problems” in the U.S.

The state of commercial real estate was one of the most- asked-about subjects in questioning by lawmakers so far in Bernanke’s two days of testimony on the economy. Bernanke said today in the Senate and yesterday at the House Financial Services Committee that it’s too early to tell how effective the Fed’s main initiative in the area will be.

The Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, a Fed emergency program that lends to investors to purchase securities backed by consumer and business loans, began accepting commercial mortgage-backed securities as collateral last month.

Fed policy makers will extend the TALF, currently scheduled to expire Dec. 31, should they judge financial markets are still “some distance from normal operation,” Bernanke said today.

Given the number of empty store fronts I see in my drives around Las Vegas, it would not surprise me if a wave of commercial defaults are on the horizon. The question is just how big it will be and whether this will be the death blow to our already over-strained financial system (its either this, or the “second wave” of home foreclosures, or China’s impending collapse – any or all, and there’s nothing, really, we can do stop any of them…though we can paper over the cracks for a short while).

We’re going to learn our lesson, good people, and we’re going to learn it good and hard.

UPDATE: Via Mish’s Global, Moody’s is grim on commercial real estate.

31% of Americans Still Buying the Obama Scam…

…seemingly, no matter what happens:

Just 31% of likely voters now believe the United States is heading in the right direction, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Down one point over the past week, it’s the lowest level found on the question since mid-February.

Sixty-three percent (63%) of voters say the country is moving down the wrong track…

Weren’t you liberals once upon a time really, really emphasizing this “right/wrong track” number? What have you to say, now?

The Death of Blue America

Joel Kotkin over at The American notes the sorry failure of the “blue” model of governance and economics. I highly recommend reading the whole article.

As for me, I’ll note that the only way we can really get rich – really get out of our economic jam – is if we make, mine and grow things. Urban hipsters would certainly prefer that we make our money by talking to each other and shuffling money around…but, in the end, you have to dig things out of the ground, grow things and put things together for there to be wealth creation. In other words, you have to get dirty and be willing to put some sweat in to it (icky, sticky, stinky sweat! And, my goodness, all those piercings will be quite a hazard if you’re actually working for a living).

The blue economy is what died in late 2008 – the economy of usury, of mere technological innovation (as if we really need a new, improved cell phone or a new program that allows us to view porn a little faster), of money shuffling and living off the government dime. We’ll be stuck with “blue” economics as long as Obama is in office, but the good news is that the longer liberals stay in charge (to a certain point, of course) the easier it will be for us to install a new paradigm for economics and government.

Top Five Things I'd Rather Do Than Watch An Obama Press Conference

I was preparing tomorrow’s lunch with the news on when the Obama press conference came on… I refuse to watch that pathological liar pretend to be a leader. Before I could even change the station he managed to blame Bush for the economy, then take credit for miraculously fixing it.

Screw that. Enough with the lies and bull s**t. I put on The Cosby Show instead.

Anyway, it got me thinking about things I’d rather do than watch that liar. Here are a few. Have any of your own you’d like to add?

Top Five Things I’d Rather Do Than Watch An Obama Press Conference

1. Wax my chest hair.
2. Spend a week at Gitmo.
3. Be waterboarded.
4. Give up coffee, wine, and red meat for a month.
5. Catch Swine Flu

So how about you?

Alaska Asserts Sovereignty

Joining the growing list of States which have – finally! – discovered the 10th Amendment:

Gov. Sarah Palin has signed a joint resolution declaring Alaska’s sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution – and now 36 other states have introduced similar resolutions as part of a growing resistance to the federal government.

Just weeks before she plans to step down from her position as Alaska governor, Palin signed House Joint Resolution 27, sponsored by state Rep. Mike Kelly on July 10, according to a Tenth Amendment Center report. The resolution “claims sovereignty for the state under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government by the Constitution of the United States.”

Alaska’s House passed HJR 27 by a vote of 37-0, and the Senate passed it by a vote of 40-0.

Here’s the meat of the resolution:

BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature hereby claims sovereignty for the state under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government by the Constitution of the United States; and be it

FURTHER RESOLVED that this resolution serves as Notice and Demand to the federal government to cease and desist, effective immediately, mandates that are beyond the scope of these constitutionally delegated powers.

Music to my “small r” republican ears, that is. Time to get Uncle Sam back in to his cage – we need to strike a better balance…we’re not a mere collection of States, but we’re also not a centralized nation, either. We’re a mix, with the maximum power to effect day-to-day living left at the lowest level possible.

This sort of assertion of human liberty is, of course, anathema to our liberal friends – if we’re not a centralized regime, then things like Obamacare can’t happen…next we’ll be wanting to regulate things like abortion and pornography by purely local action, and where would that lead us? Eventually, some things might be different - and we’re not talking “different” in the sense of having a nose ring, but in the sense that people might live their lives as they choose.

Sen. Hatch (R-UT) Refuses to be Tool of Obama

Obama needs at least a few GOPers to sign on to his big government health care scam in order that when it falls apart, Democrats won’t bear 100% of the blame, and it looks like that prospect is fading:

Sen. Orrin Hatch said Wednesday he has withdrawn from a bipartisan Senate group that is negotiating legislation to overhaul the health-care system.

Mr. Hatch (R., Utah) is one of four Republicans that began negotiating with the aim of reaching bipartisan agreement on a bill. However, of the four, he had been considered the least likely to support a final product. Talks are continuing to try to get Sens. Charles Grassley (R., Iowa); Olympia Snowe (R., Maine) and Mike Enzi (R., Wyo.) to throw their support behind the package.

“It’s going to be difficult for me to support what they are talking about, so I’d rather be upfront about it,” Mr. Hatch told reporters after a Senate vote. He said he informed Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D., Mont.), who has been leading the so-called group of seven, of his decision Wednesday.

Snowe (R-ME) will be the hardest to detach – but if we can get it down to just her, then no matter how they slice and dice it, they won’t have anything bi-partisan about their bill. If we are to have this hopelessly corrupt, anti-common sense and un-American plan shoved down our throats, then let us hang the dead-certain miserable results on the Democrats.

UPDATE: Catholic Bishops condemn Obamacare over its stealth-provisions for federally funded abortion on demand.

Many have been wondering when the U.S. bishops would comment on the Obama health care plan — given that it contains abortion coverage.

Well, their statement has finally arrived. It comes in the form of a letter from Bishop William F. Murphy of Rockville Center to all the members of Congress.

Bishop Murphy writes as chairman of the USCCB Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development.

“No health care plan should compel us or others to pay for the destruction of human life, whether through government funding or mandatory coverage of abortion. Any such action would be morally wrong,” writes Bishop Murphy.

The bishops have been lobbying for universal health care for many years, thus the letter from Bishop Murphy contains many specific proposals they would like to see incorporated into the legislation. For example, Bishop Murphy asks for a repeal of the five-year waiting period for legal immigrants to receive Medicaid benefits.

I included that last bit – the desire to cover legal immigrants from day one – because I wanted to point out that the Catholic Bishops have been in favor of a universal health care for a long time, including a sort of coverage many liberals oppose. Well, here it is, and the Bishops have been forced to oppose an age-old dream because fanatics on the left are inserting anti-life provisions. Point blank, no one really knows what is in this dog of a bill – and that is how Obama and his Democrats wish it to remain…just pass the blasted thing, and then Obama will tell us what he finds in there.

Nothing doing, Barry.

UPDATE II: Nancy Pelosi says she’s got the votes. Yeah, whatever.

Wednesday Open Thread

Just can’t think of anything relevant or true for the main, morning entry. Have at it, boys and girls.

Phrase of the Day

Our folly invites tyranny:

Arbitrary power is most easily established on the ruins of liberty abused to licentiousness. – George Washington

Obama Administration Continues to Fumble Honduras Issue

Can’t get much stupider than this:

The U.S. government threw its weight behind Arias’ proposal that Zelaya, who was (removed by constitutional means on June 28), be reinstated to set up a coalition government.

“We’re in constant contact with a number of countries in the hemisphere regarding the situation in Honduras, and we believe the Arias mediation is the right way to go, and the time is now to … resolve this issue,” State Department deputy spokesman Robert A. Wood told reporters.

“We think that this is the best (way) … to restore the constitutional order in the country, and we want to see that happen now,” he said. (Ed. Note: MSM report edited to make it true)

Uh, Woody, old buddy – the constitutional order is intact in Honduras…what would screw it up is forcibly installing a President deposed via constitutional means. We’d be installing a dictator in the name of democracy if we carried through stated US policy – even in the worst of the Carter Administration, I don’t think we ever got this short-sighted about foreign policy.

I pray the people of Honduras don’t back down – Zelaya was planning a coup designed to set up a Chavez-style dictatorship and it is simply asinine that our policy is to reward a would-be dictator.