Observations from the DNC

TJ Madison
8/29/2008

As I write this, some 75,000 mental patients eagerly await Barack Obama's acceptance speech for the Presidential nominee of the Democrat Party at Invesco Field in Denver Colorado.
I usually don't care for these things, whether it be Republican or Democrat, I guess I'm watching it out of curiosity. And as a Political Blogger, I have to take one for the team. I must confess though, I have watched a few other portions of the Convention this week.

It sure is ironic to me, seeing all the American flags being waved around. I vividly remember just days after 9-11 when almost all Americans showed their solidarity and flew flags on their cars and on their homes, in a great sign of Patriotism. However, it didn't take long for the Leftist pundits, in newspapers, magazines, and on television, to criticize Americans as being ignorant, dangerous and Jingoistic.

Well, is Jingoism what I'm seeing now, or is that only when small-town conservative people in 'fly-over' states show their love of country?

The next First Lady?

Day one saw Michelle Obama cap off the night. I found it very interesting how good a job they did 'nice-ing' her up. She was on stage, alone, until the end of the speech when the Obama's charming little daughters came out and joined her. Then on the giant television screen next to the stage, Barack joined them in some 'hokey' conversation, straight out of Leave It to Beaver.

Let's be honest, they are a good-looking family. The kids are cute enough, Barack comes across as a nice guy, but my problem, as far as appearance goes, is the 'real' Michelle Obama. I don't care how much she smiles; she still looks like an angry person with a 'chip' on her shoulder.
Just check out her jaw.

Most women aren't born with jaws like that, it takes years and years of bitterness to end up looking that bitchy.

Not to mention she's a Lawyer, too. WOW, what a Combination!

She will never rid herself of hatred of American traditions and being a black woman. Unfortunately, she will be the closest person to Barack if he becomes our next President.

The Joe Biden VP pick

I've long since 'muted' the Obama speech tonight; it's just another highly produced political advertisement, by definition full of B.S. Even though I can't hear it, I can see it out of the corner of my eye that the Democrat robots are eating up the 'red meat'. He must have used the 'ole stand-by line' (which may have seemed better than just ripping off a whole speech, as Biden did in 1988): "Washington is broke, and I'm just the guy to fix it.

"Yes, Washington is broke, that's why I picked a running mate that's been in the Senate for 60-something years, hasn't fixed anything about Washington, and has contributed to the huge current government. "

Biden was the obvious pick for Obama to make, to 'even out' the ticket. Barack's biggest downside is: the obvious lack of experience. However, there are pitfalls to having two Senators on the ticket, but as has become apparent, an idea does not need to possess any logic, common sense or a shred of the possibility of a positive outcome to be taken quickly by the Obama campaign.

I'm sure the Obama's people got together to discuss the possible VP pick, and it probably went something like:

Barack: OK, we need someone who looks old, but not as old as McCain.

Staffer: How about Hillary?

Barack: No, she ticked me off at the debates, and I might accidentally
confuse her with Michelle.

Staffer: Polls say you can win with Hillary as VP.

Barack: So, logic is overrated. Just because people say it, doesn't mean
it's true, plus I've got two daughters, man. Do you think I want her creepy
husband hanging around the White House?

Staffer: How about an 'outsider', say a Governor, or an Imam?

Barack: Look man, I need someone that knows more about Washington than
me…

Staffer (Thinking): As if that would narrow it down.

Barack: But, not too big a name, he can't be more popular than me .

Staffer: What about Biden? He's old, and he has more hair than McCain,
plus it doesn't take a lot to influence his beliefs you can make him say and
think whatever you want.

Barack: All true, however, his hair is all 'plugs'.

Staffer: I know, but doesn't he make you look even better when he's
standing next to you.

Barack: OK, let's get him on the phone.

Convention Conclusion.

As Barack leaves the stage tonight, I sure am seeing a lot of those American flags again.
Funny how 75,000 hypocrites just love America now?

I guess it's the first time they have ever felt proud of their country, too.

TJ Madison has loved his country his whole life. And it's because of the freedom part too, not just because he lives here. For more on TJ visit our about page.

Things that Should be Obvious

I’ve been at college for a few days now, and though I have abstained from getting into any political debates, I’ve heard a lot of nonsense, thus far. Here I will attempt to bring common sense, reason or logic (whatever you want to call it) into issues, currently lacking them in the mind of the average American.

Oil Prices aren’t a result of Speculators

This is one I find the strangest, because it's hard to believe that if Speculators could drive up the price of a commodity, one as huge as oil wouldn’t be a problem, and after they chose one with a small volume of trades, Special Interest agricultural groups would have forced legislation through putting regulations on commodity trading.

For those not familiar, ‘Speculators’ trade contracts, where they say in the future I’ll be willing to pay you X for Y, for this privilege I’ll pay you a premium of a percent of X. Basically, they cannot have an effect on oil, because they trade derivatives of its price.

Or Oil Companies

I covered this in an article already. Here’s the gist of it: there is competition in the gas industry, so there’s no way a can be up the prices just to increase their margin.

If you walked into a super store to buy shoes and they were all basically the same, but one pair was $50 while the rest were $25 the company selling the $50 shoes would go out of business pretty quickly, unless it dropped the prices. Similarly, if the shoes were all sold for $50 a new shoe company could come into the market (and would to get the profits) and undercut the rest of the industry selling his shoes for $25 a pair, this would cause the rest of the companies to drop prices.

Minimum Wage Increases Unemployment

If the government decides to raise the price each worker gets paid, employers won’t be able to hire people who could do jobs that would be worth less than this wage.

It’s easy to understand.

Taxes Always Hurt the Economy

When you tax something you’re taking it away. This means, everything it could have been used for, buying food, buying a car, investing in a company, cannot be done. Also, because of compound interest, the economy as a whole is very worse off because this money was taxed away.

Taxation is Theft

How would you answer this question: What is income tax? Here’s how I would: The government forcibly takes your money. You may not think there’s any force involved because it is just withheld from your paycheck, but try not paying your taxes and you will see force pretty quickly.

With that established how would you answer: What gives the government have the right to steal from people who live within its borders? Your answer may be: because we’re a Democracy and we voted to give it that right, but then you would be incorrect.

The US was not intended to be a Democracy and the Founding Fathers mocked this form of government. It states explicitly in the constitution that the state cannot tax the income of the people. Unfortunately about 90 years ago a new amendment was voted in to allow this theft.

‘The Poor’ is not a class

Regardless of how politicians will pander it is important to know that the poor of this country are not a class, but are actually, for the most part, an age group.

According to Thomas Sowell’s great work, Basic Economics, the income and wealth differences of this country are very biased based on age. This makes a lot of sense, when you’re young you don’t make very much money, but as you gain experience and move up you make more money, and by saving establish more wealth.

The Rich are Taxed Enough

I will never get over this. There is no logical basis for taxing the rich more than others. This is literally the equivalent to making the basketball team who is winning at halftime put weights in their shoes – it is punishment for success.

There is Military Occupation Blowback

If the US goes into the Middle East and bombs countries occupies Muslim Holy Lands and kills 500,000 women and children, the Muslims will be pissed, and the bin Ladens of the world will take advantage of this to convince the ready to go to war.

This does not, however, justify more occupation and fighting in the Middle East, the opposite actually seems more suitable.

The current situation in Iraq is a form of Socialism

Let’s look at this logically: Americans are forcibly taxed so their income can be redistributed to the Defense (yes, it is DE-fense) and companies in Iraq that are making it a ‘democracy.’

So basically the money is taken from those with the ability to earn it to give to those who need it.

I believe Karl Marx said, “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.”

It is a contradiction to be, “Personally against Abortion,” but ‘Pro-Choice’

Other than the fact that a life is being taken, I don’t see a reason for being against abortion, considering this, there should no choice for a woman on whether or not she can take a human life, murder is illegal.

It is also a contradiction to be Catholic and Pro-Choice

Nanci Pelosi seems to believe there has been controversy in the Catholic Church on when life begins; this is probably why her book sold less than 3,000 copies in the first two weeks.

As a Catholic I’ve never met another Catholic who is Pro-Choice. However to put to rest any of this non-sense, it says in the Catechism of the Catholic Church that life should be protected from conception, and it says in the Bible that it would be better for a man spill his seed into a prostitute than on to the ground.

Government Regulations are not really ever good

Let’s look at a few things that are regulated: marijuana, alcohol to those under 21, the speed of a car, the quality of roads, the quality, speed and locations in relation to first-class mail, airports.

Here are all of those regulations that have improved the situation: .

Therefore it does not make sense to be moderate on economic issues

Either one thinks government needs to ‘help,’ or that it will make things worse, there is no issue where one can use his philosophy to change his opinion.

Links August 23

We've got a lot of links this week, so I'll just get started.

Books on Liberty

Ayn Rand Lexicon

Why the Free Market Works

Christian Perspective of The Dark Night

Division of Labour

For Most People College is a Waste of Time

The Myth of the Independent Fed

How the Smart Money lost $1 Trillion, so Far

Corsi Endorses Constitution Party

David Friedman

FEE Seminars

The Future of Libertarian Politics

Who Started Cold War II?

And None Dare Call it Treason

Obama Ice-Fishing

No Whiners Allowed

Pro Life Blogs

What Libertarianism is Not

What's so Great About Dinesh D'Souza?

Six Myths about Libertarianism

Soap Box Politics

Barr on Cavuto

Quote of the Week

Socialize the individual's surplus and you socialize his spirit and creativeness; you can't paint the Mona Lisa by assigning one dab each to a thousand painters.

-William F. Buckley

Video of the Week



Part 2



Part 3

Obama Inexperience Starting to Show

By: TJ Madison
8/23/2008

About a month ago, I predicted Barack Obama would win the election in November. It was based on the criteria of three issues’:

1. The state of the economy.
2. The war in Iraq.
3. Barack Obama’s personality.

Now, I will still stand by my prediction, however, my confidence is not as high as it once was. The economy and Iraq are still in Barack’s corner, his ‘magic’ show, though, is losing some of its luster. As I write this piece, John McCain has gained ground to the point where he is about even with Obama when it comes to scientific tracking polls.

Why? Obama’s political amateurism is starting to show. Something this writer thought he would be able to hide through November. Nevertheless, don’t expect me to get on the McCain ‘landslide’ bandwagon just yet.

Even though Barack is a Democrat, he’s not stupid. Nobody can make the rise from Illinois State Senator to Presidential front-runner in a few short years, without being politically savvy. Remember, he knocked off the Clinton political machine, and couldn’t have done that without having some good strategists around him.

Those strategists are still with him, and the wheels are turning.

Not to mention the wheels at CNN, MSNBC, NBC and the New York Times. So don’t get too comfortable, Republicans. Even as the economy shows positive signs and the War in Iraq gets better, don’t expect that to be front-page news.

Well, unless they find a way to give Obama the credit!

It took leftists an entire term of George W. Bush to make a book on his misspoken words and butchered sentences; Obama is well on his way to filling his third volume before even being elected! The only difference: you’ll only hear about it on talk radio.

In a stump speech, when talking about health care costs, Obama referred to a nasal ‘inhaler’ as a ‘breathalyzer’. Now, if that were a Republican making that mistake, you would hear Wolf Blitzer starting off his CNN show with: “Does this Republican candidate understand our health care crisis, if he doesn’t know the difference between an inhaler and a breathalyzer?”

The worst thing the McCainiacs can do is think they’ve got it in the bag. Obama and his staff should have learned a lot in the last month about ‘gaffs’ he’s made, and get that corrected. It is possible they believe there have been no mistakes, seeing that he is the chosen one. However, you can tell Obama is a little rattled about everything that’s gone on in the last month, he seems to be a very thinned-skin person. It’s apparent by his tone, he doesn’t see the humor of others making light about proper tire inflation being the equivalent of offshore drilling of oil.

I think the pivotal point will be the last day of the Democrat National Convention, when the Democrats try to fill that outdoor football stadium in Denver. The ‘bump’ that he gets in the polls, the week following, will be very telling.

In Defense of the Oil Companies

After watching an incredibly biased interview of Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson, being interviewed by ABC’s Charles Gibson (the video can be found here and transcript here) I decided to write the first energy-policy related article on Agents of Liberty.

Three big points, infinitely touted by the biased media, need to be countered.

‘Obscene’ Profits

First, to kill the ridiculous notion of obscene profits. ExxonMobil had ~$138 billion in revenue last quarter, and ~11.7 billion in net income. This net income number may seem huge, but it is just 11.8% of Exxon’s profits, by comparison Google’s profits are 23% of its Revenue, Microsoft’s are 27%, in fact a Google Stock screen turns up over 1,300 companies with net margins of at least 12.2%.

Exxon has huge profits, but this is from huge volume, not from price gouging, in fact if Exxon was stupid enough to price gouge it would probably immediately lose business to other gas companies who are willing to sell their product at an 11% margin.

Exploration vs. Buybacks

The following exchange was the most revealing of the interview:

CHARLES GIBSON: When profits are so high, why is spending on exploration so low?

REX TILLERSON: Well, we're spending at record levels. Through the first half of this year, we have spent $12.5 billion. That's a record level of capital and exploration expenditures for us. We expect we will spend about $25 billion this year. And we have forecast over the next five years that we will invest $125 billion in capital and exploration expenditures. And to give you some perspective on that, that's a little more than half of what all 13 OPEC nations are going to invest as they've announced. So we are investing at record levels and expect that we will continue to be doing that in the years ahead.

CHARLES GIBSON: You're spending more money buying back stock than you are on exploration.

REX TILLERSON: Well, that's a cash flow question, Charlie, in terms of how should we manage our cash flow. And that's important for our shareholders, obviously. It's important for our future health as well.

The first thing we do is invest in all the projects that we have available to us and that make sense to invest in. And the second thing we do is pay all our taxes, pay all our operating costs, all of our employees and all the people that do business with us. And then we see what's left over. And what's left over we try to return efficiently to the shareholder, because it's their money. So we do that through dividends, and we do it through share buybacks. Our shareholders then take all that money, and they're doing something with it elsewhere in the economy.

Tillerson effectively dismantled Gibson’s heinous argument that the buybacks should be lower than exploration, but as Gibson mentioned many more times that Exxon buys back a lot of stock, the arguments needs to be clarified.

ExxonMobil is a business; therefore it is run to produce a profit. Gibson mentions that they: Invest in projects, pay taxes, pay operating costs pay labor then return the rest to shareholders.
This is pretty easy they pay what they need to continue running the business then return the rest to shareholders, who own the business.

Gibson either doesn’t understand this or is too ignorant to care, as he digs himself into a hole by trying to tell an experienced CEO what he should be doing with his business. Let’s return to the business definition: it’s run to make a profit, by that definition everything in which Exxon invests must be capable of producing a profit for the shareholders in the future.

Gibson is of a different opinion and for some illogical reason thinks Exxon should invest billions of dollars in unprofitable investments (something I believe he has absolutely no knowledge of) instead of returning the money to the shareholders, who, through their positions, have the right to it.

Windfall Profit Tax

Later, in the interview Gibson talks about windfall profits taxing and Obama’s plan to tax the ‘windfall profits’ of oil companies $65 billion over the next five years. Again, Tillerson has a simple response that Gibson seems incapable of comprehending, “What would that accomplish.”

This is something Obama has not addressed. Senator Obama: we understand you think taxing is the answer to everything, and that you understand that when uneducated people see Exxon’s large profit dollars they are angered. However what exactly would this accomplish?

In a world where too much government has caused the price of oil to soar, how is more government the answer?

Also, the price of all food related to corn has soared almost the same amount as oil over the past few years. Yet corn farmers are getting subsidies from the government, to produce corn to make ethanol, a fuel that just about every scientist believes has no reasonable use, and would be more expensive than gasoline.

Where’s the difference? Why should the shareholder’s of the oil companies have their money stolen three times: To subsidize the farmers, to pay higher food prices and to kill their dividends?

The Real Problem

The real problem is unrelated to any oil companies, but good luck finding that on any news channels.

There are two big reasons for the high oil prices, the dollar and supply and demand.
The supply and demand issue is not very revolutionary, the demand for oil went up, but the supply did not, as a result the price went up. This is basic economics.

One way to increase the supply of oil is to open up off-shore drilling and ANWR, regardless of how long this would take to produce oil, I fail to see what gives the government the right to forbid drilling.

The dollar issue, however, is more complicated. The US dollar is not backed by any commodity and is currently being printed willy-nilly by the Fed. Whenever more of a currency is printed inflation goes up (this is because if you have more of something it loses its value, if everyone had $150 million, it would not be a big deal to have $150 million).

So inflation is going up, the value of the dollar is falling, and all the oil in the world, with the exception of that under the control of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is traded in dollars, as a result the price of oil is up.

This may seem negative as there is nothing the government can do to help (as if there has ever been anything where the government helped), but true Capitalism was shown in June as the demand for oil fell the most in ~30 years, this affected the price of oil and it fell from over$140 per gallon to below $115.

This whole situation reminds me of a conversation between Dagny Taggart and Hank Rearden in Atlas Shrugged, Dagny was remembering how she was taught in school that eventually the sun would burn itself out and the world would end. Rearden replied that he had always thought that by the time any of this had happened man would invent a solution.

Maybe the government should stand aside and let man invent a solution.

Roark will be a college student majoring in Economics in less than one week, until then he will make do with the many books by genius authors he has collected. For more on Roark, please visit out about page.

Links 8/16/08

We're adding a bi-weekly poll after the relative success of the Bob Barr poll that produced 12 votes, we will switch off deciding the poll topics, this week I chose taxes and to where they should be changed, we have five votes already.

Links

Blowback from Bear-Biting

some Murray Rothbard stuff: Freedom, Inequality, Primitivism, and the Division of Labor and The Struggle Over Egalitarianism Continues

Wal-Mart comes to Town

Barack's Stealth Socialism

Students for an Orwellian Society

Suppressed News was at bandwidth limit when I linked may want to check in a few days

25 Reasons You May be a Racist

Bill of Rights

Gang of Sell-outs

Video of the Week

This so for all of those still ignorant to the benefits of medical marijuana and the power trip on which the DEA currently ruins people's lives for no logical reason what so ever.



Bi-Weekly Poll

Question: Which is the best tax plan?

Answers:

1. Keep it how it is
2. The Fair Tax
3. The Flat Tax
4. A flat tax, then slowly work into a value-added tax
5. No tax, taxation is theft

Quote of the Week

This week's quote comes from easily the best president of the 20th century, Ronald Reagan:

Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.
– Ronald Reagan

Saving Garad, Saving America

By: TJ Madison
8/15/2008

If we can save Garad, we can save America! Now, who is Garad?

Garad is the type of American voter that will decide another close election. Unfortunately, like many, he is not an American that pays close attention to politics. He is busy with a career, marriage and maybe even three children. Who really can blame these people for not keeping that close an eye on political issues?

Let’s face it, election cycles have started earlier and earlier. It becomes boring, tedious and usually ugly. Have you met anybody who has actually said, “God, I can’t wait to vote for McCain or Obama?”

Less than 90 days from the election, Garad is a ‘soft’ Obama supporter. Which usually means: I’m supporting Obama, but I can’t give you a good reason why.

The ‘Garads’ will usually stay away from most political news and choose to vote on snippets, sound bites, or commercials by a political propagandist.

Advantage Barack Obama.

Why? Well, those of us who follow politics know that major media types are inherently ‘left-wing’, and will do there best to keep Obama in as much of a positive light as they possibly can. No, it’s not a ‘conspiracy’, it’s just a matter of fact that left-leaning young adults tend to choose major’s like journalism in college. (The trend right now is an 80/20 split of journalist favoring the Democrat over the Republican in national elections). Don’t be fooled into thinking that ideology doesn’t creep in to their ‘reporting’.

Another Obama advantage to garner the novice political voter, the masterful techniques and the carefully chosen words he uses while giving a speech. Words, ironically he can’t seem to find when someone asks him an unexpected question. Then you see him go from dignified statesman to bumbling incompetent.

So how are the believers of America’s Founders, you and me, going to convince the ‘Garads’, that a slick orator with some clever buzz words is not the person to make the United States a better, stronger or unified country?

First, the ‘Garads’ are usually good candidates themselves to vote for the Republican nominee. They’re intelligent; they work, pay too much in taxes, own a home and probably want the Federal government to keep out of their business.

Sounds pretty conservative to me!

Second, familiarize him with the radical past of Barack Obama. In spite of his ‘thin’ resume in politics, He sure has amassed a large amount of controversial figures in his political circle.

A book everyone should read, before voting for Obama is: The Obama Nation, by Jerome Corsi. Corsi began researching Obama’s personal and political background soon after Obama was elected to the U.S. Senate.

Read about Obama’s extensive connections with Islam and radical left-wing politics, from his father and stepfather’s Islamic backgrounds, to his Communist and Socialist mentors in Hawaii and Chicago. All of it factual, the book is abundantly sourced with over 600 footnotes.

Other disturbing discoveries include:

-Obama’s far-left domestic policy, his controversial votes on abortion, his opposition to the Second Amendment, his over-reaching plans for universal health care and his plan to tax American’s to fund a global poverty reduction program.

-His involvement in the slum-landlord empire of Chicago political fixer, Tony Rezko, who bankrolled initial campaigns and purchased Obama’s dream home.

-A naïve foreign policy, predicated on the reduction of the military, the eradication of nuclear weapons and an over confidence in the power of his personality, as if belief in change alone could somehow transform international politics.

Now don’t think this book will have any effect on the militant Obama supporter or hard leftist, but remember it’s the reasonable people like Garad who we’re reaching out to.

Honestly, I was not going to vote for John McCain two weeks ago and it’s a shame that we don’t have a legitimate small government candidate to vote for in the two major parties. Every week that goes by, and we find out more about this Democrat Emperor who has no clothes, I’ll be damned if I’m going to sit back and watch this ideological Marxist with radical-racial past, win the White House with out being challenged.

TJ Madison is a self-described Jeffersonian Republican living in the People's Republic of Wisconsin. For more on TJ, please visit out about page.