- Posted by Christopher Estep on November 19, 2008
When I read Michelle Malkin’s headline that a GOP bailout stooge had said “it’s not your money” regarding the proposed auto bailout, I assumed it must be out of context.
It’s not.
A RINO from Michigan says it flat out. The entire context is in the clip, but for the unbelievable statement itself, forward to 0:24 in.
Joe Knollenberg (R-MI): It's not your money!
Fortunately, he lost the election. I’d rather have a Democrat that at least won’t pretend he’s for small government.
- Posted by Christopher Estep on October 24, 2008
Fred Thompson and the GOP have released a 12 minute video warning of the inevitable calamity if Obama is elected. Fred is his usual folksy, eloquent self, but I fear it’s too little too late.
Fred Thompson Warns America
The problem is that Fred is preaching to the choir. Nobody who would be influenced by him is going to vote for Obama anyway!
I agree that to remain silent is not an option, but as the closing statement indicates, this video was paid for by the Republican National Committee. Money was spent to produce this, but to what end? To be able to wag your finger in 2 years and say, “we told you so?”
- Posted by Christopher Estep on September 29, 2008
At 7:00 on a Friday evening, Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue signed an executive order declaring a state of emergency, specifically aimed at the then-imminent gas shortage created by Hurricane Ike. It states:
Hurricane Ike has caused a natural disaster throughout much of the Gulf Coast region, thereby adversely affecting the motor fuel supplies to the State of Georgia
This much is true. Not much to argue about there.
Price gouging related to motor fuels is detrimental to the social and economic welfare of the citizens of Georgia;
Wow, that’s a pretty broad, blanket statement. It’s also the beginning of a straw-man argument. It has made a statement with an air of authority such that it is assumed to be a foregone conclusion. It does so by using a negative term such as “gouging”. I contend that this statement is not only false, but rather is the exact opposite of the truth.
Wholesale and retail gas prices have substantially increased in some markets in recent hours
This much is true. As stated in the first part of the declaration, motor fuel supplies have been adversely affected. But again, the context implies that the increase in prices is, by definition, a bad thing. It’s actually not. It’s simple and basic economics. Supply goes down so the price goes up until the demand reduces to match supply. That’s what a free market does!
In the light of these circumstances, and to protect public health, safety and welfare, it is necessary to prevent price gouging using the authority vested in the Governor
The simple fact is that the legal prevention of so-called “price gouging” is not only unhelpful, but it exacerbates the problem and is injurious to public health, safety, and welfare.
A common phenomena that is happening here in the metro Atlanta area is that people are “topping off” their tanks, getting 4 to 8 gallons at a time whenever they see a station that has gas. All authorities, governmental and non-governmental, recognize that this is making the situation worse.
It’s common to pass 5 stations with no gas and then find a station with gas and a line of 20 cars or more. News organizations have done endless interviews with patrons who admit that they don’t need the gas at the moment, but are buying it just because it’s available and they understandably don’t want to get stuck without gasoline. The problem is that there’s no reason (other than time) not to do it.
The free market needs to be allowed to take care of the problem itself. Currently, gas is selling for around $4.19 a gallon and station owners are prohibited from making a higher profit than what they made before September 12, lest they be charged with “gouging”. The problem with this approach is that it doesn’t take into account that the gas stations are also suffering from short supply and while they may have a specific profit-per-gallon allowed, on a weekly basis they are way short and have no way to make it up.
People buy gas when they don’t need it because it doesn’t hurt enough. If the price of gas rose significantly during the shortage (as you would expect to happen in the first place), people wouldn’t be as likely to get gasoline every time it presented itself and would conserve as much as possible. The 4 gallon fillups would cease. I know personally that if I were paying $8 a gallon, I would do so gladly to fill up but I would wait as long as possible in hopes that the shortage would end. But as it stands, I will be topping off after I use up 5 gallons or so because I don’t want to risk going days without being able to get gas when I need it, which is what happened a week ago.
I was unable to locate gas without a long line when I was on empty. Why? Because people were panicking and buying gas whether it was needed or not.
The unseen danger is that of what could best be termed as “gas rage” a first cousin to “road rage”. People get very testy when they’ve been sitting in line for 25 minutes and someone cuts them off and gets ahead of them. I’ve seen it. Tempers flare and sooner or later someone’s going to get stabbed or shot or beaten down. How is that good for the public welfare?
The market needs to be allowed to discourage people from hoarding. The root problem is that price controls were put into effect when there isn’t even a shortage. Nobody has ever said that there’s a gas shortage. We have enough gas. The problem is that it’s not plentiful and abundant. A state of emergency was declared when one did not exist.
Price gouging, as they try to call it, is actually price meeting demand. It isn’t the hurricane that caused these lines, it’s the government.
- Posted by Christopher on August 11, 2008
Chris of Rights has an absolutely outstanding and extensive dissertation on just how and why Obama is the Marxist he denies he is.
And I'll spend the rest of this very long post backing that up. I'm
going to talk about a lot of things here, and I really should break it
up into several posts, but I'm not going to.
Let's start by looking at some of his history:
- Obama
says that the well-known Marxist, Frank Marshall Davis was a “decisive
influence” on him. This is in his book and and has been documented by
the Communist Party USA.
- Obama
says, "All of my life, I carried a single image of my father, one that
I .. tried to take as my own." But what do we know about his father? We
know that he supported:
- 100% taxation
- communal farms / the elimination of private farming
- the nationalization of businesses owned by “Europeans” and “Asians”.
- “active” measures to bring about a classless society
And this is just the beginning. Read the whole post for a lot, lot more.
- Posted by Christopher Estep on July 26, 2008
This one has to rank up there with the $400 toilet seats. What’s scary is that the IRS has him listed as deceased and he got the check anyway. I agree with the quote below, boldfaced.
ROSWELL, Ga. (AP) -- A $600 stimulus check was sent to a man in Roswell who had died, and his personal representative, a Fulton County magistrate, is quite peeved.
The U.S. Treasury check was made payable to George A. Coker DECD. The 'DECD' means deceased. Coker died in May 2007.
Magistrate Richard Hicks, who filed Coker's 2007 tax return, is listed on the check as "PERREP" or personal representative.
Hicks said, "There's a $9 trillion national debt, and our government's giving away money to dead people. As a taxpayer, it's offends the hell out of me."
11Alive.com | Atlanta, GA | $600 Stimulus Check Sent to Dead Man in Roswell
- Posted by Christopher Estep on July 7, 2008
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Larry Harmon, who turned the character Bozo the Clown into a show business staple that delighted children for more than a half-century, died Thursday of congestive heart failure. He was 83.
His publicist, Jerry Digney, told The Associated Press he died at his home.
Although not the original Bozo, Harmon portrayed the popular clown in countless appearances and, as an entrepreneur, he licensed the character to others, particularly dozens of television stations around the country. The stations in turn hired actors to be their local Bozos.
"You might say, in a way, I was cloning BTC (Bozo the Clown) before anybody else out there got around to cloning DNA," Harmon told the AP in a 1996 interview.
I have to wonder if this happened today how many lawsuits there would be against Harmon saying that “they” were the original Bozo and they were due royalties. Of course, the most famous Bozo (aside from Bill Clinton) was on WGN Chicago, but the most famous isn’t always the first.
For instance, most people don’t know that the first Kentucky Fried Chicken was in Utah. Yes, Utah.
“No, moron! It was in Corbin, Kentucky!” you say? Well, that’s actually Harlan Sanders’ first restaurant. But the first Kentucky Fried Chicken (I refuse to sanitize it and call it KFC) was in Utah. Ironically, it was the Utahan that came up with the name, too.
The economy may be tight right now, but my point is this: Do your own thing. Find your own opportunities and then work hard to turn them in to your own American Dream. Opportunities exist everywhere. You just need to see them and then put your shoulder to the wheel and work.
11Alive.com | Atlanta, GA | Larry 'Bozo' Harmon Dead At 83
- Posted by Christopher Estep on June 27, 2008
I just found out that my contract is not being renewed at AT&T and my last day is on Monday, so blogging may be sporadic or it may be heavy.
I will take the opportunity to make a political statement though.
AT&T is not renewing any contractors in any department in my (significant) section of the company. It’s an economic decision, clearly. Even so, I’m still very optimistic about the economy. Are things dicey? You bet. But don’t listen to what the doom & gloom democrats are telling you. The economy is not that bad.
There’s a phenomenon that happens in politics both with the economy and with politicians. People listen to (and absorb) propaganda and the way they perpetuate it is by saying things are bad for everyone else, even though they are fine. They always see others as being in dire straits but will say that they are doing ok themselves. It is the same way with their congressmen. They will say that congress needs to be changed, but their own congressman is just fine.
Don’t buy the hype and don’t drink the kool-aid. The vast majority of people are genuinely doing great. Some are hurting, but some are always hurting. There’s uncertainty, to be sure. Am I a little scared? Sure. But I have no reason to fear beyond the normal unknown.
If I can be optimistic about the economy when I have 6 children at home and soon to have no work, anyone can.
- Posted by Christopher Estep on June 13, 2008
My own senator, Saxby Chambliss (R), has made national news for his championing of pork projects targeted at the defense industry, totaling over a half a billion dollars:
Requests include ... $98 million for a Northrop Grumman project to develop an aircraft sensor suite, from Sens. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Mel Martinez (R-Fla.).
Chambliss was a part of another bipartisan group of lawmakers who also requested allocating $497 million to United Technologies, Lockheed Martin and Pratt & Whitney for "advanced procurement or line close down costs," the watchdog group's data show.
I have sent the following to Senator Chambliss' office:
I was very disappointed to read in the Post that you, along with other senators, have requested over half a BILLION dollars in earmarks.
Yes, I realize that defense spending is very beneficial to my own city of Marietta and Georgia at large and I acknowledge that these requests may actually be for useful purposes. That's not the point. We are conservatives. We are supposed to be the ones who stand on principle.
Senator, this kind of pork and earmarks do not help America, even though you believe it will help you get elected. America needs leadership in reducing spending and earmarks.
If you want to rally your base and conservatives in general behind you, take a stand AGAINST earmarks and pork. Take a stand AGAINST farm subsidies which amount to agricultural welfare. Be a leader in opposing pork and you will gain a prestige in the state and the nation that will help your re-election far exceeding any benefit you may gain by the earmarks.
Continue to make national news with your pork and you will become another example of what's wrong with the GOP and why we need to change. Make us conservatives look like hypocrites (which you are doing) and you'll find that we may just let you lose.
Senator, we want a candidate and a legislator we can stand behind and get excited about. We want people to be able to point to you as an example of what is RIGHT with Georgia and with the GOP instead of what's wrong with it.
I'm pretty sure that this isn't what is meant by the Feed the Pig campaign.
Earmark Spending Makes a Comeback - washingtonpost.com
- Posted by Christopher Estep on June 3, 2008
General Motors announced that, among other things, they may no longer make Hummers in the future.
Upon hearing the news, former President Bill Clinton said that he was not concerned and that "alternate plans" are in place. When told that they were talking about a car, President Clinton simply said, "Oh."
CEO Rick Wagoner said Tuesday before the automaker's annual meeting the plants to be closed are in Oshawa, Ontario; Moraine, Ohio; Janesville, Wis.; and Toluca, Mexico. He also said the Hummer brand may be discontinued.
GM Closing 4 Truck and SUV Plants in North America -- 06/03/2008
- Posted by Christopher Estep on June 2, 2008
Georgia governor Sonny Perdue (R) has suspended a new gas tax increase. I applaud this move at a basic level, though it's ridiculous that it takes an energy crisis to avoid a tax increase. Read that closely. You'll note that this is not a tax cut.
Ok, I realize that in the democrat world view, any tax increase that doesn't happen is a cut. It has to do with baseline budgeting where they get this notion that whatever doesn't increase is actually a cut.
Let's apply this to something more personal, like my paycheck.
I work at a large company as a contractor. I just completed a year there at the end of May and my current wage is exactly the same as it was a year ago. That's right, I didn't get a raise. I'm a reasonable person who is grateful for his job (aka a conservative) so I'm not complaining. While others are getting laid off or getting "retirement packages" in lieu of layoffs, I'm still working at what I consider to be a very decent wage. I won't get into any details, but democrats think I'm rich.
If I were a liberal democrat (or for that matter, John McCain) I would be up in arms. Since I didn't receive a wage increase, my wages haven't stayed the same but rather (by their logic) I have received a pay cut! If I'm not making what I think I should be making, then my employer has cut my wages by their inactivity.
Just like the President can use what's called a "pocket veto", my employer has given me a "pocket pay cut" through their inaction!!!
Can you hear me rolling my eyes? Yes, I roll my eyes audibly.
Yes, I applaud this non-tax-increase. But am I grateful? I will never be grateful for the government deciding at the last minute not to forcibly take more of my money like they really wanted to. Remember, taxes are our money. It's not "revenue" and it's most certainly not "an investment". It's the government taking what's ours and spending it. We've just been conditioned, like a beaten wife, that it's how things are supposed to be and it's what we deserved. And like a beaten wife, we've been conditioned to accept that it's just how things are and that we can't do anything about it.
So thank, Governor Perdue. Thanks for not taking even more than you already are.
With gas prices continuing to spike, Gov. Sonny Perdue moved Monday to suspend a gas tax increase that was supposed to go into effect July 1.
Perdue's decision will save most motorists 2.9 cents per gallon. The governor said the move will let Georgians know the state is concerned about gas prices and that the government doesn't want to take advantage of the situation.
Perdue suspends gas tax increase | ajc.com