"It's the end of the world as we know it." - R.E.M. But I'm not so sure "I feel fine" ...

1. As I'm sure you're already aware, a recent report from the U.S. Joint Forces Command says that Mexico is at risk of a "rapid and sudden collapse." Why? Because the Mexican government is "under sustained assault and pressure" from drug cartels and gangs.

2. State lawmakers in Texas, well aware of their neighbors volatility, are busy working out a plan for just such an occasion.

Lawmakers expressed concern that the state's southern neighbor, embroiled in drug violence and facing uncertain economic conditions, could send thousands north in search of safety.

3. Mexico City, Mexico has been crowned the "Kidnapping Capital of the World!" Do you know which city comes in at #2?  Remember now, this is the entire world we're talking about ... And the answer is ... Phoenix, AZ! Scary, I know.

OK ... with all that as the background, just wait until you hear about the immigration legislation trying to get pushed through Congress!

As Ted "Theodore" Logan so eloquently says in one of my favorite movie quotes ...
"Strange things are afoot at the Circle K."

Last September, American citizens were blind-sided by warnings of imminent financial doom ... that is, if the government didn't immediately step-in and spend trillions of taxpayer dollars.

Personally, I'm still wondering where the "proof" of this "crisis" is ...

Hey, I'm no "expert" ... I'm just a regular Joe ... but I was a stockbroker for over a decade prior to taking a senior position at a large national bank.  In other words ... I must have some idea of how the financial world works, right?

I bring this up, because I'm here to tell you ... something very fishy is going on in America right now.

The attacks on capitalism and freedom have hit an all-time high, and part of the problem seems to be - NOBODY IS WILLING TO STAND UP FOR CAPITALISM!

So in light of this, I'd like to start this post off with a 2 1/2 minute video of Milton Friedman being interviewed by Phil Donahue.  Maybe we should all email a copy of this to our representatives.

As Ken Kurson says, "We're Losing Our Religion."

President Obama is bringing us together alright ... just in a different way than he probably imagined.  And it's exciting!

What? Bringing us together? What are you talking about?

Well ... President Obama and the Democratic Congress' dictatorial style is reuniting genuine conservatives, by reigniting their passion for limited government!

Last October, I wrote about the passing of Oklahoma's House Joint Resolution 1089, in which the State of Oklahoma reasserted it's 10th Amendment rights in an effort to recover their state sovereignty.  In the same post, I also noted Vermont is moving in the same direction.  As the Washington Post said:
The winds of secession are blowing in the Green Mountain State.
Good news! Because this was only the beginning.  The movement is heating up!

Yes, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D) believes that every month that goes by without passing the Democrats porkulus, er, I mean, stimulus bill ... 500 million Americans lose their jobs!

Maybe Nancy's never taken a math class, I don't know ... the answer could be that innocent.  But my bet is that she's just a bald-faced liar. You be the judge.

Video below the fold (courtesy of TheConservativePost).

From politicians, to newsrooms, to classrooms ... we hear about America's democracy. Yet, the word democracy doesn't exist in our Declaration of Independence or Constitution.

In fact, our Constitution states:
Article. IV.

Section. 4.
The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government ...
The difference between a Republic and a Democracy is important to the future of our nation, and with all the talk these days about America being a democracy, the question we need to answer, is:

Today, it seems quite popular to believe that those who wish to shrink government also want to live in the past.  As much as people may believe this, it simply isn't true, and highlights how much we've forgotten, about the importance of our roots.

Using me as an example ... I like talk about American history, and I emphasis the Revolution.  Does this mean I want to go back in time and erase all progress?  That sure wouldn't do my blogging any good, would it?

Of course not, that's nonsensical!  But there is a reason to look at history, and the reason is, to learn its lessons.

Unless I've missed something, there's no crystal ball to tell us what the future holds, so our best course of action is to look at history.  This way we can see how past actions and thoughts played out.

Let's bring the past and the present together for a moment.

A speech is just a speech ... sometimes.

We're about to enter a new era in America.  The Democratic Party is completely power-hungry, and have control of both Congress and the Executive Branch. They are the first genuine socialist regime to take control in America. 

And so far, the Republican Party has made it clear that the limited-government gifted to us by our Founders, is something they're not interested in. So as individual Americans, it's time to ask ourselves ... are we interested in them?

Conservatives are not beholden to the Republican Party, nor are they necessarily our best chance.  More on that at another time.

Right now ... sit back, relax, take a break and watch the following video. 

Then ask yourself ... today, as things are right now ... are you a Republican?  Or are you a Conservative?

My friends, today ... is "A Time for Choosing."

Yeah ... right.

The following video sums up bi-partisanship perfectly, but before you make the jump, let me get out my decoder for further explanation.

Bi-partisanship:

Washington-speak: We're going to put our differences aside and work together to get things done.

Decoded: We don't give a rats behind what you so-called "we the people" think.  We're going to do whatever we think will best entrench our power at your cost.

H/T to LibertyKnight for sending me this link!

Robert Higgs, author of the excellent book Crisis and Leviathan, has written a MUST READ article concerning the Financial Crisis of just a few months ago, the crisis that ultimately led to the federal government effectively taking control of a significant portion of the U.S. economy.

I first read "Crisis and Leviathan" in one of my college economics classes, you know, back in the day when learning econ required understanding more than today's Leftist government talking points.  Amazingly, waaaay back then, in the early 1990's, instead of political indoctrination, we just plain had to learn economics.  Seems like so long ago ...

Are you ready?

Are you ready for "The One's" vision of change?

We're heading into uncharted waters here in the old U.S. of A.  The Democrats are readying their greedy little hands for their new power, and POWER is the key word.

I wonder what they'll try with the increased executive powers George W. Bush gave them?

Let's take a look at just 3 key "changes" coming our way.  Shall we?

A quick personal anecdote, plus a disturbing video.
Disclaimer: Kids, do not try this yourself.  It won't work out so well for you.

About a year ago, running late as always, I was driving through a miserable snow storm on my way into my office.  Now it had been snowing hard for about 48 hours, and late the night before, while pulling out of one of those carport things, I slid and knocked my driver's side mirror off.  Anyways ...

Closing in on two hours for a normally 20 minute drive, I pulled into the left-hand lane to turn into the office parking lot.  The left-turn to the parking lot just happens to be right before an intersection, so often, cars get lined up behind me.  On this occasion, a police car pulled in behind me.  No big deal.

I pulled in, parked my car, gathered up my phone, keys, and briefcase, and got out of the car.  As I turned to walk into the building, I noticed the cop had pulled in right behind me, turned on his lights ... and then he starts barking through his loudspeaker, "Get back in the car!  Get back in the car now!"

President George W. Bush:

While I've certainly called out President George W. Bush on his policies, and will continue ...

Any discussion concerning "What is Classical Liberalism" is incomplete without a reading of Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.'s article An American Classical Liberalism.

Lew Rockwell, a student and colleague of Murray Rothbard, served as Ron Paul's congressional chief of staff from 1978 until 1982, when he then founded the Mises Institute in Auburn Alabama, serving as its president.

As one of the most important thinkers of our time, Lew is the author of Speaking of Liberty, available from the Mises Institute as an ebook here, or in hard copy here. He also manages his own website, which includes among its various topics anarcho-capitalism, Austrian economics, cultural conservatism, and why to be anti-war.

The following MUST READ (for all Americans) and enjoyable article comes to us by courtesy of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license.

You might just want to read this more than once!

With a countless number of things on my mind concerning the $5-8 trillion in "bailouts" we taxpayers are getting forcedly burdened with, explaining fractional reserve banking was a topic I definitely wanted to write about.

Then ... while surfing the net aimlessly the other night, I came across the following video.

At first glance, it looks like Obama's "chickensssss ... are coming home to roost!"

Doesn't it?

I must admit, I haven't dug into it deeply.  I will.  And I've read quite a lot ... there are just more important things on my mind in general, and in terms of this blog.

Obviously, this is only the beginning, the tip-of-the-iceberg ... because news isn't released (or even leaked for the most part) out of an investigation, until they know it won't blow the rest of their case.

There IS a valuable lesson in this for us all! A valuable lesson for Republicans, Democrats, Liberals, Conservatives, Libertarians, Anarcho-capitalists, Anarchists, Socialists, Marxists, Maoists ... like I said ... EVERYBODY!

Yes, everyone.  Including all of you who already "know."

While reading what I think is one of the best blogs on the net, From my position... on the way, I found this excellent video with Fred Thompson talking about the economy, while putting our minds at ease over it all ...

Fred shares the Good News:

The government has it all figured out, and they've got a plan.  Spend more and borrow more money!
The government wants you to spend your way to prosperity too!
The government has assumed almost $8 trillion in obligations, so they want to make it easier for you to run-up your credit cards too!
The politicians and their "experts" are in consensus - we simply need to "double-down" on the bets that got us into our current economic mess in the first place.

Don't worry! If this sounds crazy to you, it's just because you don't understand the "intricacies" and "sophistication" of our "new" economy.  So sleep peacefully tonight, because ...

The same politicians, economists, business executives, and government officials who guided us to where we are today, will continue their successful leadership.
President-elect Obama has even greater plans to spend more money in order to spend our way to financial health.
Hey, we can just print all the money we need anyways. What do you think we have the Fed for?
Besides ... and this is the best part ... we don't even have to pay the bill for this spending spree.  Our children and grandchildren will be picking up the tab!

Full video below the fold.

About a week ago, when I had just filled up my tank at $1.75 per gallon, I was ...

Part Two: Setting the Record Straight

In Part One of this series, we looked at causes of the mortgage meltdown in terms of Wall Street.  They aren't the only one's with dirty hands, our corrupt Congress is to blame too. While Obama, Pelosi, and Barney Frank blame "Bush and the Republicans" with the Elite Media parroting along, the REAL story is quite different.

Fannie Mae was created as part of FDR's New Deal. It was created to buy and secure mortgage debt, so the banks could clear their books and write more loans. In 1968, Congress took Fannie Mae's debt off its books by privatizing the company (but still let them keep their government charter). Then in 1970, Congress created Freddie Mac, thinking that way, Fannie Mae couldn't monopolize the secondary mortgage market. These two companies are known as government-sponsored enterprises (GSE). A GSE is a publicly-traded, private corporation created by Congress, and backed with an implicit government guarantee.

As you read the rest of the story, keep the following words by Barack Obama on September 15, 2008 in mind.
"[The Republican] philosophy that lets Washington lobbyists shred consumer protections and distort our economy so it works for the special interests instead of working people ... Confident of their clout in Washington, they made hundreds of billions in bad loans, knowing that if they lost money, the government would bail them out ... And they were right. The gambles did not pay off, our economy went into recession, and the taxpayers ended up footing the bill. Does that sound familiar?"

If Barack Obama was speaking the truth, he'd call for Congressional hearings and a criminal investigation on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, after all, he's quick to use the Department of Justice to silence his critics, so you'd think he'd want to root them Republicans out!

But he doesn't call for any such investigation ... because it would destroy his political machine and aspirations to rule the world.

Here's what REALLY happened ...

Having banned the traditional school bake sale, the Food Nazi's are livin' large in California (and all across the nation too)!  Read here, from the New York Times (emphasis added):
The old-fashioned school bake sale, once as American as apple pie, is fast becoming obsolete in California, a result of strict new state nutrition standards for public schools that regulate the types of food that can be sold to students.
The Piedmont High water polo team falls woefully short of these standards, selling cupcakes, caramel apples and lemon bars off campus in a flagrant act of nutritional disobedience.
"Before, it was the chips, the Hostess cupcakes, the Little Debbie doughnut sticks," said Ginger Gray, the director of school nutrition for the Kenton County School District in northern Kentucky. Now, only pure fruit juice and low-fat or skim milk are allowed. The district's most popular dish is whole-wheat stromboli made from scratch, Ms. Gray said, adding that she leans toward foods that families can cook at home. "You're teaching them habits for life," she said.

That's right folks!  No longer is it up to the parents to teach their kids, nor the teachers, nor even "a village" ... it takes regulation baby ... REGULATION! Laws, enforced by government (aka the barrel of a gun), are the new paradigm in "teaching."