I Would Love to have a Hummer Franchise in Iraq!

Check this out!

The "Keepers of the Public Trough" in Washington pay ITT $33 million to overhaul 150 Humvee's a month.

That works out to approximately $18,333.00 per vehicle. Not too shabby.

Packin' my tools and diagnostic equipment and headin' to Bagdad. I can do the job for less, and hell, I'll even give Frequent Flyer Bonus Points. Maybe they can use the points to start sending the boys home.

What Exactly is President Bush's Stimulation Package Stimulating?

President Bush signed a multibillion-dollar economic rescue package that means $300 -$1,200 rebates for many American households.

Most taxpayers will receive a check of up to $600 for individuals and $1,200 for couples, with an additional $300 per child.

Economic analysts generally believe that the $168 billion package will help prevent the current downturn from ballooning into a crisis. NEWSFLASH for the Economists .... America is already in a crisis!!!!

Bush called the measure "a booster shot for our economy to stave-off a recession." Stave-off is an interesting choice of words for it means to "hold-off, or put-off, as by force, guile, etc." So what Bush is saying is that he will spend $168 billion to hold-off a recession that we are almost already in.

Will this so called stimulation package work? Hell no!!!!

The only way that this package could possibly have even a minimal positive impact on the American economy, which is now totally broken, is if every penny of this package was spent by consumers .... and that is not likely to be a "happening thing." Why?

Many American's are so overloaded with debt that they will have to use the rebate to pay down their credit card debts. So in other words, for those Americans, the rebate is tantamount to a partial bail-out of heavily indebted consumers and credit card companies. Hardly a net gain to the U.S. economy.

For others, the amount of dollars that are left over after debt reduction are drained-off because of America's dependency on imports.

Consider that approximately 70% of the goods on China-Mart ... ooops sorry ... on Wal-Mart shelves are made in China, and not in the good old USA., (why are you still shopping there) and 23% of total personal consumption expenditures are currently spent on imports and off-shored goods .... that's $1,870,000,000,000 directly stimulating FOREIGN ECONOMIES!

If the "Dance of the Dunces" in Washington were not so sad it would almost be laughable. The question still remains ... what exactly is this economic stimulation package really stimulating?

Why Dr. Ron Paul Doesn't Stand a snowball's Chance in Hades of becoming the next President of the United States!

Here is a brief synopsis of Ron Paul's position:

• marching out of Iraq just as America marched in.
• no more meddling in the Middle East.
• bringing the troops home from hundreds of expensive bases all over the world.
• abolish the personal income tax and the IRS - they are not compatible with a free society.
• repeal the Patriot Act and the Military Commissions Act.
• restore habeas corpus.
• stop spying on Americans. No more eavesdropping on personal emails and bank accounts, business and home phone calls.
• no national ID.... just the bracing freedom of the Constitution.
• sound money and not the great counterfeiting machine called the Federal Reserve that causes recessions and inflation.
• private property rights, with no pollution or other attacks on property.
• enforce the Second Amendment and all the Bill of Rights. Privacy for each citizen with no secrecy for a corrupt bureaucracy.
• restoration of the Republic and sovereignty.
• no UN, no North American Union with Canada and Mexico.
• no WTO, no World Bank and no International Monetary Fund.
• federalism, free enterprise, peace and prosperity.

Does Ron Paul sound like a President who could do a lot of good things for America? You bet, but that's exactly why you will never see him as the Republican Presidential candidate. His common sense has been stepping on too many toes which have been running America into the ground.

Iraq Reconstruction Ripoffs!

The office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction has 52 open cases related to bribery, false billing, contract fraud, kickbacks and theft.

Only 36 of these cases have been referred to the Justice Department for prosecution.

Army Criminal Investigation has 90 criminal investigations under way related to alleged contract fraud in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan.

24 U.S. citizens have been charged or indicted. 19 of those are Army, military and civilian employees. More than $15 million in bribes have changed hands.

The axiom of perpetual war for perpetual peace and profit remains as true today as in the past.

"Choose Life" license plates are patently Offensive in New York!

The Children First Foundation is a New York based non-profit, pro-adoption group which is opposed to abortion.

The group supports pregnancy centers that do not offer abortion as an alternative, and also supports "safe-havens" efforts under laws, including Connecticut's, that provide mothers the chance to leave unwanted babies at specified areas such as hospitals and fire stations without fear of prosecution.

In Connecticut the Children First Foundation is making available customized license plates with two crayoned kids' smiling faces on a yellow circle background with "Choose Life" in childlike red crayon lettering and also the groups web address: www.fund-adoption.org

The chidren's group does not promote a specific religion nor an anti-religious position. All that it states is "Choose Life."

So far there are 200 such license plates on Connecticut roads..

But in New York, the Department of Motor Vehicles rejected the design, claiming that a significant segment of the population would consider the design "patently offensive."

The Foundation then submitted a new design with just its web address to better reflect its purpose, but that was also rejected on the same grounds.

Then Michael Johnson, an attorney, filed a federal lawsuit against the state of New York for rejecting the "Choose Life" specialty plate.

Subsequently Mr. Johnson received a letter from the DMV stating that it has voluntarily suspended its custom plate program until further notice. How convenient.

What a den of cowardly, sniveling weasels at the DMV who don't have the guts nor the integrity to defend their position and subsequent decision, even if that defense has to go all the way to the Supreme Court!!! Instead these invertabrates quickly shut down an entire program.

Beginning with a law signed by Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, the plates have so far been approved in Louisiana, Oklahoma, Hawaii, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Maryland, Tennessee, South Carolina and Montana. Legislation has also been proposed in a dozen more states.

People in 12 states have NOT found "Choose Life" to be "patently offensive." What specific evidence does the New York DMV have to unequivocally substantiate their claim that a significant number of New Yorkers would?

Absent compelling evidence, all that the DMV is doing is attempting to impose their particular brand of political correctness at the expense of the First and 14th Amendments!

25 Reasons why America is slowly Tanking!

01: The Dow, S&P 500 and the Nasdaq have lost all of their 2007 gains in the first 4 weeks of 2008. We'll see the Dow at 9,500 to 10,500 this year.

02: Gold has gained 43.2% and silver has gained 26.1%. Look for gold to hit $3,000/ounce by this time in 2010 and silver will be over $100/ounce.

03: Real estate markets are virtually dead with record levels of inventory. Housing prices will continue to fall for another 2 to 4 years depending upon what action(s) the government is prepared to take and whether or not those actions make sense in the first place.

04: Hundreds of billions in mortgages are due for readjustment to unaffordable levels for millions of homeowners.

05: Defaults on all types of debt are significantly increasing.

06: Consumers are buried in debt with little or no savings. There is an erosion of consumer confidence.

07: Credit markets are frozen.

08: M3 is about 16% (not published - see note at the bottom of this post)

09: Banks are writing-off or writing down tens-of-billions in subprime losses, bad mortgages and loans.

10: Tens-upon-tens of trillions of potential derivative losses are looming just around the corner.

11: The American dollar is tanking with no end in sight. It will probably bottom-out somewhere between 40 to 50 on the USDX from its current position of 75.8.

12: State budgets are running massive deficits and some are close to bankruptcy.

13: The national debt and trade deficits are completely out of control.

14: There is very little left from the manufacturing sector.

15: Unemployment is growing.

16: Off-shoring and outsourcing continue to eliminate the better-paying sectors.

17: Because of outsourcing, a lower dollar will not give American exports an advantage, because there's not much in the way of exports to begin with. So if the dollar is pegged at 55, the GDP would only increase by 1/2% at the top end.

18: Wages will remain stagnant.

19: Oil prices will continue to climb. Look for $125 - $130/barrel this year.

20: There will be price increases for most commodities.

21: Food prices are now at record highs.

22: Irresponsible and unresponsive government. The recent "economic stimulation" package is merely a drop in the ocean. It is not enough to cause any type of permanent improvement in the plight that Americans now find themselves in. As far as I'm concerned it is a PR package pure and simple to help the Republicans in the upcoming presidential election.

23: The Federal Reserve, which is neither Federal nor a Reserve, but rather a privately owned central banking system owned by a cabal of 12 banks with the power granted to it by government to create print and manage Americas money supply, is driving America further in debt each and every day. The Fed is, was and continues to be the biggest scam ever foisted on America. Google it and be surprised at what you will learn. And these greedy clowns control your life through your economic well-being or lack thereof. By the way, even the courts have ruled that the Fed is NOT part of the government.

24: Rampant illegal immigration is providing a source of cheap labour.

25: Perpetual abscence of talented and knowledgeable leadership in Washington today and in the foreseeable future. Listen to President Bush, Billary Clinton, Obama, McCain, Romney, and Huckabee. Now ask yourself ... is this the best that America can do? Can any one of these people fix America's problems or are they in varying degrees part of the problem?

NOTE:

In the U.S. the Federal Reserve defines (what a surprise) the measures of money supply within 4 categories:

MO: total of all physical currency plus accounts at the central bank that can be exchanged for physical currency.

M1: MO plus those portions of MO held as reserves or vault cash plus the amount in demand accounts (Checking or current accounts)

M2: M1 plus most savings accounts, money market accounts and time deposits (certificates of deposit) under $100,000

M3: M2 plus all other CD's, deposits of eurodollars and repurchase agreements.

The Fed stopped publishing M3 stats in March 2006 (My gosh another surprise) explaining that it costs too much to collect the data and that it doesn't provide significantly useful information ... really?

Goldfingers!

In the James Bond movie "Goldfinger" the villain Auric Goldfinger was prepared to do anything in order to increase the value of his gold holdings, including the nukeing of Fort Knox, to radioactively contaminate America's gold supply thus dramatically increasing the value of his own gold.

Just as it was with Goldfinger, there are extremely powerful psychopath's in suits on Wall Street and around the world, who for years have manipulated the world's precious metals markets for their own obscene profits and always at your expense!

Here's how the heavy hitters play the game.

• They begin with an orchestrated negative spin on the precious metals markets which is predicated on disinformation and flat-out lies. The message is spread via the media, so called financial analysts, brokers, bankers, talking head business reporters etc. The reason is quite simple ... to keep you and me out of the precious metals market. There's nothing like a consistent dose of negative news to give you and I second thoughts about buying gold or silver.
• Then the big players buy-up as much of the assets as they can get their hands on.
• They build-up their positions.
• Then the negative spin suddenly stops and now they go about the business of getting your business. Precious metals are aggressively marketed to you and me.
• After precious metals hit record levels from the sudden increase in demand from the public, the heavy hitters bail-out at the peak.
• After they have sold-off and made their mega-profits, the price and value of precious metals drops. Meanwhile Wall Street and the major players around the world are now putting a positive spin on a rapidly declining market.

This is the same game that has been played ad-nauseum since the beginning of time and we keep falling for it everytime.

Just in case you might be thinking if this scenario is the product of the Cantankerous one's fertile imagination, you might be interested to know that in the latter part of 2007 Goldman Sachs recommended to their clients that they "Short Gold for 2008." Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Goldman Sach's have reduced their own gold shorts on the TOCOM (The Tokyo Commodity Exchange) to the LOWEST LEVELS in over two years.

In other words, Goldman Sachs is recommending to their clients that they short gold while GS themselves are doing the complete opposite.

Seems to me that if the all-powerful Goldman Sachs is telling you to short gold, the negative spin on precious metals has started and the big boys are ready to come out and play once again.

Perhaps we all should consider getting into the gold and silver game right now for our own profit! The fleecing has gone on long enough ... hasn't it?