There's only one candidate left in the field that carries the conservative ideal of rolling back the new deal and restoring the constitutional integrity of our republic.

There's only one candidate that is talking about major tax cuts, balanced budgets, and market solutions to interest rates that will stop the government from using monetary policy as a way of creating inflation.

Obama and the Voters vs. Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party

• Part 1:  Hillary Clinton's Michigan Power-Play
  
• Part 2:  Hillary Clinton Wins Michigan

• Part 3:  Hillary Clinton's Florida Power-Play

• Part 4:  Hillary and the Super-Delegates
• Part 5:  Obama wins Elections:  Hillary wants More Party Support  
  
• Part 6:  Hillary: Out of Options
• 
  

The Associated Press is reporting that Hillary Clinton will defy party regulations and campaign in Florida before the Democratic party primaries are held.  

Just like the situation in Michigan previously, the national Democratic party is attempting to invalidate Florida's election results in order to prevent states from setting new primary schedules arbitrarily.  Originally, all candidates had agreed to not campaign in these states, and so implied that they would support the national party's decision to uninvite the states' delegates.

Hillary Clinton was fine with the Democratic Party rules regarding Florida, until about eight or nine hours ago.  

Although Hillary has a nice lead in "super-delegates," she lost big in South Carolina and she needs something that will help her build momentum going into Super Tuesday.  Is this an act of desperation?  Hillary has a nice lead when all the delegates are considered, but a big loss on Super Tuesday could effectively knock her campaign behind Obama.  For the first time, the real possibility of defeat exists, and there's no contest between now and the biggest deciding day.

Clinton will be personally appearing in Florida during the primary process - she's hoping to win again, uncontested.  Did the strategy work in Michigan, or have her Machiavellian tactics backfired and propelled Obama to his latest victory?  Time will tell if the delegates from Michigan and Florida are seated at the national nomination convention, but I doubt the national party wants to alienate core supporters in those two crucial general election states. 

There have been market failures, mostly in overvaluing assets, but the problem is that the government won't let us feel the "consequence" of that in the free-market way, where the individually involved actors pay the price for their bad decisions.

Instead, profits are private and major losses are public.  Is that capitalism or communism?  Its too corrupt to be embraced and claimed by fans of either...

Perhaps my predictions of Ron Paul's demise were premature.  I didn't expect Thompson to drop out of the race or that Huckabee would go broke and skip a few big states.  Duncan Hunter and Tom Tancredo are out now too, so Ron Paul is last one who could possibly claim the title of "true conservative."

Of course, Ron Paul's campaign is virtually destined to failure, and the fact that he's still going should be some validation for the effort of his supporters.  The race is now between an old-school "moderate," two New England "Republicans," and a Bible-Thumping liberal.

Oh yeah, and there's Ron Paul.  His fiscal plan calls for nothing short of gutting the federal budget in overseas spending, freezing domestic (non-entitlement) spending, and deregulating markets from medicine to money itself.

Is he crazy?  Is he a nut?

Well, judging by our frontrunners Romney and McCain, I would say that if the Republican party thinks Ron Paul is crazy, then they have truly ceased to be conservative. If Ron Paul is crazy, so is the constitution that built the world's most influencial super-state.  If his economic ideas are crazy, then so are the ideas that fuelled America's industrial revolution and early electronics industry.  If personal liberty is insane, why did the founders of this incredibly successful system risk everything to pursue this freedom?

Recession 2008?

Fiscal and monetary policy are aligning to create a new round of inflation and drive up stock prices relative to a weakened dollar. 

 

Monday's brief downturn was followed by bullish activity, and the days following have been more of the same.

 

The federal reserve's interest rate cut is likely to draw the dollar down over the next six months unless international central banks begin to lower their own interest rates or purchase  dollar-denominated assets.

The Fed is sending a clear signal to the investment markets and the companies seeking profit growth:  Borrow.  Build.  Forget the debt, we can make it easier to pay off.

Update:

I was wong, wrong, wrong!  McCain wins Florida and it was not a completely closed primary after all.  (Although, it should have been!)

Florida has moved up its primary and is set to play a huge part in the presidential selection this year.  The Democratic party has eliminated this by reducing Florida's delegates to zero, but the Republicans have sought to moderate the effect by cutting the delegates in half.  The state GOP chief says the effect will likely be temporary, but even at half the delegates, whoever wins the Florida Republican primary will be the new campaign front-runner.

Florida is a closed primary - Only people who were registered Republican by 12/31/07 will be allowed to vote in the Republican primary

Florida is a winner-take-all state - There will be no prize for second place.  There are at least 57 delegates and as many as 114 for the winner.

I like making predictions but I hate being wrong so I usually wait until a clear picture emerges so I don't get caught up in early developments.  I posted about the Iowa caucus, but I don't think the enthusiasm and intensity of that event is going to carry Obama and Huckabee to any long-term victory.  

Barring any unforseen scandals, it looks like Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney are the big primary winners with a "2nd place strategy."  A lot is sure to happen between now and November, so I won't say who will win that contest, just that I fully expect them to be the last candidates standing.

So, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) is down 3-4% with more losses expected soon.  Judging by the devaluation of the dollar and DJIA highs, we'll be headed down to the 10,x00 range soon.

No doubt, some leftists will blame capitalism and the free market, and some conservatives will defend Bush by saying it ain't so bad.  The thing is, it is Bush's fault and NOT the free market.

Let us review the bad government policy that brought us here:

-Artificially low interest rates:  When the fed sets interest rates below market forces, it encourages reckless spending, discourages saving, and creates dollar devaluation.

-Keynesian deficit spending:  Every time you hear the word "stimulus" be aware that the government is promoting a socialist method of creating inflation in order to devalue the dollar.  

This was supposed to prevent the recession, but anyone who has been watching GDP growth in real dollar terms knows that the recession started a few years ago.  

Heavy Metal Politics

The Early 1990s

Its no secret that art and music influences society, and somtimes you wish the artists would shut up and talk about something they know and understand.  Other times, the songs may have a good point, or even just open the listener to considering new perspectives and new issues. 

For me, the music I grew up on helped me understand how important politics is and how it affects all our lives.  I don't always agree with the message, but I have a lot of respect for musicians who use their platform to advance ideas that have more importance than fashion, partying, and general debauchery.

9-11 Families for America is taking up the anti-GE mantra, they're just using a different approach than the environmentalists and anti-war groups have used in the past.  This time, GE's sin is doing business in Iran and Syria, helping "terrorist nations" provide their people with electricity and medical equipment. 

The irony, of course, is that GE will probably soon be paid for the rockets and aircraft replacement parts needed to knock these nations flat.  And then, they'll probably get paid (with our tax dollars again) to rebuild those electrical plants and medical facilities.

I'd say its a pretty good business strategy, bolstered by donations to the leadership of both parties and hefty return in federal contracts. Of course, if this terrorism thing doesn't work out, GE can always fall back on its phony-environmentalism.  So far, they've accomplished setting up a legislative timeframe for banning normal lightbulbs, so even if the war thing doesn't last forever like Bush has promised, they'll be set to make more money off bad legislation in the future.  

Will the conservative outrage demonstrated at Michelle Malkin's website translate into a growing movement to boycott NBC?   Well, that is quite doubtful. 

First of all, where would we get our rockets and electronics for nuclear warheads?  Secondly, plenty of conservatives are too busy cheering NBC when they exclude candidates who actively oppose GE's policies and reliance on tax-payer subsidized corporate welfare.