Twitter first crossed my radar screen when Michael Patrick Leahy appeared on Steve Foley’s Aftermath Radioto talk about Top Conservatives on Twitter. I didn’t know hardly anything about twitter at the time, so signed up. At first, it seemed that “Fritter” should have been the real name for the site- it used up a lot of time, with little to show up front.

Truthfully, I didn’t really understand the platform for months, and my usage dropped. Then one day Caleb Howe asked me why I wasn’t on Twitter, and said I should really look into it. Now this cut to the quick! I realized I wasn’t a Twitter god, but I had been on it for some time, and was following him and vice versa. But he didn’t notice! So, having been shamed into it, I decided to get my Twitter act together.

Once you know all the ropes (and TweetDeck is an invaluable way to display tweets, which is the best way to learn those ropes), it is a formidable networking tool. Consider the math: if each twit (:>) has 100 unique followers, and they send a story to them, and they also have a 100 uniques, and so on: well, just three rounds of tweeting and you’ve reached a million people. (Some twitterers are overly impressed with their follow base- it is their followers’ bases that really matter.

Two recent incidents have really demonstrated the power of Twitter. The first was the outrage expressed on Twitter at the vile “hate F****” article by Guy Cimballo on rape fantasies re conservative women, which motivated Playboy to pull the piece, and the related firestorm concerning the firing of Tommy Christopher by AOL.

The second is the current news cycle regarding the Iranian election and the mullah’s attempted coup d’etat. The Twitter community pushed the story, reached out to the Iranian supporters, retweeted their reports like mad and put the conventional media to shame. It was astonishing, and gratifying.

So why, given all this potential for good stuff, #damnyou @CalebHowe? Because this summer I swore I would get my act together regarding house projects and come to think of it, a life. But now, as I’m obsessively wasting away in Twitterville, that looks highly unlikely!

Oh, yeah, almost forgot: I can be found at www.twitter.com/streetwise_IT Please tweet me. Especially when it’s time to vacuum.

It must be wonderful to work in the White House.  Who wouldn’t want that taxpayer-funded trip along the lush banks of DeNile?  True, there are those pesky revolts of the toiling masses. I’m sure pharaoh and his minions probably didn’t understand the ancient Israelites, either.

The president has asserted, unbelievably, that he was not aware of the tea parties.  His press secretary, so reports Tommy Christopher, is bemused that the partygoers are upset, having just received, by the grace of God and His Annointed Barack Obama, a tax cut.  

To be sure, Obama is more liberal than pharaoh.  He has given the masses a little more straw to make bricks.  Alas, he has upped the quota of bricks by 400%.  That is the estimated increase of the 2009 budget deficit vs 2008’s.  Like the ancient Hebrews, today’s taxpayers know a raw deal when they see one.

They know that a massive increase in spending to finance politically-connected pork and an orgy of nanny-statism is like getting a basket of fish that is just about to go off.  In the short run, a little nourishment from the first bites.  In the long run, just a lot of smelly garbage.  The Obama/Pelosi/Reid approach will inevitably lower the people’s standard of living and the opportunities for their children.  The way to grow the economy is to grow the private sector that creates our wealth; the government has never created a damn thing. 

The taxpayers realize that for all the talk about the rich, the middle class is stuck on a hamster treadmill of federal, state, local and property taxes.  They know that huge debt loads must either be paid off or society goes through enormous economic pain.  They know instinctively that the government should not imitate the fiscal habits of the mortgage industry.  And they know that eventually there are two disastrous ways to deal with mega-deficits: ruinous taxation or ruinous inflation.

So Mr. Gibbs, we have one response for you if you insist you are bemused by the public angst.  Who the hell does your administration think it’s kidding?

You are invited to listen to this weekly audio (roughly 3 minutes), which concentrates on the explosion of enlightened goings-on at the court of Our Most High Sovereign, Barack Obama.

This week’s topics include the G-20, the Saudi bow*, the Palin pretenders and bankers vs pitchforks.

*Can we now put to rest, forever, the nutroots rantings about GWB’s cozy relationship with the Saudis?

Membership in the House of Representatives is an important job. We are getting a painful reminder of this in 2009. With the Democrats in charge of both the White House and Congress, the government is on a spending spree that is unparalleled in American history.

The March 31st election is your chance to send a message to the nation’s leaders. And that message is that you’ve had enough! The election will be closely watched around the nation. You may never have a better opportunity as voters to send this message than you have now. Vote Jim Tedisco and the Washington DC elites will hear it, loud and clear!

Barack Obama is a decent and well-meaning man. Alas, he has never run anything in his life, and the inexperience shows, amplified by a Democratic Congress that has gone out of control. It has embarked on an orgy of wasteful spending that will be funded by staggering increases in the national debt.

But it is not just about the money. The liberal elites advising the President and Congress simply can’t stand the middle class. They despise our values, our livelihoods and ourselves. They are convinced that Main Street voters live too high on the hog, that we consume too much and pay too little taxes. Their ideal is an eco-utopia where we use little energy and are content with the resulting poverty. Do you really want Al Gore and his acolytes to determine how you drive, heat your homes and power your businesses?

Enough! You can send a message to Washington DC that will resound as loudly as Paul Revere’s. Vote for Jim Tedisco!

(And he’s a member of the Sons of Italy- how can you go wrong :>)

Cross-posted on
http://www.theminorityreportblog.com
and
http://italiantomatoes.blogspot.com/2009/03/if-youve-had-enough-vote-tedisco.html

Congressman Tom Tancredo

Caleb Howe- you will see it his way- or else!

We have a good show planned for you on Italian Tomatoes tonight. Congressman Tom Tancredo will appear and talk about illegal immigration in the context of the current recession. And our own Caleb Howe, no doubt fatigued by his high maintenance partnership with movie star Tommy Christopher, will return to the fold and explain his plans to fix the right’s deficiencies re the mass media.

We will also talk about recent events in the financial markets, l’affaire de teleprompter and liberal neuroses (so many examples, so little time!).

Tune in tonight @8PM Central, 9 Eastern at:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ItalianTomatoes/2009/03/28/Current-Events-Al-Dente

Ah, conservatives, forget the worried talk about Obama being a closet Bolshie. Relax!

In truth, Obama is much more in the mold of those traditional monarchs of the Old Regime, who in theory possessed absolute power, but who in practice delegated their authority to whichever faction at their court caught the Royal Ear.

As one of our many public services, The Minority Report and Italian Tomatoes Radio bring you a brief podcast of the doings of the Sovereign. It can be found on the Blogtalk widget on the TMR home page and at the link below:

He cites irreconcileable differences.  (In the Obama land of romance, you don’t just withdraw, you get divorced!)

President Obama’s rhetoric on the stimulus package is distinctly short on hope. He is making the American people an offer that they can’t refuse (Mafia-speak as tribute to diversity!).  But he is providing plenty of change.  Stimulus bills are supposed to be a pragmatic, job-creating enterprise.  They are supposed to grow the same types of jobs that are in danger of being lost. 

Ah,  but The One could not be expected to produce a traditional bill in the eschatological age of Himself.  His New Age stimulus bill does indeed look different- it’s manna from heaven for the legions of lawyers who will oversee its environmental policies, and for the hordes of “green job” holders whose existence might not be economically viable without the provision of said manna.  And, of course, it all costs one huge pile of change.  Once Obama constructed the paradigm for the bill’s presentation - pass it or else - he gave his leftwards Congressional leadership the, er, green light to move on to, er, hog heaven.

It’s not that the Congress isn’t trying to save money.  The Senate, ever mindful of the strain on the public purse, is doing its best.  To wit:

The House-passed version was estimated to increase the deficit by $820 billion over 10 years. The version initially considered by the Senate cost $885 billion, but grew to more than $900 billion after amendments were passed last week.

Now lawmakers and others estimate that the cost of the revised package, including the bipartisan compromise, is between $820 billion and $827 billion, the same or higher than the House package.

So, you see, the Senate has saved you between $58 and $65 billion!  As the Church Lady might say, “isn’t that special?”

And out of the goodness of their hearts, the Senate is providing relief for one year from the AMT that, somehow, the House never got around to.   More on the evolution of the bill can be found here.

http://money.cnn.com/2009/02/08/news/economy/stimulus_showdown/index.htm?postversion=2009020910

Congratulations to Michael Steele on his election to the post of RNC Chairman. Well done!

You face a formidable task. But then you know that. The GOP has been consistently outmaneuvered in the media wars by an aggressive and left-oriented journalist class, and their cheering sections in the academy and Hollywood. President Obama is clearly inclined to push a cult of personality, and there are many misguided souls in the land who are happy to oblige. His advisors take advantage of their gullibility to use race cards at every opportunity.

You are a media star. Good. You will need every iota of those skills, because the haters will try to defame you on racial grounds. I am not worried, because you will handle it well. Hell, it’s probably old hat by now.

Now it’s time to invest. Use your leadership skills to pound into the heads of all factions of the GOP one overriding theme: we are a coalition, and we need to expand the reach of our party. Conservatives need not worry, as we are the dominant part of the coalition, and there is plenty of scope for action. We will not tolerate an assault on the Second Amendment. Indeed, the assault may be delayed because the acolytes of The One seem to be concentrating on killing the First. We insist on the right of people of faith to refuse involvement in abortion. We insist that the left be called out on their religious bigotry, whether anti-Catholic, anti-evangelical or anti-Semitic. We may like Rush Limbaugh, but we think for ourselves. We don’t need Rush to tell us that the “stimulus package” is a leftist-inspired Trojan Horse designed to push a statist agenda.

You can grow our party. That’s where the investment is needed. When the ObamaMessiah fails to deliver, as is invariably the wont of these would-be divinities, adults will be looking for an alternative. Women as well as men are concerned about national security. Indeed, many of them have now served in our military. Hillary supporters are still appalled at the bum’s rush they received at the hands of the Democratic establishment. You can win some of them over. Minorities, especially at the low end of the economic scale, suffer most during recessions, and Obama’s plan won’t do squat to promote a recovery. The butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker et al- whether they be white, black, Latino, male, female, gay or straight- have to contend with an overspending goverment that overpromises and underdelivers. Only lawyers, like The One himself, have any reason to anticipate the future with pleasure.

You are a talented man. The fates, unfortunately, have given you a lot to work with. Investing is hard work. But you can do it.

Godspeed. *

*For any lefty reader who objects to the use of God, so sue me!

A great deal of fog surrounds the astonishing decision of Caroline Kennedy, released at the midnight hour, to withdraw from the selection process for New York’s open Senate seat.  While titillating rumors swirl, hard facts are few and far between.  So I will defer analysis until a later time.

But I can say that this looks like another instance life imitating art.  The rich and privileged Kennedy family, whose fortunes zoomed at roughly the same time the mysterious Jay Gatsby was trying to crash the social scene on the Gold Coast of Long Island*, has been making waves in American society for nearly a century.  And those waves look rather dangerous.  Joe Kennedy pushed the envelope of the role of money in American politics.  JFK introduced the icon, celebrity-oriented model that again captivated the American political scene in 2008.  Ted Kennedy came to symbolize the existence of two legal systems, one for ordinary people and one for people like him at Chappaquiddick.  Both Ted and Caroline bestowed their imprimatur on Barack Obama, a critically important endorsement given the role of the superdelegates in the Democratic party system.

And now Caroline’s withdrawal is creating shock waves on New York’s political scene.  Given that she has always known about whatever it was that pushed her to withdraw, the inevitable question arises: why the hell did she ever toss her bonnet into the ring in the first place?  Is this just another manifestation of Kennedy hubris, a confidence that special rules will always be activated to let them get away with it, whatever it may be?

One also wonders what careers have been derailed, perhaps permanently, by Ms. Kennedy’s dilettante foray into politics.  Surely some contenders were afraid of the formidable Kennedy juggernaut and kept their distance from the Senate sweeps.  Now it may be too late.

The hubris of the powerful.  The tragic Gatsby, who could never fit in, would understand.  Let alone poor Myrtle, literally run over by the insouciant and shallow rich, personified by the reckless driving of Daisy Buchanan.

Sigh.

* I grew up just a short drive from Great Neck and Manhasset, which are the probable locales of noveaux riche West Egg and Old Money East Egg, respectively.  Our suburban development was built on land once occupied by estates at the southern border of the Gold Coast.  Ironically, this is where the glaciers stopped growing and from which they receded during the great warming some 20,000 years ago.  Those damn Flintstones were so irresponsible.

For more on the novel:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Gatsby

Originally posted at The Minority Report

I wanted to alert the RS Community to a fantastic investment opportunity.  Now normally I would be shy about self-promoting on this site.  But thanks to the grace of God, the advent of Barack Obama, and the mannah dropping from heaven in the form of bailout money, I now have working capital for operations and can grow this fantastic business concept.  With your help.

Sacred Doves LLC will deliver to your doorstep a completely equipped, computerized bird cage and absolutely adoreable doves.   The state-of-the-art voice recognition sensors will release the doves when prompted by the opening of a public utterance by Barack Obama.  The specially trained doves will return to their cages (to hide) when the sensors detect speech by either the increasingly scary Obama cabinet or the even more scary Congressional Democratic leadership.  So you will never have to be afraid that your beloved doves will be lost!

Every home will want one of these fabulous devices.  And businesses, too, especially ones lobbying the government!  Please send your investment capital NOW* to our flagship installation:

SACRED DOVES LLC

1600 PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE

WASHINGTON DC 

* Media companies, inquire about our special 20% discount!

As inauguration day moves closer, one detects an unusual air of anxiety among the chattering classes of the left.  Even though the election is over and their man won it handily, they are hypersensitive to any criticism of him.  What gives?

Could it be that they sense that their era of cheap grace is over?  During the presidency of George W Bush, the nutroots and their spokespersons in the leftward precincts of the Democratic party enjoyed the freedom of being one of the most irresponsible oppositions in this nation’s history.  In a time of war  (9/11, Afghanistan and Iraq) and natural disaster (Katrina), they could blow every mistake way out of proportion and get their echo chamber in the MSM to trumpet it 24/7.  They exuberantly attributed every misstep to some dark night of the soul of GWB- he’s a racist, hates black people, a tool of Dick Cheney and the neocon Zionist conspiracy, yada, yada, yada.  No wonder the left has such a problem with Christianity.  You see, there’s this false witness thingy embedded right in the Ten Commandments.

Now the outbreak of war in the Middle East, just two weeks before the inauguration of Barack Obama, appears to be sobering them up. With good reason. The moment his hand comes off the Bible, President Obama will face the same decisions that confronted George Bush.  How do I defend this country against a murderous terrorist network?  How do I balance protecting lives against civil liberties?  What do I do about the thugocracy in Iran and its proxies?  Can we fix Afghanistan? I have to send our troops into battle- are they ready, am I ready- for the casualties, military and civilian, the international reaction, the often faulty intelligence,  the inevitable mistakes that cost lives?

I have enough compassionate conservatism left in me to feel for the left as they confront the sobering realities for which our new president is responsible.  I will certainly pray for him.  If I didn’t feel that it would offend the activist left, I would pray for them, too.

Tommy Christopher’s recent foray into RS-bashing, while unexpected, is not surprising.  After all, he is in a game where hitcount means everything.  And what better way to get some than to start a blog feud with a site where his opposite number, Caleb Howe, is a prominent front-page contributor?

Now I have some experience with Tommy, being a frequent listener and caller into his Unusable Signal show.  I kind of like the guy, and his innocent narcissism makes me laugh.  But he has a most naive faith in big government.  Now I could go on and on explaining this, bloviating in the liberal style.  But we live in a visual age.  So I offer the video below as an illustration of the torch that Tommy and his kind always carry for the pashas of statist liberalism.  (and a reminder to Caleb that we await his Turkey articles :>)  It has a happy ending, as the heroes and heroines (the taxpayers?) escape the brothel of Big Government.

One of the most astounding stories of 2008 has been the roller-coaster ride in crude oil prices.  After several years of steady increases, a burst of speculative activity in 2008 pushed the price above $145 per bbl in mid-July.  This produced a windfall for the speculators (who exited the market in time), nefarious petrol states (Russia, Venezuela, Iran et al) and the oil companies.  It also squeezed consumers terribly.  In my opinion, the related rise in gasoline prices was the straw that broke the camel’s back in the housing market, as overstretched mortgage holders had no savings or credit to fall back on to absorb the dent in their cash flow.

So congratulations to OPEC, the speculators and assorted market makers who produced this result.  You have killed the Golden Goose.  Oil spikes produce recessions, a time-honored linkage that you ignored in your hubris (see Paul Cella’s excellent article on hubris today).  You can manipulate output all you want or jawbone markets with juicy rumors to move the price.  It won’t work.  In recessions, oil barrels are a true commodity, a dime (maybe literally at some point!) a dozen.

Buon Appetit!

http://money.cnn.com/2008/12/24/markets/oil/index.htm?postversion=2008122413

Originally posted on The Minority Report.  While I oppose the current form of the GM bailout, bankruptcy is a risky proposition.  It is not a panacea, and we need to recognize that.

There has been a lot of chatter recently about the possibility that GM could file for bankruptcy. Corporate bankruptcy is an enormously complicated subject, and each one is unique. But here is a thumbnail sketch on what happens. For purposes of this discussion, I will use the “royal you” :>)

The Filing

You file in federal court. In other words, you go to the government, the government does not come to you. Normally some top executives and hotshot lawyers submit the filing to the court. The petition includes a recap of events that caused the distressed circumstances, and how those circumstances are now so dire as to require the bankruptcy filing. In the famous Enron case, the executives flew up in the firm’s brand new Gulfstream executive jet. This raised a lot of eyebrows. (Are you listening GM?)

The Motions

Once in bankruptcy, all expenses must be approved by the judge. First day motions will seek approval to pay normal operating expenses - ongoing salaries, utilities, etc. Liabilities originating prior to the bankruptcy will be settled from the bankruptcy estate.

The Locusts

The bankruptcy process requires an army of lawyers, accountants and other professionals to sort out what these liabilities are and how they will get treated in the inevitable restructuring. Bankruptcy is EXPENSIVE. The senior attorneys will bill north of $500 per hour, and will require extensive support from junior lawyers and administrative personnel. United Airlines spent several hundred million dollars on its bankruptcy, and it is a smaller company than GM.

 
The DIP

Bankrupt corporations are pretty leveraged by the time they go into bankruptcy. However, an adequate cash reserve to sustain operations during the restructuring is essential. One way of securing it is debtor-in-possession financing. The corporation borrows against its remaining crown jewels - intellectual property rights, saleable assets, still viable divisions, etc.- to build a cash kitty that is hopefully large enough to last until the final reorganization is done.

 
I Love Thee Nots- Rejection in Bankruptcy

Leases often compose a big part of a corporation’s capital structure. Bankruptcy allows a company to go through its leases and simply reject the ones that it no longer deems essential to its future operation. You can drop expenses in a hurry by just walking away from equipment and real estate leases, especially the turkeys. And if you’re the lessor who owns one of the turkeys, this is a frightening prospect.

Let’s Make A Deal!

 
Bankruptcy is very hierarchical. Claims against the estate are grouped into categories, and each one has its own method of settlement. Some of the major categories are trade payables, rentals, secured bondholders, unsecured bondholders, preferred equity and common stock holders. Generally, the latter are toast. The secured bondholders can either take over the assets or work with the company to restructure the debt. The unsecured bondholders will try to angle for as big a settlement on their principal as possible - 40 cents on the dollar, NO, 50 cents on the dollar, NO, sixty cents on the dollar, do I hear 65??!! Investors and creditors form alliances and work through their own teams of lawyers and accountants.

The End GameIf the bankruptcy is successful (and not all are), the company will emerge with a new capital structure. It will be a smaller, downsized company. The prior stockholders have been wiped out, the debt has been restructured with more favorable terms, the unsecured creditors receive their settlement at x cents on the dollar. The company issues new stock, the new owners hopefully see a rapid exodus of the locusts once the company is no longer beholden to the court, and then everyone gets to see if the job was done right.

Bankruptcy Links

Pensions
http://www.pbgc.com/
this site has critical information if you have a pension with a bankrupt company.

A Prime Example- United Airlines-
http://www.pd-ual.com/
This one was one of the biggies. As the lead page suggests, it is very complicated. GM’s would make this one look simple.  United spent over $300 million on bankruptcy fees.

Bankruptcy Courts
http://www.uscourts.gov/bankruptcycourts.html
This government link provides info about the bankruptcy court system.

The calendar is pointing to another anniversary on this flagship conservative site. So it’s time for an anniversary retrospective.

I began posting on RS in Nov 2005 as I had become absolutely fed up with the liberal propaganda and disinformation machine that was engulfing the net. It was a relief to find an outlet where I could connect with kindred spirits, and work with them to express the conservative and Republican case. I am so thankful that the creators of RS provided that opportunity.

Of course, we have had some rough sledding. The disappointments of 2006 and 2008 will keep stinging for some time. But we have fought the good fight, and can enjoy the spectacle of Obama infuriating the left by his mandatory concessions to intruding reality, most notably in the re-appointment of Sec Def Gates.

The year 2007 was truly our “year of living dangerously”. We can truly be proud of President Bush, our party and ourselves that we fought, successfully, the attempt of the newly elected Democratic Congress to produce a Vietnam-style debacle. We kept faith with our troops and the Iraqi people. Our determination to stay the course prevented Iraq from descending into the warped nightmare of perverted religion and its sectarian violence.

So, my friends, I salute you. I am proud of what you have done. I toast you with a holiday egg nogg, with cinnammon and spice and all manner of libations that are nice!

(PS Erick- in deference to the new regime in DC, you MUST form an RS Bank. Not only will it show that we support the effort to revive the economy but I understand that the feds will just THROW money at us once this is done!)

It CAN be done. Just ask Bob!

It looks as if the new Congress will have 44 or 45 Republican senators. I understand the temptation they might have to cry in their beer over the election results. But the people have spoken, and it’s time to move on.

The GOP Senate minority has the strength it needs to mount an effective opposition. If they need pointers, all they need to do is pick up the phone and ask Bob Dole how it’s done. He confronted an incoming Clinton administration with just 43 GOP senators, an administration determined to roll over opposition to its ambitious health care plans. Dole maneuevered and bobbed and weaved, and the lengthening of the deliberations gave the American people time to realize that the Clinton health plan sucked.

We expect the same vigor from you. The duty of an opposition party is to OPPOSE- honorably but energetically.

(PS- Harry and Louise, if you’re online, please call Mitch McConnell!)

This basically speaks for itself

WASHINGTON (AP) - The presidential race tightened after the final debate, with John McCain gaining among whites and people earning less than $50,000, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll that shows McCain and Barack Obama essentially running even among likely voters in the election homestretch.

It ain’t over until it’s over!

ht Drudge

The silly season is here again. Polls are being touted as the infallible indicator of the actual electoral outcome. I think not.

Now Obama could very well win. The fall financial crisis was a godsend to The One. But the race is surprisingly tight, and the infamous month of October is not done.

Let’s take a look at some other poll predictions,

Poll: Advantage Kerry in Ohio Race
This story, dated 19-Oct-2004 put Kerry over Bush 50 to 47 in the critical swing state. Actual outcome: Bush 51 Kerry 49. Understated Bush by 4.

More updates as the spirit moves me

And in late October 2000, CNN reported that CNN/Time poll: Bush holds edge Bush was leading Gore by 6 points. As we know, the election was virtually tied, with the final outcome showing Gore up by about a half percentage point. (The poll probably does not reflect the impact of the enormously damaging “drunk driving” story, skillfully sprung by a Democratic operative in the last week of the campaign.)

Read More →

Everyone knows by now that Joe the Plumber asked the most sizzling question of the 2008 campaign- how will Obama’s tax policy affect small business? This question was infinitely better than anything asked in any of the debates, their high priced moderators notwithstanding.

Predictably, the MSM and lefty blogs, suspecting lèse majesté, went after him and all of a sudden it was Trash Joe Week.

Now I hate to pile on, but Joe is an ingrate. Why? BARACK OBAMA IS TRYING TO SAVE JOE MONEY! Small businesses are basically valued on their free cash flow, while the ability to grow a small business is very dependent on the ability to plow earnings back into the business. A tax hike would most likely reduce the price of any business Joe wants to buy, * because it’s worth less.* Its after-tax cash flows will be smaller, and reinvestment of such flows will also have a lower return. Of course, ever since the Democratic fiefdoms of Fannie/Freddie did such a number on the credit markets, the other way that small businesses raise capital- bank loans- will be very problematic for a long time.

That Joe has a nerve, I tell you! And you can find out more about his appearance on the Huckabee show here