We need to step back a bit and look at the very nature of social media.  Networking lies at the heart of it.  And social networks are like those Venn Diagrams you learn about in high school math – interlocking sets of data points (in this case members), except more complicated.  

They are everywhere, too.  Wall Street, ever addicted to coining buzzwords, has been pushing the concept of neural networks: how traders with a similar view of the market develop their own networks, promote that view, trade on it, and mutually reinforce market trends.  But then they move on, switching networks as they switch views.  It’s a very complicated phenomenon. (If you think RS discussions are tough, spend a day at Yahoo Finance on the discussion lists that exist for every popular stock!)

This phenomenon rules opinion sites.  People will flock together to promote commonly shared ideas.  All it takes for a neural network to form is a few people who email each other.  And then they email their contacts, and the contacts email theirs, and we’re off to the races.  Throw in technologies like Google or Yahoo Groups, Twitter, Facebook, etc. and you get a multiplier.  The RS front page does the same thing when it advises the members to do phone calls, emails, etc.  It is the most natural thing in the world.  
 
However bothersome this fact of life may be, network behavior CAN NOT BE STOPPED. That is why social media entrepreneurs become billionaires, and AOL (over)pays the likes of Arianna.
 
This is also why the arguments over recco’s, like the one that broke out on the infamous LIO energy diary, will always be a waste of time at best, and at worst can disfigure a site more than any offending diary that a lot of people like for whatever mysterious reason. (I did NOT like the LIO diary BTW.) 

In Pride and Prejudice, Mr. Bennet observes that we exist to make sport of our neighbors, and to be laughed at in our turn.  Quite a good observation, I think.  As long as people are restrained enough to STAY neighbors.  So I will close with that.

But what of the mysteries of the Kabbalah, you say?  Sorry, I’m not going to tell you.  You have to join my Kabbalah group for that.

Sometimes, during those residual bursts of compassionate conservatism, I almost feel sorry for the left. They just don’t know what is about to hit them. Kind of like those WWII German bomber pilots, confidently assured that the Royal Air Force had all but been destroyed, only to run into a hornets’ nest of Spitfires and Hurricanes.

For years the left has been mounting a full scale effort to gain unprecedented amounts of power over the lives of ordinary Americans, aided by a decadent GOP establishment that has come damn close to unilateral disarmament in the war of ideas. If you want to know why the right is so energized these days, look no further than that moribund leadership.

It is being replaced. And about time, too! The right has the fighters who will take on the war of ideas, and the ground game of politics, and WIN! That is what I saw at the Red State Gathering in Austin. I was too late for the panels and speakers, but that’s not what determines victory. People win the battle in politics- people who are energetic, passionate, determined, driven, and, yes, happy.

Do we have human frailties, personal conflicts, ideological disputes, group rivalries? Sure. But conservatives have never been in denial about human nature, or the work that must be done to transcend it. And we do the work. You can take that to the bank, even the TARP-stuffed ones!

So I left Austin buzzed. Why? Y’all are amazing!

For starters, have you ever noticed just how, er, whitebread the liberal elites are? And how condescending, insulated and just plain stinking rich? When you dig a little, you find that the boiling summer of our disconent arises from something far more dangerous than climate change- the kitsch socialism that propels all that bloviating about tolerance.

Tonight we will explore this subject on the Italian Tomatoes show on BlogTalkRadio. Tune in at 10PM Eastern time!

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.

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:

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

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WASHINGTON DC 

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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 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!)