Congressman asks Geithner to review Chrysler's Super Bowl ad buy

Congressman asks Geithner to review Chrysler's Super Bowl ad buy

Here we go. Now that the U.S. government is in the automobile business, congress has started second guessing Chrysler's business practices. Here we have a congressman, a republican who has spent the last two decades pretending to do something useful while We the People have been overpaying his salary, who believes that Super Bowl ads are too expensive to be bought with public money. Since he has never had a real job, he has no idea that Super Bowl ads, like all ads everywhere, are priced the way they are because they work for the advertisers.

I guess that when you have never made an honest living (Congressman Heller's only private sector job was selling stock before he moved to the public teat) you actually believe that companies are stupid, and the only smart people are the ones who figured out how to steal from the government. But Chrysler, no doubt, has volumes of research and past results that tell them that this is a cost-effective way to advertise their product. But what does all that knowledge amount to when put up against the populist emotion of a professional political whore?

The result of this can only be a further crippling of Chrysler's, and any other bailed-out company's ability to recover from the tender mercy the government showed them. We all lose. Obama will be pleased.

Entrepreneurs Beware

Entrepreneurs Beware

The effect of democrat control of two thirds of our government are becoming more clear, as we can now compare their campaign promises to their actions in office. They clearly want to give "workers" more and "the rich" less. This is the class envy game writ large. Before these were ideas they argued for in their attempt to achieve power during the campaign. But these actions have already taken effect in some areas, thus the result of these policies are predictable. Detroit has already lost half its population. And if you think unions are bad, just wait and see what happens if democrats put through their "living wage" proposal. I am surprised they did not put it into the fraudulus already.

Democrats clearly value entrepreneurship so low since they assume that economic activity is a zero sum game - less for "the rich" will mean more for "the people" as if overall economic activity will remain the same when entrepreneurs are rewarded at a lower rate. They downplay the element of risk, and the willingness top take risk, in the formation of capital and companies.

It is not supply/demand that creates companies, it is risk/reward. If demand is there but entrepreneurial achievement is less likely, then a few giant bureaucrat-friendly companies will do all the business and the rest will go out of business. Many niche demands will not be met, but what the heck, democrats do not look that far into the future anyway. And who needs so many brands of bread or cars anyway?

This is not socialism, it is fascism. The fascist state finds it more convenient to deal with a few huge corporations instead of all these little greedy entrepreneurs. Look at California today - it is a harbinger of the future democrat/fascist Amerika. We the People get less and less even as Nancy gets a bigger jet and The Won keeps his office at eighty degrees - it is happening already.

Rat Board Cometh, Politics Trumps Ethics

Rat Board Cometh, Politics Trumps Ethics

President Obama has revealed himself once again, by forcing inclusion of the "Rat Board," or the "Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board" into his fraudulus bill. The purpose of this new institution is to give Obama control over investigations instituted by Inspectors general. In the words of Byron York the new chief political correspondent of the DC Examiner:

Congress has given the RAT Board the authority to ask “that an inspector general conduct or refrain from conducting an audit or investigation.” If the inspector general doesn’t want to follow the wishes of the RAT Board, he’ll have to write a report explaining his decision to the board, as well as to the head of his agency (from whom he is supposedly independent) and to Congress. In the end, a determined inspector general can probably get his way, but only after jumping through bureaucratic hoops that will inevitably make him hesitate to go forward.

I am especially concerned with that "or refrain from conducting" bit. How in the world would refraining from an investigation enforce transparency? Why would the administration demand the midnight inclusion of such a travesty into his "stimulus?"

Only Nixon would have demanded such power. Obama has no shame. It is up to us to hold his feet to the fire. This board is now the law. We need to make noise until this bald faced power grab is repealed.

Patton Boggs

Patton Boggs

Patton Boggs is an international law firm concentrating in global business and trade since 1962. Their website is here.

Here is the link to their "Patton Boggs Economic Stimulus Analysis". It analyzes the fraudulus bill, in very specific and technical, detailed terms. This is the best explanation of the entire bill I have seen yet (.pdf)

They have committed to keep this analysis and other efforts by the Obama administration to destroy individual liberty current. That's a big job. After all, a trillion dollar bill of a thousand pages represents one billion dollars per page. That takes a lot of analysis!