U.S.A.

Arianna Huffington adopts my rhetoric (yes, I know she’s never heard me, but I’ve been calling for socialists and central planners to be relegated to midnight radio for years):

Many people talked about a housing "bubble" before it "popped", but none (to my knowledge) warned about the credit and economic contraction that would follow. Nevertheless, no one is shy about being wise enough to offer radical policy prescriptions now that the downturn is here.

The evidence is mounting that we have not made sufficient sacrifice to Ra, or whichever sun god is in charge:

I have detected  a new crisis that I have named "the daylight change crisis". I first noticed it sometime around the end of June this year. I started paying attention and created computer models and sure enough I was right! We are losing daylight at an astonishing rate. Each day we are losing approximately 2 minutes of day light and my computer models predict total darkness by next July.

In a most untimely manner, Time has published a series of photos of Barack Obama from 1980. This was before his awakening to a political calling, back when he was a layabout weedblower and part-time cokehead. And, if I recall correctly, when he was still Barry the Hawai’ian, before he started crafting his Afro-Barack identity.

Do you believe Sarah Palin said she, “could see Russia from her house?” If so, you’re in agreement with 86.9% of Obama voters. But Palin never said it. It was a line from Tina Fey in a Saturday Night Live sketch.*

The Supreme Court has decided against considering the latest challenge to Obama’s citizenship. Their decision was issued without comment.

This time, the story has made it past the blogosphere. The StarTribune posted a longer version of the AP’s story, which included this:

A streetcar in snow. Nothing unusual in any northern US town during the first half of the 20th Century. Is this a quaint Rockwell-style image to illustrate a Christmas shopping story?

Nope.

The US Supreme Court has denied to review the New Jersey challenge to Obama’s natural-born citizenship. But there’s yet another, this time from Connecticut, which the Supremes will consider considering this Friday.

In the ordinary world, an investor buys bonds to earn interest. The world today is not ordinary. The Treasury Department has just sold $32B worth of 4-week bonds (T-Bills) that yield 0%. Zero. Percent.

Although I created a tag on NRR for my Obama Derangement Syndrome posts, I do not think I have been truly afflicted. At least not yet. As evidence of my mental health, I have made all these points, either here or in the meat world:

Presidents really don't have that much to do with the economy. Constitutionally, their scope for action independent of Congress is extremely limited. For we citizens, that means presidential utility in such matters is largely to focus public opinion on Congress when Congress is failing to act, or acting inappropriately (such as looking after their own butts or catering to special interests), rather than taking care of the broader public interest.

A princess in the righty blogosphere believes Obama was born in Hawai’i. Michelle Malkin made her name with her rhetoric more than her reason. She commits a standard ad hominem fallacy while exposing attorney Phillip Berg as a 9/11 Truther:

There may be good reasons to switch from existing energy sources to renewable. But President-elect Barack Obama's energy plans have significant costs. His energy promises rely on questionable science and even more questionable economics. Creating "green jobs" would kill other jobs.
…

A New Jersey gunmaker is developing a handgun designed for use by people unable to grip an ordinary pistol.

In a startling act of good sense, Louisiana voters have rejected 9-term incumbent US Representative William Jefferson (D) in a run-off election. Jefferson made national headlines when he was found to be storing $90,000 in cash in his freezer, that being bribe money he accepted in an FBI sting. It seems that the new post-Katrina New Orleans might not be so tolerant of the culture of corruption.

The Berg v. Obama suit is not the only challenge to Barry’s ascendancy:

The U.S. Supreme Court will consider Friday whether to take up a lawsuit challenging President-elect Barack Obama's U.S. citizenship, a continuation of a New Jersey case embraced by some opponents of Obama's election.

In Iraq, coalition forces defeated the Iraqi military quickly and decisively. Saddam lost control of his nation. This was the “mission accomplished” that the lefties willfully misunderstood. We won the war, but winning the peace did not come so easily.

Barack Obama defeated John McCain. It was perhaps not quick, but in combination with gains in the Senate, it was a decisive victory for Democrats. Now the Dems have to manage the aftermath of their win.

And McCain left a bomb for them. Sarah Palin.

In 2005, the US Supreme Court ruled that police have no Constitutional duty to protect us. The facts of the case involved, “the failure of the police to respond to a woman's pleas for help after her estranged husband violated a protective order by kidnapping their three young daughters, whom he eventually killed.”

Charles Krauthammer rediscovers the foundation of economics:

In the old days -- from the Venetian Republic to, oh, the Bear Stearns rescue -- if you wanted to get rich, you did it the Warren Buffett way: You learned to read balance sheets. Today you learn to read political tea leaves. You don't anticipate Intel's third-quarter earnings; instead, you guess what side of the bed Henry Paulson will wake up on tomorrow.

…they re-arranged the American landscape, creating suburbs, transforming manufacturing districts, robbing small towns of their vitality and linking formerly distinct cities in a series of metropolitan corridors…

Those of us in the dwindling minority who believe the US Constitution is law which must be obeyed are waiting (in vain?) for Obama to prove his birth qualifications to hold the office of President. Hawai’ian officials, “have personally verified that the health department holds Obama's original birth certificate.” But those officials are mum on what the document says. His genuine long-form birth certificate exists. So, why doesn’t Barry let anyone see it?

Meanwhile, that danged Constitution presents an obstacle to Barry’s pick for Secretary of State: