Last Call

One of the major problems with derangements caused by our "Muslim President" President Obama is that Christianity has been totally repressed, even in our military.

Dozens of soldiers who refused to attend a Christian band’s concert at Fort Eustis said they were banished to their barracks and told to clean them up, and the Pentagon said Friday that it was investigating the accusation. Pvt. Anthony Smith said he and other soldiers felt pressured to attend the May concert by the Christian rock group BarlowGirl as part of the “Commanding General’s Spiritual Fitness Concerts.” Private Smith said 80 men decided not to attend. “Instead of being released to our personal time,” he said, “we were locked down. It seemed very much like a punishment.” The Military Religious Freedom Foundation said it had been approached by soldiers who said they were punished for not attending the event.

I mean if you can't punish soliders for not being Christian enough when we're at war with Islam umm anyone Muslim including that Obama bastard no those raghead sunzabitches erm Afghanistan umm Iraq maybe well everybody terrorists yeah that's it then when can you punish them?

I mean come on, look what we're fighting for!



I mean we have the right to hate other religions dammit and we always will!

The Long Road Of Repression

...for Republicans here in Kentucky.  Laugh if you want to.  I'm not.  These jokers are deadly serious:  an African-American Democrat in the White House is disenfranchising the white Midwestern Republican, and after a whole 19 months of this by God they will not take this anymore.

Approximately 65 supporters of Republican nominee Todd Lally’s bid the 3rd District seat in Congress protested outside The Courier-Journal building for an hour Saturday morning, saying the newspaper is not being fair to the candidate.

“We want to protest the non-coverage of the 3rd District race,” said Kevin Dicken, 50, of Fern Creek, a volunteer with the Lally campaign. Lally “represents what I think this country needs” on issues such as health care, the economy and abortion.

The protesters contended the newspaper’s coverage is biased toward Democrats, and, in 3rd District race in particular, has written eight stories about the Democratic incumbent, John Yarmuth, for every story it has written about Lally.

“They do not cover all candidates fairly,” said Sue Weese, 65, of Louisville, another campaign volunteer.

A protestor standing nearby held a sign that read: CJ: Cover all ideas on all political issues.

An e-mail forwarded to the newspaper about the rally at 9 a.m. Saturday said the event was not sponsored by Lally for Congress. Some of those gathered Saturday said the protest was organized by campaign volunteers.

The LCJ of course now has no choice but to endorse Rob Lally and every other Republican on the ballot from now until the end of time,or it's liberal bias and we'll shut you down!  Don't you know how long Republicans in Kentucky -- especially white ones -- have been repressed by liberally biased newspaper coverage in the state?  I mean yeah, sure, Obama lost by 20 points here but that's not the point, that just means you liberals are out of touch with the will of the people in Kentucky!

So yes, you'll see a lot more of this silly season victimization card playing over the next few months and years.  And yes, it has a lot to do with the economy in Kentucky.  But not all of it is based on jobs here.

For weeks and weeks now we've made folks here in the Bluegrass State live under a President they didn't vote for, and they now don't have any choice but to take to the streets.

Holiday Road

Not content with the level of Obama Derangement Syndrome out there this month, the Republicans are now saying that Obama "doesn't deserve" a vacation because "he hasn't fixed America's problems" yet.

For the second straight year, the first family has landed on this island of quaint seaside towns, second homes and working farms for a late-summer getaway.

But this year, more so than last, political opponents are trying to hang a question over the visit: Does President Obama deserve a vacation?

The Republican National Committee has taken to calling Obama "the Clark Griswold president," a mocking reference to the Chevy Chase character in National Lampoon's "Vacation" movies. With unemployment claims climbing again, the GOP was hoping its criticism would have a certain national resonance. And maybe it will. 

Maybe it will, especially if the Village keeps writing stories and giving legitimacy to the idiotic complaints.  At least the WaPo article does mention why the Republicans look completely foolish here:

One potential complication: Obama has spent far less time on vacation than his Republican predecessor, George W. Bush, had at this point in his presidency. 

Oh yeah, there is that...

Hey folks, it's not like the GOP has any real solutions to our problems here either.  But that's why it's Obama Derangement Syndrome:  Republicans attack Obama -- and now his family -- brutally for doing what they had no complaints about Bush doing a lot worse earlier.

Even the Village doesn't look terribly interested in following this one.

Way Under Down Under

Don't look now, but the trigger event that may cause the next downward leg in the markets may not have anything to do with Greece, the European Union, China, Russia or even the US.  It may be this weekend's hung parliament election in Australia that may be the catalyst for chaos.

Australia’s dollar may fall and equities investors may look to other markets after the nation’s federal election failed to deliver a majority government for the first time in 70 years, according to market analysts.

Australia’s dollar “will bear the brunt of the uncertainty,” said Su-Lin Ong, senior economist at RBC Capital Markets Ltd. in Sydney. “Political uncertainty, a more unstable government, an obstructionist Senate, and the risk of medium term fiscal slippage as the minor parties exert their influence in a new government are clearly negative for the markets.”

Neither Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard nor opposition leader Tony Abbott gained an outright majority in the Aug. 21 vote, meaning one side must win negotiations with independent lawmakers to form government. The talks, which may last for days as election officials count postal votes, stoke uncertainty about issues such a Labor’s proposed mining tax, infrastructure investment and carbon trading. 

So what the hell does all that mean for the global picture?  Investors have been increasingly avoiding the volatile US dollar, euro, and Japanese yen...and they've been investing heavily in Australia's dollar.  Now all of a sudden the Australian dollar looks unstable as hell thanks to nobody being in charge.  Everyone's looking for the exits, as Tyler Durden explains.

As has been long pointed out on Zero Hedge, the AUD carry pair (either with the JPY, USD or EUR) has been the primary driver of market funding over the past 3 months (we have also pointed out for about 15 weeks that fund outflows are the loud alarum bells for an upcoming stock crash, a topic finally picked up by the NYT). In which case, courtesy of the Australian hung parliament, the market may be in for some tumultuous moves when the forex market opens at 3 PM EST, and looks certain to cut the weekend of the Liberty 33 trading desk early as they plan preparations for what could be a broader based sell off driven by carry evaporation. Reuters explains why the AUD is expected to drop a cent or more when trading resumes: "Australia's two major parties wooed independent lawmakers on Sunday after an inconclusive election left the nation facing its first hung parliament since 1940 and set financial markets up for a sharp sell-off. The Australian dollar and shares are likely to slide when trading resumes on Monday, analysts said, with the vote count threatening to drag on for days and both the ruling Labour party and opposition seemingly unable to win a majority." In other words, with the market correlating nearly 100% with the AUD, all those who went long this market despite the second Hindenburg Omen confirmation in a week, may be in for a rude awakening. 

Odds are pretty good a lot of people are going to get hurt in the markets right now...those who are left, that is.  As goes Australia's dollar carry trade, so goes the global markets right now, and that just went belly up.

Could be a very interesting Sunday afternoon here.

The New Normal

Discussing Keynesian vs. Austrian economic theory with some friends yesterday, it boils down to the question of what to do to get us out of this ditch.  Cutting taxes aren't going to help because the problem isn't supply.  But more stimulus isn't the answer because now it's too late:  we're already stuck in the demand/unused capacity spiral and the stimulus we did have did a lousy job of getting to where we needed it.

We're in a place where neither straight Keynesian stimulus nor straight Austrian deregulation will fix the problem.  We need a third way out, because the problem is not business, but the American consumer.

Across the industrial parks and office towers of the Chicago region, in a more than a dozen interviews, senior executives said they see Americans for years ahead paying down debts incurred during the now-ended credit boom and adjusting spending to match their often-reduced incomes.

"It's a different era," said Daryl Dulaney, chief executive of Siemens Industry, which has 30,000 U.S. employees who make lighting systems for buildings and a wide range of other products. "Our hiring and investment decisions have to be prudent and reflect that."

Executives see little evidence that the economy is slipping back into recession. But they describe a business environment in which sales come in fits and starts and their customers can't predict what they will want to buy in the future.

"In the past, our customers had more long-term vision on what they're going to need," said Bill Larsen, president of Larsen Packaging Products in Glendale Heights, Ill. Now, he said, "they don't know what they're going to need and when they're going to need it."

Larsen's company sells boxes and other packaging materials to all types of companies, so its sales closely reflect overall economic activity. Those sales have been swinging widely from month to month.

When companies decide whether to hire workers or invest, say, in a new factory, this kind of volatility and uncertainty about future conditions makes for a strong disincentive. 

We're deep in the self-sustaining part of the downward spiral now.   Global competition means hiring new workers and creating more capacity is difficult, but even more difficult because our consumer-driven economy is now rapidly running out of consumers still able to consume.

And without that investment in workers and wages, there's no additional money to spur consumption and increase demand.

Congress is paralyzed and will continue to be well into 2012.  The Fed can't do much of anything right now short of massive quantitative easing, but even then that will just get parked on.

We had our chance and we blew it.  Now it's too late to do much of anything.  No wonder the government's shifted to concentrating the coming suffering among those who are least likely to be able to do anything to stop it.

No Difference, They're All Corrupt

People tell me Obama's just like Bush, Alan Grayson is just like Michele Bachmann, Harry Reid is just like John McCain, Nancy Pelosi is just like John Boehner.  There's no difference between Republicans and Democrats, so why vote and why bother caring?  Parties are for dupes and suckers.

But hey, these new Tea Party guys, I'm told, aren't career politicians.  They're different.  We should give them a try.

Guys like GOP candidate for Governor Carl Paladino.  I mean he has to be better than Eliot Spitzer or David Paterson, right?

Republican candidate for governor Carl Paladino said he would transform some New York prisons into dormitories for welfare recipients, where they could work in state-sponsored jobs, get employment training and take lessons in "personal hygiene."

Paladino, a wealthy Buffalo real estate developer popular with many tea party activists, isn't saying the state should jail poor people: The program would be voluntary.

But the suggestion that poor families would be better off in remote institutions, rather than among friends and family in their own neighborhoods, struck some anti-poverty activists as insulting.

Paladino is competing for the Republican nomination with former U.S. Rep. Rick Lazio. The primary is Sept. 14.

Paladino first described the idea in June at a meeting of The Journal News of White Plains and spoke about it again this week with The Associated Press.

Throughout his campaign, Paladino has criticized New York's rich menu of social service benefits, which he says encourages illegal immigrants and needy people to live in the state. He has promised a 20 percent reduction in the state budget and a 10 percent income tax cut if elected.

Here you go, smelly poor people.  Let's round you up and put you in "voluntary" work camps.  I'm sure they'll have a lot of options making Palladino's plan "voluntary" with a 20% budget cut across the board, too.  If it only were that easy...

What Palladino isn't telling New Yorkers is that a 20% budget cut in a state like New York means getting rid of everything short of police, fire, and schools...and making massive cuts in all those as well.  Everything.  What welfare program?  Exactly what does a semi-permanent underclass housed in old prisons far from the rest of New Yorkers accomplish?

Other than being a difference from the old politicians?

[UPDATE] Karoli at Crooks & Liars notes the far more obvious "round them up and put them into camps" mentality that Palladino displays here, as does Digby.