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Writing songs is as exhilarating as ever. I get a very satisfied feeling that I never get in any other part of my life. But most of the time you're walking around having little temper tantrums, waiting for it. -- Paul Simon
North Korea fired a missile and has nuclear capability and Obama did not interfere.
American banks that didn't want the money were forced to take the government's money and aren't allowed to give it back and Obama has every plan to interfere.
The principle at work is obvious: if Kim Jung Il would simply be profitable enough to allow his people to make a good living, Obama would see fit to take action.
Fortunately for North Korea, their economic plans have never had a profit motive, so they're quite safe from any kind of intervention.
When the HopenchangersTM here in Iowa helped to vote Obama into office, I wonder if they considered the effect on Iowa's economy.
The reason I ask is that the Grayson-Himes Pay for Performance Act of 2009 passed the House of Representatives on April 1 (no joke).
As I mentioned the other day, it gives Tim Geithner the ability to control the wages of all employees at companies that were forced to take TARP money.
Wells Fargo is one of those unfortunate companies. Wells Fargo didn't want the money. Wells Fargo is financially sound. Wells Fargo employs thousands of people in central Iowa.
Salary caps on folks in the area? Is that in the future? Only Tim Geithner can say. But given the inclinations I've seen thus far, and with all this talk of "sacrifice" by Obama, Wells Fargo's new supah CEO would be jointly Tim Geithner and Barack Obama, if it passes the Senate.
Is that what you voted for? Really? If not, at what point do you begin to oppose your guy?
If you read this web site with any regularity, you know that I staunchly defend the rights of the individual. Neither the government nor my neighbors have any right to tell me - or anyone else - how to live.
So for that reason, of course a ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional. It's nobody's business.
From the article:
Craig Overton's jaw dropped when he heard the news. He's opposed to same-sex marriage, he said. Overton, of Pleasant Hill, had been carrying signs before the result was known. He was stunned to hear the news his arm holding the signs dropped until the signs were resting on the sidewalk.
"I don't want this taught in schools," Overton said.
And on that front, he's right. The schools have no business teaching morality or lifestyle acceptance.
He goes on to say:
"Animals don't do that. I don't like it. I have small children, and I just don't think this is right."
Mr. Overton has every right to his opinion and to speak it out. But he has no right to legislate his morals about victimless behavior through the government.
I have yet to hear how allowing gays to marry (or whatever name you want to give it) has any negative or dilutive effect on hetero marriage.
If conservatives/Republicans are to be a people who supposedly believe in individual rights, then why is it they can do so arbitrarily? This is no different than the Dems/libs wanting to legislate salary caps. The government has no right to tell others how to live. Period.
You either believe in limited government, or you don't. You either champion individual freedom, or you don't - whether you agree with the behavior or not. What occurs between two consenting adults is nobody's business.
The Dow Jones and other stocks are struggling upward. Does Obama get credit for that? Not quite.
Readers of my ABCNews column or Wall Street Journal opinion pieces will remember that I’ve regularly listed four things that needed to be done to improve the U.S. economy. Now the first one has fallen: mark-to-market accounting.
Today, under pressure from both lawmakers and financial institutions, the five-member Financial Accounting Standards Board - the arbiter of accounting rules in the U.S. - voted unanimously on new guidance for mark-to-market. Mark-to-market accounting, instituted in 2007, but given real punch by FASB and the SEC in a "clarification" last September, has been called the single most important reason the stock markets crashed so abruptly last fall. It all-but forced corporate auditors to set the most conservative valuations on the holdings of financial institutions - and in the process led to massive mark-downs and the collapse of the capital markets.
The new mark-to-market changes let companies use "significant" judgment in determining the prices of some investments on their books, including mortgage-backed securities - a move that could help banks reduce their write downs and boost net income. Better yet, FASB has fast-tracked the matter, meaning that financial institutions will be able to apply the changes to their first quarter results.
Nobody has fought louder or more brilliantly for the end of mark-to-market than Steve Forbes, Forbes' publisher Rich Karlgaard, and CNBC's Larry Kudlow. They deserve everyone’s thanks - especially all of those stockholders' who are now watching the markets turn upwards again.
The author gives three other needed reforms to help boost the market. Which ones will this Democrat-led country allow? Time will tell.
Good for Leno, who tells it like it is. And good for the Iowa Republicans, who I've poked at in the past for their sad web efforts. This is better. More, please.
A fella named David wrote me, and unfortunately there was a glitch in my contact form, which I've now repaired. But the glitch left me without a reply email address.
So David, email me again and I'll answer your questions.
In amazing and thoughtful turnaround, President Barack Obama used his first encounter at the G20 summit to speak out against increased debt spending.
"I have to tell the Prime Minister that I agree with Daniel Hannon," the US President told the press corps flatly. "You cannot spend your way out of debt. It's taken me a bit to put my arms around the idea, but when you put pencil to paper, there it is."
Lawmakers back in Washington were shocked at the unexpected change of heart. Republicans embraced the clarity of his tone and said that it was really the first time Obama had reached out to them at all. Congressional leaders Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, on the other hand, wondered how the president intended to proceed.
"This obviously goes against everything the White House has committed to us. We'll certainly talk more about this when the president returns," the Speaker of the House said.
President Obama told reporters later, "Someday, future generations will have to pay this money back. It's irresponsible to pass that debt on to our children. Sasha and Malia mean the world to me. I won't let that happen to them and their generation."
For those of you all excited about HopenchangeTM, how excited are you about this?
In a little-noticed move, the House Financial Services Committee, led by chairman Barney Frank, has approved a measure that would, in some key ways, go beyond the most draconian features of the original AIG bill. The new legislation, the "Pay for Performance Act of 2009," would impose government controls on the pay of all employees -- not just top executives -- of companies that have received a capital investment from the U.S. government. The bill gives Geithner the authority to decide what pay is "unreasonable" or "excessive." And it directs the Treasury Department to come up with a method to evaluate "the performance of the individual executive or employee to whom the payment relates."
That's right. The government runs your company. Obama is your new CEO. He's the president, you know.
"Write from the soul, not from some notion what you think the marketplace wants. The market is fickle the soul is eternal." - Jeffrey A. Carver
In the past six months, I've undergone a kind of experiment. As some of you know, a big company reached out to me to do some marketing work for them. That's still supposed to happen - sometime in mid-April. But at that time, I ratcheted back on my public presentation of me. Sterilized it, if you will.
Not long ago, I changed my mind. I gotta be me.
And then something strange happened. I became busier and more in demand than I've ever been. It was like a switch.
Why is that?
Like Jeffrey Carver says above, the marketplace is fickle. I can't - and shouldn't - change me for some notion of what others want. I'm a fiery creature. Passion runs deep in me and when I'm on, I'm very on. And sometimes, that causes magic to happen. There are a few niches where my talents work very well. By continuing to put myself out there, as I am, I've either been noticed or have attracted others to what I do, and so good things are happening.
Which is true, I suspect, for everyone. That when they are true to their strengths and to their natural inclinations, they're firing on all pistons and woo boy - watch them go!
My involvement with the Des Moines Tea Party has me in the position of being a hub for communication through the web site (because I built it). One guy who wrote in said this:
I can certainly help with setup on the 15th, passing out flyers etc. I may need some help getting pointed in the right direction as I have never been a part of something like this before, but I will do what I can. Thank you and all your colleagues for putting this together. I am thrilled at the chance to have my voice heard for a change rather then sitting at home and getting mad at all the things I see going on.
I think that's it... passionately getting involved rather than sitting around. It's productivity. It's action. It's movement. And that feels good and right.
A friend of mine believes in the concept of "continued relevance." It's hard to have meaning in life when we're living life according to the perceived standards of someone else. The marketplace is fickle. The soul, on the other hand, is an eternal furnace of drive. Relevance, I believe, comes not when trying to get along with everyone (ask John McCain), but when sticking true to your principles and being fearless in the pursuit of getting shit done.
