HALF-FULL REPORT 10/07/11

So we’re down to three this week.  Christie out to no one’s dismay – except for his die-hard fans known as "girthers" – and so is Palin to the serious dismay of many.  It’s too late for late entries – say goodnight Donald and Rudy – while the other candidates are there just for stubbornness or ego.  Rick, Mitt, or Herman, those are the only choices now.

The next debate is this coming Tuesday, 10/11.  It could be make or break for Perry.  The Forum’s resident Perryista, Ella – she’s a Texas gal – assures us that, while he wasn’t prepared for the first three debates due to his laser focus on raising $17 million in 49 days, he’s primed and pumped for this one.  Let’s hope so.  I for one am rootin’ for Rick to come out with guns blazing.  It’s show time.

Will it be show time for Cain?  Will one of his competitors ask him about the fatal flaw in his 9-9-9 tax reform plan?  As Erik Erickson asks it:

"Given the Republican Party has a unparalleled history of being unable or unwilling to truly scale back the size and scope of the federal government and its creeping socialism, do we really want the Republican Party to be the party to introduce a national sales tax or VAT tax without first repealing the income tax?"

There’s also the question of to what extent Cain is a jerk.  He certainly is one towards Perry for whom he expresses a personal animus.  He refuses to apologize for implying that Perry was somehow "insensitive" regarding the Niggerhead Rock smear, and told Hugh Hewitt on Wednesday (10/05) that:

"If it’s one of those other candidates up there (who gets the nomination instead of him), I am going to support them 100%. If Governor Perry gets the nomination, I will still support him, but it won’t be 100%."

Sorry, but this is simply being a jerk.  Perry wants to repeal the 16^th and 17^th Amendments, and drastically reduce the size and power of the federal government via the 10^th Amendment, while Romney as an establishment RINO will do none of this.  But Cain could get behind the RINO and not the 10^th Amendment guy?

His argument is particularly pathetic, misconstruing Perry’s stand on illegal immigration.  The hypocrisy is glaring, for, as the regional manager of hundreds of Burger Kings and CEO of Godfather’s Pizza, he employed hundreds if not thousands of illegals.  Has anyone ever asked him what actions he took to ensure the businesses he ran hired no illegals?

There’s a lot to like in Herman Cain, especially how he could castrate the left.  But there’s a lot to give one pause as well.

Ps:  Note to Ella… the most respected political prognosticator in the country, Charlie Cook, wrote today (10/07) that "It’s Perry’s To Win." As for Cain, Charlie says, "without the apparatus, money, or expertise in actually winning a party’s nomination, it’s doubtful that he can go very far." 

So now that Rubio seems to have firmly taken himself out, don’t be surprised that Herman makes nice and we end up with Perry-Cain 2012.

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A lot of folks in Washington were disturbed by Zero’s press conference performance yesterday (10/06).  It’s clear he’s becoming unhinged and is suffering from severe personality disorders.  Nothing is ever his fault, ever.  He keeps insisting that "Congress pass my jobs bill," when it’s deader than roadkill. 

His arrogance is as stupefying as his cluelessness.  He angrily threatened House Republicans that if they don’t pass his jobs bill, they will have to "explain themselves to me."  You could hear the roars of laughter from the GOP House Cloakroom when he said that over the TV monitors.  The Dems in theirs were silent – they just sadly shook their heads.

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When I started To The Point in March of 2003 – sure seems like a long time ago – a friend of mine jokingly suggested that I also start a version of TTP for liberals – to be called What’s The Point?

I was reminded of this regarding the Occupy Wall Street hippie protestors, who are getting so rank and grungy that wags are saying they wouldn’t go near these folks in a Hazmat suit.  This is the best the Left can come up with in answer to the Tea Parties?  The Tea Parties definitely have a point, a clear and simple goal:  cut government spending, cut it down to those activities authorized by the Constitution.

The moonbat hippies not only don’t have a point, they have no idea what that point might be.  Their brains are suffused with some hazy fog of anarchic free-lunch moocher anti-capitalism.  What’s The Point? is indeed the question they need to be asked. 

An aimless rage of resentment is all these folks have got. Neither they nor their movement have much of a future.

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What also doesn’t have a future is Europe’s fiat currency, the euro.  Fitch today (10/07) cut the credit rating of both Italy and Spain.  To give you an idea how bad off Spain is, Spain’s foreign debt is 163% of its GDP – while it’s biggest business is soccer.  Yes, people paying to watch guys running around kicking a ball.  There’s no bigger business in Spain.  Spain’s foreign debtors can kiss their money goodbye.

It’s amazing – breathtakingly stupid doesn’t come within light years of being close – that the mandarins who run the European Union, which has a population of 500 million and a GDP of $16 trillion, bet their entire farm on little Greece with 10 million folks and a $300 billion GDP.

The scores of billions the ECB (European Central Bank) keeps shoveling into Greece’s black hole in a vain attempt to prevent the inevitable – Greece’s default and return to the drachma – is suicidally masochistic.  The situation is getting worse by the day.  One year ago, the interest rate investors were demanding for Greek two year government bonds was 7.8%.  One month ago it was 54.4%.  Today, October 7, it is 73.4%.  I kid you not.

Meanwhile, the Greek economy is collapsing into a catastrophic recession, with GDP growth this year contracting by 5.5% and 2012 worse.  It is LSD hallucinatory to believe Greece can pay its debts.  The idiots who invested in Greek debt deserve to lose every dime.  Of course, the problem is that those idiots include many of the biggest banks in Europe, who also hold so much of that Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese debt.  The whole euro enterprise is a house of cards.

Ludwig Von Mises has got to be saying "I told you so" somewhere.  What did you expect with a fiat currency created out of thin air? he’s got to be asking.  Once the euro tubes, we know what everyone will then be asking:  what about the dollar? 

Right now, people are pouring money into US Treasuries.  Since US 2 years are paying less that 3/10^ths of 1% — 0.275% today – and a whopping whole 1% on 5 years, they are in a deeply negative rate of return given inflation.  How long can this keep up?  No one really knows, except that it’s way short of forever. 

When that moment comes, unless Zero is long gone and Zerocare, Sarbox, Dodd-Frank, cap-gains, the depreciation schedule, the EPA and such like are swept away, it won’t just be the piper we have to pay – it will be hell.

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There’s a lot more that went on this week, but I have a Rendezvous to host and it starts shortly.  I know that so many of you wanted to be with us, and I regret that you’re not.  But you’ll be with us in spirit.  You will be missed.