Mom's White Carpet
Research For Online Investors

by John Dalt

11/08/11

Some people can’t wait to throw a wrench in a well oiled machine.  Some kids can’t wait to take off their muddy shoes before running across mom’s white carpet.  Have we tired of the Papandreou and Berlusconi musical?  Earlier this year, Berlusconi had to cancel his CD release of love songs because of the mounting credit problems in Italy.

This week, both our lead actors are on their way out.  Papandreou is negotiating to form a “unity” government that will see him lose his job as Prime Minister.  Berlusconi won a budget vote this morning, but lost his majority.  The vote won on his coalition partners voting absent rather than in support.  He has told President Napolitano he will resign after the austerity measures are implemented.  This is seen as a stalling tactic, and he may be forced out by week’s end.

Last week at the G20, French President Nicolas Sarkozy forgot that microphones are sometimes on when you think they are off.  He told another “world leader” about his feelings towards Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu.  He said “I can’t look at him anymore, he’s a liar.”  The other “world leader” responded “You’re fed up with him, but I have to deal with him more often than you.”

Who was the second world leader?  None other than our President Obama.  The exchange occurred after Obama jokingly asked Sarkozy about voting in favor of Palestinian statehood in the U.N. cultural heritage agency UNESCO.  Maybe, their disdain for Israel isn’t about the country, just Netanyahu.

You may not have heard about this, the media has been very busy covering the accusations that Herman Cain is a sexual predator.  Politico broke a story last week that the National Restaurant Association settled sexual discrimination complaints with two women because of actions by Herman Cain when he was the Association president.

Yesterday, a former acquaintance held a press conference with her attorney. She accused Cain of trying to force her to perform sexual acts in 1997, if she wanted a job.  Her attorney is Gloria Allred, last seen going after Anthony Weiner and before that Tiger Woods.

The other reason you may not have heard about our President’s comments about Netanyahu is they are embarrassing to the media’s perfect president.  Reporters that heard the comments decided not to publish them. They didn’t think it was necessary to make the gaffe public.

On one hand we have accusations about candidate Cain’s sexual escapades, wasn’t that all settled as private when Bill Clinton performed sex acts in the Oval Office closet with an intern?  On the other hand we have the President insulting one of “our” allies.  Which deserves coverage?  We would have never known about this exchange except for one honest journalist that leaked the story overseas.

Attorney General Eric Holder appeared before the Senate Judiciary Oversight Committee this morning to answer questions about “Fast and Furious.”  Fast and Furious was the gun running operation run by the ATF that instructed gun dealers to sell guns to anyone, regardless of identity, so the government could track them.  The stated idea was to learn the network of operatives that supplied guns to Mexican drug cartels.  In fact, the government didn’t track the illegally obtained guns and let them “walk” across the border into Mexico.  Some of the guns have subsequently been used in crimes.

You can watch the full video courtesy of CSPAN.  Holder asserted “Fast and Furious was a flawed response to, not the cause of the problem of U.S. guns going to Mexico.”  He argues the DOJ needs more money and more enforcement tools (laws).  Holder denies receiving memos on Fast and Furious, even though his deputies sent them as far back as spring of 2010.  He testified at an earlier House hearing that he didn’t know about the Fast and Furious operation until a few weeks before it became public.

The administration’s cover-up of Fast and Furious can only be explained as an effort to save Holder’s job.

Editor’s note:  Yesterday, we published Lincoln’s “cannots.”  We did this without checking the source as I had been thinking about this list as a historical point of reference of how far our country has deteriorated in the last 150 years.  The lack of respect for property rights is on display almost daily with President Obama’s drumbeat against the rich and the need to tax high achievers.  The simple fact is one of our political parties has staked their future on class warfare and building popular support for taking the property (money) of one group of people to give to others they feel are more deserving (their voters).

This violates my basic values, and gladly those of our founders.  The constitution specifically prohibited taxing individuals except on a per-capita basis.  Taxes were to be levied equally.  This was changed with the Sixteenth Amendment to allow an income tax in 1913.  For 2,000 years, Judeo-Christian beliefs have been grounded on “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, nor wife, nor manservant, nor ox, nor ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor’s.

How has our country deteriorated to this level?  We have to look at ourselves, for our government is the sum total of all our desires and vices.  I reject this as “fair” for it is simply wrong.  If you desire to give your money and property to others as charity I exalt you, but I don’t believe the threat of force by government should be used to take what is not theirs to be given away as political favors.

The information presented in this newsletter is based on generally available news releases, corporate filings, current events, interviews and the editor’s opinions.  It may contain errors and you should not make investment decisions based solely on what you believe you have read here.  Do your own research, it is your money.  If you lose it, it is your responsibility, not ours or your grandmothers!  The editor may or may not have a position in any securities discussed.  The editor may have held a position in a security earlier, or in the future.

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