ledeagenda.com

From Foxnews:

The Obama administration is warning Congress that if it doesn’t move to regulate greenhouse gases, the Environmental Protection Agency will take a “command-and-control” role over the process in a way that could hurt business.

The warning, from a top White House economic official who spoke Tuesday on condition of anonymity, came on the eve of EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson’s address to the international conference on climate change in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Jackson, however, tried to strike a tone of cooperation in her address Wednesday, explaining that the EPA’s new powers to regulate greenhouse gases will be used to complement legislation pending in Congress, not replace it.

“This is not an ‘either-or’ moment. It’s a ‘both-and’ moment,” she said.

But while administration officials have long said they prefer Congress take action on climate change, the economic official who spoke with reporters Tuesday night made clear that the EPA will not wait and is prepared to act on its own.

And it won’t be pretty.

“If you don’t pass this legislation, then … the EPA is going to have to regulate in this area,” the official said. “And it is not going to be able to regulate on a market-based way, so it’s going to have to regulate in a command-and-control way, which will probably generate even more uncertainty.”

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s formal declaration Monday that greenhouse gases jeopardize public health paves the way for federal regulation of carbon dioxide emissions from refineries, chemical facilities and power plants - even if Congress rejects climate change legislation.

The EPA’s finding that carbon dioxide endangers the public also will give President Obama political ammunition when he goes before world leaders in Copenhagen next week to promise U.S. emissions cuts as part of international climate change negotiations that started Monday.

Although the EPA’s formal declaration does not directly impose new carbon dioxide caps, it establishes the framework for regulating carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act.

Monday’s action satisfies a legal hurdle for the EPA to finalize the first-ever national limits on tailpipe emissions, proposed earlier this year. Industry and EPA lawyers say the vehicle emissions rule and the endangerment finding would compel the agency to regulate - under the Clean Air Act - the heat-trapping gases released from industrial operations and other stationery sources, possibly by next spring.

Do not say that Libertarians and the Freedom and Liberty movement didn’t warn you. We did- loudly.

Tyranny is about to be imposed on us and it will forever change the way our freedoms, commerce, life and our culture operate. There is no mandate for these changes, but is being advanced and imposed by a scientific dictatorship that has carefully presented and cultivated a view of life that a free humanity is the problem. A free humanity that operates under Nature’s Law and Nature’s God. A free humanity that operates in accordance with our inalienable rights. All of this is about to be stripped from us under the auspices of fighting climate change.

Please do not be surprised when they- the government- come out and say the increasing amount of regulations, fines, fees and taxes they will impose as a result of this mandate is doing nothing to combat ‘global climate change’. Please do not be surprised when those said regulations, fines, fees and taxes increase in severity and amount year after year. Please do not be surprised when the climate data they present to you shows no net improvement of our overall global climate.

It is time to get prepared now- a huge underground and secondary economy is about to spring up. The free market will never be defeated- it will just be driven underground and taken off the ‘official’ books and tax records. Barter, trade and exchange will become the new norm in the face of increasing government burden. Given what we will be facing, it only makes sense that economy and production will have to be done out of the eyes of government.

We can only hope that the act of just being born, and society’s cultural respect for it, will be able to ward off the social and economic penalties that the scientific dictatorship will seek to impose.

From Politico.com:

Is libertarian rock star and Texas Republican Ron Paul going mainstream?

He’s got everyone from South Carolina Republican Sen. Jim DeMint to Minnesota moderate Democrat Collin Peterson to California liberal Barbara Boxer on his side in his audit-the-Fed crusade. He’s drawing liberal support in his push to rein in the cost of the war in Afghanistan. Senate candidates like Democratic Rep. Paul Hodes of New Hampshire are finding Dr. No’s populist economic anger to be useful in the campaign, echoing Paul’s criticism of the Federal Reserve.

Even Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) is delivering backhanded compliments, taking credit for merely allowing a vote on Paul’s amendment to audit the central bank.

This convergence of odd bedfellows, and the economic angst that’s driving it all, is yet another signal that President Barack Obama is going to have more and more trouble keeping his traditional Democratic allies on his side as the economic debate continues. It seems that everyone is looking for something new to latch on to in the economic debate - even if those ideas belong to one of the more eccentric members of Congress.

“This brought people together [from] the whole political spectrum, from progressives and liberals and libertarians and conservatives. … they all came together. That, to me, is what is really so important,” said Paul, who has been introducing his audit-the-Fed measure since the early ’80s.

After so many tries, this time Paul’s measure attracted 313 co-sponsors in the House, representing every possible point on the political spectrum. It also scored a strong vote in a key committee and has a companion in the Senate that’s supported by a bipartisan coalition of senators.

And Paul’s economic views, long dismissed by the political establishment, seem to be resonating more broadly than just the audit-the-Fed measure, both in the larger financial reform debate and the growing concern about the cost of continuing the war in Afghanistan.

To be sure, Paul’s bill to abolish the personal income tax or to end the United States’ membership in the United Nations still puts him well outside the mainstream.

But lawmakers - and, more important, the voters they represent - are starting to believe that the financial meltdown and the dramatic government rescue effort seems to have gotten Wall Street back on its feet quite nicely while leaving regular folks on the curb, analysts say.

“On financial regulation matters, most Americans sympathize with Ron Paul’s outrage,” said Cook Political Report House analyst Dave Wasserman.

For the next month I am going to be taking an assessment of the Liberty movement as a political force in American political life. I am going to attempt to gage the prospects for the 2010 and the 2012 elections as well as vet and sort out the level and sophistication of political organization. We will take a look at supporters, polling and financing, as well as attempt to reach out to the candidates themselves. A daunting task, but just in time to gage the depth, crystallization and meaningfulness of the Ron Paul rEVOLution.

“Let it not be said that we did nothing.”- Dr. Ron Paul

 In the meantime, enjoy this punk classic from Bad Religion (a atheist-socialist band, I know :P).

From the Mises.org:

The zero-interest-rate policy of the Fed is sold to the public as a benign economic rescue in the public interest. The stark reality is that this policy is a disguised tax implemented by the Fed. It takes income from savers and hands it as a subsidy to borrowers. It also facilitates and funds the fiscal deficit policies of central government. Such a well disguised tax is a boon for governments. The cruelest tax of all is this 100 percent tax on interest income, disguised and rationalized as “good” policy. 

The zero-interest-rate policy deserves closer scrutiny. Would a saver willingly agree to an economic environment of zero interest rates? Certainly not. Would a debtor prefer a zero interest rate? Absolutely. The saver and the debtor would, under normal, willing-economic-participant conditions, negotiate a “price” for the use of money saved. That price for the use of funds is interest.

The central bank enters the negotiation between saver and borrower, and by counterfeiting money it destroys the negotiating base of the saver. Counterfeiting money through policies of unlimited liquidity provision is a “price control” over interest rates, instituted to force interest rates down and eventually spiral them downwards out of control to zero. The interest income of the saver is eventually taxed to extinction at zero interest rates.

It is basic economic theory that price control actually reduces the availability of the item subject to the control. It should therefore come as no surprise that available credit is falling despite unrestrained liquidity provision at zero interest rates. Banks have no direct cost implication when they hold funds at zero (apart from opportunity cost). Thus there is no direct cost penalty for doing nothing.

Not exploiting a lending opportunity in a high default-risk environment, where the margin between a zero-interest cost of funds and the lending rate is insufficient to protect bankers against default risk, is an entirely rational choice for bankers. While the intended consequence is to increase the availability of credit, the ultimate “zero-rate” intervention actually reduces credit availability. One wonders how significant this unintended consequence would be in the absence of Cash for Clunkers, the now-expanded subsidy policy for housing purchases, and the constant Fed, Treasury and Federal Housing Finance Agency support for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. We shall find out when fiscal deficits can no longer fund such excesses.

WSJ: You Commit Three Felonies A Day

I think main-stream institutions are having a hard time understanding exactly what is going on it voters heads these days. Rep. Joe Wilson is just another example in how far faith in congress has fallen, and how deep the undertones of hostility are to this brave new world.

From the Washington Post:

As President Obama addressed a joint session of Congress on Wednesday night, the nation’s rapidly deteriorating discourse hit yet another low.

It happened at 8:40 pm, just after the president vowed to lawmakers that his health-care reform proposals would not provide benefits to illegal immigrants. As millions of Americans watched from home, Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) shouted at the president from his fifth-row seat: “You lie!”

Murmurs of “ooh” filled the stunned chamber. Nancy Pelosi’s chin dropped. Obama moved on to the next sentence in his speech, about how no federal money would be used to fund abortion. “Not true!” came another shout.

We have reached that moment of desperation. The moment of desperation where all protocol, manners and civility are thrown out and nothing, no matter the sacristy or grandeur, stand in the way.

Rep. Joe Wilson was absolutely right to call Obama out- such forceful displays of contempt and patriotism are needed in an era were muttering opposition to socialism makes you a racist because of the race of our President. Why is the administration and representatives holding speeches, townhalls, and congressional address’s if they cannot face the voters? Why the fuss over these comments if the national health plan plan is as good as you say it is?

Probably because they know critics of  HR.3200 are at least partially right- this bill does appear to force taxpayer funded abortions and will take away free-market choices (IE only “plan approved” policies). Yes, there is language in the bill to restrict services to illegal immigrants, but given the current enforcement level of our immigration laws this provision might as well be entirely and wholly removed from the bill as it will, in time, disappear down the memory hole.

“You Lie”, “Not True”.

These are words for our times.

I’m wading into this party late, but what the hell I am sure I am already on a red-list somewhere.

On a hat tip from Redstate:

HR 3200, Section 102:

Private, non-government carriers will not be able to write new applications after Obamacare goes into effect (Sec a, 1, A).

Private carriers will be unable to alter the policies after Obamacare goes into effect (Sec a, 2).

Private carriers will be unable to change the premium after Obamacare goes into effect (Sec a, 3).

Private group plans will only be authorized for five years after the passage of Obamacare (Sec b, 1, A).

After the passage of Obamacare, only private “Exchange-participating” plans will be allowed (Sec c, 1, a).

Do you see what is happening? Yes, what Obama is saying is technically correct, you will be able to keep your existing coverage. However, after Obamacare passes your current carrier will be unable to alter the policy in any way, slowly starving it off will be inflation, lawsuits, new coverage needs and the Exchange-plans themselves.

You will be forced onto Obamacare, given time. Your current carrier will not be able to write new customers and after the passage of Obamacare, only “Exchange” authorized plans (i.e. government insurance) will be permitted to be sold. Even employer-sponsored health plans will only be given five years to continue their operation before they will be required to seek “Exchange” authorization status.

I leave today will two definitions:

Socialism- 1837 1: any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods 2a- system of society or group living in which there is no private property b: a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state
3: a stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between capitalism and communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done

Tyranny- 14th century 1: oppressive power <every form of tyranny over the mind of man — Thomas Jefferson>; especially : oppressive power exerted by government <the tyranny of a police state>  2 a : a government in which absolute power is vested in a single ruler; especially : one characteristic of an ancient Greek city-state b: the office, authority, and administration of a tyrant 3: a rigorous condition imposed by some outside agency or force

Don’t let the media back you down. This bill IS as bad as feared. Go to the Town Halls, protest, make Congress listen to the American people. Don’t let your doctor’s office become another post office, Department of Motor Vehicles or the IRS. We can stop this..

While your at it, don’t forget to check out the Campaign For Liberty and it’s Stop Obamacare petition!