I won’t even get into that ridiculous self-review (cover-up) of the Gov. Blagojevich money grab, which was probably fully vetted through the Obama storm troopers, but I tend to agree with this guy’s blog posting that questions what sense Obamatalk makes about tax policy (answer: none except to raise taxes sky high across the board):

OBAMA’S MUDDLED APPROACH TO TAX POLICY

NB: It’s not muddled; it’s all smokescreen for hyperbolic taxes (and the socialism and freedom takeaway that Obamaism entails, accomplished one step at a time so no one will notice).

Chinese activists have circulated a petition called "Charter 08" that calls for free and open elections and the implementation of democratic reforms and freedoms. They are thus following the path of the Czech activists and their "Charter 77" (1977), which ultimately led–directly or indirectly–to the overthrow of the communist system in their country.

Chinese officials are worried. Unemployment, though officially pegged at 4.3 percent, is in truth more than 8 percent and rising. Some 10 million migrant workers, once employed in factories in the sunny south, have been let go in the current economic downturn, and the checks they used to send to their families back home in the provinces are no more.

Perhaps even more worrisome–worrisome enough that Prime Minister Wen Jiabao addressed the issue this past weekend–are the millions of college graduates who can no longer find work. At least 1.5 million are still unemployed from last summer’s graduating classes, and another 6 million will hit the market next year.

Educated and unemployed can be a potent mix in stirring up revolutionary thoughts. Except this time the revolution would be against the ruling Marxists and not the imperial household or the Kuomintang. The tables could well be turned on the world’s largest surviving communist state.

On top of that, next year marks the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square but also the 60th annivesary of the communists’ taking power.

Which anniversary do you think the Chinese people will most likely celebrate?

It’ll be fascinating to see if freedom finally rings in the People’s Republic of China.

I guess I shouldn’t say "we," implying that all people like to use synthetic and other substances to get a high on, but my point is that the war on drugs has created worldwide death and destruction. Unfortunately, the mayhem is not confined to drug-producing regions of the world, but takes its toll in our own cities as well in the form of gang and drug warfare.

Wouldn’t it just be easier to learn our lesson from Prohibition and legalize drugs? The black market–and the drug warlords and gangs–would have to find another way to make a living, and we could at least control the substances in quality.

I don’t know too many people who these days buy bathtub gin when they can get the real stuff in a legit store.

I also don’t know who syndicated columnist Neal Pearce is, but his column from the Seattle Times called "It’s time to end the war on drugs" hits the nail on the head.

By George Friedman
Courtesy of Strategic Forecasting

Mark Felt died last week at the age of 95. For those who don’t recognize that name, Felt was the “Deep Throat” of Watergate fame. It was Felt who provided Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of The Washington Post with a flow of leaks about what had happened, how it happened and where to look for further corroboration on the break-in, the cover-up, and the financing of wrongdoing in the Nixon administration.

Woodward and Bernstein’s exposé of Watergate has been seen as a high point of journalism, and their unwillingness to reveal Felt’s identity until he revealed it himself three years ago has been seen as symbolic of the moral rectitude demanded of journalists.

In reality, the revelation of who Felt was raised serious questions about the accomplishments of Woodward and Bernstein, the actual price we all pay for journalistic ethics, and how for many years we did not know a critical dimension of the Watergate crisis. At a time when newspapers are in financial crisis and journalism is facing serious existential issues,

Today’s Wall Street Journal carried the latest in the sad saga of companies that no longer want to manange their own businesses or accept the consequences of cause and effect.

Let’s face it. The whole sorry economic mess we’re in right now was created by speculation, so when speculators suddenly bemoan the fact that they can’t get loans or investment dollars, well, hey, guys, welcome to the world of total distrust that you created.

I’m referring to the commercial home builders who are now worried that their "precious" (taken from J.R.R. Tolken) office buildings, apartment buildings and edifices of excess might now be claimed by the banks because they can’t get loans to refiance them. Therefore, the logical conclusion is for the federal government to fork over $250 million or thereabouts. (Maybe it was billions. I can’t recall, but the sum doesn’t matter. The inclination and cop-out do.)

I’ve got a plan. Congress should pass a bill proclaiming that every company and every person in America is officially bankrupt and all their debts have been wiped out. Then we can all start over again.

Oink, oink.

Draw your own conclusions. Visit this interesting set of images to see how Google links Obama’s Illinois residence to a group in San Francisco called the Party of Socialism and Liberation.

Sacramento Demofiends, in whom venom runs instead of blood and hubris substitutes for reasoning, are poised at 9 a.m. PST today to bypass the State Constitution and raise taxes with a simple majority vote.  The Constitution, inconveniently, calls for a two-thirds vote on tax matters, and Republicans control more than one-third of both houses of the state legislature, making it impossible to raise taxes (a good thing, of course, which is why the Fiends are trying to bypass the GOP).

The Demofiends are exploiting what they consider a loophole in the Constitution that allows taxes to be raised by a majority vote if the effect is "zero."  Only people who think like a Demofiend (God help you if you do) could reason that tacking a 2.5-percent surcharge on everyone’s income tax could result in "zero" effect.

Another cute ploy (outright deceit) they’re planning is to void the gasoline tax and then reinstate it 13 cents higher as a user fee.  Fees require only a majority vote.

Senate Democratic Leader Darrell Steinberg challenged anyone to offer another "viable option" to balance the state budget.

I’ve got one, and it’s a simple one-word solution.