HERE COMES GWEN IFILL WAVING HER OBAMA POM-POMS

Unbelievable

KILL BILL!

Nancy Pelosi's pre-vote partisan anti-Bush, anti-GOP, anti-free market tirade not only killed any chance of the bailout bill passing the House's vote today by humiliating House Republicans, but also gave our country a glimpse of how socialism and--eventually--communism and possibly fascism is seeping its way into our country.   

WHO IS BARACK OBAMA?

WHY ARE THERE NO RECORDS FROM THE FOLLOWING?

1. Occidental College records — Not released
2. Columbia College records — Not released
3. Columbia Thesis paper — “not available”
4. Harvard College records — Not released
5. Selective Service Registration — Not released
6. Medical records — Not released
7. Illinois State Senate schedule — “not available”
8. Law practice client list — Not released
9. Certified Copy of original Birth certificate - - Not released
10. Embossed, signed paper Certification of Live Birth — Not released
11. Harvard Law Review articles published — None
12. University of Chicago scholarly articles — None
13. Your Record of baptism– Not released or “not available"
14. Your Illinois State Senate records–”not available”

HOW DID THIS MESS HAPPEN?

This 1999 New York Times (!) article serves as clear evidence of lax lending standards towards minorities and low-income people by Fannie Mae.

"Fannie Mae has expanded home ownership for millions of families in the 1990's by reducing down payment requirements,'' said Franklin D. Raines, Fannie Mae's chairman and chief executive officer. ''Yet there remain too many borrowers whose credit is just a notch below what our underwriting has required who have been relegated to paying significantly higher mortgage rates in the so-called subprime market.''

Raines has advised the Obama campaign along with Jim Johnson who is a current economic adviser.

BOTTOM LINE: "Fiscally Conservative. Socially Liberal" yields weird results like this. Also, Liberal Democrats have just as much, if not more, to do with the current economic mess as Republicans.

MY FEELINGS ON THE FEDERAL BAILOUTS OF 2008

"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." -Benjamin Franklin

FOUNDING FATHERS ON THE RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS

QUOTES OF THE DAY:
"The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government." -Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

"No Free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." (Thomas Jefferson, Proposal Virginia Constitution, 1 T. Jefferson Papers, 334,[C.J.Boyd, Ed., 1950])

"...to disarm the people - that was the best and most effectual way to enslave them." (George Mason, 3 Elliot, Debates at 380)

"The Constitution shall never be construed....to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms" (Samuel Adams, Debates and Proceedings in the Convention of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 86-87)

"The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed." (Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist Papers at 184-8)

"Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself. They are the American people's liberty teeth and keystone under independence ... From the hour the Pilgrims landed, to the present day, events, occurrences, and tendencies prove that to insure peace, security and happiness, the rifle and pistol are equally indispensable . . . The very atmosphere of firearms everywhere restrains evil interference - they deserve a place of honor with all that is good" (George Washington)

EMPTY SUIT ALERT!!!

Jackie Cafferty is back at it again--this time claiming the brilliant notion that only because of racism can this presidential election race be tied.  Thanks to column castigator, Roy St. Pittsburgh, for the link.  

NOTE: I'm well aware that Cafferty recently lost his wife, so I have no interest in attacking him personally, but professionally he has been beyond biased and has underminded any notion of objective journalism.  Similarly, when viewed as a partisan commentator he still fails because he offers very little, if no, evidence to substantiate his ambitious theses.  

REGULATION NOT THE ANSWER TO LEHMAN FAILING

QUOTE OF THE DAY:
"If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there'd be a shortage of sand." -Milton Friedman (1912-2006)

POLITICS & MARKET COMMENTARY:
This is a scary time in America, and NOT Because Lehman went belly up and a few other firms are drowning, such as AIG and WaMu, but because liberals are taking the opportunity to push for more and more regulation and less and less capitalism in the name of "fairness."

Folks, capitalism entails risk--and lots of it. We guarantee in this country the PURSUIT of prosperity along with life and LIBERTY, but in no way do guarantee you a house or a car. If you want handouts and Big Brother looking out for you at all times then go find a communist country to move to and see how that works out for you.

Why let Lehman fail? Why let any other firm fail? Don't people lose jobs and doesn't this cause panic and fear? It's the same logic why you let 50 guilty men walk free rather than imprison 1 innocent man. Free Market Capitalism is the best system in the world because it offers incentives to succeed beyond your wildest dreams by limiting government intervention. Period.

This has always been the premise behind the USA--we, the people, can do it better than the government.

Ok, rant over.

CAMPAIGN SEASON HITS ITS STRIDE

FOSTER WHEELER FIGHTS BACK!!!

After getting dominated by hedge fund selling over the past several months and falling from $78 to $33/share, POD fav Foster Wheeler (NASDAQ:FWLT) has announced a massive stock buyback program.  Not only does this filter the forced selling (due to panicky client redemptions) into the company's hands, but also squeezes the shorts who overshot on the downside. 

If you're wondering whether you missed the move in this stock, I think we're just getting started here, and POD's year-end price target on the stock is $65/share.  Remember, this is an ultra long term play on the global buildout not just in China but also the Middle East and many other non BRIC emerging markets.  

COMMUNITY ORGANIZER DEFINED

QUOTE OF THE DAY:
"A society deadened by a smothering network of laws while finding release in moral chaos is not likely to be either happy or stable." -Robert Bork (born 1927)

POLITICS:

• Great article from the UK Spectator about the Marxist implications of Obama's early role as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago. No doubt it was strategically correct for Giuliani and Palin to mock this part of Obama's resume, but this article offers a much more horrific view of the position.

• Another concise and spot-on analytical piece from Karl Rove in today's WSJ.

***FEARLESS FORECAST: Against the odds, McCain pulls out a victory in New Mexico on Nov. 4. Note that if McCain wins NM and OH, a CO loss isn't as lethal.

AL GORE vs. FARMER'S ALMANAC

Despite being castigated and mocked, I continue to maintain my "bullshit" call on global warming. In fact, an even scarier notion than global warming is found in the latest edition of The Farmer's Almanac, which suggests that we're actually in a period of global cooling (extremely harmful to crops more so than warming) and the only thing keeping us from getting really cold is our man-made gas generating behaviors. Now that is a truly fucking convenient truth, and I'll take that publication's impressive track record since 1792 over Albert Gore's loser agenda any day of the environmentally unfriendly week.

IKE'S TAKE ON BAILOUTS

QUOTE OF THE DAY:
"If you want total security, go to prison. There you're fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking... is freedom." -Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969)

STOCK MARKET:
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I'm reiterating my strong buy for energy/commodity based stocks that are dramatically oversold. The only way I'm wrong is if the world goes into a deep global recession. I don't see that happening, period. BUY BUY BUY.

POLITICS:
In yet another example of American self-loathing by the leftist media, the liberals over at Reuters couldn't resist running a story showing that foreigners overwhelmingly want Hussein Obama as president. Hmm, you think his socialist policies have anything to do with that? OBVIOUSLY, if McCain moves ahead in the polls then OF COURSE we Americans must be such dunces that we need input from the rest of the world.

Anyone who wants to know how 1820's America dealt with liberals should look at this map
showing James Monroe kicking the living crap out of high-taxing, aloof, out-of-touch John Quincy Adams in his reelection bid.

BAILOUT NATION

QUOTE OF THE DAY:
"Pennies do not come from heaven -- they have to be earned here on earth." -Margaret Thatcher (born 1925)

POEM OF THE DAY:

ON FEDERAL BAILOUTS

When everyone is free,
some people fail.
When no one is free,
everyone fails,
But when we say we are free,
but do not let certain people fail,
it is no longer the dog,
that wags its own tail.

-by Eric Berkowitz, in response to this news. Something tells me that if you're walking around downtown Manhattan today, near Trinity Church's graveyard in particular, and you feel the ground shaking, it's probably because Alexander Hamilton is turning over in his grave.

As column castigator "Roy St. Pittsburgh" notes, "Just look at this video to see Obama's reaction to increased use of public taxpayer dollars in private enterprise."

MSNBC ADMITS ITS LIBERALS WERE DISGUISED AS OBJECTIVE NEWS ANCHORS

From Brian Stetler of the NY Times on Sunday evening:

After months of accusations of political bias and simmering animosity between MSNBC and its parent network NBC, the channel decided over the weekend that the NBC News correspondent and MSNBC host David Gregory would anchor news coverage of the coming debates and election night. Mr. Olbermann and Mr. Matthews will remain as analysts during the coverage.

CLIFFS' NOTES OF OBAMA'S FISCAL POLICY

BABE-RAHAM LINCOLN'S COMING OUT PARTY

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

"Don't expect to pull up the weak by pulling down the strong." -Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933)

STOCK MARKET:

Another volatile and scary week for equities presents more great intermediate to long term opportunities. With the Dow Jones now down 3,000 points since October 2007 and the U.S. technically avoiding a full-blown recession, I believe there is no point in panic selling or short-selling here. Every sector has gotten slammed at one point or another over the past year, with commodities being the last to fall, and to me that signals that we are either at the bottom or very close to it. The broad market is a STRONG BUY.

POLITICS:

Despite being left for dead not unlike John McCain at the Hanoi Hilton some 35+ years ago, the Republican Party delivered an "A" caliber convention in St. Paul last week. Wednesday night clearly stole the show as I detailed in an earlier post, capped off by Sarah Palin (affectionately referred to as "Babe-raham Lincoln" in some conservative circles)'s bases-loaded Grand-Slam speech. While McCain's Thursday night speech was not as eloquently delivered as Obama's a week earlier, it was more genuine and insightful. The ending of McCain's speech was also original, as he implored Americans to "fight with" him while speaking over the delegates' loud standing ovation.

The next two months of this election will determine whether we revert back to Jimmy Carter-style socialism if Obama wins, or to, well, I'm not quite sure if McCain/Palin will give us the Reagan days, but I think they'll come awfully close--especially if McCain continues to move to the right on fiscal issues (No cap and trade, please).

Liberals seem to be on their heels now, as the Obama campaign has taken it's first nasty left hook since their campaign started, dating back to the Democratic primaries. I believe Obama and his campaign have a glass jaw. They're great at trashing Bush and McCain, but any shot back at them and they get punch drunk. Let us remember that Obama barely squeaked out the Democratic nomination, and he lost many big, general election battleground states along the way. Look for Steve Schmidt & friends at McCain campaign HQ to continue to out maneuver the complacent Obama brain trust. A great piece in the WSJ today defines Michigan as a key state this year that McCain has an excellent chance of capturing because of several factors working against Obama.

BASED LOADED GRAND SLAM

QUOTE OF THE DAY:
"Don't hit at all if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting; but never hit soft." -Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919)

STOCK MARKET:
I'm looking to be a BUYER of this market as we are seeing a continued overdone sell off in the broad indices. With that said, there is no need to buy all at once or to be a hero, so I'm trying to buy little by little into each of these down days. Looks like Dougie Kass is still the go to guy as far as market analysis, as this time the famed short-seller is turning bullish on this market.

POLITICS:

GOP Convention Night #2--Grade: A+

In a sharp contrast to the forced praise by the Clintons of BHO at last week "Dem"-ver Convention, last night saw Romney, Huckabee and Giuliani give genuine praise to the victor of their party's nomination.

Romney's speech was like music to the core conservative ear, with the telegenic and astute Mormon talking about limited government, family values and free market capitalism with low taxes and regulation from Washington.

Huckabee appealed to working class, social conservative voters with his aw-shucks/preacher combination delivery. He was effective in describing how he became Republican not because he was born into wealth (he wasn't), but because he wanted a chance at prosperity, and only the free markets that Republicans champion can provide that as opposed to the socialist aspects of the Dems.

Of the three, however, Rudy Giuliani proved he has no equal as far as charisma in public speaking. He played a similar role in the 2004 GOP Convention, where his speech blended sardonic wit, red meat attacks, and cogent analysis. Here, we saw an even better speech than 2004, and I suspect that this speech will be remembered for quite some time in the same way Zell Miller's legendary 2004 speech is still referenced.

Finally, Sarah Palin, under unspeakable pressure, came out after the aforementioned three gentlemen had reached base and delivered a grand slam. She delivered VP attack dog commentary on the Dems with a smile and some apple pie appeal. In particular, it's hard to imagine how single mothers (probably the key to the election on top of white working class voters in general) were not mesmerized by her shockingly smooth combination of femininity and grit. It's the kind of combination Hillary has been unsuccessfully trying to pull off for years.

Even though the daily tracking polls that would have reflected a post-Palin speech opinion have not been released, a key tell has been the knee-jerk reaction of liberals who right away went on the air and blogs accusing Palin of being mean and nasty in an attempt to marginalize her. Again, this argument fails because Palin differs so greatly from Hillary, and is also yet another attempt at sexism by claiming a woman can't be tough without coming off like Rosie O'Donnell. But across the aboard, even the most communist of publications have conceded the powerful impact of Palin's speech. Anyone who thought this race would be anything other than a barn-burner has better be prepared to stay up very late on November 4, 2008.

MY THOUGHTS ON THE SARAH PALIN SPEECH

THE GIPPER'S PROPHETIC WARNING

If you haven't seen it, or you've let too much time pass since you last saw it, do yourself a favor and watch Reagan's farewell speech from the Oval Office in January, 1989.  Especially note about halfway through when he talks about the danger in eroding national pride.  Seems like a stark contrast to Obama going to Berlin and apologizing for America.   It also seems in direct affront to all of the patriotism-mocking undertones from the left.  

COMMON SENSE AND EMPTY SUITS

QUOTE OF THE DAY:
"Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one." -Thomas Paine (1737-1809)

STOCK OF THE DAY:
Aha! Foster Wheeler (FWLT) has been the only stock I've talked about since the inception of POD, and it has been absolutely getting its rear end kicked over the past few months. As stated in previous posts, the infrastructure firm has a huge energy bent, so it is no wonder that the stock has sold off in sympathy with the sharp decline in the price of crude since mid-July. With that said, famed trader Doug Kass had a great tidbit in thestreet.com today about a huge commodity-based hedge fund going under and thus liquidating its assets. I suspect stuff like this is much more the reason for FWLT's decline than fundamentals, since the company has a healthy worldwide backlog of projects and executes better than its peers. I reiterate my strong buy recommendation and I will buy more shares myself.

POLITICS:

GOP Convention Night #1, Grade: A-

Last night saw a solid triple-play in primetime featuring President George W., Fred Thompson, and Joe Lieberman capping the night. Thompson's speech had by far the most red meat attacking libs, and he delivered it well. He also went in-depth about McCain's experience as a POW which was EXTREMELY important given McCain's modesty about bringing up the heroic but painful memory. While the speeches weren't delivered perfectly--Bush is never going to wow you in a prepared speech, and Lieberman looked tired--the night was still effective and set the stage for tonight's huge attraction. Rudy Guiliani will be the keynote, and he has been looking as sharp as ever defending McCain/Palin, and the true headliner will be Sarah Palin, who I think will deliver a grand-slam propelling the GOP to a huge convention bounce.

Back to last night, not only did all three speakers predictably endorse McCain, but they gave specific, substantive details about McCain's past and his accomplishments, which is in stark contrast to the lofty, insufficiently focused rhetoric about Barack Hussein Obama at the Dem Convention last week.

In fact, all you'd ever really know about Obama from watching last week's convention is that he passed a high-paying wall street law firm job to run for president. Besides that, we really have not found out much about his professional accomplishments, i.e., being born to a father from Kenya is NOT a professional accomplishment, being half-black is not a professional accomplishment, being a good father is great but not a professional accomplishment.

Of course I'd be remiss to forget to say that even though Obama's professional accomplishments are severely lacking, his policies are also off the mark when it comes to appealing to Americans. Understand that for all intents and purposes, Obama should be up by double digits in every major poll given the unpopularity of Bush, the Iraq War, and the economy. Yet, this great piece in the Wall Street Journal today illustrates why Obama is still too close for comfort with McCain even after BHO's post-Denver bounce.

EMPTY SUIT ALERT!
Jack Cafferty, now of CNN, never misses an opportunity to inject left-wing cheap shots into his "file." One of his most recent blogs had the following gem about the GOP,

"It is entirely fitting that the headliner for this masquerade is a feeble looking 72-year-old white guy who doesn’t know how many homes he owns."

Oh, really Jack? That feeble looking old white guy is feeble because he let his ass get slaughtered on the verge of death for five years in Vietnam so that you can freely be the washed out hack you are with a job. And he doesn't know exactly how many homes he has because his wife owns them as per her own wealth and prenuptial agreement.

As column castigator "Roy St. Pittsburgh" notes, "It looks like Cafferty is trying to audition to host his own show at MSNBC once Joe Scarborough goes completely off the deep end having to deal with Marxists every single day at the office."

MEDIA'S LUNCH ORDER: "GIMME A DOUBLE SEXISM, HOLD THE RACISM PLEASE"

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

"In the real world, nothing happens at the right place at the right time.  It is the job of journalists and historians to correct that." -Mark Twain (1835-1910) American humorist, writer, and lecturer. 

STOCK MARKET: 

Commodities and all stocks related to them are getting slammed down today (again) because Hurricane Gustav had a helluva lot more bark than bite as far as damaging refineries in the Gulf of Mexico.  Keep in mind, this downturn today is on top of these commodities getting sold off violently the past two months.  As a result, I believe the sell-off represents great buying opportunities.  My favorite energy-related stock remains infrastructure firm Foster Wheeler, which is down big today.  Rather than panic, I'm buying more and punishing the market for what I believe is an overreaction.  

POLITICS:  

Earlier in 2008, when Barack Hussein Obama (BHO) and Hillary Clinton were fighting to the finish in the Democratic primary, we saw disturbing undertones of sexism in the liberal leaning media.  Well, lest you think sexism had become obsolete since May, the libs are back at it, this time trying in vein to smear VP Palin and her pregnant 17 year-old daughter. Apparently, the smearing has gotten so bad, some liberals are (gasp) angry at their fellow big-governmenters. 

You know it's bad when libs turn against each other.  Whereas racism is an absolute no-no when talking about anything related to BHO (I'll probably get ripped for using his middle name too), apparently it is totally cool, hip and liberal to call Sarah Palin a "stewardess," as wannabe political pundit and half of an unfunny midget Bill Maher did.

Great job, Billy Maher! Too bad that stewardess could knock your boney ass into the cargo hold.  

Labor Day Post

DAILY QUOTE: "When you can't make them see the light, make them feel the heat." -Ronald Reagan.

STOCK OF THE DAY: Foster Wheeler (FWLT)--International energy infrastructure company.

Sorry, die-hard short sellers and panicky commodity based hedge funds, but even if the price of crude oil drops another 20 bucks to about $90 a barrel, FWLT will still have a backlog of projects that is currently in excess of $1 Billion of its market cap! (The CEO has said only at $70 a barrel would there be a chance some of the company's projects would be canceled.)

This is a great company that has executed quarter after quarter and beat the earnings estimates of so-called hotshot wall street analysts. With the emerging markets continuing to grow impressively (thus the need for infrastructure), even if not quite at the break-neck speed they once were a short while ago, FWLT offers both exceptional value and growth. I own the stock currently and will use any more weakness to add more shares.

POLITICS:

I am openly endorsing the McCain/Palin ticket. First off, let me take the central cop-out argument of the left wing head on here. John McCain does not represent a third term of George W. Bush in many respects. The main difference between the two is that I believe McCain will be far more fiscally conservative in terms of spending than Bush has been. For all of the Bush-Bashing from the left, one of the first people Bush alienated was the core conservative (like me) who believes in low taxes (well done, Bush, by the way--genuinely) but also low spending to justify those low taxes. Moreover, Bush was a little too reckless in disregarding Geroge Washington's concept of no foreign entitlement re the Iraq War.

I also believe choosing Sarah Palin as his VP candidate was a brilliant calculated risk that currently has liberals scrambling more than their organic eggs. Palin is a young, intelligent, well-spoken and tough conservative woman. I saw her on CNBC's Kudlow & Company earlier in the summer, and I was blown away by how concise and confident she was. At the time, I mentioned to POD Blog contributor Roy St. Pittsburgh that I thought she would make a great dark-house VP choice. Hey, Sometimes I get lucky.

(As an aside about Bush, I will say this though: He faced unprecedented situations that our country hasn't seen in at least a generation (9/11, Katrina, etc...). He also remained a class act, never stooping to the level of the high school drama queens of the liberal media. The jury will be out for quite some time as far as his super-long term legacy (100 years from now +), but for now he's the classic example of the goat in American folklore).

POD

Welcome to the new blog, The Possibility of Doubting (POD). The title comes from the great Italian author, Ignazio Silone, (pictured above) whose full quote full quote was,

Liberty is the possibility of doubting, of making a mistake, of searching and experimenting,...of saying No to any authority- literary, artistic, philosophical, religious, social and even political.

-The God That Failed (1959)

In this blog, I will offer blunt opinions mostly on the broad topics of American politics and stocks, occasionally offering views on other world events. Thanks for reading.