How else to explain his emotional outburst on Business Insider?  Why else would he jump to the conclusion that our bankrupt federal government understands finances better than billionaires?

Here’s Blodget:

Wall Street can’t be trusted to manage—or even correctly assess—its own risks.

This is in part because, time and again, Wall Street has demonstrated that it doesn’t even KNOW what risks it is taking.

In short, Wall Street bankers are just a bunch of kids playing with dynamite.

There are two reasons for this, neither of which boil down to the "stupidity" that most people generally assume is involved. The bankers who place these bets are anything but stupid.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/and-now-we-know-the-truth-about-wall-street-its-kids-playing-with-dynamite-2012-5#ixzz1ugk5IT5h

Granted, Blodget makes some good points, too.  Derivatives are risky, and mixing commercial with investment banking might not be the greatest idea on earth.

The problem is that Blodget thinks government can fix man’s eternal optimism by protecting him from his own failures.  Here’s the toxic third point of Henry’s three-part “solution”:

Lay out a plan, in advance, to manage the failure of even the largest financial institutions—by stepping in, seizing the bank, firing management, zeroing out shareholders, haircutting bondholders, and then injecting new SENIOR capital (fully protected) and re-floating or selling off the firm. This will allow the entity to keep operating, and it will stick the losses where they belong—with the idiots who bought the bank’s stock or loaned it money. Meanwhile, the systemic threat will be eliminated.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/and-now-we-know-the-truth-about-wall-street-its-kids-playing-with-dynamite-2012-5#ixzz1ugkexSL7

Wrong, Henry.

The answer is:  LET THE DAMN BANK FAIL! 

As long as investors know that the non-investors will pay for their gambling losses, they will continue to gambling.  Firing managers who’ve been stashing away chunks of their $12 million incomes won’t deter them from big gambles.

Only the free market, which is bigger than the banks and bigger than government (for now), can restrain recklessness. In extreme cases, the market does this by letting the weak die. Culling the herd. 

I’m not proposing complete lack of control—I’m proposing removing the government safety net for billionaires. This puts the burden of risk assessment on the broader market in advance, not after-the-failure through government seizure.

Finally, I’ll close with this question to Mr. Blodget.  You say that the bankers who place these bets are anything but stupid. You even call Mr. Dimon of JP Morgan “brilliant.”  So if these brilliant experts who’ve created massively complex derivatives are unable to manage them, do you really think government can?

Candy Crowley told KMOX Radio listeners on Friday that Tea Party groups resemble the Balkans without guns.

Wrong. Crappy analogy, Candy.  The diverse and autonomous, often quarrelsome, Tea Party groups remind me of the original 13 colonies.

The colonies were divided on just about every subject imaginable. The disagreed on slavery, on economics, on agraculture, manufacturing, cities, names — name it.  But they agreed one thing: they hated tyranny and loved liberty.

Our Tea Party groups don’t always get along with each.  We often disagree on tactics, on scope, on message.  Some want to do nothing but rally while others network and others clean up voter rolls.  We’re a mess.

Except for one thing:  WE ALL FRIGGIN’ HATE TYRANNY AND TYRANTS!!!  We LOVE LIBERTY!! And when we smell tyranny and tyrants, when tyrants attack our brothers in liberty, well, then, to quote Quentin Tarantino’s fictitious quote of Ezekiel 25: 17:

And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who would attempt to poison and destroy My brothers. And you will know My name is the Lord when I lay My vengeance upon thee.

(You can just I hear Samuel L. Jackson, can’t you?)

Now, some background.

CNN’s Candy Crowley, a St. Louis native, talks politics on KMOX every Friday morning.  On May 4, 2012, she talked about the dust-up between Tea Party Express and several Missouri Tea Party organizations, including St. Louis Tea Party Coalition. Here’s what she was talking about.

The Tea Party Express planned to stop at the Victory Field House on Hwy 141 and I-44 in Fenton on Wednesday, May 2.  Ed Martin, Republican for Attorney General, and Cole McNary, Republican for State Treasurer, share the Field House as a grassroots HQ. Many GOP candidates have a presence there.

According to sources at the Field House, Tea Party Express planned to invite all Missouri candidates to the event.  The Field House made open access a condition, because TPE had already endorsed Sarah Steelman in the GOP primary for US Senate. My sources said they were assured that John Brunner and Todd Akin, Steelman’s opponents, would be invited.

As the event drew near, the Field House was unable to get hold of TPE.  Then TPE ran a series of ads on KMOX equating their visit to the Field House with Steelman.  That’s when Ed, Cole, and crew pulled the plug on the event and, instead, hosted a  little barbecue for volunteers.

I was late and had to stand in back.

Ed Martin addresses packed house at Victory Field House.

H/t to Craig Niehaus for the idea for this post.

“My pepaw taught me this dance when I was a little girl,” Warren said during a short session with reporters at a high school gymnasium in Cambridge, MA. “It was during that huge draught back in the late fifties in Oklahoma.”

“And I was eating bison burgers when most white men considered it poison,” she said. “I actually prefer bison to beef, in fact.”

Last week, the Boston Herald reported that Warren once listed herself as Native American on Harvard’s faculty information form.  Later, the woman who hopes to unseat Republican Senator Scott Brown, stopped claiming minority status.

Since the story broke, each of Warren’s attempts to explain her 1990s claims of minority status have raised more questions than they answered. 

“I’d be offended, but I think she’s embarrassing herself far more than she’s embarrassing native peoples,” said Ben Silverhawk, president of Native People’s Defense Fund.  “After this, no one will try to exploit Natives for political or professional gain, I’m pretty sure.”

Warren hopes to end the controversy later this week when she holding a free screening of Dances With Wolves at AMC Loews Harvard Square Theatre.  Show times and ticket availability have not been announced.

Coincidentally, the National Weather Service calls for a chance of showers today but clearing skies tomorrow with highs in the upper 50s.

#satire

President Obama looks over the menu before a campaign backyard barbecue in Ohio.

Reports are that he went with the Neapolitan.

This time, Tilley and Engler are shoving HB 1193 through to passage. This bill is designed to score brownie points with Sibelius and Obama by creating a prescription spy network that monitors the prescription drug purchases of every Missouri resident.

If Tilley and Engler get their way, every time your doctor writes a prescription, your pharmacist will be required to inform Jefferson City and Washington bureaucrats. 

Ron Calzone has identified a plan of action for everyone in Missouri.  Here it is in Ron’s own words:

1) Please email the senators listed below and tell them you fully support them and "have their back"!  (Don’t call unless you have a special relationship with them — there’s no need to tie up their phones.)

Ask them to take as long as it takes to kill HB 1193 — the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program Act.

2) Throughout the filibuster, send emails to molibertytools@gmail.com. While senators are filibustering, they will read these emails on the senate floor.  (You can listen to the live debate by clicking HERE.)

The filibuster may go all night long and into the morning, so check in occasionally and keep the emails coming!

We will try to provide updates on various Facebook pages and at www.mofirst.org.

This is an important battle — please pass this on and stay tuned!

• Jason Crowell  jcrowell@senate.mo.gov 573-751-2459
• Jane Cunningham jane.cunningham@senate.mo.gov 573-751-1186
• William Kraus  Will.Kraus@mail.senate.mo.gov 573-751-1464
• Brad Lager  brad.lager@senate.mo.gov 573-751-1415
• James Lembke  jim.lembke@senate.mo.gov 573-751-2315
• Brian Nieves Brian.Nieves@senate.mo.gov 573-751-3678
• Charles Purgason chuck.purgason@senate.mo.gov 573-751-1882
• Luann Ridgeway luann.ridgeway@senate.mo.gov 573-751-2547
• Kurt Schaefer kurt.schaefer@mail.senate.mo.gov 573-751-3931

Please also call your own senator and make sure he or she knows you don’t want more "Big Brother" government intrusion!

HURRY! You still have time to send emails before they drop the puck in LA for Game 3 of the Blues series against the Kings.

Last year's White House auditions for press secretary

White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters “the world needs a dangerous, evil character to worry about . . . and, frankly, so does the President.  Reagan had the Evil Empire; Bush had the Axis of Evil.  The Tea Party just isn’t frightening enough to serve as Obama’s nemesis.”

Irving Crowder, professor of political science at University of Delaware, said that arch-enemies help incumbent presidents. “They give us all a common enemy to rally against. At election time, the president can simply announce a new threat posed by this person or this country, what have you, and get a quick bump in the polls.”

The auditions are open to men and women capable of playing a character over 40 who has killed at least one thousand people. Middle Eastern or Eastern European features a plus.  Auditions will be held May 8 through 10 at the Georgetown University Hotel and Conference Center in Washington, DC, with call backs the following week.

“We’re looking for someone who’s menacing, sure, but human. Audiences won’t buy a ‘total evil’ villain,” said Carney.  ”Sophisticated audiences in the US expect their bad guys to have a softer side, too.”

James Carville, Contessa Brewer, and Snoop Dogg will be the celebrity judges. The White House may release audition videos through the Obama campaign’s YouTube channel.  ”It depends on the quality of the auditions,” said Carney. “Whether they have any political or comedic value–or if they just scare the crap out of people.”

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a statement, “I look forward to bringing to bear the full power and ingenuity of the State Department against any enemy of the United States developed through this innovative process.”

Auditioners should prepare a one to two minute monologue and dress in clothes comfortable for movement.  Singing will not be required, but you may be asked to demonstrate movement with simple choreography. Bring your resume and four 8×10 black and white portraits with your name, address, phone number, email, age, and weight on the back of each one.  Actors Equity or SAG membership required if cast, but not to audition.

The fact is, most Americans are too stupid about politics to vote, which explains the 2008 election.

Just look at these horrendous numbers from Xavier University:

For example, when asked questions about our government and political leaders, the survey results found:

• 85% did not know the meaning of the “the rule of law.”
• 82% could not name “two rights stated in the Declaration of Independence.”
• 75% were not able to correctly answer “What does the judiciary branch do?”
• 71% were unable to identify the Constitution as the “supreme law of the land.”
• 68% did not know how many justices are on the Supreme Court.
• 63% could not name one of their two US Senators.
• 62% could not identify “What happened at the Constitutional Convention?”
• 62% could not answer “the name of the Speaker of the US House.”

Who doesn’t want the highest possible number of people to vote?  I don’t.

My vote should not have to compete with that of a moron who can’t blurt out “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” when asked to name the rights mentioned in the Declaration of Independence. (A “moron” is someone with a mental age between 8 and 12, for those of you who vote Democrat.)

If you don’t know that the Constitution is the supreme law of the land, you should not be allowed to vote–photo ID or not.  Nor should your political opinions carry weight among the 15 percent in this country who actually know something.

Combined with another survey released last week showing that liberals are politically ignorant, closed-minded, judgmental, hate-mongers, you realize that the voting franchise has been diluted too far.

For the record, I have formally endorsed Senator McCaskill in her race to return to private life.

Zimmerman Update

Having declared George Zimmerman guilty of first degree, racially motivated murder, the MSM are now investigating the case.

What they’re finding:

The George Zimmerman that Francescani describes is quite different from the “delusional racist vigilante” that many have made him out to be.

Read more on Business Insider.  But BI’s headline is wrong.

Conservatives didn’t pre-judge Zimmerman the way liberals did.  Maybe because studies show we are

better informed, more intellectually consistent, more open-minded, more empathetic and more receptive to criticism than their fellow Americans who support the Democratic Party.

Read more on The Daily Caller

(BTW, narrow-minded liberals hate it when you remind them that they’re narrow-minded, uninformed, and less receptive to criticism. So don’t do that.)

So, to mayor. Or Sotomayor

Being the eternal optimist, I’m holding out hope that Sonia Sotomayor could flip right one day.  On Wednesday, my silly dream got a bump.

The Supreme Court heard arguments in Obama vs. The People of Arizona.  (I know that’s not the actual caption, but it should be.) Justice Sotomayor “shredded” the U.S. government’s crappy case, in Business Insider’s view.  Quoting Sotomayor:

Putting aside your argument that this – that a systematic cooperation is wrong – you can see it’s not selling very well — why don’t you try to come up with something else? [emphasis original].

On her first day on the court, she questioned whether corporations really should have the same rights as humans who never die.  For many libertarians, that’s a question worth exploring.   (But that’s a huge conversation for another day.)

Exit question:  has Donald Verrilli argued his last case before the Supreme Court?   I can’t imagine that Obama will accept the blame for giving Verrilli impossible assignments in this and Obamacare cases.

Maybe the real reason Obama wants more illegals in the U.S. is to stuff ballot boxes in November.

Don’t miss yesterday’s Top Story on Mitt Romney.

Some of the stories involve Bain laying off workers to make companies profitable, then selling them off.

Some of the stories involve Bain and Romney chopping companies to bits and selling off the parts.

This story is about Romney shutting down a thriving business over a woman. A young woman. A woman young enough to be Mitt’s daughter.

Missing Girl

Her name name was Melissa Gay. She was the daughter of a business partner of Romney’s at Bain.

Melissa was 14-years-old when she went to a rave party, took some ecstasy, and disappeared.

It was July 6, 1996.

Melissa’s father was managing director of Bain Capital investment.  He confided to Romney about his daughter’s disappearance a day after she disappeared. Did Romney keep the secret?

No. Romney told everyone.  Everyone at Bain Capital, that is.

When Mitt learned that his partner’s daughter was missing, he shut down a billion dollar company and sent the senior managers into New York’s rave culture to find her. He authorized printing of 300,000 fliers to distribute. Some Bain employees ruined expensive shoes and suits, facing unprecedented dangers, looking for a girl.

“Our children are what life is all about,” Romney told the New York Times.

Bain executives, led by Romney, paid the expenses for their search.  In addition to the fliers, they set up command posts at two hotels in New York, plus at RR Donnelly in Manhattan.

Character Counts

God and His nature blessed Romney with money and looks and all the privileges and immunities those bring. That makes it easy to assume he’s selfish and egotistical.  Maybe he is. There’s not enough information to tell from this story.

But this story tells us Mitt Romney’s the kind of man who will risk millions to find someone’s missing daughter. Like Ross Perot, who hired commandos to rescue his employees from Iran when Jimmy Carter was unable to find his Leadership costume, Romney knows that, sometimes, the proper balance between work and family is 110% family.

I have a lot of issues with Romney, but when my wife pointed me to this story today, one question was answered.  I know now that Mitt Romney has the heart and character to lead a nation.

Epilogue

In their annual report, Bain Capital lists its most significant achievements each year.  For 1996, the investment firm’s top achievement, as voted by Romney and his executive team, was shutting down to look for a missing girl.

In case you’re wondering, Melissa turned up in New Jersey six days later. A young man saw her story on the news and notified authorities.

All the details available on Snopes

Many critics view The Times as constitutionally unable to address the election in an unbiased fashion. Like a lot of America, it basked a bit in the warm glow of Mr. Obama’s election in 2008. The company published a book about the country’s first African-American president, “Obama: The Historic Journey.” The Times also published a lengthy portrait of him in its Times Topics section on NYTimes.com, yet there’s nothing of the kind about George W. Bush or his father. [emphasis added]

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/new-york-times-gets-shredded-for-its-pro-obama-slant-by-its-own-ombudsman-2012-4#ixzz1spJslQgK

Another reason why few people get worked up when Democrats stuff ballot boxes in key swing states.