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By the President of the United States of America, a Proclamation.

Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor– and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.

Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be– That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks–for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation–for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his Providence which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war–for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed–for the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted–for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed; and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.

and also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions– to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually–to render our national government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed–to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shewn kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord–To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the encrease of science among them and us–and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.

Given under my hand at the City of New York the third day of October in the year of our Lord 1789.

–President George Washington, October 3, 1789

I’ve been a Citibank Credit Card customer since 1997.  Never had any trouble with my Platinum card, not one missed payment, not one over-limit charge.  So how do they thank me for my 11 years of patronage, and the $326 Billion bailout that my tax dollars helped to fund?  By doubling my interest rate.

I know I’m not the only one.  This is wrong no matter who the customer is.  I understand trying to mitigate your risk and re-evaluating customers who have had problems in the past… but when you are doubling the rate on someone with around 25% utilization who has never been late and never been any trouble… well its a poor business decision to say the least.

Americans are getting squeezed from all sides right now, and it is our money bailing these companies out.  You don’t thank your customers by being the next on the list to stick it to them.  You thank them by standing by them just like the federal government is standing by you.  But no, one stupid business decision leads to another… and instead of trying to keep the loyal good customers you have, you screw them and everyone else because you made a mess.

Oh well.  The Citicard is the oldest credit card I have, and thus my credit score will likely drop a few points when I close it.  But I will opt-out of this ridiculous rate increase and close my card at the end of the term.  Citi may be too big to value my business, but I’m not to loyal to go somewhere else.  The companies that survive this mess will be the ones who make good decisions at a time of adversity and understand it is easier to keep a customer than find a new one.  I hit the sweet spot for Citi… often carrying a balance but not maxed out…. always paying on time but still paying interest… but that’s going to change.  They will not make another dollar of profit off of my CitiCard.  I’ll pay a higher interest rate to someone else before I watch Citi reward my patronage and thank me for my tax dollars by doubling my rate.

When people can’t afford to pay their new, much higher interest rates… will the government bail them out too?

UPDATE: I had heard the rumors of Citi doing this, but I forgot about their visit to Capitol Hill in 2007.

The New York Times, meanwhile, is weighing in on the rate hike as well (a day after the Wall Street Journal’s story was published). Eric Dash reminds us that Citibank made a promise back in 2007. Writes Dash: “After pledging that it would no longer reserve the right to raise interest rates at any time for any reason, Citigroup now plans to start raising rates for customers who have not had an increase in at least two years.” Eric is absolutely correct. That’s a promise that Citibank did make. At the end of Dash’s story, he leaves us with a nice quote from Carolyn B. Maloney. “Banks appear to be repricing cards for economic reasons — theirs, not their customers’,” she said. “Apparently a deal is only a deal when it doesn’t cost the financial institution too much money.”

Apparently companies don’t have to keep their word to Congress to get Billion Dollar bailouts.  Somehow I imagine if I lie to Congress that results would be drastically different.

Last week they were talking about laying off 52,000 people, and then we find out this weekend they are being bailed out with our tax dollars.

Federal regulators approved a radical plan to stabilize Citigroup in an arrangement in which the government could soak up billions of dollars in losses at the struggling bank, the government announced late Sunday night.

The complex plan calls for the government to back about $306 billion in loans and securities and directly invest about $20 billion in the company. The plan, emerging after a harrowing week in the financial markets, is the government’s third effort in three months to contain the deepening economic crisis and may set the precedent for other multibillion-dollar financial rescues.

Did anyone ask you before they lent your money out, again?  I understand the fears… if one of these big companies collapses the effects on our economy would likely be devastating.  I’m not sure if that is true, by the way… but isn’t the economy pretty much devastated regardless?  The stock market is down around 47% over the last year… businesses are closing everywhere… people are losing their homes to foreclosure, etc.  How is bailout out CitiGroup going to change that?  It doesn’t seem like AIG’s bailouts have made my life easier, nor has the rest of the $700Billion.  And how can you continue to bailout all of these financial companies and tell the car companies to stick it?

When does it stop?

We were driving back from Asheville Friday and passed a huge Citi building overlooking I-40 near Greensboro.  A huge banner running along the entire length of the building read “Citi We’re Hiring”.  We were just hearing about Citi wanting to buy Wachovia.  A large Citi Call Center advertises with a huge bold banner that it is hiring… and we need to spend $326 Billion dollars to bail them out?

As long as we continue to reward bad business and the American people have no control over the money our government is throwing out hand over fist then our economy can never recover.  We cannot continue to have a socialist response to a capitalist economy.  Only one system will work or its going to continue to get worse.  Someone needs to have the backbone to make a choice, and socialism or endless government handouts are not it.

Our No Detroit Bailout T-Shirt was featured on the CafePress blog this evening.  And just in case our point wasn’t clear, we also have a No Auto Bailout and a No Union Bailout Shirt.  Get all three!

So far the auto bailout is on hold, but many members of Congress as well as the President-Elect are trying to push something through.  If you are like me, you are wondering when will it stop.  When will the government start asking us if we want to bail out every failed industry.  It is our money, or have they forgotten?

A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have. – Gerald Ford, 1974

With the current talk of the proposed auto bailout, the media is focusing in large part on the union auto workers.  If the auto companies don’t get this proposed bailout, or if they have to file bankruptcy, thousands of retirees will lose their health care and pensions, and many more thousands of workers will lose their health care, benefits and their jobs.  It shouldn’t come as any surprise that they are on the brink of total collapse when, thanks to the strongarming of the unions, every worker cost the big three about twice what it cost similarly skilled workers outside of Detroit.  The unions negotiated hefty contracts which the auto companies had virtually no choice but to accept.  Now, those very contracts that were supposed to guarantee workers are what may cause them all to lose their jobs.  I heard on the radio this morning that Crysler shut down a plant that makes minivans, yet thanks to union contracts they still are paying the regular salaries and benefits of the workers for the next two years.  TWO YEARS TO PAY WORKERS WHO ARE NOT WORKING?  OF COURSE YOU ARE GOING TO FAIL.

I don’t blame the worker.  It is the union, an antiquated and unnecessary holdover from the industrial revolution, that has destroyed American manufacturing… and it is the union that will drive the final nails in each of the big three.  But the lesson to learn here is about more than the perils of collective bargaining and union exclusivity.

Paraphrasing President Ford, any time you empower someone to give you everything, they can take it all away.  We’re seeing that first hand with the autoworkers.  If the big three fail, how many thousands of workers will lose not just their income, but their benefits and health care that they were promised for life?  Some people are suggesting that this makes the case for government sponsored universal health care and greater benefits for all.  Clearly they aren’t paying attention.

Think about it.  Thousands of workers face devastating effects if the automakers can’t afford to continue paying for their health care or pensions.  Tens of millions of Americans would face equally devastating effects if the responsibility of health care was left to the federal government.  Sure, you can think the Federal government couldn’t fail… but that’s the same thing people thought about Ford and GM.  Now look at them.

This needs to be a wake up call to Americans.  Stop believing in a nanny state and give up your welfare mentality.  It is not your employer or your government’s responsibility to take care of you.  If you don’t get that, at some point you will be disappointed.  Social Security, Universal Health Care, Unemployment Benefits, etc.  Stop relying on someone else to do what you need to be doing for yourself.  Its hard.  The liberal establishment has been moving us into a socialistic mentality for some time… and now everyone relies on the government for much more than was ever originally intended.  That reliance gives them and lawmakers power, but it also invariably leads to collapse.  Just like the automakers, there is no where to go but down, unless we change our path.

Today its the autoworkers.  Tomorrow its another union company.  Eventually it will be the American public.  We will all be one big union, and collectively we will all fail.

In honor of our 44th President and the upcoming holidays, we now have two new Obama designs making fun of the empty suit who will soon have the nuclear codes.  Call the 44th President, Barack Obama what he really is… A TURKEY. Perfect for the holiday season or anytime, get this Obama: Yes We Can Tryptophan design today.

…so much for global warming.

I’m sure it won’t stick… but we virtually never get snow.  To see some in mid November is an oddity indeed.

UPDATE: It didn’t last long… but the dogs and I are both glad we got to see it.  I love this weather.

To all Republicans out there who supported the $700B bailout, the AIG bailouts, the Fannie & Freddie Bailouts, etc… you look like a hypocrite not supporting the auto bailout now.  There is a lesson to be learned here.  While the financial bailout may have had a more direct impact on our economy, the auto bailout likely has a more direct impact on America’s work force.  If a bailout isn’t right now (it’s not), then it wasn’t right then (it wasn’t).  ALWAYS VOTE YOUR PRINCIPLES.

Principles are there to guide your hand through the darkness when competing interests cloud the waters.  Many forgot that when they heard the sky was falling and the only salvation was the $700B bailout.  Hopefully by now you’ve learned your lesson.

Stop with the bailouts and reclaim the party’s soul.  It might be a small gesture and might have political costs… but enough is enough already.  Better to lose and be right, than win and be wrong.  It’s not just your political career at stake, its our country.

I’m so freaking sick of this bailout nonsense.  If companies are not allowed to fail in this country, then how are better ideas supposed to succeed?  From AIG, to forgiving your mortgage balance, to the big three auto companies… it seems like everyone is getting rewarded for failure.

…

Those of you who stop by regularly know that I once owned a family mortgage business.  The writing was on the wall about a year ago this time, but we tried to make it work not knowing just how long the industry would suffer.  We cut down to nothing, lowered our expenses, lost our personal health care, and did everything we could to stay afloat.  I found a way to eat lunch for $2.14 a day, and if I could bring it cheaper than that I would.  I ate less at dinner just so I would have leftovers for the next day.  There I was with five years of payments left on my gas-guzzling SUV, picking up Burger King receipts off the ground for the coupon on back.  I did everything I could to limit the bad and keep from going belly up.  At home things were equally as tight.  We limited travel and virtually all discretionary expenses, got rid of cable, stopped buying soda and beer and snacks.  We sold some stuff and even rented a room to a family member.  We did anything we could to get by.

And that’s what you have to do.  Through all of it, we kept making our household payments (mortgage, cars, etc).  Our lights stayed on and the water kept flowing.  We found a way to make it work, and we were blessed.

Since then I’ve been given a reprieve of sorts.  My new businesses are growing, and I’ve found ways to grow them nimbly while keeping expenses low.  And if my new businesses fail to put food on the table and keep things paid… then I’ll do something else… because that’s what big boys do.

I do have sympathy for people who lose their jobs.  Believe me, I understand.  When things got tight, I was praying five times a day for the money to make my next mortgage payment.  I worked in the office during the day and at home on the computer at night, all the while applying for other jobs.  When you are laid off, you have no job and have to start over.  When you have to close your business, you have a no job and have to start over… but you also likely have rent payments, equipment leases and other burdens to take care of.  Its not easy… nor should it be.

But the reason most of us share a dream of striving for our own success is that we know what its like to fail or are deathly afraid of finding out.  The reason we understand the value of a dollar is that we know what its like to be broke, or how hard it is to get the next dollar versus how easy it is to watch them go.  Its not supposed to be easy.  But success would not be possible without the potential to fail.

If I didn’t have to close my business, what incentive would I have had to cut expenses, trim the fat or start something new?  If I was prevented from failing, I’d still be going deeper into debt, spinning my wheels and getting nowhere.  What good would that do for society?  What good would that do my family?

I’m sickened by what I hear and read.  I’ve complained before about people gaming the system to get a better mortgage.  Now even the mainstream press has caught on.  The San Fransisco Chronicle asked if you are an idiot if you keep making your payments.  No, I’m not an idiot, I just have integrity.

Maybe I’m the only one.

The graveyard of capitalism is littered with companies whose time was up.  Whether their ideas or their industries failed doesn’t matter… they weren’t able to adapt and change and now they are gone.  Why should today’s auto industry be any different?  Why is your home mortgage any different?  What kind of precident are we setting when we bail everyone out?  Is personal responsibility dead?  If so, what does that say about the American Dream?  What about our nation’s future?

What incentive does the next company have to do things better, or cheaper, or more efficient when the old guys are propped up and prevented from failing?  What incentive do you have to pay your mortgage when they guy down the street stopped only to be rewarded?  Why did my wife and I use our hard earned money to buy our interest rate down while there others who haven’t worked as hard are getting their rates lowered for free?

This bailout nonsense can not continue to go on.  Can’t people see its only getting worse?  I’m sorry if the auto companies fail, but you have to think management and the strangehold of unions was to blame.  I’m sorry if some other company fails… but its not the end of the world.

So what happens when you can’t pay your mortgage?  You lose your house.  That’s how it should be.  You are not a failure and you shouldn’t be ashamed, but you should grow up.  Take your licks, have some responsibility, and understand that free markets have to be allowed to work.  Remember when times were good?  Remember that dream of ultimate success?  None of it would be possible if you couldn’t fail.

Have too many people gotten into too much debt and failed to save?  Absolutely, and I’ll be the first to raise my hand.  And now I have to dig myself out.

Isn’t that what everyone should be doing?  Isn’t that the lesson we should send to our children?  Shouldn’t we suffer the effects of our excesses so we don’t repeat our own mistakes?  Or as a nation have we chosen that the goal of success isn’t important if failure is at risk?

…

This nation would have never been formed had the founders been afraid to fail.  As a people how can we continue if there is no prospect of success?

There doesn’t have to be an election to wear your principles on your sleeve. Continue fighting for the Conservative voice of America we these new Conservative T-Shirts from American Elephant.

• Sarah Palin 2012 T-Shirts
• Bobby Jindal 2012 T-Shirts
• Pro Capitalism & No Auto Bailout T-Shirts
• Hello, My Name is John Galt
• Commissar Obama
• Don’t Blame Me, I Voted For McCain

There’s more on the way, along with some other exciting news from American Elephant.  Stay tuned.

Oil prices have dropped to around $56 a barrel.  T. Boone Pickens was on Fox this morning talking about delaying his push for alternative energy because oil and natural gas prices are too low to drive demand for wind farms.  Mr. Pickens then went on to say he expects oil demand to exceed “peak oil” in the near future and prices to go back up.

If we know how hard it was, and we know we will be there again, why give up on the push for domestic drilling and alternative sources of fuel?  Are our memories that short?  Can you imagine dealing with the housing crisis and the large numbers of layoffs right now AND still paying $4+ per gallon?  That would drive many more people past the breaking point.

I understand why Mr. Pickens isn’t pushing his wind farms anymore.  There likely isn’t the political will to give him tax breaks and incentives for the project, nor are investors likely to be as ready to pony up as they were before (besides the fact that wind farms are woefully inefficient).  But what about the rest of us?  What’s our excuse?  At some point, the backbreaking prices are going to come back, yet the emphasis in the media and around the water cooler is not focused on domestic energy production like it once was.

Unless something changes, we are doomed to repeat the same mistakes of the last 30 years.  If you wait until oil prices triple again, or some foreign enemy threatens our supply, it will be too late to start the movement again.  We keep hearing that it will take ten years to fully tap into our domestic supplies.   While that timeframe is patently ridiculous it does stress the point… why wait?

Americans need jobs.  The American economy needs a push.  There is still plenty of money to be made in domestic oil production and alternative souces of fuel.  This must become and remain a national priority.

Ignoring the signs and being lax about threats allowed September 11th to happen.  I argue that the this threat is no different.  We can wait until supply and some foreign threat combine to bring our country to its knees, or we can learn from history and get to work on domestic production before it happens again.

When will we learn from our mistakes?  Or will our children have to wage the same fight because we failed to do so?

Governor Jindal was on MSNBC.  Thanks to HotAir for posting the video since I my remote never seems to stop at that bastion of liberal propaganda any more.

I especially liked hearing Governor Jindal discuss the states as “laboratories of experimentation.”  That’s exactly what the founding father’s intended, is the bedrock of federalism, and something that Fred Thompson discussed a lot during the primaries.

The idea behind a limited federal government with the power residing primarily with individual states is that each state is a microcosm of the nation as a whole and each can take its own approach to solving problems.  Thus we have the potential of 50 different laboratories researching and combating similar issues, the best solutions from one can then be borrowed by the rest.  Certainly in a time plagued by a number of national issues (credit, taxes, housing, health care, education, etc) we would be better served with fifty different groups in touch with the needs of their citizens trying to come up with solid solutions as opposed to one inept base of power continually making mistakes.

Thank you for your service. Thank you for our freedoms.

“Some people wonder all their lives if they’ve made a difference.
The Marines don’t have that problem.”
–Ronald Reagan

Happy Birthday United States Marine Corps.  God Bless You.  Thank you for all you do.

So much for governing from the center, indeed.  On top of President-Elect Barack Obama’s to-do list is reversing executive orders that prevented using human embryos for research and using tax dollars to fund abortions.

Obama plans to end the federal ban on funding for human embryonic stem-cell research (hEsc) and upend the Mexico City rule that forbids federal foreign aid to be used to promote abortion. He can expect a big controversy on both.

It appears Barack Obama has chosen the first fight of his Presidency, and if true, I hope all of you are prepared to fight him with me.  I don’t equate “patriotism” with funding abortions, and I bet most of you don’t either.

While American voters feel some ambiguity on abortion, they overwhelmingly do not want their tax dollars paying for or facilitating abortions.  The Mexico City rule forbade federal funds to be used to facilitate the acquisition of abortions by groups abroad, much as the Hyde Amendment prohibited federal funds to be used in the same manner domestically.  If Obama rescinds it, he can expect a great deal of outrage from pro-life groups and a reopening of the debate over the use of tax money to procure abortions anywhere.

These aren’t exactly low-hanging fruit, nor are they the acts of someone who professed to find middle ground between pro-life and pro-choice groups.  These are the acts of a pro-abortion absolutist, and they presage the sponsorship of Planned Parenthood’s Freedom of Choice Act.  So much for governing from the center.

If its ok for Melissa Ethridge to stop paying her taxes because she is upset that Proposition 8 passed, than it is certainly ok for me to stop paying my taxes if they will be used to kill innocent babies.  Of course if true, refusing to pay your taxes won’t be enough to stop this abomination… its only enough to land yourself in jail.  There likely will be no way of stopping it, but we must try.  And it gives further credence to the idea that we must start working to put Conservatives in congress NOW.  We also need to use this to presuade all Christians and pro-life supporters who voted for Obama in 2008 to not make the same mistake in 2012.

Maritime Sentry points out a great post from the Draft Sarah Palin for Vice President site on Moving Forward.  I encourage everyone to read it.  My sentiments are mostly the same.

I am a Palin supporter.  I am also a Bobby Jindal supporter.  As charismatic conservatives who have records of real reform, I think the two of them offer great hope to the future of our Party.  But they are not alone.  There are other strong conservatives in America, and hopefully over the coming years a few of them will rise to the top and carry the party forward.  We must resist all attempts to move to the center and lose our soul.  That is a losing proposition every time it is tried.  The liberal media will try to persuade us otherwise, but make no mistake, John McCain was the case study of moving the party to the center and he failed… miserably.  George W. Bush tried to move to the center, and that lack of discipline and principle damaged his presidency.  The liberals are going to hate us either way, so we might as well have our dignity and principles in tact.  Its much easier to defend yourself when your position is not defenseless.

Our country has taken a serious step back, and over the next two years it could get much worse.  We are in no position to protect the judiciary, the military, the Constitution or the unborn.  We must fight to make sure we never find ourselves in this position again.

2010 is not a long way off.  That will be our first chance to push Conservative voices in Congress.  We must start now.  But this fight is more than just promoting candidates with the right ideas.  We have the chance to reshape the Republican Party and have it focus back on the core principles that matter.  The “first principles” of our founders.  The party is beholden to no one because the party lost.  Its not time to rebrand or renew, its time to rebuild and reform.  We need more discipline and integrity in Washington.  We need more values and responsibility.  Those are the same things we need from our party, and if we enforce within ourselves, we will get back into a place of prominence.

I vow to not give up the fight.  Will you join me?