Almost ‘Treasonous’: Perry’s Warning Shot Across The Fed’s Bow…

Perry responds to Obama ‘lecture’: ‘Actions speak louder than words’

The Hill – By Michael O’Brien

Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) fired back Wednesday at President Obama, who admonished the Republican presidential candidate to watch his words more carefully.

Perry said “actions speak louder than words” after Obama’s public admonishment Tuesday on CNN for Perry’s comments that an expanded money supply by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke would be “almost treasonous.”

“Yesterday the president said I needed to watch what I say,” Perry told a crowd in New Hampshire at a politics-and-eggs breakfast, which was broadcast online.

“I’d just like to respond, if I may: Mr. President, actions speak louder than words. My actions as governor are helping to create jobs in this country,” Perry said. “This president’s actions are killing jobs in this country.”…]

“Lenin is said to have declared that the best way to destroy the Capitalist System was to debauch the currency. By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens. By this method, they not only confiscate, but they confiscate arbitrarily; and, while the process impoverishes many, it actually enriches some. . . .

Lenin was certainly right. There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. . . . (It) does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose. . . .”   

John Maynard Keynes, “The Economic Consequences of the Peace – 1920

Bernanke Endorses Obama

There was a time when Fed chairmen feared to even seem political.

WSJ - OCTOBER 21, 2008

Ben Bernanke apparently wants four more years as Federal Reserve Chairman. At least that’s a reasonable conclusion after Mr. Bernanke all but submitted his job application to Barack Obama yesterday by endorsing the Democratic version of fiscal “stimulus.”

While the Fed chief said any stimulus should be “well targeted,” even a general endorsement amounts to a political green light. Mr. Bernanke certainly knows that Mr. Obama and Democrats on Capitol Hill are talking about some $300 billion in new “stimulus” spending, while President Bush and Republicans are resisting. And by saying any help should “limit longer-term effects” on the federal deficit, he had to know he was reinforcing Democratic opposition to permanent tax cuts.

Mr. Bernanke could have begged off — and would have been wiser to do so — given how much the Fed has already made itself a political lightning rod with its many Wall Street interventions. He might also have thought twice about endorsing one party’s policy preferences a mere two weeks before Election Day given his obligation to preserve the Fed’s independence. We can remember when tougher Fed chairmen used to refrain from adjusting interest rates close to an election for fear of seeming to be political; they would never have dreamed of meddling in campaign tax and spending debates.

Perhaps Mr. Bernanke’s blunderbuss political intrusion will win him more Democrat friends, and maybe even Mr. Obama’s goodwill. To the rest of the world, he has harmed the Fed and made himself less credible.

Embry: Perry takes a liking to Iowa

Longview News-Journal By Jason Embry

DES MOINES, Iowa — A man in a stars and stripes bandanna tricked Texas Gov. Rick Perry on Monday.

“Governor Perry, try a corn dog,” the Iowa State Fair vendor yelled as Perry and the horde with cameras surrounding him strode down the fair’s main thoroughfare. Having already passed up a couple of food vendors, Perry grabbed the corn dog, dipped it in mustard, took a bite and gratefully looked back.

’’It’s a veggie corn dog,” the vendor said.

Perry looked startled for a second but soon recovered. “As long as they make it on a farm,” he said.

The governor has been talking about farming quite a bit, and quite comfortably, in his first couple of days in Iowa, site of the country’s initial nominating contests. His background in agriculture — raised on a West Texas farm, eight years as state agriculture commissioner — is one reason he’ll be a major contender to win the Iowa caucuses in early 2012.

Religion is another.

’’Thank you for calling our nation to pray and fast,” Norma Johnson of Story County told Perry as she pulled him in for a hug. Johnson was wearing a red Michele Bachmann T-shirt but said she’d be re-evaluating all of the candidates with Perry’s entry.

Experts say more than half of Iowans who took part in the 2008 caucuses were religious conservatives.

Iowa is shaping up well for Perry, and his team likes his chances here.

Bachmann won the Ames Straw Poll on Saturday and hails from Waterloo, so it’s reasonable to call her the Iowa front-runner. Many Iowans say they like that she’s been so outspoken on national issues.

But Perry was clearly the more comfortable candidate Sunday night, when they both appeared in Waterloo. He arrived well before his speech and approached individual voters who had assembled for a Black Hawk County Republican Party dinner.

Bachmann, on the other hand, stayed in her campaign bus until well after her allotted speaking time (she didn’t enter the building until her second introduction) and stayed on stage afterward to sign autographs. Voters, in other words, had to approach her…

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Armstrong Economics: Indirect vs Direct Stimulus

The Creature From Jekyll Island

It’s The Economy Stupid…

Public Sector Employment: The Gravy Train Robs Peter To Pay Paul

World Governance: Who Gave Them The Right To Take What I Have Earned?

Obama’s “Union” Trade War Has Started

Wealth Redistribution: Legal Plunder Or Just California Dreamin?

“Helicopter Ben” Bernanke: Keynesian Fine Tuning Or Intertemporal Misallocation?

The One World Currency Has Comith?

Richard Perry: From a Place Called Paint Creek

James Richard “Rick” Perry (born March 4, 1950) is the 47th and current Governor of Texas. A Republican, Perry was elected Lieutenant Governor of Texas in 1998 and assumed the governorship in December 2000 when then-governor George W. Bush resigned to become President of the United States. Perry was elected to full gubernatorial terms in 2002, 2006 and 2010. With a tenure in office to date of 10 years, 237 days, Perry is the longest continuously serving current U.S. governor, and the second longest serving current U.S. governor after Terry Branstad of Iowa.

Perry served as Chairman of the Republican Governors Association in 2008 (succeeding Sonny Perdue of Georgia) and again in 2011. Perry is the longest-serving governor in Texas state history. As a result, he is the only governor in modern Texas history to have appointed at least one person to every eligible state office, board, or commission position (as well as to several elected offices to which the governor can appoint someone to fill an unexpired term, such as six of the nine current members of the Texas Supreme Court).

Perry won the Texas 2010 Republican gubernatorial primary election, defeating U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison and former Wharton County Republican Party Chairwoman and businesswoman Debra Medina. In the 2010 Texas gubernatorial election, Perry won a third term by defeating former Houston mayor Bill White and Kathie Glass.

On August 13, 2011, Perry announced that he was running for the Republican nomination for President of the United States in the 2012 presidential election.

From a Place Called Paint Creek

The 47^th governor of Texas, Rick Perry grew up in the small community of Paint Creek located along the rolling plains of West Texas. Rick Perry is the son of Ray Perry, a World War II tailgunner who flew 35 missions over war-torn Europe, and Amelia Perry, who provided a loving, nurturing home for Rick and his older sister Amelia. Ray and Amelia Perry started out as tenant farmers, providing a modest upbringing for their children.

Rick Perry grew up without indoor plumbing the first five years of his life, wore clothes hand-sewn by his mother, and was even bathed in a number 2 washtub as a young boy. Perry was one of 13 students in the Paint Creek Rural School’s Class of 1968.  He played six-man football, worked on his family farm, and devoted himself to the Boy Scouts, earning the rank of Eagle while in his teens.

Perry was among the first generation in his family to attend college, enrolling at Texas A&M University in the fall of 1968.  He joined the Fightin’ Texas Aggie Corps of Cadets and was elected twice to serve as an Aggie Yell Leader.  Perry graduated in August 1972 with a bachelor’s degree in Animal Science.

Upon graduation, Perry took a commission in the United States Air Force, flying C-130 tactical aircraft to destinations around the globe, including South America, Europe and the Middle East. In 1977, Perry was honorably discharged from the Air Force with the rank of Captain, and he returned home to the family farm, where they grew dryland cotton, milo and wheat.

During the next few years, Perry would become one of millions of conservative Reagan Democrats, and marry his high school sweetheart, Anita Thigpen, 16 years after their first date.

In 1983, Rick and Anita Perry welcomed a son, Griffin, and their daughter Sydney arrived in 1986…

Seventeen (17) things that critics are saying about Rick Perry

Rick Perry On The Issues

The Rick Perry I Know

Sunday Culture: Miracle Worker

Boomers Fleece Generation X with Social Security

by Thomas A. Firey

This article appeared on cato.org on December 12, 2001.

Generation Xers and Gen-Yers like me have a hard time showing interest in what goes on in Washington. But we had better end our apathy — and soon — or we’ll spend the rest of our lives paying for it. Members of the generation that came before us — the Baby Boomers — are trying to pull a scam under the guise of “protecting” Social Security. If they succeed, we — and our children — will be the poorer for it.

Everyone knows Social Security is in trouble (and President Bush’s Commission to Strengthen Social Security released its report on reform yesterday). But few people understand what that trouble is and whom it will affect. Understanding that is the key to understanding the scam.

Right now, Social Security is in great health. This year, like so many before, hundreds of billions of dollars will pour into it from FICA and payroll taxes, and only some will go back out as benefits to retirees. The rest will be exchanged for government bonds, which the federal government will pay back — with interest — to Social Security in the coming years.

But things will change in the next decade, when the Boomers will retire and start collecting benefits. By 2016, so many people will be drawing Social Security that the money needed to cover benefits will be more than what we Gen-X/Y workers will be paying in taxes. Fortunately, the program will be able to cash in the bonds that it’s now buying, and will use the repaid principle and interest to keep up the benefits.

However, that can only support Social Security for a few more decades. The bonds will all be cashed in by 2038, just as we Gen-Xers (whose Social Security tax money will purchase many of those bonds and whose federal tax money will pay them off) approach retirement age. So, just as we’re about to collect Social Security, there will be nothing left in the Social Security storehouse for us to collect.

Hence, the Social Security crisis does not involve today’s seniors — Social Security will have plenty of money for the next 35 years. Instead, the crisis concerns us Gen-X/Yers, who will pay in a lot and receive just a little.

Ever since we Gen-X/Yers began working, we’ve paid 12.4 percent of our earnings to Social Security — half taken through the “FICA” tax on our paycheck and half through the payroll tax. In the coming years, Congress likely will increase that rate to more than 17 percent to delay the 2038 catastrophe. What is more, the Medicare tax (which is now a mere 2.9 percent) will increase because that program faces an even worse crisis than Social Security.

In contrast, the Boomers will get a bargain. When they entered the workforce in the late 1960s, they paid only 6.5 percent of their earnings to Social Security and nothing to Medicare. For about half of their working years, the Boomers paid 10 percent or less to Social Security and less than 1.25 percent to Medicare. Only from 1990 on, when the Boomers had earned paychecks for a quarter-century, did they start paying 12.4 percent to Social Security and 2.9 percent to Medicare — the same percentage we Gen-X/Yers have paid our whole lives.

That’s the Boomers’ bargain: They’ve paid less of their earnings into Social Security than we Gen-X/Yers, yet they’ll receive more in benefits than we will and we’ll pick up the tab. And when we retire, there will be no money saved in Social Security to pay for our retirement, unless we pull the same scam on our children that the Boomers are pulling on us.

The Boomers are working hard to protect their sweet deal. Many Boomer-elected politicians claim it’s “too risky” to change Social Security and do away with the scam. One, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), even asserts that the program is in no trouble at all and should be left alone.

But we Gen-X/Yers are catching on; we’re seeing through the phony claims and recognizing the generational cash-grab scam for what it is. And we are beginning to realize that we need to offer this warning: If the Boomers don’t reform Social Security now, they’ll have no right to complain when we do so in the future.

The first clip for the group Mick Jagger

Superheavy, the group formed by Mick Jagger with Joss Stone, Damian Marley, Dave Stewart and AR Rahman has unveiled the highly anticipated clip of their debut single, Miracle Worker.

Le Figuaro (English Translation)

Last May, Mick Jagger, the leader of the Rolling Stones announced the formation of Superheavy, a group with diverse musical influences and composed of several heavyweights of the song combining 11 Grammy Awards. In addition to the British rocker, 68, soul singer Joss Stone, Dave Stewart, the singer-guitarist-pianist Eurythmics, Damian Marley, reggae singer and son of Bob Marley, and AR Rahman, composer of the soundtrack of Slumdog Millionaire are involved!

After teasers available on the Internet, the video for Miracle Worker, the first single from the album of the same name released on September 19, has been unveiled.

The title, very reggae, seems rather remote from the world of the Stones. In an interview with British magazine NME, Jagger said, however: “If you are a fan of the Rolling Stones, there are definitely things that you speak. Others who will speak less, maybe if you listen you will like it. I do not think this is incomprehensible. “

A second single-sounding Indian Satyameva Jayate, which means “Only the truth triumph” in Sanskrit has also just been released by the group. Listen to it here. The album produced by Jagger and Stewart, on which the group has been working since 2009, was recorded in Los Angeles. Superheavy has not yet announced tour.

Octavia Spencer: You Can’t ‘Help’ But Feel This Film

RIP Ernie Johnson…Just Being Himself…

Ernest Thorwald Johnson (June 16, 1924 – August 12, 2011) was a Major League Baseball pitcher. The 6’4″, 195 lb. right-hander was signed by the Boston Braves as an amateur free agent before the 1942 season. He played for the Boston Braves (1950, 1952), Milwaukee Braves (1953-1958), and Baltimore Orioles (1959).

After serving three years in the U.S. Marine Corps, Johnson made his major league debut in relief on April 28, 1950, against the Philadelphia Phillies at Shibe Park. His first big league win was also in relief, coming against the New York Giants on June 30, 1950, at the Polo Grounds. He spent part of 1950 in the Eastern League and all of 1951 in the American Association before returning to the major leagues for good in 1952. He started 10 games for Boston in 1952 and then appeared almost exclusively in relief thereafter.

From 1953 to 1957, the first five years that the Braves were in Milwaukee, Johnson led the pitching staff with 175 relief appearances, an average of 35 per season. He was followed closely behind by Dave Jolly, who relieved in 158 games during that five-year span. During those seasons the closer’s job was held at different times by Lew Burdette, Johnson, Jolly, and Don McMahon.

Johnson had an important role on the 1957 World Series Champion Braves with a 7-3 record and four saves in 30 games. In three World Series appearances against the New York Yankees that October he gave up only one run in seven innings, but it happened to be a game-winning home run by Hank Bauer in the seventh inning of Game 6.

In nine seasons Johnson had a losing record only once (1955) and had an overall winning percentage of .635. Career totals include a record of 40-23 in 273 games, 19 games started, three complete games, one shutout, 119 games finished, 19 saves, and an ERA of 3.77.

Following his playing days Johnson was a longtime color commentator and play-by-play broadcaster on Braves radio and television, working from 1962 to 1999 and becoming an icon in Atlanta. He was elected to the Braves’ Hall of Fame on August 24, 2001. His son, Ernie Johnson, Jr., worked with him from 1993 to 1996.

Johnson died on August 12, 2011, after a long illness.

Source:   Wiki

A journey with Ernie

Following the ‘Voice of the Braves’ from Boston to broadcasting

Georgia Magazine – BY JACKIE KENNEDY

Before Chipper Jones could crawl, before Atlanta’s baseball team went from worst to first, before Hank Aaron hit all those homers, even before the Braves ever thought of moving to Georgia … there was Ernie Johnson.

Hailed through the years as the “Voice of the Braves,” Ernie Johnson Sr. could just as easily be dubbed the “Heart of Baseball.” He’s been at the game—either on the pitcher’s mound or as an announcer—for six decades.

What a journey it’s been.

A native of Brattleboro, Vt., Ernie played with both the Boston and Milwaukee Braves and announced games for the Milwaukee and Atlanta Braves for nearly four decades. He pitched in one World Series game against the Yankees, called games when Phil Niekro and Dale Murphy were in their prime, and was named Georgia Sportscaster of the Year three times.

Last year, his daughter, Chris Johnson, spearheaded a drive to secure her dad a spot in the Baseball Hall of Fame for broadcasting. More than 2,000 fans have signed the guest book of an Internet Web site (designed by family friend John Amato as a surprise for Ernie) devoted to this living legend’s career, deeming him everything from “a great announcer and human being” to “a role model for the ages.”

…In 1962, he was hired as the color commentator for the Braves on WTMJ, a TV station in Milwaukee, and in 1965 he moved his family to Atlanta, where he started setting up the Braves’ radio network across the Southeast. The next year, the Braves followed and Ernie joined Milo Hamilton and Larry Munson as the Atlanta Braves’ broadcast team. He and Milo worked together for 10 years and, in 1976, Pete Van Wieren and Skip Caray joined Ernie in the announcer’s box. Beginning in 1973, when the TBS Superstation debuted, Ernie’s voice was heard by millions across the country.

His sincerity, humor and ability to educate were key elements to Ernie’s success. In his home, there’s a plaque with a quote from French-American historian Jacques Barzun: “Whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America had better learn baseball.”

“Everything I know about baseball, I learned from Ernie Johnson,” says Kathleen Boyd, LaGrange fan, echoing hundreds who’ve signed Ernie’s Web site guest book.

Braves pitcher John Smoltz sums it up this way: “Ernie Johnson Sr. has handled his job just like his family, just like his life—all with class, dignity and humility. Ernie Johnson’s attitude towards all of these areas of his life has been an inspiration to me as well as many others who have gotten to know him.”

Ernie’s secret to broadcasting: “I was told ‘Just be yourself,’” he says. “And I got some good advice in the beginning, to not talk down to my listeners.”

…When it comes to Braves baseball, Ernie’s just about seen it all. He was there for the first game at Atlanta Fulton County Stadium in 1966 and he was back in 1996, for the final game against the New York Yankees for the World Series. But one of the most special nights at the old ballpark was in 1989. The Braves finished in last place and their attendance that year was lowest in the National League. Despite the dissatisfaction with another losing season, 42,000 fans (the largest crowd that year) showed up on Sept. 2. It was “Ernie Johnson Night,” and they’d come to say goodbye.

The beloved “Voice” retired from full-time broadcasting that night but returned to announce games on Sports South and Fox Sports for another decade. In 1999, he retired for good after 35 years in Braves broadcasting. Even now, though, he continues to fill in two or three times a year, a treat his fans enjoy.

The highlights of his career as an announcer were being on the broadcast team when the Braves won pennants and the World Series, and calling the games when Hank Aaron was breaking records.

“Going from last to first in the ‘90s was really fantastic,” Ernie recalls. “There were great players and such big crowds. I was so happy for the fans; they had suffered a lot through most of the ‘70s and ‘80s.”

Earlier, Ernie had watched Aaron hit his first homerun and he’d called the games when the superstar hit homerun number 500, 600 and 700, and when Aaron tied Babe Ruth’s record at 714.

“It was a great feeling doing play-by-play on those,” says Ernie, “especially since I’d been a friend of Hank’s since he was about 20 years old.”

Aaron recalls sharing many road trips with Ernie when they both played baseball. He considers the broadcaster a close friend.

“Ernie has a homey, easy-going manner, and the fans feel like he is their friend, the kind gentleman who lives next door,” Aaron says. “I have heard Ernie bring life to a game that wasn’t so lively, and truly convey the excitement of exciting games. He was a credit to the team both as a player and a broadcaster.”

RIP Ernie. We Will Miss You…

In Memory Of The Fallen…