Hossein, Hossein, stop trying to talk to our murderers!

Planet Iran has great coverage of the situation in Iran — stuff you just won’t see in the American mass media.

The people are burning pictures of the “Supreme Leader” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. They are chanting slogans like “Khamenei’s a murderer; his leadership is null and void”, “Tanks, cannons, basiji…have no effect on us anymore.” and “Hossein, Hossein, stop trying to talk to our murderers!”

Wait… Hossein? Hossein? Who is Hossein? Hossein, or “Hussein” in Indonesian, is Barack Hussein Obama. The people are chanting to Obama, begging him not to negotiate with terrorists. The Iranian people seem to understand foreign policy a lot better than Barack Hussein Obama and Hillary Clinton.

Ronald Reagan knew how to defeat dictators — you stand up to them. If only our current “leaders” had the gravel in their stomachs to stand up for freedom.

Check out the protest updates (with video) at Live Blogging the Next Green Wave — Chaharshanbeh Souri (Festival of Fire).

It looks like the Iranian people may be getting close to the point where they will stand up and take their freedom by force.  Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may soon end up hanging upside down in the street like Benito Mussolini.

Senate Refuses to Reject Earmarks

Like a crack cocaine addict fighting to keep hold of his pipe, the Senate rejected an attempt by Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) to prevent senators from earmarking spending bills with pork barrel projects designed to buy votes in their home districts.

Disappointingly, fifteen Republicans joined with the Democrats in killing the moratorium on earmarks.  The amendment was rejected in a landslide 68-29 vote.

Republicans as a whole have consistently shown much more moral behavior in maintaining discipline against using taxpayer funds for personal gain. 178 members of the House of Representatives have sworn not to use earmarks in 2010. All are Republicans.

Unfortunately, not all Republicans have behaved as laudably. Of the seven congressmen caught last year for creating earmarks to benefit and encourage campaign contributors, two were Republicans, Todd Tiahrt (R-KS) and C.W. Bill Young (R-FL). It is the responsibility of the Republican Party to show moral courage by not nominating these two gentlemen for office once their current terms expire.

Pork barrel projects are theft from taxpayers and, as our government is operating deeply in debt, a theft from the children and grandchildren of taxpayers. And where does the money go? Instead of going into our children’s college funds, it goes to uses like these:

• $325,000 to the Institute for Seafood Studies
• $250,000 to the Monroe County Farmer’s Market
• $150,000 to restore the Tarrytown Music Hall
• $100,000 to the Myrtle Beach Conference Center

James Madison said “I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on the objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.”  Apparently the current members of congress are far better at laying their fingers on things than President Madison.

If you’re interested in how your congress critters are stealing your money, find out more in the Club For Growth’s annual RePork Card.

Obama Reneges on Transparency Promises

During the federal fiscal year 2008, which ran from 1 October 2007 to 30 September 2008, the seventeen largest federal agencies rejected 312,683 requests for government transparency made under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

Fast forwards one year and the situation has become far worse. The number of rejected requests for federal transparency have increased from 312,683 to 466,872. This means that the Obama administration is roughly 50% more secretive than the Bush administration. These numbers are from the Associated Press, which is hardly a conservative organization.

According to data from a National Security Archive study, the Department of the Treasury, Department of Transportation, NASA, Department of State, and the National Reconnaissance Office were the most egregious offenders and among the agencies whose performance deteriorated significantly between 2008 and 2009.

Americans are not entirely ignorant of this reality. A poll released Sunday by The American Society of News Editors and the Scripps Howard News Service showed that 38% of Americans believe the Obama administration engages in “about the same amount of secrecy” as previous administrations. 34% believed that the Obama administration was being more transparent, while 22% understood that the Obama administration has been more secretive than it’s predecessors.

Improved transparency was one of the few Obama campaign promises that could actually have had positive effects for our nation, and it appears to have been the first that Obama discarded once the election was won.

Americans Believe That Government is a Threat to Individual Rights

In a recent CNN poll, 56% of Americans stated that they believe the U.S. government poses an immediate threat to individual rights and freedoms. 56% is a slim majority, but it is a majority.

A majority of Americans expressing that sort of distrust in our day and age is almost unbelievable, but in the days when wiser men ruled our nation it was commonplace. Our very first President, George Washington, said “Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.” George was clearly a man who believed that the government posed a threat to individual rights and freedoms.

Thomas Jefferson, the most brilliant President in American history, stated “When all government, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the Center of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated.” That certainly appears to be an apt description of the current state of affairs in our once great nation.

Thomas Paine, one of the most eloquent founders of the revolution, wrote “When the government fears the people, it is liberty. When the people fear the government, it is tyranny.” Perhaps 56% is the turning point where we return from tyranny to liberty.

Responses were split across party lines, but far less than I would expect. In addition to overwhelming numbers of Republicans and independents, 37% of Democrats agreed that the government can now be considered a thread to the rights and freedoms of ordinary Americans. These are the same Democrats who voted for big government less than two years ago. Could it be that their love affair with statism is on the rocks?

Monica Conyers Sentenced to 37 Months

Monica Conyers, the wife of United States Representative John Conyers (D-MI), was sentenced to 37 months in prison and two years supervised probation. The sentence was a result of asking for and accepting bribes to influence the granting of a city contract.

Mrs. Conyers had pleaded guilty, but upon hearing her sentenced she attempted to change her mind. She attempted to withdraw her guilty plea, but her attempt was rejected by U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn.

Monica is now saying she will appeal, but she may not have the legal right to. The plea agreement she signed states that if the sentence imposed was five years or less, she waived any right to appeal her conviction or sentence.

Her only hope now is that her husbands influence convinces the court to allow an appeal where none is legal, or perhaps a pardon from Governor Granholm or President Obama.

John Conyers is the second-longest serving incumbent member of the House, the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and the Dean of the Congressional Black Caucus. He has quite a bit of political pull which he could use to influence his wife’s case. This is true even though he was caught illegally using taxpayer-funded congressional staff to work on his political campaign staff and also forcing them to babysit and chauffer his and Monica’s children. If John doesn’t engage in some quick Chicago-style politics, his young wife must report to prison on 1 July.

Study Real Estate Investing

It may surprise some readers to discover that I am recommending that people study real estate investing, in light of my previous posts such as Real Estate Is Not Done Falling.  However, those posts merely mean that I do not recommend investing in real estate in the United States right now.  Long-term, the picture may be far different.

I doubt that I will be able to recommend investing in domestic real estate for the next several years, and perhaps for the next decade.  However, this gives the smart investor an opportunity to study up on what he or she needs to know in order to make the most of their investments in the future.

In addition, it could actually make sense to invest in real estate using 30yr fixed rate mortgages even if property values fall significantly.  Why?  Because the most common scenario for the rest of the decade is high inflation, and possibly hyper-inflation.  If hyperinflation comes, a 6% fixed mortgage will be a gold mine.

When it comes to learning how to invest successfully in real estate, you have a lot of options.  I do not recommend listening to the all-hype gurus like Robert Kiyosaki.  There are a very few investors worth listening to, and those are the guys in the trenches doing this stuff day in and day out — they simply do not have the time to tour on the lecture circuit. That being said, a few good books have been written in this field and you can own them all for the price of one overpriced “success course.”

Here are some books worth investing in:

• Streetwise Investing in Rental Housing: a Detailed Strategy for Financial Independence
• 255 Real Estate Investing Mistakes and How You Can Avoid Them
• Building Wealth One House at a Time: Making It Big on Little Deals
• The Unofficial Guide to Real Estate Investing
• Real Estate Exchange and Acquisition Techniques
• How to Manage Residential Property for Maximum Cash Flow and Resale Value
• Residential Property Acquisition Handbook
• Aggressive Tax Avoidance for Real Estate Investors: How to Make Sure You Aren’t Paying One More Cent in Taxes Than the Law Requires
• Distressed Real Estate Times: Offensive and Defensive Strategy and Tactics
• Fundamentals of Real Estate Finance: How to Use Leverage to Maximize Your Real Estate Investment Return
• How to Buy Real Estate for at Least 20% Below Market Value
• Making Money with Mobile Homes

Many of these recommendations are from John T. Reed. His real estate page is a useful source for sobering information.

Right now, federal laws and regulations are changing so frequently that almost any investment is risky.  The government could pass one law and you could be wiped out financially. There simply is not enough stability in the system to makes sensible long-term investment decisions. While prudent investors are being extremely cautious right now, smart investors are using this time to study.  The time will come to invest and you want to be ready when it arrives.