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A couple of weeks ago, I introduced my “private investigation” of the WMATA system here in Washington, DC.  Initial results were that WMATA was spending more than 75% on salaries, which seems awfully high considering that they have one of the worst safety records. Only 3% of their expenditures account for “preventive maintenance.”

As a result of this, I sent WMATA’s legal counsel a Public Access to Records Policy request, which is similar to a Freedom of Information Act request.

Here is the e-mail I received this morning:

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The sky is falling!

For realz!

Of course, Obama wants to blame this on Bush, because that’s what democrats do best: blame the other guy. The guy won’t place blame on his party, even though they are in control of the House AND Senate, as they stated when Nancy Peloski took control of the House. Of course, every Obama nut job conveniently forgets this fact and instead blames Bush for his policies, under regulation, blah blah blah.

In reality, this whole problem started before Bush took office. It started with President Jimmy Carter (a Democrat) with the Community Restoration Act of 1977. The act “encouraged” Fannie and Freddie to lend to minority communities. But it wasn’t until President Bill Clinton (another Democrat) introduced his National Homeownership Strategy that put the act into overdrive, causing billions of dollars to go to people simply because of their race and little else. Clinton saw this as a way to get minorities into the middle class. Well intentioned, but failed miserably.

While I won’t get into the details, it’s clear that the problem started long ago, not in the last eight years. To further underscore this, let’s look at Europe. After the stocks in the US started to drop, economies in other countries started to suffer as well. Germany even stated that it would pump more money into their economy because it was floundering. One of two things is happening: Europe isn’t as regulated as we thought OR deregulation is not the problem.

Bailing out failing companies for corruption is bad enough. But I find it okay that they were suffering because a law forced them to make bad loans. People keep blaming the companies for greed. I completely agree. But when the cards are stacked and there’s nothing you can do about it, you might as well use it to your advantage. President Carter provided the deck, President Clinton stacked it, and President Bush is caught dealing the cards.

My question is why doesn’t the mainstream media talk about this? I’m convinced that at this point, Obama can eat a live human baby and people will say, “Aww! How cute! He loves that baby so much that he wants to eat him. That’s so sweet!”

Only in Obama World, does 1 + 1 equal banana, the sky is meatloaf, and unicorns and leprechauns provide free healthcare for all.

Anytime you move states, a lot of paper work is involved to make sure your mail gets forwarded, your taxes get updated, and your car gets registered. When I moved to Virginia, the first two were fairly easy. Dealing with the VA DMV was torture.

I had to go to the DMV several times because I didn’t have the paperwork needed to change my address and register my car. Even though I spoke with several people at the DMV, each time they told me that I didn’t have the proper forms. I spent a total of 8 hours just trying to get new plates and registration.

Then my ID. Converting my license took about 3 hours of wait.

Why is this? Why does it take this long just to get a new license?

Obama’s plan to “revamp” the economy is to regulate Wall Street. Can someone explain to me why this is a good idea? I don’t understand how government intervention will solve a free market. In fact, government intervention on the economy is more like communism and socialism than capitalism.

Most Obama fans don’t understand the complexity of the economy. Most Obama fans think, “Give people money! Give people money! That’s the way!” By question to him is why does he insist on giving people money and then at the same time say that he wants to regulate Wall Street? The two are incompatable.

Wait…they are compatible because Obama wants to take money way from people who have actually worked and earned it to people who didn’t.

What Obama doesn’t realize is that the market will be fine without his kind of help.  Several months ago, when crude oil topped at $120 a barrel, his strategy was to regulate oil.  Of course, he doesn’t introduce legislation on it.  He just made it a campaign promise.  (Does anyone else find that odd?)

But as months went on, the market reacted by consuming less fuel, carpooling, traveling less.  This caused demand to decrease, which caused prices to fall and close yesterday to below $100 for the first time in so many months.

You don’t see Obama celebrating this.  I haven’t heard him make a speach about this yet.  Why is that?  Is it because he relizes that we was wrong?  What people like Obama fail to understand is why the market works.  It’s not a perfect system, mind you, but it works best with very little outside interference.  When people start tinkering with it, you force the market to respond in ways that are hard to predict.

Take gas for example.  Obama wanted to regulate speculators so that they wouldn’t drive up the cost of oil.  But he doesn’t compain when those same speculators also cause the price of oil to come down!  Had he regulated these speculators, oil would be haven artificially inflated beyond what it is already.  The more restrictions there are, the less freedom there is to move in the market.

Now, I’m not saying that some rules aren’t necessary.  Market works best if and when everybody plays by the rules.  And for the most part, they do.  Some rules can be bent strategically and legally.  But breaking other rules will create an advantage in the market that would be similar to the consequence of government regulation.

Governments have yet to find a way to make going to the DMV, getting a passport, gaining immigration status, or even counting votes accurately efficiant.  Until they can figure out this stuff, why should we allow them to regulate in an area where they will give themselves an unfair advantage in the market?