In one sense, nothing. Obama’s promises of socialist changes are progressing. Universal health care, nationalization of manufacturers and banking, imposition of union rules, reestablishment of federal funding of abortion, and massive taxing and spending are being implemented at a frightening speed, with no conservative obstacles in sufficient numbers to slow them down.

In another sense, everything. Obama promised to be open and honest, anti-pork, hope and change instead of fear, yet many of the policies were buried inside a pork-laden monstrosity without debate, without the 5-day evaluation, and signed under dire warnings of catastrophe, and sometimes outright lies, such as the re-hiring of manufafacturing jobs and “all economists agree” pitches.

The revolt of hard working American, long overdue, has begun. Trillions of dollars printing are now showing up as inflation. CNBC says “traders revolt” and openly question why diligent homeowners must pay for the mortgages of dlinquent homeowners. Even high school children, governed by emotion instead of experience, said after his appearance this morning that they don’t believe eveything Obama says and understand the Stimulus bill is bad for the economy and is merely a thinly-disguised pork-laden liberal agenda.

One teenager even wore an Obama t-shirt that said, “Hitler gave good speeches, too.”

But the “angry left” is having it’s day, and I see few obstacles in their way for the next two years. It’s amazing the damage they’ve caused already in just 3 weeks of office. What can we do except batten down the hatches and weather this liberal storm?

I’m praying, and I’m buying gold.

The best and simple economic “stimulus” plan I’ve seen is to simly refund all individual taxes collected in 2008. It costs about the same and gives all the people’s money back to the people who would happily spend such a windfall.

Please, Congress, stop helping us now. Just put the checkbook down and back away.

6 (1) (D) Undocumented Xenonationals who have been in the country since noon March 16, 2004 (this language reflects a compromise between the hardline “AM” faction and moderates who wanted to extend the deadline to 4:57 PM) will have to report to a government office to announce they are departing. This is the HIMBG Provision, or the “Hello, I Must Be Going” provision. Immigrants will have to return to the Mexican border, put their left foot in, put their left foot out, put their left foot in and shake it all about. (Language requiring that the applicant then “do the hokey pokey was removed over an inability to define the exact nature of said action.) The immigrant is then required to return to the place where he announced he was leaving, present a notarized photograph of himself sticking a portion of his body into Mexican airspace; at that point, he will be eligible to receive a “Q” visa, which enables him to start the process towards a “Z” visa, which estabishes a legal framework towards a “path towards citizenship,” although applicants who have paid 67% of their adjusted tax burden over the last 14 years, minus inflation, will be put on a “jogging path” towards citizenship.

The entire process will take no less than seven years, during which the applicant may not work, but must stand absolutely still in a small room while reciting the Constitution. (Spanish is permitted for the boring Amendments.)

I. (7) (3.14) There shall be a fence stretching 356 miles. The fence shall be three feet high. Paper mache crocodiles shall reside on the other side, arrayed in a threatening manner ($400,000 shall be appropriated to determine the optimum angle of the opened jaw; the final crocodile shall represent a consensus among herpetologists, and reflect a crocodile who is defending his position but showing his teeth to warn off, and not necessarily threaten violence.) Every nine miles, there shall be a sign that reproduces the FBI warning that precedes all DVDs and videotapes and warns of criminal liability for breaking the copyright law. (It has worked so well thus far the language might as well be used intact.) The fence shall be raised to four feet in the event the population of any state becomes 51% undocumented Xenonationals. The fence shall be raised to five feet in the event GOP presence in the Senate drops below 4 seats. The fence shall be raised to ten feet after a nuclear device is smuggled in from Mexico, providing the yield of the bomb is at least 4 (four) kilotons. A bomb with a yield between 3 and 3.99 kilotons will be a sufficient trigger to raise the fence only if the attendant radiation is carried by prevailing winds a distance greater than 20 miles.

T. (t) (t) $779,000 shall be allotted to create Inez, a mascot who provide a welcoming and comic presence to the INS offices.; $3.2 million for an ad campaign that raises awareness of Inez; $2.9 million to be put in escrow from the inevitable sexual harassment suit after Woodsy Owl learns about here; that bird can’t keep his wings to himself; $1.2 million to buy out Woodsy’s contract

7 (b) (f) (f) The government shall, at its discretion, ignore the hell out of any of this

II. 5.6 All legal immigrants will be required to go through the entire process again, just to rub their noses it in. Mark Steyn shall sit in his car on a bridge between Canada and the United States until he learns his place.

R. R. (x) Any illegal immigrant from a state known to sponsor terrorism will be required to renounce terrorism by an oath of utmost solemnity. This act shall also supply funds for translators to determine the equivalent of “pinky swear” in other tongues. The translator will work through the world’s languages in reverse alphabetical order.

XX (vi) Employers found guilty of employing illegal aliens must perform the crying aria from Pagliacci.

F. (U) This bill shall be passed before anyone can read it.

Here’s today’s example: Dow Slips After Early Gains

While the Labor Department report lifted hopes that the Federal Reserve might pause after two years of raising interest rates, traders also said the data could portend a slowdown in the economy, which would hurt corporate profits.

“Initially, people felt positive because the jobs report was weak and anti-inflationary. But now investors are probably settling in on the fact that it was, in fact, weak and maybe that’s not good for the economy,” said Tim Heekin, director of trading at San Francisco investment bank Thomas Weisel Partners.

Read that blurb carefully to see if it makes sense. Traders were excited that the economy may not be that great because interest rates will stop risinig. Then traders were worried that the economy may not be that great.

That’s right – the possibility that the economy may or may not be doing as poor as previously expected is the reason the market went up and down this morning.

To me, predicting market performance must be a lot like being a weatherman. Nobody expects you to get it right. Does anybody read these news articles and make investing decisions based on them?

[Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton] Strayhorn estimated legislators will have $64.7 billion in state revenue to spend in the upcoming two-year budget — $6.4 billion more than they had in January 2003.

Then they say they need more:

[Texas municipalities] do not want new laws that erode municipal powers. They do not want any legislation that requires them to spend more money. And they do not want lawmakers capping property tax rates.

Emphasis mine. Why is the Texas legislature awash with cash? Because they get a free bump in property taxes every year when property values go up. Citizen groups like C.L.O.U.T. and AppraisalCap.com formed a couple of years ago to combat this; when property values go up, the taxes go up, too, and price you right out of your own home.

Imagine you bought a house for $150,000, and stretched yourself financially thin to get into it. 7 years later, your house is worth $200,000. Are you in good shape? Absolutely not – your taxes have now gone from $4200 a year to $5610, or $117 more each month.

What if you were a little old lady with a tiny house in a newly popular section of town like West University? Your property value may have tripled or more, but you’re on a fixed income. Where are you going to get the hundreds of dollars more you need just to pay taxes?

C.L.O.U.T. is trying to cap the appraisal rate growth, which can go up 10% each year. At that rate, your taxes can double every 7 years. C.L.O.U.T. isn’t even concerned about the actual tax rate, they just want to cap how fast it goes up, to 3% a year to more or less match inflation. Yet the sinister Texas Municipal League (funded by our tax dollars to campaign for more taxes!) opposes any cap. “More taxes!” they keep screaming.

Do you know how much it bothers me that I pay 50% more property tax than when I bought my house 5 years ago, knowing that my taxes are funding an organization that wants my taxes to go up even more? That ought to be illegal.

The state legislature is going to vote on this again this year, having voted against lowering the appraisal cap rate the last 2 years. After that, the whole lot of them should be voted out of office and replaced with a black hole that sucks in everything around it with no escape. That would be a lot more efficient.

Last year I bought a pair of jeans, 38/34, took them home… and they were too long. Because I procrastinate, I eventually had them altered. I had 2″ taken off the length. I thought it odd that they were too long. My inseam doesn’t change, does it?

Today I realize a pair of pants I’ve had for the last couple of years is too long. I’ve been stepping on the back of the pants leg all day. I’m not going to panic – I most certainly am not shrinking.

So what could be the cause of these protracted, prolonged pants? Here are some ideas I’ve come up with:

• I’m wearing shorter shoes. If my shoes are shorter, the pants will hang longer. But I just wear plain old men’s shoes with maybe 1″ high shoes. I’m certain I’ve never owned 3″ high shoes.
• Due to inflation, 34 inches from 20 years ago is now 36″. So I need to buy 2005 32″ inseam in order to get the 34″ inches I expect. You would think I’d need a smaller waist size, too, but that hasn’t happened.
• Due to the extra medium large waist, my weight is compressing my legs. Once I was 34″, now 32″, eventually I’ll compress until I’m just a torso sitting on the ground. I’ll need to be outfitted with roller skates to get around. The extra weight might be compressing my shoes, too, now that I think of it.
• My son is performing an incredibly complex practical joke on my by lengthening all my pants by 2″ so I feel shorter.

I don’t know what it is, but I’ll get to the bottom of it. And at the rate I’m shrinking, I won’t even have to bend over.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Discount retailer Dollar General Corp. on Wednesday posted an unexpected profit fall with customers hurt by high oil prices and unemployment, and expressed caution for the key holiday season.

Discount retailers, including No. 1 retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc. have warned that lower-income household budgets are tight as the key holiday season starts with high oil prices driving up heating bills and gasoline costs.

Also, the economy is booming. Consumer spending is up, business is great, we’re all going to be rich:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. consumer spending rose a sharper-than-expected 0.7 percent in October, showing the economy off to a solid fourth-quarter start despite a step-up in inflation, a government report showed on Wednesday.

“Looking pretty solid,” said Kurt Karl, head of economic research at Swiss Re in New York. “I would say there is a very good holiday season coming up.”

The stock market was down yesterday on half of the news and up today on the rest of the news. If I can shed any more light on the economy, drop a comment and I’ll be happy to explain it.

Short recommendation: Vote Yes on Proposition 2. The other Proposition 1 is an attempt by the City of Houston to derail the voter-initiated Proposition 2.

Background and long post below for those interested in the numbers and the complicated C.L.O.U.T. email:

The problem with property taxes is that they’re going up much, much faster than income or inflation; they’re tied to the value of your property. On a fixed income, you’re hosed; I’m not on a fixed income, either, but raises in engineering are few and far between these days. Here’s some raw numbers for my school and property taxes since I moved here 5 years ago:

2005: 5603 (estimated)
2004: $5067
2003: $4582
2002: $4141
2001: $3742

As you can see, my taxes have gone up 50% in 5 years. Did you get a 50% pay raise over the last 5 years? Neither did I; and neither should the City of Houston.

Here’s the semi-intelligible C.L.O.U.T. email that will give more details:

Title: CLOUT Supports Prop 2
Author: Paul Bettencourt
Date: 09/24/2004

Dear C.L.O.U.T. Members:

CLOUT urges you to vote for The City of Houston Proposition 2 Revenue Cap signed by 29,000 citizens that has our support as it will reduce the cost of Houston City Government each year by holding all City revenue increases to the inflation rate and population growth. If the City exceeds this limit, these monies must be refunded to the taxpayers or a public vote will be scheduled to allow the tax money to stay in the cities’ hands. This covers all city property tax, sales tax, water and sewer fees, etc… collected in a fiscal year, and it is the same concept proven to be successfully in Colorado called the “Taxpayer Bill of Rights” which has returned 3.2 Billion dollars to state taxpayers since 1993. The Mayor has responded to the citizens petition with a charter amendment called Proposition One, which applies the same ‘yardstick’ of CPI and population increases only to property tax revenues.

The problem is that Prop. One will not save taxpayers a dime for the next few years as yearly City of Houston property tax revenues are no longer growing that fast. It has a 4.5% cap that has a public vote if exceeded, which is also applied to just the water and sewer rates not the fund’s total revenues. Note: Prop. One also has language that adds one more year to an existing over 65 (senior) property tax exemption increase that is already on the books through 2007 at the City of Houston and the Harris County Tax Office!!! This saving of $40 or so won’t occur until the October 2008 tax bill which is four years away, so it’s not timely relief for Seniors. They should know an regular Houston City Council Ordinace passed at any time can help them just like the one passed in the Lee Brown administration and not required for a charter amendment like Prop. One.

By the way, clearly the C.L.O.U.T sponsored appraisal cap reduction legislation from 10% to 5% or less will help homestead property taxpayers as an average Houston home will go up 9% on their tax bill this year alone. That’s a 106% increase over seven years, but with the fact that many business or industrial properties are down in value the City will see a only a 2% property tax revenue increase in 2005 which is not enough to trigger Prop. One in any case. It would of helped Houston Taxpayers five years ago, but it’s not a real solution in today’s conditions. Only Prop. 2 will actually slow the growth of city government, help cut waste, and keep taxpayers’ dollars away from the tax-spenders as it has in Colorado! Vote for Prop. 2 and encourage your friends, family, and your co-workers to do so as well. More detailed C.L.O.U.T analysis on these propositions will be available shortly as it’s important long-term public policy to discuss.

Dan,Edd, & Paul

Some of these topics I’ve already covered. For instance, there have actually been jobs gained under the Bush adminstration, not lost. And that the economy is growing faster than it has in years.

Are these low paying jobs, as John Kerry’s claiming? The numbers don’t support that conclusion:

A new set of numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics actually shows solid growth in employment in relatively higher -paying occupations including construction workers, health-care professionals, business managers, and teachers, and virtually no growth at all in relatively lower-paying occupations including office clerks and assembly-line workers. It’s the most detailed breakdown yet — looking at 154 different job and industry groupings. These statistics are a FactCheck.org exclusive — supplied to us by BLS at our request and not previously published.

Another statistic often overlooked by Bush critics is that average earnings of rank-and-file private-sector workers have increased since Bush took office, though modestly. Even after adjusting for inflation — including the rising price of gasoline –those earnings are up just over 1% since January 2001, despite the recession and the initially slow recovery.

And InformationWeek says that the amount of jobs shipped overseas is greatly exaggerated – not only are more jobs staying here, but it’s the highest paying jobs that are here:

Not surprisingly, pay has increased for the most in-demand positions. Schafer cited some examples–average base salary for a programmer analyst moved from $131,000 last year to $172,500 this year while a business-application delivery manager saw his salary increase from $91,000 to $116,500.

The most sought-after IT specialists remain in senior levels, where pay premiums remain the highest. Senior-level staff in highly technical positions remained the highest paid. Conversely, Schafer found entry-level hiring remained stubbornly static.

As for outsourcing, Schafer found that it, too, has generally been suffering with the slowly recovering economy. Asking survey respondents for the first time for information on offshore outsourcing, the Meta survey revealed that only 20% are currently sending work offshore.

And Bush’s economy for his first 3 years is remarkably better than Clinton’s first 3 years, or have we forgotton?

That’s not to imply some industries haven’t been hit hard – telecommunications, for instance – but the overall economy is in fine shape and poised for even better growth. Kerry’s going to have to find something else besides the economy to harp about.