So what if Sarah Palin didn’t write this book? Even God used earthly scribes to write the Bible

— Amazon Reviewer

No, I’m not kidding:

• Where Are They Now ?
• Meet Sarah Palin’s Ghostwriter
• Sarah Palin Far Behind Huckbee And Romney In Head-To-Head Matchups
• Sarah Palin Headed To Studio 8H
• Stupid Political Quotes

A growing effort in the House to require periodic audits of the Federal Reserve is little more than “great PR,” one Republican senator stressed Friday.

Reps. Ron Paul (R-Texas) and Alan Grayson’s (D-Fla.) effort to subject much of the Fed’s records, communications and decisions to public scrutiny survived a key committee vote this week, and it now over 300 supporters in the House. But Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) told CNBC Friday morning that the amendment was little more than “pandering [to] populism.”

“For the Congress to get into monetary policy, it’s just absolutely inexcusable,” he said. “We can’t handle fiscal policy, but now we want to manage monetary policy? One of the great strengths of our nation is an independent Fed, and this idea that’s coming out of the House, which is populist fervor … is absolutely wrong, and it would do fundamental damage to our system of monetary policy.”

“They’re all absolutely wrong, there’s no question about it, and [it's] because they want to get reelected,” a frustrated Gregg added. “It’s great PR; you go home and beat up the Fed.”

The fact that monitoring monetary policy is part of Congress’s duty under the Constitution seems to have escaped Senator Gregg’s attention.

Video:

• Judd Gregg: Obama’s Budget Will Bankrupt America
• Democrats About To Obtain 60 Seat Senate Majority ?
• New Hampshire Governor Clears Way For Gregg To Move To Commerce
• Judd Gregg Withdraws As Commerce Secretary
• Judd Gregg Appointed To Cabinet Post He Voted To Eliminate

The national debt belongs to both parties. But at least the Democrats don’t go on Fox News day after day proclaiming how fiscally conservative they are, and organize tea parties to rant about deficits, without ever putting forward any plan for reducing them. Nor do they pretend that they have no responsibility whatsoever for projected deficits, at least half of which can be traced directly to Republican policies, according to Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag.

It astonishes me that a party enacting anything like the drug benefit would have the chutzpah to view itself as fiscally responsible in any sense of the term. As far as I am concerned, any Republican who voted for the Medicare drug benefit has no right to criticize anything the Democrats have done in terms of adding to the national debt. Space prohibits listing all their names, but the final Senate vote can be found here and the House vote here.

– Bruce Bartlett

• Obama’s OMB Director: We’ll Reduce Deficits By Spending More Money
• Yes American Middle-Class, Barack Obama Will Raise Your Taxes
• White House Revises Deficit Forecast, Sees Recession Lasting Through 2010
• CBO Deals Another Blow To ObamaCare
• Still No Good News For The GOP

My review of Burns’ biography can be found here.

• The World Of Ayn Rand
• Ayn Rand: The Fountainhead Of The Modern Libertarian Movement
• Gene Healy Talks About The Cult Of The Presidency
• The Enduring Legacy Of Ayn Rand
• Government vs. Prosperity

And, yes Sarah Palin did support the TARP bailout.

These people walk among us, and they vote.

• What She Said
• Oppose The Bailout ? Vote For Bob Barr
• Sarah Palin Headed To Studio 8H
• Once Again, A Poll Shows Obama Beating Palin
• Comment Left Elsewhere Of The Day

More bad poll numbers for the White House:

PRINCETON, NJ — The latest Gallup Daily tracking results show 49% of Americans approving of the job Barack Obama is doing as president, putting him below the majority approval level for the first time in his presidency.

Although the current decline below 50% has symbolic significance, most of the recent decline in support for Obama occurred in July and August. He began July at 60% approval. The ongoing, contentious debate over national healthcare reform has likely served as a drag on his public support, as have continuing economic problems. Americans are also concerned about the Obama administration’s reliance on government spending to solve the nation’s problems and the growing federal budget deficit. Since September, Obama’s approval rating had been holding in the low 50s and, although it has reached 50% numerous times, it had never dropped below 50% until now.

Of the post-World War II presidents, Obama now is the fourth fastest to drop below the majority approval level, doing so in his 10th month on the job. Gerald Ford dropped below 50% approval during his third month in office, and Bill Clinton did so in his fourth month. Ronald Reagan, like Obama, also dropped below 50% in his 10th month in office, though Reagan’s drop occurred a few days sooner in that month (Nov. 13-16, 1981) than did Obama’s (Nov. 17-19, 2009).

And while Obama may jump back over 50% in the near future, the overall trend is pretty clear:

My guess is that this is likely to continue as long as the economy continues to flounder.

• How Far Has Obama Fallen: An Historical Perspective
• Obama’s Approval Ratings Remain High
• 52% Of New Jersey Republicans Don’t Believe Barack Obama Was Born In The United States
• Obama’s Poll Numbers Continue To Decline
• Obama’s Support Continues To Decline As Independents Fall Away

• Freedom of Speech Means Freedom To Offend
• Glenn Beck: Individual Rights “Belong To God”
• Ron Paul Talks To Glenn Beck About MIAC And The Fed
• Republican Congressman To Constituents: Stop Watching Glenn Beck
• Glenn Beck: Atheists To Blame For All Of America’s Problems

Senator John McCain’s future in the U.S. Senate may be a little less assured than previously thought.

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely 2010 Republican Primary voters in Arizona finds the longtime incumbent in a virtual tie with potential challenger J.D. Hayworth. McCain earns 45% of the vote, while Hayworth picks up 43%.

Former Minuteman leader Chris Simcox gets four percent (4%) support, while two percent (2%) prefer some other candidate and seven percent (7%) are undecided.

Hayworth, a conservative former U.S. congressman who now is a popular radio talk show host in Phoenix, is reportedly interested in the race but has not formally declared for it. He captures 59% of the male GOP vote, while McCain wins 58% of female voters.

Something tells me Hayworth is thinking this over this morning.

• Previewing The Presidential Race In Virginia
• A New Jersey Surprise ?
• Beer Drinkers For McCain, Wine Drinkers For Hillary & Obama
• Rasmussen Poll: Peter Schiff In Statistical Tie With Chris Dodd
• Palin’s 2012 Prospects Don’t Look Good At All

Allegiance is a state of loyalty or devotion. A declaration of allegiance is not something to be taken lightly. It is a modern form of a declaration of fealty, the oath that a person took under feudalism that bound him to obey his lord’s commands, even unto death. The oath these children are ordered to make is loyalty not to any idea or set of principles, but to a flag, a symbol of the state. Change three words, and a Cuban child could utter it in devotion to Castro, a North Korean to the government of Kim Il Sung, a Scottish child to the British Queen or a French child to the Republic.

(…)

The pledge of allegiance is not compatible with a free country. Written by a socialist who sought to indoctrinate children with the idea that they should be servants of the state, it opposes the very principles underlying the Declaration of Independence. It is the duty of every patriotic American, whose loyalties are to those principles rather than some flag or body of men, to oppose it. Let the enemies of freedom distinguish themselves by compelling people to take oaths against their will. Let us once again embrace freedom and expel the rotten pledge of allegiance from our schools.

Well, Michael Lind has come up with a solution:

While a pledge of allegiance by the subject to the government is incompatible with American republican principles, a voluntary pledge of mutual support among the people who collectively create and own the government might be useful, if only as a succinct catechism of the American Creed. If we drop the strained and unnecessary language about “their Creator” and “divine Providence,” designed to offend neither Christians nor 18th-century Deists, and replace the topical phrase “this Declaration” with a reference to the enduring principles of republican liberty, we might get something like this:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundations on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. And for the support of these principles, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Call this purely voluntary pledge the Citizens’ Pledge of Mutual Support for the Principles of the Declaration of Independence, or simply, the Citizens’ Pledge. It would be addressed by Americans directly to one another, rather than to the flag or any other symbol of the state. Oh, and if you give a stiff-armed salute, you’ll be sent to the principal’s office.

Works for me

H/T: Cato@Liberty

• Is The Pledge Of Allegiance Un-American ?
• Americans Support Mandatory Patriotism
• Virginia GOP Drops Loyalty Oath Plan
• Judge Napolitano: Revolution Is A Duty Of The People
• Why Ron Paul Is Wrong About Secession

• Peter Schiff Talks About Bernanke’s Reappointment
• Ron Paul And Peter Schiff On Obama’s Economic Plans
• Republican Liberty Caucus Endorses Rand Paul And Peter Schiff
• Peter Schiff: Get Out Of The Dollar
• Peter Schiff On The Coming “Economic Wasteland”