On this day in history, 1789, our young Republic received its first loan:

In 1989 Secretary Hamilton found the Treasury without funds. On his own responsibility he negotiated a loan for $191,608.81. It sold at par for 6 per cent, interest. The first issue of the loan was on September 13, 1789...

Combined with some other debt accrued for the repayment of Revolutionary War debt, our total indebtedness was estimated to be $75 mil by the end of 1790. With an estimated total personal wealth of $1,150 mil, this amounted to a ratio of 6.5 cents for every dollar.

Today, our total unfunded liabilities are $110 trillion. Personal wealth was estimated, at the beginning of 2010, at roughly $55 trillion.

Hence, our current liabilities, as a nation, come to $2 for every $1 of wealth. That's right, we owe double what we have. So rather than pass along to our children a heritage of prosperity and opportunity, we saddle them with our debt! That is an evil and a betrayal of our posterity, and will be the cause of our generation's everlasting shame.

From http://KeepingTheRepublic.org

A natural gas pipeline rupture and explosion in California late last week is providing the Administration with a welcome opportunity to attack a new evil energy sector. The explosion killed 4 people, injured dozens, and burned over 50 homes. The UK Examiner reports

The cause of the fire, traced to a pipeline operated by the Pacific Gas & Electric company in the town of San Bruno, was under investigation today. But it ramps up public pressure for the Obama administration to take a hard look at one of the fastest growing sources of American energy.

But without any explanation, the report goes here:

Shale gas production in the US rose 71% over the last decade, according to the Natural Resources Defence Council.

Although energy from natural gas has lower carbon emissions than coal, environmental organisations are sounding the alarm about a controversial method used to get the natural gas out of the rock.

Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, a method developed by the Halliburton oil services company, uses a mix of water sand and chemicals such as diesel fuel to break up rock formations deep underground and free trapped deposits of oil and gas.

So the logic here is impecable. Halliburton (at Richard Cheney's direction, I have no doubt) has loosed fire from its headquarters in the infernal regions to blow up a pipeline. That is why they MUST take a careful look at fracking! Ah...can anyone say "moratorium"?

More at http://KeepingTheRepublic.org

Figures to be released this week are expected to show the largest ever recorded rise in the poverty level for the U.S. Newsmax reports that a consensus view that an increase of 14.7 to 15% poverty will be reported, bringing the number of poor to 45 million, or 1 of every 7 Americans.

It would be the highest single-year increase since the government began calculating poverty figures in 1959. The previous high was in 1980 when the rate jumped 1.3 percentage points to 13 percent during the energy crisis.

In response, Obama (having had his golf clubs taken away) will attend a summit and give a speech, which may include a little Bible to appease those bitter clingers who happen to also be poor. Something like: "Go in peace, be warmed and filled." [James 2:16] After blaming George Bush, he is also likely to repeat his position, according to imaginary inside sources, that this is yet more proof his economic plans are working, although "progress has been painfully slow."

Immediately following the summit, a Po' Folk Czar will be invented, freeing up the President to resume work on his swing with golfing aficianado Charles Barkley.

From http://KeepingTheRepublic.org

As reported at the Foundry

This month General Electric will shut down the last major incandescent light bulb factory in the United States, and the 200 workers in Winchester will lose their jobs. Green advocates hold that more jobs will be created making the high-tech replacements. Too bad the green-job theory is wrong.

The greenie wackos strike again! Yes, just what we Americans are in the mood for right now: sending our jobs to China, and NO MORE INCANDESCENTS.

Washington’s green-economy fantasy is imposing a strange deal on Americans: higher costs and fewer jobs in the U.S. in exchange for a partial offset in employment in China. Why are we paying for that?

A little matter will move a party, but it must be something great that moves a nation.

- Thomas Paine, Rights of Man, 1792

Barack Obama, community organizer turned President humbled himself on the Oprah show by giving himself only a B+. Remember that?

Well, check out the CBS News online poll! Of course, nothing scientific, here. But CBS is not FOX News, so we might expect it to lean in Obama's favor. Think again!

Here were the results when I took the poll on 9/11/2010:

So American seems to have a slightly different opinion, eh Mr. President?

You might say, the People are speaking up. Their message:

From http://KeepingTheRepublic.org

A Republic...