The Conservative Soldier

Here at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, portfolio manager Eric Singer is offering attendees an opportunity to recoup some of their investment losses.

Singer founded Congressional Effect Management, a fund that seeks to “minimize the market’s political risk by only investing in equities when Congress is on vacation.”

He’s also publishing an e-letter, the Congressional Wealth Destruction Monitor.

Since launching his strategy in May 2008, Singer claims a 0.22% return that has significantly outperformed the S&P 500 (down 38.5% in the same period).

This got my attention: Singer says that, in the past 44 years, the vast majority of the stock market’s returns have been gained on days when Congress is on recess.

Dear Sen. McCain:

I stepped into a voting booth in suburban Chicago on Nov. 4, 2008, and cast my vote for John McCain to be President of the United States. I did so proudly, as a conservative Republican, and without trepidation.

Before casting that vote, I donated thousands of dollars to your Presidential campaign. I encouraged friends and neighbors to do the same. And I distributed McCain/Palin yard signs in my community, proudly wearing a McCain cap as well.

I did this because I believed you were qualified and deserving to be President. I supported you because I embrace the powerful message of “Country First”. And when you admonished audiences on the campaign trail to “stand up, stand up, stand up and fight”, I stood up.

Today, you stood up once again — at President B. Hussein Obama’s ridiculous Fiscal Responsibility Summit, an event staged only days after Obama signed a Fiscally Reprehensible $787 billion spending bill. I appreciated your searing, dry humor, engaged in a hostile setting to criticize the federal government’s audacity in planning to spend obscene amounts of money on a new fleet of Marine One helicopters for the White House.

(The price tag for one new chopper, $400 million, exceeds the cost of the pair of Air Force One Boeing 747s, $363 million, that went into service in 1990. And, it should be added, 28 of these $400 million mega-choppers are on order).

You stood up, Senator, but I fear you ultimately surrendered. If you truly believe in “Country First” you would not have been anywhere near the White House today. You would have remained far removed from this bogus public relations stunt, this orchestrated “Summit”.

Obama is making a mockery of the White House. He uses it as a large, elegant television studio for his endless parade of announcements and task forces. You would put your country first by rejecting the dangerous spending bills and bailouts Obama is shoving down the throats of the American people.

The campaign for the Presidency is over. But the the battle to keep our union strong never ends. The war to preserve the Constitution can not afford a truce.

In another lifetime, you endured the humiliation of the Hanoi Hilton in Vietnam. Today, I urge you to stand up and fight. Reject Obama’s White House. We have entered a tenuous age when 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is the address of the Barack Hussein Hilton. Enter with extreme caution.

A former Senator, Phil Gramm, and a former trader and financial services executive, Rick Santelli, have in the past two days availed themselves of high profile media platforms to call out the myths attendant to the nation’s housing crisis and resulting $275 billion Obama “solution”. For their articulate forays, those who wish to continue living in the United States rather than the European Union’s westernmost outpost should be thankful.

The Wall Street Journal on Friday published part of a paper Gramm recently presented to the American Enterprise Institute in which he explains how deliberate politicizing of home mortgage lending by fervent Democrats created an untenable bubble. Within just 12 years (1994-2006), mortgages classified as subprime (replete with alluring teaser rates for entrapping unqualified first-time homeowners) rose from 4% of the lending landscape to 20%.

This, plus the sudden arrival and equally rapid exodus of real estate speculators, combined with massive jobs cuts across multiple industries, led to the current foreclosure fiasco. A lot of people were homeowners on a wing and a prayer.

Everyone in America should have the expectation of a roof over their heads. Obviously, some people do not, while others will experience roofs of expanding and contracting size and/or quality across their lifetimes. What set off Santelli, who echoed the opinion of untold tens of millions of conscientious, responsible Americans, was President Barack Hussein Obama’s politically motivated pledge this week to give those facing foreclosure a bailout to keep them in their homes.

In the age of YouTube, Santelli became an overnight sensation, but he is hardly a newcomer to the world of capitalism or television. Regular CNBC viewers have been watching Santelli’s reports from Chicago for a decade. Before he joined the cable network, he was a Chicago Merc order filler/trader who rose to become an executive with several reputable firms. Santelli has not participated in the dramatic shift to the left that has eroded NBC/CNBC/MSNBC during the past decade. He is an unapologetic capitalist and straight talker.

His message has been ripped apart by the radical liberal media and White House press chimp Robert Gibbs, which was not unexpected. He is an elitist swine, they say. No compassion, they howl. Yet, Santelli merely took up by several notches a conversation that has been going on in venues across America, from roadside diners to gated country clubs.

If 91-92% of American homeowners dutifully pay their mortgages every month, and, in fact, would never think of flirting with foreclosure no matter the sacrifice (a second job sought, a nest egg depleted, a retirement postponed), why should we further burden our already obscene national debt with an additional $275 billion hit? Why should we underwrite poor judgment, why should we rescue people who were either clearly gaming the system (speculators) or delusional (unqualified mortgagees) or, like that octuplet mom, moronic?

Bailouts will fail before they will bail. Most people with even partially developed brains know this. They say, “Let the system prevail.” Banks, automakers, home owners. Some must go down. Most will claw back, survive, and live to embrace once again the promise of America.

Let me present the best analogy I have been able to summon amid this crisis. It is my own. So if it falls short, I stand ready to endure the backlash. A detached home with a driveway is indeed a shining aspirational jewel. But just because a home can be owned does not mean every individual will succeed in becoming a homeowner. Think about it this way. Man can fly. We have airplanes that fly very safely and swiftly. They are a marvel.

I can fly from point A to point B much more quickly than I can drive. But if I choose to become my own pilot I must seriously accept the responsibility. I must endeavor to understand the nuances of my course of action, and I must recognize its complexities. When I am in flight training, I can’t allow my eyes to glaze over reading the section entitled, “Extreme Turbulence Above Rugged Terrain”. I can’t afford to assume that the plane and its manufacturers and Mother Nature will not hold me to account when I settle into the cockpit.

But what if I decide to cut a few corners? Like an unqualified borrower, what if I decide to ignore the “adjustable” dynamics of an ARM loan? What if I take the plane out for a spin on a crystal clear morning? I know how to take off and I know how to level off at a cruising altitude. The views from up here are incredible, I tell my self. I never want to go back to earth. Who wouldn’t want to be up here?

I am flying along just like any other pilot. I am the Wright Brothers. I am Charles Lindbergh. I am Amelia Erhart. I belong. Then, the storm clouds gather. The winds change. Temperatures fall.

The plane is pitching. Ice is forming on my wings. Wind sheer is compromising my glide path.

Why? Why didn’t I pay attention? Why didn’t I focus on the important stuff? Why wasn’t I ready, protected, from the perils I am confronting?

I am the pilot. I have chosen my fate. Who can save me? I will crash at any moment. I will return to earth with a thud. It was nice up here. But what was I thinking? I was not ready. I have only myself to blame.

When they come for me, I will not be intact. It will be too late to bail me out.