Links and Minifeatures 05 04 Thursday

If you're looking for my article on "Southern California Real Estate and Loan Market Outlook" the link is here. For some reason it's not displaying on the main page, and I can't access it myself at the moment to fix the typo in the title. I had to get the link from email. Probably something I inadvertently did myself, and I've asked Powerblogs tech support for help. I hope to have it restored soon.



UPDATE: Okay, I've got a copy of the post in email, but Powerblogs is acting awfully squirrelly here. The post is not showing up at all now, and that includes after I cut and pasted it a second time. I will post it again as soon as this problem gets straightened out.



UPDATE AGAIN: As I was getting ready to post, I decided to try one more time. The link above is now fixed. I hope this is the last word on the subject.

**********

From Remarks by President Bush to the American Council of Engineering Companies

But the problem is, is that there are fewer payers per beneficiary into the system than ever before. In other words, there is a heavy burden on a young generation of Americans coming up to pay the promises that Congress has made. And I really, really think that Congress has got to address this issue with me.



I tried last year, I took it on, Social Security in particular, and went around the country saying, folks, we got a problem — on the theory that when the people said we got a problem, Congress would respond. Well, I got half of it right. (Laughter.) People said, we got a problem. And it's so political up here that it's difficult at this stage of the game to get people to come together, to come with a bipartisan solution. Look, we don't have to cut programs. It's like making sure you slow your car down to the speed limit. You don't have to put it in reverse. There are common-sense ways to keep the promises to the generation that is fixing to retire, but make sure that future generations will have a sound Social Security and Medicare system.



So I just want to assure you this issue is on my mind a lot. I like to remind people that the job of a President is to confront problems, no matter how difficult they may look, and not pass them on to future Presidents. I also believe — (applause.) So we're in the process of working with Democrats and Republicans to come together to forge a bipartisan solution so that we can say we did our duty, that we came and we made the system work better. It's a really important issue.

This man may make mistakes and I certainly have my disagreements with him, but he's a walking talking miracle: an elected politician willing to take responsibility and fix a problem that he could ignore. The whole speech reads like something Reagan would have said, but even Reagan never had the guts to tell Congress he'd give them the political cover for fixing social security.



**********



via Combs Spouts Off, I read Of Fire in a Field, having to do with 9/11 and United 93, both the flight and the movie. I highly recommend you do, as well.



**********



What he said: Captain's Quarters on the differences between natural rights and civil rights, as that difference relates to the illegal immigration debate and the Civil Rights movements of the 1950s and 60s.



**********



Frontpage tells us what the Cuban Revolution was really like.



**********



Lest Darkness Fall has a good article on the effects of the illegal alien boycott on Los Angeles. San Diego was much the same, from what I can tell.



My supervising broker (himself a legal immigrant from Mexico while a child) said it best, "If this is what happens when they boycott, I hope they do it more often!"



**********



Ogre notes a certain consistency to the "Big Government" mindset.