The aphorism, "There's a sucker born every minute" is attributed to PT Barnum. Wikipedia also lists "1860s Chicago "bounty broker, saloon and gambling-house keeper, eminent politician, and dispenser of cheating privileges..." Michael Cassius McDonald" as the originator of the quip. Somehow that seems more as our own present-day Chicago bounty broker, eminient politician and dispenser of cheating privileges is the mark this time - along with Eugene Robinson among no doubt any number of other gullible Global Warming saps.

So, who is the sharpie flimflamming our presidential flimflammer and his co-conspirators in the MSM? China. Eugene Robinson celebrates the non-deal negotiated with the naive hopefulness most sane people have gotten over in high school. But not Eugene. He's probably waiting for the homecoming queen to return his calls too.

Mr. Robinson wistfully writes,

"My conclusion is that for now, at least, the conceptual advance made in Durban is as good as it gets.

"This advance is, potentially, huge: For the first time, officials of the nations that are the biggest carbon emitters -- China, the United States and India -- have agreed to negotiate legally binding restrictions."

A promise by notorious fakers to sincerely talk about seriously discussing honest negotiations with firm commitments to come to the table to consider the way-forward in developing a framework for further discussions... "potentially huge"... So is the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

"The Durban talks seemed likely to go nowhere until the Chinese delegate, Xie Zhenhua, announced that Beijing was willing to consider a legally binding framework for regulating emissions. With China now responsible for fully 23 percent of the world's carbon emissions, this was an enormous step forward.

"India, however, wasn't so sure about agreeing to negotiate a "legal framework" specifying binding commitments."

Indians seem to be more astute than our current government.

I can't see how China can lose by taking the position it has. By feigning interest in curbing pollution, it can pose as a good global citizen. If the US repeats its errors of 2008, China has a good chance of having the Obama administration hobble the US economy even while interminable talks are planned. If an actual agreement were to be achieved while the Democrats control the White House and Congress, there is every possibility they would make disadvantaging US industry relative to China a law. Of course China would sign the same agreement as the US. But does anyone NOT a Democrat believe China would honor any agreement? Certainly India knows better.

Social Security Scam

The current debate over the FICA tax holiday is an opportunity to shed some light on the Social Security scheme.

I hear Leftists repeatedly misrepresenting SocSec to the point where they own the terms of the debate.

A representative of some beltway organization lied that the SocSec trust fund has so many trillions of dollars and is solvent for another twenty years or more. He also pretended that there are actual accounts with actual value guaranteed to workers who have 'contributed' to the program.

Of course, none of this is so.

The 'trust fund' holds non-negotiable Treasury bills. The tax dollars used to buy those bills went into the Treasury general fund (that's the one that is $14T in the hole and borrowing over $1T per year. In other words, there is no money there waiting to redeem those Treasury bills. Might as well be Solyndra stock or an MT Global account.

There is no contractual or fiscal relationship between the dollars we have paid in FICA taxes and what we may be given in SocSec payments. Your FICA taxes are a percentage of your income based on the law at the time. Your SocSec payments will be based on the law at the time. The fact that AARP and others can convince so many uninformed Seniors that the Congress can 'take away' or reduce their current SocSec 'benefits' should be proof enough that you have no contractual claim to your contributions. Your 'benefits' are subject to Congressional and regulatory decisions. If your FICA taxes had actually bought Treasury bills or bonds, you would own that portion of the federal debt. The interest on those bills would have been set when they were issued and the proceeds would be yours. The Treasury or Congress would not have the authority to change the terms of the debt you purchased. If your FICA payments had gone into an annuity, the insurance company would be contractually obligated to annuitize the value of the policy and pay you the contractually agreed to amount. The insurance company would not have the authority to change the terms of the contract.

Simply put, none of us OWN our SocSec accounts or the federal debt in them. They are ledger entries, at best.

Next lie: Republicans want to destroy Social Security and let old people die in poverty. Well, no. Some Republicans do, but they are the ones who don't want to act to save a social safety net by allowing SocSec to continue on reformed. Conservatives and responsible Republicans (but I repeat myself) recognize the moral necessity of a true safety net for those who need help. But they also recognize that SocSec is no longer filling that role, while it is consuming unsustainably larger portions of the nation's wealth.

Now that the Left has shown everyone that there is nothing magical about SocSec 'contributions', maybe we can have the conversation necessary. SocSec was based on an industrial society with a growing population. Life expectancy was 20 years or more less than today. There was no such thing as a 401K or IRA. The situation has changed. The program ought to change to fit the current situation.

How anyone can call themselves "Progressive" when they fight to the death to resist updating an 80 year old program is a mystery to rational people.

Not as bad as Hizzoner, but close.

I received this quiz in an email from a friend. It was short, about a dozen questions on how you pronounce particular words. I was dubious that it would work, but there it is. It pegged me.

What American accent do you have? Your Result: Philadelphia Your accent is as Philadelphian as a cheesesteak! If you're not from Philadelphia, then you're from someplace near there like south Jersey, Baltimore, or Wilmington. if you've ever journeyed to some far off place where people don't know that Philly has an accent, someone may have thought you talked a little weird even though they didn't have a clue what accent it was they heard.
The Northeast
The Midland
The Inland North
The South
Boston
The West
North Central
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Border Security

This revelation in the Officer Brian Terry murder and related "Fast and Furious" fiasco is dismaying, but not surprising:

Armed illegals stalked Border Patrol

Mexicans were ‘patrolling’ when agent was slain, indictment says

"Five illegal immigrants armed with at least two AK-47 semi-automatic assault rifles were hunting for U.S. Border Patrol agents near a desert watering hole known as Mesquite Seep just north of the Arizona-Mexico border when a firefight erupted and one U.S. agent was killed, records show.

A now-sealed federal grand jury indictment in the death of Border Patrol agent Brian A. Terry says the Mexican nationals were “patrolling” the rugged desert area of Peck Canyon at about 11:15 p.m. on Dec. 14 with the intent to “intentionally and forcibly assault” Border Patrol agents."

Seems to me that if Mexican drug cartels are patrolling on our side of the border with assault rifles, we ought to be patrolling our border with something more than lightly armed border patrol agents. Maybe an MQ-9 Predator?

"Two AK-47 assault rifles found at the scene came from the failed Fast and Furious operation.

Using thermal binoculars, one of the agents determined that at least two of the Mexicans were carrying rifles, but according to an affidavit in the case by FBI agent Scott Hunter, when the Mexicans did not drop their weapons as ordered, two agents used their shotguns to fire “less than lethal” beanbags at them."

And it seems perfectly obvious to the normally intelligent that invaders carrying AK-47s encountered inside our sovereign borders ought to be met with something more than beanbags. May I suggest an M107 Barrett .50 caliber sniper rifle?

Lest anyone accuse me of wanting to militarize the border, I'd just like to point out that Mexican nationals armed with assault rifles "at the ready" and night vision devices patrolling inside the United States looking to ambush lightly armed agents of the Federal government means the border has already been militarized by someone else.

Peggy Noonan on Paul Ryan

In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, Peggy Noonan does not merely contrast Paul Ryan and Barrack Obama, although she does that most excellently. Ryan is a thinker who is genuinely interested in solving this nation's problems and who is able to present his well-considered solutions in a coherent manner. Obama is a crass politician whose only concern is self-preservation and whose only interest in our economic woes are in how to turn them to his advantage.

We all knew that, but she demonstrates it so well.

The greatest value of this piece, however, is in the showcase of Ryan's position on crony capitalism and the conservative case for free markets. It shreds the Leftist meme that conservatives are defenders of big business and 'the rich.'

From the closing paragraphs of her piece:

"But Republicans, in their desire to defend free economic activity, shouldn't be snookered by unthinking fealty to big business. They should never defend—they should actively oppose—the kind of economic activity that has contributed so heavily to the crisis. Here Mr. Ryan slammed "corporate welfare and crony capitalism."

"Why have we extended an endless supply of taxpayer credit to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, instead of demanding that their government guarantee be wound down and their taxpayer subsidies ended?" Why are tax dollars being wasted on bankrupt, politically connected solar energy firms like Solyndra? "Why is Washington wasting your money on entrenched agribusiness?"

Rather than raise taxes on individuals, we should "lower the amount of government spending the wealthy now receive." The "true sources of inequity in this country," he continued, are "corporate welfare that enriches the powerful, and empty promises that betray the powerless." The real class warfare that threatens us is "a class of bureaucrats and connected crony capitalists trying to rise above the rest of us, call the shots, rig the rules, and preserve their place atop society."

That is exactly right. Regulation does necessarily favors Jones over Smith. Particularly if Jones helps to write the regulation. The free market favors whichever provides the best value to consumers. The Left portrays the marketplace as a jungle in which businesses are predators on consumers. But in fact, in a free market, the businesses are the game. The slowest or the weakest die. In our current over-regulated crony-capitalist market, BA survives and Goldman Sachs becomes 'too big to fail' through connections with the zoo keeper rather than through competition. In this case, the consumer really is fed to the second hand lions.
I don't always agree with Peggy Noonan's opinion. But there are few better essayists than she.

Why aren't Liberals Funny?

They get their news from Jon Stewart, their opinions from Bill Maher and elected Al Franken to the U.S. Senate. You'd think Liberals would be hilarious. But their plans for the country are no laughing matter and the effects of their efforts are sad.

Who said it?

"A hesitant America, disengaging from its commitments and uncertain as to its role, will inspire disillusion among its allies and confidence on the part of its adversaries. A strong, self-confident America will help create the conditions for its own security and that of its allies and friends."

A. John Bolton, 2009

B. Ronald Reagan, 1980

C. Michelle Bachmann, 2011

D. Barack Obama, 2008

E. Jordan, Taylor, and Associates in "American National Security"; a text book published shortly after the end of the Carter presidency, 1981

The answer is E. I just threw D in there for fun. But it illustrates the fact that Obama's foreign policy is rivaling Jimmy Carter's for ineptitude and damage to American security. And the fact that all of the grown ups in the room today seem to be members of the Republican party.

Thomas Friedman is Flat

Thomas Friedman's new book, "That Used to Be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World It Invented and How We Can Come Back" is the wrong answer to the question everyone is asking. Andrew Ferguson saves the rest of us the trouble of reading the book with his review in the WSJ.

I'm happy to say that I have saved myself the trouble of reading Freidman's earlier books. In the realm of public policy, the conventional wisdom is always conventional but seldom wise. History hasn't ended, the world isn't flat, there is nothing wrong with Kansas and the "Arab Spring" has shown itself to be a false spring as a blizzard of Islamist anti-Americanism and anti-Zionism has blown across the Middle East. I occasionally encounter Friedman in an interview or article and I am consistently unimpressed by his and narrow opinions - tediously commonplace for someone who is styled as an opinion leader.

Couldn't have said it better myself

"To the degree the press neglected its function as watchdog and turned cupbearer to a Styrofoam demigod, it is a partner in the flaws and failures of what is turning out to be one of the most miserable performances in the modern history of the American presidency."
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2011/09/17/rex-murphy-the-medias-love-affair-with-a-disastrous-president/

Austerity

Federal fiscal austerity does not equal national austerity. I hear Statists and other Leftists complaining that the economy cannot withstand the sort of cuts to federal spending that conservatives recommend. What the economy needs, they claim is more federal spending. The economy cannot withstand austerity when demand is already weak.

Well, the federal government spends VAST amounts of money. But it doesn't spend all of the money. Thank God. And if the federal government did start to roll back its overspending, most people probably wouldn't notice very much - at first. A bunch of government employees, service contractors and suppliers of consumables would take a hit when they had to go find honest work elsewhere at a competitive wage. State and city governments would have to re-evaluate the services the provide and the employee benefits they dispose.

But the national economy would trundle on as these temporary disruptions worked themselves out. However, at the same time, businesses and entrepreneurs would realize they have re-gained some economic freedom and would seize the opportunity to expand or to launch a business.

I suspect that federal austerity does equal national prosperity.

We tried the other way and it didn't work, let's try this.

Spinning Road Kill

A successful post-Bush foreign policy

Green Names

This article in the Philadelphia Inquirer isn't remarkable because of the silly things Eco-loons say or because there is any chance they won't line up like zombies in a brain laboratory for Obama in 2010. It is because of the names they were stuck with:

"It’s sort of premature to say what we’re going to do in the elections today," said Tiernan Sittenfeld, the League of Conservation Voters’s senior vice president for government affairs. “I think obviously the administration has done some great things. But there’s also been some real disappointments, and today’s ozone announcement is at the top of the list."

Other groups were livid.

"This is a new low for President Obama," said Kieran Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity. "He sold out public health and environmental protection to appease polluters.”"

C-SPAN Seminar Calls of the Week

Seems like this week's C-Span seminar caller talking point, in advance of the president's speech, is that small business people are not complaining about taxes or regulations. They are, according to these callers, talking about demand.
Spurious, no doubt. The fact that I've heard the same argument, almost verbatim, from at least 3 callers in the course of 1 week, is curious in itself.
The most generous explanation I can think of is that it is perfectly natural to ask your barber or grocer or what have you, "how's business?" The most reasonable answer during the current undeclared recession is, "Terrible. No one is spending any money. Too many of my customers are looking for work." It would be unnatural to answer that question with, "Regulations are strangling my ability to grow my business and high taxes are keeping me from hiring more workers." Both answers are very likely true, but the first one is the most likely answer to the question.


But I see little reason to be generous. Today's caller said that the folks he was talking to complained about a lack of 'demand'. Now, unless they are suffering from a lack of demand for Keynesian economists, the word "demand' is an unnatural word in that context. But it is the exact right word if you are building an argument for more federal 'stimulus' spending. So, I suspect it was made up.

What Sort of Idiot Hires Idiots?

UPDATE:

Half of the country recognizes that the government wastes half the money it takes from us.

"Most Americans think the federal government wastes more than half of the tax dollars it collects, according to a recent Gallup Poll.
On average, the guesstimate of waste is 51 cents of every dollar, the highest level going back at least 32 years that Gallup has been asking the question."

What kind of idiots are we?


Half of the country thinks the previous president was an idiot.

Half of the country thinks the current president is an idiot.


Over 3/4s of the country thinks the Congress is full of idiot.

Why do we give so much power and money to a bunch of idiots?

Maureen Dowd's "man-caused disasters"

I suppose as a writer, Maureen Dowd doesn’t suck, but as a thinker… that’s another story. And, of course, she is a poster-child for Ronald Reagan’s observation that, “The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they are ignorant, but that they know so much that isn't so.”

In her perennial defense of government and the malefactors who use it to impose their will on us, Dowd starts with a slimy Red Herring: “Should those whose job it is to prepare for the worst be punished because the worst didn’t happen?”

Of course not!, we reply without thinking. But think a little bit more about the question and the answer is obvious: Yes, they should be punished when they do a poor job; when the decisions they are empowered to make are bad decisions.

Dowd continues: “The Republican (Gov Christie) said he didn’t think that Democrats and Republicans were debating this: “Protecting the safety of our citizens is one of the bedrock roles of government.”

Not so bedrock for some of the Flintstones types in Washington who are now hotly debating austerity versus salvation.”

Since when are tax increases synonymous with ‘salvation’? Since when was government the source of our salvation? Dowd has strange gods indeed. Those “Flintstones” recognize something Dowd refuses to: austerity is essential to the salvation of our government and the society that has grown to depend on it.

“The impressively hands-on performances of Christie, Bloomberg and Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York were not enough to make Tea Partiers, Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul and Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor root for big government against rampaging nature.”

No matter how impressively hands-on your government overseers might be, in a contest between them and ‘rampaging nature’, bet on nature.

“Though his state of Virginia was the epicenter of an earthquake before being hit by Irene, Cantor has insisted that additional money for cash-strapped FEMA must be offset by spending cuts, echoing his remarks in May that money sent to traumatized tornado victims in Joplin, Mo., would mean cuts somewhere else.”

The logical fallacies come hot and heavy in a Dowd piece, and sometimes they jumble all together. This one, I think, is either a false dichotomy or more likely a non sequitur. See, Cantor isn’t proposing that the federal government skimp on disaster relief – which to a certain extent is a proper role for government. Just the opposite. He is rationally prioritizing limited resources by taking money away from lower federal priorities to pay for the higher priority of disaster recovery. Something an adult might consider. Something Dowd, Bernie Sanders and well, Democrats in general, never think of. Maybe families, businesses, and local governments flooded out of the Midwest or burned out in Texas or blown out on the East Coast are a greater priority than Big Bird, Dewey Cheatem and How, or that billion dollar enterprise, PPFA. Maybe so, says Mo and Bernie, but they are all more important than current and future tax payers every time.

“In a briefing at the White House Monday, FEMA Director Craig Fugate said that the lesson of Katrina is for the federal government to “get things going earlier” and not wait until an overwhelmed state “says we’re going to need help.”

Too bad that didn’t occur to W. in 2005. He met with Gov. Kathleen Blanco of Louisiana and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin on Air Force One and correctly assessed that they were not up to the job but then retreated behind clinical states’ rights arguments as a great American city drowned.”

Ah, the Constitution is now “clinical states’ rights arguments” just as the Global War on Terror is now an “Overseas Contingency Operation” and a battle is a ‘kinetic military action’. Perhaps Dowd would have preferred if W. had determined that Nagin and Blanco weren’t up to the job and deposed them both.

Wiki hacked

It appears that the notorious website, Wikileaks, has been hacked while in the process of publishing US State Department communications. The article indicates that the info dump contained the identities of intelligence sources and information damaging or embarrassing to the US and other governments. I haven't seen the documents. And I have a healthy mistrust of the government as well as of what I read in the news.

On the one hand, I’d like to think that our intelligence community still has what it takes to pull off something like this to defend National Security. On the other hand - well, Wikileaks ain't American so that other hand doesn’t matter. But, I am concerned who else may sometime become a victim of this capability, given the state of the Rule of Law these days.

But really, the most likely perps were from another state who acted to protect their citizens or government from being exposed by the hapless US State department and a few publicity hogging freaks.

bumper sticker philosophy

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/30/opinion/falser-words-were-never-spoken.html?src=me&ref=general

The New York Times must realize they are merely an echo chamber. Otherwise, they wouldn't allow this sort of truthfulness in their navel-gazing editorialists.

"When you start to become aware of these bogus quotations, you can’t stop finding them. Henry James, George Eliot, Picasso — all of them are being kept alive in popular culture through pithy, cheery sayings they never actually said.

Thoreau, Gandhi, Mandela — it’s easy to see why their words and ideas have been massaged into gauzy slogans. They were inspirational figures, dreamers of beautiful dreams. But what goes missing in the slogans is that they were also sober, steely men. Each of them knew that thoroughgoing change, whether personal or social, involves humility and sacrifice, and that the effort to change oneself or the world always exacts a price.

But ours is an era in which it’s believed that we can reinvent ourselves whenever we choose. So we recast the wisdom of the great thinkers in the shape of our illusions. Shorn of their complexities, their politics, their grasp of the sheer arduousness of change, they stand before us now. They are shiny from their makeovers, they are fabulous and gorgeous, and they want us to know that we can have it all."

Brian Morton, the director of the graduate program in fiction at Sarah Lawrence College, is the author of the novels “Starting Out in the Evening” and “Breakable You.”

I love that closing paragraph. Dr. Morton calls out the falseness, shallowness and cheapness of the narcissistic post-modern mush taken for wisdom on the Left today. Maybe there are misattributed or malformed quotations wafting through the conservative blogosphere and email distro lists. But probably not. And certainly not that are so thoroughly drained of meaning. And DEFINITELY not affixed to a Prius.

Is Al Gore Brighter than the Sun?

No.


Sun Causes Climate Change Shock


By James Delingpole

If Michael Crichton had lived to write a follow-up to State of Fear, the plotline might well have gone like this: at a top secret, state of the art laboratory in Switzerland, scientists finally discover the true cause of “global warming”. It’s the sun, stupid. More specifically – as the Danish physicist Henrik Svensmark has long postulated – it’s the result of cosmic rays which act as a seed for cloud formation. The scientists working on the project are naturally euphoric: this is a major breakthrough which will not only overturn decades of misguided conjecture on so-called Man Made Global Warming but will spare the global economy trillions of dollars which might otherwise have been squandered on utterly pointless efforts to reduce anthropogenic CO2 emissions. However, these scientists have failed to realise just how many people – alarmist scientists, huckster politicians, rent-seeking landowners like (the late Michael Crichton’s brilliant and, of course, entirely fictional creation) the absurd, pompous Sir Reginald Leeds Bt, green activists, eco-fund managers, EU technocrats, MSM environmental correspondents – stand to gain from the Man Made “Climate Change” industry. Their discovery must be suppressed at all costs.

Love is an act of the will

Love is an act of the will. It isn't a feeling or an emotion or an attraction or something one falls into. It is an action verb if it is anything at all.

To love is to exert a constant act of your will, to continually and repeatedly decide and to act toward the good of the other person.

Actual love is first a response to something worthy of love. GK Chesterton said, "Man cannot love mortal things. He can only love immortal things for an instant. That leaves out chocolate (sorry ladies) and football (sorry guys).

So, perhaps our properly ordered feelings of attraction that prompt emotions of affection are natural responses to our recognition of something that is worthy of love. But those feelings aren't love. We must choose to respond to the object to be loved. And we must choose the nature of our response. The best hint I know of to how to respond it the fact that the Latin word for love is Caritas, from which we get the word, charity. I may want to possess something I like, but I should wish to give to that which I love.

One of the possible difficulties that flow from that dichotomy is that I usually (but not always) like what I love. So, it seems to me sometimes perfectly reasonable to want to possess the object of my love. That's natural and most often good, as long as my desire is held in check by my desire for the good of the object of my love.

Another difficulty is confusing like and love; so that if, for some reason I mistake a temporary dislike for a "loss of love", I mistakenly stop actively loving - I quit willing myself to love that which is worthy of love. "I don't love you anymore" doesn't describe something that's happened to you, but rather to a decision you have made.

Vacation from Reality

It looks like the Obama’s weekly rental at Blue Heron Farm in Chilmark, Martha’s Vineyard cost somewhere between $35-50K.

Meanwhile back in the real world, the New Republic asks: Is There Anything That Can Be Done?

Obama's Filmaker

Kathryn "Leni" Bigelow chronicles the "Dear Leader's" Triumph of the Will over Osama bin Laden. Fortunately, the MiniTrue made sure she had unprecedented access to the "facts" from political commissars in the department formerly known as Defense. Anyone doubt that the State educlatura will schedule class trips?

Conspiracy Theory: The Curious Case of the Obama-Osama Movie

What Can be Done - On Vacation?

It looks like the Obama’s weekly rental at Blue Heron Farm in Chilmark, Martha’s Vineyard cost somewhere between $35-50K.

http://www.plumtv.com/blogs/vineyard-insider/the-obamas-to-vacation-on-the-vineyard/index.html

Meanwhile back in the real world, the New Republic asks: Is There Anything That Can Be Done?

http://www.tnr.com/article/economy/93966/tnr-symposium-economy

EJ Dionne's Distorted View of Reality

Perhaps it's projection. Maybe it's partisan rhetoric. Maybe from the hole Dionne views the world from, reality really is distorted and he is only calling things as he (mistakenly) sees them.

Can America still lead?

By E.J. Dionne Jr., Published: August 7


The first week of August 2011 will be remembered as a singularly irrational, wasteful and shameful moment in the political and economic history of the United States. It reflected much of what is wrong with the priorities of our political elites and the obsessions of those who now hold effective veto power over our government.

Does anyone else find it curious that Dionne believes that the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Majority Leader of the House of Representatives and 60 Members of the House of Representatives are NOT part of "our government". Sort of makes me wonder who "our" refers to.


It began with the world hanging on to every development in the debt-ceiling negotiations as it fretted over whether Washington’s dysfunction would lead to American default and global calamity. Even robustly pro-American commentators and politicians wondered aloud if the United States could still govern itself.

Sentient Americans have long wondered if the United States had ceased governing themselves. Clearly, Dionne mistakes the malfeasance of the tools currently mucking up the works as the United States. He fails to realize that DC is NOT a state itself and that its denizens don't constitute the United States. Likewise, he confused a default of the central government's debt to be identical with "American default".

And it goes on from there. I haven't the time to correct every disconnected line - which is almost every line in the piece.

What China thinks about the debt ceiling debate

Niall Ferguson is maybe the smartest guy at Harvard: "China has its own economic problems, to be sure. But they are the problems of a rising power. From Beijing’s standpoint, America’s problems are plainly those of a power in decline. We didn’t just raise a ceiling last week. In Chinese eyes, we also fell through a floor."

Read the whole article.

Then read what Janet Daley thinks in the Daily Telegraph
"Contrary to what the Obama Democrats claimed, the face-off in Congress did not mean that the nation’s politics were “dysfunctional”. The politics of the US were functioning precisely as the Founding Fathers intended: the legislature was acting as a check on the power of the executive."

The orderly chaos within the Rule of Law of American politics is far better - morally, economically and in every other way - than the chaotic order under the Rule of Men operative in Communist China. The opinions of the president, Tom Friedman and Van Johnson notwithstanding.

How is defending a 100 year-old bad idea "Progressive"?

Michael Barone says: "
"The progressive ideal of administrative cadres leading the masses toward the light has its roots in a time when many Americans had an eighth-grade education or less," Mead writes. That is still the mindset of the Obama Democrats. Ordinary people are treated as victims who need government programs like Obamacare to help them out.

But Americans prefer to see themselves as doers rather than victims. They do not see themselves, as the masses in the Progressive Era a century ago may have done, as helpless victims of large corporations and financial interests.

They want public policies that enable them to earn success, and they resent policies that channel money to the politically well positioned or to those who have not made decisions and taken actions necessary for earned success. They want to be empowered, not patronized.

That's why voters here and, as Greenberg notes, in other advanced countries are rejecting policies that give more power to the mandarins who run government and provide less leeway for ordinary people to work for earn success."

Truly Carteresque

Daily Presidential Tracking Poll

"The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday shows that 23% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty-two percent (42%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -19 "

There remains the 25% who don't know enough to disapprove of his performance.

"Manipulate the Constitution"?

I listened to the House debate on Cut, Cap and Balance during my drive home today. Unbelievably, the talking points issued to the Leftist zombies were to assert that going through the constitutional process for considering an amendment to the Constitution is 'manipulating the Constitution'. Every one of the witlings who spoke against it, used that phrase, among the handful of canned lines that they tried to pass off as reasoned debating points.

No, I don't get it either - except that the Dems know they don't have to appeal to the absent reason of the drones who feed at the federal trough or senselessly guffaw at Bill Maher's sophomoric prattle and parrot whatever schlock they pick up on MSNBC since they are too ignorant of the Constitution or too befuddled generally to grasp the stupidity of the assertion on its face.

I missed this howler from Congressdope Debbie W. Schultz - so did the target of her fallacious ad hominem, Congressman Allan West. But he did respond appropriately. I look forward to hearing their face-to-face confrontation. A battle of wits between LTC West and the drooler Schultz, well it wouldn't be one, since she is plainly witless.

Question of the Day

Jackson Lee: Congress complicating debt ceiling because Obama is black
By Josiah Ryan - 07/15/11 03:02 PM ET

"Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) on Friday strongly suggested that members of Congress are making it difficult for President Obama to raise the debt ceiling because of his race.

""Read between the lines," she continued. "What is different about this president that should put him in a position that he should not receive the same kind of respectful treatment of when it is necessary to raise the debt limit in order to pay our bills, something required by both statute and the 14th amendment?"

Jackson Lee concluded by saying that she hoped someone would step up and say that what appears obvious to her is not in fact true.

"I hope someone will say that what it appears to be is not in fact accurate," said Lee. "But historically it seems to be nothing more.""

Is it because he is Socialist or because he is ruining the country?

Maybe.

Another trip down the memory hole

Checking Drudge periodically today, I found the banner headline:
OBAMA: 80% OF AMERICANS WANT HIGHER TAXES

Obama: Public is 'sold' on tax increases in a debt-ceiling deal
By Sam Youngman and Alicia M. Cohn - 07/15/11 11:54 AM ET

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/171743-obama-public-sold-on-tax-increases-in-debt-ceiling-deal

The article at The Hill leads off: President Obama on Friday kept up the pressure on Republicans to agree to revenue increases in a deal to raise the debt ceiling, claiming 80 percent of the public supports Democrats' demand for tax increases.

A bit later in the day, Drudge added another link: 55% Oppose Tax Hike In Debt Ceiling Deal
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/business/taxes/july_2011/55_oppose_tax_hike_in_debt_ceiling_deal

"Just 34% think a tax hike should be included in any legislation to raise the debt ceiling. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 55% disagree and say it should not."

Curious, I went back to the article from the Hill. I was certain that there was a direct quote from the president explicitly saying that 80% approved of tax increases. Now I can't find it. Where did it go?

At the bottom of the Hill article I found the hole down which Obama's ill-considered sentence went: "—This story was updated at 12:50 p.m."

UPDATE: Real Clear Politics has the unexpurgated version:


"The American people are sold," President Obama said.

"The American people are sold, I just want to repeat that."

"You have 80% of the American people who support a balanced approach. 80% of the American people support an approach that includes revenues and includes cuts. So the notion that somehow the American people aren't sold is not the problem. The problem is members of Congress are dug in ideologically."

What do the 10 most polluted places in the world have in common?

What do the 10 most polluted places in the world have in common?

If you said places with weak government controls over the economy you would be wrong.

If you said places plagued with unfettered free markets, you would be wrong.

Chernobyl, Ukraine

Dzerzhinsk, Russia

Kabwe, Zambia

La Oroya, Peru

Linfen, China

Norilsk, Russia

Sukinda, India

Tianying, China

If you said none of them are located in Liberal Democracies with strong defense of property rights you'd be correct.

If you said they are all current or former Socialist Paradises, you would be correct.

J. Wellington Obama

"I'll gladly cut spending increases in 2016 for budget and tax increases passed today!"

Entitlements

So let me get this straight: we are not entitled to the money we earn, save and invest. Thus the government should tax it at rates nearing 50%. But we are entitled to those earnings, savings and investments once plundered from their owners through taxes and distributed through "entitlement programs."

Strange indeed.

Who's in Wall Streets back pocket?

Barrack Obama, according to Cornel West:

“I thought Barack Obama could have provided some way out. But he lacks backbone,” Princeton Professor Cornel West told truthdig.com recently.

West said Obama sold out the poor to become “a black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs and a black puppet of corporate plutocrats. . . . I don’t think in good conscience I could tell anybody to vote for Obama.”

So I really do wish the Leftist and Democrats (but I repeat myself) would stop lying.

The flash mob phenomenon began innocuously enough. Choirs seemingly spontaneously forming in shopping malls or human sculptures in train stations.

Inevitably, stunts intended simply for fun or publicity have morphed into political statements.
But the method of the flash mob suits less frivolous ends as well. Gangs of teens in various cities have taken over the method to commit mayhem
The epidemic has become so bad in Chicago, that the police have been forced to react.

CHICAGO (CBS) — The teenage robbery mobs are at it again on North Michigan Avenue.
Some 50 young people barged into a Walgreens at Michigan and Chicago on the Magnificent Mile on Tuesday afternoon. They took bottled drinks and sandwiches off the shelves, then ran off, CBS 2′s Suzanne Le Mignot reports.

Chicago Police officers, some of them undercover, have been stationed at downtown CTA stations and other “choke points” to stop large groups of unruly young people intent on causing trouble, officials said Wednesday.
The change in tactics — and a “marginal addition” to police resources downtown that have so far triggered 29 arrests — are City Hall’s latest response to the flash mobs and wildings that, one alderman acknowledged are “giving our city a real bad name.”

Hopefully, the authorities will exercise some sense in divining groups truly intent on causing trouble and groups that may merely be troubling to the authorities:

But being a bit jaundiced regarding the ability of authorities to act reasonably, I don’t expect future pro-life flash mobs to avoid the heavy hand of the state.
But that may be the least of their worries. What is more troublesome is the violent turn some of these mobs are taking:

As forces for Good bravely take their message of hope to the streets,

forces of darkness and despair will not yield willingly.

I shudder to think what will happen when these worlds collide.

Shovel Ready Keynesianism

UPDATE: Obama’s Economists: ‘Stimulus’ Has Cost $278,000 per Job

My Keynesian plan would have failed for only $15,100 per job...

John Maynard Keynes, The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money, chapter 10:

"If the Treasury were to fill old bottles with banknotes, bury them at suitable depths in disused coalmines which are then filled up to the surface with town rubbish, and leave it to private enterprise on well-tried principles of laissez-faire to dig the notes up again (the right to do so being obtained, of course, by tendering for leases of the note-bearing territory), there need be no more unemployment and, with the help of the repercussions, the real income of the community, and its capital wealth also, would probably become a good deal greater than it actually is."

Let's give it a go:
There are 14,000,000 Americans unemployed
It costs $20.00 for a decent shovel at Lowes.com
$280,000,000.00 Total amount of "Stimulus" buying shovels would create
Pay at $7.25/hour Federal minimum wage
for 2,080 standard work year (hours)
Would cost $211,120,000,000.00 for 1 year's "Stimulus" employing available labor digging holes

$211,400,000,000.00 Keynesian solution employing available labor digging holes.

$211B....for full employment.... Wow. Obama and the Democrats spent 6 times that and unemployment went up.

Keynes is supposed to have said: "When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?"

Obama, tries to spend a $Trillion more.

Barrack Hussein Barbarossa

More and more, when the Obama administration attempts to justify its most recent outrage against the Constitution, I call to mind Pirates of the Caribbean.

"Barbarossa: First, your return to shore was not part of our negotiations nor our agreement so I must do nothing. And secondly, you must be a pirate for the pirate's code to apply and you're not. And thirdly, the code is more what you'd call "guidelines" than actual rules. Welcome aboard the Black Pearl, Miss Swann"

Clearly, the Pirates of the Capital believe that The Defense of Marriage Act, the War Powers Act and Immigration Laws are more what you'd call "guidelines" than actual laws:

Halt to Deportation of Citizen's Same-Sex Partner Draws Fire

"The federal decision to stop deportation proceedings against a Venezuela-born New Jersey man who legally married his same-sex partner in the United States -- effectively recognizing gay marriage -- is an "abuse of executive authority" by the Obama administration, immigration experts told FoxNews.com.

Henry Velandia, a 27-year-old professional salsa dancer from Caracas now living in New Jersey, legally married U.S. citizen Josh Vandiver, 30, in Connecticut last year, but due to the Defense of Marriage Act -- a 1996 federal law that defines marriage as between a man and a woman -- Vandiver was not allowed to sponsor Velandia for a green card in the same way a heterosexual person could for his or her spouse. The Department of Homeland Security nevertheless decided to drop deportation efforts against him Wednesday.

But by stopping the deportation proceedings against Velandia, the federal government is effectively giving same-sex couples a "status that is not recognized in federal law or in many states," Vaughan said."

Obama Raffle Video Not Legal, Election Law Experts Say

"If the video was filmed in the Map Room, as it appears to be, then there is no question it violates the law, von Spakovsky explained, because it is clearly part of a fundraising pitch, precisely the type of activity prohibited under the law.

“The video is clearly designed to get people to participate in this raffle and the video takes you directly to a web site – directs you to a web site – where there’s an immediate solicitation for funds,” he said."


Obama Says He Doesn’t Have to Answer Whether War Powers Resolution Is Constitutional

"President Barack Obama told reporters he does not have to answer the question of whether the War Powers Resolution is constitutional.

“There may be a time in which there was a serious question as to whether the War Powers Resolution was constitutional. I don’t have to get to the question,” Obama said during a White House news conference Wednesday."

U.S. forces STILL flying hundreds of bombing raids over Libya as Obama says America is only playing a limited role

"U.S. forces are still flying hundreds of bombing raids over Libya even though the Obama administration claims that American armed forces are only playing a limited role in the conflict.

Since NATO’s Operation Unified Protector took over from the American-led Operation Odyssey Dawn on 31 March, the U.S. has flown hundreds of strike missions, according to United States Africa Command (AFRICOM).

The White House originally claimed that U.S. planes were mostly providing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and played down the number of bombing raids.

However AFRICOM spokeswoman Nicole Dalrymple said: 'U.S. aircraft continue to fly support missions, as well as strike sorties under NATO tasking.

'Since 31 March, the U.S. has flown a total of 3,475 sorties...Of those, 801 were strike sorties, 132 of which actually dropped ordnance.'"

Positively Negative

Great explanation of what's right about negative liberty and what's wrong about positive liberty:

Positively Negative

Down the Memory Hole

So this is how things work in this digital age. A rampage is whitewashed with a brief web report by the local news paper. A resident submits a more detailed (and florid) report as a blog entry to the initial report. His entry is deleted (too late – picked up by Drudge and cached by Google). A followup report tells a totally different story and discredits the resident. Nothing to see here, move along….


Peorians living in fear

"This eye-witness account is from Paul Wilkinson, president of the Altamont Park Neighborhood Association:

"Tonight, around 11 p.m., a group of at least 60-70 African American youth marched down one of the side streets (W. Thrush) to the 4 lane main drag (Sheridan). They were yelling threats to white residents. Things such as we need to kill alll the white people around here. They were physically intimidating anyone calling for help from the police. They were surrounding cars. Cars on the main drag had to slam on their brakes to either avoid the youth blocking not only all four lanes, but a large section of the side street as well. fights were breaking out among them. They were rushing residents who looked out their doors, going on to porches, yelling threats to people calling the police for help.

"Cars were doing U turns on the streets just to avoid the mob, mostly male. One youth stated his grandfather was white and several assaulted him on the spot. One police officer answered the call. The youth split into two large groups, one heading north, the other south. They were also yelling racial threats to the police officer but he was outnumbered. Another police car did not show up until after the youth finally dispersed and the patty wagon (van) also eventually showed up.

"Residents are very shaken, both black and white alike. This is the fifth large mob action in about a month with smaller groups of 10-12 are out threatening children and adults a few evenings a week or later into the night. The times vary, even occurring during the day. In talking to the police officer, they are short staffed. Residents were advised to simply keep inside and to lock their doors. In other words buckle down, it’s not even safe to sit on your porch or go into your yards.

"“The fifth large mob action in about a month.” Wow. This is really outrageous. Why is this neighborhood having to put up with this? “Residents were advised to simply keep inside and to lock their doors”? Seriously? That’s the best we can do for our fellow citizens’ safety?

This needs to be addressed, and quickly."

And now for the whitewash:

"PEORIA —

"Allegations of racist threats and mob-style intimidation in a West Bluff neighborhood Friday captured national attention over the weekend, but some say the claims were exaggerated.

"A group of 50 or so young people was walking down Thrush Avenue toward Sheridan Road about 10:50 p.m. Friday, concerning some residents.

"Paul Wilkinson, who has lived on Sheridan for 11 years, says the group was blocking four lanes of traffic, fighting and yelling racist comments at neighbors.

"He emailed his account of the incident to several City Council members and one local blogger. The report at The Peoria Chronicle website was quickly picked up by dozens of other sites, including the widely read online news site The Drudge Report with the headline "Pandemonium in Peoria: Mob yells 'Kill all white people.'"

"Some residents, unaware of the media attention, confirmed Sunday there was a crowd in the street Friday, but said that race was not involved. A police report on the incident does not even mention the word race.

"Police responded to Thrush on Friday night on a report of fireworks and fighting but found neither of those activities occurring, a police report stated. The group dispersed in multiple directions when an officer arrived. No one was arrested.

"Khalid Davis, who lives on Thrush, said the group blocked a few cars but was very orderly. He witnessed no fights and called the racist allegations a "heck of an exaggeration."

""If I heard them screaming any such thing, I would have called police immediately," said Davis, 62.

"Wilkinson, the president of the Altamont Park Neighborhood Association, said Sunday the neighborhood has seen its share of problems with drugs and guns in his 11 years there, but the problems have visibly increased as of late. He said police recommended residents stay inside and keep their doors locked.

"The effects of the allegations were evident in the neighborhood Sunday. A police nuisance abatement truck called the Armadillo, outfitted with cameras, was parked on the side of Thrush.

"Peoria City Councilwoman Barbara Van Auken said Sunday she is outraged by Wilkinson's allegations.

"Van Auken, who has known Wilkinson for six years, said he's had a history of "wildly exaggerating" reports, many of them involving race. And police are well aware of it.

""We have some very gullible new council members who were dumb enough to believe him," she said, declining to name names.

"Wilkinson said he met with Councilwoman Beth Akeson following his email and spoke to Councilman Chuck Weaver over the weekend. Weaver told the Journal Star he planned to meet with the mayor about the incident.

"Van Auken said there are few, if any, racial tensions in the neighborhood where the incident occurred.

""It's a national embarrassment now," she said.

"Mayor Jim Ardis was unaware Sunday evening of the national attention the issue had caused. He called it "concerning" but said he did not think Peoria was unique when it came to such incidents.

"Ardis said he wasn't sure to what extent the reports were accurate.

""Not knowing all the details, it's surprising that it's caught national attention," he said.

"In the meantime, police have increased patrols in the area, and Ardis, who is out of town, expects more reports on the incident to be available when he returns Wednesday.

"Kenny Rogers, who has lived on Sheridan for 10 years, called police Friday after he saw the group "hollering" and stopping traffic on the street. He did not hear anyone yell that they wanted to kill white people.

"Rogers says the crowd was running wildly around yards and porches. It was the largest Rogers, 38, had ever seen in the neighborhood.

""They were doing a show of force," he said, "to show everybody, 'Hey, this is their hood.'""

I wonder that these rampages are becoming more frequent. It seems to be common now for “youths” to invade convenience stores, or even Walgreens in packs, stripping the stores of junk food, sodas and beer.

Now, senseless violence is becoming routine.

Woman's leg broken, others hurt in Spring Garden mob attack

"By STEPHANIE FARR
Philadelphia Daily News

farrs@phillynews.com 215-854-4225

A WOMAN'S leg was broken and several other people were injured Saturday night when a large group of teens accosted pedestrians in Spring Garden, police and witnesses said.

Philadelphia police responded to two reports of pedestrians being assaulted by a large group of young people along Broad Street about 9:30 p.m.

One of those reports came from Emily Guendelsberger, 27, city editor for local arts and entertainment content for the Onion, the satirical newspaper and website. She was walking with seven friends on Green Street near Broad when they were accosted, she said. Guendelsberger, who remained hospitalized with a broken leg yesterday, declined to comment further.

A friend who was with her at the time, Daily News staff writer Molly Eichel, said that they were walking down Green Street when a group of teens was walking down Broad. "We heard kids yell, 'Run, run,' " Eichel said. "Some kid just came out of nowhere and punched my friend Charlie in the face."

Eichel said that when her group tried to run, about 20 teens chased them down the street. "They were kicking kids down and punching them when they were down," she said.

Two other friends sought treatment at area hospitals for facial injuries, Eichel said.

The only redeeming factor about the experience was that a few people realized the extent of Guendelsberger's injuries and tried to protect her, Eichel said.

From the hospital yesterday, Guendelsberger gave her protectors shout-outs on Twitter. "On the positive, a bunch of girls from the mob protected me from the boys trying to hit me and take my purse while I was on the ground," she wrote. "Also a car of women from out of town saw it going down, pulled over, and (I gather) circled around to protect me; wish I had gotten names."

According to the police report of the incident, Guendelsberger was "jumped" by 30 to 40 men who punched and kicked her numerous times. Police said they checked the area for surveillance but had no luck.

Shortly before Guendelsberger's assault, police said, they responded to another assault, about five blocks away at Broad Street and Fairmount Avenue, of a 20-year-old man who said that he was attacked by a large group of men and women.

Police said that he was treated for a bruise and abrasion under his right eye.

Twitter users said that the mob ranged from 50 to 100 people and that participants not only assaulted people but also threw trash cans and lit fireworks.""

There is a trend here somewhere. What do these incidents have in common? What would the news reports say if the victims were from a different identity group? Who can wonder why our cities are failing or tsk tsk 3rd world violence?

Lynching in South Carolina

""A friend had texted him, and he stopped to text him back, and that's when they jumped him," said John Strange, his father. Sitting next to him, his wife Vicki tried to avoid reliving what happened.

"When you have eight people on one person, and they come up from behind you and hit you on the back of the head first, what do you do? Seriously? What do you do? He didn't have a chance!"

Carter's parents say their son always follows the rules and is always home on time.

"When I think of all of them on my son and the fact that they are probably laughing and getting amusement out of it, makes me livid. Absolutely livid. You try not to let people do that to you until the point you become who they are, but there's a part of me. Yeah, I could absolutely become who they are," said Vicki."


But what is worst of all to the Leftist idiocracy isn't actual rampaging gangs victimizing and lynching innocent people and businesses, but mock-lynchings, even if the mock-lynchers are trying to make an approved statement:

"In light of a recent "mock lynching" incident near campus, UW-Madison administration and student groups are discussing diversity on campus and the effects racist acts have on UW- Madison students.

The incident occurred last Thursday, when a passerby noticed a lifelike black figure hanging from a noose outside of an apartment building on Langdon Street.

By the time UW-Madison Associate Dean Kevin Helmkamp and Vice Provost Damon Williams had contacted the landlords of the apartment, the residents had taken down the doll.

According to Helmkamp, at least two of the residents of the apartment are alleged to be UW-Madison students.

UW-Madison Dean of Students Lori Berquam and Vice Provost for Diversity Damon Williams said although the act may have not been intended to oppress anyone, it was far from harmless.

"The consequence of this seemingly harmless ‘joke' has left some students, staff and faculty feeling appalled and shocked," Berquam and Williams said in a statement last Friday.

In the statement, Berquam and Williams urged students to take an active role against such oppressive acts.

The Associated Students of Madison, along with other student groups, criticized the university administration's response to the incident.

"The administration defended the intent behind the mock lynching while minimizing the impact it had on marginalized students," ASM said in an email sent to students Friday.

The email said the details surrounding the incident and the administration's response was unclear in the statement made by Berquam and Williams.

Student leaders of ASM, Multicultural Student Coalition, and Movimiento Estudiantil Chican@ de Aztlán (MEChA) requested administrators send an email more directly explaining the implications the incident has on campus.

The email said the administration's response exemplified the failure of "Plan 2008", an initiative that, in part, was intended to improve accountability and campus climate with regards to diversity.

The ASM agenda for Saturday includes a proposal that would create a shared governance committee to evaluate the office of the Dean of Students and Office of Diversity and Climate.

The legislation states the failure of "Plan 2008" and the "inadequate" response provided by Berquam and Williams contributes to the need for the commihttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifttee."

Mock lynchings draw outrage, while actual lynchings may result in charges. Maybe they need committees in Philadelphia, Peoria, and Chicago.

Or maybe Walter Williams is on to something


In many of these brutal attacks, the news media make no mention of the race of the perpetrators. If it were white racist gangs randomly attacking blacks, the mainstream media would have no hesitation reporting the race of the perps. Editors for the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune admitted to deliberately censoring information about black crime for political reasons. Chicago Tribune Editor Gerould Kern recently said the paper’s reason for censorship was to “guard against subjecting an entire group of people to suspicion.”

These racist attacks can, at least in part, be attributed to the black elite, who have a vested interest in racial paranoia. And that includes a president who has spent years aligned with people who have promoted racial grievance and polarization and appointed an attorney general who has accused us of being “a nation of cowards” on matters of race and has refused to prosecute black thugs who gathered at a Philadelphia voting site in blatant violation of federal voter intimidation laws. Tragically, black youngsters — who are seething with resentment, refusing to accept educational and other opportunities unknown to blacks yesteryear — will turn out to be the larger victims in the long run.

Black silence in the face of black racism has to be one of the biggest betrayals of the civil rights struggle that included black and white Americans.

The War Against Girls

The War Against Girls

A sobering review of Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys Over Girls and the Consequences of a World Full of Men By Mara Hvistendahl PublicAffairs, 314 pages, $26.99

Hard to be optimistic after reading this review.

Upside-Down to the NYT is Right Side Up

The First Amendment, Upside Down

"The Supreme Court decision striking down public matching funds in Arizona’s campaign finance system is a serious setback for American democracy."

When this sentence is read in the New York Times, it means that the USSC decision has advanced democracy at the expense of government control of government.

"In the Citizens United case, the court ruled that the government may not ban corporations, unions and other moneyed institutions from spending in political campaigns."

So, allowing citizens and legal US entities to participate in the democratic process by supporting candidates through contributions is destructive to American democracy as the NYT sees it.

"The Arizona decision is a companion to that destructive landmark ruling. It takes away a vital, innovative way of ensuring that candidates who do not have unlimited bank accounts can get enough public dollars to compete effectively.

"Arizona’s campaign finance law provided a set amount of money in initial public support for candidates who opted into its financing system, depending on the type of election. If a candidate faced a rival who opted out, the state would match the spending of the privately financed candidate and independent groups supporting him, up to triple the initial amount. Once that limit is reached, the publicly financed candidate receives no other public funds and is barred from using private contributions, no matter how much more the privately financed candidate spends."

In effect, the Arizona law pitted the voters of the state against the taxpayers of the state. Voters' contributions to the candidate they personally support would be off-set by taxpayer dollars supporting the candidate they oppose. Once again, the NYT uses some sort of NewSpeak inversion of reality to come to an upside down conclusion.

The Law for Thee, but not for Me

White House Says Obama Fundraising Appeal Not Illegal

"President Obama appealed to supporters and donors in a videotaped message emailed by his campaign team to millions of people Monday -- a message filmed with the president inside the White House by a crew from the Democratic National Committee, according to a White House official who responded to RCP questions about the solicitation.

In the video, Obama tells supporters they can join him and Vice President Joe Biden for dinner if they win a contest offered by his campaign. "We're both really looking forward to it. Hope to see you soon," Obama says on camera. The script was written by the DNC.

The president's video is accompanied by a donor solicitation form in which supporters of the administration can check boxes donating from $5 to $700 to the Obama-Biden re-election effort."

"The Obama campaign video is a small part of an aggressive fundraising effort being undertaken by Team Obama. It also comes on the heels of criticism that the president, who campaigned to change the way Washington works, was instead participating in some of its more questionable rituals, including a March 7 meeting with Obama arranged by the DNC in the Blue Room of the White House residence. The meeting, first described in a June 24 Politico story about a list of attendees released by the White House, took place with business leaders who were former or current donors or fundraisers. White House press secretary Jay Carney told Politico the meeting was not "a fundraiser."

In the email message that accompanies Obama's Monday video, however, Obama campaign manager Jim Messina explains to supporters that a minimum $5 donation is required to enter the campaign contest: "Make a donation today and be automatically registered for a chance to have dinner with President Obama and Vice President Biden together. We'll cover your airfare and the meal -- all you need to bring is your story and your ideas.""

Buy this plane or we'll shoot you with it

This article reminds me of a famous National Lampoon magazine cover.


There are lessons here: Don't sell anything you wouldn't want shooting at you. In the international arena, there are no friends and few allies but mainly countries with temporary comity of interests. And maybe, don't trust the French.

Libya Boosts Euro Fighter Jets at Paris Air Show

LE BOURGET, France - In the war in Libya, the French Rafale fighter jet has nearly done it all: no-fly zone enforcement, air-to-ground strikes, reconnaissance, overflight missions....


In 2007, the French bungled talks with Morocco, which instead opted to buy an F-16 from Lockheed Martin Corp. The same year, Gadhafi himself began exclusive talks with France to purchase 14 Rafales - the same type of jet now hitting his military assets with laser- and GPS-guided bombs.

That sale was still pending when the Arab spring swept through Libya, prompting Gadhafi's forces to crack down on democracy-minded protesters and leading to international sanctions against his regime and an U.N. Security Council resolution authorizing a no-fly zone and measures to protect Libyan civilians.

DADT -> DJ

It has begun:

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2011/05/army-3-colonels-punished-over-skit-mocking-gays-052311w/

Don't Ask, Don't Tell -> Don't Joke

Socialist or Shill for Business? Both...and!

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20110617/BASU/106170330/Basu-No-breaks-for-Obama-a-socialist-and-a-shill-for-business-

“What's amazing is how opponents can portray Obama as both a shill for corporations and a socialist.”

Guess she never heard of Gazprom, IG Farben, etc.

“But none of his would-be opponents would name a thing Obama has done right for the economy, even in supporting business.”

They would if they could. Many of his opponents have noted things he’s done right. They just don’t get too many opportunities, and none in regards to his mishandling of the economy.

“Most Americans disapprove of Obama's handling of the economy, according to new polls.”

So, why question the integrity of his ‘would-be opponents’?

“Even the Today Show's Ann Curry accuses him of being calm rather than angry that 14 million Americans are unemployed: "People have started to wonder ... whether you really empathize with the suffering."

Et tu, Ann?”

I’m not sure a picture of a national TV “journalist” as Brutus and Obama as Caesar is what his supporters would like to be painting right now. Freudian, I suppose. Or maybe she knows her columns are only read by the minority who are totally on the Obama bus to Candy Mountain in Des Moines.

“The most important thing Obama can do for job growth is to ignore the anti-government ideologues and invest in improving America's infrastructure - making broadband accessible, rebuilding old highways, supporting renewable energy and education. He needs to grab the mike, and using the same passion he campaigned with, separate fact from fiction -- then forge ahead on innovative public works projects that employ people.”

Well, since the only way the federal government can create jobs is by hiring federal employees, paying states to hire employees or letting contracts, I suppose a run-of-the-mill statist like this would think it was a good idea.

And, in the end, there is no question that Obama is BOTH a Socialist AND a shill for business.

http://patriotpost.us/opinion/burt-prelutsky/2011/06/20/is-barack-obama-a-socialist/

In defense of the non-existent

So, Eric Cantor asked me what I thought the U.S. Congress should cut from the Federal Budget.

Actually, it was a button on the YouCut web site.

And I gave him - or his web master and most junior intern at least - my advice. It has been a burning issue with me since I saw the Distinguished Gentleman from New York, Anthony Weiner, defending CPB funding a little while back.

He intended to belittle Republican efforts to end funding for CPB. But apparently he and his fellow Statist nomenclatura are blind to how his attempt at sarcasm actually glaringly illustrates the ridiculousness of trying to defend adding to the National Debt for such frivolity.

Here is my recommendation:

Cut the subsidies to the Car Talk guys' fictitious legal advisors, Dewey, Cheetham & Howe. I know Rep Weiner has defended the government's support of their vital, albeit imaginary, contribution to civil society and the General Welfare. I know that Congress has the constitutional right to expend tax dollars, or yuan borrowed from China under the interstate commerce clause since sometimes radio waves travel across state lines. I know that their non-existent existence is a right that demands public support and that without them, yuppies across the country might have more difficulty asking why their 10 year old Volvo squeaks when it starts. I realize that listeners to NPR may have to listen to ads telling them that Click and Clack the Tappet Brothers are being brought to them by major corporations rather than donor acknowledgements that the show is being brought to them by, well, major corporations - and taxpayers like us.

I'm good with that. "

Perhaps Rep. Weiner ought to consult with the Car Talk Director of Ethics and Honesty: U Lyon Sack. I think he is already consulting with Illgott and Gaines for financial advice.

invincible idiots

It is sometime instructional to read what Leftists have to say. I appreciate the interns and junior assistants of the VRWC who cull through the chaff of the Huffington Post, etc for slave wages – so I don’t have to if I don’t want to. But still, to have even an inkling of what they Left thinks and how they come up with their loony ideas, it is necessary to read them directly.

Case in point, reliably loony Eugene Robinson:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/04/12/demanding_the_impossible_109517.html

“At issue is a fundamental question -- what is the nature and purpose of government”

This much is true. Sane people have observed as much. It is one of the things that is confusing Leftists. Back in the good old days of Rockefeller Republicans, the discussion was merely over how big Gov’t should be and whether Communists were fuzzy or smelly. Today, Conservatives have brought up a question Leftists thought had been answered – what is the nature and purpose of government?

Robinson, however, doesn’t know his History:

“-- that was first answered more than two centuries ago, when Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson duked it out as warring members of George Washington's first Cabinet. Hamilton's centralized government was victorious. There are those who have never forgiven him.”

It was answered over 2 centuries ago, but his answer is barely 100 years old. I am quite confident Alexander Hamilton wouldn’t feel too comfortable with the House Progressive Caucus. Robinson re-imagines Hamilton and Adams as disciples of Crowley and Wilson and Marx. Only in an alternate universe inhabited by Manhattan/Berkley Leftists.

“The far-right ideologues in the House seek to starve the federal government to the point where it can no longer fulfill its constitutional duty to promote the general welfare.”

You don’t have to be a Constitutional Scholar to know that a line in the preamble doesn’t constitute an enumerated power. Also that a particular benefit for a specific class or individual is incongruous with the general welfare, which – if words mean anything – means it the non-specific (not 'targeted') good (as in non-rivalous, ie: roads, defense, etc) (not benefice, tax shelter or direct payment) of the general population (not particular interest groups or individuals). Thus, EITC, medicare and Social security are a lot of things but not in any way promoting the general welfare.

“Their inspired tactic -- which has worked so well that they would be crazy to abandon it -- has been to take a wildly extreme position and stick to it with the obstinacy of a mule.”

Does it not strike him that the mascot of the Democrat party is in fact, the mule? Perhaps not. In any case, it seems to me that obstinately saying that the country isn’t broke, that $1T deficits won’t add to the debt, and that increasing taxes won’t decrease economic activity are wildly, crazily extreme. But then, to Eugene, I’m a far-right ideologue. I thought I was just someone who could do math.

“Ryan seeks not just to reduce the nation's long-term indebtedness but to change the essence of the relationship between citizens and their government.

“Restore” would be a better word. Obama et al have been intent on changing the relationship between citizens and their government. Read Wilson and Crowley and you will get an idea of what they have in mind.