photograph © Cincy Lieberman
Friday, 27 January 2012
Mark Levin defends Newt
.... This quote from Levin probably sums up his point about Newt more than anything else:
“Newt Gingrich, if he does nothing else, did more for the conservative movement and to stop the liberal Democrats in the House of Representatives than virtually everybody today who is criticizing him!”
He also plays the full audio in context, of the so-called Reagan-bashing that Newt did back in 1988, that absolutely disproves the idea that Newt was bashing Reagan at all.
Listen to the full segment. It is excellent...
Debate: Dhimmedia Disappoints
Sorry I'm so late... I was window-shopping online for Littlest Grandboy's birthday. Time flies when you're having fun - remembering how wondrous the world is when you're three. I completely forgot I had left this in "drafts," neglecting to actually post it.
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Last night's debate was not as dreadful as the previous one, but almost. As we have come to expect, dhimmedia disappoints. Wolf Blitzer is a political yenta (gossip) and apparently thinks his function is to throw gasoline wherever there might be a fire.
Meanwhile, the Establishment (yes, Virginia, there is a Ruling Class - see Codevilla) wanted Mitt to show some "fight" and he ably obeyed his handlers' instructions. Romney is "fine." He will do. He's the next in line. We will all support him if he is the nominee. But he doesn't rouse the base; he can't. Visceral passion is not in his nature. He is the quintessential manager.
Obama will paint Romney as a stuffy, uncool and out-of-touch One Percenter. They will do to him what the Bush people did to John Kerry, but thank him profusely for providing the model for ObamaCare. It will be agonizingly close and the outcome of the election will depend solely on how effectively the Republicans can make Obama the issue and portray him as a failure.
Now then... I didn't think Newt did himself any harm last night. He was obviously frustrated by the media and somewhat beaten down by yesterday's avalanche against him, but the people who favored him before probably still do -- and maybe even more so. I actually thought his space talk was good, especially for anyone who remembers We are living in very dreary circumstances right now, and as much as we want our economy to get back to normal, there has to be more to life than balancing the budget. Discounting Ron Paul, Newt is the only one among the remaining candidates that has any potential whatsoever to be inspiring. I could be wrong, but I'd say his so-called "grandiosity" is no more of a boon to Obama than Romney's lack thereof. Newt would provide quite a contrast to Obama and he would shine in the presidential debates.
If there was a "winner" last night, it was Rick Santorum. He had some great moments, and only got whiney once or twice. I wouldn't mind terribly if he were president, as long as he kept his self-righteous preaching to a bare minimum.
And finally, six months ago I wouldn't have believed that I could appreciate Ron Paul, but I like him more and more. Of course his isolationism scares me to death but because he's running more to get his message out than to actually win, he can relax and be himself much more than the others. He's kind of endearing, straightforward and no-doubt-about-it authentic. Depending on the number of delegates he's able to garner, we'll see a definite increase in libertarian influence at the convention. I think that's a good thing.
"To the moon, Alice!" or in this case... Barack!
Thursday, 26 January 2012
Obama's "Ironclad" commitment
Dan Friedman sends these two links along, noting their "sheer coincidence."
- Muslim Brotherhood repeats: No talks with Israel Spokesman says dialogue with Jewish state ‘not up for discussion.’
- Obama set to speed up aid to Egypt-official Obama considers redirecting aid to Egypt
Furiouser and furiouser
I was still fuming over the Republican-approved $400,000 feasibility study on a 200-mile trail between San Francisco and Yosemite National Park to commemorate the Buffalo Soldiers (((Where do they think they're going to get the money? I thought they understood that the country is BROKE!)))
-- and then I saw this:
36 Obama aides owe $833,000 in back taxes
How embarrassing this must be for President Obama, whose major speech theme so far this campaign season has been that every single American, no matter how rich, should pay their "fair share" of taxes.
Because how unfair -- indeed, un-American -- it is for an office worker like, say, Warren Buffet's secretary to dutifully pay her taxes, while some well-to-do people with better educations and higher incomes end up paying a much smaller tax rate.
Or, worse, skipping their taxes altogether.
A new report just out from the Internal Revenue Service reveals that 36 of President Obama's executive office staff owe the country $833,970 in back taxes. These people working for Mr. Fair Share apparently haven't paid any share, let alone their fair share.
Previous reports have shown how well-paid Obama's White House staff is, with 457 aides pulling down more than $37 million last year. That's up seven workers and nearly $4 million from the Bush administration's last year.
Nearly one-third of Obama's aides make more than $100,000 with 21 being paid the top White House salary of $172,200, each.
The IRS' 2010 delinquent tax revelations come as part of a required annual agency report on federal employees' tax compliance. Turns out, an awful lot of folks being paid by taxpayers are not paying their own income taxes.
The report finds that thousands of federal employees owe the country more than $3.4 billion in back taxes. That's up 3% in the past year.
Are you kidding me?!
- Never borrow what you cannot repay.
- Never borrow for a luxury if you cannot afford the necessities.
- Prioritize your borrowing.
- Reserve some borrowing capacity for emergencies.
$15 trillion dollars in stacked $100 bills ~ staceylandrum.com
Our national debt stands at $15.2 trillion, and is growing by roughly $6 billion per day.
We have tens of trillions in unfunded liabilities for Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
Unfunded liabilities amount to $114.5 trillion - shown here in stacked $100-bills .
[According to the US Debt Clock, unfunded national liabilities amount to over a MILLION DOLLARS PER TAXPAYER. See for yourself.]
Back to Horowitz, and some "small potatoes" -- a mere $400,000:
Unfortunately, we have learned that Republicans lack the gumption to fight for transformational spending cuts and reforms of major entitlements. However, at the very least, one would expect them to oppose silly pork projects like Buffalo Soldiers!
Yesterday, the Republican-controlled House passed HR 1022, a bill that would require the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a study of the history of Buffalo Soldiers in the establishment of national parks. The study will cost $400,000.
The purpose of the study is to ascertain the feasibility of a plan to create a 200-mile trail between San Francisco and Yosemite National Park in commemoration of the Buffalo Soldiers. The federal government already owns roughly 1/3 of all American land. Do we need to afford them the opportunity to take over more land?
The bill was sponsored by Democrat Congresswoman Jackie Speier, yet Republican leaders agreed to bring it up under a suspension vote with limited debate. Even though a two-thirds super majority is required for passage, the bill passed easily with 338 votes. Only 70 Republicans opposed this inane endeavor....
VOTE DETAILS
Ditto, Don Surber's Prayer
.... As with all his other speeches, this one did not sing. He is a boring lecturer who cannot quote great works like Kennedy or King because it is unlikely he has read any. But he did unveil his slogan for his re-election campaign. Let’s see if readers can spot it:
“An economy built to last, where hard work pays off, and responsibility is rewarded.”
“Tonight, I want to speak about how we move forward, and lay out a blueprint for an economy that’s built to last – an economy built on American manufacturing, American energy, skills for American workers, and a renewal of American values.”
“You see, an economy built to last is one where we encourage the talent and ingenuity of every person in this country.”
“An America built to last insists on responsibility from everybody.”
“That’s an America built to last.”
The America we had lasted more than 200 years. It was built, in part, on the sweat and vision of Ford Motors Company.
And not on its slogans.
I pray that nothing lasts from this terrible presidency.
Ameyn!
America's back
Brilliant piece of satire by Daniel Greenfield:
We know that the state of the union is good no matter how many Americans are out of work, how many families are counting every penny, how many industries are falling off a cliff and how high the national debt gets. We know it's good so long as another politician takes a victory lap up to the podium and tells us that it's all good because he's here.
Iraq? Nothing to worry about. We just brought all the troops home. Sure it's breaking up into a civil war, but you won't hear about it on the news. Osama bin Laden is no longer a threat, but his allies have taken over Egypt and Tunisia, and are moving on Libya. The Taliban's momentum has been broken and they are on the verge of taking over the government which means they will finally have been defeated. These achievements are a testament to a military which is facing the biggest budget cuts in decades.
The American soldier is a role model to us. I take away his weapons, fire him, put him on trial and force him to marry his bunkmate to show his tolerance, and he never complains because he's not allowed to. The rest of you need to take a lesson from him. Stop complaining or I'll send you to a military tribunal.
Now it's time for an applause break. We need to spend more money funding college degrees and political indoctrination for everyone. More applause. Only by creating more unemployed people with six figure student debts working at McD's will we be able to restore the post WW2 economy that was built on manufacturing jobs which my administration is working hard to completely eliminate.
More applause? No you shouldn't have....
There's much, much more (probably too much) at the original. Click here to continue reading.
Speech Bump
Thursday, January 26, 2012: The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Thursday shows that
Overall, 48% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the president's job performance. Fifty-one percent (51%) at least somewhat disapprove.
25% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Thirty-eight percent (38%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -13 (see trends).
That’s the president’s best rating in a month and comes at a time when the number who say the country is moving in the right direction has reached the highest level in seven months at 26%. Consumer confidence is up sharply from three months ago, but still down from a year ago....
I don't know if I can face another Enemedia debate
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TONIGHT: Location: University of North Florida in Jacksonville, FL |
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Here's a bit of today's Morning Jolt, to keep our interest from flagging[?]:
.... On Wednesday, Jonah observed:
Elliot Abram's piece on Newt's attacks on Reagan is an interesting read. While it does muddy Gingrich's claims that he was sort of Reagan's junior partner, I'm not sure everyone will see it as an all-out indictment. As Josh Treviño writes on twitter: "I'll take '80s Gingrich attacking Reagan from the right over '80s, '90s, and '00s Romney attacking Reagan from the left."
But my question is, Why are we hearing this from Elliot Abrams now and not from Mitt Romney weeks ago? Seriously, Romney spends a lot of money on consultants. They couldn't prep the boss to mention a floor speech by Gingrich excoriating Ronald Reagan?
And when Romney goes off message, he needs a GPS to find his way back. Charlotte Hays is left slack-jawed:
Who on earth is advising Mitt Romney? Somebody should have stopped this:
"Romney blasts Gingrich over attack on debate moderators, news media"
Yikes!
Note to Mitt advisers: Republicans hate the news media. Got it? And that goes double for debate moderators who try to entrap conservative candidates with trick questions. Indeed, it was partly Newt's attack on these scoundrels that catapulted him into first place in South Carolina. There's absolutely no reason for Romney to say this.
We've had almost 20 debates, and it feels as if a hundred of them, not even counting Romney's debut on the national stage four years ago. He's had chance after chance to make his sales pitch and close the deal, and he has, so far, largely failed to do so.
On paper, this is the best environment for a Republican presidential candidate in decades:
A president who many Republicans see as the breathing embodiment of liberalism sits in the Oval Office; an energetic grassroots movement to fight back spontaneously formed in the tea parties; the 2009 races in New Jersey and Virginia, the special election in Massachusetts, and the 2010 midterms all showed that Republicans can win (and win big) almost anywhere when they tap into that passion; the president's record consists of enormously unpopular nationalized health care and a stimulus that didn't make a dent in high unemployment. Throw in scandals such as those involving Solyndra and Fast and Furious, and Obama's presidency represents the nightmare that every Republican would presumably be highly motivated to end.
If you can't get people excited in an environment like that, you can't get excited....
{sigh}
Wednesday, 25 January 2012
Economic FREEDOM ... slip, slip, slippin' away
Last year after the State of the Union address, I posted: "Funny, Obama didn't mention Economic Freedom." That was probably because the U.S. had fallen to No. 9, with a score of 77.8 out of 100.
( In 2007 we were No. 4, with a score of 82.0. )
This year he didn't mention it either... and we've fallen to 10th place (76.3).
.... Although the foundations of economic freedom remain strong, recent government interventions have eroded limits on government, and public spending by all levels of government now exceeds one-third of total domestic output. The regulatory burden on business continues to increase rapidly, and heightened uncertainty further increases regulations’ negative impact. Fading confidence in the government’s determination to promote or even sustain open markets has discouraged entrepreneurship and dynamic investment within the private sector.
Restoring the U.S. economy to the status of a “free” economy will require significant policy changes to reduce the size of government, overhaul the tax system, and transform costly entitlement programs. By boosting growth in the private sector, such freedom-enhancing policies are the best hope for bringing down high unemployment rates and reducing public debt to manageable levels.
Economically FREE countries (100-80)
1. Hong Kong
2. Singapore
3. Australia
4. New Zealnd
5. Switzerland
"Mostly" FREE (79.9 - 70)
6. Canada
7. Chile
8. Mauritius
9. Ireland
10. United States
11. Denmark
12. Bahrain
13. Luxembourg
14. United Kingdom
15. The Netherland
16. Estonia
17. Finland
18. Taiwan
19. Macau
20. Cyprus
Credit where credit is due: Thank you, Glenn Kessler
Glenn Kessler may have been a nightmare over the years, especially when it came to the poorpalistinians, but from what I can tell he's not doing a bad job as "fact-checker" for the Washington Post. In fact (the pun was unintentional), he's doing a better job of it now than he was just last summer.
Here's one bit from his Fact checking Obama's 2012 SOTU speech:
Take the money we’re no longer spending at war, use half of it to pay down our debt, and use the rest to do some nation-building right here at home.”
[Kessler:] This is fanciful budget math. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were funded with borrowed money, so what Obama is really asking for is an increase in domestic spending relative to the Pentagon. The United States is still running huge deficits, so none of this imagined savings would “pay down the debt” until the United States once again began running surpluses. Instead, his proposal would continue to add to the debt.
Quote of the Day
Individuals should be free to decide
what to produce and consume,
and
their decisions should be made
within a predictable policy framework
based on the rule of law.
John B. Taylor: Economics for the Long Run
Jaws Drop as Obama Steals Line from Sarah Palin
"This country needs an all-out, all-of-the-above strategy
that develops every available source of American energy..."
