Stan Greenberg: The Politicians Are in Trouble

Stan Greenberg was recommended to me as "an honest Lefty" by a friend who is Conservative--and who knows his way around politics.

...In analyzing these polls in the United States, I see clearly that voters feel ever more estranged from government — and that they associate Democrats with government. If Democrats are going to be encumbered by that link, they need to change voters’ feelings about government. They can recite their good plans as a mantra and raise their voices as if they had not been heard, but voters will not listen to them if government is disreputable.

Oddly, many voters prefer the policies of Democrats to the policies of Republicans. They just don’t trust the Democrats to carry out those promises.

Here come the body-blows:

...Numerous recent polls have shown that the public sides with the president and Democrats on raising taxes to get to a balanced budget. But in smaller, more probing focus groups, voters show they are fairly cynical about Democratic politicians’ stands. They tune out the politicians’ fine speeches and plans...

This distrust of government and politicians is unfolding as a full-blown crisis of legitimacy sidelines Democrats and liberalism. Just a quarter of the country is optimistic about our system of government — the lowest since polls by ABC and others began asking this question in 1974. But a crisis of government legitimacy is a crisis of liberalism.

What emerges is a 'center-right populism':

...In our surveys and media work for Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign, we found that only if people thought a candidate was going to change government in fundamental ways — starting with welfare and reinventing government — would they give permission to spend their money.

The same is true today. In our recent Web survey of 2,000 respondents, voters respond strongly to Democratic messages on the economy only when a party leader declares, “We have to start by changing Washington. ... The middle class won’t catch a break until we confront the power of money and the lobbyists.”

And that populism has no love for GWBush--nor for Obozo.

...That government and the elite appear blithely to promote globalization and economic integration, while the working population loses income, makes the frustration more intense.

Our research shows that the growth of self-identified conservatives began in the fall of 2008 with the Wall Street bailout, well before Mr. Obama embarked on his recovery and spending program. The public watched the elite and leaders of both parties rush to the rescue. The government saved irresponsible executives who bankrupted their own companies, hurt many people and threatened the welfare of the country. When Mr. Obama championed the bailout of the auto companies and allowed senior executives at bailed-out companies to take bonuses, voters concluded that he was part of the operating elite consensus. If you owned a small business that was in trouble or a home or pension that lost much of its value, you were on your own.

Greenberg has a number of suggestions for the (D) party; raising taxes, limiting campaign contributions, putting a "luxury tax" on large bonuses, and "comprehensive" immigration reform.

He also has this:

...progressives have to be serious about reducing the country’s long-term deficits, constraining special interest spending and tax breaks and making government accountable to the ordinary citizen. The deficit matters to people and has real meaning and consequences. A government that spends and borrows without the kind of limits that would govern an ordinary family is going to have big troubles. Voters I’ve studied say things like, if “we keep spending like this, we’re going to be bankrupt and there won’t be anything for anybody,” especially “our children.” The final straw is the government’s decision to continue spending and to put the country deeper into debt and more dependent on China.

Looks like Struppster, my Keynesian Kommenter, is in a small minority.

Well, then.

For some reason, Greenberg didn't seem to poll on such dinosaurs as Dep't of Education, EPA, Homeland "Security", or D of Energy. But Greenberg doesn't much care for the 10th Amendment--just like GWBush.

HT: Grim

McCain also has a comment which is more pithy.

Mere Words

Sometimes one finds the Alinskyite philosophy in places you don't expect.

That's why the deconstructionist has an obsession with power. Mao Tse Tung was a deconstructionist. One of his famous sayings: "We will conquer the world because you fools think that words are labels that are properly or improperly pasted onto things. We know that words are little dynamite sticks in people's minds, and we hold the fuse." That's the most complete form of scepticism.

IOW, there is no real meaning to 'words,' except as they can and will motivate the masses to do what the word-smiths want them to do.

HopenChange, indeed.

The New Translation

Esolen, an English scholar, has an opinion about the CURRENT Mass translation.

...The bland, Scripture-muffling, colorless, odorless, gaseous paraphrase American Catholics have had for forty years often was not a translation at all, nor even a paraphrase into English. It was a paraphrase into Nabbish, the secret official language of the New American Bible.

Hooboy! That's a rollicking start. He explicates on 'the principles of nabbish.'

Principle One: Prefer the general to the specific, the abstract to the concrete, the vague to the exact.

And he provides an example:

Here, for example, is a famous verse from Psalm 23, translated into early modern English in the King James Bible: Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. That is exactly what it says in Hebrew.

But in the New American Bible it is: Even though I walk in the dark valley I fear no evil. Notice the muffling. The affirmative yea, translating the Hebrew gom, is simply folded into the conjunction. The verb tense - Hebrew has no future - with its delicate shading of supposai and purpose ("I trust in the Lord, I affirm that I will not fear") is flattened down to the present. And then that shadow of death, the shadow we all feel at times, is reduced to the ordinary and comfortable adjective dark.

Then there's:

Principle Two: Prefer the neuter, the indefinite, and the impersonal.

Read the rest here. It's marvelous.

Dairy Cows: Who's Being Milked?

Today's Big Story in the J-S concerns dairy cows.

There are a few gaps in the story, so (with the assistance of a friend) I'll mention a few facts which the J-S reporter didn't ask about--or which didn't make it past editing.

1) $22Bn is spent every year in food-assistance (stamps, school lunches, WIC, etc.) for illegal aliens.

2) $2.5Bn is spent every year on Medicaid for illegals.

3) $12Bn is spent every year on schooling for illegals, many of whom cannot speak English.

4) $17Bn/year is spent educating "anchor babies."

(All of the above is documented in the links)

In the story given us by the J-S, dairy farmers testify that they cannot find US citizens who are willing to stay on the farm and work 10-hour days at $11.50/hour. Well, that's not surprising, is it? City folks get health insurance (unaddressed in the article), and are paid better wages. We're not told if overtime is paid; we're not told if health benefits are paid. Maybe that's not interesting to the J-S.

We're ALSO not told what happens to the price of milk/cwt if wages are raised to attract US workers.

I'll grant that this is a tough problem to resolve. I don't think the farmers here are Simon Legrees--not by a long-shot. And I know they're competing--on price--with California farms, which have an unlimited supply of illegals.

But who is really getting milked here? The cows? Or the taxpayers?

The Principled Opposition to "The Deal"

Andrew McCarthy joins Rush, Levin, and Erickson. He makes the point that this should NOT be political; that it is only so because the Party In Government makes it so. To McCarthy, the cave-in is craven, and precisely counter to the will of the people.

He's right, of course, no matter the pundits (here in Milwaukee) who get their talking points from the usual suspects.

...Ask any rational person: “When a government is so addicted to reckless spending that it has run up a crushing $14.3 trillion debt that it has no plan to pay back — when it is borrowing $180 million per hour because it has taken on more obligations than it could ever hope to satisfy — would it be better to extend that government’s credit line another $2.5 trillion so it can continue heedlessly along, or to take every available opportunity to force it to alter course dramatically?” There is only one right answer to that question.

Yet, try to fashion a policy position around that right answer, and what do you find? None less than the Dr. Sowell, as fine a mind as there is, warning that we can’t do the right thing because we’ll be wrongly blamed for the consequences. None less than the eminent Charles Krauthammer spouting the lamest of GOP talking points: Because Republicans only control one-half of one-third of the government, it is constitutionally problematic for House conservatives to continue demanding deeper spending cuts, to refuse to allow the nation to be driven trillions deeper in debt, and to treat an existential threat to our country as an existential threat to our country.

...The only sure thing here is that there will be consequences. With due respect to Dr. Sowell and the Republican establishment that breathlessly cites him, there is no chance of sparing the country. The major economic disruption is already happening, and it stands to get far worse. Millions are unemployed, millions more are on public assistance, at unsustainable levels. The government has sharply devalued the dollar, and is gearing up for a third round of “quantitative easing” (more money created out of thin air). Like private-fund managers, our sovereign creditors, including China, Japan, and Great Britain, are showing increasingly less interest in buying our debt, so Treasury “borrows” (prints) mostly from the Fed — whose swelling $2.7 trillion balance sheet is reportedly leveraged 55-to-1. That’s twice what Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers were leveraged when they failed. To entice real lenders, interest rates will have to be raised. That will add hundreds of billions to our debt service, wiping out the paltry “savings” the Boehner plan purports to achieve.

(Bill Buckley proudly 'stood athwart History yelling "STOP!"'.)

We return to the Party-In-Government (PIG) meme:

...But today’s Republican establishment shoulders plenty of the blame. In the first six years of the George W. Bush administration — when Republicans controlled both houses of Congress, with Speaker Boehner then among the GOP’s House leaders — the debt ceiling went from $5.95 trillion to $8.97 trillion. It had taken a decade (from 1987 to 1997) to increase the ceiling by the $3 trillion it took to get to $5.95 trillion. Republicans took only six years to do it again. Under President Bush, who has reportedly whipped GOP lawmakers to vote for the Boehner plan, the national debt rose by almost $5 trillion, to $10.6 trillion — i.e., it nearly doubled.

Paul Ryan--who actually DOES know better--was part of that cabal. By no co-incidence, he still is part of that cabal today, along with Sensenbrenner, Ribble, Duffy, and Whats-his-name from Wherever. Paul likes that "one-half-of-one-third-of-Gummint" line a lot, you know.

Bush’s profligacy pales by Obama standards. The current president is spending the nation into oblivion. He has taken less than three years to run up almost $4 trillion in debt.

To the fundamentals:

While every issue has political overtones and consequences, that does not make every issue political in its essence. The debt-ceiling controversy is not, as Republican leadership and its cheerleaders maintain, about politics. It is not a matter of, “If we don’t handle this correctly, if we push this too far, if Americans think we’re too extreme, President Obama will be reelected.” The debt ceiling is about the debt, not about how politicians can optimally position themselves to evade accountability for the inevitable consequences of the debt.

As to Ryan's bleating over "half of.......":

The people, quite emphatically, want out-of-control spending dealt with. Their representatives have the power to effectuate that desire. The president can try to insist on borrowing and spending more, but the House gets to say no — and, on this matter, it is the president who should yield. That is not a constitutional problem; it is the Constitution in action.

But hey! There's an election coming up, you know.....but the real question is this: will that election really matter?

HT: ColdFury

What IS It W/Blue States and Debt?

Really neat little roll-over/see your debt map here from CNN (!).

There IS a pattern.

HT: PJMedia

Revolt in Syria!

Bears watching.

A Syrian Major-General has deserted Assad’s army along with a group of other officers and joined the rebels.

In an Arabic video clip posted on Youtube on July 29, 2011, the officer, Major-General Riad El As’ad is seen in the company of other officers, announcing the establishment of the “Free Syrian Army whose main goal will be to fight the army of oppression headed by President Bashar Assad”.

As’ad accused the Assad regime of crimes against the Syrian people and called on the officers and soldiers in the Syrian army not to aim their weapons at the people. He further called on them to join the Free Syrian Army.

The major-general warned that the Free Army will eliminate any soldier who acts to harm his own people. The present army commanders do not represent the army, he continued, they are acting for the criminal gang that controls the media and prevents the people from obtaining truthful information on what is happening.

--Arutz Sheva quoted at Gateway

The Debt Deal?

Here's what seems to be the proposal.

• Debt ceiling increase of up to $2.8 trillion
• Spending cuts of roughly $1 trillion
• Vote on the Balanced Budget Amendment
• Special committee to recommend cuts of $1.8 trillion (or whatever it takes to add up to the total of the debt ceiling increase)
• Committee must make recommendations before Thanksgiving recess
• If Congress does not approve those cuts by late December, automatic across-the-board cuts go into effect, including cuts to Defense and Medicare.

--ABC News via AOSHQ

Some reports have it that Biden was the Administration negotiator, and that Reid is in a major huff over something; maybe because this deal (as reported) looks more (R) than (D). Apparently there is NO tax-increase provision; the Committee cannot consider increases in the future, either. (That's contradicted by other reports. Frankly, I cannot imagine that there are NO tax increases allowed, which would be a total collapse for the (D) Party.)

More at HotAir

This from Vox:

...Assuming that the private sector continues its debt-deleveraging, this means that by the end of 2012, government will account for 27.8% of all debt, the federal government will account for 23.2% of it (up from 10.3% in Q2-2008), households will be at 22.4% (down from 28%) and the financial sector at 24.4% (down from 31.5%).

Ugly. There may have been a better resolution, but we'll not know.

By the way, the deal runs PAST the '12 elections, which explains its bi-partisan attractiveness.

Or if you're a cynic, the deal is attractive to the Party In Government (PIG Party.)

Da Union v. The Handicapped. Such Class!

Althouse finds an example of Da Yoooooonion's class and largesse.

About 300-400 people gathered at Opportunities Inc. in Fort Atkinson last night. Walker visited as part of a 45th anniversary celebration and a $6 million dollar addition to the Opp. Inc. “campus”. Protesters broadcast 3 key messages. The first two I expected: “Recall Walker” and “Opportunities Inc is a sweat shop”.

Uh-huh.

"Opportunities, Inc." provides ......get this!!!........"SUB-MINIMUM WAGES" to folks who cannot be hired by anyone else.

The people they hire--and pay--earn dignity and self-worth. That's the point. Putting nuts and bolts into baggies at a rate which, frankly, isn't enough to offset the heat and light in the building, in many cases--but they get paid.

But Da Yoooooooooooooonion doesn't care about "dignity and self-worth."

One suspects that's because Da Yoooooooooonion's MEMBERS have no dignity at all. See the pictures accompanying the article. Feel the class, the "concern" for the under-privileged.

Try not to puke all over your screen.

SOME News Stories Make the J-S. Others? Nah.

PowerLine notes a lengthy AP story about Fast & Furious/Gunwalker.

So I ran a couple of inquiries on the J-S Online site to see if they had anything on the topic.

When I ran "Fast & Furious", I got "fast food, fast race, fast fingers," and stories about athletes. "Fast and Furious" returned similar results, but not food-related crap.

When I ran "Gunwalker" the site returned a question: "Do you mean GuvWalker?"

So here's what the J-S doesn't bother with. From Breitbart's site, of course.

A New Shirley Abrahamson!

Seems that some County in NC opens its board meetings with an invocation.

No longer, if they County pays attention to the Blackrobes.

...Given that 95 percent of local religious houses identify as Christian, it’s not surprising that many of the invocations include specifically Christian language, often closing the prayer in the name of “Jesus Christ” or “Jesus.”

Two non-Christians from the community with a population of approximately 350,000 sued, arguing that an invocation mentioning Jesus Christ during a public prayer violates the Establishment Clause of the Constitution.

Even though the pair acknowledged that the Supreme Court held public prayers—called “legislative prayers”—are constitutional in the 1983 case Marsh v. Chambers, the federal district court in North Carolina sided with the protestors.

In a stunning decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit affirmed that judgment in a 2-to-1 decision, holding in the case Joyner v. Forsyth County that prayers unconstitutionally advance Christianity if references to Jesus are more than isolated, or if the content is otherwise too Christian for the court’s taste.

Precisely the "Mommy, May I?" approach to "judicial restraint" practiced by Screechin'Shirley in the CCW cases (before CCW became law).

Give 'em black robes and they get silly. Or stupid. Or both.

HT: Zippers

US Mercury Emissions, the Statists, and the DC Mind

This will be coming up in the next few months, so here are a few useful facts.

...total U.S. emissions of mercury amount to about one percent of total global emissions, with about 70 percent coming from Mother Nature. That means Mother Nature emits 140 times more mercury than U.S. power plants and the rest of mankind emits 55 times more mercury than U.S. power plants.

Moreover, there’s no evidence that typical levels of mercury in the ambient environment have harmed anybody ever.

However.......

The Statist DC "Mind" did mandate, de facto, that one import mercury into one's home in a very breakable container.

So. The Statists insist that you expose your children to poisoning, while insisting that no wild bird shall be harmed.

The DC "Mind" at work, again.

Dingy "Compromise": Obozo's Way or Go To Hell!

Yup. Told you so.

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid said on Friday his budget legislation would increase the nation’s borrowing authority until March, 2013 and reiterated that he would not accept a short-term debt limit increase as Republicans are insisting. --Reuters at Zippers

IOW, Boehner gave these jerkwads the spending they wanted (less what...$900Bn over TEN years?), and the debt-hike they want, which will punish our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

And Jerkwad One in the Senate says "jam it" at the instruction of Jerkwad Obozo.

Tomorrow, the Jerkwad Chorus will be calling for "compromise."

Mo' Statism!! (or) The DC Mind, Part 85,339

Key passage:

But you’ve got to wonder, if the fuel-saving technologies requisite to meet the new standards are such a great bargain, why do we need a law forcing automakers to adopt them? After all, auto companies are in business to make money, they compete for customers, and there’s not a consumer alive who enjoys pain at the pump.

So. Why does Obozo (and Clinton, and Carter, and Nixon, et.al.) do it?

Because he CAN. Makes no difference if he's right or wrong.

Mo' Big Brother!

Whenever the Political Class uses "the chillllllrrrrrrun" as a label, it's useful to look very hard at the proposal.

Because it usually translates to "The Statists need this". In this case, there's more than a little irony, too.

The House Judiciary Committee approved legislation on Thursday that would require Internet service providers (ISPs) to collect and retain records about Internet users' activity.

CNET reported the bill would require ISPs to retain customers' names, addresses, phone numbers, credit card numbers, bank account numbers, and temporarily-assigned IP addresses for 12 months.

Not surprising to find Wasserman as a co-sponsor, either. Slime, personified. (When did Lamar Smith start emulating The Hildebeeste?)

...The Protecting Children from Internet Pornographers Act of 2011 (H.R. 1981) was sponsored by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX) and Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL)

The irony? Smith voted to smother the children in US debt. Who's REALLY for "the chillllrun"?

UPDATE: List of Statists-in-Pubbie-Clothes follows. We are pleased that Jim Sensenbrenner voted against this crap!

(R) Morons: (HT Brewer/AOSHQ)

Smith, Coble, Goodlatte, Gallegly, Chabot, Lungren, Forbes, King, Franks, Griffin, Marino, Gowdy, Ross, and S. Adams.

Prospective "Default" = Rising US Bond Price?

Remember the crap-ola?

"Your mortgage rate will be ....umnhh........45%........or something.......really high, yup."

"Dow will drop to .......ooooohhhhh......... 5,000, or maybe 6,000.........who knows? Doom!!"

Uh huh.

Treasuries surged, driving 10- and 30-year yields to the lowest levels this year, as U.S. lawmakers deadlocked over raising the debt limit and the economy grew more slowly than forecast. Benchmark 10- and 30-year debt rose in July the most in almost a year, and Treasuries’ returns recouped all of their June losses. At the same time, rates climbed on bills maturing just after the Aug. 2 debt-cap deadline

Think maybe the Obozo down-low message to the traders got through?

Well, Speaker Boehner, You Own It Now

Sensenbrenner, Ryan, Ribble, Duffy, and whats-his-name all voted for the Boehner plan.

It was killed in the Senate about 5 minutes after it arrived.

So, for our radio-friend who owns AM talk: what difference would it have made if Boehner had sent a REAL deficit-reduction plan? This makes the Pubbies "not stupid"?

Let me help you here: Reid would have killed ANY House offering. Unless it was written by Obozo himself, but we couldn't wait that long.

SO:

...We knew the debt ceiling was approaching a long time ago. Tea Party conservatives have been open, honest, highly visible, and principled participants in the national debate for years, but now they’re being told to shut up because they’re distracting the geniuses who gave us a $14 trillion national debt from coping with a last-minute ticking-clock crisis.

Now Reid will make his deposit and send the dirty diaper back to the House.

It'll be yours to open and clean, Speaker Boehner. Be sure to have the above-named gents help you out.

The DC "Mind": "We'll fix a $14Tn debt by making it $19Tn. WE sure as Hell aren't going to pay the bill!"

HT: Cold Fury

Horrifying Police Brutality

Caution: when you click this link, you'll see a picture you'll regret seeing.

The guy was a 135-lb. schizophrenic who was probably off his meds.

Thomas’ father, a retired Orange County sheriff’s deputy, has asserted that officers used excessive force to subdue his son, who was unarmed, slight and of medium height.

After seeing his son's injuries and talking with witnesses, Thomas told the Register his son "was brutally beaten to death."

A town to avoid: Fullerton, CA.

When the Democrats Tax It........It Moves!

Oh, well. Those 1200 workers really didn't need jobs, did they?

Boston Scientific said yesterday that it plans to eliminate 1,200 to 1,400 jobs worldwide during the next 2 1/2 years to free money for new investments, the Natick medical device maker’s second major round of cuts since last year.

....More than 420 companies including Boston Scientific, St. Jude Medical and Stryker signed on to a letter asking the U.S. Congress to repeal a planned 2.3 percent excise tax on medical devices. The tax could cost $20 billion a year and is set to take effect in 2013 as part of broad health care reform package passed last year.

“The tax is already having an adverse impact on R&D investment and job creation, jeopardizing the U.S. global leadership position in medical device innovation,” said the letter.

“If this tax is not repealed, it will continue to force affected companies to consider cutting manufacturing operations, research and development, and employment levels to recoup the lost earnings due to the tax,”

PRChina is the beneficiary, by the way.

Smooth move, Obozo!

A Bang-Slam GREAT PowerLine Entry

Go here.

Damn, that's good!

Another Problem with AGW (!)

Gee, who'd a thunk that cooked models could be so wrong?

NASA satellite data from the years 2000 through 2011 show the Earth's atmosphere is allowing far more heat to be released into space than alarmist computer models have predicted, reports a new study in the peer-reviewed science journal Remote Sensing. The study indicates far less future global warming will occur than United Nations computer models have predicted, and supports prior studies indicating increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide trap far less heat than alarmists have claimed.

Not to worry. The DC Minds will still kill off coal mining, electricity, and petroleum utilization.

That way, the only thing LEFT to eat will be peas.

HT: Just One Minute

The Non-Hobbit

The above non-Hobbit failed Constitution 101 by attempting to quash free speech. He cannot get elected to a national office and is in his Senate office only by virtue of an unlimited personal bank account--from his wife's family fortune.

HT: Examiner

Is There a Redeeming Value in Boehner V2.0?

The Boehner V2.0 (which today will become V2.1) is not entirely bereft of redeeming values.

Here's an explanation of the "out-years" savings which is useful.

...the worry about front-loading versus back-loading spending is somewhat misplaced. Of course I wish the upfront cuts were bigger (currently $22 billion in year one). But considering the plan as it stands is a long-shot to become law, I’m not sure how much play we have here. Besides, the main reason the cuts are back-loaded isn’t political per se, it’s mathematical. Current law assumes that spending on program x will increase at rate y every year for the next ten years. If you freeze spending on program x or even retard its growth, the real dollar value of the cut is thus greater in the out years. It’s as simple as that.

In addition, the Boehner plan does not contemplate any tax increases.

The DC Mind, Part 78,659

From Washington DC, the bureaucrats can see all, know all, and fix all things.

Even wolves which are in Minocqua.

...In Minocqua, Stepp said the DNR is opposed to aspects of the proposed rule that recognizes the presence of two distinct species of wolves in the Midwest: the gray wolf, or Canis lupus, the wolf species currently listed under the protection act, and the eastern wolf, or Canis lycaon, which has a historical range that includes portions of eastern Canada and the northeastern United States.

DNR officials said the agency would have great difficulty managing wolf populations if the gray wolf was delisted and the eastern wolf was protected because genetic testing has shown Wisconsin's wolves are a mix of both species.

Andryk said the DNR has managed wolves as a single population since 1978. "They are physically indistinguishable," he said.

The Wackos will use this phantom "second species" as a lever to prevent WI DNR from controlling the population, of course. And the Wacko solution?

Buy guard dogs.

No, I'm not making that up. Read the article.

Charlie Sykes Likes the K'Hammer Column

Krauthammer wrote a column endorsing Boehner (V 2.0) as the 'incremental' victory needed by the Pubbies as they march toward victory in '12. Charlie Sykes endorsed that.

Well.....

Maybe.

K'hammer forgets that Harry Reid--a duplicitous and crafty old bastard, will have his way with Boehner (V 2.0) when it gets to the Senate.

And Reid will undoubtedly modify the bill to accommodate Obozo. There are a couple of different possibilities: 1) insert a tax-raise provision; 2) reduce the already-paltry spending cuts; 3) extend the end-date past the '12 election; 4) some of the above; 5) all of the above.

IOW, K'hammer and Sykes assume that Reid is honest and perfectly willing to accede to Boehner's plan.

Good luck with that, boys.

"Dawn of the Debt"

#3 prize-winner in the PowerLine contest. (Scroll down a bit).

Too bad the guy didn't buy ammo....

The DC Mind, Part 66,408

Ah, yes. The Gummint NEEDS MO' MONEY, according to BillyBoy Kristol, John Boehner, Allen West, Paul Ryan, and Loser McCain!

Meantime, Fox6 reports on Porkulus spending.

Nearly $200 million in stimulus money has been funneled into academic research projects at the University of Wisconsin. Like a $584,000 grant to analyze cloud formations in Antarctica, $900,000 to study woody vines in Panama, $1.3 million to research cosmic rays in outer space and $2 million to create a video game designed to teach UW faculty members about workforce diversity.

These are the needs which the DC Mind (it's sorta like The Blob) insists we MUST spend on.

We have needs, too! Mostly for pitchforks and hot tar.

But wait! There's MORE!!!

Like a $46,000 grant to the Ho Chunk nation to pay for babysitters during a two-day family wellness retreat last summer. When there was money left over after the retreat, the tribe came up with an addition project to completely spend the money. They bought iPads and laptops for everyone who helped take care of the children

The DC Mind at work.

Herbie Awakens!

Kohl was roused from his slumbers and did a good thing, sorta.

Today, Senator Herb Kohl signed on as a cosponsor of S.1392, the EPA Regulatory Relief Act of 2011. This bipartisan bill would halt four rules related to industrial boilers and incinerators first proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in June 2010. The bill would give EPA time to re-propose these rules – ensuring that they are achievable – and give the affected users sufficient time to comply. These proposal rules, if implemented, could impose huge costs to many industries in Wisconsin, especially the pulp and paper industry. Wisconsin is home to more than 200 pulp and paper facilities and the industry employs more than 35,000 people.

The rules are called "MACT".

No word on whether Herbie will take similar action on EPA's coal-industry/electric-generation-killing rules. Also no word on whether Herbie is pushing for action on S1392.

The DC Mind, Part 49,665

The Gummint NEEDS MO' MONEY, you know.

In this case, to kill embryos pursuant to an Obozo EO eviscerating the Dickey-Wicker Amendment.

The DC Mind--Boehner, Ryan, Reid, Obozo, BillyBoy Kristol, (et al) agree!!

Fast & Furious: IRS, DEA, FBI, and BATF All In On the Scheme

So now we know that the FBI "assisted" Fast & Furious by rigging background checks, and this clip tells us that the IRS and DEA were also "in" on the scheme.

Next, we'll find that Dept of Education provided bi-lingual assistance for owner's manuals for the AR-15...

Meantime, Obozo and the DC Minds (Boehner, Reid, et al) insist that the Gummint NEEDS MO' MONEY!!

Third Party? Why Not?

Erickson:

The GOP told us they had turned from their big spending ways. John Boehner went so far last year to say he appreciated outside conservative groups holding their feet to the fire.

And then today —The GOP would not fight for smaller government when it was in the majority and now it seems it intends to cave abjectly in the minority hiding behind its minority status instead of fighting.

If the GOP won’t fight in the majority and it won’t fight in the minority, what good is it? Even now, guys like Jeff Flake and Mike Pence seem to be going wobbly.

Like TARP, No Child Left Behind, Medicare Part D, Harriet Miers — these are the fights that define a conservative’s legacy in Congress. The new guys might not realize that. But ultimately, we conservatives remember.

...And we also remember the outside groups and pundits who are urging compromise and urging Boehner’s plan. Many of these same people urged on the bad plans of the past only to then claim they got duped.

We sent to Washington a group of men and women to repeal Obamacare and cut Washington spending. Now we’re confronted with the fact that they want to pass off their obligations to another deficit commission, give Barack Obama a too clever by half pass at rising the debt ceiling, and claim they did all they could. But they haven’t.

These are not easy times or easy decisions. But we sure as heck should expect more from these guys. This isn’t about being on John Boehner’s team. It’s about doing what is right. And it is not right to punt obligations and make ephemeral cuts.

Boehned again, naturally.

Hey, Jeffy! Your Picture Here!

HT: POWIP

For Boehner, Sensenbrenner, and Ryan

Watch this video before you vote to piss away our children's future.

And be prepared for the consequences if you DO vote to do so.

Immelt Moves X-Ray to China for "Better Workers"?

Oh, please, Jeff. Be serious.

A good portion of unemployment in the United States is being caused by workers themselves, according to President Obama's Jobs and Competitiveness Council headed by General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt. The problem is not so much the shortage of jobs, but a shortage of trained workers, engineers and skilled foreign immigrants who could fill the few jobs that might exist, Jobs Council members told President Obama on June 13.

Their solution is really, really, really going to have an impact:

This is especially true in the manufacturing sector, which has lost 5 million jobs over the past decade. The Jobs and Competitiveness Council's remedy for this problem: increase training in CNC machining and advanced production. The Council's plan would generate a grand total of 2,000 jobs in the first year. It is estimated that the country needs to generate 21 million jobs to get to full employment.

....leaving only 21,998,000 without a job, or something.

GE's Immelt recently announced that he was moving the X-Ray division to PRChina. Obviously, PRChina's workforce is trained and skilled in CNC machining and advanced production.

Or not. Reputable people have stated that most PRChina 'degrees' are even more worthless than are US 'degrees.'

Only 30 years ago, it was commonplace for manufacturing concerns to train their OWN workforce in the technology of CNC and 'advanced manufacturing.' Of course, that cost money--so now GE (et al) expect the public screwels and tech-schools to do the work--at public expense, of course--and they'll be happy to hire people.

Or something.

Gestalt, Gehalt, und Liturgical Grundgestalten

I couldn't resist that headline.

Anyhoo, here's the one-graf setup for the paper at this link.

The core of the discussion revolves around the idea that, according to Guardini, the“structure” (or “form, figure, shape”, in German Gestalt) and its “content” (Gehalt ) are entirely different things: the Holy Mass, in its “structure”, is a meal, but its “content” is a sacrifice. This divergence between liturgical structure and dogmatic content, according to Ratzinger, “must be regarded as the central problem of the liturgical reform. Failure to deal with it has resulted in a great many of the individual problems which have since preoccupied us --Hauke quoted at TNLM

Long article at the link. A bit dry, but historically informative. Also quite an exposition of the issue and B-16's thoughts on it (a good deal of that thought can be found in his 2-volume "Jesus of Nazareth.")

A Reminder and Warning

History counts. The Cambodian butchers will be tried soon.

The darkest period in Cambodia’s history was 1975-1979, when the communist Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, terrorized the nation. Pol Pot and his cohorts, many of whom were educated in France and received militant training from the French Communist Party, boasted that they were influenced by Jean Paul Sartre’s doctrine of “necessary violence” and Jean Jacques Rousseau’s charge that the perfect state must “possess men and all their powers.”

On the way towards establishing the Marxist paradise, therefore, Pol Pot – whose brother-in-law said: “Pol Pot thought that he was above everyone else on the whole planet … a god on earth” – eliminated Cambodia’s property and business owners and its intellectual class. And faithful to Rousseau’s dictum that “cosmopolitanism” was the root of all evil, Pol Pot ordered the depopulation of the nation’s urban centers.

It's short; read it again. Commies, Rousseau, and Sartre, whose lines Alinsky copied.'

The folks who will be most surprised are the ones living in NYC, LA, SanFran, and Chicago.

Atheists Sue NYC

So.

On that bright September 11th morning almost 10 years ago, Muslim terrorists took down the World Trade Center, and amid all the heartbreak, dust, and rubble two intersecting steel beams stood impossibly in the shape of a cross giving comfort to a confused and bewildered country.

Now, a group of atheists is suing to take down the cross.

The question is: who's more out-of-touch? The athests? Or Congress and the President?

It IS the Pubbies' Fault. The DC Mind, Part 35,608

You've heard a thousand times that the Republican Party is really The Stupid Party.

For good reasons.

Boehner's commo staff should be tossed into the Basin, lead-weighted so that they never emerge again.

In the last two weeks, have you EVER heard Boehner mention "baseline budget fantasies"? Ryan? Senator RoJo? Duffy? Ribble?

No. They don't mention it. So two weeks or more has been flushed down the toilet. Instead of screaming about "baseline budget" pirouettes, shuffles, sambas, and general fraud, Boehner prattled about 'reductions' and 'no tax increases.'

As it turns out, simply freezing Gummint spending (all of it) through 2012 would reduce spending by

$9 TRILLION

over a 10-year term.

DC Minds don't want you to know that. They prefer to spend un-impeded by you vile Bible-smacking, gun-toting ignorant sluts (Jane!!)

The Pubbies are stupid.

And the DC Mind still reigns.

Buy More Ammo. The time is near.

J-S Asks the Wrong Question

The propaganda campaign is beginning: we NEED regulation!!

But before May knew she had spinal disease, she spent almost a year in the care of a Milwaukee man named Sik Kin Wu. And May says she paid Wu, a self-described "intuitive healer," to adjust her neck - not once or twice, but 11 times during a year.

Wu, a Shorewood restaurant owner with a history of federal tax fraud, says he can tell what's wrong with people by looking at them. He acknowledged he isn't licensed to provide health care in the United States, instead providing a certificate stating he completed a four-month acupuncture and Chinese massage program in Shanghai.

Umnnhhhh.....

The lady (May) doesn't have health insurance, which caused her to bypass hospitals. Instead, she took the advice of a friend and paid this guy a bunch of money to, ah, ruin her spine.

But this does not make the case for more regulation. The question the JS should have asked is "How can this woman obtain treatment from legitimate providers?"

I've never believed the Progressive Myth that "consumers choose wisely all the time." (Yes, it IS a Progressive myth, no matter who spouts it.)

But "more regulation" is not always the answer, either, no matter what you read in the J-S.

(By the way, the rest of the story includes some demi-perversion material. Not safe for children.)

Use Wi-Fi? Google Knows Who You Are

Someday, someone will become extremely unhappy with these clowns.

Google's Street View cars collected the locations of millions of laptops, cell phones, and other Wi-Fi devices around the world, a practice that raises novel privacy concerns, CNET has confirmed.

The cars were supposed to collect the locations of Wi-Fi access points. But Google also recorded the street addresses and unique identifiers of computers and other devices using those wireless networks and then made the data publicly available through Google.com until a few weeks ago.

So. If you use a box which connects by Wi-Fi, Google has the box's MAC address and your Wi-Fi location in addition to pretty pictures of your house (and car(s)).

The Public vs. The DC Mind

Unlike The DC Mind, operative in Washington DC and adjoining precincts, the American public doesn't think that spending is a good thing.

The July 16-18 poll contacted 1,096 respondents through a telephone survey. The Wenzel Strategies project carries a margin of error of 2.93 percent.

It showed that 54.4 percent of the respondents believe the nation's fiscal situation should be fixed with cuts in government spending, while 21.4 percent say the debt ceiling should be raised so President Obama can borrow and spend more money, and 16.6 percent – led by Democrats – believe the government should raise taxes.

Gee. Paul Ryan thinks you should get Boehned. So does Cantor.

Maybe they can't read polls. Or maybe they are part of The DC Mind.

Franken Still a Comedian, Still Not Funny

What happens when a comedian goes to the Senate? Not much. He's still a comedian.

Unfortunately for Franken, his schtick hasn't been funny for about 20 years.

...what really set the left-wing blogosphere abuzz was Sen. Al Franken’s supposed “takedown” of Focus on the Family’s Tom Minnery. When Tom cited a 2010 study that concluded that children do best when raised in a home with their own married biological or adoptive parents, defined as a “nuclear family,” Franken pounced with his “question”:

"I checked the study out. And I would like to enter into the record, if I may, it actually doesn’t say what you said it says. It says that nuclear families—not opposite-sex married families—are associated with those positive outcomes. Isn’t it true, Mr. Minnery, that a married same-sex couple that has had or adopted kids would fall under the definition of a nuclear family in the study that you cite?

Umnnhhhh...not really, Al.

At the very most, there were 13,000 queer "marriages" in the entire USA at the time the study was done (end-date 2007.) There were 59 MILLION real marriages.

SNL is always looking for comic talent. Sadly, Al won't get past the first audition.

Fast & Furious Testimony: the DC Mind

Well, this is interesting.

Obama says that he did not know about the operation, however Newell said he did discuss ongoing gun-trafficking investigations with a White House national security director.

Newell is the former SAC of BATF/Phoenix.

It seems that Newell did his damndest to evade and avoid during the hearing.

Something that all Gummint bureaucrats are trained to do from Day One. It's part of the DC Mind, you know.

Conscience Protection from Obozo?

Ideologues have no conscience, so Obama won' t understand this. Nor will Senate Democrats.

The nation’s Roman Catholic bishops and religious conservatives are backing new legislation that would prevent Obamacare from requiring insurance coverage of abortion or contraception.

H.R. 1179, the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act, would prevent any new mandates under health-care reform from being used to disregard Americans’ freedom of conscience, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) said.

The better solution is to repeal ObamaCare, but this is a start.

Mexicans Foiled While Looking for AG Holder

They should have flown commercial.

Almost three dozen uniformed Mexican soldiers in four military vehicles crossed the Rio Grande into South Texas near McAllen without authorization.

[Border Patrol spokesman] declined to comment on what the soldiers were doing when they crossed the border, referring those inquiries to Mexican military officials.

Unconfirmed reports have it that the soldiers were told to bring Eric Holder to justice for his Fast & Furious operation which illegally brought weapons into Mexico.

Or something.

Pelosi's Almost Correct!

Here's San Fran Nan pumping estrogen into the atmosphere:

“This is an excuse – a budget deficit is an excuse for the Republicans to undermine government – plain and simple. They don’t just want to make cuts; they want to destroy. They want to destroy food safety, clean air, clean water, the Department of Education. They want to destroy your rights. They do not like government.”

There is NO Fed who 'makes food safe.' There is NO Fed who 'makes air clean.' And there is NO Fed who actually 'helps' educate children.

So San Fran Nan is almost correct: Conservatives would be happy to get the useless Feds off the payroll.

UPDATE: We found her speechwriter!

That is the agenda of our opponents. They want to repeal the 20th century. They want to smash down every American institution our grandparents fought for, from the labor unions to public education to the safety net–really the American middle-class. We should not let that happen without a big fight, the biggest fight in the history of the country… --Van Jones, Communist and Obozo confidante. HT: VerumSerum

Need a Budget Cut? How About D of Energy?

The Department of Energy is largely a waste of oxygen.

While the United States produced 69% the petroleum it consumed in 1970, this figure has dropped to 25% in 2005.

Department of Energy has requested $39Billion for 2012.

Give them $10Bn and tell them to use it for shutting down. Move the NRC over to Commerce. Move the international atomic bunch to State.

Not to worry: we'll cut those budgets next.

The Boehning, in CBO Terms

Here's the Boehning your children are getting, as the CBO analyzed it.

The CBO estimates that Boehner’s $1.2 trillion in discretionary spending cuts will only save us $850 billion over ten years. This means that Obama’s credit card increase will be higher than the concurrent spending cuts, thus voiding the promise of the dollar-for-dollar agreement. Moreover, the CBO estimates that all the cuts will be backloaded, as the estimated savings for next year – the only enforceable year – will be a negligible $1 billion! It turns out that an extra $4 billion in mandatory spending for Pell Grants will ostensibly wipe out any savings from the paltry discretionary cuts.

Another way to put it is this: you have a $3,700.00/month spending habit with a $2,500.00/month income. Your bank says "Cut your spending!"

You announce that you'll cut $6.00/month.

Uh-huh.

Yup. Disaster. 10-Year and 30-Year Paying LESS Interest

The 10-year and the 30-year US note/bond (respectively) are paying LESS interest today than yesterday.

However, the T-Bill popped 3/100ths, all the way up to 0.0650%/year.

Waiting for Armageddon, Godot, and Mr. Goodbar. Place your bets.

Boehner Fail

So far, so good:

House Republicans do not have enough support to pass their debt-ceiling increase plan on their own, a top conservative said Tuesday as his party’s leaders tried to cobble together a coalition of Republicans and Democrats to put the bill over the top.

“There are not 218 Republicans in support of this plan,” Rep. Jim Jordan, an Ohio Republican who heads the powerful conservative caucus in the House, told reporters Tuesday morning.

No surprise Boehner needs Lefties to get this through.

It sucks, so Lefties will like it.

HT: Zippers

Ryan Goes All "DC Mind"

Ryan approves of the Boehning of the children.

The Budget Control Act takes an important step in the right direction by cutting $1.2 trillion in government spending over the next decade.

"DC Mind" at work: we MUST, MUST, MUST have a Dept of Education, and fund mosques in Arabia, and wart-wriggler studies.......
'
So, you Lefties: he's your man!

House Email Down

The House of Representatives' email server went all toast this afternoon.

The Next Santelli!!

Y'all remember Rick Santelli, whose rant launched the TEA Party?

He has a successor.

Boener on Limbaugh Program. Rush Incredulous

You can get the tape later.

Boehner's explaining his "cuts" (they're not) to Rush.

It is perfectly obvious that Limbaugh doesn't believe a word of it.

Good.

Rush knows S*&^ from shinola. So do we.

Humor Break w/Ironic Humor

The theme is familiar.

The actresses are VERY good.

Also watch the out-takes at the end of the prepared script!

The DC Mind, Part 34,000

You think we're kidding about the "DC Mind," eh?

Because Diamond Foods made truthful claims about the health benefits of consuming walnuts that the FDA didn’t approve, it sent the company a letter declaring, “Your walnut products are drugs” — and “new drugs” at that — and, therefore, “they may not legally be marketed … in the United States without an approved new drug application.” The agency even threatened Diamond with “seizure” if it failed to comply. --New American quoted at MoonBattery

PissyPants: the most important component of the DC Mind!

The Genius of Eric Holder: Bud Light Material?

There's little remaining doubt that AG Eric Holder approved this utterly dumbass op.

But there is NO doubt about the outcome so far, and there's more to come!

At least 122 firearms from a botched U.S. undercover operation have been found at crime scenes in Mexico or intercepted en route to drug cartels there, according to a Republican congressional report being issued on Tuesday.

Mexican authorities found AK-47 assault rifles, powerful .50 caliber rifles and other weapons in late 2009 that were later linked to the U.S. sting operation to trace weapons going across the border to Mexico, the report said.

Guns from the program, dubbed "Operation Fast and Furious," also were found at the scene of the murder of a U.S. Border Patrol agent in the border state Arizona last December. It is not clear if they were the weapons responsible for his death.

He'll be in a Bud Light "genius" ad any day now.

HT HotAir

Your House? Think Y2K Value

Three different measures, about the same result.

Homes are worth what they were in Y2K.

And--by the way--either rents start going north, or prop-values continue going south.

HT: CalcRisk

This is "Restraint," Speaker Boehner?

Po' John Boehner. Trapped in the DC Mind, unable to escape. Here's a comparo of the Boehner and Reid proposals:

Both agree that for Fiscal Year 2013, which is “next year’s” budget, the federal government would spend $1.047 trillion.

For Fiscal Year 2014, Democrats are at $1.068 trillion, Republicans at $1.066 trillion – a difference of $2 billion.

For Fiscal Year 2015, Democrats are at $1.089 trillion, Republicans at $1.086 trillion – a difference of $3 billion. --J Dupree quoted at Examiner

Doesn't Boehner have a sandbox he should be playing in, or something?

Playing the US Bond

Interesting.

Someone dropped a bomb on the bond market Thursday - a $1 billion Armageddon trade betting the United States will lose its AAA credit rating.

The massive trade wasn't placed in bonds themselves; it was placed in the futures market.

The trade was for block trades of 5,370 10-year Treasury futures executed at 124-03 and 3,100 Treasury bond futures executed at 125-01

Well, $1Bn ain't that much, but the leverage means a 10-to-1 payout .......if the bet is correct.

HT: AOSHQ

The DC Mind

Seems that the Brits have similar problems as do we. An over-there essayist captured the "DC Mind", (and that of London) very well:

The public will believe the politicians because—to adapt slightly the great dictum of Louis Pasteur—impossible political promises are believed only by the prepared mind.

It's all a matter of "preparing our minds", you see. That's why Obozo delivers the Same Speech, Different Day, every 3 days or so. (SS,DD has another word for the second 's', same basic meaning.)

Is YOUR 'mind prepared' for the DC Razzle-Dazzle: that only the Federal Gummint can save you from all ills, wipe away your tears, and prevent cataclysm?

If not, take more SOMA.

HT: AOSHQ

Oh, Good. ANOTHER Housing Bailout: FHA

Long story short, FHA's accounting methodology is ....ahhh.......not so good.

...At the request of Representative Paul Ryan, a Republican from Wisconsin, the Congressional Budget Office recently took the official budget estimate for new FHA loans and added in the cost of market risk that taxpayers bear in guaranteeing the mortgages.

Under this more comprehensive methodology, the CBO determined that FHA loans would swing to a loss of $3.5 billion from a projected profit of $4.4 billion next year. In a 10-year budget window, this could mean a difference of $50 billion to $70 billion, depending on market conditions.

So Fan/Fred are in the tank for $160Bn (so far), and FHA may be next.

Wunnerful.

ObozoBlockade, Chaos Emergent

Well, I'm not surprised.

A Republican aide e-mails me: “The Speaker, Sen. Reid and Sen. McConnell all agreed on the general framework of a two-part plan. A short-term increase (with cuts greater than the increase), combined with a committee to find long-term savings before the rest of the increase would be considered. Sen. Reid took the bipartisan plan to the White House and the President said no.” --Rubin, quoted at Insurrection.

Obozo wants chaos and pain--for the American people.

It might not stop there. The USMC 14th Ave. barracks is at DefCon1

EnviroWackies' Victory!

Oh, yes, the EnviroWackies won.

My name’s Ronnie Bryant, and I’m a mine operator…. I’ve been issued a [state] permit in the recent past for [waste water] discharge, and after standing in this room today listening to the comments being made by the people…. [pause] Nearly every day without fail — I have a different perspective — men stream to these [mining] operations looking for work in Walker County. They can’t pay their mortgage. They can’t pay their car note. They can’t feed their families. They don’t have health insurance. And as I stand here today, I just … you know … what’s the use? I got a permit to open up an underground coal mine that would employ probably 125 people. They’d be paid wages from $50,000 to $150,000 a year. We would consume probably $50 million to $60 million in consumables a year, putting more men to work. And my only idea today is to go home. What’s the use? I don’t know. I mean, I see these guys — I see them with tears in their eyes — looking for work. And if there’s so much opposition to these guys making a living, I feel like there’s no need in me putting out the effort to provide work for them. So as I stood against the wall here today, basically what I’ve decided is not to open the mine. I’m just quitting. Thank you.

I think the correct word is "Pyrrhic."

HT: ColdFury

Another Obozo Irrelevancy

Stacy McCain notes that the Libyan adventure (it's NOT a war) is now a "stalemate."

That's what the Chair, JCS, reports.

What a maroon is Obozo. A few hundred million bucks [not] fighting against a guy....and guess what? We also [not] won!

Harvard salons just don't teach much good stuff, eh?

Another Easy Budget Cut!

This shouldn't require more mental horsepower than the average Congressman has.

How would Americans feel if they knew the Obama administration just agreed to hand people affiliated with a designated terrorist group a $30 billion dollar check and recognize them as the legitimate rulers of Libya?

Short story: the Obozo Administration is funding a bunch of AlQuaeda members to run Libya.

Well. Stop payment on the check, $30Bn gone from the deficit!

Yup. We're Boehned.

Hard to believe that Boehner pulled this crap.

On Fox News Sunday, John Boehner began the day saying that he wanted a deal that kept to the principles of “Cut, Cap, and Balance.”He concluded Sunday by telling House Republicans that Cut, Cap, and Balance was off the table due to Senate opposition.

...To make it worse, Republican Leaders on Capitol Hill are offering up what is being called a “Super Congress”. In this plan, 3 Democrats and 3 Republicans would get together, come up with an agreement to make spending cuts and raise taxes. Then neither house in Congress would be able to stop those reforms — no filibuster could be used.

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!

Speaker Boehner, resign your position!

An Easy $770 Million Budget Cut!

This cut won't dump Granny into the street, either.

Just stop re-building mosques and providing 'net facilities for Muslims in the Middle East.

See? That didn't hurt at all.

HT: MoonBattery

The Norway Killer's Facebook Page-Alteration

Well, ain't THAT curious?

The Norwegian wacko-killer's Facebook page was altered.

The new edition (in English, no less!!) adds "Christian" and "Conservative".

And that new edition was created after the killing-spree.

HT: Caveman

Humor Break

HT: Al in Iowa

The Rights of Man Under Natural Law

This text should be vaguely familiar.

[Man has been given] the right to life, to bodily integrity, to the necessary means of existence; the right to tend toward his ultimate goal in the path marked out for him....; the right of association and the right to possess and use property.

Earlier we had mentioned that the Founders' core beliefs, as expressed in the Declaration, were Christian beliefs. They are not those of the French Revolution, nor of Locke, et.al. Rather, they are Burkean.

Oh, the quote?

Pius XII, Divini Redemptoris, para. 27.

The document is, in the main, a vigorous rejection of Communism (and Libertarianism) and of "liberal" (i.e., material-centered) economics.

The History of Debt Proposals

To review:

...The Republican House passed a budget–a very good one, too–within the deadlines prescribed by the Congressional Budget Act. The Senate Democrats ignored the law and refused either to agree with the House’s proposal, or adopt a budget of their own.

...the Republican House passed cut, cap and balance, which would have resolved the debt ceiling issue. Harry Reid refused to allow the Senate to vote on the proposal, and once again refused to come up with a plan of his own. President Obama, likewise, has refused to submit a plan other than his official FY 2012 budget, which was a joke. Obama has abandoned that proposal, but refuses to replace it with a new one...

Now, Harry Reid says the House should jump, and the House is jumping. Republicans will come up with yet another plan to resolve the debt ceiling issue

The one which will emerge, according to York (see the link) will have short-term AND long-term components.

It remains to be seen whether either of them actually reduces spending, of course. unlike the last "deal" which Denninger eviscerated: (HT Vox)

NO domestic spending cuts whatsoever.

NO material changes to entitlement spending ($25 billion/year on Medicare is pointless.)

NO other mandatory spending cuts. Anywhere.

One simple cut would be to de-fund Dept of Education. Now. Zero it out.

HT: PowerLine

THIS Is "Spending Reduction"?

We're back to "Boehned Again" status.

On the discretionary spending front, both sides had "identical offers," said one of the officials. There would be $1.2 trillion in cuts over the course of ten years; $1 trillion in savings that would come from the draw-down of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq; and $250 billion in savings in Medicare over the course of 10 years. --HuffPo quoted at Ticker

I'd keep the negotiations secret, too, if I were Boehner.

Sack of shit he is.

Rep Sensenbrenner? Rep. Ryan? Senator Johnson?

Which of you have the balls to demand an end to the SECRET debt talks?

Or do NONE of you have them?

The Jello Man

Straight from the AP:

First, the White House wanted a congressional vote separated from spending cuts. Now the administration likes them linked.

Obama said he would reject any short-term deal to raise the borrowing limit. Now the White House says he could make an exception.

He pledged to meet with congressional leaders every day until a deal was reached. But the daily meetings stopped or at least disappeared from his schedule.

And let's not forget the $600Bn "add-on" demand for tax hikes.

You would NOT buy a car from this bozo.

"Open Gummint"? Not On Obama's Watch!

There are plenty of interesting sideshows, by the way.

President Obama's senior appointees at the U.S. Office of Management and Budget took another step this week toward a potentially epic confrontation with Congress by ignoring a document subpoena issued by a subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

The subpoena is for thousands of documents requested months ago by the committee's Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations concerning OMB's evaluation of a Department of Energy economic stimulus program loan guarantee worth $535 million for Solyndra, Inc., which makes solar energy panels.

That $535 million is down-the-toilet, by the way. Gone. *Poof!*

Obozo's State Department Also Running Guns to Druglords

Earlier we referred to Obama's desire to generate crises.

If this story is true, that desire is for far more than fiscal discomforts.

Phil Jordan, a former CIA operative and one-time leader of U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s El Paso Intelligence Center, claims that the Obama administration is running guns to the violent Zetas cartel through the direct commercial sale of military grade weapons

Jordan, who served as director of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s El Paso Intelligence Center in 1995, said the Zetas have shipped large amounts of weapons purchased in the Dallas area through El Paso.

Robert “Tosh” Plumlee, a former CIA contract pilot, told the Times he supported Jordan’s allegations, adding that the Zetas have reportedly bought property in the Columbus, N.M., border region to stash weapons and other contraband.

“From the intel, it appears that a company was set up in Mexico to purchase weapons through the U.S. Direct Commercial Sales Program, and that the company may have had a direct link to the Zetas.” --UPI quoted at PJMedia

"Military-grade" is usually code for full-auto light weapons such as the M-16A1, M-4 and Ma Deuce. It could also include grenades and rocket-launchers. (See below for more)

The U.S. Direct Commercial Sales program is run from the U.S. State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls.

“They’ve found anti-aircraft weapons and hand grenades from the Vietnam War era,” Plumlee said. Other weapons found include grenade launchers, assault rifles, handguns and military gear including night-vision goggles and body armor. --El Paso Times quotation

Strictly EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEvil Republican propaganda?

Nope.

Jesús Rejón Aguilar, the number three man in the Zeta’s hierarchy, disclosed last week that the Zetas bought weapons in the United States and transported them across the Rio Grande.

There are a few gaps yet to be filled in the story, but given Holder's gun-running, this is not out of the realm of possibility.

HT: Arms/Law

World Ending!! FAA Lost Authorization!!

Notice that the birds are dropping from the sky and that the sun turned green?

Oh. You didn't?

Since politicians were not able to come to an agreement over extending the operating authority of the FAA as of midnight tonight, about 4,000 people will be out of work and federal airline ticket tax will no longer be collected. The shutdown will not affect airline safety, but it will stop airlines from collecting about $200million per week in ticket taxes that would help to to fund FAA programs. In the short term, passengers might celebrate since they will be able to save money by not paying taxes, but this means that projects will be delayed--Seattle PI quoted at HotAir

Brick by brick.

Next target: D of Education, whole and entire.