Seems to me that spending reductions should be on Gov. Walker's plate.
Why not lop off the BabyKillers?
The 5th Circuit sensibly said that Texas could shut out Planned Parenthood under the current program without violating the Constitution.
Of course, the BabyKillers went directly to Austin (read: Madison), found a Lefty circuit judge, (read: found a grain of sand on the beach), and have secured a TRO.
Not to worry. It won't last long.
But how long will it take Gov. Walker to do the same thing here?
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Monday, October 29, 2012
Think Chicago Will Say "Thanks"? Nah.
From all US taxpayers to the FIB's!!
Cook County hit a $100 million jackpot over the weekend.
In a little noticed but crucial decision announced Friday night [when our rulers do things they don't want reported], the federal government signed off on a request by county board President Toni Preckwinkle to enroll 114,000 low-income people a year early in the Medicaid program.
For the county, the decision is worth as much as $100 million a year, since its network of hospitals and health clinics already is serving most of the patients free of charge. The tab now will be picked up by federal taxpayers under a provision of Obamacare, rather than by Cook County taxpayers alone.--MoonBattery quoting Crain's
Of course, that means that Chicago pols will have to manufacture at least 100,000 fraudulent votes for the pResident.
Cook County hit a $100 million jackpot over the weekend.
In a little noticed but crucial decision announced Friday night [when our rulers do things they don't want reported], the federal government signed off on a request by county board President Toni Preckwinkle to enroll 114,000 low-income people a year early in the Medicaid program.
For the county, the decision is worth as much as $100 million a year, since its network of hospitals and health clinics already is serving most of the patients free of charge. The tab now will be picked up by federal taxpayers under a provision of Obamacare, rather than by Cook County taxpayers alone.--MoonBattery quoting Crain's
Of course, that means that Chicago pols will have to manufacture at least 100,000 fraudulent votes for the pResident.
Sunday, October 28, 2012
GirlyMan President HAS No Excuse for Massacre
This woman nails it.
The GirlyMan SCOAMF chose not to intervene. His running-dog Panetta...well, let's say that he won't be welcome in polite society for the rest of his life.
HT: McCain
The GirlyMan SCOAMF chose not to intervene. His running-dog Panetta...well, let's say that he won't be welcome in polite society for the rest of his life.
HT: McCain
The Growing Problem of Leftist Violence
Real Debate (HT Wiggy) mentions a few incidents (in the last few days) of Lefty violence.
Hmmmm. Given that only Rightists have CCW permits, where's all the shooting? The Wild-West scenes? The RAGE?
Nevermind.
However, if you have Romney-ist signage in a Lefty-dominated area, BOLO. The plays are getting rougher.
Hmmmm. Given that only Rightists have CCW permits, where's all the shooting? The Wild-West scenes? The RAGE?
Nevermind.
However, if you have Romney-ist signage in a Lefty-dominated area, BOLO. The plays are getting rougher.
The National Agony May Be Over
Statistics are the most elegant forms of lies, yes. But they're still interesting.
...In the current tracking poll, Gallup finds the ten-point advantage for Democrats has now turned into a one-point Republican advantage. The current party breakdown is now 35 percent Democrats, 36 percent Republicans, and 29 percent independents. And just in like 2008, that one-point advantage increases when independents are asked which party they typically lean to, with 49 percent identifying as Republicans and 46 percent Democrats. That number backs up the trends in other polling showing Romney leading among independents by large margins.
To get an idea of what this shift means, I plugged the Gallup 2008 and 2012 partisan numbers into the actual results from the 2008 election. Under Gallup’s breakdown, Obama would have won in 2008 by 9.8 points (he actually won by 7.2), and would eke out a victory against Romney in 2012 by eight tenths of a point.
But here’s why you can feel the panic emanating from Chicago: Romney is currently doing better with independents than Obama did in 2008. Obama won independents by eight, in 2008 while Romney is currently leading by 10.6 points on average. If the independent numbers are entered in to the 2008 results, Romney would have a victory of over four points. Even if Romney does not take any more crossover votes (Democrats who vote Republican and vice versa) than McCain got in 2008, he would still win by over four points on Election Day.
And Gallup is not alone.
...taking the Rasmussen partisan breakdown of 2008 and 2012 numbers and plugging them into the actual results gives Obama a seven-point win in 2008 and Romney a half-point victory in 2012. Taking the same scenario as Gallup and moving the independent results to match the current polling average changes Romney’s half-point victory into a 5.7-point victory. (As with Gallup, I’m assuming the Republican and Democrat voting margins stay the same as 2008.) If these polls are accurate and Romney captures a popular-vote win of four to six points, there is no chance he could lose the Electoral College...
None of that polling takes the Benghazi scandal into account. either. It WILL get worse for SCOAMF.
...In the current tracking poll, Gallup finds the ten-point advantage for Democrats has now turned into a one-point Republican advantage. The current party breakdown is now 35 percent Democrats, 36 percent Republicans, and 29 percent independents. And just in like 2008, that one-point advantage increases when independents are asked which party they typically lean to, with 49 percent identifying as Republicans and 46 percent Democrats. That number backs up the trends in other polling showing Romney leading among independents by large margins.
To get an idea of what this shift means, I plugged the Gallup 2008 and 2012 partisan numbers into the actual results from the 2008 election. Under Gallup’s breakdown, Obama would have won in 2008 by 9.8 points (he actually won by 7.2), and would eke out a victory against Romney in 2012 by eight tenths of a point.
But here’s why you can feel the panic emanating from Chicago: Romney is currently doing better with independents than Obama did in 2008. Obama won independents by eight, in 2008 while Romney is currently leading by 10.6 points on average. If the independent numbers are entered in to the 2008 results, Romney would have a victory of over four points. Even if Romney does not take any more crossover votes (Democrats who vote Republican and vice versa) than McCain got in 2008, he would still win by over four points on Election Day.
And Gallup is not alone.
...taking the Rasmussen partisan breakdown of 2008 and 2012 numbers and plugging them into the actual results gives Obama a seven-point win in 2008 and Romney a half-point victory in 2012. Taking the same scenario as Gallup and moving the independent results to match the current polling average changes Romney’s half-point victory into a 5.7-point victory. (As with Gallup, I’m assuming the Republican and Democrat voting margins stay the same as 2008.) If these polls are accurate and Romney captures a popular-vote win of four to six points, there is no chance he could lose the Electoral College...
None of that polling takes the Benghazi scandal into account. either. It WILL get worse for SCOAMF.
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Irony
Wonderfully stated irony:
...I matriculated to the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, recently married and teaching K-8 Spanish, to study education. I learned on my first day how awful St. Augustine (a North African) was, and what a waste of time it was to read books by white, European men. So we read more white, European men, beginning with Marx and Weber....
Yes, there are more White Men mentioned...
Heh.
...I matriculated to the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, recently married and teaching K-8 Spanish, to study education. I learned on my first day how awful St. Augustine (a North African) was, and what a waste of time it was to read books by white, European men. So we read more white, European men, beginning with Marx and Weber....
Yes, there are more White Men mentioned...
Heh.
Bp. Ricken Voices a Warning
Green Bay speaks.
“A well-formed Christian conscience does not permit one to vote for a political program that contradicts fundamental contents of faith and morals,” Ricken said in the letter. “Some candidates and one party have even chosen some of these as their party’s or their personal political platform. To vote for someone in favor of these positions means that you could be morally ‘complicit’ with these choices which are intrinsically evil. This could put your own soul in jeopardy.”
Can't be any clearer than that, can he?
“A well-formed Christian conscience does not permit one to vote for a political program that contradicts fundamental contents of faith and morals,” Ricken said in the letter. “Some candidates and one party have even chosen some of these as their party’s or their personal political platform. To vote for someone in favor of these positions means that you could be morally ‘complicit’ with these choices which are intrinsically evil. This could put your own soul in jeopardy.”
Can't be any clearer than that, can he?
Friday, October 26, 2012
All the President's Men
SCOAMF's birds of a feather....
Abound Solar, the defunct solar-panel manufacturer, is under criminal investigation for possible securities fraud, consumer fraud and financial misrepresentation, the Weld County district attorney’s office said Thursday.
Loveland-based Abound closed its Colorado plant in July and filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation in a move that left 125 workers without jobs and taxpayers holding the bag for up to $60 million in defaulted loans.
Fraudsters and tax-money-tit-suckers. Fits SCOAMF and many of his best pals.
Abound Solar, the defunct solar-panel manufacturer, is under criminal investigation for possible securities fraud, consumer fraud and financial misrepresentation, the Weld County district attorney’s office said Thursday.
Loveland-based Abound closed its Colorado plant in July and filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation in a move that left 125 workers without jobs and taxpayers holding the bag for up to $60 million in defaulted loans.
The securities-fraud investigation stems from allegations that “officials at Abound Solar knew products the company was selling were defective, and then asked investors to invest in the company without telling them about the defective products,” the DA’s office said in a news release. --HotAir quoting Denver Post
Fraudsters and tax-money-tit-suckers. Fits SCOAMF and many of his best pals.
pResident GirlyPants and PoodlePanetta, Murderers?
SCOAMF should resign now and take his lap-poodle scum-lawyer SecDef with him.
Fox News has learned from sources who were on the ground in Benghazi that an urgent request from the CIA annex for military back-up during the attack on the U.S. consulate and subsequent attack several hours later on the annex itself was denied by the CIA chain of command -- who also told the CIA operators twice to "stand down" rather than help the ambassador's team when shots were heard at approximately 9:40 p.m. in Benghazi on Sept. 11.
CIA has had it with GirlyPants:
CIA spokeswoman Jennifer Youngblood, though, denied the claims that requests for support were turned down.
"We can say with confidence that the Agency reacted quickly to aid our colleagues during that terrible evening in Benghazi," she said. "Moreover, no one at any level in the CIA told anybody not to help those in need
'Not in the CIA'. Well, that leaves POTUS, VPOTUS, and SecDef.
A Special Operations team, or CIF which stands for Commanders in Extremis Force, operating in Central Europe had been moved to Sigonella, Italy, but they were never told to deploy. In fact, a Pentagon official says there were never any requests to deploy assets from outside the country.
Once again, the Situation Room would issue any such orders, and we're back to POTUS, VPOTUS, and SecDef.
PoodlePanetta figures that the American public is as stupid as Joe Biden:
"There's a lot of Monday morning quarterbacking going on here," Panetta said Thursday. "But the basic principle here ... is that you don't deploy forces into harm's way without knowing what's going on."
Uhmmmnnnnhhhh...YOU WERE WATCHING IT ON LIVE FEED, A****LE!!!
POTUS, VPOTUS, and SECDEF.
Woods also stated that, although it would not meet the legal test, it is his opinion that whoever gave the "do not rescue" command is a murderer.
POTUS, VPOTUS, and SECDEF.
Fox News has learned from sources who were on the ground in Benghazi that an urgent request from the CIA annex for military back-up during the attack on the U.S. consulate and subsequent attack several hours later on the annex itself was denied by the CIA chain of command -- who also told the CIA operators twice to "stand down" rather than help the ambassador's team when shots were heard at approximately 9:40 p.m. in Benghazi on Sept. 11.
CIA has had it with GirlyPants:
CIA spokeswoman Jennifer Youngblood, though, denied the claims that requests for support were turned down.
"We can say with confidence that the Agency reacted quickly to aid our colleagues during that terrible evening in Benghazi," she said. "Moreover, no one at any level in the CIA told anybody not to help those in need
'Not in the CIA'. Well, that leaves POTUS, VPOTUS, and SecDef.
A Special Operations team, or CIF which stands for Commanders in Extremis Force, operating in Central Europe had been moved to Sigonella, Italy, but they were never told to deploy. In fact, a Pentagon official says there were never any requests to deploy assets from outside the country.
Once again, the Situation Room would issue any such orders, and we're back to POTUS, VPOTUS, and SecDef.
PoodlePanetta figures that the American public is as stupid as Joe Biden:
"There's a lot of Monday morning quarterbacking going on here," Panetta said Thursday. "But the basic principle here ... is that you don't deploy forces into harm's way without knowing what's going on."
Uhmmmnnnnhhhh...YOU WERE WATCHING IT ON LIVE FEED, A****LE!!!
POTUS, VPOTUS, and SECDEF.
Woods [attorney and father of one of the CIA operatives slaughtered at Benghazi] says he was told by military officials that
the military could have "come above [the area] and completely carpeted
area," and therefore saved the officials in Benghazi, Libya. But that
someone gave the command for the American military not to save the lives
of the Americans under attack.
"When I heard, you know, that there's a very good
chance that the White House as well as other members of the military
knew what was going on and obviously someone had to say, don't go rescue
them. Because every person in the military--their first response [would
be], we're going to go rescue them. We need to find out who it was that
gave that command--do not rescue them."
Woods also stated that, although it would not meet the legal test, it is his opinion that whoever gave the "do not rescue" command is a murderer.
POTUS, VPOTUS, and SECDEF.
"Income Inequality"? Really?
You'll hear more about this.
...studies that measure income inequality largely focus on pretax incomes while ignoring the transfer payments and spending from unemployment insurance, food stamps, Medicaid and other safety-net programs. Politicians who rest their demands for more redistribution on studies of income inequality but leave out the existing safety net are putting their thumb on the scale....CFIF quoting WSJ
"Outcome-based" is not in the vocabulary of poverty pimps.
...studies that measure income inequality largely focus on pretax incomes while ignoring the transfer payments and spending from unemployment insurance, food stamps, Medicaid and other safety-net programs. Politicians who rest their demands for more redistribution on studies of income inequality but leave out the existing safety net are putting their thumb on the scale....CFIF quoting WSJ
"Outcome-based" is not in the vocabulary of poverty pimps.
Big-Spender Baldwin (Surprise!!)
Tammy doesn't really care whose children have to pay off the debt.
...Rep. Baldwin voted against real solutions like capping spending to 2008 levels and voting against a Balanced Budget Amendment that would have required a 3/5 vote to increase the public debt ceiling and for Congress to spend more than it took in.
Ah, yes. Spend it now. Who cares about 2050?
...Rep. Baldwin voted against real solutions like capping spending to 2008 levels and voting against a Balanced Budget Amendment that would have required a 3/5 vote to increase the public debt ceiling and for Congress to spend more than it took in.
Ah, yes. Spend it now. Who cares about 2050?
Silly Stuff From Anti-Gun Wackos
Channel 12 interviewed somebody.
..."We're not going to have problems in society when law-abiding citizens are permitted to carry concealed weapons under the law," Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said.
But Jeri Bonavia wonders how one can know for sure.
"It's really hard to do a fair assessment," said Bonavia, of the Wisconsin Anti-Violence Effort. She objects to the secrecy surrounding who has a concealed carry license....
"So when someone is arrested for an incident of say, road rage," Bonavia said, "we should know whether or not that person is a concealed carry weapon permit holder and we don't right now."
Ms. Bonavia is a reliable source of anti-self-defense quotes. In a prior incarnation, she was a reliable source of anti-drinking quotes.
Anyhoo, as usual, her case doesn't hold water. Ms Bonavia talks about a need for 'after-the-fact' knowledge, but actually wants before-the-fact knowledge.
Here's some advice for Ms. Bonavia: if you don't like guns, don't own one. Meantime, MYOB.
..."We're not going to have problems in society when law-abiding citizens are permitted to carry concealed weapons under the law," Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said.
But Jeri Bonavia wonders how one can know for sure.
"It's really hard to do a fair assessment," said Bonavia, of the Wisconsin Anti-Violence Effort. She objects to the secrecy surrounding who has a concealed carry license....
"So when someone is arrested for an incident of say, road rage," Bonavia said, "we should know whether or not that person is a concealed carry weapon permit holder and we don't right now."
Ms. Bonavia is a reliable source of anti-self-defense quotes. In a prior incarnation, she was a reliable source of anti-drinking quotes.
Anyhoo, as usual, her case doesn't hold water. Ms Bonavia talks about a need for 'after-the-fact' knowledge, but actually wants before-the-fact knowledge.
Here's some advice for Ms. Bonavia: if you don't like guns, don't own one. Meantime, MYOB.
Where's the Strategy, Obama?
There is ample reason for concern from the Right over the Obama Drone War. It seems that this tactic may be simply another campaign advertisement, which would make it grossly immoral in addition to other downsides.
...a scheme was hatched to use an increased number of Predator strikes to kill selected members of al Qaeda. This had several immediate advantages. First, it was cheaper than using troops. Second, there was no political downside to losing a predator. Third, there were no new prisoners to send to Guantanamo.
Of course, short-run tactical advantages are not necessarily consonant with long-run strategic objectives--if there are any long-run strategic objectives in the first place.
...My opposition to this program is because it isn’t wedded to any strategic vision on how to make us safer and it is having the effect of alienating nominal allies, turning against us people we need as allies or neutrals, and depriving us of intelligence on the capabilities and intentions of our enemies....
How one "alienates nominal allies" and 'turns people against us' is simple:
...the drone strikes is Pakistan may have killed as many as 800 innocent people. Pakistan’s very weak government is facing a lot of pressure to stop the strikes altogether. In fact, our CIA station chief may be indicted for murder in Pakistan...
"Collateral damage" on that scale is not consonant with long-term objectives. Worse:
...We are captured by the intelligence services of countries such as Pakistan and Yemen to provide the underlying information, information that we simply cannot verify, that results in a death warrant being issued...
Romney will have to make a decision about this very quickly. It should be based on a strategy other than political gains.
...a scheme was hatched to use an increased number of Predator strikes to kill selected members of al Qaeda. This had several immediate advantages. First, it was cheaper than using troops. Second, there was no political downside to losing a predator. Third, there were no new prisoners to send to Guantanamo.
Of course, short-run tactical advantages are not necessarily consonant with long-run strategic objectives--if there are any long-run strategic objectives in the first place.
...My opposition to this program is because it isn’t wedded to any strategic vision on how to make us safer and it is having the effect of alienating nominal allies, turning against us people we need as allies or neutrals, and depriving us of intelligence on the capabilities and intentions of our enemies....
How one "alienates nominal allies" and 'turns people against us' is simple:
...the drone strikes is Pakistan may have killed as many as 800 innocent people. Pakistan’s very weak government is facing a lot of pressure to stop the strikes altogether. In fact, our CIA station chief may be indicted for murder in Pakistan...
"Collateral damage" on that scale is not consonant with long-term objectives. Worse:
...We are captured by the intelligence services of countries such as Pakistan and Yemen to provide the underlying information, information that we simply cannot verify, that results in a death warrant being issued...
Romney will have to make a decision about this very quickly. It should be based on a strategy other than political gains.
Obozo Advertising
Referring to Obozo's most-tasteless-to-date ad, this comment is on target:
...The problem for Barack Obama is that many of those people believe their vote for him was a one night stand that they’d prefer to forget. Additionally, we know now that Barack Obama, like that one night stand, probably won’t call you back. Just ask the American Consulate in Benghazi....
Bumps in the road, and all that.
...The problem for Barack Obama is that many of those people believe their vote for him was a one night stand that they’d prefer to forget. Additionally, we know now that Barack Obama, like that one night stand, probably won’t call you back. Just ask the American Consulate in Benghazi....
Bumps in the road, and all that.
Thursday, October 25, 2012
So You Think Fr. Z Is in Minnesota?
Think again.
He's not in Minnesota.
He's a lot closer to Milwaukee than that, folks....
He's not in Minnesota.
He's a lot closer to Milwaukee than that, folks....
The Final Question on the Benghazi Massacre
Cutting directly to the chase:
...The attack lasted for seven hours, and now that we know that the White House, State Department, CIA, and military were monitoring the situation as it happened, the questions are: Who gave the order not to intervene, and why?...
I think we know the answer to the first question.
And I don't really give a s*&^ about the answer to the second.
HT: AOSHQ
...The attack lasted for seven hours, and now that we know that the White House, State Department, CIA, and military were monitoring the situation as it happened, the questions are: Who gave the order not to intervene, and why?...
I think we know the answer to the first question.
And I don't really give a s*&^ about the answer to the second.
HT: AOSHQ
Losing Letterman, the Carolinas, and Florida, Too!!
Seems like Letterman woke up from a four-year nap a couple of nights ago.
Yup. Obozo lied! Shock!!!!
The SCOAMF has also lost North Carolina and Florida, according to other reports.
Awwwwww.......
Yup. Obozo lied! Shock!!!!
The SCOAMF has also lost North Carolina and Florida, according to other reports.
Awwwwww.......
Like Arab Oil? You'll Love Tammy Baldwin!!
When she's not to the left of Obozo, she's tied to his coat-tails.
...Rep. Tammy Baldwin had at least six opportunities to vote on the job-creating Keystone XL pipeline in the past year and voted “no” in five of them. A sixth vote taken in the House Energy and Commerce committee finds Baldwin absent....
You don't need to drive, or heat your home with North American petroleum, do you?
...Rep. Tammy Baldwin had at least six opportunities to vote on the job-creating Keystone XL pipeline in the past year and voted “no” in five of them. A sixth vote taken in the House Energy and Commerce committee finds Baldwin absent....
You don't need to drive, or heat your home with North American petroleum, do you?
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Actually, Ms. Althouse, It's "Allowed"
Ms. Althouse allows an error in her discourse which was un-intentional. (She's merely repeating what Mourdock said, which was also an error.)
Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock struggled or purported to struggle with his anti-abortion principles and the problem of rape. Should there be a rape exception?
Umnnnhh.....no.
God allows evil to occur by virtue of His gift of free will.
God does not intend that evil occurs.
Big difference.
Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock struggled or purported to struggle with his anti-abortion principles and the problem of rape. Should there be a rape exception?
"I struggled with it myself for a long time, but I came to realize that life is that gift from God. And, I think, even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen."And apparently, also, God intended — by Mourdock's lights — that Mourdock be kicked around for professing that everything that happens is something that God intended.
Umnnnhh.....no.
God allows evil to occur by virtue of His gift of free will.
God does not intend that evil occurs.
Big difference.
Like EPA Regs? Re-Elect the SCOAMF
The Senate Republicans have issued a 14-page document describing regulations which the EPA will impose AFTER Obozo secures re-election.
In brief, if you drive a car, use electricity, or heat or cool your home (or workplace), you're going to stop that activity or pay dearly to keep it up.
Also--if you live where it rains, you'll pay for that privilege; if your farm tractor and plow creates dust, you'll stop farming.
The Sacketts will be joined by a large group of US citizens. Delightful prospect, eh?
In brief, if you drive a car, use electricity, or heat or cool your home (or workplace), you're going to stop that activity or pay dearly to keep it up.
Also--if you live where it rains, you'll pay for that privilege; if your farm tractor and plow creates dust, you'll stop farming.
The Sacketts will be joined by a large group of US citizens. Delightful prospect, eh?
Wars and Rumors
It's a rule of thumb that war-time Presidents get re-elected.
...As I wrote on the 21st, certain members of our military in the Middle East have heard possibilities that we could move against Iran, or elsewhere in the Middle East, days before the election. Although they provided no specifics on what form this action could take, some of them reported receiving upgraded clearances and travel documents which would allow them to more easily move country to country should something big take place.
And now, anonymous reports indicate that military ops have been taking place for days in Doha, Qatar. No one knows what these ops mean, but planes, helicopters, and parachutes are reportedly part of them.
So if you're an Iranian citizen, you may well give up your life for an Obozo second term.
Nice.
...As I wrote on the 21st, certain members of our military in the Middle East have heard possibilities that we could move against Iran, or elsewhere in the Middle East, days before the election. Although they provided no specifics on what form this action could take, some of them reported receiving upgraded clearances and travel documents which would allow them to more easily move country to country should something big take place.
And now, anonymous reports indicate that military ops have been taking place for days in Doha, Qatar. No one knows what these ops mean, but planes, helicopters, and parachutes are reportedly part of them.
So if you're an Iranian citizen, you may well give up your life for an Obozo second term.
Nice.
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Even More on Unemployment!!
It's fun--in a dreary sort of way--to read interpretations of the Obama Depression.
Since Barack Obama took office, the civilian non-institutional population has increased by 8.7 million, and yet only 437,000 people have been added to the civilian labor force — i.e. those working or seeking work. That’s an awful absorption rate of new population into the workforce of just 5 percent.
This has helped to keep the unemployment rate misleadingly low at its current 7.8 percent level. If the labor force participation rate had held steady since 2009, the jobless rate today would be more like 11 percent.
We've heard all the excuses--like "retirements". BS.
...While Baby Boomers retiring would be expected to lower the labor force participation rate, the population of those 65 years and older has only increased by about 4.4 million since Obama took office. So, a retirement boom alone cannot account for the anomaly.
So where are the missing labor force participants?
...one must observe the declining labor force participation particularly amongst those with some college and with college degrees, a population that grew by 9.4 million since Dec. 2008.
Since that time, the participation rate of college graduates has dropped significantly — from 77.6 percent to about 75.9 percent today. That accounts for about 1.1 million graduates who should have entered the labor force, but didn’t.
Another 1.7 million with some college or an associate’s degree should have also entered the labor force, but are nowhere to be found as the participation rate there dropped from 71.9 percent to 68.8 percent.
And there are the 2 million or so who have simply given up looking.
Since Barack Obama took office, the civilian non-institutional population has increased by 8.7 million, and yet only 437,000 people have been added to the civilian labor force — i.e. those working or seeking work. That’s an awful absorption rate of new population into the workforce of just 5 percent.
This has helped to keep the unemployment rate misleadingly low at its current 7.8 percent level. If the labor force participation rate had held steady since 2009, the jobless rate today would be more like 11 percent.
We've heard all the excuses--like "retirements". BS.
...While Baby Boomers retiring would be expected to lower the labor force participation rate, the population of those 65 years and older has only increased by about 4.4 million since Obama took office. So, a retirement boom alone cannot account for the anomaly.
So where are the missing labor force participants?
...one must observe the declining labor force participation particularly amongst those with some college and with college degrees, a population that grew by 9.4 million since Dec. 2008.
Since that time, the participation rate of college graduates has dropped significantly — from 77.6 percent to about 75.9 percent today. That accounts for about 1.1 million graduates who should have entered the labor force, but didn’t.
Another 1.7 million with some college or an associate’s degree should have also entered the labor force, but are nowhere to be found as the participation rate there dropped from 71.9 percent to 68.8 percent.
And there are the 2 million or so who have simply given up looking.
"We're Here From the Gummint to Help You"
Ah, yes. Zillions for the Security Theatre, and more!!
--abc news
And being fired for theft means that you have to get caught, prosecuted, and found guilty.
How many haven't yet been caught??
The top airports across the U.S. for TSA employees fired for theft are:
1. Miami International Airport (29)
2. JFK International Airport (27)
3. Los Angeles International Airport (24)
4. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (17)
5. Las Vegas-McCarren International Airport (15)
6. Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and New York-Laguardia Airport (14 each)
8. Newark Liberty, Philadelphia International, and Seattle-Tacoma International airports (12 each)
11. Orlando International Airport (11)
And being fired for theft means that you have to get caught, prosecuted, and found guilty.
How many haven't yet been caught??
Tammy Ultra-Lefty
Egads.
She's so far to the Left that 80% of the entire House of Representatives votes against her "plan."
...[the People's Budget] gives a sense of how things would be if liberals ran the world: no cuts in Social Security benefits, government-negotiated Medicare drug prices, and increased income and Social Security taxes for the wealthy. Corporations and investors would be hit with a variety of new fees and taxes. And the military would face a shock-and-awe accounting: a 22 percent cut in Army soldiers, 30 percent for the Marines, 20 percent for the Navy and 15 percent for the Air Force. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan would end, and weapons programs would go begging. --Trackers quoting Milbank
Not even the SCOAMF would sign on to this one.
She's so far to the Left that 80% of the entire House of Representatives votes against her "plan."
...[the People's Budget] gives a sense of how things would be if liberals ran the world: no cuts in Social Security benefits, government-negotiated Medicare drug prices, and increased income and Social Security taxes for the wealthy. Corporations and investors would be hit with a variety of new fees and taxes. And the military would face a shock-and-awe accounting: a 22 percent cut in Army soldiers, 30 percent for the Marines, 20 percent for the Navy and 15 percent for the Air Force. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan would end, and weapons programs would go begging. --Trackers quoting Milbank
Not even the SCOAMF would sign on to this one.
Monday, October 22, 2012
SCOAMF Votes "Present." Americans Die
Some of you thought that the acronym SCOAMF was too harsh because it stood for "Stuttering Clusterf**k Of A Miserable Failure."
Every word is accurate. Deadly accurate.
On September 11, at about 10 p.m. Libyan time (4 p.m. in Washington), Ambassador Chris Stevens and a small staff were inside our consulate in Benghazi when terrorists attacked. The consulate staff immediately contacted Washington and our embassy in Tripoli. The White House, the Pentagon, the State Department, and numerous military headquarters monitored the entire battle in real time via the phone calls from Benghazi and video from a drone overhead.
Our diplomats fought for seven hours without any aid from outside the country. Four Americans died while the Obama national-security team and our military passively watched and listened.
Writing a fund-raiser speech? Mulling over next year's NCAA tournament possibilities? Beer with Biden?
...By 4:30 p.m. Washington time, the main consulate building was on fire and Ambassador Stevens was missing...At 5 p.m., President Obama met with Vice President Biden and Secretary of Defense Panetta in the Oval Office
Fighter jets could have been at Benghazi in an hour; the commandos inside three hours. If the attackers were a mob, as intelligence reported, then an F18 in afterburner, roaring like a lion, would unnerve them
But Mr. Stuttering Failure watched the live-feed instead of issuing orders.
...It is bewildering that no U.S. aircraft ever came to the aid of the defenders. If even one F18 had been on station, it would have detected the location of hostiles firing at night and deterred and attacked the mortar sites. For our top leadership, with all the technological and military tools at their disposal, to have done nothing for seven hours was a joint civilian and military failure of initiative and nerve.
No.
It was SCOAMF doing what he does best: voting "Present."
Every word is accurate. Deadly accurate.
On September 11, at about 10 p.m. Libyan time (4 p.m. in Washington), Ambassador Chris Stevens and a small staff were inside our consulate in Benghazi when terrorists attacked. The consulate staff immediately contacted Washington and our embassy in Tripoli. The White House, the Pentagon, the State Department, and numerous military headquarters monitored the entire battle in real time via the phone calls from Benghazi and video from a drone overhead.
Our diplomats fought for seven hours without any aid from outside the country. Four Americans died while the Obama national-security team and our military passively watched and listened.
Writing a fund-raiser speech? Mulling over next year's NCAA tournament possibilities? Beer with Biden?
...By 4:30 p.m. Washington time, the main consulate building was on fire and Ambassador Stevens was missing...At 5 p.m., President Obama met with Vice President Biden and Secretary of Defense Panetta in the Oval Office
Fighter jets could have been at Benghazi in an hour; the commandos inside three hours. If the attackers were a mob, as intelligence reported, then an F18 in afterburner, roaring like a lion, would unnerve them
But Mr. Stuttering Failure watched the live-feed instead of issuing orders.
...It is bewildering that no U.S. aircraft ever came to the aid of the defenders. If even one F18 had been on station, it would have detected the location of hostiles firing at night and deterred and attacked the mortar sites. For our top leadership, with all the technological and military tools at their disposal, to have done nothing for seven hours was a joint civilian and military failure of initiative and nerve.
No.
It was SCOAMF doing what he does best: voting "Present."
How ObozoCare Screws the Part-Timers
If you're a part-time worker managing to get by on 35 hours/week (or if you were forced to part-time of 35 hours or so), then you may be looking at even LESS time per week, courtesy of ObozoCare.
...Consider the treatment of full-time and part-time workers as an object lesson.
Exempting part-time workers is a concession to practicality. If companies had to provide insurance for all part-time and seasonal workers -- often unskilled and poorly paid -- the high costs (a worker-only insurance policy can run more than $5,000) would eliminate many jobs or inspire mass evasion. On the other hand, exempting too many "part-time" and "seasonal" workers would make achieving near-universal insurance coverage much harder.
So there's a balancing act: preserving jobs versus providing insurance. The problem isn't small. In September, 34 million workers, about a quarter of total workers, were part-time, reports the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). But the BLS defines part-time as less than 35 hours a week; Obamacare's 30 hours a week was presumably adopted to expand insurance coverage. There are now 10 million workers averaging between 30 and 34 hours a week. To the BLS, they are part-time; under Obamacare, they're full-time.
Employers have a huge incentive to hold workers under the 30-hour weekly threshold. The requirement to provide insurance above that acts as a steep employment tax. Companies will try to minimize the tax. The most vulnerable workers are the poorest and least skilled who can be most easily replaced and for whom insurance costs loom largest...
Like, for example:
fast-food, retailing and hotel industries.
...Waiters and waitresses going below 30 hours a week will lose income. They make about $15 an hour with tips, says Jeffers. A server who drops five hours would lose $75 a week. Although some servers under the limit might increase their hours and incomes, jobs will become less attractive because earnings will be effectively capped.
Of course, the hotel and retail personnel will ALSO lose income--and state-and-federal income taxes will also decrease, along with Social Security revenues.
Smooth move, Barack!
...Consider the treatment of full-time and part-time workers as an object lesson.
Exempting part-time workers is a concession to practicality. If companies had to provide insurance for all part-time and seasonal workers -- often unskilled and poorly paid -- the high costs (a worker-only insurance policy can run more than $5,000) would eliminate many jobs or inspire mass evasion. On the other hand, exempting too many "part-time" and "seasonal" workers would make achieving near-universal insurance coverage much harder.
So there's a balancing act: preserving jobs versus providing insurance. The problem isn't small. In September, 34 million workers, about a quarter of total workers, were part-time, reports the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). But the BLS defines part-time as less than 35 hours a week; Obamacare's 30 hours a week was presumably adopted to expand insurance coverage. There are now 10 million workers averaging between 30 and 34 hours a week. To the BLS, they are part-time; under Obamacare, they're full-time.
Employers have a huge incentive to hold workers under the 30-hour weekly threshold. The requirement to provide insurance above that acts as a steep employment tax. Companies will try to minimize the tax. The most vulnerable workers are the poorest and least skilled who can be most easily replaced and for whom insurance costs loom largest...
Like, for example:
fast-food, retailing and hotel industries.
...Waiters and waitresses going below 30 hours a week will lose income. They make about $15 an hour with tips, says Jeffers. A server who drops five hours would lose $75 a week. Although some servers under the limit might increase their hours and incomes, jobs will become less attractive because earnings will be effectively capped.
Of course, the hotel and retail personnel will ALSO lose income--and state-and-federal income taxes will also decrease, along with Social Security revenues.
Smooth move, Barack!
George Meany, Walter Reuther: Very Dead
They ain't the Unions of George Meany or Walter Reuther no more.
The UAW, AFL-CIO, SEIU, AFSCME, and other top unions have issued statements supporting same-sex “marriage.” Many state-level unions have followed suit, particularly in states like Maryland, where the issue is on the ballot this November.
Not likely that the memberships agree.
The UAW, AFL-CIO, SEIU, AFSCME, and other top unions have issued statements supporting same-sex “marriage.” Many state-level unions have followed suit, particularly in states like Maryland, where the issue is on the ballot this November.
Not likely that the memberships agree.
Where Does All That Money Come From, Obozo?
You knew this from the last time around.
...Since February 2012, the Obama campaign has received a total of $2,983,854.78 in donations with invalid ZIP codes, versus the Romney campaign’s $244,287.01—a figure one-twelfth of Obama’s.
The GAI report also includes an analysis of the 2008 presidential campaign. There again, the Obama campaign collected far more donations with invalid ZIP codes than did Republican presidential challenger Sen. John McCain. The figures: $2,778,808.97 for Obama and $431,046 for McCain...
Yah, well, he's a crook and everybody knows it.
However, there's more to it than just that. Recall that the Clinton's first PRIMARY campaign was in deep financial trouble until the Chinese Communists bailed him out. The ChiComs love them some (D) Presidents, because to (D) Presidents, both US workers and US national defense are throw-aways.
So?
...The GAI investigation also revealed that Obama.com is owned by an Obama bundler living in China with business ties to the Chinese government.
Who's that? Glad you asked!!
On August, 19, 2011, during the heat of the Obama Administration’s trade negotiations with China, Vice President Joe Biden huddled with his top trade advisors at the St. Regis Hotel in Beijing, China. One seat away from Mr. Biden sat Robert Roche.
Mr. Roche is a mysterious figure, an American expatriate and Obama bundler living in Shanghai, China. Mr. Roche’s company, Acorn International, is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange and is in partnership with Hu Jintao’s government
Plenty more at this link. Short take: Roche is originally from Chicago. You don't need to know much more than that--but it's available.
...Since February 2012, the Obama campaign has received a total of $2,983,854.78 in donations with invalid ZIP codes, versus the Romney campaign’s $244,287.01—a figure one-twelfth of Obama’s.
The GAI report also includes an analysis of the 2008 presidential campaign. There again, the Obama campaign collected far more donations with invalid ZIP codes than did Republican presidential challenger Sen. John McCain. The figures: $2,778,808.97 for Obama and $431,046 for McCain...
Yah, well, he's a crook and everybody knows it.
However, there's more to it than just that. Recall that the Clinton's first PRIMARY campaign was in deep financial trouble until the Chinese Communists bailed him out. The ChiComs love them some (D) Presidents, because to (D) Presidents, both US workers and US national defense are throw-aways.
So?
...The GAI investigation also revealed that Obama.com is owned by an Obama bundler living in China with business ties to the Chinese government.
Who's that? Glad you asked!!
On August, 19, 2011, during the heat of the Obama Administration’s trade negotiations with China, Vice President Joe Biden huddled with his top trade advisors at the St. Regis Hotel in Beijing, China. One seat away from Mr. Biden sat Robert Roche.
Mr. Roche is a mysterious figure, an American expatriate and Obama bundler living in Shanghai, China. Mr. Roche’s company, Acorn International, is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange and is in partnership with Hu Jintao’s government
Plenty more at this link. Short take: Roche is originally from Chicago. You don't need to know much more than that--but it's available.
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Ms. Baldwin, the Fool? Or Just Insane?
From Owen's site:
As a congresswoman, Tammy Baldwin backed legislation to block funding for body armor and medical supplies for U.S. troops. The Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate co-sponsored legislation in every session of Congress from 2003 until 2009 to allow taxpayers opposed to the military, Department of Defense, and various intelligence agencies to withhold their tax dollars from being spent in support of those entities. Specifically, the legislation allowed individual taxpayers to block funding that would be used for, “the training, supplying, or maintaining of military personnel.” That would include body armor, medical supplies, and other non-offensive equipment.
At least four times Baldwin co-sponsored the legislation, in 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2009 ....
Some say she's "extreme." I maintain that she's out of her mind. The insanity defense is the only one which might justify this crap.
As a congresswoman, Tammy Baldwin backed legislation to block funding for body armor and medical supplies for U.S. troops. The Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate co-sponsored legislation in every session of Congress from 2003 until 2009 to allow taxpayers opposed to the military, Department of Defense, and various intelligence agencies to withhold their tax dollars from being spent in support of those entities. Specifically, the legislation allowed individual taxpayers to block funding that would be used for, “the training, supplying, or maintaining of military personnel.” That would include body armor, medical supplies, and other non-offensive equipment.
At least four times Baldwin co-sponsored the legislation, in 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2009 ....
Some say she's "extreme." I maintain that she's out of her mind. The insanity defense is the only one which might justify this crap.
Obozo "Investments" Are....Ahhh......Counter-Productive
This is what, the 8th? 10th? 59th?
A solar company that got a multi-million-dollar grant from the Department of Energy earlier this year announced Wednesday that it will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, making it the second taxpayer-backed green energy company to file for bankruptcy this week.
Satcon Technology Corp. announced the decision in a Wednesday news release.
It's a grant. The money's flushed. Porcelain tubes, and all that.
Whatever SCOAMF and his Energy people look at turns to shit. THAT, my friends, is good investment advice, free of charge from Dad29!!
HT: AOSHQ
A solar company that got a multi-million-dollar grant from the Department of Energy earlier this year announced Wednesday that it will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, making it the second taxpayer-backed green energy company to file for bankruptcy this week.
Satcon Technology Corp. announced the decision in a Wednesday news release.
It's a grant. The money's flushed. Porcelain tubes, and all that.
Whatever SCOAMF and his Energy people look at turns to shit. THAT, my friends, is good investment advice, free of charge from Dad29!!
HT: AOSHQ
Shocker: The SCOAMF Wants Gun Control
This is a 'shock' like his sudden epiphany on gay 'marriage' and his double-down on BabyKillers, Inc (A/K/A Planned Parenthood.)
...Suggesting a ban not just on semi-automatic weapons like the AR-15, the most popular rifle in America, but maybe even handguns, the president said, "What I'm trying to do is to get a broader conversation about how do we reduce the violence generally. Part of it is seeing if we can get an assault weapons ban reintroduced. But part of it is also looking at other sources of the violence. Because frankly, in my hometown of Chicago, there's an awful lot of violence and they're not using AK-47s. They're using cheap handguns."
And since Illinois is the ONLY State in America to ban concealed-carry, ......uhhhh....duuuuhhhhh...
(Well, maybe that wasn't a real good example...)
HT: Grim
...Suggesting a ban not just on semi-automatic weapons like the AR-15, the most popular rifle in America, but maybe even handguns, the president said, "What I'm trying to do is to get a broader conversation about how do we reduce the violence generally. Part of it is seeing if we can get an assault weapons ban reintroduced. But part of it is also looking at other sources of the violence. Because frankly, in my hometown of Chicago, there's an awful lot of violence and they're not using AK-47s. They're using cheap handguns."
And since Illinois is the ONLY State in America to ban concealed-carry, ......uhhhh....duuuuhhhhh...
(Well, maybe that wasn't a real good example...)
HT: Grim
Obozo v. Lake Michigan
Well, kinda, sorta.
This is the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow....
Close, SCOAMF, but no banana. On the other hand, Lake Michigan IS a large body of water.
This is the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow....
Close, SCOAMF, but no banana. On the other hand, Lake Michigan IS a large body of water.
Did Ol' Joe Save Medicare?
No, Ol' Joe, serial liar, did NOT save Medicare.
...Asked about Medicare reform, the vice president said, “Look, I was there when we did that with Social Security in 1983. I was one of eight people sitting in the room that included Tip O’Neill negotiating with President Reagan. We all got together and everybody said, as long as everybody’s in the deal, everybody’s in the deal, and everybody is making some sacrifice, we can find a way.”
...On “Meet the Press” on April 29, 2007, then-Sen. Biden made a similar claim, saying he was “one of five people — I was the junior guy — in the meeting with Bob Dole and George Mitchell when we put Social Security on the right path for 60 years.”
Maybe he was there to get water for the real players, but....
...according to the historical record, Biden was not one of the small group of people in “the room,” or in “the meeting” — nor was he even a key player in reforms. --Breitbart quoting Jake Tapper/ABC News
Maybe he was looking for another biography to cadge.
...Asked about Medicare reform, the vice president said, “Look, I was there when we did that with Social Security in 1983. I was one of eight people sitting in the room that included Tip O’Neill negotiating with President Reagan. We all got together and everybody said, as long as everybody’s in the deal, everybody’s in the deal, and everybody is making some sacrifice, we can find a way.”
...On “Meet the Press” on April 29, 2007, then-Sen. Biden made a similar claim, saying he was “one of five people — I was the junior guy — in the meeting with Bob Dole and George Mitchell when we put Social Security on the right path for 60 years.”
Maybe he was there to get water for the real players, but....
...according to the historical record, Biden was not one of the small group of people in “the room,” or in “the meeting” — nor was he even a key player in reforms. --Breitbart quoting Jake Tapper/ABC News
Maybe he was looking for another biography to cadge.
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Obozo's Big Bird Foreign Policy
It's no wonder that Obozo likes Big Bird; the oversized yellow "let's all get along" avis is the role model for Obozo's foreign "policy."
Too bad that Big Bird wants to get along with the bullies, too, eh?
...Where Ukraine may be playing a very weak hand in its dealings with Russia, with a steadfast United States by its side the prognosis is much better. With the EU brought in, suddenly Russia is the weaker party.
Leadership, however, is not something this White House has demonstrated. Neither has it demonstrated itself to have any clear set of policies in dealing with Vladimir Putin other than dropping trou on command. Sadly, this is a pattern of behavior on the part of this regime. Our friends are nervous because they’ve seen how the rug was pulled out from under the Czech Republic and Poland based on the objectives of a strategic rival. They’ve seen how Hosni Mubarak was thrown under the bus and Egypt turned over the muslim extremists. They’ve watched Qaddafi’s brutal and unnecessary death and the turning over of Libya to muslim extremists. This is foreign policy by press release...
In the real world, bullies win unless they get smacked--hard. Big Bird, Ernie, and Bert aren't role models for realpolitik.
But they are for Obozo.
Too bad that Big Bird wants to get along with the bullies, too, eh?
...Where Ukraine may be playing a very weak hand in its dealings with Russia, with a steadfast United States by its side the prognosis is much better. With the EU brought in, suddenly Russia is the weaker party.
Leadership, however, is not something this White House has demonstrated. Neither has it demonstrated itself to have any clear set of policies in dealing with Vladimir Putin other than dropping trou on command. Sadly, this is a pattern of behavior on the part of this regime. Our friends are nervous because they’ve seen how the rug was pulled out from under the Czech Republic and Poland based on the objectives of a strategic rival. They’ve seen how Hosni Mubarak was thrown under the bus and Egypt turned over the muslim extremists. They’ve watched Qaddafi’s brutal and unnecessary death and the turning over of Libya to muslim extremists. This is foreign policy by press release...
In the real world, bullies win unless they get smacked--hard. Big Bird, Ernie, and Bert aren't role models for realpolitik.
But they are for Obozo.
Monday, October 15, 2012
Who To Believe: Obozo or His Own OMB?
His lying gets more desperate every day.
President Barack Obama said on Thursday that “we got back every dime we used to rescue the financial system."
According to the Congressional Budget Office, however, the government will lose about $24 billion on the bailout.
On the SAME DAY, no less....
CBO numbers are based on numbers from Obozo's very own OMB.
And it ain't "the Gummint" that will lose $24Bn.
It is the TAXPAYERS who will lose it.
President Barack Obama said on Thursday that “we got back every dime we used to rescue the financial system."
According to the Congressional Budget Office, however, the government will lose about $24 billion on the bailout.
On the SAME DAY, no less....
CBO numbers are based on numbers from Obozo's very own OMB.
And it ain't "the Gummint" that will lose $24Bn.
It is the TAXPAYERS who will lose it.
'Such a Tough Job....'
There's been some commentary about the Obozo ad wherein some guy tells us that Obozo has had a very tough job to do.
Best reaction I've seen:
A) the ad’s assertion isn’t even remotely true, and anyone who knows anything at all about history knows it, and B) Ogabe was, is, and shall remain a sniveling little bitch.
Concise. Accurate, too!
Best reaction I've seen:
A) the ad’s assertion isn’t even remotely true, and anyone who knows anything at all about history knows it, and B) Ogabe was, is, and shall remain a sniveling little bitch.
Concise. Accurate, too!
HRC Strikes Back
We expected this.
Today the confusion only worsened yet again when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters that her agency was not the source of misinformation concerning the attacks, charging instead that the White House was the source of the false mantra that the murders were spurred by an anti-Muslim film made in the United States.
Clinton told reporters that when Susan Rice, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, made her rounds on every Sunday morning news show to claim the film motivated the attacks, the information had been fed to her by the White House and not the intelligence community in the State Department or the CIA.
Not only does Clinton’s statement contradict early White House accounts but directly contradicts statements made by Vice President Biden during the debate. McCain quoting Examiner
Like her or not, HRC won't be dissed by a third-tier Chicago pol.
Today the confusion only worsened yet again when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters that her agency was not the source of misinformation concerning the attacks, charging instead that the White House was the source of the false mantra that the murders were spurred by an anti-Muslim film made in the United States.
Clinton told reporters that when Susan Rice, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, made her rounds on every Sunday morning news show to claim the film motivated the attacks, the information had been fed to her by the White House and not the intelligence community in the State Department or the CIA.
Not only does Clinton’s statement contradict early White House accounts but directly contradicts statements made by Vice President Biden during the debate. McCain quoting Examiner
Like her or not, HRC won't be dissed by a third-tier Chicago pol.
Mill, Lenin, Abortion, and "Free Trade"
You recall that J. S Mill (and Bentham) were proponents of the 'atomic individual' theories. In combination, those theories re-appeared in the Lenin/Stalin years; the Communist luminaries proposed that any man could do any job with enough training. Farming, machining, accounting--they're all the same, ya'know.
And of course, if any man can do any job, he can do it any place in the world!
The same thesis underlies "Free Trade." Vox Day demonstrates.
....while most of the historical concerns about free trade have revolved around the societal costs of the free movement of goods, it is the free movement of labor that most thoroughly damns free-trade ideology and reveals it to be a utopian evil every bit as dangerous as communism, feminism and globalism. Free-trade advocates often point to the free movement of goods, capital and labor in the domestic economy and ask why the same system cannot work internationally since it works so well within the national borders. The reason is simple: The nation cannot continue to exist if the same degree of labor movement takes place across the borders as it presently does within them...
Oh?
...[Currently] just under half of all Americans between the ages of 25 and 44, 50.5 percent, still reside in the state in which they were born. This isn’t a big deal to most Americans. After all, the move from Michigan to Florida or from Minnesota to California is generally regarded as a step up in quality of life. But that’s not likely to be true on an international level.
Getting the picture??
...Because the labor cost difference between the U.S. and China is much greater than between Massachusetts and Texas, the pressure on Americans to move abroad in search of jobs would be even greater than presently exists in the domestic market. Enacting the same sort of free-trade regime on an international level as presently exists on the domestic level would require both a) a reduction in the American standard of living to one that is much closer global average, and b) the expatriation of more than 50 percent of young Americans under the age of 35.
So are you prepared to wish bon voyage to your children who are moving to PRChina? Burma? Vietnam? Along with the tax revenues they will generate?
The Free Traders know it:
Mr Sutherland, who is non-executive chairman of Goldman Sachs International and a former chairman of oil giant BP, heads the Global Forum on Migration and Development, which brings together representatives of 160 nations to share policy ideas. He told the House of Lords committee migration was a “crucial dynamic for economic growth” in some EU nations “however difficult it may be to explain this to the citizens of those states.”
(The fact that he's a Goldie is only frosting on the cake.)
No Conservative can possibly embrace global free trade, any more than they can embrace free abortion. The results are identical (mutatis mutandis). Nonetheless, Gummints and Randian Industrialists will blather on and on about the "benefits," aided by such as Sutherland.
That apple is poisoned, Snow White.
And of course, if any man can do any job, he can do it any place in the world!
The same thesis underlies "Free Trade." Vox Day demonstrates.
....while most of the historical concerns about free trade have revolved around the societal costs of the free movement of goods, it is the free movement of labor that most thoroughly damns free-trade ideology and reveals it to be a utopian evil every bit as dangerous as communism, feminism and globalism. Free-trade advocates often point to the free movement of goods, capital and labor in the domestic economy and ask why the same system cannot work internationally since it works so well within the national borders. The reason is simple: The nation cannot continue to exist if the same degree of labor movement takes place across the borders as it presently does within them...
Oh?
...[Currently] just under half of all Americans between the ages of 25 and 44, 50.5 percent, still reside in the state in which they were born. This isn’t a big deal to most Americans. After all, the move from Michigan to Florida or from Minnesota to California is generally regarded as a step up in quality of life. But that’s not likely to be true on an international level.
Getting the picture??
...Because the labor cost difference between the U.S. and China is much greater than between Massachusetts and Texas, the pressure on Americans to move abroad in search of jobs would be even greater than presently exists in the domestic market. Enacting the same sort of free-trade regime on an international level as presently exists on the domestic level would require both a) a reduction in the American standard of living to one that is much closer global average, and b) the expatriation of more than 50 percent of young Americans under the age of 35.
So are you prepared to wish bon voyage to your children who are moving to PRChina? Burma? Vietnam? Along with the tax revenues they will generate?
The Free Traders know it:
Mr Sutherland, who is non-executive chairman of Goldman Sachs International and a former chairman of oil giant BP, heads the Global Forum on Migration and Development, which brings together representatives of 160 nations to share policy ideas. He told the House of Lords committee migration was a “crucial dynamic for economic growth” in some EU nations “however difficult it may be to explain this to the citizens of those states.”
(The fact that he's a Goldie is only frosting on the cake.)
No Conservative can possibly embrace global free trade, any more than they can embrace free abortion. The results are identical (mutatis mutandis). Nonetheless, Gummints and Randian Industrialists will blather on and on about the "benefits," aided by such as Sutherland.
That apple is poisoned, Snow White.
"Global Warming" a Dead Issue. What Terror Fable Next?
Now that "global warming" is over with, we all wonder what the next Terror Fable will be. Global Cooling? Comet Collisions? Super Sunspots? Ultra-Drought?
Another Obama Administration?
Another Obama Administration?
Sunday, October 14, 2012
Words of His Surrogate Father
It's not like Obozo is original or anything.
He called out the “corporation executive” for not paying his “fair” share.
He attacked “GOP” tax cuts that “spare the rich” and “benefit millionaires.”
He advocated wealth redistribution from greedy “corporations” to “health insurance” and “public works projects.”
He described himself as “progressive,” while his detractors accused him of being a communist.
He adopted slogans like “Forward” and “Change.” He wanted to transform America through what he called “fundamental change.”
He was skeptical of preachers and their effect on God-and-gun clinging Americans, and saw the Catholic Church as an obstacle to his vision for the state. He argued that Christians should support his ideas and enthusiastically sought the support of the “social justice” Religious Left. Moreover, many people were unclear about his personal religious beliefs, including whether he was a Christian...
Yah, I gave you the answer in the title-line.
... Frank Marshall Davis, Hawaii mentor to a young Barack Obama, and Communist Party member 47544
Just so we're clear. The SCOAMF stole a lot of his rhetoric from ol' Frank, the Commie.
You'll love the last line of this section:
...He wanted the United States to go the direction of the Soviet Union. And Davis understood that the one institution standing in the way most vehemently was the Roman Catholic Church. “The Catholic hierarchy,” he sneered, had launched a “holy war against communism.”
Indeed it had—and deservedly so. Nothing anywhere in the world persecuted the religious—and people generally—quite like communism. The Church correctly saw Soviet communism as truly, genuinely evil. But Frank Marshall Davis fully disagreed, and he would target the Church as an obstacle to his plans to fundamentally change America.
And so, Davis targeted the Church in commentaries he wrote for the Chicago Star, the Communist Party publication of which he was the founding editor-in-chief from 1946-48.
Yup. Chicago. Home of Alinsky, Barry O., Bill Ayers, and the.....ahhhh......revolutionary Cdl. Bernardin.
He blasted big business, Wall Street, big oil, General Motors, “excess profits,” “millionaires” and the “wealthy.”
He attacked “GOP” tax cuts that “spare the rich” and “benefit millionaires.”
He advocated wealth redistribution from greedy “corporations” to “health insurance” and “public works projects.”
He described himself as “progressive,” while his detractors accused him of being a communist.
He adopted slogans like “Forward” and “Change.” He wanted to transform America through what he called “fundamental change.”
He was skeptical of preachers and their effect on God-and-gun clinging Americans, and saw the Catholic Church as an obstacle to his vision for the state. He argued that Christians should support his ideas and enthusiastically sought the support of the “social justice” Religious Left. Moreover, many people were unclear about his personal religious beliefs, including whether he was a Christian...
Yah, I gave you the answer in the title-line.
... Frank Marshall Davis, Hawaii mentor to a young Barack Obama, and Communist Party member 47544
Just so we're clear. The SCOAMF stole a lot of his rhetoric from ol' Frank, the Commie.
You'll love the last line of this section:
...He wanted the United States to go the direction of the Soviet Union. And Davis understood that the one institution standing in the way most vehemently was the Roman Catholic Church. “The Catholic hierarchy,” he sneered, had launched a “holy war against communism.”
Indeed it had—and deservedly so. Nothing anywhere in the world persecuted the religious—and people generally—quite like communism. The Church correctly saw Soviet communism as truly, genuinely evil. But Frank Marshall Davis fully disagreed, and he would target the Church as an obstacle to his plans to fundamentally change America.
And so, Davis targeted the Church in commentaries he wrote for the Chicago Star, the Communist Party publication of which he was the founding editor-in-chief from 1946-48.
Yup. Chicago. Home of Alinsky, Barry O., Bill Ayers, and the.....ahhhh......revolutionary Cdl. Bernardin.
The State's Interest
A bit of Kirk for Sunday reading. Herein he explains (in advance) the reason that the Obamunists have attacked the Catholic Church's 1st Amendment rights.
"All history, and especially modern history, is in some sense the account of the decline of community and the ruin consequent upon that loss. In this process, the rise of the modern State has been by far the most powerful influence. ‘The single most decisive influence upon Western social organization has been the rise and development of decentralized territorial state.’
....What the state seeks is a tableland upon which a multitude of individuals, solitary though herded together, labor anonymously for the State’s maintenance. Universal military conscription and the ‘mobile labor force’ and the concentration–camp are only the more recent developments of the system. The ‘pulverizing macadamizing tendency of modern history’ which Maitland discerned is been brought to pass, in large part, by ‘the momentous conflicts of jurisdiction between the political State and the social associations line intermediate to it and the individual.’ The same processes may be traced in the history of Greece and of Rome; and the consequence, in the long run, was social ennui and political deaths. All those great gifts of variety, contrast, competition, communal pride, and sympathetic association which characterize man at his manliest are menaced by the ascendancy of the omnicompetent state, resolved for its own security to level the ramparts of traditional community.”
Not that the Obamunists were first; one traces Statism back through Bush II, Clinton, Bush I, and (especially) FDR, but its roots lie faintly in Lincoln, with amplification by TR and Wilson. To a great extent this course is abetted by the 17th Amendment, which neutered State Governments (another intermediary).
It is Benthamism/Utilitarianism run amok. Ironically, Benthamism and its fellow-traveler (Adam Smith's doctrine of self-interest, the grandfather of Ayn Rand's hero) join hands to demolish intermediaries--and empower the State.
Simple-minded screeds promoting Statism-in-the-name-of-charity are not helpful. There is a balance-point which can be found with the use of prudence. But prudence is not part of the makeup of Leftists.
"All history, and especially modern history, is in some sense the account of the decline of community and the ruin consequent upon that loss. In this process, the rise of the modern State has been by far the most powerful influence. ‘The single most decisive influence upon Western social organization has been the rise and development of decentralized territorial state.’
....What the state seeks is a tableland upon which a multitude of individuals, solitary though herded together, labor anonymously for the State’s maintenance. Universal military conscription and the ‘mobile labor force’ and the concentration–camp are only the more recent developments of the system. The ‘pulverizing macadamizing tendency of modern history’ which Maitland discerned is been brought to pass, in large part, by ‘the momentous conflicts of jurisdiction between the political State and the social associations line intermediate to it and the individual.’ The same processes may be traced in the history of Greece and of Rome; and the consequence, in the long run, was social ennui and political deaths. All those great gifts of variety, contrast, competition, communal pride, and sympathetic association which characterize man at his manliest are menaced by the ascendancy of the omnicompetent state, resolved for its own security to level the ramparts of traditional community.”
Not that the Obamunists were first; one traces Statism back through Bush II, Clinton, Bush I, and (especially) FDR, but its roots lie faintly in Lincoln, with amplification by TR and Wilson. To a great extent this course is abetted by the 17th Amendment, which neutered State Governments (another intermediary).
It is Benthamism/Utilitarianism run amok. Ironically, Benthamism and its fellow-traveler (Adam Smith's doctrine of self-interest, the grandfather of Ayn Rand's hero) join hands to demolish intermediaries--and empower the State.
Simple-minded screeds promoting Statism-in-the-name-of-charity are not helpful. There is a balance-point which can be found with the use of prudence. But prudence is not part of the makeup of Leftists.
Fast/Furious Whistleblower FIRED!
Obama likes to fire people, too, especially if they cause a big problem.
A well-known whistle-blower in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives confirmed to FoxNews.com that he was fired this week, and he claims his complaints about Operation Fast and Furious played a role in his dismissal.
Vince Cefalu said he was served his termination papers Tuesday in a Denny's parking lot in South Lake Tahoe, Calif. But he doesn't plan to go quietly.
"It will be challenged," he said.
He was a 25-year veteran of BATFE.
HT: Bob Owens
A well-known whistle-blower in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives confirmed to FoxNews.com that he was fired this week, and he claims his complaints about Operation Fast and Furious played a role in his dismissal.
Vince Cefalu said he was served his termination papers Tuesday in a Denny's parking lot in South Lake Tahoe, Calif. But he doesn't plan to go quietly.
"It will be challenged," he said.
He was a 25-year veteran of BATFE.
HT: Bob Owens
Saturday, October 13, 2012
US Bishops: The Old Fart Lied
The Abortion Presidency gets called out.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has issued a statement saying that Vice President Joe Biden’s assertion in Thursday night’s debate that Obamacare’s sterilization-contraception-abortifacient regulation does not apply to Catholic and other religious institutions is not true.
“This is not a fact,” the bishops said of Biden’s claim.
You already know that, of course. It's here just for the record.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has issued a statement saying that Vice President Joe Biden’s assertion in Thursday night’s debate that Obamacare’s sterilization-contraception-abortifacient regulation does not apply to Catholic and other religious institutions is not true.
“This is not a fact,” the bishops said of Biden’s claim.
You already know that, of course. It's here just for the record.
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Lacking Definitions, But Sure of Themselves Anyway
Another bunch of Catholic Innerlekshuls has written another lecture.
Tiresome, ain'a?
We write as Catholic theologians, academics and ministers concerned for our nation and for the integrity of the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. We write to hold up aspects of the Church's social doctrine that are profoundly relevant to the challenges our nation faces at this moment in history, yet are in danger of being ignored.
The Claim to Authority is established!! They're 'theo profs, academics, and ministers'!! (And you're not, especially if your name is Paul Ryan.) This is the argument from Chevy Chase.
It would be far more reassuring if they mentioned that they were parents and grandparents, wouldn't it? And far more reassuring if all of them had scribbled lectures on the intrinsic evils of abortion and same-sex marriage. You know, all that "integrity of the teachings....social doctrine....relevant to the challenges" stuff.
But they didn't. Instead, they pontificate on matters of prudential judgment, where well-informed people may differ.
And of course, they set up the Straw Man:
...At a moment when the ideas of Atlas Shrugged influence public debate and policy, we write to proclaim the Catholic truth that the stewardship of common good rests upon all of our shoulders together...
America is at a tipping point where the traditional commitment of our government to protecting and advancing the common good is in very real danger of being dismantled for generations. Members of the "Tea Party," libertarians, Ayn Rand followers and other proponents of small government have brought libertarian views of government into the mainstream; legitimating forms of social indifference.
Can you say "hyperbole"? Well, if you don't like the term, let's turn it around: It's just as legitimate for Conservatives to say that ideas from Rules for Radicals influence public debate and policy....and that America is at a tipping point where the traditional commitment of the Government to the 10th Amendment, the FIRST Amendment, and the separation of powers is in very real danger of being dismantled for generations.
It's not only legitimate, but mathematically certain that the financial health of the nation is in very real danger of being obliterated....for generations.
And what, precisely, is "social indifference?" Telling someone that they can NOT have a free cellphone? That they can NOT have free contraceptives?
Surely you jest, Professors, Ministers, and Theologians.
After their condescending swipe at Ryan: "We do not question Paul Ryan's faith", followed by twenty lines of innuendo, vague generalities, and Scary Language!!!!, (Ayn Rand is mentioned more in this essay than in any Conservative beer-gathering)....they FINALLY announce what horrific programs draw their ire:
...he judged "defined benefit" safety net programs such as Social Security and Medicare to be "collectivist" and "socialist based."...
The Professors, Theologians, and Ministers are silent, though, in applying an alternative nomenclature to SocSec and Medicare. There's a reason: those programs ARE collectivist and socialist-based.
...Congressman Ryan's concerns about the growing Federal debt are commendable. [Oh, thank you, kind Theologians, Professors, and Ministers!!!] It is clear, however, that he had a prior philosophical bias against publically [sic] funded safety net programs independent of these fiscal concerns.Given these values, it seems reasonable to conclude that Ryan's deep cuts to Medicaid, Medicare and food stamps are policy priorities themselves. Thus, it is not surprising, that the savings achieved by these cuts are swamped by revenue losses resulting from massive new tax cuts for high earners and corporations.
Ummmmnnnnhhhhhh....it's also clear that the Professors, Theologians, and Ministers have a 'prior philosophical bias' which obviates State and local governments. To them, the only Gummint is the Federal Gummint, and we shall have no gods before it...
Huh?
Oh, well.
We do not question the sincerity of his convictions, but must note that a shift from the social philosophy of Ayn Rand to the social doctrine of the Catholic Church is a radical change indeed. Such a conversion would take much time and reflection.
If condescension had an odor, the reek of the above words would overpower Superman.
The Theologians, Professors, and Ministers proceed to issue a negative judgment on Ryan's motives, all very indirectly, of course, because it just wouldn't DO for them to be "judgmental." Nosirree. Not at all. To avoid "judgmentalism" they simply imply that Ryan's 'prudence' could well be 'craftiness' instead. Subtle, eh?
Next, they quote B-16 so that they can share in the halo effect.
Having created Straw Men, Boogey Men, God-Awful Rand-Men, and other not-so-veiled slurs, they finally get around to ....Catholic principles!
The Catholic view of the human person is social not individual.
Yup.
The Catholic Church does not espouse "individualism," but rather sees it as an error as destructive as collectivism.
Yup again!!
We are radically dependent upon and responsible for one another. Again, in the words of John Paul II, "We are all really responsible for all." This truth of the human person is tied to the central doctrines of the Church. It reflects the very "intimate life of God, one God in three Persons."
Amazing how the Trinity got along all these years without a Federal Gummint to give 'em phones!
Government has an essential role to play in protecting and promoting the common good
Yup. Who said otherwise?
The state exists to "defend and promote the common good of civil society, its citizens, and intermediate bodies."
....so long as those "intermediate bodies" aren't, ya' know, the several States, or local gummints--or Heaven forfend!! that those 'intermediate bodies' refuse to provide abortive 'contraceptives'!!!
...Catholic apologists for small government repeatedly invoke a single paragraph from John Paul II's Centesimus Annus which cautions against the excesses of a "social assistance state" ignoring the decades-long papal consensus supporting social insurance and welfare systems.
The Professors, Theologians, and Ministers wrote that with no sense of irony whatsoever. If JPII 'cautioned' about the 'social assistance state,' then perhaps there IS ROOM FOR DEBATE about the size of that State and its 'social insurance and welfare programs,' right?
Subsidiarity
Subsidiarity has both negative and positive dimensions. Negatively, it limits overreach by government (as well as other large organizations, including corporations). Positively, the concept (which means "help" or "assistance)" requires that government act when problems cannot be solved on the local level.
I have yet to see a Church document which 'condemns over-reach by large corporations'.
The broader outlines of the budget plan will radically reduce the size of government and consequently cut funding for private and religious safety net providers such as Catholic Charities who depend upon federal grants and contracts for much of their funding. This fails the positive obligation under subsidiarity to render needed assistance.
Note how carefully the Professors, Theologians, and Ministers avoid defining the term "radically reduce." That's because it is NOT a "reduction." And--once again--what about the States? Locals? Finally, Catholic Charities is no more entitled to Federal dollars than is Sesame Street. It is the mis-management and hubris of Catholic Charities that made them "dependent" on the taxpayers and it is a criminal mis-use of the term "charity" when a "charity" cheerfully takes money which was taken at the point of a gun.
The "preferential option for the poor" demands both individual and collective action, including the acts of the state
...but not the "several" States. Nope.
It should go without saying that poverty is not caused primarily by a too generous government safety net that becomes in Ryan's words, "a hammock that lulls able-bodied citizens into lives of complacency and dependency."
And it should go without saying that a too generous government safety-net causes bankruptcy of that government. But more important, what is "poverty"? What are "needs" as opposed to "wants"? We note a distinct lack of specifics from the Professors, Theologians, and Ministers--again.
Ryan's 2012 budget achieves 62% of its designated savings from cuts to programs for low-income families and individuals while cutting the top marginal tax rate and the corporate tax rate
It DOES go without saying that the Professors, Theologians, and Ministers are astoundingly ignorant of the answer to the question "Who pays corporate income taxes?" We should add that--in charity--many individuals COULD voluntarily send money to the Treasury. Or they could send it to a charity. Which of the two would the Professors, Theologians, and Ministers prefer?
Economic forces must be reckoned among any serious account of the threats to society and human dignity.
Ryan's budget resolutions speak mainly of overbearing government and free individuals acting in a private sector whose justice is never questioned. It is hard to reconcile this vision with the history of the past forty years, in which globalization has deindustrialized America and deregulation has increased the power of private corporations. At the same time, unions, which official Catholic teaching has long recognized as indispensible to the rights of workers and the common good, have been severely weakened.
So the massive increase in regulatory burden is dismissed, out of hand, as a factor in 'globalization'? And what "deregulation" do the Professors, Theologians, and Ministers speak about? Dodd-Frank? Did EPA disappear last week? Did the Department of Education vanish? OSHA?
They expect to be taken seriously with lines like that?
Finally, they reach a Conclusion!!
...We live at time when the social indifference of libertarian thought is achieving broad cultural legitimacy and political power. This vision of the human person and society are fundamentally at odds with the Gospel and the principles of Catholic Social Doctrine....
(Just ask the Libertarian Party about its fabulously successful campaigns and candidates!!)
We've lived through 100 years of expanding Government which has NOT 'reduced poverty' but rather, has brought this country to 102% debt-to-GNP ratio and which has literally chased productive enterprises into foreign lands. The expansion is largely Federal, in contradiction to the Principle of Subsidiarity.
Prudence, not "craftiness" assesses the damage and demands remedy.
Professors, Theologians, and Ministers ought to seek remedies instead of writing condescending screeds.
Tiresome, ain'a?
We write as Catholic theologians, academics and ministers concerned for our nation and for the integrity of the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. We write to hold up aspects of the Church's social doctrine that are profoundly relevant to the challenges our nation faces at this moment in history, yet are in danger of being ignored.
The Claim to Authority is established!! They're 'theo profs, academics, and ministers'!! (And you're not, especially if your name is Paul Ryan.) This is the argument from Chevy Chase.
It would be far more reassuring if they mentioned that they were parents and grandparents, wouldn't it? And far more reassuring if all of them had scribbled lectures on the intrinsic evils of abortion and same-sex marriage. You know, all that "integrity of the teachings....social doctrine....relevant to the challenges" stuff.
But they didn't. Instead, they pontificate on matters of prudential judgment, where well-informed people may differ.
And of course, they set up the Straw Man:
...At a moment when the ideas of Atlas Shrugged influence public debate and policy, we write to proclaim the Catholic truth that the stewardship of common good rests upon all of our shoulders together...
America is at a tipping point where the traditional commitment of our government to protecting and advancing the common good is in very real danger of being dismantled for generations. Members of the "Tea Party," libertarians, Ayn Rand followers and other proponents of small government have brought libertarian views of government into the mainstream; legitimating forms of social indifference.
Can you say "hyperbole"? Well, if you don't like the term, let's turn it around: It's just as legitimate for Conservatives to say that ideas from Rules for Radicals influence public debate and policy....and that America is at a tipping point where the traditional commitment of the Government to the 10th Amendment, the FIRST Amendment, and the separation of powers is in very real danger of being dismantled for generations.
It's not only legitimate, but mathematically certain that the financial health of the nation is in very real danger of being obliterated....for generations.
And what, precisely, is "social indifference?" Telling someone that they can NOT have a free cellphone? That they can NOT have free contraceptives?
Surely you jest, Professors, Ministers, and Theologians.
After their condescending swipe at Ryan: "We do not question Paul Ryan's faith", followed by twenty lines of innuendo, vague generalities, and Scary Language!!!!, (Ayn Rand is mentioned more in this essay than in any Conservative beer-gathering)....they FINALLY announce what horrific programs draw their ire:
...he judged "defined benefit" safety net programs such as Social Security and Medicare to be "collectivist" and "socialist based."...
The Professors, Theologians, and Ministers are silent, though, in applying an alternative nomenclature to SocSec and Medicare. There's a reason: those programs ARE collectivist and socialist-based.
...Congressman Ryan's concerns about the growing Federal debt are commendable. [Oh, thank you, kind Theologians, Professors, and Ministers!!!] It is clear, however, that he had a prior philosophical bias against publically [sic] funded safety net programs independent of these fiscal concerns.Given these values, it seems reasonable to conclude that Ryan's deep cuts to Medicaid, Medicare and food stamps are policy priorities themselves. Thus, it is not surprising, that the savings achieved by these cuts are swamped by revenue losses resulting from massive new tax cuts for high earners and corporations.
Ummmmnnnnhhhhhh....it's also clear that the Professors, Theologians, and Ministers have a 'prior philosophical bias' which obviates State and local governments. To them, the only Gummint is the Federal Gummint, and we shall have no gods before it...
Huh?
Oh, well.
We do not question the sincerity of his convictions, but must note that a shift from the social philosophy of Ayn Rand to the social doctrine of the Catholic Church is a radical change indeed. Such a conversion would take much time and reflection.
If condescension had an odor, the reek of the above words would overpower Superman.
The Theologians, Professors, and Ministers proceed to issue a negative judgment on Ryan's motives, all very indirectly, of course, because it just wouldn't DO for them to be "judgmental." Nosirree. Not at all. To avoid "judgmentalism" they simply imply that Ryan's 'prudence' could well be 'craftiness' instead. Subtle, eh?
Next, they quote B-16 so that they can share in the halo effect.
Having created Straw Men, Boogey Men, God-Awful Rand-Men, and other not-so-veiled slurs, they finally get around to ....Catholic principles!
The Catholic view of the human person is social not individual.
Yup.
The Catholic Church does not espouse "individualism," but rather sees it as an error as destructive as collectivism.
Yup again!!
We are radically dependent upon and responsible for one another. Again, in the words of John Paul II, "We are all really responsible for all." This truth of the human person is tied to the central doctrines of the Church. It reflects the very "intimate life of God, one God in three Persons."
Amazing how the Trinity got along all these years without a Federal Gummint to give 'em phones!
Government has an essential role to play in protecting and promoting the common good
Yup. Who said otherwise?
The state exists to "defend and promote the common good of civil society, its citizens, and intermediate bodies."
....so long as those "intermediate bodies" aren't, ya' know, the several States, or local gummints--or Heaven forfend!! that those 'intermediate bodies' refuse to provide abortive 'contraceptives'!!!
...Catholic apologists for small government repeatedly invoke a single paragraph from John Paul II's Centesimus Annus which cautions against the excesses of a "social assistance state" ignoring the decades-long papal consensus supporting social insurance and welfare systems.
The Professors, Theologians, and Ministers wrote that with no sense of irony whatsoever. If JPII 'cautioned' about the 'social assistance state,' then perhaps there IS ROOM FOR DEBATE about the size of that State and its 'social insurance and welfare programs,' right?
Subsidiarity
Subsidiarity has both negative and positive dimensions. Negatively, it limits overreach by government (as well as other large organizations, including corporations). Positively, the concept (which means "help" or "assistance)" requires that government act when problems cannot be solved on the local level.
I have yet to see a Church document which 'condemns over-reach by large corporations'.
The broader outlines of the budget plan will radically reduce the size of government and consequently cut funding for private and religious safety net providers such as Catholic Charities who depend upon federal grants and contracts for much of their funding. This fails the positive obligation under subsidiarity to render needed assistance.
Note how carefully the Professors, Theologians, and Ministers avoid defining the term "radically reduce." That's because it is NOT a "reduction." And--once again--what about the States? Locals? Finally, Catholic Charities is no more entitled to Federal dollars than is Sesame Street. It is the mis-management and hubris of Catholic Charities that made them "dependent" on the taxpayers and it is a criminal mis-use of the term "charity" when a "charity" cheerfully takes money which was taken at the point of a gun.
The "preferential option for the poor" demands both individual and collective action, including the acts of the state
...but not the "several" States. Nope.
It should go without saying that poverty is not caused primarily by a too generous government safety net that becomes in Ryan's words, "a hammock that lulls able-bodied citizens into lives of complacency and dependency."
And it should go without saying that a too generous government safety-net causes bankruptcy of that government. But more important, what is "poverty"? What are "needs" as opposed to "wants"? We note a distinct lack of specifics from the Professors, Theologians, and Ministers--again.
Ryan's 2012 budget achieves 62% of its designated savings from cuts to programs for low-income families and individuals while cutting the top marginal tax rate and the corporate tax rate
It DOES go without saying that the Professors, Theologians, and Ministers are astoundingly ignorant of the answer to the question "Who pays corporate income taxes?" We should add that--in charity--many individuals COULD voluntarily send money to the Treasury. Or they could send it to a charity. Which of the two would the Professors, Theologians, and Ministers prefer?
Economic forces must be reckoned among any serious account of the threats to society and human dignity.
Ryan's budget resolutions speak mainly of overbearing government and free individuals acting in a private sector whose justice is never questioned. It is hard to reconcile this vision with the history of the past forty years, in which globalization has deindustrialized America and deregulation has increased the power of private corporations. At the same time, unions, which official Catholic teaching has long recognized as indispensible to the rights of workers and the common good, have been severely weakened.
So the massive increase in regulatory burden is dismissed, out of hand, as a factor in 'globalization'? And what "deregulation" do the Professors, Theologians, and Ministers speak about? Dodd-Frank? Did EPA disappear last week? Did the Department of Education vanish? OSHA?
They expect to be taken seriously with lines like that?
Finally, they reach a Conclusion!!
...We live at time when the social indifference of libertarian thought is achieving broad cultural legitimacy and political power. This vision of the human person and society are fundamentally at odds with the Gospel and the principles of Catholic Social Doctrine....
(Just ask the Libertarian Party about its fabulously successful campaigns and candidates!!)
We've lived through 100 years of expanding Government which has NOT 'reduced poverty' but rather, has brought this country to 102% debt-to-GNP ratio and which has literally chased productive enterprises into foreign lands. The expansion is largely Federal, in contradiction to the Principle of Subsidiarity.
Prudence, not "craftiness" assesses the damage and demands remedy.
Professors, Theologians, and Ministers ought to seek remedies instead of writing condescending screeds.
Techno-Problem? No Sweat. Uncle Barack'll Loan You Money!
Just as the real and complete story of Benghazi took a while to emerge (making SCOAMF and his toadies into utter, complete liars--again), the story of Uncle Barack's largesse with Other People's Money slowly but surely becomes available.
A congressional oversight panel wants to know when the Obama administration became aware of significant technological issues at a renewable energy company it helped fund, including the propensity of its solar panels to burst into flames when exposed...
.....wait for it....
....wait for it.....
.... to the sun.
(That has to be a Monty Python script, right?)
The Company in question is Abound Solar. It's the THIRD Uncle Barack 'hot pick' to go BK. On this one, the taxpayer is on the hook for ~$70 million or so.
A congressional oversight panel wants to know when the Obama administration became aware of significant technological issues at a renewable energy company it helped fund, including the propensity of its solar panels to burst into flames when exposed...
.....wait for it....
....wait for it.....
.... to the sun.
(That has to be a Monty Python script, right?)
The Company in question is Abound Solar. It's the THIRD Uncle Barack 'hot pick' to go BK. On this one, the taxpayer is on the hook for ~$70 million or so.
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Obozo v. the Judaeo-Christian Tradition
The Professor cadged the list from a correspondent.
Suffice it to say that we're waaaaayyyy past "co-incidence."
Obozo is not merely a threat to 'prosperity'; in fact, that threat is founded on his thoroughgoing animosity toward the J-C tradition. That animosity, carried out in his praxis, is the sine qua non underlying the 'threat to prosperity.'
Don't believe it? Then contemplate the term "right order" for a while. Or you could read Kirk's "Conservative Mind." Or the briefer version linked here from Prof. Deneen.
Suffice it to say that we're waaaaayyyy past "co-incidence."
Obozo is not merely a threat to 'prosperity'; in fact, that threat is founded on his thoroughgoing animosity toward the J-C tradition. That animosity, carried out in his praxis, is the sine qua non underlying the 'threat to prosperity.'
Don't believe it? Then contemplate the term "right order" for a while. Or you could read Kirk's "Conservative Mind." Or the briefer version linked here from Prof. Deneen.
Obama the Covert Teuton, (or Ligurian?)
Here, the blogger lays out the dots. It's up to us to connect them.
When their parents are no longer useful because of their old age, the Ligurians throw them off a cliff.
The Teutons had another use for old folks:
What, then, is my counsel? To do what our forefathers did in the war, in no wise equal to this, with the Cimbri and Teutones. They shut themselves into the towns, and under stress of a like scarcity sustained life on the bodies of those whose age showed them useless for war, and delivered not themselves to the enemy. --Critognatus quoted by Caesar
Less gentle than Obama's Death Panels?
You decide.
When their parents are no longer useful because of their old age, the Ligurians throw them off a cliff.
The Teutons had another use for old folks:
What, then, is my counsel? To do what our forefathers did in the war, in no wise equal to this, with the Cimbri and Teutones. They shut themselves into the towns, and under stress of a like scarcity sustained life on the bodies of those whose age showed them useless for war, and delivered not themselves to the enemy. --Critognatus quoted by Caesar
Less gentle than Obama's Death Panels?
You decide.
What Prayer Is NOT
From our solid Deep South Dominican.
...Let's be as clear as possible here: prayer does nothing—absolutely nothing—to God or for God. He doesn't need our prayer. Our prayer cannot change His mind or influence His disposition towards us. The promises He made to our ancestors in faith have been fulfilled in Christ Jesus and every grace we will ever need has already been bestowed. To believe that prayer elicits a response from God implies that we have some kind of control over His will; that we—His creatures—can alter His will. This idea turns faith into magic and a prayer into a spell. Prayers are not incantations that guarantee us the results we desire. Let's remove from our way of thinking about prayer any notion that we are capable of generating or procuring or guaranteeing a gift from God through prayer. True humility—the basis of all prayer—is achieved through perfect surrender, through total detachment from any thought, word, or deed that suggests we are in charge of the blessings we are given. St. Augustine puts it succinctly, “Man is a beggar before God.”
So why all that praying stuff?
Prayer is a tool for turning sinners into saints.
Uhhmmmmhhh....he refers to the REAL end (or goal) of life. Sorry, folks--that's something the Gummint can't deliver.
...Let's be as clear as possible here: prayer does nothing—absolutely nothing—to God or for God. He doesn't need our prayer. Our prayer cannot change His mind or influence His disposition towards us. The promises He made to our ancestors in faith have been fulfilled in Christ Jesus and every grace we will ever need has already been bestowed. To believe that prayer elicits a response from God implies that we have some kind of control over His will; that we—His creatures—can alter His will. This idea turns faith into magic and a prayer into a spell. Prayers are not incantations that guarantee us the results we desire. Let's remove from our way of thinking about prayer any notion that we are capable of generating or procuring or guaranteeing a gift from God through prayer. True humility—the basis of all prayer—is achieved through perfect surrender, through total detachment from any thought, word, or deed that suggests we are in charge of the blessings we are given. St. Augustine puts it succinctly, “Man is a beggar before God.”
So why all that praying stuff?
Prayer is a tool for turning sinners into saints.
Uhhmmmmhhh....he refers to the REAL end (or goal) of life. Sorry, folks--that's something the Gummint can't deliver.
"Free" Obozocare? Nope.
"Free" medical care, like "free" ANYTHING, is a myth.
Fully implementing Obamacare regulations have already cost the U.S. economy $27.6 billion and more than 18,000 jobs according to a new study released today. Just the top ten most expensive regulations have cost $24.4 billion, according to the new non-partisan and independent American Action Forum (AAF) report.
Just complying with the state health exchanges alone has to cost employers $3.4 billion according to the AAF totals which were compiled from Federal Register data. In addition to the regulatory costs, AAF estimates that Obamacare regulatory compliance has eaten up more than 60 million hours in paperwork. At 2,000 hours a year that comes to 30,000 jobs.
However it's likely that lawyers and CPAs have done quite well, just like Big Pharma.
Whoopeeeee!!!
Fully implementing Obamacare regulations have already cost the U.S. economy $27.6 billion and more than 18,000 jobs according to a new study released today. Just the top ten most expensive regulations have cost $24.4 billion, according to the new non-partisan and independent American Action Forum (AAF) report.
Just complying with the state health exchanges alone has to cost employers $3.4 billion according to the AAF totals which were compiled from Federal Register data. In addition to the regulatory costs, AAF estimates that Obamacare regulatory compliance has eaten up more than 60 million hours in paperwork. At 2,000 hours a year that comes to 30,000 jobs.
However it's likely that lawyers and CPAs have done quite well, just like Big Pharma.
Whoopeeeee!!!
"Lawman" Mahoney: Typical Madistan
The Sheriff of Dane County is.....ahhhhh.....an exception.
Dane County Sheriff Dave Mahoney says that his department’s order to deputies to ignore possible voter fraud in the county jail is part of a long-standing policy of his department.
... In Waukesha County, the state’s second most populous county, county jail administrator Mike Giese said that his jail does take steps to stop ineligible felons from voting.
... In Dodge County Sheriff Todd Nehls said that if an ineligible felon tried to vote through his jail they would make sure they followed the action and caught the inmate.
The breakdown of law and order always---always--begins with "officials," whether judicial, executive, or representative.
Dane County Sheriff Dave Mahoney says that his department’s order to deputies to ignore possible voter fraud in the county jail is part of a long-standing policy of his department.
... In Waukesha County, the state’s second most populous county, county jail administrator Mike Giese said that his jail does take steps to stop ineligible felons from voting.
... In Dodge County Sheriff Todd Nehls said that if an ineligible felon tried to vote through his jail they would make sure they followed the action and caught the inmate.
The breakdown of law and order always---always--begins with "officials," whether judicial, executive, or representative.
Obozo the Pimp
How else to interpret this remark?
President Barack Obama told an audience of campaign supporters at George Mason University last Friday that free contraceptives for college students was the reason “why we passed” his healthcare reform law.
Citing the ‘preventive services’ mandate that requires healthcare plans to provide sterilization, contraception and abortion-inducing drugs to women free of charge, Obama said, “I don’t think a college student in Fairfax or Charlottesville should have to choose between text books or the preventive care that she needs. That’s why we passed this law. And I am proud of it. It was the right thing to do. And we are going to keep it.”
No, you're not, jackwad.
President Barack Obama told an audience of campaign supporters at George Mason University last Friday that free contraceptives for college students was the reason “why we passed” his healthcare reform law.
Citing the ‘preventive services’ mandate that requires healthcare plans to provide sterilization, contraception and abortion-inducing drugs to women free of charge, Obama said, “I don’t think a college student in Fairfax or Charlottesville should have to choose between text books or the preventive care that she needs. That’s why we passed this law. And I am proud of it. It was the right thing to do. And we are going to keep it.”
No, you're not, jackwad.
Who's Watching You?
Long story in Bloomberg.
Short out-take of interest:
The spyware that penetrated his laptop appears to be a Western-made surveillance tool sold to police and intelligence agencies that’s so powerful it can turn on webcams and microphones and grab documents off hard drives, according to the findings of a study being published today by the University of Toronto Munk School of Global Affairs’ Citizen Lab.
Mansoor’s predicament shows how nations have rapidly moved beyond the surveillance of phone and e-mail transmissions to rifle through the most intimate details stored by personal computers and the smartphones that citizens carry with them everywhere. The tools, which can peer into people's living rooms and access rough drafts of love letters, business strategies or plans for street demonstrations, mark the latest escalation in a digital arms race between governments and the people they watch.
Which "gummints and police agencies"?
Short out-take of interest:
The spyware that penetrated his laptop appears to be a Western-made surveillance tool sold to police and intelligence agencies that’s so powerful it can turn on webcams and microphones and grab documents off hard drives, according to the findings of a study being published today by the University of Toronto Munk School of Global Affairs’ Citizen Lab.
Mansoor’s predicament shows how nations have rapidly moved beyond the surveillance of phone and e-mail transmissions to rifle through the most intimate details stored by personal computers and the smartphones that citizens carry with them everywhere. The tools, which can peer into people's living rooms and access rough drafts of love letters, business strategies or plans for street demonstrations, mark the latest escalation in a digital arms race between governments and the people they watch.
Which "gummints and police agencies"?
Monday, October 08, 2012
Egads. Romney Blows the FurrinPolc'y Speech
If Romney only knew the history of Afghanistan....
...Romney also said he might not be so quick to pull troops out of the unpopular war in Afghanistan. Obama has pledged to end the U.S. combat role in Afghanistan by the end of 2014 as part of NATO's plan to hand over security responsibility to Afghan forces.
Romney said he would pursue a transition to Afghan security forces by that time but would evaluate conditions there before making a final decision to pull out.
Sorry, folks, that's just moronic. You could ask the (former) USSR, the last superpower to attempt 'taming' those guys.
...Romney pledged that his administration would work to find elements of the Syrian opposition who share U.S. values and ensure they obtain weapons needed to defeat President Bashir al-Assad's forces.
Really? Western-valued Syrians? That would mean people of the Judaeo-Christian persuasion, right? Are there three of them in Syria?
It's a given that Obozo's foreign "policy" is ass-over-teakettle akimbo no-plan/no-how/no-where.
But Wilsonianism? Even worse.
...Romney also said he might not be so quick to pull troops out of the unpopular war in Afghanistan. Obama has pledged to end the U.S. combat role in Afghanistan by the end of 2014 as part of NATO's plan to hand over security responsibility to Afghan forces.
Romney said he would pursue a transition to Afghan security forces by that time but would evaluate conditions there before making a final decision to pull out.
Sorry, folks, that's just moronic. You could ask the (former) USSR, the last superpower to attempt 'taming' those guys.
...Romney pledged that his administration would work to find elements of the Syrian opposition who share U.S. values and ensure they obtain weapons needed to defeat President Bashir al-Assad's forces.
Really? Western-valued Syrians? That would mean people of the Judaeo-Christian persuasion, right? Are there three of them in Syria?
It's a given that Obozo's foreign "policy" is ass-over-teakettle akimbo no-plan/no-how/no-where.
But Wilsonianism? Even worse.
More on the Participation Rate
One of the good things about Drinking Right is meeting people who really know from numbers.
So when I posted about the "participation rate", THE local numbers-guy was in the combox:
- Those 16 to 24 years old were slowly not even entering the workforce before the DemPression, with the participation rate going from an unadjusted 62.0% in 9/2002 to 58.5% in 9/2007. The recession dropped it to 55.2% in 9/2009, and then the bottom dropped out as it fell to 53.8% 9/2012, the lowest September on record.
- The 25-54 year old demographic, long the one considered the "prime earners", saw their participation rate drop from 83.3% in 9/2002 to 83.1% in 9/2007, 82.5% in 9/2009, and 81.7% in 9/2012. That tied with last September for the lowest September since 1984, when there were far more voluntary stay-at-home parents.
- The 55-64 year old demographic actually increased their participation rate, going from 62.9% in 9/2002 to 64.0% in 9/2007, 64.5% in 9/2009 and 64.6% in 9/2012. I will note the current number is a bit off the high of 65.0% in 9/2010.
- Perhaps due to the slow increase in Social Security's "normal retirement age", the 65-69 year old demographic has never had a higher September participation rate. It went from 26.5% in 9/2002 to 29.1% in 9/2007, 30.5% in 9/2009, and a record 32.2% in 9/2012.
- Even those between 70 and 74 years old are working in far greater numbers than they were before the DemPression, though the trend is more like the 55-64 crowd than the 65-69 crowd. Their participation rate went from 14.6% in 9/2002 to 18.7% in 9/2007, 19.8% in 9/2009 and 20.0% in 9/2012, off a bit from the 9/2011 high of 20.3%
So. It seems that "retirement" is happening to less people than ever before. The size of the 65-74 year-old cohort is still sufficient to make "retirement" a major demographic factor.
But "participation" is down in the categories where the country needs it the most: 16-24 and 25-54.
So when I posted about the "participation rate", THE local numbers-guy was in the combox:
- Those 16 to 24 years old were slowly not even entering the workforce before the DemPression, with the participation rate going from an unadjusted 62.0% in 9/2002 to 58.5% in 9/2007. The recession dropped it to 55.2% in 9/2009, and then the bottom dropped out as it fell to 53.8% 9/2012, the lowest September on record.
- The 25-54 year old demographic, long the one considered the "prime earners", saw their participation rate drop from 83.3% in 9/2002 to 83.1% in 9/2007, 82.5% in 9/2009, and 81.7% in 9/2012. That tied with last September for the lowest September since 1984, when there were far more voluntary stay-at-home parents.
- The 55-64 year old demographic actually increased their participation rate, going from 62.9% in 9/2002 to 64.0% in 9/2007, 64.5% in 9/2009 and 64.6% in 9/2012. I will note the current number is a bit off the high of 65.0% in 9/2010.
- Perhaps due to the slow increase in Social Security's "normal retirement age", the 65-69 year old demographic has never had a higher September participation rate. It went from 26.5% in 9/2002 to 29.1% in 9/2007, 30.5% in 9/2009, and a record 32.2% in 9/2012.
- Even those between 70 and 74 years old are working in far greater numbers than they were before the DemPression, though the trend is more like the 55-64 crowd than the 65-69 crowd. Their participation rate went from 14.6% in 9/2002 to 18.7% in 9/2007, 19.8% in 9/2009 and 20.0% in 9/2012, off a bit from the 9/2011 high of 20.3%
So. It seems that "retirement" is happening to less people than ever before. The size of the 65-74 year-old cohort is still sufficient to make "retirement" a major demographic factor.
But "participation" is down in the categories where the country needs it the most: 16-24 and 25-54.
That "Participation Rate" Thing....
The "participation rate" thing is floating around, and it's a datapoint which appears to be less-than-conclusive.
Two key points:
• Some of the recent decline in the participation rate has been to due to cyclical issues (severe recession), but MOST of the decline in the overall participation rate over the last decade has been due to the aging of the population. There are also some long term trends toward lower participation for younger workers pushing down the overall participation rate.
• This decline in the participation rate has been expected for years. Here are three projections (two from before the recession started). The key to these projections is that the decline in the participation rates was expected
The link also has a graph.
This information is more useful:
There are 1.1 million fewer people on non-farm payrolls today than when President Obama took office.
Along with the U-6 rate (people who are forced into part-time employment or who gave up looking for a job.)
The Obozo Plan isn't exactly a barn-burner, is it?
Two key points:
• Some of the recent decline in the participation rate has been to due to cyclical issues (severe recession), but MOST of the decline in the overall participation rate over the last decade has been due to the aging of the population. There are also some long term trends toward lower participation for younger workers pushing down the overall participation rate.
• This decline in the participation rate has been expected for years. Here are three projections (two from before the recession started). The key to these projections is that the decline in the participation rates was expected
The link also has a graph.
This information is more useful:
There are 1.1 million fewer people on non-farm payrolls today than when President Obama took office.
Along with the U-6 rate (people who are forced into part-time employment or who gave up looking for a job.)
The Obozo Plan isn't exactly a barn-burner, is it?
Sure It's a Mess! It's Federally Regulated!!!
For you deluded twits who think ObozoCare is a walk in the park....
Efforts to expand high-speed Internet access in rural Wisconsin could be slowed or stopped as broadband providers say they're frustrated over uncertainty in federal funding.
The Wisconsin State Telecommunications Association, a group that represents mostly rural telecom providers, says half of its member companies are delaying or canceling projects because of changes at the Federal Communications Commission aimed at bringing an $8 billion Universal Service Fund into the digital age.
The FCC's goal is to make high-speed Internet access available in all of rural America by 2020, with some of the funding coming from a fee that's added to consumers' and businesses' monthly telephone bills....
The first question is right there: why do "consumers and businesses" have to support broadband expansion to South Noplace and East Dogpatch?
Let's go to another one:
Telecom providers say they're serious about delaying or canceling expansions in rural areas because FCC changes have made it nearly impossible to predict how much federal funding will be available. They're upset about new requirements that jeopardize funding if a company exceeds caps placed on capital expenditures and operating expenses.
And WTF does the FCC know about 'capex' and 'opex' issues? Or--better--are the telecoms NOT competing for the business in East Dogpatch? If not, why not? Are the telecoms forced to pay "license fees" to munis, as is the case in SE Wisconsin? Are those fees excessive, or even justified at all?
Could it be Fed/State regulation that drives up the cost and makes East Dogpatch a lousy market?
Wait until this steaming pile of problems gets in the way of your appendectomy.....
Efforts to expand high-speed Internet access in rural Wisconsin could be slowed or stopped as broadband providers say they're frustrated over uncertainty in federal funding.
The Wisconsin State Telecommunications Association, a group that represents mostly rural telecom providers, says half of its member companies are delaying or canceling projects because of changes at the Federal Communications Commission aimed at bringing an $8 billion Universal Service Fund into the digital age.
The FCC's goal is to make high-speed Internet access available in all of rural America by 2020, with some of the funding coming from a fee that's added to consumers' and businesses' monthly telephone bills....
The first question is right there: why do "consumers and businesses" have to support broadband expansion to South Noplace and East Dogpatch?
Let's go to another one:
Telecom providers say they're serious about delaying or canceling expansions in rural areas because FCC changes have made it nearly impossible to predict how much federal funding will be available. They're upset about new requirements that jeopardize funding if a company exceeds caps placed on capital expenditures and operating expenses.
And WTF does the FCC know about 'capex' and 'opex' issues? Or--better--are the telecoms NOT competing for the business in East Dogpatch? If not, why not? Are the telecoms forced to pay "license fees" to munis, as is the case in SE Wisconsin? Are those fees excessive, or even justified at all?
Could it be Fed/State regulation that drives up the cost and makes East Dogpatch a lousy market?
Wait until this steaming pile of problems gets in the way of your appendectomy.....
SCOTUS Calendar Reveals Craven Publishing Scheme
The article here chooses to emphasize one aspect of this case.
I'm interested in another.
...The case stems from Supap Kirtsaeng’s college experience. A native of Thailand, Kirtsaeng came to America in 1997 to study at Cornell University. When he discovered that his textbooks, produced by Wiley, were substantially cheaper to buy in Thailand than they were in Ithaca, N.Y., he rallied his Thai relatives to buy the books and ship them to him in the United States.
He then sold them on eBay, making upward of $1.2 million, according to court documents....
Wiley, the publisher, stipulated that it sells books for different prices in different places.
Really.
I'm sure Wiley is a strong defender of "capitalism," right?
I'm interested in another.
...The case stems from Supap Kirtsaeng’s college experience. A native of Thailand, Kirtsaeng came to America in 1997 to study at Cornell University. When he discovered that his textbooks, produced by Wiley, were substantially cheaper to buy in Thailand than they were in Ithaca, N.Y., he rallied his Thai relatives to buy the books and ship them to him in the United States.
He then sold them on eBay, making upward of $1.2 million, according to court documents....
Wiley, the publisher, stipulated that it sells books for different prices in different places.
Really.
I'm sure Wiley is a strong defender of "capitalism," right?
Sunday, October 07, 2012
ObozoCare, Round II
Two days before the SCOAMF showed his real hand (a pair of deuces) v. Romney, something else almost as important occurred.
...the U.S. Supreme Court revived hope – long thought dead – that Obamacare, the president’s signature achievement, might yet be ruled unconstitutional. The High Court shocked the legal community by opening its new term with an order giving the Obama Justice Department just 30 days to respond to Liberty Counsel’s petition for rehearing. Liberty Counsel filed the petition on behalf of Liberty University and two private individuals.
An appeals court in Richmond, Va., ruled that the Anti-Injunction Act, or AIA, barred the court from addressing the merits in Liberty Univ., Inc. v. Geithner, which challenged the individual mandate (Section 1501) and the employer insurance mandate (Section 1513) of Obamacare.
In addition to the constitutional arguments that Congress lacked authority to pass the law, the suit also raised the Free Exercise of religion claim because of the forced taxpayer funding of abortion.
You may recall that the first day of oral argument was dedicated to the AIA, the issue that Liberty University’s case placed before the High Court. In June, the Supreme Court ruled that the AIA does not apply to Obamacare. Therefore, Liberty Counsel asked the Court to grant the petition (because Liberty University prevailed on the AIA claim), vacate the Court of Appeals ruling and remand (send back) the case to the Court of Appeals to consider the Free Exercise claim and the employer mandate, neither of which were decided by the High Court.
Long story short: If the Supreme Court ultimately hears the case on appeal – which is highly possible as the claims are unique – and rules that the employer mandate and Free Exercise claims are legit, Obamacare dies on the vine. It’s effectively overturned.
Is this Part II of the Roberts Intrigue??
...the U.S. Supreme Court revived hope – long thought dead – that Obamacare, the president’s signature achievement, might yet be ruled unconstitutional. The High Court shocked the legal community by opening its new term with an order giving the Obama Justice Department just 30 days to respond to Liberty Counsel’s petition for rehearing. Liberty Counsel filed the petition on behalf of Liberty University and two private individuals.
An appeals court in Richmond, Va., ruled that the Anti-Injunction Act, or AIA, barred the court from addressing the merits in Liberty Univ., Inc. v. Geithner, which challenged the individual mandate (Section 1501) and the employer insurance mandate (Section 1513) of Obamacare.
In addition to the constitutional arguments that Congress lacked authority to pass the law, the suit also raised the Free Exercise of religion claim because of the forced taxpayer funding of abortion.
You may recall that the first day of oral argument was dedicated to the AIA, the issue that Liberty University’s case placed before the High Court. In June, the Supreme Court ruled that the AIA does not apply to Obamacare. Therefore, Liberty Counsel asked the Court to grant the petition (because Liberty University prevailed on the AIA claim), vacate the Court of Appeals ruling and remand (send back) the case to the Court of Appeals to consider the Free Exercise claim and the employer mandate, neither of which were decided by the High Court.
Long story short: If the Supreme Court ultimately hears the case on appeal – which is highly possible as the claims are unique – and rules that the employer mandate and Free Exercise claims are legit, Obamacare dies on the vine. It’s effectively overturned.
Is this Part II of the Roberts Intrigue??
The NYT's Not-Really-Complete History
This is interesting.
The NYT asks why the Republicans don't "own" Big Cities.
The NYT asks why the Republicans don't "own" Big Cities.
With the possible exception of Houston or maybe Omaha, it’s all but
inconceivable that Mr. Romney will carry any of those cities. And that’s
due in good part to the man Hoover defeated, more than 80 years ago.
The rise of Alfred E. Smith to the top of the Democratic Party confirmed
a sea change in American life. Smith was not simply the first Catholic
to lead a major-party ticket. He was also a quintessentially urban
candidate, like no one who has ever seriously contended for the
presidency before or since.
Maybe that's one part.
But if one reads the history of the Progressive Movement in Wisconsin, you get another idea altogether.
(Too bad the "search" box is no longer present on this blogspot, as I mentioned this a while ago but can't find the reference-post any longer.) UPDATE: Used "Bing", got what I wanted here!!
In a nutshell, the original Wisconsin Progressives were Republicans. When those (R) Progressives suggested that the feeble-minded should be neutered, the Catholic Bishops made it very clear that the (R) Party was a no-no to Catholics; ergo, the Catholic vote--largely concentrated in ethnic ghettos in the cities--went (D).
(Since the NYT doesn't think religion has anything to do with anything, it's no surprise that they blamed it all on a cigar-chomping machine Catholic, of course.)
Yes, Behghazi IS Worse Than You Thought--for Obozo
There's a reason that Obozo & Co. lied like Hell about "movies" and Benghazi.
Lt. Col. Andy Wood was the leader of the 16 member special forces team whose job it was to protect US personnel in Libya. His team’s mission ended in August a month before the deadly Al-Qaeda attack on 9-11. A six member mobile security team was also withdrawn around the same time. This was despite the fact that there were over a dozen attacks in the country this year. --AOSHQ quoting Gateway
If you read, oh, I dunno, ANY newspaper, you know that AlQuaeda loves them their anniversary-dates.
And 9/11 is an anniversary date, right?
So Sun-God, who quells the rising seas and AlQuaeda, (not to mention the deficit), yanks the armed guards a month before 9/11.
"SCOAMF" doesn't really cover it anymore.
Lt. Col. Andy Wood was the leader of the 16 member special forces team whose job it was to protect US personnel in Libya. His team’s mission ended in August a month before the deadly Al-Qaeda attack on 9-11. A six member mobile security team was also withdrawn around the same time. This was despite the fact that there were over a dozen attacks in the country this year. --AOSHQ quoting Gateway
If you read, oh, I dunno, ANY newspaper, you know that AlQuaeda loves them their anniversary-dates.
And 9/11 is an anniversary date, right?
So Sun-God, who quells the rising seas and AlQuaeda, (not to mention the deficit), yanks the armed guards a month before 9/11.
"SCOAMF" doesn't really cover it anymore.
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