It’s been far too long since I featured one of Uncle Jimbo’s tour de forces. This time, he lays the smackdown on Obama’s UNSecurity Council meeting chairmanship. Roll tape.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtUrK-hOMQw[/youtube]
No Runny Eggs
The repository of one hard-boiled egg from the south suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin (and the occassional guest-blogger). The ramblings within may or may not offend, shock and awe you, but they are what I (or my guest-bloggers) think.
Archive for posts by steveegg.
September 7, 2009
Video of the day – Uncle Jimbo’s “Obama everywhere – More cowbell”
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DC, Beijing has a problem and it’s about to be your problem
(H/T – Robert Stacy McCain)
If memory serves, both Shoebox and I have pointed out the reluctance of the Chinese to continue to soak up American debt. The Daily Telegraph has the latest in the coming ChiCom shift away from the US Dollar:
Cheng Siwei, former vice-chairman of the Standing Committee and now head of China’s green energy drive, said Beijing was dismayed by the Fed’s recourse to “credit easing”.
“We hope there will be a change in monetary policy as soon as they have positive growth again,” he said at the Ambrosetti Workshop, a policy gathering on Lake Como.
“If they keep printing money to buy bonds it will lead to inflation, and after a year or two the dollar will fall hard. Most of our foreign reserves are in US bonds and this is very difficult to change, so we will diversify incremental reserves into euros, yen, and other currencies,” he said.
The Chinese are the single biggest foreign holder of US government debt, and they’re saying once again that they may well not continue to buy more. There simply are not enough buyers out there to soak up another $9+ trillion in US government debt over the next 9 years, which begs the question of whether the Fed will really flood the market with more dollars or whether the Treasury (really, Congress and the President) will do something that has never been done and default on US government debt.
In related reading, Charles K. Rowley, General Director of The Locke Institute and Duncan Black Professor of Economics at George Mason University, says that we could follow Argentina under socialist Juan Peron from the First World to the Third World. Why do I get the feeling that is precisely the ObamiNation’s goal?
Revisions/extensions (11:52 am 9/7/2009) – I know I’ve got too many blogs in the reader. As part of his look at George Friedman’s projections for the next 100 years on September 1, CDR Salamander wrote this little gem:
I agree with the last statement, but America can degrade itself though economic malpractice inline with what Argentina did to herself in the 1900s – but on a much larger scale. You cannot be the world’s greatest debtor and continue to run the world. It is unsustainable. Do not discount relative decline.
There is good relative decline; the USA % of global GDP decreases as other nations leave the 3rd to progress towards the 1st World. There is bad relative decline; the USA % of global GDP falls due to real falling national GDP and degrading internal economic factors and external competitiveness….
The only way the USA will lose its position over this century will be if we follow the Argentine model and economically destroy ourselves – something the present administration is doing very well from a debt-load POV.
Revisions/extensions (12:37 pm 9/12/2009) – Welcome to the party, fellow FMJRA devotees. Unlike RSM, this short-order cook doesn’t have a tip jar to hit, but between Shoebox and I, we do have some pretty good reading. And Smitty, I hear you on the 6-hour Mike Foxtrot shotgun sessions. If I had a tip jar, I might restart my version, but other than Rule 2, I don’t quite have the temperment to get enough hits for that to matter.
September 4, 2009
Is it 3.5 million jobs created/saved or 3.11 million jobs in all sectors lost?
(H/T – The Senate Republicans)
Now that the Bureau of Labor Statistics has come out with the all-sector August jobs report, which shows a preliminary 216,000 job loss for August, it’s time to update the earlier private-sector-only post of 3.487 million private-sector jobs lost since the end of January. With the creation of 377,000 government jobs since the end of January, the economy has lost 3,110,000 jobs since then.
The Senate Republicans helpfully included a summary of what the Human Gaffe Machine Vice President Joe Biden (he of the three-letter J-O-B-S utterance) uttered to the Brookings Institution just yesterday:
“Analysts from Moody’s to IHS Global Insight to the Economic Policy Institute and others all estimate the Recovery Act has created or saved between 500,000 and 750,000 jobs. Matter of fact: Some notable economists suggest the number is as high as a million.”
That’s funny; even if one included only the government sector (which I believe the ObamiNation thinks is the only sector that matters), Porkulus fell short.
Friday Hot Read – Mitch Daniels’ “The Coming Reset in State Government”
Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels (R) penned a warning call on the state of the states’ finances:
For now, my state’s situation is far better than most, but it won’t stay that way if we fail to act in Indiana. At present, we are meeting our obligations, without raising taxes, and still have over $1 billion in reserve. But the dominant reality is that even assuming the official revenue projections are accurate (and they have been consistently too rosy for the past two years), the state of Indiana will have fewer dollars to work with in 2011 than it did in 2007. Most other states face similar or worse prospects.
And, unlike the aftermath of past recessions, odds are that revenues will take a long time to catch back up to their previous trend lines—if they ever do. Tax payments have fallen so far that it would require a rousing economic rally to restore them. This at a time when the Obama administration’s policies on taxes, spending and more seem designed to produce the opposite result. From 1930 to 2008, our national average annual real GDP growth rate was 3.49%. After crunching the numbers, my team has estimated that it would take GDP growth of at least twice the historical average to return state tax revenues to their previous long-term trend line by 2012.
That is in Indiana, which is weathering the storm relatively well. They still have over $1 billion in reserve, and they haven’t had to raise taxes yet. Further, they were able to get to that point from a state of near-bankruptcy 5 years ago by cutting per-capita spending by a 1.4% annual rate.
Gov. Daniels also has a warning for those who, like Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle (D) and the Democrat-run Legislature, treated Porkulus like a lifeline:
Unlike the federal government, states cannot deny reality by borrowing without limit. The Obama administration’s “stimulus” package in effect shared the use of Uncle Sam’s printing press for two years. But after that money runs out, the states will be back where they were.
I do quibble with the notion that the federal government can deny reality by borrowing without limit. We are already at the point where there is little appetite for the existing near-100%-of-GDP federal debt. If the refinancing of said debt, to say nothing about the well-above-economic-growth $1 trillion-plus per year additions to said debt that extend as far as the eye can see, can’t be absorbed by the bond market, then we will be talking about hyper-inflation. Unlike most of the recent examples of countries that have experienced debt-caused hyperinflation (which were bailed out by the US), there is nobody left to bail us out.
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September 3, 2009
Speaking of rationing – the Mandatory Schaivo edition
(H/T – Ed Morrissey)
It is almost as if our friends across the Atlantic are warning us of what is in store if we follow them into socialized medicine. The Daily Telegraph ran a story of how (Not-So-)Great Britain’s health-care “scrutiny” body, the inappropriately-named National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, has adopted a particularily cruel end-of-life program called the Liverpool Care Pathway. I’ll let The Telegraph explain what this “last hours treatment”, now in place in nearly 1,000 British health-care facilities at the insistence of NICE, is:
Under the guidelines the decision to diagnose that a patient is close to death is made by the entire medical team treating them, including a senior doctor.
They look for signs that a patient is approaching their final hours, which can include if patients have lost consciousness or whether they are having difficulty swallowing medication….
When a decision has been made to place a patient on the pathway doctors are then recommended to consider removing medication or invasive procedures, such as intravenous drips, which are no longer of benefit.
If a patient is judged to still be able to eat or drink food and water will still be offered to them, as this is considered nursing care rather than medical intervention.
Unlike the Terri Schiavo situation, where there were conflicting interpretations of the level of care she wanted, what is missing is any decision by either the patient or a patient’s family. Considering the average person spends roughly a third of his or her life asleep, I guess one should not fall asleep in a British hospital with a sore throat.
Seriously, the story goes on to report on a letter signed by several leading British palliative-care experts calling the LCP a “national crisis”. Quoting The Telegraph’s reporting on the letter:
“Forecasting death is an inexact science,” they say. Patients are being diagnosed as being close to death “without regard to the fact that the diagnosis could be wrong.
“As a result a national wave of discontent is building up, as family and friends witness the denial of fluids and food to patients.”
Dr. Peter Hargreaves, a consultant in Palliative Medicine at St Luke’s cancer center in Guildford, told The Telegraph that he personally took patients off that pathway who went on to live for “significant” amounts of time because he did what many doctors don’t – keep monitoring the patient for signs of improvement. Those signs of improvement are harder to spot when a patient is under constant sedatement according to Professor Peter Millard, Emeritus Professor of Geriatrics, University of London.
Another problem with sedation while dehydrating is that a patient can enter a state of semi-consciousness and confusion. I wonder how many of the 16.5% of those who died in Britain in 2007 and 2008 during a state of continuous deep sedation, twice the rate in the Netherlands, which has a policy of physician-assisted suicide, suffered that state.
Of course, not all of those in Not-So-Great Britain are doomed to such a fate. Just ask Abdel Baset ali Megrahi, who got a get-out-of-Britain-free card after serving less than 12 days per person he and his Libyan associates murdered in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. Of course, he wasn’t a loyal subject of the British crown; he was a mass-murdering thug.
September 2, 2009
Is it 3.5 million jobs saved/created or 3.487 million private-sector jobs lost?
(H/T – JammieWearingFool)
I’m sure the LeftStreamMedia will find a way to spin this little burb from CNBC saying that the economy shed 298,000 private-sector jobs in August, far greater than the 250,000 predicted. The real bad news from ADP’s historical data – there are 3,487,000 fewer private-sector jobs than there were at the end of January.
Which step in destroying private enterprise is this?
(H/T – Stephen Green)
The Hill reports that the AFL-CIO has extracted their price of making the Democratic Party a partially-owned subsidiary of them and is calling for a 0.1% tax on all stock transactions. That’s right; buy a stock, pay a tax. Sell a stock, even at a loss, pay a tax.
The stated reason, according to AFL-CIO policy director Thea Lee – “It would have two benefits, raise a lot of revenue and discourage speculative financial activity.” News flash #1 for Ms. Lee – it was “speculative financial activity” that got the various AFL-CIO pension funds to where they are. News flash #2 for Ms. Lee – that churn produced by “speculative financial activity” creates a lot of cash that is spent at the production end of the economic circle.
Stephen notes that we pay some of the highest taxes on winning stock plays on the planet. For those that held the sold stock less than a year, that profit is taxed at up to 35% (and soon to be 39.6% somewhere over 40%). Tax the losing plays as well, and almost nobody will want to invest in the stock market. Fewer people in the market equals lower stock prices, which equals lower pensions and less money available for expansion.
September 1, 2009
Housekeeping
Just been too busy:
– I wanted to get the audio of Paul Ryan’s Greendale townhall up, but given its massive size (82 MB and just under 1 hour of audio) and weak sound quality (which will take time to clean up), I couldn’t get that done just now.
– Meanwhile, I’ve been working with Patrick to get BadgerBlogger back online. We got it down to a site host issue, and Patrick’s host got that resolved.
– Via Hot Air Headlines, we have the idiot of the day – Robert Reich, who called for higher deficits in The Guardian. His inanity deserves a full fisking, which I won’t be able to get done tonight.
– The polls are continuing to slide on Obama. In today’s Rasmussen Presidential Daily Tracking Poll, 45% of those surveyed approved at least somewhat of Obama’s job performance (the lowest yet), while 41% strongly disapproved and 53% disapproved at least somewhat of his performance. Shoebox will have more up in the morning.
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August 30, 2009
Did he say 2 million jobs created/saved or 2 million jobs lost?
King Banian, my favorite economics professor from St. Cloud State University, ran with the latest Office of Management and Budget projections for 2010 employment, which includes a 2010 fourth-quarter unemployment rate of 9.7%, and put together a quick-and-dirty spreadsheet (Excel 2007; those of you with Excel 2003 will either need a conversion tool from Microsoft to open or will want my Excel 2003 copy) to gauge what the projections actually mean. For those of you who can’t open Excel files, here’s a screencap of the spreadsheet:
Not only do the employment rolls drop by 1.96 million between the 4th quarter of 2008 and the 4th quarter of 2010, but the unemployment rolls increase by 4.59 million over the same 2 years. This is If you want percentage terms, employment rolls would drop 1.36%, while unemployment rolls would go up 42.96%.
That does assume that the Labor Force Participation Rate would bounce back to 66.0% from the current 65.8% and the 2009 first quarter 65.6%, which means those retiring, those without work for so long that they no longer count as “unemployed”, and others who are not part of the labor force would not increase as rapidly as the rest of the population. If the LFPR were not to bounce back as much, the employment roll drop would be even larger.
August 27, 2009
Shameless promotion for a friend – Leslie Carbone’s “Slaying Slaying Leviathan”
Leslie Carbone, who served as director of Family Tax Policy at the Family Research Council and as a speechwriter for Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, has just published “Slaying Leviathan: The Moral Case for Tax Reform”. If you’ve read her blog, you already know she is a very knowledgeable and talented writer.
Now, go and buy the book. My copy should be arriving in a few days, so if there’s light-to-nonexistent blogging and Tweeting, you’ll know what I’m reading.
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Slight change in the Paul Ryan Monday listening sessions
If I had checked my e-mail this morning, I would have found this press release relating to the moves of all the Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI, and my Congressman) Monday listening sessions earlier (and would have caught the error in the original press release for the Greendale one earlier as well – it is correct in the current schedule on Ryan’s House site):
Larger Venues Set For Paul Ryan’s Upcoming Listening Sessions
New locations for Racine, Big Bend, New Berlin and Greendale stops
All three of Congressman Paul Ryan’s Listening Sessions on Monday, August 31 have been moved to larger venues to accommodate First District residents seeking to participate in the health care debate. At the eleven listening sessions held in the previous three days, most venues have been at or above capacity, with record attendance at each stop.
The dates and times for all upcoming stops remain as previously scheduled. See below for an updated schedule – with new locations – of Congressman Paul Ryan’s Listening Sessions today and Monday:
Thursday, August 27
Rochester – 9:45-10:30 am
Municipal Hall, 203 West Main StreetSturtevant – 11:15 am-12:15 pm
Village Hall, 2801 89th StreetRacine – 1:30-2:30 pm
Roma Lodge, 7130 Spring Street
NOTE: venue change to accommodate anticipated larger crowds (note; this was previously noted on my original post.)Monday, August 31
Big Bend – 12:45-1:45 pm
Big Bend Elementary School, Gymnasium
W230S8695 Big Bend Drive
NOTE: venue change to accommodate anticipated larger crowdsNew Berlin (Greenfield) – 2:00-3:00 pm
Whitnall High School, Auditorium
5000 S 116th Street
NOTE: The New Berlin stop has been moved to the Greenfield community to accommodate anticipated larger crowdsGreendale – 3:30-4:30 pm
Greendale High School, Auditorium
6801 Southway
NOTE: venue change to accommodate anticipated larger crowds
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The rules are for thee, not for me – TurboTaxTimmy edition
(H/T – DRJ)
The TaxProfBlog found that, a few short months after Treasury Secretary “TurboTax” Timothy Geithner successfully dodged criticism and possible legal consequences over his failure to timely pay taxes by claiming TurboTax didn’t properly process his income tax returns for several years, the Tax Court rejected that defense in another case:
Petitioners have not met their burden of persuasion with respect to reasonable cause and good faith. Mr. Hopson admitted that he received both Forms 1099-R for the distributions and that he knew they constituted income. After using tax return preparation software for nearly 20 years, he simply filed the return that was generated by the software without reviewing it. The omission of the distributions resulted in the failure to report over 40 percent of petitioners’ total income for the year. Granted this was a one-time event, but petitioners nevertheless had a duty to review their return to ensure that all income items were included. Petitioners were not permitted to bury their heads in the sand and ignore their obligation to ensure that their tax return accurately reflected their income for 2006. In the end, reliance on tax return preparation software does not excuse petitioners’ failure to review their 2006 tax return.
Do note that the decision of the Star Chamb…er, Tax Court is final; according to the Internal Revenue Code, not even the Supreme Court can review it. Also note that it is not precedent-setting.
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The Morning Scramble – Special Swimming Away Edition
Yes, it’s back for one morning only. Before I get to the meat of the matter, I must point you to some heartfelt words from Emperor Misha I to the remainder of the Kennedy family. For them, the late Senator was not Senator, but family.
Now that the 24-hour period of “mandatory niceness” is officially over (hell, it barely begun before Nancy Pelosi declared a unilateral end by demanding that ObamaCare the Chappaquiddick Memorial Death Panels Bill be passed in his name), we need music. Maestro…
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5H4YaYn8Qk[/youtube]
Since I’m going to be lumped in by the “arbiters of ‘absolute moral authority'” with those who I quite franky agree even if I remain silent, I have got to salute those who remember Kennedy for the hyper-partisan, (wo)manslaughtering drunk, Communist sypathizer he was:
- We start with today’s Day by Day cartoon –
- Eric unloads the woodshed, the brickbats, and everything but the kitchen sink on Kennedy after somehow managing to observe the full 24 hours. Remember Robert Bork!
- The Angry Webmaster includes the kitchen sink.
- Tom McMahon multi-blocked the ten hours that cemented Kennedy’s reputatoin.
- Rick Moran notes that a sitting Senator leaving a young woman to die in the back of one’s submerged vehicle isn’t as big a news as it used to be. Of course, back then, it wasn’t exactly pursued either; otherwise, he wouldn’t have been in the Senate the last 30-some years.
- The Winning McCain Part 1 – Robert Stacy McCain broke out the “Mary Jo Kopechne could not be reached for comment” line one more time. Point of order – she is now able to unleash 40 years’ worth of comments on the guy who left her to die in the back of his sunken Olds.
- The Winning McCain Part 2 – he declared yesterday to be Mary Jo Kopechne Day, and, as the Godfather of Rule 5 blogging, included heaps of links to others who celebrated it as such.
- Paula provided the inspiration.
- Kate, who was inexplicably missed in McCain’s roundup, mourns the fact that Mary Jo’s dad didn’t outlast her daughter’s killer.
- Trail-Mix, who was also inexplicably missed, breaks out the Wikipedia entry. I would have recommended YTedK.com, but it seems the website went into the graveyard in the ether and only the Internet Archive has it.
- Emperor Misha I predicts Hell will run out of liquor inside a week.
- Confederate Yankee remembers Comrade Swimmer’s collusion with the Soviets to try to oust President Reagan.
- The DPUD Chad lists more of The Swimmer’s “accomplishments”, including repeated abandonments of countries to Communists, and influence-pushing to help one of his nephews in a rape case.
- Dr. Dave lists all of the “compassion” Kennedy had while living.
- James Wigderson remembers Kennedy’s life as “one of unlimited potential, much of it wasted.”
- Peter notes Dean Wormer was wrong – fat, drunk and stupid is a way to go through life.
- Fidothedog breaks out some classic Kennedy posters.
- Obi’s Sister just couldn’t work up any sympathy for Kennedy.
- Phineas notes that Kennedy’s treasonous relations with the Soviet Union was the blueprint for the Left’s actions during the Iraq War.
- Van Helsing breathes a sigh of relief.
- Basil opens up The Swimmer Joke line.
- Frank J. has a few random thoughts, including wishing Mary Jo Kopechne would have been alive to see that she was a trending topic on Twitter. She and the place she died were also top Google searches.
- Doctor Zero found a bill that is worthy of the Kennedy name – a term-limit bill.
The outro music comes courtesy Headless Blogger, who should enter his Dead Kennedy joke in Basil’s post.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWO4JxM3nDc[/youtube]
Once again, there is a reason why I don’t do Scrambles anymore – this took longer than it took Pelosi to bust up the 24-hour rule.
August 26, 2009
Time to return fire – prepare for the Kennedy Memorial ObamaCare bill
(H/T – Jim Hoft)
It didn’t take long for the Dems to jump all over the late Sen. Ted Kennedy’s corpse and call for passage of ObamaCare in his name. As Joe Walsh once sang, “Out to pasture, think it’s safe to say, ‘Time to open fire.'”
First, Agence France Presse reports Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) invoked Kennedy’s words on what screwing up health care for the second time. That’s right, folks. Those of you who hate HMOs have Kennedy to blame – he wrote the 1973 bill that introduced HMOs.
Meanwhile, Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) wins the Limbaugh Is Always Right award for being the first to call for renaming ObamaCare for Kennedy.
I prefer Pasadena Phil’s name for it (in the comments on Michelle Malkin’s post) – the “Chappaquiddick Memorial Death Panels Bill.”
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Rest in peace, Sen. Kennedy (1932-2009)
Those of you in a cave may not know the news – Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) passed away last night after battling a brain tumor. It is a sad day for his party, the Senate, and our country.
I’ll leave it to others to eulogize Sen. Kennedy. I recommend Baseball Crank’s take. For those of you who are thinking about taking cheap shots, listen to Michelle Malkin:
There is a time and place for political analysis and criticism. Not now.
Yes, there will be a nauseating excess of MSM hagiographies and lionizations — and crass calls to pass the health care takeover to memorialize his death.
That’s no excuse to demonstrate the same lack of restraint in the other direction. Not now.
I do, however, disagree with Michelle about not talking about the generalities of the implications. First, nothing of significance changes in the Senate for the moment, even though the Senate is now short a member. Because of his illness, he was rarely in the Senate to provide the 60th anti-filibuster vote. Of course, the need for that has been an illusion; there were almost always enough “Republicans” to break up any filibuster.
The reason why it is merely for the moment is the Massachusetts ganders of the Democratic Party are meeting the goose’s sauce. They failed to reverse a screw job they planned for then-governor Mitt Romney (R) by taking away the power of the governor to appoint a temporary replacement until the next general election. Now, there will be a special election held between 145 days and 160 days from now.
Shortly after that point, the Democrats will, assuming Masachusetts does what it has done since 1976 and send a Democrat to the Senate, have 60 permanent members of their caucus. I have a bad feeling about the second session of the 111th Congress.
Revisions/extensions (10:15 am 8/27/2009) – Somehow had the wrong birth year for Kennedy. Mea culpa.
August 25, 2009
Sorry about the blogging funk
I’ve got a couple of things on the burner, but no real energy to push them from the back simmer burners to the front ones.
Tomorrow will be light as well, at least until late. I plan on making the Janesville Paul Ryan listening session, then take a trip to Madison for the AFP town hall.
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August 23, 2009
The polls are all wee-wee’d up
I wonder if this is what President Obama had in mind when he lapsed into baby talk on Friday – The Rasmussen Presidential Approval Index hits a new low of -14. The dirty details on the first full day’s worth of polling after the wee-wee leakage (which also includes Thursday and Friday):
– Only 27% of all respondents strongly approve of Obama’s job performance, which is a new low.
– He’s starting to lose the Dems; less than half (49%) strongly approve.
– 41% of all respondents strongly disapprove, which ties the high.
– The slippage of independents continues; 49% strongly disapprove.
Unfortunately for himself, his party, and his country, Obama has called for the dynamite to blast through rock bottom. I just hope he remembers to chant, “Fire in the hole!” three times before detonation.
Revisions/extensions (11:40 am 8/23/2009) – (H/T – Michelle Malkin) Speaking of craters, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports on a Mason-Dixon poll that shows Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid losing to either Danny Tarkanian or Sue Lowden in a potential 2010 matchup. If Reid gets knocked out, he will be the second sitting Senate Democratic leader to lose in 6 years. Time to Daschle his dreams.
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August 21, 2009
Local blogger singled out by the national presstitutes as example of blind blogospherical hostility along ideological lines
No, it’s not your friendly neighborhood bomb-thrower, who has gone soft since Shoebox came on board. Lance Burri earned that honor from the Pew Research Center for plastering a WaPo columnist.
Guess I’m going to have to start trying harder (or not go on vacation and miss opportunites that Lance seized).
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Friday Hot Read part drei – MadisonConservative’s “A game of Monopoly – Health Care edition”
Back in the day, I played a real cut-throat Monopoly. However, I wasn’t nearly as cut-throat as the federal government. I’ll let MadisonConservative explain:
Now, let’s say I’m playing with four other people. The four other people are normal monopoly players, playing by the normal rules. They represent private insurance companies. Now, I’m going to join the game. However, I get a different set of rules because I say so. I represent the public option.
First, in normal Monopoly rules, everyone collects $200 from the bank when they pass GO. Let’s refer to this as the capital that insurance companies get in order to run their business. They get it from revenues earned by competing in the health insurance market. However, for me, the rule is different. When I pass go, instead of getting $200 from the bank(customers), I instead collect $50 from each of the other players. Why? Well, the government gets its revenues by collecting taxes, not by providing competitive services. So, while the other players are collecting their money from passing GO from customers, I’m collecting my money from them. Their wealth is going down, directly leading to mine going up. Already, I have an advantage, because I’m the government. Guess what, though? Not only do I collect $50 from each of the other players every time I pass go, but I get $100 from the bank! See, the government doesn’t only collect taxes from businesses, but they also collect it from their customers! Once again, I have an advantage, because I’m the government.
Of course, there is more over at the HotAir Greenroom, so enjoy it. Do also read the comments.
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Pic of the day – caskets for clunkers
Via The Rumbler Report…
Click for the full-sized pic
Of course, that doesn’t count the massive overhead built into the program.
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Friday Hot Read part 2 – Maggie Thurber’s “Obama doesn’t get it – this isn’t a campaign anymore”
Maggie Thurber explains why the PermaCampaign that Obama is trying on health care is doomed to failure:
But that point aside, trying to convince people with the same ideology that you’re the best one of several to represent that ideology is much different from convincing an entire nation, the majority of whom claim no party or are Republicans, to join your cause.
Obama isn’t going to the opposing side and presenting his viewpoint on the issue, he’s handpicking audiences and ‘preaching to the choir’ and trying to re-energize his base. But that will only go so far as the vast majority of Americans are not in that group to begin with.
He’s still in campaign mode, trying to sell an idea, when the public would rather have the facts and the details – all the things they were too busy to bother with during the actual campaign. Now that Obama is in the White House, the public expects him to manage the operations, though he’s had absolutely no experience whatsoever in doing something even remotely similar. And now it shows, especially in how he blames everyone else for his failure in this regard.
As always, I highly recommend reading the entire thing.
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Health Care townhalls a-plenty
Since I am a consitutent of Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Janesville), I’ll list his listening sessions first (with the note that some, like the already-moved Kenosha one, may yet be moved):
– Monday, August 24
EAGLE: 11:30am-12:15pm, Village Hall, 820 East Main Street
NORTH PRAIRIE: 1:30-2:15pm, Village Hall, 130 North Harrison
– Tuesday, August 25
SHARON: 9:00-10:00am, Community Center, 125 Plain Street
GENOA CITY: 10:30-11:30am, Village Hall, 715 Walworth Street
PADDOCK LAKE: 12:00-1:00pm, Village Hall, 6969 236th Avenue
KENOSHA: 2:15-3:45pm, Gateway Technical College, Madrigrano Auditorium, 3520 30th Avenue
– Wednesday, August 26
WILLIAMS BAY: 9:15-10:15am, Village Hall, 250 Williams Street
FONTANA: 10:30-11:30am, Village Hall, 175 Valley View Drive
WALWORTH: 11:45-12:45pm, Village Hall, 227 North Main Street
DARIEN: 1:45-2:45pm, Village Hall, 24 North Wisconsin Street
JANESVILLE: 3:30-5:00pm, City Hall, Council Chambers, 18 North Jackson Street Craig High School, Large Auditorium, 401 S Randall Ave
– Thursday, August 27
ROCHESTER: 9:45-10:30am, Municipal Hall, 203 West Main Street
STURTEVANT: 11:15am-12:15pm, Village Hall, 2801 89th Street
RACINE: 1:30-2:30pm, Gateway Technical College, Racine Building, Great Lakes Room #114, 901 Pershing Drive, use parking lot D Roma Lodge, Roma Lodge, 7130 Spring Street
– Monday, August 31
BIG BEND: 12:45-1:30pm, Village Hall, W230 S9185 Nevins Street Big Bend Elementary School, Gymnasium, W230S8695 Big Bend Drive
NEW BERLIN: 2:00-3:00pm, Citizens Bank of Mukwonago – New Berlin Branch, 5450 South Moorland Road GREENFIELD: 2:00-3:00 pm, Whitnall High School, Auditorium, 5000 S 116th Street
GREENDALE: 3:30-4:30pm, Safety Building, 5911 West Grange Avenue Greendale High School, Auditorium, 6801 Southway
Meanwhile, my friends at Americans for Prosperity-Wisconsin are taking care of the folks in the 2nd, 3rd and 7th Congressional districts:
– Wednesday, August 26
MADISON: 6:30 pm-8:00 pm, Mariott Madison West, 1313 John Q. Hammons Drive
– Thursday, August 27
LA CROSSE: 11:30 am-1:00 pm, La Crosse Center, 300 Harborview Plaza
ROTHSCHILD: 6:30 pm-8:00 pm, Rothschild Pavilion, 1104 Park Street
They will be featuring ABC News’ John Stossell at all three townhalls, and they invited both the Representatives and their challengers to the respective townhalls. While the AFP-sponsored townhalls are free, they do ask that you register as they will be ticketed events.
Just as a reminder, Rep. Ryan also has a simple request for attendees, one that should be observed by all at every townhall:
A spirited debate on the future of health care and on the proper role of government in our society has come alive in recent weeks. I welcome the debate, and look forward to the 19 listening sessions and community forums I will be holding across Southern Wisconsin in the days ahead. I invite the residents of Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District to actively participate at these listening sessions – and to respect the fact that your neighbors may disagree.
The widespread disrespect, and even violence, from the extremes on both sides of this debate is regrettable. I am disappointed by the attacks leveled by the White House and leaders in Congress against those raising the legitimate concerns and questions raised by citizens. To hold a differing view does not make one a “tool of special interests”, and to voice those disagreements is not “un-American” or a sinister “scare tactic”. There is room for common ground on common sense reforms – but this will require responsible leadership to trump partisan gamesmanship.
My staff and I will make every effort possible to accommodate your participation and to ensure that your voice is heard. Anticipating larger turnout, I’m working to move some of the listening sessions to larger venues. The Kenosha Listening Session, for example, has been moved to the Madrigrano Auditorium at Gateway Technical College (3520 30th Avenue). Please click here for an updated schedule.
I’d ask that all attendees respect your fellow citizen’s desire to communicate with me. Shouting down your opponents at a listening session is not only ineffective, but quite simply rude. Arguments are not won by the volume of one’s voice, but rather the merits of the idea. I will work tirelessly in the days ahead to conduct these listening sessions with civility and respect for all views, and trust that the residents of Wisconsin’s 1st District will do the same.
Thank you,
Paul Ryan
Revisions/extensions (9:30 am 8/21/2009) – Corrected a typo introduced by me. Some days, I need a proofreader.
R&E part 2 (10:35 am 8/25/2009) – The location of the Ryan Janesville listening session has been changed due to larger-than-expected crowds.
R&E part 3 (10:47 pm 8/25/2009) – The Ryan Racine listening session has been moved.
R&E part 4 (12:04 pm 8/27/2009) – The entire Monday schedule has been moved about.
R&E part 5 (12:24 pm 8/27/2009) – I should have noticed that either the Greendale High School or the address listed was off. I do have a request in to Ryan’s office for clarification, and will update when I get it.
R&E part 6 (12:31 pm 8/27/2009) – It is Greendale High School. Meanwhile, maps to the Monday locations have been included in the
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The trend is not Obama’s friend
Regular readers will know that Shoebox and I have been tracking Rasmussen’s Daily Presidential Tracking Poll, and that it has been not-so-good for Obama the last month. The Presidential Approval Index (those with strong opinions) has been negative since June 30, and most days since July 24, the overall approval rating has been negative.
Other pollsters are starting to notice this trend. Door #1 – Gallup. While they still show a positive job approval for Obama in their daily tracking poll (out of all adults, not just “likely voters” as Rasmussen polls), the spread has never been closer than the current 51% approve/42% disapprove.
Door #2 – Zogby Interactive (H/T – Allahpundit). I do have to caution that Zogby Interactive polls involve a pool of self-selected people, so I do not put a lot of stock in it. I also have to caution that Zogby has not yet released all the numbers itself; just the 45% approval among likely voters. However, Newsmax got a hold of the poll early, and again, the trend is not Obama’s friend: 50% disapproval, highest disapproval/lowest approval in the history of the Zogby Interactive polling, and a loss of independents (38% approve/59% disapprove).
Door #3 – The Washington Post/ABC News poll (H/T again – Hot Air Headlines). While Obama’s approval rating is still at 57% (versus a poll-high 40% disapproval), only 49% believe Obama will make the right decisions for the country, and 55% say the country is on the wrong track.
Friday Hot Read – Mary Katharine Ham’s “What To Do When Washington Gets All Wee-Weed Up?”
There is a reason why the blogosphere loves MKH beyond her beauty – she is brilliant. She teed off on Obama’s use of “wee-wee”:
“There’s something about August going into September where everyone in Washington gets all ‘wee-weed’ up,” the president said.
Yes, wee-wee, the sneakiest fear-monger. Tinkle, the silent consensus-killer. There is some debate as to what the president meant, though it may have had something to do with Sarah Palin? I don’t know, everyone’s equally stumped….
You’re going to have to go to The Weekly Standard to get the upshot. Trust me on this one.
You really should be following her on Twitter as well. Her younger brothers may not be too happy, but if one can’t laugh at family, who can one laugh at?
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August 20, 2009
Open Thread Thursday – 8/20/2009
I guess I picked a fine time to have an open thread in the midst of a HotAir-lanche. Oh well; it’s Thursday, so have at it, and enjoy some Megadeth/Wile E. Coyote…
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPYAsbOpTtQ[/youtube]
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