Reflections on the Weekend: Deadbeats, Sea Monsters, and Bozo the Clown

Look at how happy that guy is about the free stuff

So, what have we all learned this weekend?  I’ll start with me.  I learned that it’s easy to scare my children with stories of sea monsters that couldn’t possibly live in the lake we were sitting on while fishing.  The Boy: “Dad, you’re kidding right?”   Me: “Well, when you lose both arms due to a Croctopus attack, you’ll have your answer.”  What else?  Well, we learned that S & P dropped our AAA credit rating to AA+.  If you’ve been reading this blog, you already know what the credit rating is and why it matters (and if you haven’t, then you probably have bumper nutz hanging from your truck and need to be sterilized).  In response to America’s credit rating having dropped FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HISTORY, the market is tanking and our Prez gave another speech in which he assured us that popularity doesn’t matter as long as you believe in yourself (or something like that).

As usual we ask: Does it matter?  Well, yes.  It does matter…sort of.  It matters because it has angered the markets, and it may affect interest rates at some point, somewhere.  However, as Barry rightfully said in his speech, America will always be a AAA nation…in comparison to all the other deadbeat nations out there.  In a world filled with debt and communists, we’re still the safest investment.

However.  The important point was made by S & P when it said it will continue to view America as a credit risk until it figures out what to do with its long-term debt problems.  And as I’ve said here before, there isn’t any politician who wants to deal with the long-term debt problems because that would mean doing something about medicare, medicaid, and social security.  And everyday Americans don’t want them to do anything about it.  Why?  Because everyone loves free stuff (even if it’s only kinda’ free).  And politicians like to get re-elected, so….what’s the moral of the story?  Continuing to give people stuff they didn’t pay for only works on “The Bozo Show.”  In every other circumstance, it eventually results in a nation of (happy) deadbeats.

Why are we in Libya? A look into our failure to understand the Middle East.

Yes, I'm crazy, but what's coming will be worse.

Note: this post is kinda long…so if you just want the Cliff Notes, read the last paragraph.

This is the question that is on everyone’s mind, and rumor has it that our president will actually address the issue tonight.  Of course, we started shooting missiles at Libya last week, but what’s a few days?  Someone recently asserted that Obama is showing leadership in dealing with Libya.  Is he?  From my perspective, it certainly appears that we have been pulled into a conflict by the rest of the world — France and England primarily — even though we have absolutely no national interest in being there.  Not only are we spending money we don’t have on a country that provides us nothing of value, we’re now fighting on the same side as our enemy…and no one seems to care. 

Let’s review.

The people of Libya, in a “spontaneous uprising” for “democracy,” move against their wacky dictator Q (I’m not going to try and spell his last name…since it has, at least, three different spellings).  I think we can all agree that dictators are bad, at least theoretically.  Interestingly, the regular people of Libya rather quickly got their hands on some pretty significant fire power.  Thus, the Libyan revolution is not exactly Tiananmen Square.  So, what do you get when you have two different intra-state factions taking up arms against each other?  That’s right: a civil war. 

Q, still wanting to remain in power, used the weapons at his disposal to put down the revolt.  Unfortunately for the rebels, and civilians as well, Q has planes with missiles.  So, Q starts killing his people; both rebels with guns and unarmed civilians.  While the world watches in horror, our leader is filling out his NCAA brackets…both men’s and women’s?! (no, I don’t think he can multi-task).

Eventually, the rebels start to lose, and then France, and then England, call for United Nations intervention.  Why do France and England care?  It’s most likely because they, and the rest of Western Europe, get a lot of oil from Libya.  Thus, they have a national interest in Libya. 

We, however, don’t.  America gets virtually no oil from Libya.  As such, Barry can’t argue that we’re fighting Q for the oil (not that he ever would…oil is evil).  Eventually, it becomes clear that the U.N. is going to do something after France and England demand action.  So, after the U.N. security council votes to allow military action to be taken against Q, Barry jumps on board too.  Of course, he does it without consulting Congress, which makes our military action in Libya significantly different than Bush’s military action in Iraq (where a majority of Congress voted in favor of such military action).  I would argue that Barry’s actions appear to be more appropriately placed within the “follower” column, rather than “leader.”

What do I expect our president to say tonight?  I’m guessing he’ll talk about a large coalition of countries agreeing to stop the atrocities taking place in Libya.  Of course, the “large coalition” consists of about eight countries, none of whom want to take charge of the operation, thereby requiring NATO to take over…which is curious, being that the Libyan rebels we’re defending are no where near the North Atlantic.  But I digress…Barry’s point about ending the atrocities will also be a bit vexing, since other countries, like Bahrain and Syria, have civilians being killed by their governments too.

Now don’t get me wrong…there are lots of Republicans who support what we’re doing in Libya too.  Why?  Because everyone has the same knee-jerk reaction to people crying out for democracy.  Hence the reason why the western world has chosen to support the rebels in this civil war.  Here’s the problem though: there’s a reason why no one in the Middle East/Northern Africa region, save Israel, has ever had a functioning democracy…it’s hard to do.  A country needs several things to be a democracy, not the least of which is the implicit understanding that those in power will cede that power voluntarily through free elections.  In other words, it’s not an accident that the Arab states are almost exclusively ruled by monarchs, theocrats, and petty dictators who don’t like giving up their power.

We're what's coming.

So what’s my point, you ask?  Well, look at Egypt.  Egypt just had a mass uprising of people seeking more freedom.  Of course, like a wind-up toy, every Tom, Dick and Harry in our government supported the uprising.  Democracy totally rules!  A few people, including me, argued that supporting the people of Egypt over a moderate, and stable, dictator was a bad idea.  We argued that the ultimate beneficiary of overthrowing the government was going to be a group like the Muslim Brotherhood, a small, but organized, radical Muslim group whose sole goal is the destruction of Israel and America.  I was told by those on the right and left that I was wrong; Egypt constituted a secular uprising and the Muslim Brotherhood was too small of a group to have a significant impact on the new government.  Well looky-here: I was right; and a long-time middle eastern ally is quickly becoming the exact opposite.

So, did we learn a lesson in Egypt?  Obviously not.  We’re now bombing Q’s forces.  And who is fighting along side of us?  None other than Al Qaeda! Simply put, our country is being run by a bunch of idiots.  And when it comes to bringing democracy to countries that have no hope of remaining functioning democracies, it ain’t just the democrats.  We’re still dealing with the government Bush set up in Iraq, and I’ll guarantee that once we pull out all of our troops, some radical group will take over there too.  And what’s more frightening is that our government (or France or England’s), even after 9/11 and a myriad of other terrorist attacks, still doesn’t understand who our enemy is.  It’s not the wacky dictator in Libya, it’s the group trying to throw him out. 

So, let’s review: we support the overthrow of the Egyptian dictator, only to have the new government consist of, at the very least, a signficant anti-America, radical muslim group.  Now, we follow France and England into Libya to help Al Qaeda, and other like-minded individuals, seize power.  Oh, and we’re borrowing the money from China to do it!  We’ve officially gone down the rabbit hole Alice, and there’s lots of options to play the Mad Hatter.

 

“These jobs are going boys and they ain’t coming back”

You hear it everyday, primarily from liberals:  “America just doesn’t make stuff anymore.”  This is often stated in a wistful manner that harkens back to days gone by, when one’s father would grab his metal lunch box, kiss his wife, and walk to his job at the widget factory.  After hearing such a statement, the uninformed listener may inquire into the reason why America doesn’t make stuff anymore.  At this point, the listener would be bludgeoned with the following (or its equivalent): ”It’s those greedy factory owners who only care about profit.”  There can be little doubt that the factory owner cares about profit; that’s why he’s in business after all.  If it wasn’t about profit, then he’d be running a charity like that great humanitarian Bono (oh wait, bad example).

Yes, the owner cares about profit (for those of you who dislike profit…it’s difficult to pay employees without money).  But where did the factory go?  Probably to another country.  Why?  The answer is simple: liberals.  Case in point, the new EPA rules on carbon emissions that the left has been pushing hard for.  Hot Air has provided a nice summary of the soon to be released Senate Environment and Public Works Committee minority report, which provides a picture of the damage the EPA’s new regulations will do to this country’s already anemic manufacturing industry:

• New standards for commercial and industrial boilers: up to 798,250 jobs at risk;
• The revised National Ambient Air Quality Standard for ozone: severe restrictions on job creation and business expansion in hundreds of counties nationwide.
• New standards for Portland Cement plants: up to 18 cement plants at risk of shutting down, threatening nearly 1,800 direct jobs and 9,000 indirect jobs;
• The Endangerment Finding/Tailoring Rules for Greenhouse Gas Emissions: higher energy costs; jobs moving overseas; severe economic impacts on the poor, the elderly, minorities, and those on fixed incomes; 6.1 million sources subject to EPA control and regulation;

How bad is it?  It’s so bad that the freakin’ Steel Workers Union is complaining about it.  And with good reason…the EPA’s standards are so ridiculously strict, there isn’t a boiler in the country that would comply.  What does that mean?  It means a whole bunch of factories will close, many for good.

It’s examples like this that compel me to conclude that Michael Savage is right: liberalism is a mental disorder.  How can you complain about manufacturing jobs leaving when you’re the reason they’re leaving?  Even more perplexing: Why the hell would any union member support a democrat?  Can anyone explain this to me?  Democrats are the reason union jobs are going to China.

And make no mistake, the EPA’s regs have Obama’s fingerprints all over them.  It’s the current Administration that has been pushing for the EPA to regulate carbon emissions because it couldn’t get cap-n-trade through the Senate.  Simply put, the “working man” needs to wake up.  There’s a reason those factories Springsteen always sings about are closed, and it ain’t the greedy factory owner.

Can We Give L.A. Back?

It is truly difficult to imagine a more incompentent set of government officials than those running the city of Los Angeles…and that’s saying something now days.  L.A. received $111 million in stimulus funds to create jobs.  Well, how’d they do?  Jobs created or saved: 55.   No, that’s not a type.  55 jobs, at an approximate cost of $2 million apiece!  Holy crap!

So, why did it take $111 million of tax-payer money to save/create 55 jobs you ask:

The audit says the numbers were disappointing due to bureaucratic red tape, absence of competitive bidding for projects in private sectors, inappropriate tracking of stimulus money and a laxity in bringing out timely job reports. 

In other words, the problem was government. 

‘While it doesn’t appear that any of the ARRA funds were misspent, the City needs to do a better job expediting the process and creating jobs….’

Only in an absurdly liberal and backward city like L.A. could spending $2 million of taxpayer money per job not equate to funds being misspent.  Apparently the only way to misspend taxpayer money in L.A. would be doing someting like wall-papering government offices with it, or simply giving it back to the tax-payers.

L.A. is a joke, and an embarrassment to America.  Not only can it only figure out how to save/create 55 jobs with $111 million of taxpayer money, it also built a $578 million public school.  L.A. is liberalism on steroids.  Its local unemployment rate is over 12%, but yet it continues to tax the crap out of its residents (well, those that pay taxes anyway).  In other words, L.A. is a microcosm of America under Obama.  Government can’t create jobs, it can only destroy them.  Government can’t  produce wealth, it can only steal it. 

The question is: how long will it take America to realize that liberalism is literally destroying this country?  Hopefully soon.

Even the Feds admit Obamacare will increase costs.

That thud you hear is yet another obamacare fantasy falling to earth.  This time it comes with fancy charts, courtesy of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, via the Wall Street Journal:

 

What’s fun about about this thud is that it directly refutes the primary justification for Obamacare: to cut the rising costs of medical care.  Not only does it not cut costs, it’s projected to increase them!  And it isn’t just those with private insurance that it affects either.  As you can see, everyone’s costs will go up.  The only exception is medicare, and that’s only because the feds are going to under-reimburse doctors for their services (which sounds like a great way to secure quality care).  And keep in mind, this isn’t a Wall Street Journal study; it’s a federal government study. 

The dems are right about one thing: Obamacare will certainly go down in history. 

Asian Carp Czar?

Image by kate.gardiner via Flickr

I’ll give Barry this: he never misses an opportunity to increase the size of government.  Today he introduced the asian carp czar.  Why do we need an asian carp czar?  Apparently because we have too many asian carp. 

‘This is a serious challenge, a serious threat,’ [Dick] Durbin said. ‘When it comes to the Asian carp threat, we are not in denial. We are not in a go-slow mode. We are in a full attack, full-speed ahead mode. We want to stop this carp from advancing.’

Go get ‘em Dick!  The economy sux, there’s a mad-man in Iran developing the bomb, and you’re in full attack, full-speed ahead mode on a fish.  And no…I don’t think the federal government can multi-task. 

I’m not going to lie though; I’m a bit surprised by all of this.  The asian carp has the right to live too doesn’t it?  What would PETA think?  The progressives on the radio are not going to be pleased.

I’m SHOCKED to learn that Iran is totally ignoring the U.N.’s Angry Letters

In what should come as a surprise to no one, Iran is continuing to increase its stock-pile of low-enriched uranium.  Well, not exactly no one…our president and the letter-writers at the U.N. are probably surprised.  They have, after all, been very stern with Iran and demanded that Iran cease its nuclear program.  These efforts have been met with hardy laughter from Iran, and a double-face palm from the rest of us.

But experts said a stockpile of this size meant that if Iran chose further to enrich this material to the level needed for nuclear weapons, it would be able to build nearly three bombs. However, Iran’s ability to manufacture a nuclear warhead is still unclear and Tehran says that its nuclear programme has only peaceful purposes.

Only peaceful purposes.  Well, that’s a relief.  Wait, what?  You say they aren’t allowing U.N. weapons inspectors in?

Tehran barred two inspectors in June after claiming they had leaked and fabricated information about the nuclear programme.

The report also found that Iran had continued constructing a heavy water reactor at Arak, but without allowing inspectors full access to the site.

Hmmm…if the nuclear power is only for peaceful purposes, why obstruct the inspectors?  Yes, that was rhetorical.  You needn’t worry, however, because we can always count on the gift of incompetence:

But Iran also appears to be having some technical difficulties with its enrichment programme. The IAEA report showed that the number of operational centrifuges at the plant at Natanz had again declined from 3,936 in May this year to 3,772 last month. The decline of 164 machines in the space of three months is equivalent to a full “cascade” of centrifuges.

I feel better now.  Knowing that Iran will continue to epically fail in its efforts to become nuclear bomb-tastic is like a soft, fluffy pillow to lay my head on at night.  Oh, and you don’t need to worry about any of those terrorists who like to hang out in Iran and play basketball and responsibly mentor young men and stuff getting their hands on some nuclear material to construct a dirty bomb.  I’m sure Iran’s security is off the hook.

It’s our money dill-hole.

 

Is this surprising?

Remember Peter Orszag?  You know…the director of the Obama White House Office of Management and Budget that skipped town after realizing that he was about as useful in fixing the economy as my six year old daughter?  Well, he’s now one of the New York Times‘ esteemed Contributing Columnists.  In his first Op-Ed, he argues that Congress should extend all of the Bush tax cuts for two years, and then dump them all permanently.  In doing so, he presents the liberal position that has been thrown about for so long that it’s simply met with a shrug.  In short: at some point, we need to raise taxes because the government needs to buy stuff…because, as we all know, buying stuff is fun; especially when it’s someone else’s money.  I continue to find this logic absurd and worthy of endless ridicule.

I have to give Orszag credit on one issue that the “progressives” fail to acknowledge: ending the Bush tax cuts for anyone, even those evil rich people who have stolen all of their money from the rest of us without creating any jobs (that’s sarcasm for those of you who are new to this blog) would actually hurt an already crappy economy.  It’s his next points that cause me great consternation.

Many conservatives are even worse: they’d make the tax cuts permanent for the likes of Warren Buffett, even though he’d prefer they didn’t. Making all the tax cuts permanent would expand the deficit by more than $3 trillion over the next decade.

Ah Warren Buffett…how I disdain you.  You of statements like (and I’m paraphasing here), “it’s not fair that my secretary pays more in taxes than I do.”  Look Warren, I know you like to look at the man in the mirror every morning and wax poetic about how gracious that person is, but you’re the one drinking fifty year old scotch out of a golden goblet.  In other words, if your secretary is paying more taxes then you, then stop paying your lawyers and accountants to find ways to shelter your money…or stop paying your secretary so much.   Plus, if you really want to pay more in taxes, feel free to write the IRS a check…I’m certain it won’t be sent back.

But I digress.  My point is this: the only way tax cuts could increase the deficit is if the government DOESN’T CUT ITS OWN SPENDING.  See, the government isn’t entitled to whatever amount of revenue it wants so that it can do rad stuff like give grants to scientists to prove cats hate showering with naked people or to prove global warming exists by cherry picking climate stats.

Orczag continues,

Let’s look at the facts. The projected deficit for 2015 is 4 percent to 5 percent of G.D.P., depending on whose assumptions you use. A sustainable level is more like 3 percent or lower. So we need deficit reduction of 1 percent to 2 percent of G.D.P., or about $200 billion to $400 billion a year by 2015. These figures are uncertain, but they’re the best we have (and they may well turn out to be too optimistic).

These are only “facts” if you’re Nostradamus.  In other words, you need to know what the budget will be in 2015.  Since there is no budget for 2015, you’re simply assuming it will be more or less the same as it is now.  Why not assume that the government will decrease its spending in 2015? 

The federal government, and those employed by it, decided long ago that they were entitled to whatever amount of taxes they decided were appropriate and that they found to be politically palatable.  It began with FDR and his New Deal and Social Security and continued largely unabated through Johnson’s Great Society.  Each time the American people were told the government needs more money for the betterment of society; except society never asked for it.  So now we have Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid…and Obamacare.  Liberal entitlement programs forced down America’s collective throat that amount to little more than theft.

Orszag asserts that Social Security needs reform…no kidding.  Will it get the reform it needs?  Well, being that the reform it needs is to, at the very least, allow Americans the opportunity to opt out of it and invest their money themselves, it’s  not likely.  How about Medicare and Medicaid?  Orszag asserts that Obamacare has resulted in substantial savings to both programs.  Considering the net effect of Obamacare will be to increase government spending, simply moving money from column A to column B and calling it savings seems a bit dubious, yes?

Simply put, our government has marched us slowly towards more and more taxes in the name of social progress.  Now we’re told we can’t “afford” to keep more of our own money.  Well, to that I say: I’m pretty sure we can.  Plus, Warren’s willing to pay more.

Infrastructure? Again? Who Came Up With That Idea?

[somewhere in White House]

Barry:  Why does everyone hate me?  Don’t they realize I’m working really hard?

Biden (eating animal crackers):  Yeah, it’s been a recovery summer baby!

Barry:  I just don’t know Joe.  The people seem to be forgetting how totally bad-ass I am. 

Biden:  Hey, B.O., watch me bite the head off of this horse.  Boo-Yah!

Barry:  I don’t know…maybe I need a vacation to clear my head. 

Biden (fiddling with jack in the box and muttering to himself): why can’t i get this box to open?

Barry:  Joe?  Hello?

Biden (looks up from the box, startled):  Wait, what?  Roads!  Everyone loves roads!  And high-speed rail!  Yeah, infrastruture baby, infrastructure!

Barry:  But we’ve done that already, and honestly, it didn’t really work.  Won’t the people get angry?

Biden:  Come on baby, no one even remembers the first stimulus.  In fact, we’ve spent so much friggin’ money, no one can even distinguish between the bailout, and the stimulus, and the budget.  Just say that we can put people to work on building roads and stuff.  And be sure to say “stimulus” a lot.  Oh, and don’t wear that bike helmet again.

Barry:  I knew it!  Michelle told me it was the type of helmet that everyone wears in Paris, and that the American people would love it.  -Sigh- 

Biden:  Nope.  You looked like a total LAME-O.

Barry:  Well you don’t need to yell.  So, do you think Congress will get on board with the building roads stuff?

Biden (sharpening his crayons):  Sure.  Just give ‘em the old “republicans drove the economy into the ditch and more roads will help fill in the ditch or somethin’” speech.  That always works.  Also, tell ‘em you’ll speak at their campaigns.  Who could say no to that?

Barry:  Big J, I think you’re right.  The people need to remember that I’m totally bad ass, and that I’m really really smart too.  I mean, I used to organize communities.

Biden (making shadow puppets):  You’re the smartest guy I know B.A., and that’s sayin’ something.  Well, I’m tired.  I think I’ll take a nap. 

Barry:  Thanks Joe.  You’re a big help.

Biden (rummaging through his vice-presidential lunch box):  Crap…who ate my fruit roll-up?!

I Can’t Think Up A Witty Title.

Well, it’s September.  I haven’t posted in a while because there’s been nothing going on.  August was hot.  Congress wasn’t in session.  The Tigers’ season has been over for a while now.  And I’ve been waiting for football to start.

But NOW, we’re officially into football and election season.  WOO-HOO!  While I could talk about football forever, this is not a football blog, and I’m not starting one now.  This is primarily a political blog, and it’s a political time of year.  And I can’t remember an election cycle that has been potentially more important than this one.  Let’s review:

The economy still sucks.  In fact, it’s worse then it was the last time I posted.  Unemployment is up to 9.6%; we’ve lost another 54,000 jobs; and Christina Romer, one of Barry’s chief economic “experts” who is leaving the administration, has recently let all of us know that they’ve had absolutely no idea what they’ve been doing re: the economy.

She had no idea how bad the economic collapse would be. She still doesn’t understand exactly why it was so bad. The response to the collapse was inadequate. And she doesn’t have much of an idea about how to fix things.

That’s disheartening…and also completely obvious.  Labor Secretary Hilda Solis has taken to authoring op-eds in the USA Today to try and convince America that the Democrat’s handling of the economy doesn’t resemble a monkey with a rubic’s cube. 

The Recovery Act saved millions of American jobs — keeping health care providers in hospitals, teachers in classrooms, and police and firefighters on the beat. But the benefits weren’t just in the public sector. During the past eight months, the economy has averaged 95,000 new private sector jobs.

While I’d love to see her support for that last sentence, it doesn’t really matter.  Unemployment will continue to go up until new jobs exceed 120,000/month (population increase).  More importantly, there is no doubt that the economy is slowly getting worse.  

The ”summer of recovery” is followed by the ”autumn of reality.”  Let’s face it: if the Dems had any idea what to do about the economy, they would have done it by now.

B.O. has recently begun getting rid of the “drove it into a ditch” meme, and replaced it with “it’s taken us 10 years to get into this mess, so it’s unreasonable to think we could get out of the mess in 18 months” nonsense.  Did it take us 10 years to get into this?  I don’t know.  I suppose one could reasonably argue it took one year, or even thirty-three years (the Community Reinvestment Act, which gave birth to the housing boom and bust, was enacted in 1977).  I also don’t care how long it took us to get here.  What I do care about is what is the current Administration doing about it?  Well, it’s been 18 months and the answer is: spent a lot of money for nothing.  Things haven’t improved, and the Dems are out of ideas.

So what should be done?  Well, first and foremost, vote against the Dems in November.  I know, I know…you don’t like the republicans either!  O.k.  Then go vote for the Green Party and pat yourself on the back for being ”principled.”  After that you can have your juice box and sandwich with the crusts cut off and take a nap.  For the rest of us adults, we’ll choose a candidate with a chance of winning. 

Simply put, there is job-creating capital out there waiting to be invested.  It’s not being invested because no one has any idea what’s coming from this administration.  For example, if you were a business owner with money, would you be spending it to reinvest or hire new employees if you thought your taxes were going to go up in January?  Of course not.  Doing something as simple as throwing the Dems out of the House would improve the fragile psyche of the economy.

But simply voting Republican isn’t enough.  Pressure needs to be applied to those we vote for to do things like extending the Bush tax cuts for everyone.  Other taxes need to be cut…payroll and capital gains, for example.  Enact legislation which gives people the option to opt out of the slush fund that is Social Security.  Limit Medicare to those that need it; not simply those that are old enough to get it.  Significantly amend Obamacare and gut Fannie and Freddie. 

Until we get the economy back on-track, nothing else matters.  And there’s a lot going on that needs to be addressed beyond the economy…like why we’re ignoring Iran’s getting all nuclear and stuff.

It’s September…the kids are back in school, I get to drink new seasonal beer, and I get to watch football.  More important, however, is the election coming up.  We need to vote the Dems out…and then get ready for 2012, when we can vote out the guy who looks silly riding his bike.  And don’t worry…I’ll be posting a lot more than I did in August in an effort to get you through these tough times.