Thursday, July 28, 2011

Budget Battle BS

After watching and hearing the wrangling over the budget battle from afar, I’m not optimistic that conservatism will win this round. What I’ve heard and seen has been so far removed from reality that it’s starting to resemble a circus. Not that Washington politics has ever been rooted in reality, but this is getting ridiculous.

As a bullshitter par excellence myself, I must say I’ve never heard so many lies of commission and omission in my life.

Never.

Let’s start with a few facts, shall we? Our esteemed President’s favorite sport, right after golf, is blaming his predecessor George Bush for each and every little thing that’s currently wrong with our economy, from the debt, to inflation, skyrocketing gasoline prices, to post-nasal drip and painful rectal itch. It’s what he does.

Well, that may have worked for a while, but two and a half years into his term, that just doesn’t cut it anymore. One thing is very clear: Obama owns this economy, lock, stock, and rotting barrel.

I’ve been wanting to run this graph for a while, since everyone else in the blogosphere has. I know, me, Alabama, slow, etc.


We Who Follow These Things So You Don’t Have To know that Congress was taken over by the Democrats following the little fit the American voters had in 2006 when they tossed Republicans out in a grand display of displeasure with their spendthrift ways. They had controlled Congress and the White House and yet had failed to rein in spending.

Granted, we were in two wars, which always tend to be rather expensive affairs, but the economy was still roaring along. If you remember, the Mainstream Media looked upon any downturn in what we’d all gladly return to today as signs of the Coming Apocalypse. I’m sure y’all remember when the talking heads claimed DOOM! (Hi, Monty!) when the unemployment number figure rose a mortifying two tenths of one percentage point.

President Bush was an economic terrorist! Soon, dogs and cats would be sleeping together, there would be a river of evil slime running through New York sewers, oh, wait, that was a movie, never mind.

Still, I think today, everyone in the country would gladly go back in time to the days of essentially full employment and nonexistent inflation.

And just so everyone remembers, here are a few numbers from those days that the MSM said were so horrible: Unemployment was dreadfully high at 4.6% Gasoline was an unthinkable $2.25/gal. (Click on the History tab)

The horror.

As the chart above clearly shows, this debt crisis didn’t start until the Dems controlled Congress and Obama became President. Bush’s TARP was just the beginning of federal spending, soon to be followed by the Stimulus, a debacle of near-Biblical proportion that did a great deal to add to the deficit and nothing to solve our economic problems. Next up was ObamaCare, then the Dodd-Frank takeover of Wall Street, the bailouts of GM and Chrysler, Cash 4 Clunkers, the student loan takeover, an avalanche of new environmental regulations, Obama’s illegal oil drilling moratoriums in the Gulf, the list goes on. At the same time that the Pelosi-Reid Congress was spending the country into ruin, President Obama was busy putting the clamps on the private sector, resulting in the lowest amount of federal revenue since 1950.

My point is that the very same Democrats who got us into this mess are the ones currently striving with all their might to keep us in it.

One would think that Republicans would have a large cache of rhetorical ammunition in the way of facts to launch against the Dems in this battle, and one would be quite correct. But have they used any of it? No. They. Haven't.

Why this is is a wonderment to me, as I’m sure it is to you. Obama, Reid, and Pelosi clearly started this mess and are now blaming the Republicans for it. But, hey, it’s what they do. If you want just a taste of what the Dems are saying, you need look no further than this quote by DNC ChairThing, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz:

“Aren’t we at the point where the closer we get to chaos, the more concern that there should be about coming to the table and compromising with Democrats?” Wasserman Schultz asked. “This is not leadership. This is almost like dictatorship. I know they want to force the outcome that … their extremists would like to impose. But they are getting ready to spark panic and chaos, and they seem to be OK with that. And it’s just really disappointing, and potentially devastating.”
So, let me see if I have this straight: We’re the extremists for wanting Washington to act in a fiscally responsible way, just like we do in our lives? WTF? On what planet do you live, darlin’, where this makes any kind of sense?

Another thing, Debbie, your psychological projection is showing: it was President Obama who recently stated that he finds the idea of being a dictator “tempting” in a speech last week before the radical racist Mexican supremacist group La Raza.

I have a few questions for the GOP: why haven’t you called the Dems’ bluff yet? Why haven’t you guys used the word “obstructionist” to characterize the Senate Democrats repeated threats to squash any bill that comes out of the House? Or even used that term for the Presidents’ same threats? That’s a game anyone can play.

Why haven’t you pointed out that all this wild spending started when the Dems took over congress in 2007? And that Obama said it was only temporary? And that he also said he wanted to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term in office? You could even use a little bit of snark by saying you only want to help him fulfill his promise.

What are you guys waiting for? You’re clearly losing the public relations battle and yet you seem stricken by Bush’s Disease: you refuse to defend yourself with even a few simple facts that a lot of Americans already know. Facts that would work in your favor if only you'd say them out loud. Facts that would expose the Dems for the tax-and-spend radicals that they are.

You guys could be winning this and enjoying a much-needed boost in your popularity, and yet you seem reluctant to do so. I mean, hell, if I can do it, certainly you can too. It’s not rocket surgery.

You guys can’t even defend the concept of a free market economy nor point out how this administration is twisting it into something unrecognizable. All you’re doing is giving ammunition to those who wildly claim that capitalism doesn’t work. How can it, under these circumstances, when those we’ve elected to act in our place don’t understand even the basics of how our economy is supposed to work and pat themselves on the back for placing mountains of restrictions on it?

Mr. Boehner, why don’t you realize that you will be attacked for anything you do or say? You might as well be criticized for stating the truth. Doing that will strike a chord with the nation. You could step up to the podium armed with facts, yet you refuse to do so.

You can be cordial and biting at the same time without appearing to be whatever it is that you’re trying to avoid. We know you’re trying to be the adult in the room and you’re almost there. Almost.

If you were to try to appeal to the vast majority of hard working Americans who understand what it will take to get the country out of the Obama Depression, you’d find your own and congressional Republicans’ poll numbers would start climbing, thereby preparing the ground for the 2012 elections, which the GOP stands poised to win.

Your reluctance to embrace a truly smaller government makes the rest of us who are rooting for you question whether you really want that or if you are just another big government bureaucrat in disguise. Please stop acting as if last November’s elections didn’t mean anything and that Congressional Republicans don’t have a clear mandate to stop this Marxist/Socialist administration from further crippling our country’s economy.

It’s up to you, Mr. Speaker. An anxious country is waiting for you to tell us the truth and counter the lies and propaganda coming from the radical, leftist Alinskyites who have infested Washington.

It’s time to get your own ass in line.

Monday, July 25, 2011

Our Current Economic Crisis and How to Solve it

It’s Monday and time to get out the razor blades and draw a warm bath.

Good Morning!

I was looking forward to a relaxing weekend free from the political shenanigans going on in Washington over the debt crisis, I really was. But Friday nights’ dueling press conferences between President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner was too good to miss.

The contrast was glaring. President Obama held his presser first. Thanks to NiceDeb, here is the video.


What we saw was a president who is clearly aware he’s losing the battle of the budget. He was petulant and impatient; it was all over his face. His demeanor was unseemly for the Leader of the Free World. There was very little in the way of facts. All he did was try to shift the blame for the budget crisis onto the Republicans.

By comparison, Speaker Boehner was calm and collected, one could almost say defiant. Again, from NiceDeb, Boehner’s press conference.


Overall, I get the impression that Boehner is the adult in the room, not Obama, despite the presidents’ attempt to appear that way, aided and abetted by a compliant (and lying) media.

At some point, reality will intrude. I don’t think it will happen all at once, but there are growing signs that President Obama and the Senate Democrats, led by Harry Reid, are losing the public debate over the debt and the deficit.

If it weren’t so serious, it would be comical. On the one hand, there is Obama desperately trying to bankrupt the country and using every rhetorical trick in the Progressive playbook to make it appear as though it’s the Republicans who got us into this mess. Obama seems to be saying, “Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?”

On the other hand is Boehner, whose exasperation level seems to be rising exponentially with every passing day. He truly does realize that something has to be done to cut spending and that right soon.

And so do the American people. Polls are showing the President losing support, even among Democrats. That’s a bit misleading, though, as the Dems are unhappy that he appears to be waffling in his insistence upon a larger and more intrusive federal government than the country has ever seen before.

Someone needs to explain that to me. How can anyone look around today and say that anything this president and the last Congress has done has worked to America’s benefit?

Unemployment stands at 9.2%. It was 7.8% at the beginning of Obama’s term. Real inflation is around 10%, not the miniscule number of around 1.5% that Washington uses. Gasoline prices are nearly double what they were in January of ’09. And I don’t have to tell you that the price of groceries has nearly doubled in four years.

Gentle reader, none of this is happening by accident. None of it.

It’s the direct result of a command-and-control economy that is being commanded and controlled by people who want us to suffer.

I hate to sound so pessimistic about that, but there’s no other explanation. We’re being screwed on purpose. And make no mistake, there are people who are profiting quite nicely, thank you, from our travails.

One of the most prominent beneficiaries just so happens to be one of the architects of this crisis, Nancy Pelosi. Her net worth increased, and you’d better sit down for this one, a whopping 62% last year. I’ll bet y’all know of at least one friend whose worth decreased that much over the last few years.

Harry Reid’s personal worth increased also, and to be fair, so did John Boehner’s. So it would seem everyone in Washington is on the gravy train.

Too bad we’re not on it too.

Now, there is a very popular misconception amongst radical leftists and Progressives (but I repeat myself) that capitalism is a zero-sum game. To decode this for you, that means that in order for one person to gain, that gain must come from someone else’s loss.

I’m sorry, but if you really believe that, you need a constant reminder to breathe. Nothing could be further from the truth.

If that were true, then no economy would experience any growth, period. Think about it and you’ll come to the inevitable conclusion that those who think that way have been conditioned, which is merely a polite word for brainwashed.

For the longest time, I, and probably you too, gave this administration the benefit of the doubt when it came to their economic policies. However, that was then and this is now. After two years of declining economic numbers, we are coming to the sad conclusion that what’s happening to our economy is being done on purpose.

I’ve outlined one possible cause, that of outside pressures being brought on our economy for the expressed reason of bringing us down. I’m not alone in considering that possibility. Here’s a link to an interview that you should hear. Yeah, it’s dull and dry, since it’s about economics, but it’s well worth listening to. It’s from an economist named Catherine Austin Fitts and its entitled “Now That We Got Your Money, We’re Going to Change the Deal.” Once more, thanks to NiceDeb, who’s proving to be a valuable source of the obscure, and a good blog buddy, too.

Of course, no discussion on economics would be complete without me doing my Ron White imitation and dancing on my soapbox. So, for your consideration, I’d like to propose a solution to our problem. I’m generous that way.

We need to retreat from this whole idea of a global economy. I know, we’re being told it’s the wave of the future and everybody’s doing it and there will be rainbows, unicorns and skittles for everyone if we do.

Much like global warming or climate change or whatever that’s being called this week, this whole notion of a global economy is based on the false premise of multiculturalism. As you know, that’s the idea that all cultures are equal and therefore equally good. We all share the same values and ideals and we will all work together in glorious harmony for the greater good of mankind.

Kinda sounds like a workers’ paradise, doesn’t it? Now, where have I heard that before? Hmmm...

It’s worth noting that environmentalism is part and parcel of the New World Order of things. Check any study on it, particularly from that august body of internationalism, the United Nations, and you’ll see the environmental buzzword “sustainability.”

Let me get my decoder ring out again for you. That word doesn’t mean what you think it means. It’s another false premise, that there are too many people in the world consuming too much of its natural resources and that the industrial economic model cannot support this growing population.

That’s just a lie, plain and simple. The only thing restricting the exploration and harvesting of our natural resources is government. Capitalism and freedom have done more to elevate the condition of man than any other form of economy.

And that’s a fact.

Why are third-world countries third-world countries? You need look no further than their governments, the overwhelming majority of which are dictatorships. The people aren’t free, nor will their strongman governments permit such freedom. Such is power.

Here’s my solution. I know that I’ll be called all sorts of names for even suggesting this like xenophobic and nationalist and all that, but I really don’t care.

A global economy cannot work. What we need to do is concentrate our efforts on America first. This means that we should be enacting new laws to spur investment by American companies here at home. We should also repeal laws that have been shown to be detrimental to our economy, like NAFTA and GATT. A robust and diverse economy at home should be the policy of our government along with a dedication for us to have the highest standard of living in the world.

We are still the world’s largest economy. We should be taking advantage of that market by making our own products here while producing enough extra for export and trade with other countries. We can compete in a global market, but it must be favorable to us first. And as this effort towards a global economy is currently being implemented, the goal is not for other countries to move to more freedom for their people, the goal is to dismantle our freedoms and our economy for redistribution to the rest of the enslaved world.

This is the wrong way to go and we know it.

The world isn’t fair or equal, despite the intentions of many powerful people to make it that way. They see our success as something to be plundered. This is nothing but envy on their part.

If we keep on electing politicians who think of themselves as ”citizens of the world” instead of Americans, we are doomed for no good reason.

It’s time for America to rediscover and reinvent herself.

Friday, July 22, 2011

Friday Bits of Tid - End of Funemployment Edition

A big, ol' hound dog howdy to y'all.

Well, this has to be a sign of the Apocalypse: I have a day job. It's part-time, which allows me flexibility to keep playing music, but the downside is I won't have as much time to blog. Not to worry, I'll still be here to weigh in on the political news and offer up the biting insight all nine of you have grown to know and love. I just won't be doing it on my former regular schedule.

So, the quanitity may go down, but the quality will increase. Or that's the theory at least.

It's a major career change for me, but, hey, life is nothing but a series of changes anyway. Adapt or die is the phrase, I think. And who knows, I still might have time to blog every day, we'll see. Anyway, I'll be playing it by ear for a while, to coin a musical phrase, and see what I can do.

I really do enjoy blogging. It's educational for me, doing all that exhaustive Internet reasearch, which usually consists of about five minutes on Bing. I hope you find it rewarding and interesting as well. You guys are a small but dedicated audience, for which I am Thankful.

Onwards, toward the bits...

Remember Steve Wynn's rant against President Obama's weird philosophy from the Smackdown post the other day? He wasn't the only one. And someone really should tell Wynn that Obama's weird philosophy has a name: it's called Socialism, and it has failed spectacularly every time it's been tried.

Just a reminder. None of the Senate Democrats voted to raise the debt ceiling in 2006. This is another one of those little talking points Republicans fail to mention, along with the bazillions of other things they don't say. No wonder they're losing the public in this debate over the debt.

From WSJOnline, via Ace, comes this astute political observation from one of the nations' most well-respected left wing dingbats, Deepak Chopra. It seems he's worried that Obama might not be reelected. He offers up his reasons why Democrats are just oh-so-much-better than you or I. They're listed here with this warning: Do Not Drink Anything While You Read This, as whatever you have in your mouth will be forcibly expelled through your nose. It's a reflex, trust me.

1. Liberals are freethinkers who wisely question their own assumptions. "One of the virtues of being on the liberal side of politics is that total obedience isn't required. There are no hidden agendas. Ideology doesn't lead to unreason. . . . Liberal politics is based on a non-regimented, all-inclusive approach to democracy. Freedom of thought is paramount."



2. Conservatives, by contrast, are sheep who blindly adhere to crazy dogmas. "It feels as if the inmates are running the asylum--as in the current Republican threat to default on America's debt. . . . If you suppose that the average citizen remembers that the right wing are the very ones who got us into this forlorn tangle of wars abroad, financial collapse, out-of-control spending, and massive bonuses for the rich, you have not felt the power that fear exerts."

3. It is crucial to keep Obama in office lest the crazy, stupid conservatives take over. "The prevailing sanity of President Obama is something that others and I have taken for granted. . . . It was such a relief to return to humane, non-ideological governance when President Obama won in 2008."

4. Therefore, liberals should stop questioning him and give him their blind support. "All of us who have taken advantage of our liberal heritage to question and criticize President Obama need to step back and consider the radical nature of the opposition. . . . If ever there was a time to stand behind the captain, this is it."
Please to meet your drug dealer?

Chase Bank is expanding and diversifying and evidently, taking over the duties of coroner. Chase Bank declares woman dead. You're not fooling anyone, you know.



The World's Fastest Indian Suzuki. 311 mph.

Behold the wonder that is bacon.



(h/t CBS News.com/strange although I wonder what's strange about a cooking video, especially one with bacon, oh well...)

Here's a political trend that needs more, um, exposure here in the States - Women urged to strip to support Putin. Subtitle: Putie's Cuties.

And finally, if this dog ever has puppies, I want one.



Y'all have a good weekend, y'all.

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Recollections from a Child of the Space Program

The Space Shuttle Atlantis has just landed as I type this, the twin sonic booms announcing her arrival. It’s the end of an era, a sad end that came too soon, thanks to politicians who have no imagination, no vision, and no commitment to the betterment of mankind, despite their meddlesome efforts to engineer society into their idea of Utopia.

As is typical with the Obama administration, we’re wasting an incalculable fortune in lost opportunities and human capital. There’s just no reason for us not to continue being the world’s leading space power. The Shuttles still have many flights left on their airframes and many Americans want us to maintain our lead in spaceflight. But do our politicians reflect our will and do as we the people wish?

Sorry if I’m bitter, but I grew up in the shadow of the space program.

I’m going to see how much I can remember of my experiences growing up in Huntsville, Alabama. I’m sure some of you also have ties to the space program and have your own memories. I’d like to hear about them in the comments, if you’re so inclined. Ima, that’s your cue…

The private military school I attended in Mobile gathered the student body in the gym in front of a TV so we could all see Alan Shepard’s first flight, as it did also for John Glenn’s flight. That was the time when I started dreaming of exploring space. I didn’t think, however, that we’d get to the moon in my lifetime.

I’m glad I was wrong. Of course, I was a young’un and didn’t read the newspapers except for the comics, so I was surprised to learn that we were indeed, going to the moon. President Kennedy’s announcement woke me right up. I started finding out anything and everything I could about the Mercury and Gemini programs. I remember having a favorite astronaut, Wally Schirra, for reasons that had nothing at all to do with my real name, really (wink).

I remember crying when Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee died aboard Apollo 1 in the tragic launch pad fire. The city of Huntsville named the next three schools after them, so their noble sacrifice could be an inspiration to future generations. That was when reality set in, sobering but not diminishing our national mission to reach the Moon before the end of the decade of the ‘60’s.

One day, not long after Mom and I had moved to Huntsville, I was in our apartment when I heard something that sounded like a tornado. Since it was a nice day outside with no storms, I couldn’t figure out what that sound was. Soon, the walls began to shake, and the pictures with them. The phone rang. It was one of my buddies who was hollering, “Hey, do you hear that? That’s one of the Saturn V engines they’re testing down by the river!” Whew. For many of the later tests, a few of us would gather in the front yard of a friends’ house on a hill where we had a good view of the exhaust plume which would hang in the Alabama air for what seemed like hours. We’d try to see shapes in it like a cloud. Good times.

Did I mention that somebody named Werner von Braun was a local hero?

On the night of the Moon landing, a bunch of us junior high schoolers gathered at a friends’ house to watch it on TV. As I walked home afterwards, I remember looking up at the Moon and thinking, “We did it, we finally did it. Dreams really can come true.”

My introduction to politics came when I heard that we were cancelling Moon missions. Why? Wasn’t there so much more to do? We were just getting started, and I wanted to go, too. Who are these people who would prevent us from reaching for the stars?

The next year, in my first year of Machine Shop school, we took a field trip to Marshall Space Flight Center where I saw my first computer controlled milling machine, which a buddy’s dad operated. That’s when I knew I could still contribute in some way to our space effort. Thus began my career in manufacturing.

I remember seeing the Shuttle Enterprise flying around Huntsville on the back of the jumbo jet, and later took a picture of BackwardsBoyBoy under her wing in a stroller at the public event.

I would later work at Marshall for a fellow named Charlie Yeager, Chuck’s second cousin, in the old Gemini vehicle assembly building. He was one of the nicest guys you’d ever want to meet, and I was honored to work with him and get to know him. Charlie, if you’re still here, I think about you, Cecil, Mike, and all the other guys with great fondness. And I still remember our flights to Talladega to watch the NASCAR race and qualifying. More good times.

Charlie had “NASA in his pocket.” He had done just about every little behind-the-scenes job that you could imagine at Marshall. One day, I was looking for some special screws, 100-degree pan-heads, stainless steel, one and a half inches long, not your standard shop item. I’d looked everywhere in the shop, and when I couldn’t find any, I finally asked Charlie if we had any. He looked at me while he dug in his pocket. “How many do you need?” he asked. I said six, and he pulled six of them out of his pants pocket.

That was Charlie.

The building itself was a museum of space. There were old spacesuits just lying around, along with a section of the first Space Station, wrapped up in a corner. While I was there, we built a full-scale mock-up of the laboratory module of the new Space Station, as did every other NASA facility. The design team then toured and viewed all the mock-ups and finalized their design from our ideas. That module is on the NASA tour, so you can see some of my work. So, yeah, there’s a little bit of me flying in low Earth orbit right now.

Challenger, and later, Columbia. We don’t often witness noble death. For those of us who Believe, they’re still flying, only with different and better wings.

So, I’m sad today. I can only hope that the pause will be as short as possible while we work on new and exciting missions once again and regain our lead in space.

We still have the Right Stuff. I wish our politicians did.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Live from Washington – It’s Conservative Smackdown Wednesday Night Wrestling

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Conservative Smackdown Wednesday. I think you’ll enjoy tonight’s matchups as we have some of your favorite veterans and a stable of first time contenders coming your way. You won’t want to miss a single second of the action.

Tonight, Charles “Killer” Krauthammer takes on Nina “The NPR Ninja” Totenberg. Killer K is looking to add another win to his record of 143 and 7 with a victory over Totenberg. Don’t let this guy’s size fool you, folks, he’s packed full of dynamite, that‘s why he has the reputation he does.

Next up is Allen “Colonel” West against Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, “The DNC Destroyer” in a much-anticipated grudge match. These two have quite the history, going all the way back to the campaign of 2010 when Debbie the Destroyer issued her challenge to The Colonel at his event down in Florida. Something tells me neither one of them will back down tonight.

After that classic, we have Rick Santorum, the “Pennsylvania Pontificator” battling another newcomer, Dan “Rough Me Up, Big Boy” Savage in a match that I’m sure you’ll enjoy. This won’t be for the squeamish, so if you have small children, we suggest sending them to another room, this one might get ugly.

Following that, I’m told that Steve Wynn, “The Last Resort” will issue a challenge to one of the most famous stars in Washington today, “The Transformer,” Barack Obama. These two have been engaged in a war of words for weeks now, so stay tuned for that one.

And for our main event, we have rising star Joe Walsh, “The Illinois Illuminator” against the man the crowd loves to hate, Chris “The Tingler” Matthews. These two will square off in a cage match that promises to be the most exciting battle so far this season. Only one of them will walk out of the cage, the other one will be carried out. Who will it be in the best two out of three?

Llllllet’s get rrrrrready to rrruuuummmmblllll!

Here’s our first card, Killer K and the NPR Ninja…


Wow, what a performance by the wily veteran. The NPR Ninja was outmaneuvered from the start. He sure silenced that panel quick and in a hurry, didn’t he?

OK, let’s move on to our second match between The Colonel and the DNC Destroyer.


Hey, it almost looks like Debbie the Destroyer has the better of the Colonel. But wait, he’s coming back with a vengeance. He really aims to mop up the ring with her.

From: Z112 West, Allen


Sent: Tuesday, July 19, 2011 04:48 PM


To: Wasserman Schultz, Debbie


Cc: McCarthy, Kevin; Blyth, Jonathan; Pelosi, Nancy; Cantor, Eric


Subject: Unprofessional and Inappropriate Sophomoric Behavior from Wasserman-Schultz


Look, Debbie, I understand that after I departed the House floor you directed your floor speech comments directly towards me. Let me make myself perfectly clear, you want a personal fight, I am happy to oblige. You are the most vile, unprofessional ,and despicable member of the US House of Representatives. If you have something to say to me, stop being a coward and say it to my face, otherwise, shut the heck up. Focus on your own congressional district.


I am bringing your actions today to our Majority Leader and Majority Whip and from this time forward, understand that I shall defend myself forthright against your heinous characterless behavior……which dates back to the disgusting protest you ordered at my campaign hqs, October 2010 in Deerfield Beach.


You have proven repeatedly that you are not a Lady, therefore, shall not be afforded due respect from me!






Steadfast and Loyal


Congressman Allen B West (R-FL)


Ouch, that’s gonna leave Debbie confined to a whirlpool bath for a couple of days at least. What a pummeling!

Let’s pause for a word from our sponsors.



Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen. This next match pits favorite Rick Santorum against a newcomer, Dan Savage. I get the feeling Santorum is none too happy with Savage after last week’s insulting tirade on the Bill Maher show. He’ll be looking to settle this score quickly.


Yes, that’s a veteran in action right there. Kids, if you want to learn from someone, he should be at the top of your list.

And now, we welcome Las Vegas heavyweight Steve Wynn to our microphone. Steve, we understand you have something to say to The Transformer?


And now to respond, we have The Transformer himself, Barack Obama live via satellite.



OK Steve, I think you were heard loud and clear.

After the commercial break, we have the match everyone’s been waiting for, The Illinois Illuminator taking on Tingler in our main cage match. We’ll be right back.



All right everyone, here’s our main card. These two need no introduction to followers of the great sport of political wrestling. We know there are some of you out there who say this sport isn’t real. Well, we’re about to show you just how brutal it can actually be. So without further delay, let’s get this match started.


Wow, I’ve never seen anything like it in all my years as an announcer, ladies and gentlemen. The Tingler was certainly no match for The Illuminator. I almost couldn’t look, and you probably couldn’t look away. What a terrific beating. We hope The Tingler will be OK. As soon as we have word on his condition from our on-the-scene reporter at the hospital where he’s currently being transported, we’ll pass that information along to you.

We want to thank you for letting us into your home tonight and hope you’ve enjoyed all the action from here in our nations’ capitol. Please join us again next week for Conservative Smackdown Wrestling.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Another One Bites the Dust – Electric Car Maker Folds, Costing Salinas, CA $500K

Here’s a story that should come as a surprise to absolutely no one.

From KSBW.com,

A Salinas car manufacturing company that was expected to build environmentally friendly electric cars and create new jobs folded before almost any vehicles could run off the assembly line.


The city of Salinas had invested more than half a million dollars in Green Vehicles, an electric car start-up company.


All of that money is now gone, according to Green Vehicles President and Co-Founder Mike Ryan.
Van Jones hardest hit.

Here we have another story about a heavily subsidized company that promised grand and glorious things, only to fail in spectacular fashion at a great cost to innocent taxpayers. It’s far from the first and it certainly won’t be the last if we don’t come to our senses soon. One is left to wonder just how many more of these stories we’ll see before we finally realize the truth about President Obama’s dream of a “green economy.”

It. Will. Not. Work.

There are so many things wrong with the whole idea of a “green economy” that’s it’s difficult to know just where to begin. I suppose I could start with the idea behind the environmental movement itself.

Yes, for a while we did have an environmental problem. Rivers were on fire from the waste that was being emptied into them, the smog in some cities was chokingly bad and there were all sorts of nasty things in your drinking water that you really didn’t want to know about. So, from a sense of cleanliness if nothing else, the environmental movement was born.

Success came early to groups like the Sierra Club and others. They were able to have legislation introduced that forced companies to become more aware of their impact on the environment. The public was firmly behind their efforts, as no thinking person would be able to think for long if they were being slowly poisoned by modern life.

However, I can find nothing wrong with the idea behind the birth of the movement. What I am able to find great fault with is what is has devolved into, namely a large and way-too-powerful government agency that is now a destroyer of jobs, capital, and potential instead of a responsible steward, as the movement was in its infancy. The Environmental Protection Agency and the various private groups with whom it deals has become a haven for the Anti-Human League.

As fantastical as it sounds, there are actually some folk who think that mankind is a pox on the planet, just like Agent Smith in The Matrix,


And they live to control you: what you eat, what you drive, what kind of light bulbs you can use, even how you think.

The modern environmental movement has all the hallmarks of a religion, except backwards. In fact, you could look upon environmentalism as devil worship. You wouldn’t be far off the mark. The Earth is it’s god. It even has a name, Gaia. To many, it’s a deity to be worshipped and, on occasion, to be offered sacrifice. Instead of elevating mankind, environmentalism seeks to degrade it. Its adherents are constantly finding fault with even the slightest thing you do as you go about your daily life.

You use too much water to take a shower. When you use the bathroom, you use too much toilet paper. You wash your clothes with the wrong detergent. You drive the wrong car to work. In fact, you shouldn’t even drive at all, use public transit instead. Your job is killing the planet. Your television and computer consume too much electricity. You eat the wrong food. The earth is in peril because of you and needs to be saved, and environmentalists are the only ones who care enough to do it, you filthy human.

So pervasive is modern environmentalism that you can barely watch TV, go to a movie or turn on the radio without hearing the message. Think “Big Yellow Taxi.”

While being aware of how the world works isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it was carried to the absurd extreme long ago. Today, it’s just bitchiness and control. Enviro-nagging, if you will. And you must admit, it's the perfect bitch. Who could possibly want dirty air and water?

And it needs to stop.

I’m not suggesting that I don’t want clean air and water. But with our air and water cleaner today than ever before, I think the job is done. However, to those who populate the green movement, nothing is ever enough. New and more stringent regulations are issued daily from the EPA that are threatening our ability to produce energy in a cost effective way. These new regulations are currently fulfilling President Obama’s dream of shutting down the coal-powered electricity industry.

Now, common sense would dictate that the movement would embrace cleaner technology like hydroelectric dams and nuclear power. But even those technologies are frowned upon. We haven’t built a new nuclear plant in the US in over thirty years, and efforts are underway to reroute rivers away from their controlled route (and coincidentally, away from power producing dams) and back to their more “natural” state. This is a primary component in the recent flooding in the Midwest.

Common sense would also dictate that certain realities be recognized. However, neither common sense nor the laws of physics enter into the mind of the environmentalist. And forget about economic laws. To them, money is evil, too.

Look at what the movement has done to our gasoline. In the name of “saving the planet,” we’re now forced to use a mixture of gas and ethanol. Ethanol is made from corn, a food. Ethanol is also far less efficient than pure gasoline, resulting in poorer mileage and the deterioration of components in your car, causing your fuel system to wear out ahead of its time. Does that sound like an environmentally smart thing to do?

Now, much of the corn that was used for food for our livestock and us now goes to make fuel, resulting in higher prices for consumers and food shortages. Again, does that make any sense?

You can see where this is going, and it’s no place good. And this is only one example. Add to this the very false argument that we’re addicted to oil and you can see environmentalism laid bare in all its contradiction and self-loathing.

I’ve mentioned before that oil is the common sense substance to use. It contains the most potential energy of any naturally occurring resource. It’s portable and can be made into a wide variety of useful products, one of which greased your bottom as an infant.

But to the average environmentalist, it’s the source of all of our problems and must be eliminated entirely.

But I’m digressing all over my own post. Sorry.

The simple truth remains concerning a “green economy”: if it made sense to do so, we’d already be doing it. We already use energy-dense methods of production, but they are under attack from a group of people who don’t understand the laws of physics or economics.

The Salinas story is yet another failure in an industry that is the very definition of unsustainable. In order to survive, it must depend on taxpayer dollars. It cannot create wealth, if it did, it wouldn’t need subsidies.

The technology upon which a green economy depends has yet to mature. It makes no sense to waste tax dollars on windmills when a nuclear plant is much more efficient. It makes no sense to “invest” in solar power when a hydroelectric dam is nearby that produces electricity constantly. All of the so-called "solutions" forwarded by the green movement are far less efficient than what we’re currently using. And they all require a backup source of power.

Which is why it is designed to fail.

But, after a few generations are born into the culture of falsehood that is the environmental movement, the more people will cease to question it. For them, it will have always been that way. The lie of man-caused climate change will become the truth for too many.

Is that really the way we want to go? Or will we start to teach our children and grandchildren the truth about the movement that seeks to enslave them with their own guilt?

Monday, July 18, 2011

Economy Monday – Obama Demands Concessions While Offering None

It’s Monday, boys and girls, and you know what that means when it comes to the wrangling over the Federal budget: not a lot got done over the weekend.

Oh, words were tossed about. President Obama continues to try to cast himself as the adult in the room, an image that the public is finding increasingly transparent. And by transparent, I mean that we can see right through it. Keith Henessey has a good post on the weekends’ lack of progress to solve our current fiscal crisis.

If you listened to the Sunday talk shows, particularly the ones on the so-called Mainstream Media channels, you’d just hear a recitation of all the White House talking points and very little in the way of real information. Personally, I can’t flagellate myself that way, especially when I know what needs to be done, as does everyone else.

I was reminded this weekend of a famous quote by former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher who once said that any British housewife could balance the budget. In that same spirit, any American could balance our budget. As I’ve stated before, Washington’s budget is no different from the budget of most American households, except there are a lot more decimal places and zeroes.

But you’d never know that if all you listened to were the MSM Sunday shows. Those alleged purveyors of knowledge leave out much more than they include when it comes to their reporting and their opinions on the budget battle. Bob Shieffer on CBS’ Face the Nation tried to corner Senator Marco Rubio on the issue yesterday. Rubio responded by saying this,


"The way the deal is currently structured right now, it gives the President the ability to raise the debt limit. But as I've said already on the problem; The debt limit is not really the problem here, the problem here is the debt.


"The debt limit is actually the easiest part of the problem. It's one vote away from being solved. But, if all we do is raise the debt limit and it's not accompanied by a credible solution to America's debt problem, we're in big trouble."
What you won’t hear from the MSM is the simple fact that the Democrat-controlled 111th Congress, led by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, is directly responsible for this crisis, along with President Obama. With Democrats in full control of the White House and Congress, they ran up our debt to stratospheric heights. We were told at the time that these increases were temporary. Now, President Obama is trying to make them permanent, all the while still managing to blame his predecessor for a problem that he created.

Not only that, his recent citing that some 80% of Americans favor tax increases has been proven false. In fact, Ace points this out rather adroitly in his dissection of an NPR poll where they gather one set of opinion statistics and report something completely misleading. Nice work, there.

Another voice of reason in this debate is Charles Krauthammer. He’s been making the rounds of the political talk shows with one question. When confronted with the false MSM talking point that it’s the Republicans who are blocking the path to negotiation of a budget solution, he now asks the liberals, “Where is Obama’s plan?”


(h/t to Newsbusters.com)

That’s the best way to shut up liberals: confront them with facts. Works every time.

What’s needed is what I call The Neo Plan to reduce the budget. “Cuts, lots of cuts.”

There are plans out there. Curiously, President Obama chooses to ignore the recommendations of his own Simpson-Bowles Commission while he criticizes the Ryan plan. If you want to see a credible plan that imitates what you or I would do with our own budget mirrored at the federal level, be sure to check out this link from Financial Times, Lawrence Solomon: A Tea Party Budget.

I shall tease you with this,
First, scrap government departments that overlap with functions traditionally and primarily met at the state level, and that often do more harm than good. The country’s educational performance declined after the federal government imposed its educational priorities on the states, which have the prime responsibility for education. Scrap the Department of Education, a failed Carter-era experiment that had its roots in president Dwight Eisenhower’s desire to imbue the education system with Cold War thinking, and out goes a US$77-billion annual expense. Likewise, scrap all or parts of the Department of Energy, the Small Business Administration, the Federal Transit Authority, Federal Highway Administration, Housing and Urban Development and other federal areas that intrude on state and local responsibilities. Apart from the dollar savings from eliminating duplication and cancelling perverse projects, the quality of public services is likely to rise when the former federal functions move closer to home in state or local government, or become privatized and are delivered in the private sector.

It should be noted that the Department of Energy has one useful function: there’s a lot of military research and development that goes on there that shouldn’t be cut. That’s the part we need to keep.

One important thing to remember in any budget talks is this: when liberals and even so-called moderate politicians speak of cuts to federal programs, what they call a cut is actually a cut in the rate of increase of funding. That’s built in to the budget, sometimes to allow for inflation, sometimes for population increases. It doesn’t take much to see that an ever-growing federal budget is a given, and is a big part of why it’s out of control.

What’s needed are drastic cuts, meaning real, live reductions in staff, salaries, and benefits for these bloated bureaucracies and, at a minimum, a moratorium on any new regulations combined with a thorough review of the effectiveness of those regulations. Just like President Obama promised, but hasn’t done. It's almost like he has no idea how the economy works.

Also, note that President Obama has not offered up one single concession of his own. At no time has he suggested even one of his signature programs for cuts. Not the Stimulus, not ObamaCare, not the bailouts of the auto companies, not the student loan takeovers, nothing. All of his programs must remain in place unaltered.
Who’s being the rigid ideologue now?

Friday, July 15, 2011

Friday Bits of Tid - Die Hard Edition

Greetings and salutations, y'all. We've made it to the end of another week, disappointing our ex-spouses once again.

All together now, "Neener, neener, neener."

On this day in 1988, the movie Die Hard debuts, moving somebody named Bruce Willis from the small screen to the big one. Yippie ki-yay.

If this was my son, I'd just go ahead and send him to Nick Saban today. 16 pound baby born in Texas. Before BackwardsBoyBoy was born, I'd go to the hospital where the then-wife worked and rock newborns whose parents, for whatever reason, couldn't be there. I had a great time in the process. Anyway, there was one young'un in there that weighed 13 pounds, "Fat Albert." You could pick out his cry above the others. Basso profondo I believe is the term.

From the "you can't make this stuff up" department: an Austrian wins the right to wear a spaghetti strainer on his head for his drivers' license picture. The article says he's an atheist and then says that he adheres to a religion known as "Pastafarianism." Pick one, mon.

Why catching Derek Jeter's 3000th hit ball may not be a good thing. And here's a high school pitcher who has been clocked at 90mph with both hands. I used to do that on my intramural college slow pitch softball team. Carried two gloves to the mound. It was great fun until I struck out my history professor one day. I did not get a good grade in that class, for some strange reason.

County eliminates ban on forest juggling. Well, it's about damned time.

Captain America motorcycle on display at the Harley-Davidson museum. From the new movie, not to be confused with Peter Fonda's bike from Easy Rider.

iChurchKey.

Paul, the clairvoyant octopus has gone to that great calamari plate in the sky, Not to worry, though, here's his replacement, Nelly the elephant.

Heh. A mysterious "W" appears on Obama's head. Well, he does seem obsessed with him...

From David Thompson, how to deactivate a cat.

And finally, I'll leave you with this little ditty.



Y'all have a good'un, y'all.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Mr. President, It’s Time for You to Surrender

Budget talks between Obama and Congressional Republicans have broken down again. According to reports, this time it is President Obama who abruptly walked out of negotiations after telling Eric Cantor, “Don’t call my bluff.”

Mr. President, this is no bluff. This is serious. And you, sir, are not acting in a serious manner.

Americans are growing tired of your insistence on an ever-larger government, even in the face of history making debt. Your efforts to fundamentally transform America are to blame for our anemic recovery, the worst in several generations. You have run up more debt than all your predecessors combined.

And yet you press on, seemingly oblivious to the destruction you, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid have caused in your crusade to make Washington the decider of all things American.

You demand that Congress continue to implement your misguided policies. That is not what the American people want. We displayed our discontent with your policies last November. You said it was a shellacking. America gave a clear mandate to those whom we elected to stop your policies. Now, when you are confronted with two choices for our nations’ future, you continue to choose your path instead of the clear will of America.

We want your irresponsible spending stopped immediately.

You do not seem to be aware of what you have done, Mr. President. You bear a great duty to the country, a duty that you have ignored. You are directly responsible for the greatest waste of human capital America has ever seen. Millions are out of work, many after decades with the same company. Many of us have been forced to settle for jobs outside of their chosen fields. Computer Programmers are forced to work as receiving clerks, machinists are forced to work at grocery stores, all trying to get by until our economy returns to normal.

And we hear from your administration that we are in the “new normal.”

Seniors who must live on fixed incomes are seeing their limited funds squeezed further by the inflation that you have caused in your mistaken quest to stimulate the economy by printing more paper dollars. Gasoline prices are approaching record highs thanks to your unwillingness to make our country truly energy independent. Your unofficial and illegal moratoriums on oil drilling have forced many workers onto welfare rolls as they watch once-productive oil rigs leave the Gulf of Mexico for more profitable waters.

Time and again, we have watched as the programs you championed have done the opposite of what you told us they would do. Your Cash for Clunkers program that destroyed perfectly good vehicles only served to make the price of all used vehicles rise, putting them out of reach for those who can’t afford a new one. Your takeovers of GM and Chrysler only benefitted your union cronies, as stockholders were sent to the back of the line in defiance of the law. Your Stimulus did nothing of the sort. Unemployment rates are higher now than when you signed the bill.

Your takeover of Wall Street, which should have ended your attacks on them, has resulted in a slowdown of economic activity while nervous investors await the avalanche of new regulations on an already overregulated sector. The same is true of your Health Care bill. Employers are so unsure of the costs of your new regulations that they cannot hire new employees.

You pit the rich against the poor, as if no one in America aspires to richness. You divide us when you were supposed to unite us.

And now you want to raise the debt ceiling so you can continue to borrow more money from unfriendly governments to fund your extravagant spending after you criticized your predecessor for doing the same. You refuse to offer up any cuts of your own, and attempt to portray responsible attempts at spending reductions as somehow evil.

No more, Mr. President.

Now is the time for you to realize, as the rest of the country has realized, that you have failed the American people. You have failed in spectacular fashion and you seem intent upon continuing your failed policies.

You must surrender your assault on the country, Mr. President.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Obama Threatens Social Security Checks if Budget Deal Not Reached

Wow. I mean, just, wow.

Remember that ad that Democrats ran a few weeks back accusing Paul Ryan (through his budget plan) of pushing Granny off a cliff in her wheelchair?

This one?


How prescient. Except for one thing: it’s not Ryan who wants to push Granny off the cliff, it’s President Obama. He said yesterday that he couldn’t guarantee that the August Social Security checks could be mailed out if Congressional Republicans didn’t give him the massive tax increases he is demanding.

So, who wants to remake that ad now?

This is beyond the pale. Obama has pulled back the curtain on his true nature, that being a Chicago henchman who’s willing to hurt anyone, and I mean anyone, to get his way. Do I need to explain just how despicable this is to anyone?

You should be ashamed of yourself, Mr. President.

As I’ve covered earlier, should a debt deal not be reached, we would not default. In that case, the Constitution requires that foreign debt be paid first, with the remaining funds to be allocated by the Treasury Department. But, the demagogues on the left would have us believe that the world would end in a just a few hours, and it would all be the fault of the Republicans in Congress.

Don’t be fooled.

Mark Levin lays out the situation well. Take a listen to better understand just what it is that Obama’s doing with regard to our debt crisis. (h/t The Right Scoop)

American Thinker blog also has a good post on the debt. Worth a read to get up to speed, too.

Naturally, if you receive Social Security, this sent a chill up your spine. It was designed to do that, and by inference, indict John Boehner, Ryan, Mitch McConnell and anyone else who dares to resist Obama’s efforts to bankrupt our nation and to make them look like the bad guys in this situation.

However, it won’t work. It can’t work.

Obama just insured his defeat in the 2012 presidential election. What? Somebody had to say it. Do you honestly think that Obama won’t be blamed for his decision to stop those checks?

This is the thing that Obama owns now. No one else brought it up. It would be within his power to tell Tim “Turbo Tax” Geithner how to prioritize the payments. If he feels that Social Security recipients shouldn’t get their checks, but that the EPA, the NEA, Planned Parenthood and PBS keep their offices open, there is no one else to blame.

And believe me, there would be political hell to pay if he does, both for him and the corrupt Progressives in Washington that got us into this mess through their irresponsible spending spree that began in 2007 with Nancy Pelosi’s takeover of the House.

Good.

Many seniors I know, since they’re retired, follow politics. It’s a fun hobby (in a masochistic way, to be sure) and it keeps their intellectual muscles toned. And I’m certain that once word of this reprehensible possibility gets around, Obama’s image will suffer a huge downward spike, as it should.

So long, Barry.

While others in the blogosphere aren’t quite as optimistic as I am about the negative political fallout from Obama’ statement yesterday, there are still quite a few who can see through this blatant effort by Obama to scare seniors. Here’s a roundup.

Michelle Malkin, Obama: If We Don’t Get a Deal, I Can’t Guarantee We’ll Be Sending Out Social Security Checks on August 3rd.

NewsMax, Obama Threatens August Social Security Checks in Debt Ceiling Gamble.

The Wall Street Journal Online, Raise Taxes or Granny Gets It.

NiceDeb, Debt Ceiling News Round-Up: “In The End, All This Is About Who Gets The Blame”

And over at Ace of Spades HQ, you think I’m bad about peeing in your economic Wheaties on Mondays, Monty brings the DOOM! every morning, complete with kitteh.

I guess this stuff is finally getting serious.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Another Real, Live, Blog Post

I'm starting to notice that I can't keep up with all the stuff going on, at least on the opinion side of it. Me, Alabama, slow, you know the drill.

And since variety is the spice of life, (and here I always thought it was Tiger Sauce, which is great on eggs, with a beer, which is the official after-gig breakfast) I thought all eight of you might enjoy another post that looks more like a real, live, blog. I kinda enjoy them too.

I watched Obama's presser yesterday about the budget negotiations. Several things struck me, chief among them is the very casual attitude of this President in general. The second thing I noticed was his overall demeanor, that of someone who suddenly discovers he's losing a very expensive hand of poker. I coulda swore I saw some genuine fear in his eyes there a few times. It was subtle to be sure, but still, I've learned to trust these little flashes of insight, however small they may be.

Another thing I've noticed about Obama is his intellectual inconsistency. He will literally say anything at any time on any subject to advance his power and his own sense of self. Here he is in 2009, saying that raising taxes in the middle of a recession is a bad idea. And here he is yesterday digging in his rhetorical heels about the need for a "balanced" approach to the debt problem, which means he wants to raise taxes dramatically to fund what we were told was a temporary increase in spending.

This lack of a consistent stance is indicative of a larger problem. Living in a swirl of thought like a fart in a hurricane is no way for President to be. However, he did once mention that he was a blank screen upon which the nation could project any political impression of him it wished. Um, maybe we thought we were looking in a mirror...

Obama speaks, the Dow drops. There's a bumper sticker in there somewhere.

My Senator, Marco Rubio, knocks it out of the park with this statement, "Everything is worse under Obama." Video at the link.

What President Obama Doesn't Understand About Americans and the Debt Ceiling Debate, from Fox News online. This is not an all-inclusive list, by the way.

Today is the day the bill to repeal the incandescent light bulb ban goes to a vote in Congress. You might want to give your legislator a call and recommend that he/she/it vote in favor. Also, George Bush, what in the hell were you thinking when you signed this bill?

Also, there's an important local vote out in Los Angeles today. Janice Hahn, who has been funneling money to local gang members, among other nefarious acts, must be defeated in her bid for the 36th California Congressional seat. All the sordid details are here. If you know anyone out there who lives in that district, please let them know about this and the importance of keeping her out of office. It's all of our civic duty.

OK, that about wraps it up for this edition of BlogBoy.

Unless, of course, you'd like a little space rock with some politics mixed in. If you've never heard of the band Klaatu, you are in for a real treat, especially if you like progressive music. This is one case in which the word "progressive" actually means something good. If you have a good sound system or headphones, crank it up.

To set this song up for you, it's about some space farers who travel around the universe in eighty days and happen upon the ruins of an ancient civilization about which next to nothing is known, except that they aren't around anymore.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present Politzania.



Or, the Obama National Anthem.

Monday, July 11, 2011

America Knows How To Fix the Budget – Why Doesn’t Washington?

It’s Monday morning and time for some arsenic in your coffee. You’re welcome.

As of this writing, the budget talks between Congress and the White House have collapsed. Thankfully, the Republicans stood their ground for a semi-sane solution to the impending deadline of August 2nd. This is the date that the Obama administration has deemed the point past which the oceans will stop receding, or something.

Oh wait, that’s when we’ll default on our massive debt obligations to our most favored trading nation, Communist China. But from what I can gather, this date is merely the one on which Obama can start his newest assault on House Republican for failing to approve his budget with $2T, yes, that’s a T, of tax increases.

We have plenty of revenue coming in to service these payments to our fine financial friends, but you’d never know it, especially if you relied on the Mainstream Media to keep you informed. Timmy “Turbo Tax” Geithner was interviewed on two MSM political talk shows yesterday, yet was never asked the one very simple question that might have calmed concerns in the markets: Do we have enough money coming in to pay our obligations? Click here to hear Geithner’s prefabricated, blame-the-Republicans interviews.

If that date passes without a budget, there will be repercussions, but if they are handled properly, this could force the bloated Obama administration to finally start living within its means, as the overwhelming majority of Americans want them to. We don’t want the debt ceiling raised, especially when there are cuts that can keep us under the present one.

Here’s the deal: we are constitutionally bound to pay these debts, as we should be. You may have seen this story on the Drudge Report where some Progressives, in a staggering reversal of their traditional ignorance of our Constitution, recently found within it an “obscure” provision that permits President Obama to sidestep Congress and proceed with his budget. Section 4 of the 14th Amendment, which states that “the validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law . . . shall not be questioned,” is cited as their justification for usurping what has been for the past oh, 235 years or so, the sole power of Congress to control America’s purse strings.

As you may have guessed, that’s not exactly true. Or close to true. Or even in the same room with the truth. Or the same building. I could keep going, but you get the idea.

Only by the most tortured of definitions could this even be considered as an excuse by Obama to increase our already staggering debt. It’s that pesky “authorized by law” thingy. Only Congress can generate the law, since that’s where all laws originate according to the Constitution. See, that was easy.

Apparently, it’s so simple, that the Soros-funded, radical, far-left Obama think tank Center for American Progress can’t understand it. But then again, we’re dealing pretty much in plain English here, so their apparent confusion is to be expected.

But I’m digressing all over the place.

What this means is that our debt obligations will take priority over other expenditures. We’ll pay our good buddies, the ChiComs, first. After that money is spent, then the rest of Washington’s vast richness of departments, like the Department of Showing African Men How to Clean Their Genitals After Sex, might just be forced to get by with a little less money for a while.

If, and that’s a big if, House Republicans do it just right, they can start to reduce the drastic amount of spending that Obama said was only temporary. After all, that’s what we sent them there to do in the Great Shellacking of 2010. They have a clear mandate, one of the clearest in a generation. What this administration is doing with regard to the budget is bordering on can abuse.
They could claim that all these cuts were the direct result of Obama’s refusal to recognize fiscal reality, because they’d be right. They could just say that they’re helping Obama do what he said he’d do, namely cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term.
Remember that?

They’d just be doing it in a slightly different way, the way you and I would do it with our household budgets, by cutting unnecessary spending. You know, the right way, with no smoke or mirrors and no class warfare.

Cut the EPA’s budget? Done. Ditto with the Departments of Energy, Education, Agriculture, and all the other departments that are duplicated by the states.

And here’s the biggie: Defense. I’m not really sure we should be cutting the Pentagon’s budget, what with Obama’s habit of engaging us in a new kinetic military action against regimes that don’t pose an imminent threat to us every six months or so.

Wouldn’t be prudent. If you want to cut defense, make damn sure it’s the waste that we’ve all heard so much about, not body armor for our troops.

Rick Santelli, the CNBC correspondent who is largely responsible for the current Tea Party movement, puts it best:

The answer is easy: spend less. . . .


Stop spending. Live within your means. I think what we need to do is live within the revenue intake, . . . end of story and do not ask taxpayers for more money or increase the debt ceiling until you give us a budget. . . .

There’s a right way and a wrong way to do just about everything, especially in Washington. We’re seeing the dismal results of doing it wrong for two and a half years now.

It’s time to start doing something right for a change.



Oh, and remember that chart I was going to create that showed the correlation between increased spending and the increase in unemployment? Someone beat me to it. It also shows the dropoff of the rate at the end of 99 weeks, just as it should.

Friday, July 8, 2011

Friday Bits of Tid - End of the Shuttle Era Edition

It's about three hours until liftoff as I type this and I have the NASA channel on in the background. Shuttle launches are always interesting for a space geek like me, but this one is sad as it's the last Shuttle flight ever. Living where I do, I can walk out the front door and see it live. But it's really cloudy, so I might not be able to see today's launch.

It's unfortunate that what was once a vital area of federally funded research and development has been fundamentally transformed into something far less than it was originally intended. It's one of the few government programs that has earned its keep, so to speak, as the tax money that was generated from the spinoffs paid for the costs many times over. Also sad is that the agency which once pursued the best and brightest engineers and technicians in America has been reduced to a muslim outreach agency by this most anti-American administration.

So much for dancing on my soapbox this morning. I wish the crew Godspeed and His Protection.

Someone remind me to recall for you my adolescence spent in Huntsville, AL and later working at Marshall Space Flight Center. Good geeky times.

Oh, well, it's time for some Low Earth Orbit tidding.

While we're on the subject of flight, this is a welcome development. It's about time we finally got our flying car after all these years. Dear Santa, I've been a really good Boy this year...

And on the other end of the technological spectrum, there's this: Mother Nature's lawnmowers.

Halt! Or I'll shoot a fade shot over these trees and onto the fairway.

A boob on wheels. And, no, it's not the guy behind you in traffic.

Duckling tape.

From David Thompson comes this fascinating video. I hope your computer has the display capacity to enjoy all the high definition goodness. The music is also pretty cool.


Team Ghost - High Hopes from 16ar on Vimeo.


David's Friday Ephemera is full of interesting links, from which I filched these also...

Who knew Marlon Brando was a conga player and also worked on a unique way to tune the head?

So this is what happens when I hit my cymbals, huh?



And this is what happens when I play my bass...

And finally, here's Halo, the pool playing dog.



Now go fetch me a beer. Good dog!

Y'all have a good weekend, y'all.

Thursday, July 7, 2011

A Pre-Friday Post Wherein This Looks Like a Real Blog

Another short post as I must lay my good friend to rest today. So instead of the usual biting insights into the state of American politics, I'll do my best Instapundit imitation for you. Kinda sorta.

First on the list is my favorite hangout, Ace of Spades HQ. Rumor has it that somebody named Andrew Breitbart likes the commenters there. That place is like mental Wheaties. Or going to a biker bar where all the patrons are Mensa members.

One of our own, The Wordy Bitch. Ima, you do realize we're probably related, since we're both from Alabama, don't you?

I know I'm in the minority as a conservative musician. Here's another one, Right Wing Rocker.

Here's a new site from the Cato Institute, Downsizing the Federal Government. And similar site, Dirty Spending Secrets.

When I get enough energy and time, I'll put these links in the sidebar.

Here's a few things I've been thinking about posting about. So much malfeasance, so little time...

Victor Davis Hanson's Fourth of July treatise, Liberal Frankensteins. Not Fronkenshteens?

Enemies. Here's a snippet...

These so-called “progressives” or “liberals” are not advocates of progress or liberty: they are enemies of them, and the sooner champions of liberty acknowledge what they are, the better our slim chances for defeating them will be.
I'm looking forward to more of this sentiment inside the hallowed halls of Congress.

What if the conventional wisdom about the energy future of America and the world has been completely wrong? This, however, sounds about right - the cost to transition to the so-called "green economy" is around $76T, with a "T", dollars.

Nancy Pelosi is still the least popular House leader. In other news, water is wet.

Yet another reason to fight Net Neutrality: Documents show the FCC coordinated with a far left-wing organization (is there any other kind?) on the rules. Gee, it's almost like the average American doesn't have a voice in Washington. And another thing, embedding YouTube videos may soon become a felony.

OK, gentle readers (of which one more is added to the roll this week, thanks), click and enjoy while I attend to familial duties here.

My friends are my family.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

The 112th Congress is the Least Productive in Years – Thank Goodness!

Kathleen Hennessey, reporterette for the LA Times, penned this little piece over the weekend. She thinks that Congress is falling down on the job by not being “productive.”

She actually tries to makes it sound like a bad thing…

The 112th Congress is on pace to be one of the least productive in recent memory — as measured by votes taken, bills made into laws, nominees approved. By most of those metrics, this crowd is underperforming even the "do-nothing Congress" of 1948, as Harry Truman dubbed it. The hot-temper era of Clinton impeachment in the 1990s saw more bills become law.
She goes on to say this –

Experts cite the rise of a brand of conservatism that aims for a government that governs least.
Um, Katy, that’s not “a brand of conservatism,” that is conservatism in its purest form.

It’s clear from her article that Hennessey, like many others, doesn’t understand the very simple founding principle of our government: we are free unless there is a law that specifically prevents a certain action. This is what our current Commander-in-Chief meant when he called our Constitution a document of “negative liberties.”

From the American Thinker link,

…Government does some things which reduce our private rights and yet which increase the common good. Politics is all about where the boundary between broad notions of promoting the general welfare by state coercion and preserving liberty should be. Politicians on the Left have often argued that liberty should be reined in more tightly so that "the people" can live better. But implying that more state power somehow increases liberty is beyond mere Leftism. It is entry into that dead realm of [Orwellian] Newspeak in which language is pureed into nonsense, and then nonsense is presented as argument.
Now this may not seem very important on the surface, but it’s the main reason why we’re staggering under the weight of unprecedented intrusion into our daily lives from the federal government. Soon, we won’t be able to purchase 100-watt incandescent light bulbs. Traditional propellants used in aerosol cans have been outlawed, forcing much more expensive alternatives to be used. Asthma inhalers have more than doubled in price as a result, making formerly affordable relief difficult or even impossible for many. Gasoline is now blended with ethanol, which is less efficient and results in poorer gas mileage and damage to older fuel systems, again the product of legislation from Capitol Hill. Additionally, the seasonal formulations required for gas adds to the price we pay at the pump.

There are many more examples, but the trend is alarmingly clear: we are allowing those we send to Washington to legislate our freedom away at a frightening pace. Much of the reason for the increased price of consumer goods today is the direct result of misguided laws enacted by zealous representatives in Washington who think they are doing the people’s will by enacting as many laws as possible.

This is the primary reason why Obama and the Left received such a “shellacking” in the 2010 midterm elections. It signaled an awakening of we the people to the dangers of a far-too-large federal government and the desire to stop the rampant trampling of our freedom by Progressives in Congress.

So, what the Left sees as a failure, conservatives rightly see as a victory. Slowing the rate at which we’re losing our freedom should be cause for celebration, not derision.

Hennessey’s article reveals quite a bit about the Leftist mindset, that government should be the sole dispenser of the rights of a people in direct contradiction to the intent of our Founders, namely that our freedom is inherent in our existence, given from God at birth, intended to be preserved by representatives who refrain from enacting laws which, under our form of government, rob us of that freedom.

This is the revolution that our forebears fought and died for. A new way of living, a first for mankind, beginning with the idea that man was naturally free, that freedom was no longer the benevolent allowance of an all-powerful monarch, to be dispensed as a reward for fealty to the king.

In other words, less is indeed more when it comes to our form of government. Less laws equal more freedom.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

The Fresh New Hell of Obamanomics

Here’s a little news to begin your workweek: President Obama’s own Council of Economic Advisors released its Seventh Quarterly Report on the impact of the Stimulus last Friday just as the long holiday weekend was beginning.
There was a reason for the timing of the report’s release: it’s pretty damning for the Obama administration. A quick perusal of the numbers combined with some simple math shows the Stimulus has resulted in the saving or creation of 2.4 million jobs at the cost of a mere $666 Billion dollars so far. Nice number, that last one.

OK, let’s see here, $666 Billion spent, divided by 2.4 Million jobs created equals, hmm, carry the two, divide by the square root of infinity, multiply by the number of Nancy Pelosi’s Botox injections and you get the answer: each job added only cost you $278,000!

Isn’t this math thingy fun?

Oh, wait, my calculator is starting to smoke and there are sparks coming from it. I coulda swore it just said, “Danger, danger Will Robinson!” I swear didn’t know calculators could talk.

Of course, any numbers that come from this administration will be revised soon, and those revisions will be “unexpectedly” worse. It’s almost like they can’t count, or something.

If you are fortunate enough to still have a job, then these numbers may not mean much to you. Perhaps the only thing you’ve noticed is that your paycheck doesn’t go quite as far as it did last year. Gasoline prices have only doubled on Obama’s watch. And actual inflation, measured the old way, has removed about ten percent of your buying power, not the “official” number of 1.5%.

“These things happen” may be your reaction. And you would be right, almost. In the past, our economy has had its ups and downs, as do all economies. But a curious thing has started to happen in the last, oh, twenty years or so. As we’ve seen a reduction in the stable base of our economy, more and more of our economy has become dependent upon disposable income.

Now you may remember what disposable income is, or at least was. It’s that part of your money that’s left over after you pay for the things you have to have in order to live: your mortgage or rent, groceries, clothes, gas, the car payment. Overhead, it’s commonly called. Now these expenses are pretty much fixed, unless you need a home or car repair of some sort. What remains is your “disposable income.” Most families spend that money on things that aren’t essential, like IPods or going out to the movies, or a vacation.

So when your overhead increases, say, it costs more for groceries and gas, it means you have less money left over for the “nice to have” items. So, a larger part of our economy has become dependent on disposable income, which tends to fluctuate a pretty good bit. This is a big reason for the bubbles that have occurred in our economy. Instead of showing gradual and steady growth over the long term, we now see sharp spikes and deep drops as bubbles form and are eventually deflated. And when they do deflate, the results are becoming more destructive.

Those of you who were around at the time might remember the “dot-com” bubble of the ‘90’s. More recently, we’ve seen the “housing bubble” where home prices started to rise well above the four or five percent annual appreciation that we once counted on. New home prices began their sharp upward climb and when that bubble burst, it sent the entire economy into a tailspin that we’re still struggling to pull out of.

Now, what separates the housing bubble from previous downturns is the direct role of Washington and its meddling in the economy. It was a direct result of a little known piece of legislation passed during the Jimmy Carter administration called the Community Reinvestment Act. I’ve touched on this before.

While the basic idea of this act was commendable, its execution was, and is, deeply flawed. Basically, it forced banks to change the formula they previously used to qualify folks seeking home loans. You may remember how easy it was to get a home loan a few years ago. The requirements were relaxed to the point that you didn’t even need to prove you had income, a marked departure from the previous standard that normally required a sample of your blood and some sort of claim by the bank on your firstborn child.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with encouraging Americans to own a home. It’s the bedrock of our economy and way of life. But instead of measures that insure a strong economy with a diversity of job opportunities for everyone, this law forced banks to lower their lending standards to include folks who previously wouldn’t have qualified for a home loan.

But that isn’t what you’ve heard as the reason for the housing market crash. What you’ve heard from Democrats is the myth that deregulation and Wall Street greed is what caused it.

Don’t be fooled. Banks and major lending institutions knew they were now subject to new regulations that defied the laws of economics. So they devised some rather ingenious ways to package these worthless loans in an attempt to recoup some of the money they were forced to lose as a result of the CRA.

So, what we have here is a failure to communicate the truth in order to gain a political advantage over Republicans.

Not content with that, the Obama administration has tried to fix one problem caused by government interference in the economy with even more interference in the form of the failed Stimulus and the Frank-Dodd financial takeover of Wall Street.

The evidence of this failure is all around us. Although we’ve been told that the recession ended some time ago, job creation has been painfully slow to rebound. While our economy is indeed growing, it has yet to reach the level needed to keep up with population growth, around 2.6%. It may be technically correct that we’re no longer in recession, the efforts of this administration have proven to be insufficient to match the normal levels of growth that we’ve seen in previous recoveries.

It’s pretty clear that Obama’s approach to fixing our economy isn’t working as advertised. New laws and the regulations that flow from them are having the opposite effect as companies sit on money that would normally be invested in expansion. One business leader after another says essentially the same thing, “There’s far too much government meddling in our economy for us to expand and hire. We’re waiting for a more stable environment before we start to invest in America again.”

One of these days, when I can find all the information, I intend to present my Backwards Economic chart that shows the clear connection between the rise of government regulations and the fall of economic activity. It’s one of those things I know to be true, and you probably do, too, it just needs some numbers in order to be credible. There’s just no way Washington can create jobs except in Washington. Each new law and regulation that comes from there only serves one purpose: to restrict our economy.

The solution is simple. In order to get our economy back on track, there must be a drastic and immediate reduction in federal interference in the economy. That won’t be easy to do, especially with the prevailing attitude of this administration, summed up recently by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is that taxes cannot be cut because then “you have to shrink the overall size of government programs.”

Um, Timmy, that’s exactly what needs to be done.

Maybe it’s time to redefine the real difference between the public and private sector. We could do this by calling them the “productive” and “non-productive” sectors, since this is a much more accurate description of their economic roles.

Or maybe “normal people” and “government leeches.”