Audacity of Hope 2, The Scent of BO

One of the hardest things about BO is going to be to pin him down (kinda like "where is that coming from?"). He makes Slick Willie look positively "direct" by comparison. He tries to come off as a sort of "Rational Liberal" as kind of a book-end to W's "Compassionate Conservative". If voting Democrat when you were young proved you had a heart, and voting Republican as you matured proved you had a brain, W and now BO say "We are BOTH a floor wax AND a desert topping, have your heart, have your head, vote for us".

I believe that W actually was a "uniter" with his attempts to improve education for all Americans and "leave no child behind", very expensive drug benefits for Seniors and spending for lots of favorite lefty programs, the Democrats decided early on that they were going to fight him tooth and nail, and in the end, all of his "olive branches" amounted to nothing but alienation of his far right base while not gaining a vote in the middle-thus a 30% President.

The media will go all the way to make BO seem as moderate as they can, but the book is relatively clear that he is looking to find SOME way to get rid of any last vestiges of Republicans and gives a few hints as to how:

• Make sure to play the race card for all it is worth while not seeming to play it. On page 27 he gives the famous Johnson statement that as transmitted to that bastion of reliability Bill Moyers, that with the stroke of a pen he had just delivered the South to the GOP for the forseeable future. On the next page though, he admits that "most Southern Democratic Congressmen who chose to stay in party would retain their seats on the strength of incumbency". The nice thing about being a liberal is that an obviously incorrect statement (the Democrats held the House of Representatives until 1994) can be used over to make the even grander point that "Republican's are racist". It is a nice game if you have the MSM on your side and not a lot of critical thinkers in your constituency.
• So why were so many people "misled" to vote Republican? "The violence in the streets and the excuses for such violence in intellectual circles, blacks moving in next door and white kids bused across town, the burning of flags and spitting on vets, all of it seemed to insult and diminish, if not assault, those things-family, faith, flag, neighborhood, and for some at least, white privilege-that they held most dear. NOTE, it only "seemed to insult and diminish" and he mentions race twice here. I imagine that disagreement with the "Pope of Hope" here is tantamount to racism in itself. The evil right as been warned.
• "...as disturbed as I might have been by Ronald Reagan's election in 1980, as unconvinced as I might have been by his John Wayne, Father Knows Best pose, his policy by anecdote, and his gratuitous assaults on the poor, I understood his appeal." Naturally, BO has no "pose"-unless all knowing, all seeing, perfectly correct on all issues isn't in fact true, but I don't see how that could be. He IS the messiah isn't he? Very much of a "uniter" to try to claim that Reagan made "gratuitous assaults on the poor"-Slick Willie must have REALLY been guilty on that front, he signed welfare reform. "Reagan spoke to America's longing for order, our need to believe that we are not simply subject to blind, impersonal forces but that we can shape our individual and collective destinies..." So I assume that BOs view is that we ARE simply subject to these forces and we CAN'T shape our destinies? We need BO to do that for us I imagine-apparently omnipotence comes with his omniscience.
• "It is such doctrinaire thinking and stark partisanship that have turned Americans off politics. This is not a problem for the right; a polarized electorate-one that easily dismisses both parties because of the nasty, dishonest tone of the debate-works perfectly well for those who seek to chip away at the very idea of government. After all, a cynical electorate is a self-centered electorate." Hmm, Both Reagan and Bush presided over HUGE increases in government spending. The turnout in at least 2004 was a long term record and Bush won something that Clinton NEVER did, over 50% of the popular vote with much larger turnouts than Clinton. By making claims about the right that are clearly false, isn't BO trying a little "polarization" on his own? Since he is omniscient, he can't be just "mistaken", so isn't he being "nasty, dishonest and cynical" as he makes these claims that he must know to be false?

I could go on, but basically the only thing new about BOs leftism is that it is re-branded as being less ruthless and "all about BO" than the Clinton's brand--being less ruthless and narcissistic than the Clinton's isn't really all that much of a trick, and they had 8 years in the WH to really hone their sorry act. BO is just getting going, I expect a definite unmistakable stench increase. Just this week we find that he is using "campaign talk" to claim that he would get out of NAFTA, while telling Canada he would do no such thing. When reporters focused on this and the buddy that helped him buy his house, sold him some land for a good price and gave him $150K for campaigns (on the books), he walked out of the press conference.

Beneath the thin veneer of obfuscation beats the heart of a really shifty SOB that certainly is at least just as much concerned about the "vast right wing conspiracy" as old Hillie. Naturally, the NYT, NPR, ABC, CBS, etc are "unbiased" and there is no such thing as "the left". Same old worldview, new smile and more explicit press worshipfulness. We have the seeds of fascism, let us hope we don't smell the flower.

It's 3AM

I doubt he really bothers to call, but hey, it is funny.

Problems in Messiah Land?

One wouldn't expect a Democrat messiah to be sinless, so this should come as no surprise.

Seems like one of St Obama's best buds is under investigation for extortion and money laundering in good old 100% Democratic "bring out the dead vote" Chicago. I suppose we will hear that this too is somehow "politically motivated"-maybe some of the Democrat dead vote are mad about Obama not bringing them back to life yet? Not only that, one of his campaign cronies apparently told a Canadian Government official that the talk about bailing out of NAFTA was just "campaign rhetoric" (for those Democrat readers, were a Republican to do the same thing, that would be called a "lie"-the term is just different since Obama has a D after his name)

Seems like the national media remains uninterested. I haven't heard if he has healed any sick or raised any dead yet, but based on the media view I'm sure that can't be far away.

Nasty Chemical

If you happen to run into this stuff, throwing sand on it won't "put it out"
Clorine Triflorine

Audacity of Hope 1

The future will likely re-title this tome "The Audacity of Despair,  if there is enough freedom left in America to allow it after this demagogue gets through. He finally defines what he says he means by the title of his book on p 356

"The audacity of hope. That was the best of the American spirit, I thought-having the audacity to believe in spite of all the evidence to the contrary that we could restore a sense of community to a nation torn by conflict; the gall to believe despite personal setbacks, the loss of a job or an illness in the family or a childhood mired in poverty, we had some control-and therefore responsibility-over our own fate.

It was that audacity, I thought that joined us as one people."

Whew, after all that talk of "shared values" in the book, there it was, although there was little in the book about personal responsibility and incentives. The book was about government and unions being able to solve just about any ill in the universe. One would think that we could just pass a law that everyone be wealthy, fulfilled, well educated, loved, happy, and have a meaningful life.

For me, the central message of the book was on page 57:

Unfortunately, too often in our national debates we don't even get to the point where we weigh these difficult choices. Instead, we either exaggerate the degree to which policies we don't like impinge on our most sacred values, or play dumb when our own preferred policies conflict with important countervailing values. Conservatives, for instance, tend to bristle when it comes to government interference in the marketplace or their right to bear arms. Yet many of those same conservatives show little or no concern when it comes to government wiretapping without a warrant or government attempts to control people's sexual practices. Conversely, it's easy to get most liberals riled up about government encroachment in freedom of the press or a woman's reproductive freedoms. But if you had a conversation with thise same liberals about the potential costs of regulation to small business owner, you will often draw a blank stare.

In a country as diverse as ours, there will always be passionate arguments about how we draw the line when it comes to government action. This is how democracy works. But our democracy might work a bit better if we recognized that all of us possess values that are worthy of respect: if liberals at least acknowledged that the recreational hunter feels the same way about his gun as they feel about their library books, and if conservatives recognized that most women feel as protective of their right to reproductive freedom as evangelicals do of their right to worship."

Whew! First of all, it is important to recognize that for all of that text he said precisely NOTHING. He started talking about "facing hard problems", touched on a number of points ... gun rights, wiretapping, abortion, maybe gay marriage (although hard to tell), but took NO POSITION AT ALL! This is "core Obama".

However, my take is he is trying to make subtle points to all. He is telling HUNTERS that they will still have guns, but unfortunately our founding fathers always thought THAT was a GIVEN! The purpose of the right to bear arms is to convince the government that there are points to which they better not push an armed populace. Since he mentions "hunters", the gun control lobby can choose to believe that he is signaling that he may support removal of all guns except those explicitly required to hunt (maybe we can check them out at the local hunting preserve).

On the surface he seems "reasonable" and "moderate" ... he points out faults in both sides, however like most of his writing, the best guess is that is purely a ruse. Are conservatives really in favor of "wiretapping without a warrant"? Nope, in general they are fine with listening in on cell phone calls to known terrorists, which seems pretty different from "wiretapping". Wiretapping is more like warrantless collection of financial data on income, interest and stock sales (which the government does all the time!). Exactly what might he mean by "controlling sexual practices"? gay marriage? Is marriage a "sexual practice"? It used to be a legal arrangement designed to create families, but I'm not exactly sure what that has to do with gay marriage or sexual practices.

Notice his claim that "liberals" get riled up about "freedom of the press". Conservatives don't? In fact, I wonder who would get most riled up about putting the "Fairness Doctrine" back in place? I'm betting it won't be those defenders of press freedom the liberals. I love "reproductive freedoms" ... he of course means abortion on demand at any point in the pregnancy. Wow, liberals don't adequately care about the cost of government regulation.

Most chilling of all, a recreational hunter FEELS about his guns as a liberal feels about library books? Uh, this guy is a genius? So the founding fathers found it important to protect the "feelings of recreational hunters" in the CONSTITUTION? I wonder if any conservatives are smart enough to "care about library books"? Apparently not. I guess we are only smart enough to hunt in his mind.

Women feel about abortion as evangelicals feel about worship? I guess that one is more apt from a liberal point of view, as they consider abortion a sacrament - although he misses the point that most evangelicals don't have any sacraments. I suspect he let a little bit of whatever he has that is somewhat like a soul slip through on that one. You can pretty much directly see that he finds an equation with the importance of worship and the importance of abortion to be reasonable in his universe.

His aim is for all the sheep to find him "reasonable". He constantly "covers" both sides (in his own biased way), but in the end you can tell that his real answer is that the farthest left is the "truth". He "sees all views", it is just that the right, business, the founding fathers, and anybody that doesn't agree with Obama is wrong. The only issue is to buy or fool enough votes to make his "truth" the policy of the nation. Sadly, it looks like he is well on his way.

Discover Your Inner Economist

I can't recommend this book by Tyler Cowan. I'm sure the guy is hugely intelligent and would be a lot of fun to chat with, but the book has such a complete lack of focus that it was hard to make it through.

He makes some points that I was relatively familiar with, but they are worth repeating:

"I believe we must learn what can be obtained by exchange-monetary or otherwise and what we cannot trade for. The central concept of economics is not money but rather incentives. Quite simply, an incentive is anything that motivates human behavior, or encourages an individual to make one decision rather than another."

"One of the most important lessons of economics is how to cope with scarcity. Economics developed out of a recognition of that fact that many things worth having don't just fall into our laps in the course of our everyday lives. The real purpose of economics is to get more of the good stuff in life."

"It is a profoundly important fact that you can't understand how incentives work if you don't understand the importance of a respect for human liberty"

I'd argue that the last point is the point at which liberals really part company with economics. To them, "human liberty" would actually mean "freedom from incentives" - all the "good stuff" would be a "right" and incentive could be better described as "a whim". What they believe they want is a "right to happiness", not a "right to PURSUE happiness". They mistake liberty for entitlement and fail to realize that the result of their pursuit is TYRANNY. Equality of opportunity is heaven, equality of result is hell.

They also tend to lament "how important money is", which means that they understand neither money or life in the US today, since we still have a good deal of personal liberty. Nobody is forced to drive, use electricity, modern medicine or much of anything in our society. Availability of something is neither encouragement or license. The success of our system creates huge OPPORTUNITY, and if one wants to take advantage of those opportunities, THEN money is very useful. It is however YOU that makes that money "important" by what parts the overflowing cornucopia of goods and services you feel "incented" to want.

To live in a culture with liberty means that some will find that money is "too important"
and others will find that leisure or religion or education or books or computing or technology or environmentalism or politics or ?? is "too important" or not important enough. That is essentially what liberty means-"the freedom to think or be different", and as long as liberty exists, there will be disagreement-on priorities, limits on liberty, etc.

Liberals tend to see the "best way" to get our country back to be "less divided" is to remove some liberty-by say re-establishing the "fairness doctrine" so a set of conservative views were no longer presented, removing this blog from the internet, reducing the number of kids that are home schooled or in private schools, taking some money away from those who earn it, or 1000s of other ways.

We live in a looking glass world where "liberals" as strongly put off by the availability of Fox news, talk radio or internet blogs. "Liberal" may be a nicer sounding name for that sentiment, but what it is really is TOTALITARIAN. Liberty means MORE difference, dissension, argument and disagreement, not less!

Obama Islam

I'm nearly through "Audacity of Hope" and got to have a conversation with my son on Iraq last night. I was struck how closely both he and Obama's view 100% reflect the mass media view:

1). Islam is a religion of peace, we have nothing to fear from Islam
2). Radicalization is all due to US and other Western involvement in the mideast. If we would leave them alone, there would be no issues.
3). Bush is as fault for making us far less secure, if there should be any problems in the future, they will be due to the war in Iraq

I look at those points and think of my view of current events:
1). We were attacked on 9/11 less then 8 full months since Bush took office, yet we have not been attacked since. Therefore we are LESS safe and if we are attacked in the future our best way to understand that will be just "it is Bush's fault"?
2). Obama mentions the attack on Bali in 2002 (he spent time in Indonesia in his youth). He also mentions that Indonesia is increasingly Muslim, and yes, it his thesis that us going on offense in Iraq has made us less safe. Did Bali send in troops?
3). Obama makes the claim that "in Cairo Muslims prayed for the US after 9/11" in concert with trying to both praise the immediate handling of 9/11 in the book and yet criticize it. (apparently the core of "Audacity of Hope" is to claim to be on all sides of an issue yet reflexively take the most far left position in each case and call it "moderate"). He completely fails to mention that in MANY places they danced in the streets celebrating "death to America" as well. Since 9-11 we have had Al Quaeda bombings Bali, Spain and Britan. We have waited in vain for the so-called "modertate Muslims" to rise up and decry the "hi-jacking of their religion by radical forces against the will of Allah".

We have however had some Danish cartoons that depicted Allah with a bomb in his turban and comments by the Pope that cited writings from the 14th century on the spreading of Islam by the sword. In both these cases the "Arab street" as well as Arab leadership acted quickly and loudly with violence and death threats, and in the Danish case, someone associated with the cartoonist was actually murdered.

What I personally conclude from this is:
1). There is absolutely zero evidence that at least modern Islam is a "religion of peace". There has been very close to zero outcry from the Arab street against Al Quaeda supposedly "hijacking their religion", yet loud demonstrations, statements and actual violence and threats of violence over cartoons and very non-inflamatory rhetoric in the case of the Pope. The "Arab Street" is paying attention, they "see" cartoons and comments by the Pope and react with anger and violence. They ALSO see attacks in Spain, Bali and Britain, yet even in this country their are no "moderate Muslim voices" that decry those attacks and certainly no "Arab Street" rising up to decry the "hijacking of their peaceful Religion". I can only conclude that Muslims are NOT offended by the use of violence in their name.

2). Even a cursory reading of Muslim history will lead you to a "House of Peace and a House of War". Look at WHY the Crusades started by looking at Moorish Spain and what was happening in the world at the time before you you come to the conclusion that all of the modern problems can be traced to "historical western meddling". The core of liberal foreign policy theology is "we don't really need to defend ourselves since all things that look like threats are really just "blowback", so as long as we stop using any military force globally we will be fine". I'd argue that the evidence that the evidence of "Balian Imperialism" is limited. Bali didn't even have a lot to do with the Crusades or the creation of hated Israel. Unlike Obama and the masses, I conclude that Muslims see "innocent infidel" as a complete oxymoron, and are perfectly willing to see plenty of "collateral damage" of Muslims killed in bombings and the WTC attack as well.

3). Muslims mean what I hear them saying. We are infidels and unless we bow to the will of Allah in matters as small as cartoons, speech (the Pope) and the treatment of women, we are in the "house of war".

So, I guess either Obama and the masses are wrong or I am. That is OK, I'll just keep reading, writing and observing. What I find most disconcerting from Obama about this is not the unwillingness to recognize any lessons from the bombings in Bali that affected him since he was familiar with the hotel that was bombed, but his pre-emptive view that the "Bush adventure in Iraq" increases the threat of violence against us. Bali was not in Iraq, yet they were attacked. We have NOT been attacked since 9/11, and we have been in Iraq since March of 2003. How is it observationally correct to conclude that going on offense against Al Quaeda is counterproductive? WORSE, at least my reading him, one would assume that if we ARE attacked in the future it will be written off as "Bush's fault". When we were attacked in 2001 was that Clinton's fault?

The Line Between Naive and Delusional?

From the Obama comment during the debate, it is obvious that he actually believed that Al Quaeda wasn't present in Iraq. The MSM is so amazingly credulous of His Royal Hopefullness that they never question his subsequent churlish claim; "Of course I know that Al Qaeda is in Iraq". Huh? So he claims that he would send in troops IF they were there, but claims he is going to WITHDRAW troops IMMEDIATELY day after day? But he is well aware that they are there? So is he lying or insane and does anyone in the MSM even care of which it is?

It seems pretty obvious that Obama just forgot the sleight of hand behind the left/MSM views on Iraq. Since Al Qeada WAS active in Iraq even before 9-11, the left was forced to fabricate a "re-branding" of "Al Qaeda in Iraq" as a similarly named but completely different group than the Osama Bin Ladin Al Qaeda.

Naturally, we are to pay no attention to the constant statements of brotherhood between the two groups and the fact that known Al Qaeda in Afghanistan terrorists have been killed in Iraq. Prior to the US invasion of Iraq, even the NYT and PBS agreed that Iraq had terrorist training camps. Naturally, when it became important for there to be "no reason for the US to be in Iraq", they managed to forget what their own reporting on the subject had been. When one is on the left, how one "feels" is WAY more important than any factual information.

Once it was pointed out to Osama Obama that he had erred from the fabrication, he panicked and just lied about "OF COURSE I knew that Al Quada is in Iraq". It is hard to sound smooth and hopeful when one is backpedaling on something that they obviously have no real thoughts on. I'm sure in fact there is no circumstance at all that B Hussien Obama ... or "BO" would defend America. I mean, it is a country that isn't even good enough for his wife to be proud of, it certainly isn't worth shedding anyones blood over!

It is fun to watch how the MSM protects their own. NOBODY in the media even THINKS to point out the absurdity of a guy that claims that he is going to withdraw troops immediately claiming that he will send them in IF Al Qaeda was in Iraq when anyone that is "reality based" knows that Al Qaeda is there already. They naturally just report it as some "McCain political sniping" and the sheep graze on in ignorace and Obama worship.

McCain Criticizes Obama on Al Qaeda

By JOHN M. BRODER

Published: February 27, 2008

Senator John McCain, looking ahead to a possible general-election matchup with Senator Barack Obama, attacked Mr. Obama on Wednesday for what he called a weak and naïve approach to the conflict in Iraq and the effort to combat international terrorism.

Seizing on a comment from Tuesday night’s Democratic debate, Mr. McCain, the presumed Republican presidential nominee, said that Mr. Obama’s plan to rapidly withdraw American troops from Iraq would leave the country in the hands of Al Qaeda and possibly other terrorist groups. 

In response to a hypothetical question at the debate, Mr. Obama said that although he intended to withdraw American forces as rapidly as possible, he reserved the right to send troops back in “if Al Qaeda is forming a base in Iraq.” 

Mr. McCain pounced on the remark. “I have some news,” he said at a town hall-style meeting in Tyler, Tex. “Al Qaeda is in Iraq. It’s called ‘Al Qaeda in Iraq.’ My friends, if we left, they wouldn’t be establishing a base. They’d be taking a country and I’m not going to allow that to happen.” 

Mr. Obama, in Columbus, responded soon after. “I have some news for John McCain,” Mr. Obama said at a large rally at Ohio State University. “There was no such thing as Al Qaeda in Iraq until George Bush and John McCain decided to invade Iraq.” 

Both men essentially ignored Mrs. Clinton, who was campaigning in Ohio on economic and trade issues. Mrs. Clinton, speaking to reporters Wednesday morning, said she was pleased with her debate performance and indicated she intended to pursue the nomination even if she loses the Ohio and Texas primaries next Tuesday. Her husband, former President Bill Clinton, said last week that she needed to win those contests to remain a viable candidate. 

“I think what’s important is that we have a lot of people yet to vote,” Mrs. Clinton told reporters traveling on her plane. “I’m doing everything I can to win. That’s what I intend to do.” 

She said she remained optimistic about the race because she is raising $1 million a day online. “People have just been really rallying to my candidacy,” she said.
Mr. Obama delivered one of his most aggressive critiques of Mr. McCain. For several minutes, Mr. Obama mocked his potential Republican rival as he answered Mr. McCain’s charge that he lacks sufficient foreign-policy experience for the presidency.
“I’ve been paying attention, John McCain,” Mr. Obama said, speaking to a crowd of 7,000 in the St. John Arena on the Ohio State campus. “So John McCain may like to say he wants to follow Osama bin Laden to the gates of Hell, but so far, all he’s done is follow George Bush into a misguided war in Iraq.”

Katharine Q. Seelye contributed reportiung.

Wishful Patriotism

The following from the WSJ gives a little insight into what "Obamanomics" might be like. Like a lot of Democrat thinking is is pretty much down the lines of "there is great plenty of everything, humans have no need of incentives and disincentives, there is no such thing as competition and the primary problem of government is one of redistribution". In a simple world like that, we can pretty much have success just by adding laws and bureaucracy. If such a world existed, I'm not at all sure if it would be heaven or hell, the only thing I'm pretty sure of after 50 years of life with 30 of them in corporate America while raising a family, is that this world isn't like that.

To attempt to link thinking about those largely economic issues with "Patriotism" seems WAY more disingenuous and divisive than the supposed Bush doctrine of calling the immediate surrender at all cost Democrats "unpatriotic". Just because somebody doesn't buy into the lefts latest concept of a lotus chewing nirvana where all needs are provided for by just pulling them out of the supposedly well larded coffers of American business seems questionable at best on the "can't we just all get along and sing cumbyah" path.

Anyone want to explain to me why it is "divisive" to question the patriotism of someone who claims that a war in which we are adding troops is "lost", but it is somehow "healing" to question the patriotism of businesses successfully operating, creating products, jobs and profits according to existing laws and practices.

Is it possible for everyone to have a whole lot more, do a whole lot less and accept a whole lot less risk? Gee, I hope so, that is why I'm in the technology business after all and during the 30 years I've been in that business we have certainly delivered. Everything to do with computers and electronic technology in general is 100's if not 1000's of times more capable and at prices that are typically 100ths or at least 10ths of what they were 30 years ago. (I paid nearly $5k for my first computer, a computer with 1000s of times more capability today costs well under $500 in dollars that are well inflated from the early 80's). I'd like to see someone claim that government could be innovative enough so that during the next 30 years my taxes will only go down by a mere 10x and my government services will only be a mere twice as good as they are now. I know I'm a softie, but given that government has less effective incentives and disincentives, I don't think they need to be held to anything like the standards that we in business live with every day.

I tend to believe it is very possible for the kind of economic growth that we have seen since 1980 to continue, but I also believe it is even easier to return to the stagflation of the 70's. It looks to me that Obama is headed back to the bad old days.

Obama's 'Patriot' Act

No, we're not talking about Barack Obama's opposition to the post-9/11 antiterror law. We're referring to the Senator's support for something called the Patriot Employer Act, which deserves more attention as an indicator of his economic agenda.

Along with Democratic co-sponsors Sherrod Brown and Dick Durbin, Mr. Obama introduced the bill in the Senate in August 2007. Recently in Janesville, Wis., he repeated his intention to make it a priority as President: "We will end the tax breaks for companies who ship our jobs overseas, and we will give those breaks to companies who create good jobs with decent wages right here in America."

Mr. Obama's proposal would designate certain companies as "patriot employers" and favor them over other, presumably not so patriotic, businesses.

The legislation takes four pages to define "patriotic" companies as those that: "pay at least 60 percent of each employee's health care premiums"; have a position of "neutrality in employee [union] organizing drives"; "maintain or increase the number of full-time workers in the United States relative to the number of full-time workers outside of the United States"; pay a salary to each employee "not less than an amount equal to the federal poverty level"; and provide a pension plan.

In other words, a patriotic employer is one which fulfills the fondest Big Labor agenda, regardless of the competitive implications. The proposal ignores the marketplace reality that businesses hire a work force they can afford to pay and still make money. Coercing companies into raising wages and benefits above market rates may only lead to fewer workers getting hired in the first place.

Under Mr. Obama's plan, "patriot employers" qualify for a 1% tax credit on their profits. To finance this tax break, American companies with subsidiaries abroad would have to pay the U.S. corporate tax on profits earned abroad, rather than the corporate tax of the host country where they are earned. Since the U.S. corporate tax rate is 35%, while most of the world has a lower rate, this amounts to a big tax increase on earnings owned abroad.

Put another way, U.S. companies would suddenly have to pay a higher tax rate than their Chinese, Japanese and European competitors. According to research by Peter Merrill, an international tax expert at PriceWaterhouseCoopers, this change would "raise the cost of capital of U.S. multinationals and cause them to lose market share to foreign rivals." Apparently Mr. Obama believes that by making U.S. companies less profitable and less competitive world-wide, they will somehow be able to create more jobs in America.

He has it backwards: The offshore activities of U.S. companies tend to increase rather than reduce domestic business. A 2005 National Bureau of Economic Research study by economists from Harvard and the University of Michigan found that more foreign investment by U.S. companies leads to greater domestic investment, and that U.S. firms' hiring of more offshore workers is positively, not negatively, associated with the number of American workers they hire. That's in part because often what is produced overseas by subsidiaries are component parts to final, higher-value-added products manufactured here.

Mr. Obama is also proposing to raise tax rates on affluent individuals, as well as on capital gains and dividends. This would also lead to more capital and jobs leaving the U.S. The after-tax return on U.S. investment would fall appreciably if these tax hikes were adopted, and no amount of tax-credit subsidy will keep capital from fleeing to lower tax jurisdictions.

If the U.S. didn't impose the second highest corporate income tax rate in the world, companies would have less incentive to move jobs overseas. Rather than giving politically correct companies a 1% tax credit, it makes more sense to reduce the U.S. corporate tax rate for everyone -- by at least 10 percentage points to the global average.

Economists have long understood that companies don't really pay taxes; they merely collect them. A study by the American Enterprise Institute has shown that U.S. workers bear the cost of the corporate income tax in lower wages and salaries. To borrow Mr. Obama's language, what's really unpatriotic is the 35% U.S. corporate tax rate.

See all of today's editorials and op-eds, plus video commentary, on Opinion Journal.

Glenn Beck, Defconomy

Ran into this out on the Web the other day. The Democrats have been in power for a year now in both houses at the Federal level and and at the state level here in MN. Here in MN they are in the process of raising taxes on gas, cars and sales in the face of an economy that has already started to sour. Are they responsible? I don't know, when Bush took over in 2001 he was considered instantly responsible for the economy that was in a slowdown.

The fact that we have both congress and an executive branch at both the federal and state levels makes it more complicated. Both share some of the blame/success when it is split, but I think it is relatively easy to figure out "who is in charge". In the late '70s, it was really easy - Democrats had it all, and we had predictable disastrous results. In the 80's, Democrats had the house all the way, but Reagan had a lot of sway due to big wins in '80 and '84 and the economy boomed as he got his way.

By '86 he was losing on the interim, got into Iran Contra, and the Democrats mostly took over-the economy cooled. Bush Sr took over in a time of Republican control sinking and his economy sank -- which he helped by giving in to tax increases. Clinton took over with all Dems in '92 and an economy that was already growing and into which the federal reserve dropped interest rates to some of the lowest levels ever (for reasons that I still don't completely follow) -- the country sputtered along and the Republicans took over both houses and held the upper hand with a growing economy and dropping government spending until '98 when their attempt to impeach Clinton failed and he received the complete support of the MSM. (one could argue that '94-'98 or '99 were the best combination times of economic growth and reduced RATE OF GROWTH in government spending that we have seen since prior to '29).

Enter Bush, during the first year he had no capability and inherited a recession. After 9-11 he gained power and so did the economy until '06 when he and the Republicans lost big -- by 2008, it appears the economy is losing as well, we can hope that loss isn't big, but it might be. It seems certain that we are going to have some level of recession and the Democrats will continue to raise taxes on those most capable to get us out of it (giving a re-bate to people who pay less taxes is a form of a tax increase).

Beck thinks that we will get to somewhere between "defconomy" 2-3. I'd like to hope that we don't even sink that low, but the country looks like it really thinks that it is time to teach "the rich" a lesson. Actually, "the rich" are usually those that already understand "the lessons" pretty well which is why they are "rich". Economic slowdowns always hurt the folks at the bottom of the ladder the worst, but on the bright side they DO cut income inequality.

The top of the ladder loses the most percentage and real dollars of wealth as the markets drop, but of course all that really means to them is that they reduce DISCRETIONARY spending until some the nation finally decides that "the lesson is over" and we worry more about making progress at all rather than who makes the most progress. After awhile, the "success" of the rich guy keeping the Lear in the hanger a few weeks out of the year while you stand in an unemployment line and turn down the heat seems a bit hollow. Envy can be fun, but paradoxically, reducing it often isn't.

I'd argue that Obama may be enough of a demagogue to even go beyond FDR though and get us to "Defconomy 0", where we follow the road to the gulag and kill as many of the "wealthy" as possible, or at least "re-educate them", while the borders completely break down, speech becomes controlled well beyond "hate speech" and the destruction of family and religion is carried out. I just finished his book. Only a totalitarian state has any prospect of getting close to the "shared values" that he thinks we all "share".

Maybe we have a slowdown, come to our senses in a couple years and throw the bums out in 2012 -- we really need to, I don't see Al Qaeda as going away, there are a lot of social security bills built up, and most of the baby boomers haven't seen fit to save more than $50K for retirement. If we think the cud chewing masses and central bureaucracy in Washington is going to take the place of innovation and hard work, it will be a long and depressing depression.

DEFCONOMY FIVE

How you'll know we're here: The housing downturn turns into a free fall, making it the worst collapse in our country's history. That not only triggers massive numbers of foreclosures and lost household wealth, but it also sets off another large wave of bank write-downs.

Odds we get here: Roubini told me that it's "extremely likely, even unavoidable" that we hit this stage because "the excess supply of new homes in the market is like we've never seen before." Prices, he believes, "need to fall another 10 to 20 percent before that clears."

• DEFCONOMY FOUR

How you'll know we're here: Americans upside-down on their mortgages and unable to pay their home equity loans begin defaulting on other debt, like credit cards, car loans and student loans. In addition, bond insurance companies lose their perfect credit ratings, forcing already troubled banks to write down another $150 billion.

Odds we get here: High. Roubini says that 8 million households are already upside-down on their mortgages and he thinks we could see that number go to between 16 million and 24 million by the end of 2009. A lot of those people, he believes, will simply walk away from their homes and send their keys back to the bank.

• DEFCONOMY THREE

How you'll know we're here: Some banks begin to crack under the pressure of continuing write-downs and mounting defaults by consumers. A national or large regional bank finally collapses, triggering hedge fund failures and general chaos on Wall Street, potentially leading to a 1987-style market crash.

Odds we get here: Very good. Roubini says that we'll likely socialize the losses, "effectively nationalizing the mortgages or the banks." It would be, he told me, "like Northern Rock (the large bank in England that was recently taken over by the British government) times three." He thinks the stock market will head south throughout the year as fears about a severe recession are confirmed.

• DEFCONOMY TWO

How you'll know we're here: Most forms of credit (both to consumers and businesses) become virtually nonexistent. That results in a "vicious circle" of additional write-downs, stock market losses, and bank collapses, which leads to even less credit being available.

Odds we get here: Good. Roubini says that credit conditions are becoming worse everyday across a variety of markets and won't be getting better anytime soon. Without extra credit available, people might have to actually (gasp!) live within their means.

• DEFCONOMY ONE

How you'll know we're here: Welcome back to 1929. A full economic meltdown results in a complete failure of the underlying financial system. What will be known to future generations as "The Greater Depression" has arrived.

Odds we get here: Not likely. Roubini believes that this will be a "very painful and severe recession" that could last for 18 months or more, but it will be more like 1981 than 1929. Families may be eating soup again, but at least it'll be in their own kitchens.

Now, do I think any of what you just read will happen?

I have no idea, and that's exactly the problem. I'm not an economist or a stockbroker; I'm just a guy trying to make the best decisions I can, and picking the brains of real experts helps me do that.

But I do know one thing for sure: Depressions aren't advertised in advance. Last time around we went from the Roaring '20s to bread lines in a matter of just a few years.

Anyone who says that can't happen again either doesn't know history, doesn't understand how interconnected the world's economies have become, or is lying to you. While that doesn't mean you should panic, it does mean you should prepare -- something my grandfather would've done a long time ago.

WFB RIP

William F Buckley passed away today at 82, dying while working at his desk. I suspect that other than maybe dying in church, that is probably as good as it could be for him, and there is nobody that deserves a passing as they would desire more. No doubt the quality of discussion in heaven has already improved immeasurably, and those of us still here have one more reason to keep the faith in order to able to meet a great man in eternity.

I've written about him in the Blog before. It was Jimmy Carter that made me realize in a negative way that I needed to pay more attention to political ideas, Buckley that led the way to the right theories, and Reagan that showed that those right theories worked in the real world. Unfortunately, during those years I also learned that for folks from the left, politics is a faith beyond religion, and no amount of the failure of their ideas or the success of their opposite will ever sway their opinion. If living through the time of Carter, Buckley and Reagan isn't enough to realize the error of modern liberal thought, neither fact nor superior argument will suffice.

I and the entire country owe WFB a gigantic debt for keeping the spark of conservatism burning through some dark days and then fanning that spark to become a prairie fire sweeping Reagan to the White House and returning Americato greatness and freeing millions of people around the globe from the scourge of communism. Those ideas rage on in global economic development far beyond the imagination of the Carters of the world.

Sadly WFB passes at a time when it appears that a return to the darkness is all but inevitable. His passing is a reminder that as long as the flame of truth is preserved the dawn can happen again. The torch needed to be passed to a new generation of folks with capabilities like Buckley and Reagan, but it appears that has not happened.

Accidental Election Results Leak

Somehow I don't think there will be any concern when Obama wins ...


Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results Of 2008 Election Early

Iron River

More pictures out here.

Great snowmobile trip to Iron River WI last week Wed PM to Saturday AM. Stayed at the Lumberman's Inn in Iron River for probably the last time. It used to be a great little motel with a nice restaurant next to it, but I suspect the mild winters of the past 10 years didn't do it any good.

Thursday AM was a bit chilly with about zero degrees as we went out to an excellent breakfast at the Rustic Roost. The Apex was a little cold blooded to start and we had to give it 10 min before the "wait" light went out, but it was fine the rest of the day. Drove over to Washburn and stopped for coffee. Rode up to Red Cliffs and made sure there had been a lot of folks on the ice (there had) before heading out. Got about 1/2 mile out and went into panic mode. The wind had cleared big sections of ice completely, 100 yards or more of pure black ice ... gave me a VERY uncomfortable feeling. Would have liked to have turned around, but really didn't want to because it SEEMED that those "might be thin", although one couldn't see just how.

About 2 miles out, off the end of one of the Islands, there were some guys fishing and I just had to stop to see if there were any known problems with the ice. Turned out that it was the In Fisherman trying to do some filming. I ought to have asked which stars were out there, but I was too interested in the ice. We were on 14" in 150' of water, it was one of those black ice areas, you could look right through it and see little bubbles under the ice -- not that comfortable of a feeling. That was least ice they had found, and they said folks had been driving all over for a month at least, if our sleds went through it had to be our time to go! We continued on down to the Bell Street Tavern on Madeline and had their excellent sweet potato fries.

Rode back over to Bayfield next to the ice road and enjoyed the great trails back to Iron River . 150 miles for the day. Some other guys from work were up there staying up near Washburn, but had a sled problem so I hauled their sled back up there in the trailer, about 80mi round trip, but nice to do a good deed for a fellow rider. We went out and ate at Deep Lake Inn, really super steaks, nice place. Slept like a rock.

Little trouble getting the Yamaha started again in the AM and we were all the way to me trying to tow the heavy beast and I burned my belt on the sled a bit. Learned a lesson when I changed it out on Saturday and rode down by Preston, even though it looked just fine, the new belt was MUCH smoother. Rode up to Port Wing and had a nice big blueberry pancake for beakfast. Six guys in their 20's eating in the next room having bloody mary's and talking smart -- having a fun time being young. We took off and rode on super trails across Valhalla over to the Pub and Grub near Washburn and had a nice lunch, then rode back into Iron River.

Sledding buddy was tired, so I stole the Apex and rode to Superior and back. Haven't been on it in awhile. I love my Fusion for seating position, ride, power, and especially lightness on the twisties, but on a flat firm trail the Apex is scary smooth. I like to cruise at 60 on my sled ... it feels great and that is fast enough. The Apex at 80 feels just like my sled at 60 ... it is like moving from a little rattletrap car to a nice SUV, it seems like you are crawling. I tried to still drive 60, but most times I would look down and be between 70-80 and have to slow down again. On the way back there was a .5 mil stretch where I could see there were no deer around and I had drove it going the other way for awhile -- 103MPH on a sled, fastest I've ever gone on one and it didn't even seem scary to look down -- no vibration, no ski chatter, no sense of it being "topped out" at all. With those snow conditions I have no doubt that one could get to 120MPH or more on that sled. Amazing.

Ate over at Ashland next ot the Best Western on the S end of the bay. Tasty, probably stay there next time we go up. Slept pretty good, but sleds were arriving every now and then after 12 with loud pipes and riders including the last set at 3AM. Got up and hit the road at 7, stopped for a good breakfast in the cities, pulled into home at noon. Marla wanted to ride, so I swapped her sled on the trailer, replaced my belt and we went down and put on 60 mi down by Fountain, Preston, Lanesborro with dinner at the Branding Iron in Preston.

Great snowmobile weekend, the 4-stroke Apex 150 HP Yamaha is easy to love when the trails aren't too twisty.

Liberals Switch Their Fantasies

It is interesting to see the NYT, NPR and lots of folks on the left re-assess the Clintons. I don't see anything that I haven't seen for 16 years from them. They have always been completely ruthless and "all about themselves". Is this something that has just dawned on the MSM and many Democrats? I suppose that as long as Bill and Hill were bashing Republicans, it seemed like just good old fashioned hardball politics, but I suppose once the their extreme nastiness the Clinton's started bashing their "Pope of Hope", the MSM / Democrat cabal suddenly thought the world looked different.

Unless Billary digs up solid evidence of Obama being into child porn or something similarly evil, "Obamamania" will continue run wild with the same level of intellectual realism as "Beatlemania", "Hulkamania" or other manias. After it runs it's course, we will have a hangover -- how serious the hangover is will remain to be seen, but unless he is "better than God" (God makes demands on everyone, not just "the rich"), he is guaranteed to be a HUGE disappointment. Much like stock market bubbles, mania is mania -- the results are predictable, it is only the extent that is in doubt. Krauthammer covers it well here.

No actual Republican can ever be prone to this kind of mania -- it is the domain of the Democrats, the "creative class". We like Star Trek, Moby Dick, and Wicked just as much or more as the most creative and hopeful, we just know that those are stories, and in the real world it is the common man that has to write the real scripts and keep the stage lights lit. I think the mania will likely work until something past the first 100 days this time, because a lot of folks really "want it to work". I always like it when Dorthy and Toto get home as well -- I just know it typically has a lot more to do with boring things like risk, reward, determination, commitment, delayed gratification, sacrifice, etc than it does with ruby red slippers.

How the MSM Shapes the Political Message

Here is an article that is related to the Michelle Obama Statement, titled "Cindy McCain, Michelle Obama in patriotism flap"

Why does a Democrat even NEED a political staff when they have the MSM? Here are some pointers on how the MSM acts as a massive Democrat assist:

• First, DON'T take direct MSM notice of what Michelle Obama herself said, NOT prompted in ANY WAY by "evil Republicans". She said it of her own free will, and when you watch the video, it is OBVIOUS that she meant what she said. Why not? She and Barak are obvious complete left wing partisans. They reviled Reagan I'm sure, HW Bush no diff for them, Billy C no doubt was WAY too centrist for them and W Bush was no doubt the worst of the bunch. If you are a partisan ideologue, it is "par for the course" to have "conditional love for your country". You love a country that agrees with you.
  
• When the Republican sees that this is going to be completely ignored and makes a fairly indirect comment on it, go after THEM ... insinuate it is THEY that are somehow "fighting dirty".
  
• "Consider it covered" ... for the few folks that even see this minor headline at all, they will never go off to the video and given the way it is written it will simply add to the traditional "Republican Dirty Tricks" -- everyone KNOWS that Republicans fight dirty, avoid the issues, etc. The MSM and the Democrats focus on the IMPORTANT stuff like if Nancy Reagan consulted astrologers or an affair with Frank Sinatra, Dan Quayle's failure to spell "potatoe", HW Bush not knowing the price of bread, or how well W did in the Air National Guard 30 years ago. Yes indeed, the Dems and the Media ALWAYS and ONLY focus on the important stuff!
  

It is very easy to see why the sheep believe what they believe, this is the only kind of "intellectual feed" that they get and it is hard to go searching for other pastures.