The Heartbreak of Newt

Heartbreak Awaits Republicans Who Love Gingrich: Ramesh Ponnuru - Bloomberg:

I don't particularly like reading this -- I don't trust Romney, and I generally like the quick wit and willingness to think outside the box that is Newt. Sadly though, Ramesh has a point. I'm starting to think in terms of how wonderful a cruise ship is to be on, but how if the ship were to sink, one would not turn down any piece that was floating -- even a primitive rubber raft would be "luxury" compared to drowning in the ocean at night. Yes, I know, that is unfair to drowning, BO is much worse than that, but it is a start.

My favorite paragraph is the following:

Conservatives who dislike George W. Bush’s compassionate conservatism have Gingrich to thank for it. After Gingrich lost the budget battles with President Bill Clinton, it took 15 years for any politician to take up the cause of limited-government conservatism that he had discredited.

Newt very much lost the hearts and minds on smaller government. Being a Republican is means you deal with the burden of the liberal MSM -- so it is VERY hard, but it is a task that comes with Republican leadership. Newt let the discussion go to where the Republicans took all the blame for the "cuts" (reducing the rate of growth) in spending, and Slick took all the glory for the very short lived internet bubble capital gains "surplus". 100% as illusionary as the W '07 $165B housing bubble deficit number.

My heart still pines for Newt, but next to drowning in the icy cesspool of BO II, Romney is starting to look like at least a piece of driftwood -- if not a nascent rubber raft.

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REPORTED Income Inequality

Alan Reynolds: Tax Rates, Inequality and the 1% - WSJ.com:

The drunk who lost his keys up the street, but is looking under the street lamp because the light is better there comes to mind. There is a human propensity to look at what we measure and forget all the impact that our actions may have had on changing measured values. We changed tax rates since '79, and we famously lowered them again in '01 -- surprise, the REPORTED income equality went up in each case. 

One way of looking at REPORTED inequality is that when tax rates on the wealthy are "favorable", they will actually report the income and pay the tax. When the rates aren't, the business will buy another truck, retain the earnings, etc, or the person will take some of the income in stock, insurance, invest in tax free bonds vs stock, etc.

Being rich, like being heathy, presents one with more options. In my mind, by definition, if you are rich, you don't HAVE to work -- but if the taxes are reasonable enough, you may decide to do so. 

The larger truth is that recessions always destroy wealth and small business incomes at the top. Perhaps those who obsess over income shares should welcome stock market crashes and deep recessions because such calamities invariably reduce "inequality." Of course, the same recessions also increase poverty and unemployment.

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Dilbert Summary of Revolution

Occupy Dilbert | Power Line:

Pretty much covers it!!

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"All In Good Time My Sweetie"

Pelosi: I’ll reveal information on Gingrich 'when the time is right' - The Hill's Blog Briefing Room:

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Eastern Europe Gets It

Georgia On My Mind | Power Line:

When many of the lefties were talking about leaving the US when W was re-elected, but then few (any?) of them did, one wondered where they might go??

In case BO is re-elected and the flame that was liberty in America actually sputters out, it appears that Reagan successfully sowed a better understanding of the facts of freedom than is generally left here in the US. Sad, but also in a strange way gratifying.

It is always nice to see the flame of freedom passed on to new vistas.

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Charles on Newt and Mitt

Mitt vs. Newt - The Washington Post:

The eternal question of the heart vs the head. Charles is an optimist -- he believes that America can return from BO's FIRST term. I'm not so sure, but it is what it is now. He is certainly right that a second would be both unconscionable and unsurviveable.

So the adult answer is Mitt. Ah, but the heart yearns for the fire, the comebacks, the "in your face", the "risk factor" of Newt.

There can really only be one acceptable answer. Damn that heart!!!

"If Obama wins, he will take the country to a place from which it will not be able to return (which is precisely his own objective for a second term).

Every conservative has thus to ask himself two questions: Who is more likely to prevent that second term? And who, if elected, is less likely to unpleasantly surprise?"

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FOX Calls Michelle Obama "Lyin Ass Bitch"

NBC apologizes to Bachmann over song - CNN.com

Oh, OOPs!! It was Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Michelle Bachman, and just the song ... sorry. Oh, and they apologized!

No story here, move along ... and I'm sure if it had been FOX and Michelle, the an apology would be just fine as well.

We live in a civil and reasonable country after all.

Liberal Land

RealClearPolitics - Alice in Liberal Land:

He left out what I notice most about liberal land -- if you actually want to do anything, you have to run twice as fast due to all the regulations and taxes.

"The history of the 20th century is a painful lesson on what happens when collective choices replace individual choices. Even leaving aside the chilling history of totalitarianism in the 20th century, the history of economic central planning shows it to have been such a widely recognized disaster that even communist and socialist governments were abandoning it as the century ended.

"

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Is $1.6 Million Warm?

James Hansen and the Corruption of Science | Power Line:

Oops, James Hansen, one of the big Warmists "forgot" to report $1.6 Million in income. I'm sure he is a Democrat, so at least it isn't "illegal" -- as near as I can tell, if you are a good enough Democrat, taxes are at best "optional" ... Tom Daschle, Tim Geitner, Warren Buffett, and many many more just over the past few years.

The thing is, is it even POSSIBLE that a Warmists views could be influenced by cash?

Nah, never mind. No story here ... let's move along and talk about the evil of the Koch Brothers!

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BO On Spending

Kicking our spending habit - Opinion - The Boston Globe:

Here is BO talking of spending ... and the article covers what he has done. Biggest spender in history, and HOW would one ever trust him???

"We cannot simply spend as we please and defer the consequences to the next budget, the next administration, or the next generation,’’ Obama told a White House summit on fiscal responsibility . “You don’t spend what you don’t have.’"

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Malice or Incompetence?

Obama’s Job-Destroying Machine Grinds On | Power Line:

The rule is never pick malice unless incompetence has been disproven ... but 100's of thousands of jobs and tremendous economic potential are being at least delayed if not destroyed under BO. In the final analysis does it make any real difference if the US economy was killed by incompetence or malice??

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Politics Over Jobs

The Pipeline Sellout - Charles Krauthammer - National Review Online:

Must read column. There is no need to listen to any more BO rhetoric about "Republicans playing politics" after this. This helps NOTHING environmentally ... it just means that the oil goes to China rather than our refineries. It probably HURTS it because I doubt if China's refineries or cars are as "green" as ours. Killing jobs for NOTHING ... except votes, and we know that is ALL that really matters to a politician.

"Sure, the pipeline would have produced thousands of truly shovel-ready jobs. Sure, delay could forfeit to China a supremely important strategic asset — a nearby, highly reliable source of energy. But approval was calculated to be a political loss for the president. Easy choice.

It’s hard to think of a more clear-cut case of putting politics over nation. This from a president whose central campaign theme is that Republicans put party over nation, sacrificing country to crass political ends."

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America's Criminal Class

Sarah Palin: How Congress Occupied Wall Street - WSJ.com:

Good article, no matter how much you love or hate Sarah. After awhile one would think that Americans would get sick of serial mashers like Slick Willie going to Washington as the dirty poor and coming out as the dirty rich.

The Washington Pols make Wall Street "insider trading" look like "whispering in class" by comparison to the Washington methods, which have a lot more in common with the Mafia than anything in civil society.

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Why We Need Common Sense

Why We Need Occupy Wall Street:

Warren Buffet, richest man in the US and tax dodger is STILL lamenting how much money he made (note, he isn't giving any to the US government, NOR is he going to given them any when he dies -- he is putting it into a FOUNDATION, NOT into inheritance taxes!!). That is one reason we need OWS?? Oh, the other is because the President of the Reserve Bank in Dallas called for breaking up some of America's big banks. That, and the fact that Republicans are still fighting the idea of raising taxes in a recession.

One "good" thing that OWS has done is increased the number of articles on Inequality! Super. When the brokest nation on earth just keeps getting broker, with NOTHING to show in real spending cuts after the 2010 landslide for Republicans, unemployment still hovers at 9%, public unions are still winning votes in OH and BO recently shot us in the forehead by delaying the Keystone Pipeline -- but SUPER, we have more articles on "inequality".

It is the INCOME part that we ought to be worried about ... as in we need LOTS more of it and all our actions -- including trying to "spread the wealth" are very likely to get us less of it as a nation. One can't re-distribute what they don't have!!!

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Christian Hate Speech?

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