Hurricane BOnomics

Hurricane Obamanomics | Power Line

Somehow I suspect that if all it took to have a great economy was to spend future generations money, Portugal, Itally, Greece and Spain would have great economies ... instead, they have economies like we are heading for under BO. Maybe a successful economy just takes a wee bit more than massive deficits??? I wonder if Nancy, Harry and BO will ever be able to fathom that??

The Fair Is In August

Not Taking Other People’s Money | The Weekly Standard

Great article, just read it. A teaser:

If our system is not yet “fair,” what will make it so? If the top 5 percent paid 75 percent of the total? Or 95 percent? If they could, would it be ideal for the top 1 percent to carry all the rest of us so we could finally have a tax code that is “fair and balanced”?

The point of the "levelers" is that our system would not be "fair" until there was some arbitrarity tiny difference between the top and the bottom -- even if that was achieved by bringing the average down to essentially zero. It would be fine with them -- "fair is fair".

 

Hawaii, Oregon, MN

Top earners cool to paying more | StarTribune.com

Wow, and article in the Strib with actual information.

Currently, only seven states have a higher top income tax bracket than Minnesota, according to the Tax Policy Center.

Adding the governor's proposed 2 percent increase on the 7.85 percent top rate would rank Minnesota third, behind Hawaii and Oregon, both at 11 percent.

We are currently 7th highest, Governor Shutdown wants to make us 3rd.

PROOF Government Must be Smaller!!

If other governors can be responsible, why can't ours? | StarTribune.com

Good article. Republicans voted a 6% budget increase, Dayton wants 11%. Maybe we could just let everyone send in the % raise they got this year. Anything over 10 is a vote for the Dayton approach. Anything less is a vote for the Republican approach.

But on to my title. Dayton shut down Canerbury and the Lottery. Those PRODUCE Revenue!! Doesn't anyone else see that this is INSANE!!! No corporation or non-profit would EVER do anything this stupid!! Why shut down things that bring in revenue?? There are really only two possible explanations:

1). You are stupid beyond belief

2). You are such a rank partisan power hack that you will cut off the states nose to spite it's face and don't care one whit for your constituents -- You ONLY care about raw political power and believe that your best shot at "winning" is to inflict as much pain as possible.

Given Mark Dayton, I'd be tempted to go with #1, but I strongly suspect that the Democrats in the state decided on #2 -- and they realize that Dayton meets criteria #1, so he went along with them.

There is no question anymore -- government has grown beyond any sense of reality, it MUST be reduced ... Republicans ought to submit him a new budget that is a Billion lower and just keep at it on a weekly basis until he signs.

Salting the Warmist Slugs

There has been no global warming since 1998 – Telegraph Blogs:

No news here to anyone that has gone outside rather than staring at a computer model the last decade. "The Map Is Not The Territory" has been known for a very long time, but computer models are really colorful, interactive, and run on really cool computers.

The "fix" to at least the MODELS "global warming" is to have the Chinese burn more coal. Fine with me, but I doubt it will really be fine with the climate nerds after they get over their joy in having their computer model "right" -- meaning it may have a passing correlation to existing data. NOT that it is PREDICTIVE. The warmists really ought to pay more attention to that practical philosopher Yogi Berra -- "Predictions are hard to make, especially about the future".

Physicists do a great job of creating models that are VERY predictive at least within their scope, Even better, they tend to be aware of the bounds of that scope. Other sciences -- not so much, and even worse, they tend to totally not understand that other very important philosopher, Josie Wales ("Outlaw Josie Wales, Clint Eastwood): "A man's got to know his limitations".

So rank speculation based on computer models becomes "settled science" and anyone who disagrees with your model is beyond the pale. "Progressivism" constantly pushes to politicize all aspects of life -- family, death, birth, the weather, how much water you flush in your toilet, EVERYTHING ... even the weather. It used to be that "sports and the weather" were nice safe conversations. Thanks to the progressives, they totally did the weather topic in -- they keep trying to get sports as well with Indian names and such.

Dear God, please do something to free us from the progressives!! 

Never EVER Trust A Democrat!!

Say No To the Dems’ July Surprise | Power Line

Will the Republicans get snookered again as they did just a few short months ago in the BO Christmas massacre?? I really hope not, but I'm not confident at all. With the MSM braying that the Government will "default" before it prioritizes interest and debt payments higher than other spending, the temptation to blink will be large.

How may times do Republicans have to be fooled before they wise up??

BO To Fly Coach?

Obama targets private jets, 'Big Oil' - The Oval: Tracking the Obama presidency

BO flys around in the grandest of private jets, but others should not. He got into that in his 2nd book ... he seems to really have "thing" against private jets as a business tool.

So he takes solid aim at .03% of the deficit with some hard hitting rhetoric on private jets -- and even USA Today notices that this is a complete counterproductive waste of time!!

Is BO more hampered by his Ideology or his Incompetence? It gets hard to judge sometimes. 

WI Bargaining Limits Go Into Effect: Sky Falls

Union curbs rescue a Wisconsin school district | Byron York | Politics | Washington Examiner

Oh, it didn't? It is having a POSITIVE effect on school systems in the state already? Now THERE is a story that really doesn't deserve any media coverage!!

350% Debt

The number that's killing the economy - CNN.com

Total US private and public debt to GDP ... 350%. 3.5x amount of debt as GDP ... the last 3 years, even though the government hasn't helped any, we lowered it from 370% to 350%

Prior to the great depression? 300% ... 3x.

Prior to 1870's depression? 166%

When you as a people, corporation or government take on too much debt, you have to keep working hard to create wealth and use a good deal of it to pay down your debt. There really isn't any other good alternative.

Note to folks that want to keep spending. 1st rule of holes. When you are in a hole, STOP DIGGING!!!

Facts, Deficit, Default

RealClearPolitics - If Budget Talks Fail, U.S. Does Not Have to Default on National Debt

Nice and short and very clear. Last Bush / Republican budget WITH those horrible tax cuts and two wars ended up with a $161 BILLION deficit, not a $1.6 TRILLION monstrosity like BO and the Democrats.

Why? Less spending and better growth numbers. We MUST get back to those kind of numbers RIGHT NOW and quit braying about "default" if the Democrats can't get some fresh taxes so they can spend 5x whatever they would take in!!!

When Will We STAND UP!!!

TSA stands by officers after pat-down of elderly woman in Florida - CNN.com

If we want government "by and for the people", eventually we have to stand up and be heard!!!! Political Correctness and no profiling have ALWAYS been completely ridiculous and antithetical to a free people. Are some terms offensive? Sure, but not as offensive as making them "hate speech". Can profiling run amuck? Sure, but obviously so can NOT profiling!!! The only difference is that not profiling makes everyone subject to the idiotic whims of the state and it's jackbooted thugs.

90 year old women and 6 year old kids. Old America had the right idea ... tar and feather these TSA thugs and run them out of town on a rail! or put them in stocks in the center of town and leave them stand for a few days and see how smart they look.

When We The People allow INSANITY to become the order of the day, it means that we no longer have the capacity to govern ourselves. BO, the size of the deficits, not drilling but opening the strategic reserve for political purposes, the head of the ATF running guns to Mexico, TSA Abuses ... the list just goes on forever.

WAKE UP AMERICA!!!!

BO For All Seasons

RealClearPolitics - Like Chauncey Gardiner, Obama Is Profoundly Aloof

One looks at our current situation and wonders if anyone is actually awake in the WH? Barone does a good job, but he leaves out a few ... the gun running ATF head? The weird Afgan election strategy against his generals? War Powers Act? ... it just goes on and on. Very well done article "first we have the spring and the summer" ...

TX to the Rescue?

George F. Will: Another Texas governor ponders a run for the White House | Full Comment | National Post

Good column. More jobs created in TX from 2001 - June 2010 than in the other 49 states COMBINED!! Since June '09, TX has created 37% of the US net new jobs.

Wow, the previous governor must have done a great job too -- I wonder who HE was?

People, what WORKS, and what FAILS??? Why oh why do we continue to ignore what works and keep doing what FAILS???

My Ex-Gay Friend - NYTimes.com

My Ex-Gay Friend - NYTimes.com:

Very interesting read, kudos to the NYTs for publishing.  Can Gay's change? Pretty interesting that we would like to think that pretty much any other human behavior is potentially changeable through willpower, faith, psychology, training, rewards/sanctions, motivation, etc, etc ... why not same sex attraction? Can a serial womanizer ever reform? Could Tiger, Bill Clinton, Arnold or Weiner ever reform and settle down?

Which sounds like the more natural evolutionary development? A strong attraction to the opposite sex or a strong attraction to the same sex. Evolutionary experts tell us that "the selfish gene" ONLY cares about being passed on through offspring ... meaning that same sex attraction would be???

America used to be the land that believed in starting over, self-creation, redemption, the new world and the new life ... Gatsby was a model, you could become whomever you wanted in America.

Maybe it is remotely possible you could lose interest in the same sex??

A Dirty BO Secret

Obama’s Illegal War in Libya - NYTimes.com

Even the NYTs quietly agrees that the war Libya is illegal under the War Powers Act??? Wow, how quiet can they be? Remember when waterboarding (that we do to our own special forced troops) was declared "torture" by the media and the Justice Dept lawyers (John Yoo, etc) had ruled WITH then President Bush???  Well, this time, the Justice Dept lawyers ruled AGAINST BO and he had to have a WH lawyer provide the ruling, and the WH lawyer promptly resigned. Another "Winning The Future" (WTF) moment!!