We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
Hopey-changey pretty butterflies and pink unicorns and peace 'n love will not alter the fact that other nations pursue their power and money interests ruthlessly, are quick to deceive, and quick to to identify and exploit weakness.
A quote from Russia and Iran get Strategic, from FPIF:
Looking at the developments of the past 90 days through the filter of the new Russian security framework, a clearer picture emerges. It's no longer a question for the United States of whether or not Russia will support additional sanctions on Iran. That won't happen. Russia is on the path to make Iran a strategic partner, a counter to the United States in the regions of rivalry.
The United States falls into a trap in assuming that Russia doesn't want a nuclear- armed Iran. Russian officials repeat over and over that they have no evidence that Iran has a weapons program. U.S. officials discount that statement but shouldn't. The United States needs to remember that Russia has nuclear engineers inside Iran working with the Iranians.
Read the whole brief article. Lovely as Persian carpets may be, the Russians are after the oil and the geopolitical leverage, not pretty rugs. This is a game for big boys.
The good and the bad about Newt. Rick Moran. He's still the best conceptualist the Conservatives have.
NYT has its panties in a bunch over nativists. I think a nativist is somebody who wants our laws followed. But I am part nativist, on my mother's side.
Stumbling over a sense of entitlement, at WaPo. It begins:
Tom Daschle still doesn't get it.
John Thain never did.
Barack Obama gets it sometimes, Nancy Pelosi and John Boehner not so much.
Corporate executives think they get it but aren't even close.
College presidents, governors and union leaders, for the most part, don't have a clue.
"It" is an understanding of how fundamentally the political and economic environment has been transformed with the bursting of the bubble economy and how that has jeopardized basic assumptions and expectations and the way we do what we do.
Tom Daschle's problem wasn't that he didn't pay his taxes. It was that he -- along with those who vetted his nomination as health and human services secretary and many of his colleagues in the Senate -- found it perfectly ordinary and acceptable that he would be able to cash in on his time in the Senate by earning more than $5 million over two years as a law-firm rainmaker, equity fundraiser, corporate director and luncheon speaker, all the while being driven around town in a chauffeured town car. Not exactly Cincinnatus returning to the plow.
For the American public, Daschle became the latest symbol of everything that is wrong with Washington -- the influence-peddling and corner-cutting and sacrifice of the public good to private interest. Now that this system has let them down, and left them poorer and anxious about the future, people are angry about it and no longer willing to accept the corruption of the public process and the whole notion of public service.
The irony, of course, is that Barack Obama understood all this and tapped into Americans' frustration as the central message of his "change" campaign. But even he, with only four years in Washington, failed to see the depth of the problem or anticipate the ferocity of the backlash.
WASHINGTON, DC) – All U.S. taxpayers would enjoy the same immunity from IRS penalties and interest as House Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel (D-NY) and Obama Administration Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, if a bill introduced today by Congressman John Carter (R-TX) becomes law.
Carter, a former longtime Texas judge, today introduced the Rangel Rule Act of 2009, HR 735, which would prohibit the Internal Revenue Service from charging penalties and interest on back taxes against U.S. citizens. Under the proposed law, any taxpayer who wrote “Rangel Rule” on their return when paying back taxes would be immune from penalties and interest.
From Bruce Kesler. I no longer will term him "guest poster" because he seems to be turning into a regular.
Above the law? Thank you Mr. Daschle.
We should all be thanking Tom Daschle for his behavior in not paying all his taxes and evading lobbying laws. The even larger issues are highlighted for public discussion that some of our rulers do not follow the same laws expected of the rest of us, and that they exploit the loopholes in the ever expanding laws.
At issue are to what standards our rulers are to be held and whether laws are enough the answer. Laws help keep honest people honest, by providing guidance, but personal integrity and shame are essential as well. Strict enforcement is also critical, especially for those who anyway breach the law and public trust.
First, we must admit that none of us are saints, nor are any solons capable of foreseeing all eventualities. Imperfect men can only make imperfect laws, and imperfect men may err in following them. Despite partisan stances toward imperfections of our adversaries, most of us do observe reasonable tolerance toward imperfect behavior.
That acknowledged, tolerance is exceeded when imperfect behavior is clearly beyond the law, blatant, or frequent. It is a matter of our basic governance in a democracy that our rulers be held to, at least, the same standards as other citizens.
This is not a matter of policy differences, unless one wants to argue that our rulers are or should be above the law for whatever reasons of need or effectiveness.
Here, some minds might wander into consideration of some of the measures taken by the Bush administration, and some by the Clinton administration, in their efforts against terrorism. What makes them qualitatively different is that they literally involve national security, almost all were within or not outside the law as it existed, that they were not for personal enrichment, and that reasonable, qualified experts differ on them. As evidenced by the Obama administration¿s initial adoption or non-rejection - yet - of most of these measures, despite Obama's campaign rhetoric, these are policy differences.
Regarding Tom Daschle, we had two clear choices, allowing him to skate or holding him accountable. Tom Daschle had the third choice, having the shame and sense to withdraw, which he now has. If he had been confirmed, our Senators would undermine public confidence in and compliance with the laws and respect for themselves. If Daschle were rejected, our legislators' job would not be complete. They owe us more. Daschle's withdrawal still leaves their job incomplete.
for all to be subject to regular comprehensive tax audits is worthwhile. The Congressional ethics committees need to be more independent and active. That requires the addition of independent special investigators, as with the executive¿s agencies. Their work should be fast and their reports published immediately, avoiding burying by legislators. Laws passed by the Congress should apply to Congress itself, with any exceptions being at least justified by supermajorities. Lastly, our major media must take more seriously its self-professed role as nonpartisan guardians of truth-to-power. The extent to which it has not is far beyond evident.
These will go a long way toward ending attitudes of our rulers or perceptions of them being above the law. They may well, also, further more careful consideration of the laws passed, as their effects are more applied to themselves.
We deserve no less. Thank you Mr. Daschle for your contribution to our government's integrity. Now, go away in rightful shame.
Two tax cheats remove themselves from consideration today, despite admin support. Furthermore, Europe and Canada are freaking out about "Buy American." A trade war? It's been a bad week for the O, and it's only Tuesday. I do not wish the admin ill; I wish them wisdom and honesty - and quickly.
Obama does dhimmitude? Powerline. That is not wise.
The proposed performance Czar. These Dems have no clue how much time I spend to pay my taxes properly. No wonder they don't mind raising taxes - they don't pay them.
This is becoming a joke. Maybe paying honest taxes is for chumps, as Leona Helmsley used to say.
I don’t think my blog –or the blogs of any of us, including its founders–will live or die by the success of PJ Media. We all define success differently; right now, I consider this blog to have been successful, if not beyond my wildest dreams, then certainly beyond what I considered any realistic expectations. Great readers, and plenty of them–what more could a person want?
If a certain sort of conservative tends to be moralistic about sex, liberals tend to be moralistic about money. That makes Tom Daschle the equivalent of a televangelist caught in a sex scandal.
Since his re-election defeat in 2004, Daschle has mastered the art of turning humiliating political loss into high-roller riches, much of it coming from his work for a well-connected law firm where he didn't technically operate as a lobbyist but gave policy advice to companies with business before the government.
But trading on his name, his political connections, his ability to tap into Democratic donors and becoming wealthy by virtue of his past public service isn't what has Daschle in trouble. Failure to pay taxes is.
These aren't "very modest differences", they are profoundly different versions of the role of government and people in a free society. Also, only one of these will actually work, while the other does nothing more than empower government for generations.
Back from NH. Image of your NJ above. Man, do I enjoy that funky old Cannon Mountain. It's like the anti-Vail. Thanks to all for filling in for me. While away, I see that Pajamas Media is having problems with its biz model. That's too bad, because I like them. But business is business. It's a tough game to appeal enough to make people part with their money or time. We don't even bother trying to make money here. Not worth the hassle, and ads take up space. No, we aren't Commies, nor do we want gummint money. We just do what we like to do.
The War on Rush. Trouble is, Lefties, every time you hit him he gets stronger. Besides his quick intelligence, his talents are his humor, his self-deprecation, and his obvious genuine warmth towards callers regardless of view.
The labor movement takes its pound of flesh. "Movement"? Maybe it was a "movement" in 1920, but now it's just an antiquated, corrupt, political power and money base of insiders.
The end of hunting season is always a sad time. After all, how many hunting seasons does a fellow have left? Maybe 25, maybe none. Image above from Mr. Free Market.
"Any dictator would admire the uniformity and obedience of the U.S. media." - Noam Chomsky. That seems to apply right now. (Found that quote while perusing Kos to try to find out whether the Kos Kidz are happy yet. They are not, nor will they ever be).
The prima facie immorality of wealth. Come on, Ron. That's nonsense. Does that apply to Barbra Streisand, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Jimmy Buffet, Donald Trump, A-Rod, J-Lo, Paul McCartney, Hillary Clinton, Rafael Nadel, Luciano Pavarotti, Jim Carey, John Updike, Yo Yo Ma, Rush Limbaugh - and my local neurosurgeon? And my high-school drop-out friend who built up a 50 store-and-gas chain of mini-marts from one run-down gas station, beginning when he was 19, and then sold his chain for many millions? Populist envy, I think. People at the top of competitive fields often end up making lots of money. Why would it be different for bankers? Good on all of 'em, say I.
Why they want to terrify us about this recession: Time for a new world order? And is this recession really so unique? If any things are unique about it, they are the fragile banks and that it is globally simultaneous.
President Obama’s told congressional Republicans, suggesting changes to the Porkapalooza recovery bill, “I won.”So much for the promised cooperation across the aisle.Today, discussing the bill with an avid Obama supporter, I suggested a compromise: Let the Democrats’ bill pass but with one amendment, that all provisions and spending sunset (expire) December 31, 2009.He agreed.If there’s anything of merit buried in the dungpile, it will flower.Congress can then renew it.Otherwise, most of the waste will die, having been demonstrated worthless.Another major promise by the new administration, for greater transparency, is quickly showing itself subject to crossed fingers behind the back.
The open-government advocate Sunlight Foundation reveals that the very first bill signed by Obama broke his promise to wait at least 5-days before signing any non-emergency legislation, to receive public comments to be considered by the President.Sunlight notes: “It is too bad they let this transparency promise slip on the very first piece of legislation that hit the President’s desk.”The Columbia Journalism Review finds its ill and unprofessional treatment by the White house Press Office fails to meet Obama’s promise, possibly to “indicate that President Obama’s messages about open government have not reached press secretary Robert Gibbs and his staff.”The CJR reporter comments:
Talking to working reporters is not the only way to communicate with the people. The Obama administration seems to be embracing direct delivery of its messages via the whitehouse.gov website and YouTube. They seem to be saying “We don’t need the press to communicate our messages to the people. We can talk to the people ourselves.” The media honeymoon with Obama is fading, after so much support from the media to his campaign.Another now dispensable Obama supporter under the bus.
So, it seems that the Obama messages will be delivered directly to his supporters, but the feedback from any disagreeing or questioning is less welcomed.The definition of a dysfunctional system is one lacking feedback, for adaptivity.It’s going to be a long, and dangerous, four years.
Every day I feel more steamed about this "stimulus." This is no stimulus. Dear readers, we are in the process of getting scammed, hoodwinked, tricked - in a way that Bernie Madoff could only dream about doing in his wildest dreams. The statists are literally trying to pull a fast one over on me. It's the biggest money and power grab since Lyndon Johnson, and nobody knows all of the details, implications, or the long-term consequences - not to mention the undiscussed or unintended (or quietly-intended) consequences.
It's a trickster's delight. Are we such easy marks? I hope not. They hope most of us are uninformed morons and will defer to their superior wisdom. The House bill goes far beyond the usual pork. It changes the role of the federal government in our lives, and is intended to do so. This is no short-term stimulus for an ugly recession; this is long-term change via centralization of power and money using today's fears about the economy as a convenient excuse.
Why is it long-term? Heck, it's not just long-term; this stuff is forever. How difficult is it to "cut" a program? Well, no more difficult than trying to take a lollypop out of a kid's mouth. The socialist ratchet wrench has no reverse setting.
Yes, I am not pleased with hopey-changey thus far.
That's what the stimulus bill was about—not knowing what time it is, not knowing the old pork-barrel, group-greasing ways are over, done, embarrassing. When you create a bill like that, it doesn't mean you're a pro, it doesn't mean you're a tough, no-nonsense pol. It means you're a slob.
That's how the Democratic establishment in the House looks, not like people who are responding to a crisis, or even like people who are ignoring a crisis, but people who are using a crisis. Our hopeful, compelling new president shouldn't have gone with this bill. He made news this week by going to the House to meet with Republicans. He could have made history by listening to them.
To call the economic legislation now moving through Congress a stimulus bill obscures its full implications. The measure represents the most ambitious effort in decades to swell public spending on domestic priorities such as education, infrastructure, and scientific research that many Democrats consider the foundation stones of sustained prosperity.
The Democratic plan . . . provides the biggest surge in long-term public investment since President Johnson's Great Society in the 1960s. . . .
[T]he bill also emphatically expands programs targeted more at the far term than the near term — from aid to schools in low-income areas ($13 billion) to expanded college loans ($16 billion) and scientific research ($10 billion). In normal times, Congress might never enlarge so many programs at once. But, as with Reagan's tax cut, the crisis-induced demand for action may suspend the normal laws of political gravity — and allow Democrats to redirect federal priorities as boldly as Reagan did. "This is a once-in-a-25-year opportunity to [implement] a lot of our agenda," a top House Democratic aide says.
For the amount spent we could have given every unemployed person in the United States roughly $75,000.
We could give every person who had lost a job and is now passing through long-term unemployment of six months or longer roughly $300,000.
There has been pork barrel politics since there has been politics. The scale of this pork is beyond what had ever been imagined before — and no one can be sure it will actually do much stimulation.
Wall Street didn’t have Obama’s chutzpah. And it didn’t do nearly the damage to the nation that this bill will do. (Via Dan Riehl).
The U.S. National Debt was $930 billion in 1980, or 33% of GDP. Today it is $10.7 trillion, or 76% of GDP. The National Debt has grown by 1,150% in 28 years. With the planned fiscal stimulus (taxing future generations), the National Debt will reach 100% of GDP during the Obama administration. When Argentina’s economy collapsed in 1998, their National Debt as a percentage of GDP was 65%. The Great Deniers say we are not Argentina. They say we are safe because the U.S. dollar is the reserve currency of the world. This is like jumping off a 20 story building and as you pass the 10th floor someone yells out the window asking how you are doing. You answer, “Good, so far”.
Vermont is avoiding the foreclosure crisis plaguing homeowners across the U.S., perhaps owing to traditions of thrift, modesty and self-reliance -- bolstered by laws that protect buyers and land.
The foreclosure rate in Vermont is the lowest in the U.S., 0.04 percent of all homes in the state, according to RealtyTrac Inc. of Irvine, California.
“People in this part of the country don’t like to risk anything unless they really have to,” said Gary Ely, 71, of St. Johnsbury. “Across the country people charge, charge, charge; people in this part of the country tend to be conservative.”
I thought he was elected to run the city, but he seems to prefer controlling what we put in our mouths. Fats, smokes, soda pop - and now salt!?!
What an idiot. There is not a darn thing wrong with salt. Furthermore, food without salt tastes like cardboard. As a lover of NYC, I have had it with this nanny Mayor. Let's go back to a normal machine sleazebag Dem who will rip you off and pad his pocket and pass money to his buddies - but won't tell you what to eat or drink or smoke. Towns like NYC are for people who want to be free to do what the heck they want, and are not terrified by death.
This Bloomberg guy is a nut. Rich, but still a control freak and a crank. Dietarily-obsessed, too, it seems, with a mild form of eating disorder which causes him to be concerned with what other people do. He's neither my doctor nor my nutritionist nor my Mom, even though he seems to imagine that he is and that I want him to be.
What will be next on his list? Meat? Alcohol? Coffee? Chocolate? Broccoli (which raises cancer risk)? Greens (whose folate raises risk of cancer recurrence)?
Question: What are these people doing in Europe? Who invited them? Who let them in? Who let them stay? What has allowed them to even dream about moving to Europe, let alone realizing a colonization plan?
In Great Britain alone, intelligence agencies are tracking 200 terrorists plots among Pakistani Brits, of whom some 2,000 are under observation. More than 400,000 Pakistani citizens of Great Britain travel every year to Pakistan – a country of 12,000 madrassas and, as of mid-2005, 55 terrorist training camps.
Why are there a million (1) Pakistanis in Great Britain? Just what has been going on in the brains of the British ruling elites these past 40 years? What has been going on in the brains of the ruled British people?
Dino calls this the Age of Foolishness but I call it The Age of Cranks. Somewhere along the way, nuts, cranks and moonbats became newsworthy rather than objects of pity or mockery. How did that happen?
What we are trying to do now, though, is a return to the original Keynesianism, that I thought pretty much everyone had agreed was basically unworkable in the real world. Even Paul Krugman seems now to have rejected his own academic work, which was broadly Neo-Keynesian, and abandoned his academic arguments that government intervention, even in cases of market failure, was more harmful than helpful.
As far as the stimulus bill goes, it appears "we are all Keynesians now".
Theon declared “climate models are useless.” “My own belief concerning anthropogenic climate change is that the models do not realistically simulate the climate system because there are many very important sub-grid scale processes that the models either replicate poorly or completely omit,” Theon explained. “Furthermore, some scientists have manipulated the observed data to justify their model results. In doing so, they neither explain what they have modified in the observations, nor explain how they did it. They have resisted making their work transparent so that it can be replicated independently by other scientists. This is clearly contrary to how science should be done. Thus there is no rational justification for using climate model forecasts to determine public policy,” he added.
Hopey-changey pretty butterflies and pink unicorns and peace 'n love will not alter the fact that other nations pursue their power and money interests ruthlessly, are quick to deceive, and quick to to identify and exploit weakness.
I hadn't heard about 
Neoneo quotes herself from several years ago 
Global warming: 
That's what the stimulus bill was about—not knowing what time it is, not knowing the old pork-barrel, group-greasing ways are over, done, embarrassing. When you create a bill like that, it doesn't mean you're a pro, it doesn't mean you're a tough, no-nonsense pol. It means you're a slob.
I thought he was elected to run the city, but he seems to prefer controlling what we put in our mouths. Fats, smokes, soda pop - 