You stay classy Code Pink...
Obama Funder and Terrorist Supporter Jodie Evans Assaults Karl Rove in Beverly Hills
An unapologetically conservative thinker doing his thinking...or something like that.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
The Portable Video Camera Is A Wonderful Thing
This put together by Evan Coyne Maloney is funny, yet so typical of the ignoramuses that protest on behalf of Leftism. Get some popcorn and enjoy the morons:
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
At Least Someone Is Honest
For all the scorn I heap upon the Left, there are a few of their politician types that I do admire. I admire them only for their intellectual honesty as opposed to the constant BS that comes out of a Chicago hack politician. I do not agree with them in any shape or form and know that their policies are destructive BUT at least they aren't trying to blow sunshine up the American people's ass talking about hope and change, post partisan, post racial,blah, blah, blah. All stuff that if one was paying attention, and realizing who was saying it, would have known it was lies layered with more lies.
So here I present to you Howard Dean stating to people publicly what the whole purpose of health care reform was. Nothing to do with declining health or spiraling costs. Nope quite simply it is a government grab of wealth on such a grand scale that it will do exactly what it was intended to do. That is redistribute wealth and create a Euro-welfare state. So I personally would like to thank all the 2008 Obama voters who were duped into believing the nonsense and putting us in a position of no return. It's too bad the media did not do its job and present a clear understanding of what this Obamanation of a candidate believed. It was too busy air lifting reporters to the remotest parts of Alaska to dig up Palin dirt, gossip, and innuendos...most of which proved false. All they had to do was sit in their office and google Obama's history, no plane trips...just a laptop and some courage to actually do the freaking job of journalist.
So thanks Howard for always being honest in your Leftist, almost-Communist beliefs:
So here I present to you Howard Dean stating to people publicly what the whole purpose of health care reform was. Nothing to do with declining health or spiraling costs. Nope quite simply it is a government grab of wealth on such a grand scale that it will do exactly what it was intended to do. That is redistribute wealth and create a Euro-welfare state. So I personally would like to thank all the 2008 Obama voters who were duped into believing the nonsense and putting us in a position of no return. It's too bad the media did not do its job and present a clear understanding of what this Obamanation of a candidate believed. It was too busy air lifting reporters to the remotest parts of Alaska to dig up Palin dirt, gossip, and innuendos...most of which proved false. All they had to do was sit in their office and google Obama's history, no plane trips...just a laptop and some courage to actually do the freaking job of journalist.
So thanks Howard for always being honest in your Leftist, almost-Communist beliefs:
Sunday, March 28, 2010
More Hardhitting Journalism
Way to go CBS! I am sure they will be asking some tough questions....
CBS' Harry Smith to Shoot Interview, Hoops with Pres. Obama
CBS' Harry Smith to Shoot Interview, Hoops with Pres. Obama
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Failure?...Or is It Success
I know the video is entitled "Health Care Failure in just 3 days", but seriously isn't this the designed intent. Making it so prohibitive for compaines to provide health care benefits that it only makes sense for them to dump them off to a government entitlement? Wait until the full effect of the "Reform" starts hitting these companies bottom lines. Sounds like Leftist Commie success to me....
A Few Sites Beat Me To It
But this bears mentioning anyways. If you have paid attention to the Democrats the last day or so you may have noticed two things. First, you realized that they are out there telling you how great the HCR Bill is for everyone...you are just too stupid to realize it nimrod. Secondly, they are carrying on about purported violence or threatened violence in another attempt to portray anyone who is conservative or may disagree with them as a bunch of Timothy McVeighs. Well since The Jawa Report laid out all the nonsense I wanted to talk about, the links below are all from their site.Thanks!
Of course, being an Obamacrat means turning off the inconvenient portions of your memory to suit whatever you view as your political objective for that particular time and place. Political violence and vandalism from the left, which was commonplace during the Bush years, was well-known and ignored (or even celebrated as "righteous)." Murder fantasies about killing George W. Bush were vogue. Movies about killing Bush were "edgy" and "provacative." All was well until those damned rightwingurrrrz started, like, disagreeing and protesting and stuff. How dare they speak!
Behold, left wing "nonviolence:"
* It was not the fear of conservative violence that caused Ann Coulter's speech to be canceled this week.A tip of the hat to Jawa Report for finding all of those links, as someone who does that a lot I know how time consuming it is to remember these incidents and then find the corresponding links. That's really all the big news today, oh that and this wonderful ringing endorsement of Obamacare. Just the guy I wanted to hear from.
* It was a liberal who bit the finger off a man who disagreed with him on health care.
* It was Obama-loving Amy Bishop who took a gun to work and murdered co-workers.
* Joseph Stack flew his plane into the IRS building after writing an
anti-conservative manifesto.
* It was liberals who destroyed AM radio towers outside of Seattle.
* It's liberals who burn down Hummer dealerships.
* It was progressive SEIU union thugs who beat a black conservative man who spoke his mind.
* It's doubtful that a conservative fired shots into a GOP campaign headquarters.
* In fact, Democrats have no monopoly on having their offices vandalized.
* Don't forget it was Obama's friend Bill Ayers who used terrorism as a tool for political change. SDS is still radical, with arrests in 2007 and the storming of the CATO Institute in July 2008.
* It was a liberal who was sentenced to two years for bringing bombs and riot shields to the Republican National Convention in 2008.
* It was a liberal who threatened to kill a government informant who infiltrated her Austin-based group that planned to bomb the RNC.
* It was liberals who assaulted police in Berkeley.
* It was liberals who intimidated and threw rocks through the windows of researchers.
* The two Black Panthers who stood outside polls intimidating people with nightsticks were probably not right-wingers.
* Every time the G20 gets together, it's not conservatives who destroy property and cause chaos.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Laugh or Cry?
I mean seriously, if you are a person who holds the Constitution in high esteem and believes our individual liberties are God given, what should you do? You've got Congressmen finally admitting what this bill is about:
You have the New York Times finally admitting what this is about as David Leonhardt writes:
Unless I was under a rock in 2008, I believe this President ran on tax cuts for 95% of Americans, transparency in government, an end to lobbying, and other center right sounding bromides. Was I in another room as the media shamelessly shilled for this man, covering up his ideologies? And oh yeah I must have totally missed when the media didn't utter a peep about him sitting in front of Marxist/racist/America hating preacher for twenty years, who wedded him and baptized his children. Look bottom line America didn't equate Hope and Change with Socialism, because of course they were never informed of that option...despite what the President thinks:
'Change we can believe in' didn't include the backroom deals, lies, kickbacks, bogus statistics or lies...oh wait did i say that already? that were included in this process. So all of that yes may make you cry BUT this will make you laugh. Yet another high ranking Democrat making shit up as he goes along:
The Good and Welfare clause? Hey Congressmen Conyers could you point out to me where that is exactly, I must be missing that page. Moron. He could use one of these pocket Constitutions that are convenient and easy to carry, for the ignorant politician on the go! Ugh...
You have the New York Times finally admitting what this is about as David Leonhardt writes:
A "petty leftist grudge" as Left Coast Rebel put it. Or you've got that race hustler Al Sharpton talking about how America voted for socialism?! Huh? What did you say Al?Nearly every major aspect of the health bill pushes in the other direction. This fact helps explain why Mr. Obama was willing to spend so much political capital on the issue, even though it did not appear to be his top priority as a presidential candidate. Beyond the health reform’s effect on the medical system, it is the centerpiece of his deliberate effort to end what historians have called the age of Reagan.
Unless I was under a rock in 2008, I believe this President ran on tax cuts for 95% of Americans, transparency in government, an end to lobbying, and other center right sounding bromides. Was I in another room as the media shamelessly shilled for this man, covering up his ideologies? And oh yeah I must have totally missed when the media didn't utter a peep about him sitting in front of Marxist/racist/America hating preacher for twenty years, who wedded him and baptized his children. Look bottom line America didn't equate Hope and Change with Socialism, because of course they were never informed of that option...despite what the President thinks:
'Change we can believe in' didn't include the backroom deals, lies, kickbacks, bogus statistics or lies...oh wait did i say that already? that were included in this process. So all of that yes may make you cry BUT this will make you laugh. Yet another high ranking Democrat making shit up as he goes along:
The Good and Welfare clause? Hey Congressmen Conyers could you point out to me where that is exactly, I must be missing that page. Moron. He could use one of these pocket Constitutions that are convenient and easy to carry, for the ignorant politician on the go! Ugh...
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Very Rarely...
...do I sing the praises of the RNC. I think they have largely been ineffective in articulating any vision or direction. Conservatives have had to rely on specific candidates to do so and it is working. BUT this website is a stroke of marketing genius. It was up within hours of passage of the HCR Bill and so far has raised over $1.2 million dollars in just 24 hours of existence. Think people are motivated?
Fire Nancy Pelosi.com
Disclaimer: Listing this link in no way suggests that I would like you to donate. I will never do that here. Just pointing out a good story.
Fire Nancy Pelosi.com
Disclaimer: Listing this link in no way suggests that I would like you to donate. I will never do that here. Just pointing out a good story.
Coulter's Ottawa speech cancelled over 'public safety' fears
Those that proclaim to be keepers of free speech (liberals) are full of shite, they only protect speech that agrees with them. I also love the fact that she filed a grievance with the Human Rights Commission in Canada. That should expose them for the rank hypocrites they are. I am not a huge fan of her brand of satire but, it is funny some of the time and provocative ALL of the time. Can't imagine Bill Maher getting a reception like this, more like red carpet treatment. The double standard continues.
Coulter's Ottawa speech cancelled over 'public safety' fears
UPDATE 3/24: From the Ottawa Citizen - After protesters at the University of Ottawa prevented Ann Coulter from giving a speech Tuesday night, the American conservative writer said it proved the point she came to make -- free speech in Canada leaves much to be desired.
Then she said what she really thought of the student protesters who surrounded Marion Hall, making it too unsafe, in the view of her bodyguard, for the pundit to attempt entry....
Rest of the story here
You Go! Ann...I have a new found respect for the woman.
Coulter's Ottawa speech cancelled over 'public safety' fears
UPDATE 3/24: From the Ottawa Citizen - After protesters at the University of Ottawa prevented Ann Coulter from giving a speech Tuesday night, the American conservative writer said it proved the point she came to make -- free speech in Canada leaves much to be desired.
Then she said what she really thought of the student protesters who surrounded Marion Hall, making it too unsafe, in the view of her bodyguard, for the pundit to attempt entry....
Rest of the story here
You Go! Ann...I have a new found respect for the woman.
Vice President Joe Biden embraces health care bill signing with profane term - latimes.com
Leave it to the Chief of Eating Shoe Leather...what a moron.
Vice President Joe Biden embraces health care bill signing with profane term - latimes.com
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Vice President Joe Biden embraces health care bill signing with profane term - latimes.com
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Having insurance 'going to be like Christmas' :: WRAL.com
Ahh yes here it comes. The fundamental change in the American psyche that a lot of people underestimate...'having insurance is going to be like Christmas.'
First off I wonder if the dope in the article knows how costly the mandated insurance is? Because it will have to cover EVERYTHING, he won't be able to pick and choose according to his families/personal needs. The HCR Bill states, your insurance must cover "at least... maternity and newborn care... Mental health and substance disorder services... behavioral health treatment... preventative and wellness services and chronic disease management... pediatric services, including oral and vision care." Some people need this and some don't, by requiring the insurance companies to pay for all you are just asking for more "waste,fraud and abuse". Going forward the bill allows Health and Human Services to create new mandates if they see fit. No approval, no asking the American public or the insured what the hell they actually need. If people are not understanding how pernicious these clauses are, they will soon learn. They will soon learn of the over 130 new departments and bureaucracies created by this bill. They will learn of the 10's of thousands of IRS agents soon to be knocking on Americans' doorsteps to make sure they have paid for insurance, or the fine.
Secondly the article mentions he has a family, hope the wife doesn't work because odds are they may hit the $100,000 family income that will allow for NO subsidies and force him to pay for minimum of $12,500 worth of insurance coverage. The only way he squeaks under that, and gets 100% covered is if he is dirt poor, Medicaid will cover him if he is in a family of four and total income does not go over $29,327. After $29,327 the tax credits for purchasing insurance goes up a sliding scale to $88,200. More proof that this bill will only go to kill the middle class. Heck what's the incentive to work harder and earn more money, I just gotta stay in this low-middle range and I get free monopoly money from the government. People that support this are fools, yes you heard me, fools. The way this bill works out, by 2025 we will be France without all the good cheese and hairy armpitted women. Oh wait...the latter is bad,we DON'T want that. OK then....we will be France without all the good cheese and Euro Disney! Oh wait.....oh forget it, you get the idea, France blows besides the cheese (and wine).
Ninety-fifth of all, the part most people on the left are cheering about in this bill happens to be the "can't discriminate based on pre-existing conditions", sounds good on it's face but Republicans (I'm sorry they just did, and you can look it up) had a better idea for combating this. It's called portability. The way this bill tackles it, it's going to be grounds for all sorts of gaming the "system" and making sure that people who do pay into the system will get screwed (gee does it start to sound like just about every other entitlement program the government creates?). So what will happen, millions will wait until they get sick to purchase insurance. Why? Simple math. Page 323 states the $750 fine that will follow if you do not purchase insurance. That’s much less than the avg of $20,000 plus that it would cost to buy insurance for a family. You would be a fool to buy insurance now. Then at that point only sick people will buy insurance, so premiums will skyrocket due to the risk pools. Some estimates have the premiums jumping as much as 50% and that's from a study that proposes individual mandates. Then the left will continue to bash the insurance companies until no end for increasing their rates, with that comes more public outrage, then it will lead to the single payer system they so desperately need to validate their pathetic ideology. Why do I think so because anyone who wrote this policy knows it greases the skids for single payer, it's intention is to eventually beat down the insurance companies, destroy competition that is there now and could have been made greater with some of the other sides ideas. This was the second best thing for them outside of a "public option". The leap between the government dictating the private insurance rates and them actually administering the insurance just got A LOT shorter.
Well here is the article i spoke of :
Having insurance 'going to be like Christmas' :: WRAL.com
First off I wonder if the dope in the article knows how costly the mandated insurance is? Because it will have to cover EVERYTHING, he won't be able to pick and choose according to his families/personal needs. The HCR Bill states, your insurance must cover "at least... maternity and newborn care... Mental health and substance disorder services... behavioral health treatment... preventative and wellness services and chronic disease management... pediatric services, including oral and vision care." Some people need this and some don't, by requiring the insurance companies to pay for all you are just asking for more "waste,fraud and abuse". Going forward the bill allows Health and Human Services to create new mandates if they see fit. No approval, no asking the American public or the insured what the hell they actually need. If people are not understanding how pernicious these clauses are, they will soon learn. They will soon learn of the over 130 new departments and bureaucracies created by this bill. They will learn of the 10's of thousands of IRS agents soon to be knocking on Americans' doorsteps to make sure they have paid for insurance, or the fine.
Secondly the article mentions he has a family, hope the wife doesn't work because odds are they may hit the $100,000 family income that will allow for NO subsidies and force him to pay for minimum of $12,500 worth of insurance coverage. The only way he squeaks under that, and gets 100% covered is if he is dirt poor, Medicaid will cover him if he is in a family of four and total income does not go over $29,327. After $29,327 the tax credits for purchasing insurance goes up a sliding scale to $88,200. More proof that this bill will only go to kill the middle class. Heck what's the incentive to work harder and earn more money, I just gotta stay in this low-middle range and I get free monopoly money from the government. People that support this are fools, yes you heard me, fools. The way this bill works out, by 2025 we will be France without all the good cheese and hairy armpitted women. Oh wait...the latter is bad,we DON'T want that. OK then....we will be France without all the good cheese and Euro Disney! Oh wait.....oh forget it, you get the idea, France blows besides the cheese (and wine).
Ninety-fifth of all, the part most people on the left are cheering about in this bill happens to be the "can't discriminate based on pre-existing conditions", sounds good on it's face but Republicans (I'm sorry they just did, and you can look it up) had a better idea for combating this. It's called portability. The way this bill tackles it, it's going to be grounds for all sorts of gaming the "system" and making sure that people who do pay into the system will get screwed (gee does it start to sound like just about every other entitlement program the government creates?). So what will happen, millions will wait until they get sick to purchase insurance. Why? Simple math. Page 323 states the $750 fine that will follow if you do not purchase insurance. That’s much less than the avg of $20,000 plus that it would cost to buy insurance for a family. You would be a fool to buy insurance now. Then at that point only sick people will buy insurance, so premiums will skyrocket due to the risk pools. Some estimates have the premiums jumping as much as 50% and that's from a study that proposes individual mandates. Then the left will continue to bash the insurance companies until no end for increasing their rates, with that comes more public outrage, then it will lead to the single payer system they so desperately need to validate their pathetic ideology. Why do I think so because anyone who wrote this policy knows it greases the skids for single payer, it's intention is to eventually beat down the insurance companies, destroy competition that is there now and could have been made greater with some of the other sides ideas. This was the second best thing for them outside of a "public option". The leap between the government dictating the private insurance rates and them actually administering the insurance just got A LOT shorter.
Well here is the article i spoke of :
Having insurance 'going to be like Christmas' :: WRAL.com
Monday, March 22, 2010
Because I Like Making Fun Of...
...Keith Uberdork over at MSLSD and his penchant for histrionics, I am always looking for things to highlight his intellectual dishonesty. He loves to make ridiculous statements like this in his Special Commentary on February 15th,2010...
Of course my favorite is the fact that he thinks he is Edward R Murrow by signing off like him. What a laugher. His ego knows no bounds and his douchiness (can't think of a better term) always reaches new lows. Well anyways I found this video and thought it was funny since I know the Uberdork turned down an invite to attend a Tea Party event and see for himself the people that show up. Why is it that the left always makes an issue out of race, out of abortion, out of god and guns? Anyways a tip of the hat goes out to Chicks on The Right for the following:
If you believe there is merit to your political argument, fine. But ask yourself, when you next go to a Tea Party rally, or watch one on television or listen to a politician or a commentator praise these things or merely treat them as if it was just a coincidence that they are virtually segregated. Ask yourself: Where are the black faces? Who am I marching with? What are we afraid of? And if it really is only a President’s policy and not his skin, ask yourself one final question: Why are you surrounded by the largest crowd you will ever again see in your life that consists of nothing but people who look exactly like you? Good night and good luck.
Of course my favorite is the fact that he thinks he is Edward R Murrow by signing off like him. What a laugher. His ego knows no bounds and his douchiness (can't think of a better term) always reaches new lows. Well anyways I found this video and thought it was funny since I know the Uberdork turned down an invite to attend a Tea Party event and see for himself the people that show up. Why is it that the left always makes an issue out of race, out of abortion, out of god and guns? Anyways a tip of the hat goes out to Chicks on The Right for the following:
Our Dear Leader's Next Sales Job...
...will be 'comprehensive immigration reform'. Now I mentioned in a post about a month ago the slippery slope of the amnesty policy as well as ignoring the core issue with immigration policies. Specifically my argument for focusing on assimilation NOT granting immediate rights to illegals. He will be going out there and pushing this, and how do I know this? Well what went underreported the last few days is the Hispanic Caucus' disgust for the Senate health care bill because it did not cover illegal immigrants. They even threatened to vote against the bill, definitely breaking apart the Democratic Party vote in the House. So what do you think convinced them to jump on board? Was it a payout akin to the 'Cornhusker Kickback', 'Gatoraid' or the 'Lousiana Purchase'? Nope not directly or as egregious but my guess is that he assuaged them with promises of taking up their pet issue. He will go out and continue to divide this country with his rhetoric, lies and destructive policies that the American people are strongly lined up against. Yesterday's rally to reform immigration is the first step in this process. Now will he be willing to go back on a promise to this interest group? I don't think so. Everyone of these teetering Democrat votes on health care got something in return so do not think the Hispanic Caucus didn't leverage this. Stay tuned...
Next Step: Junk Bond Status
March 22 (Bloomberg) --The bond market is saying that it’s safer to lend to Warren Buffett than Barack Obama.
Two-year notes sold by the billionaire’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. in February yield 3.5 basis points less than Treasuries of similar maturity, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Procter & Gamble Co., Johnson & Johnson and Lowe’s Cos. debt also traded at lower yields in recent weeks, a situation former Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. chief fixed-income strategist Jack Malvey calls an “exceedingly rare” event in the history of the bond market.....
Obama Pays More Than Buffett as U.S. Risks AAA Rating
Two-year notes sold by the billionaire’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. in February yield 3.5 basis points less than Treasuries of similar maturity, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Procter & Gamble Co., Johnson & Johnson and Lowe’s Cos. debt also traded at lower yields in recent weeks, a situation former Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. chief fixed-income strategist Jack Malvey calls an “exceedingly rare” event in the history of the bond market.....
Obama Pays More Than Buffett as U.S. Risks AAA Rating
Congressional Performance
Get ready for a House cleaning in November you slimy Democrats, and 'go-along to get along' Republicans...
Congressional Performance
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Congressional Performance
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Two Simple Observations
In light of the health care bill passing (no surprise since the D's stalling were just sellouts) I have two quick personal observations. One is that the Democratic Party is no longer an American party, it is no longer worthy of my vote EVER. While they have received my vote in the past, this current incarnation of the Party is strictly big government socialism and no longer believes in ANYTHING that is inherently American. They have just enacted the biggest piece of social legislation in 45 years without one single vote from the other party, completely unheard of. The myth of the "conservative Democrat" has permanently been killed by this bill, just ask Bart Stupak. That beast is now extinct. These clowns will sell their mothers down the river and are ideologically partisan to the core. Just vote with the party Bart and tell yourself you voted your conscience. They are committed liars and constant "victims", oh heck, leftists make a career out of victimhood. Oh don't think that Republicans will get a free ride, plain and simple if the man/woman is not a conservative they are not worthy to hold office. If you are not willing to defend the Constitution and it's core principles you are worthless to me, dead on arrival...politically speaking of course. I have my principles and unlike the unscrupulous slime in either party, I will vote it EVERY TIME.
Second observation is that March 21,2010 will go down as the beginning of the end of the Republic the way our Founders envisioned it. If these Democrat hacks had ever actually read the words or the philosophies of our Founders instead of being enthralled by the Progressive muck of the early 20th Century we wouldn't be in this mess. Progressives like President Woodrow Wilson read men like Herbert Croly and started us down the path that President Obama has ultimately finished. Collectivism as men like Croly,William Jennings Bryan and John Dewey proposed is always inherently anti-Constitution and now we have one more gigantic entitlement program to further migrate us toward the Bismarckian utopia these people believed in. That's fine you want to believe in it, just do me a favor, move to Europe and enjoy your permanent welfare recepient status there. Enjoy the forever striking French, the always on vacation Italians, and your almost 20% unemployment in Spain. Now I am sure people want to argue that the health care system in this country is broken and it needs to be fixed. No disagreement there, but what has been created with this bill is an ever encroaching government forcing you to buy a product from a specific industry, insurance (and who do you think is going to profit from this arrangement?). This is a bold and unconstitutional overreach by the federal government and it will be challenged by smarter men then me. Start saving up or go to jail for evasion, as the 12,000 additional IRS agents (also created in this bill) will make sure you do. This could have been done the right way, Republican ideas were shut out from day one of this debate. Then only given token opportunities to speak after the 2300 page bill was already crafted by Pelosi,et al. It was treated as a fait accompli by the majority, and they could care less about free market principles or the Constitution. That leads me back to my original observation, this party has lost it's American way.
The opening of the Declaration of Independence are what most people remember but the force and firmness of the framers were not heard until the last sentence:
I leave with this impassioned floor speech by Paul Ryan:
Second observation is that March 21,2010 will go down as the beginning of the end of the Republic the way our Founders envisioned it. If these Democrat hacks had ever actually read the words or the philosophies of our Founders instead of being enthralled by the Progressive muck of the early 20th Century we wouldn't be in this mess. Progressives like President Woodrow Wilson read men like Herbert Croly and started us down the path that President Obama has ultimately finished. Collectivism as men like Croly,William Jennings Bryan and John Dewey proposed is always inherently anti-Constitution and now we have one more gigantic entitlement program to further migrate us toward the Bismarckian utopia these people believed in. That's fine you want to believe in it, just do me a favor, move to Europe and enjoy your permanent welfare recepient status there. Enjoy the forever striking French, the always on vacation Italians, and your almost 20% unemployment in Spain. Now I am sure people want to argue that the health care system in this country is broken and it needs to be fixed. No disagreement there, but what has been created with this bill is an ever encroaching government forcing you to buy a product from a specific industry, insurance (and who do you think is going to profit from this arrangement?). This is a bold and unconstitutional overreach by the federal government and it will be challenged by smarter men then me. Start saving up or go to jail for evasion, as the 12,000 additional IRS agents (also created in this bill) will make sure you do. This could have been done the right way, Republican ideas were shut out from day one of this debate. Then only given token opportunities to speak after the 2300 page bill was already crafted by Pelosi,et al. It was treated as a fait accompli by the majority, and they could care less about free market principles or the Constitution. That leads me back to my original observation, this party has lost it's American way.
The opening of the Declaration of Independence are what most people remember but the force and firmness of the framers were not heard until the last sentence:
I wonder now what we will do to uphold their vision or is it lost forever under our new welfare state.And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.
I leave with this impassioned floor speech by Paul Ryan:
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Oh the lunacy
It figures this would come from one of only 6 federal judges in history to be impeached. The gentleman from Florida has the floor....
Friday, March 19, 2010
Noonan on the mark
While I regularly disagree with Peggy Noonan's analysis in the Wall Street Journal, she usually has a salient main point in her pieces. So they are pretty simple to break down. Today's is one such piece where she really laid out what that Bret Baier interview really did to this President and in turn showed this country what we are dealing with. The interview, which I commented about the other day, really gave us a window into the delusional ego maniac we have sitting in the White House. I mean, all men seeking that office have to have some ego BUT we have never seen anything quite like this. She describes the interview:
On the money Pegster, if I may call you that. As I noted the other day, the squirming was reminiscient of Frost/Nixon. To anyone who has seen the movie or parts of the actual original interviews (they are on PBS every now and then, check it out) when you don't want to answer questions you simply run out the clock. The President expects you to allow him the deference to just ramble on and fill the 20 minutes you have with him with just total nonsense. Bret Baier did not allow this, he interrupted time and again respectfully looking for the answer to the question or to actually explain something that Obama had no clue about:
Kudos to Mr. Baier for just doing his job. You know the way the media is supposed to press for answers to difficult questions. The President works for us not vice-versa and this interview should remind people of that. Then Noonan closes with this:
This is where i diverge with Peggy,I don't think this administration cares about the drop in prestige and popularity. If it passes, Pelosi,Obama,etc. will have passed what has eluded the far left of this country for decades...health care for all. That will be worth it to them. And for that reason my belief is sadly that the process and all of this back and forth will be swept under the rug, forgotten. They bank on the short memories of the general public, and realize their most certain defeat in November is a small price to pay for transforming the country.
It revealed his primary weakness in speaking of health care, which is a tendency to dodge, obfuscate and mislead. He grows testy when challenged. It revealed what the president doesn't want revealed, which is that he doesn't want to reveal much about his plan. This furtiveness is not helpful in a time of high public anxiety. At any rate, the interview was what such interviews rarely are, a public service. That it occurred at a high-stakes time, with so much on the line, only made it more electric.
On the money Pegster, if I may call you that. As I noted the other day, the squirming was reminiscient of Frost/Nixon. To anyone who has seen the movie or parts of the actual original interviews (they are on PBS every now and then, check it out) when you don't want to answer questions you simply run out the clock. The President expects you to allow him the deference to just ramble on and fill the 20 minutes you have with him with just total nonsense. Bret Baier did not allow this, he interrupted time and again respectfully looking for the answer to the question or to actually explain something that Obama had no clue about:
Mr. Baier interrupts: "Mr. President, you couldn't tell me what the special deals are that are in or not today."
Mr. Obama: "I just told you what was in and what was not in."
Mr. Baier: "Is Connecticut in?" He was referring to the blandishments—polite word—meant to buy the votes of particular senators.
Mr. Obama: "Connecticut—what are you specifically referring to?"
Mr. Baier: "The $100 million for the hospital? Is Montana in for the asbestos program? Is—you know, listen, there are people—this is real money, people are worried about this stuff."
Mr. Obama: "And as I said before, this—the final provisions are going to be posted for many days before this thing passes."
Kudos to Mr. Baier for just doing his job. You know the way the media is supposed to press for answers to difficult questions. The President works for us not vice-versa and this interview should remind people of that. Then Noonan closes with this:
And so it ends, with a health-care vote expected this weekend. I wonder at what point the administration will realize it wasn't worth it—worth the discord, worth the diminution in popularity and prestige, worth the deepening of the great divide. What has been lost is so vivid, what has been gained so amorphous, blurry and likely illusory.
This is where i diverge with Peggy,I don't think this administration cares about the drop in prestige and popularity. If it passes, Pelosi,Obama,etc. will have passed what has eluded the far left of this country for decades...health care for all. That will be worth it to them. And for that reason my belief is sadly that the process and all of this back and forth will be swept under the rug, forgotten. They bank on the short memories of the general public, and realize their most certain defeat in November is a small price to pay for transforming the country.
Harsh but true..
While I certainly wouldn't call for his impeachment,Kuhner makes some interesting points about the "Slaughter Rule". It is highly unconstiutional and leads us down a road of banana republic and governing by fiat. My hope is that the American people are wise to this abrogation of our well establashed laws and Constiution. What this administration advocates for makes it a soft tyranny of the worst kind.
KUHNER: Impeach the president? - Washington Times
KUHNER: Impeach the president? - Washington Times
A Puzzle, Wrapped Up In An Enigma, Wrapped Up In A Health Care Bill...
Well not exactly, a distasteful student loan bill is wrapped up in the HC Bill. If you are not familiar with this bill being thrown about, it is this Congress' latest attempt to grow government. In Pelosi's continued perseverance and single-mindedness the government would now like to take private borrowers out of the student loan system completely. Not by a little, not in a gradual step, nope they want it all in one fell swoop. The reason this is attached to the HC Bill, it allows for some phony savings.
How does this work? Most of the things House Democrats hate about the Senate bill involve spending more and taxing less. The Cornhusker kickback, they would like to fix that by giving it to ALL the states. They want to fix the Medicare prescription-drug benefit by making it even more generous. They want to fix the "Cadillac Tax", which the unions hate, by delaying it's implementation until 2018. All of those fixes increase the cost of the bill obviously so how does Nancy fix this. Ahhh lets attach this student loan bill, that would never get 60 votes in the Senate on it's best day. Under the rules of reconciliation the reconciled package must decrease the deficit by at least $1 billion, AND reconciliation can only be used once a budget year.
The problem with all of this fuzzy math? The Democrats' bill would eliminate government subsidies to private lenders and replace them with a government direct loan program. According to our government accounting practices it would save taxpayers $68 billion over ten years, sounds good right? To get that number we have to assume that the government will enjoy absurdly low borrowing costs for the foreseeable future and that it faces no risk of a spike in student defaults (ummm they provided the subsidies in the first place to compensate for such risks). Those savings also of course do not take into account the administration of those loans. Estimated to be another $6 billion. See if the government creates a program, it has just created a bureaucracy to go along with it. Stephen Spruiell writes over at NRO:
It is clear that the intention for all of this is not better health care or easier access for students to get loans. It is plain and simple, let's increase the scope of government. Let's have it intrude on every one of your decisions, whether it is going to the doctor,going to school or drinking a soda (that's a gibe at Gov. Paterson's soda tax). Pelosi,et al, will stop at nothing to grease the skids for further government involvement. What's next? Taxing the air? Oh wait, Cap and Trade covers that too...
How does this work? Most of the things House Democrats hate about the Senate bill involve spending more and taxing less. The Cornhusker kickback, they would like to fix that by giving it to ALL the states. They want to fix the Medicare prescription-drug benefit by making it even more generous. They want to fix the "Cadillac Tax", which the unions hate, by delaying it's implementation until 2018. All of those fixes increase the cost of the bill obviously so how does Nancy fix this. Ahhh lets attach this student loan bill, that would never get 60 votes in the Senate on it's best day. Under the rules of reconciliation the reconciled package must decrease the deficit by at least $1 billion, AND reconciliation can only be used once a budget year.
The problem with all of this fuzzy math? The Democrats' bill would eliminate government subsidies to private lenders and replace them with a government direct loan program. According to our government accounting practices it would save taxpayers $68 billion over ten years, sounds good right? To get that number we have to assume that the government will enjoy absurdly low borrowing costs for the foreseeable future and that it faces no risk of a spike in student defaults (ummm they provided the subsidies in the first place to compensate for such risks). Those savings also of course do not take into account the administration of those loans. Estimated to be another $6 billion. See if the government creates a program, it has just created a bureaucracy to go along with it. Stephen Spruiell writes over at NRO:
Fortunately for them, the student-loan bill happens to include a pot of money they can use to pay for health care instead of, say, education or (gasp!) deficit reduction. The “savings” in the student-loan bill were originally slated to be used for these latter priorities, with a bias toward more spending on Pell Grants and community colleges. Now comes word that the planned spending on community colleges might be sacrificed entirely so that Pelosi can grease the skids for health care. The idea that any of this will reduce the deficit is fanciful, but Pelosi has the CBO working around the clock as she hammers and tweaks her fictions like a student with unlimited tries to pass an exam.
It is clear that the intention for all of this is not better health care or easier access for students to get loans. It is plain and simple, let's increase the scope of government. Let's have it intrude on every one of your decisions, whether it is going to the doctor,going to school or drinking a soda (that's a gibe at Gov. Paterson's soda tax). Pelosi,et al, will stop at nothing to grease the skids for further government involvement. What's next? Taxing the air? Oh wait, Cap and Trade covers that too...
Reason #6,945 the Mainstream Media is worthless
While Fox News is doing a real interview with the President, ABC in it's usual treatment had this fluff piece. They give 2 minutes to this nonsense. That's almost 10% of ABC Nightly News' whole broadcast time of 22 minutes. Oh by the way Mr. President, it is spelled Syracuse not Sycasuse (at around the :40 mark)...thank God he's the smartest President ever!
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Cable Network Rankings: FNC #2, MSNBC #26, CNN #32, HLN #37 in Prime
Hey MSNBC at least you are beating the Lifetime Movie Network.....
Cable Network Rankings: FNC #2, MSNBC #26, CNN #32, HLN #37 in Prime
Cable Network Rankings: FNC #2, MSNBC #26, CNN #32, HLN #37 in Prime
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Low-key java drinkers in Washington kick off Coffee Parties
Sooooo lame! Watch the video. I love the part when that low level Obama hack Annabel Park states that "Democracy isn't supposed to be about two teams fighting...it is about community of people advancing the common good". Huh? First off the US is not a true democracy, it's a freaking Republic based on democratic principles, and secondly what she described is socialism. Sometimes I wonder if these caffeinated libs ever passed high school civics. Then she goes on to say that the primary goal of the Coffee Party is to "restore democracy". Good lord. The fact that this is so lame with such positive MSM coverage just goes to show, the energy is with small government beliefs. Not these Obama worshipping robots.
Low-key java drinkers in Washington kick off Coffee Parties | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment
Low-key java drinkers in Washington kick off Coffee Parties | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment
How lame
I have a feeling, as much as I don't want to talk about health care it will be here well past the mid-term election. Since if it does pass, you know Republicans will be using the vote as a stick to whip the Democrats in those tough districts that are represented by a Democrat but voted overwhelmingly Bush/McCain in the last couple of elections. The reps in those districts, their political incentives are basically at odds with the leadership. The leadership (Hoyer,Pelosi,Clyburn,etc.) are all in very safe liberal districts. The fact that of the 253 House Democrats, 45 represent districts that voted for McCain is a math problem for Pelosi to get this bill passed. Yes she did get one flip, Kucinich on Tuesday turned into a 'yes' after voting 'no' last year. One nice flight on Air Force One by Pres. Obama apparently changed his mind. I wonder if they let him sit in the cockpit with the pilot, gave him his plastic wings and sent him on his way impressed with the whole thing?
Yesterday though was that interview with Bret Baier. Whoa! Props to the President for sitting with a real journalist asking hard questions. But man did he come off like an amateur or what? On the defensive from minute one, never answering one question, I haven't seen interview squirming like that since Frost/Nixon. He clearly was lost without TOTUS (Teleprompter Of The United States). The whole reason he lowered himself to go on FOX was so that he could sell centrist Dem's and Independents this debacle of a plan. If that was the goal, it failed.
Best question Bret threw at him all night was:
"Monday in Ohio, you called for courage in the health care debate. At the same time, House Speaker Pelosi was saying this to reporters about the deem and pass rule: 'I like it, this scenario, because people don't have to vote on the Senate bill.' Is that the kind of courage that you're talking about?" Nice. He was so off his game that he made up a disaster in Hawaii:
Hilarious stuff. At times I felt maybe the President was doing a sketch for The Daily Show it was so phony and off the wall. Well check it out yourself and enjoy the dancing, the stonewalling, and the rambling. I love how Bret always gets back to the original question even after the long-winded BS. This is your President:
Seth Leibsohn writing over at National Review Online summarized it perfectly:
Yesterday though was that interview with Bret Baier. Whoa! Props to the President for sitting with a real journalist asking hard questions. But man did he come off like an amateur or what? On the defensive from minute one, never answering one question, I haven't seen interview squirming like that since Frost/Nixon. He clearly was lost without TOTUS (Teleprompter Of The United States). The whole reason he lowered himself to go on FOX was so that he could sell centrist Dem's and Independents this debacle of a plan. If that was the goal, it failed.
Best question Bret threw at him all night was:
"Monday in Ohio, you called for courage in the health care debate. At the same time, House Speaker Pelosi was saying this to reporters about the deem and pass rule: 'I like it, this scenario, because people don't have to vote on the Senate bill.' Is that the kind of courage that you're talking about?" Nice. He was so off his game that he made up a disaster in Hawaii:
Hilarious stuff. At times I felt maybe the President was doing a sketch for The Daily Show it was so phony and off the wall. Well check it out yourself and enjoy the dancing, the stonewalling, and the rambling. I love how Bret always gets back to the original question even after the long-winded BS. This is your President:
Seth Leibsohn writing over at National Review Online summarized it perfectly:
Bret Baier just concluded the single best interview of President Obama in a year, by any reporter. He was resilient in the face of the president’s obvious attempts to run down the clock by stonewalling; Bret continually hammered a series of questions the president did not want, and yet he was polite in explaining to the president the meaning of the questions just in case they were not what the president was familiar with (see the question about Connecticut for example). It was a model of how not to be cowed by a strong and charismatic leader and a model of a truly independent anchor/reporter. President Obama knew he didn’t have Bret at the very end when his last effort at victimhood was to sarcastically hang his head to the side in response to Bret’s saying he didn’t mean to interrupt, as if Bret were being insincere — which he wasn’t. Anyone who watches the interview can see who was stalling, who was running the clock, who was refusing to answer the questions, and why polite interruption was exactly what was needed. It was a model. If any of the MSM can watch it and conclude anything it is that FNC deserves a) its ratings and b) kudos for being truly independent from the herd of faux independent minds, the likes of which Howell Raines seems to esteem. Bret showed the rest of the press how to do it from now on.
Obama Not Meeting Americans' Lofty Expectations on Issues
Hey at least a slight majority approves of his handling of the environment...
Obama Not Meeting Americans' Lofty Expectations on Issues
Obama Not Meeting Americans' Lofty Expectations on Issues
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Writer's Block
I am not sure I suffer from said affliction but I do know I am tired of the health care crap; tired of hearing a President who clearly does not know the campaign was over almost a year and a half ago and is constantly bombarding every freaking news cycle, and VERY tired of a Democratic Party hellbent on trashing the Constitution. In my last lengthy post I discussed the lengths of which that party will go to pass the liberal wet dream of Universal Health Care for all. Yes that is right you heard me, Universal...not some watered down "public option", that's just an appetizer. Hey people, time to read the fine print of the over 2,300 page shell bill behemoth that was posted online late Sunday night. This bill is as Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) put it, meant to "grease the skids" for more BS in the future. Why all the formalities? Well as Philip Klein noted:
That is the rub, since as we know from following this process the Democrats in the House do not trust the Democrats in the Senate to reconcile it properly and vice-versa. If this piece of legislation was only remotely popular amongst their own ranks, the Democrats would have passed this months ago. But as we know, the legislation stinks and rots to high heaven. So that's about all I am going to re-hash on the current state of the "debate".
New Jersey
Briefly I want to highlight what is going on in my state of New Jersey because it may be a road map of future policies. Coincidentally the new governor in Virginia is working on similar actions but we are in far worse shape up here.
We as a state have one of the highest unfunded pension liabilities, it is now a staggering $46 billion dollars. What does that mean? Well it means that this is the deficit we run on guaranteed payouts to pensions of public employees. We don't have enough people to steal from and tax to make up for that. Just take a look at Greece's current situation and imagine that here. Now that deficit was created by irresponsible governing by both parties when the state pretty much stopped kicking in contributions and finding all sorts of budgetary tricks to stem the deficit and show a balanced budget. Which was all well and good when the markets were going strong and the fund was growing through investment. As we know the markets don't stay hot forever, in reality all it did was kick the can further down the road for someone else to deal with. Well the time to deal with it is now. As evidenced by Christie's election, the people of this state have had enough.
It would take a 3 billion dollar contribution this year from the state (or more than 10% of the state budget) to adequately finance the pensions for this year alone. It is time to get away from this guaranteed outcome system, and put public employees in a 401(k) type situation where there is a guaranteed contribution from employee. If you want to invest, make it yourself don't be doing it with the rest of the citizens of this state's tax dollars. This will cut a huge portion of spending out of the state budget. Other solutions have come up as well to find ways to get our state back to liquidity. Christie's recent formation of a commission that will recommend what state government functions should be done cheaper and better by the private sector, is a good place to start. Wow what a genius idea! Feel the sarcasm? Anyways it is nice to know we have a governor that is standing up to the entrenched unions of this state that for too long have been a drain on everyone else who isn't in the union. The $11 billion dollar deficit Corzine left was going to need drastic measures. And more spending and more taxing has NEVER been the answer.
Privatization of course is not a new innovation as Cal Thomas in a recent piece pointed out:
Unfortunately in this country we have liberal Democrats and some Republicans way too comfortable with big government solutions, still we have had some success:
The Cato Institute has done expansive research into what government entities would be best spun off of government control. Now if Governor Christie is successful in making these policies work we may be able to illustrate to the country once again what it means to be small government Republicans as Reagan did. And in so doing, articulating the Founders vision of small government there to protect personal liberty.
Well, under the reconciliation rules in last year's budget, any reconciliation bill would have to have been submitted to the Budget Committee by October 15, 2009. It just so happens that earlier versions of health care legislation cleared the Ways and Means and Education and Labor Committees last year. So Democrats just dusted that legislation off, and are using that as the vehicle to begin the reconciliation process. That's why, for instance, if you look through the 2,309 page bill that was released Sunday night, you'll find a public option, which leadership has indicated would not actually be in the final bill.
That is the rub, since as we know from following this process the Democrats in the House do not trust the Democrats in the Senate to reconcile it properly and vice-versa. If this piece of legislation was only remotely popular amongst their own ranks, the Democrats would have passed this months ago. But as we know, the legislation stinks and rots to high heaven. So that's about all I am going to re-hash on the current state of the "debate".
New Jersey
Briefly I want to highlight what is going on in my state of New Jersey because it may be a road map of future policies. Coincidentally the new governor in Virginia is working on similar actions but we are in far worse shape up here.
We as a state have one of the highest unfunded pension liabilities, it is now a staggering $46 billion dollars. What does that mean? Well it means that this is the deficit we run on guaranteed payouts to pensions of public employees. We don't have enough people to steal from and tax to make up for that. Just take a look at Greece's current situation and imagine that here. Now that deficit was created by irresponsible governing by both parties when the state pretty much stopped kicking in contributions and finding all sorts of budgetary tricks to stem the deficit and show a balanced budget. Which was all well and good when the markets were going strong and the fund was growing through investment. As we know the markets don't stay hot forever, in reality all it did was kick the can further down the road for someone else to deal with. Well the time to deal with it is now. As evidenced by Christie's election, the people of this state have had enough.
It would take a 3 billion dollar contribution this year from the state (or more than 10% of the state budget) to adequately finance the pensions for this year alone. It is time to get away from this guaranteed outcome system, and put public employees in a 401(k) type situation where there is a guaranteed contribution from employee. If you want to invest, make it yourself don't be doing it with the rest of the citizens of this state's tax dollars. This will cut a huge portion of spending out of the state budget. Other solutions have come up as well to find ways to get our state back to liquidity. Christie's recent formation of a commission that will recommend what state government functions should be done cheaper and better by the private sector, is a good place to start. Wow what a genius idea! Feel the sarcasm? Anyways it is nice to know we have a governor that is standing up to the entrenched unions of this state that for too long have been a drain on everyone else who isn't in the union. The $11 billion dollar deficit Corzine left was going to need drastic measures. And more spending and more taxing has NEVER been the answer.
Privatization of course is not a new innovation as Cal Thomas in a recent piece pointed out:
British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher succeeded in reducing the size and cost of her government by selling-off entities like British Telecom and British Rail to private companies. Thatcher's policies brought in revenue to the treasury, reduced the size and cost of government and cut the bloated civil service from 732,000 employees when she took office in 1979, to 500,000 in 1997
Unfortunately in this country we have liberal Democrats and some Republicans way too comfortable with big government solutions, still we have had some success:
President Reagan was able to sell off the Conrail freight railroad in 1987 for $1.7 billion. The year before, the Alaska Power Administration was privatized. The federal helium reserve was sold for $1.8 billion in 1996. The Elks Hill Petroleum Reserve was sold in 1997 for $3.7 billion. And in 1998, the U.S. Enrichment Corporation, which provides enriched uranium to the nuclear industry, was privatized for $3.1 billion.
The Cato Institute has done expansive research into what government entities would be best spun off of government control. Now if Governor Christie is successful in making these policies work we may be able to illustrate to the country once again what it means to be small government Republicans as Reagan did. And in so doing, articulating the Founders vision of small government there to protect personal liberty.
Friday, March 12, 2010
Typical
This recent conversation with Rep. Bart Stupak(D-MI) shows the great lenghts of the Left's arm twisting. This combined with todays op-ed in the WaPo written by Pat Caddell and Doug Schoen, Democratic pollsters for Carter and Clinton respectively, illustrates that today's modern Democratic Party is a shell of it's once great self.
‘They Just Want This Over’ - Robert Costa - The Corner on National Review Online
‘They Just Want This Over’ - Robert Costa - The Corner on National Review Online
Health Care Reform as we know it, is dead
Stealing a line from Bill Clinton kind of seemed appropriate at the moment. He of course said that of welfare when speaking of landmark welfare reform enacted in 1997. And really isn't that the moment when the very liberal in this country gave up on their dream of Clinton being the "transformative" president? So how fitting is it that they finally got the stars aligned with Barack Obama's election, a man after their own bleating hearts, and still can't get anything done.
A couple of reasons for this, first the traditional legislative incompetence of the Democratic Party and secondly the majority of this country is lined up against a total remaking of our economy. Any number of polls will show that Americans value their health care system, think individual mandates are an infringement on their liberty, and would like Congress to start over. What happened to being focused on jobs? Oh right Ms. Pelosi said this reform would create 400,000 jobs out of thin air. Huh? What?
Without getting into too much of the parliamentary tricks that they were attempting to get this passed, (one of them actually just saying it passed without actually voting on it...no seriously) the Senate Parliamentarian sided with the GOP reasoning. If all of this were as simple as Schoolhouse Rock, right? Now of course Nancy and crew are spinning the crap out of this saying they haven't really lost and the press and Republican leadership have "misinterpreted" the ruling. House Democratic leaders last week began looking at crafting a legislative rule that would allow the House to approve the Senate health care bill, but not forward it to Obama for his signature until the Senate clears the reconciliation package. The House Democratic members for the most part think the Senate bill is detestable so what gives them the incentive to sign it? Does this all seem confusing? Of course it does, their only choice to get this passed is to pull every bit of chicanery they can. So is it dead for good, not really as Allahpundit points out this morning they still have one way of getting through this:
That option is most legitimate of course, but it will be the hardest route to go on. The odds are long that they will be able to flip some of the no's back to yes. If you are interested in that minutiae (as I am) Jay Cost over at Real Clear Politics has a great rundown of the votes Pelosi has and doesn't have on his Horse Race blog:
RCP- Jay Cost
A couple of reasons for this, first the traditional legislative incompetence of the Democratic Party and secondly the majority of this country is lined up against a total remaking of our economy. Any number of polls will show that Americans value their health care system, think individual mandates are an infringement on their liberty, and would like Congress to start over. What happened to being focused on jobs? Oh right Ms. Pelosi said this reform would create 400,000 jobs out of thin air. Huh? What?
Without getting into too much of the parliamentary tricks that they were attempting to get this passed, (one of them actually just saying it passed without actually voting on it...no seriously) the Senate Parliamentarian sided with the GOP reasoning. If all of this were as simple as Schoolhouse Rock, right? Now of course Nancy and crew are spinning the crap out of this saying they haven't really lost and the press and Republican leadership have "misinterpreted" the ruling. House Democratic leaders last week began looking at crafting a legislative rule that would allow the House to approve the Senate health care bill, but not forward it to Obama for his signature until the Senate clears the reconciliation package. The House Democratic members for the most part think the Senate bill is detestable so what gives them the incentive to sign it? Does this all seem confusing? Of course it does, their only choice to get this passed is to pull every bit of chicanery they can. So is it dead for good, not really as Allahpundit points out this morning they still have one way of getting through this:
Waxman dropped a bombshell of his own a few hours ago when he said they’ve all but given up on the Stupak bloc and will try to get to 216 without them. It’s possible that they could convince enough Blue Dogs to trust the Senate on reconciliation and hold their noses to vote for Reid’s bill, but with the Stupak 12 all (allegedly) flipping to no and another 25 Democrats leaning heavily towards no, they have literally no margin for error. They’re at 216 on the button, with any single member in the caucus capable of killing the bill by flipping. Assuming they can keep the group together, though, that’s one solution to the new parliamentarian headache. Just pass Reid’s bill and hope for the best.
That option is most legitimate of course, but it will be the hardest route to go on. The odds are long that they will be able to flip some of the no's back to yes. If you are interested in that minutiae (as I am) Jay Cost over at Real Clear Politics has a great rundown of the votes Pelosi has and doesn't have on his Horse Race blog:
RCP- Jay Cost
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
I'll have a non-fat mocha no froth...
Yikes, where to start with this below report on CNN. If this doesn't illustrate the problem with the media today I just don't know what does. I wonder if anyone remembers what fawning coverage CNN gave the Tea Party movement just a short year ago? Well view the video below and see my post from last week regarding the phoniness of this Coffee Party movement.
It basically is just an organized branch of far leftists. There is no moderation in this bunch as the gentleman Kevin Zeese suggests in the CNN report. As a former Green Party mouthpiece and current board member of the shady leftist organization, Velvet Revolution, he doesn't seem all that moderate. Look your right to assembly and say whatever you like is a protected right under the Constitution but don't play yourselves off as some sort of "moderate" non-partisan answer to the Tea Party. As if the Tea Party is partisan. My goodness Republicans would love to have those types of voters in their corner every 2 years, BUT as I have illustrated (so have many others) the people making up that movement are majority Independent along with disaffected Republicans and Democrats. The larger issue is of course the left bent media in love with them, like they are the next enlightened "community organizer" that they haven't done their homework on.
It basically is just an organized branch of far leftists. There is no moderation in this bunch as the gentleman Kevin Zeese suggests in the CNN report. As a former Green Party mouthpiece and current board member of the shady leftist organization, Velvet Revolution, he doesn't seem all that moderate. Look your right to assembly and say whatever you like is a protected right under the Constitution but don't play yourselves off as some sort of "moderate" non-partisan answer to the Tea Party. As if the Tea Party is partisan. My goodness Republicans would love to have those types of voters in their corner every 2 years, BUT as I have illustrated (so have many others) the people making up that movement are majority Independent along with disaffected Republicans and Democrats. The larger issue is of course the left bent media in love with them, like they are the next enlightened "community organizer" that they haven't done their homework on.
Politics Shmolitics
Yes my blog is generally about politics and most may not find that as interesting as say a blog about movies...or knitting...or cooking and I realize this. So in my effort to be a full service blog I decided to write about something else that stokes opinions. That would be music, another one of my long held interests. Some readers would be familiar with my time as a college radio DJ and the large collection of tapes,CD's and yes even a handful of LP's and 45's I possess. So for this I would like to kind of start an open thread to anyone reading or wanting to comment.
The topic: Top 5 Most Influential Albums of last 25 years (that would be since 1985 for the math challenged..ha). Now I do realize "influential" is highly subjective but that's kind of the point. So do some thought and come back and post yours or just tear mine to pieces whatever works for you.
My Top 5 (in no particular order)
1. Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique: Highly ignored at the time of release, this Dust Brothers produced record did not reach certified platinum status until 1999. A full ten years after release. Even though it was a critical success at the time it was a total departure from "Licensed to Ill" so it baffled many fans. The record set the hip-hop/rap bar for dense sampling and it's almost over lyrical nature. Personal highlight for me is sampling 4 Beatles tunes in "The Sounds of Science". A record like this could not be made today.
Best Tracks: "Sounds of Science", "High Plains Drifter"
2. Nirvana - Nevermind: The album that launched a thousand wanna-be bands (Bush,Creed,the list goes on). Although I believe In Utero to be the better overall record, most of the country had never heard anything like Nevermind when it was released in September of 1991. Still the only record of my lifetime that I can recall exactly where I was when I listened to it all the way through. It was 42 minutes of noise put together in such perfect fashion by producer Butch Vig. The album had perfect timing and couldn't have had more of a cultural impact. It signaled the end of "Baby Boomers" being the predominant cultural influencers and thrust my generation to the forefront.
Best Tracks: "Smells Like Teen Spirit", "Come As You Are"
3. The Pixies - Surfer Rosa: Quite simply without this record Nirvana and the whole quiet/loud dynamics of a song, that we are so familiar with now, doesn't exist. Steve Albini produced this and went on to produce the aforementioned In Utero.
Best Tracks: "Gigantic", "Where Is My Mind?"
4. Radiohead - OK Computer: This album really just pushed the limits as to what "rock bands" were supposed to do in the mid to late 90's. In the U.S., they were all supposed to sound like they came from Seattle. And in Britain they were all to sound like Oasis or other "Brit-pop". These guys kind of said "Eff that" with this record. Experimenting with song structures and melody really put this way past anything being done at the time and is now seen in a lot of today's music. Good or bad bands like Coldplay,Travis, and Muse owe a lot to this era of Radiohead. Their following releases (Kid A, Amnesiac, Hail to The Thief) would make it near impossible to ape their style again.
Best Tracks: "Karma Police","Exit Music (For A Film)", "Paranoid Android"
5. U2 - The Joshua Tree: I think the significance of this record is more important for U2 and it's evolution as opposed to music as a whole so maybe it should be left off. But there is no denying the omnipresence this band has had since it's release. The strength of the album is not only the tracks but the themes Bono was conveying in his lyrics. He wrote most of the songs in 1985-86 and was enamored with America. Not only with the "mythic idea of America" but with America's influence abroad at the time. This juxtaposition makes for an infinitely political yet introspective album. He has noted in interviews that it was this internal discussion that he was having with himself that brought out a song like "Bullet The Blue Sky". He also gets personal with "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" and "Running to Stand Still". It really is probably the most illustrative instance of an established band (J Tree was their 5th studio record) completely launching themselves into the stratosphere with one album and staying there (with minor blips here and there) over the last 25 years.
Best Tracks: "Where The Streets Have No Name", "Running To Stand Still","With Or Without You"
Well thanks for sticking around reading today's post. I will maybe do more of these types of posts if the feedback is there. Otherwise I will continue to be writing as a card carrying member of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy :)
The topic: Top 5 Most Influential Albums of last 25 years (that would be since 1985 for the math challenged..ha). Now I do realize "influential" is highly subjective but that's kind of the point. So do some thought and come back and post yours or just tear mine to pieces whatever works for you.
My Top 5 (in no particular order)
1. Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique: Highly ignored at the time of release, this Dust Brothers produced record did not reach certified platinum status until 1999. A full ten years after release. Even though it was a critical success at the time it was a total departure from "Licensed to Ill" so it baffled many fans. The record set the hip-hop/rap bar for dense sampling and it's almost over lyrical nature. Personal highlight for me is sampling 4 Beatles tunes in "The Sounds of Science". A record like this could not be made today.
Best Tracks: "Sounds of Science", "High Plains Drifter"
2. Nirvana - Nevermind: The album that launched a thousand wanna-be bands (Bush,Creed,the list goes on). Although I believe In Utero to be the better overall record, most of the country had never heard anything like Nevermind when it was released in September of 1991. Still the only record of my lifetime that I can recall exactly where I was when I listened to it all the way through. It was 42 minutes of noise put together in such perfect fashion by producer Butch Vig. The album had perfect timing and couldn't have had more of a cultural impact. It signaled the end of "Baby Boomers" being the predominant cultural influencers and thrust my generation to the forefront.
Best Tracks: "Smells Like Teen Spirit", "Come As You Are"
3. The Pixies - Surfer Rosa: Quite simply without this record Nirvana and the whole quiet/loud dynamics of a song, that we are so familiar with now, doesn't exist. Steve Albini produced this and went on to produce the aforementioned In Utero.
Best Tracks: "Gigantic", "Where Is My Mind?"
4. Radiohead - OK Computer: This album really just pushed the limits as to what "rock bands" were supposed to do in the mid to late 90's. In the U.S., they were all supposed to sound like they came from Seattle. And in Britain they were all to sound like Oasis or other "Brit-pop". These guys kind of said "Eff that" with this record. Experimenting with song structures and melody really put this way past anything being done at the time and is now seen in a lot of today's music. Good or bad bands like Coldplay,Travis, and Muse owe a lot to this era of Radiohead. Their following releases (Kid A, Amnesiac, Hail to The Thief) would make it near impossible to ape their style again.
Best Tracks: "Karma Police","Exit Music (For A Film)", "Paranoid Android"
5. U2 - The Joshua Tree: I think the significance of this record is more important for U2 and it's evolution as opposed to music as a whole so maybe it should be left off. But there is no denying the omnipresence this band has had since it's release. The strength of the album is not only the tracks but the themes Bono was conveying in his lyrics. He wrote most of the songs in 1985-86 and was enamored with America. Not only with the "mythic idea of America" but with America's influence abroad at the time. This juxtaposition makes for an infinitely political yet introspective album. He has noted in interviews that it was this internal discussion that he was having with himself that brought out a song like "Bullet The Blue Sky". He also gets personal with "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" and "Running to Stand Still". It really is probably the most illustrative instance of an established band (J Tree was their 5th studio record) completely launching themselves into the stratosphere with one album and staying there (with minor blips here and there) over the last 25 years.
Best Tracks: "Where The Streets Have No Name", "Running To Stand Still","With Or Without You"
Well thanks for sticking around reading today's post. I will maybe do more of these types of posts if the feedback is there. Otherwise I will continue to be writing as a card carrying member of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy :)
Funny
Hey Charlie now I know why you have gone from 30-35 points up in polls to 18 down in the latest Rasmussen Poll. My support for Marco Rubio has been noted on this blog and in personal conversations to others so I may be a little biased. If we were presenting to neophytes of political campaigns this would be Exhibit A in showing "When a campaign shows desperation"
Only 5 more moths until the primary Charlie let's see if you can hold it together...
Only 5 more moths until the primary Charlie let's see if you can hold it together...
Monday, March 8, 2010
Full Monday
This is something you do not find in most American newspapers these days, an honest no spin assessment of the current administration. So it is fitting it came from The Telegraph (London). Here is the link to the full text. While I disagree with some portions of the article, namely where he thinks the anti-Obama sentiment is just pure anger. Some of it may be, justifiably so, but I think it comes from a deeper sense that most Americans feel that our exceptionalism is under attack constantly. The feeling that this President has no interest in defending it, and is perceived as doing quite the opposite, is palpable with many.
The writer notes some political realities that face Obama and comes to an agreeable conclusion:
Other stories came to light as well. Most notably the issue with Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY). Now I am not sure what his angle is but it seems he may be playing the "I voted against health care and I am the deciding vote, now the conservatives, libertarians, tea-partiers will line up behind me and some how keep me in office". Is that overly cynical of me, perhaps, but he is a freshman Rep. and I cannot see why he would want to go quietly since it seems much of his crumbling comes internally from his own personal shortfalls. He resigned but seems to be ready to rescind that sometime this afternoon. If you listen to Massa's radio show rant, it doesn't surprise me that guys like Emanuel confronted him using colorful language, that's kind of Rahm's M.O. isn't it? So who knows what the deal is, is he resigning because of health issues (his stated reason), his ethics (the inferred reason), or has he just about had it with the leadership of the Democratic Party? It is more than likely a combination of all three, but sensing he had an out with his opposition to unpopular initiatives he could hang on with those credentials, and be saved by the backlash Emanuel/Obama (by default) will receive from this mess.
Also this being the morning after the Oscars there is plenty to talk about there. No not really, I could care less. Next topic....
Then of course this past Friday (the perfect day to sweep stories under the rug), the White House announces that they are considering recommending that KSM be given a military trial. Geniuses, why didn't anyone think of that already? Wow I knew this was the smartest administration to ever hold office but for them to invent Bush's idea is a new high! This crew is the gang that couldn't shoot straight. Well I guess they can shoot to the far left but that's about it.
Update: As of March 8th Eric Massa is no longer a Rep. from the great state of NY. His hints and allegations got even more screwy over the last day. Glenn Beck had him on his show and at the end it just got weird.
The writer notes some political realities that face Obama and comes to an agreeable conclusion:
A thrashing of the Democrats in the mid-terms would not necessarily be the beginning of the end for Mr Obama: Bill Clinton was re-elected two years after the Republicans swept the House and the Senate in November 1994. But Mr Clinton was an operator in a way Mr Obama patently is not. His lack of experience, his dependence on rhetoric rather than action, his disconnection from the lives of many millions of Americans all handicap him heavily. It is not about whose advice he is taking: it is about him grasping what is wrong with America, and finding the will to put it right.
Other stories came to light as well. Most notably the issue with Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY). Now I am not sure what his angle is but it seems he may be playing the "I voted against health care and I am the deciding vote, now the conservatives, libertarians, tea-partiers will line up behind me and some how keep me in office". Is that overly cynical of me, perhaps, but he is a freshman Rep. and I cannot see why he would want to go quietly since it seems much of his crumbling comes internally from his own personal shortfalls. He resigned but seems to be ready to rescind that sometime this afternoon. If you listen to Massa's radio show rant, it doesn't surprise me that guys like Emanuel confronted him using colorful language, that's kind of Rahm's M.O. isn't it? So who knows what the deal is, is he resigning because of health issues (his stated reason), his ethics (the inferred reason), or has he just about had it with the leadership of the Democratic Party? It is more than likely a combination of all three, but sensing he had an out with his opposition to unpopular initiatives he could hang on with those credentials, and be saved by the backlash Emanuel/Obama (by default) will receive from this mess.
Also this being the morning after the Oscars there is plenty to talk about there. No not really, I could care less. Next topic....
Then of course this past Friday (the perfect day to sweep stories under the rug), the White House announces that they are considering recommending that KSM be given a military trial. Geniuses, why didn't anyone think of that already? Wow I knew this was the smartest administration to ever hold office but for them to invent Bush's idea is a new high! This crew is the gang that couldn't shoot straight. Well I guess they can shoot to the far left but that's about it.
Update: As of March 8th Eric Massa is no longer a Rep. from the great state of NY. His hints and allegations got even more screwy over the last day. Glenn Beck had him on his show and at the end it just got weird.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
One reason why...
....this took off. It's a liberal dream scenario :)
Seriously this is the good and the bad of the new media. While news can be sent out quicker than ever, so can unsubstantiated sillyness like this. Hope those kids end up failing that Professor's class...
Seriously this is the good and the bad of the new media. While news can be sent out quicker than ever, so can unsubstantiated sillyness like this. Hope those kids end up failing that Professor's class...
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Palin
Well I figured the one word title would at least get the attention of the left leaners in the crowd. I will elaborate more at another time but reading this manufactured controversy made me realize that the left and the Nutroots bloggers need to let it go. We on the right have moved on, the election was already almost 2 years ago. She inspires so much derangement that it makes BDS look like a mild skin rash. Does she fire up certain aspects of the conservative movement? Absolutely, but what about good old Howard Dean? We just get a good laugh out of someone who shows so much buffoonery yet passion for his cause. We laugh but for the most part just agree to disagree with the man. None of the Palin nonsense you see from the left...
Like i said one of these days i will write on my personal thoughts about the former governor when I have more time to organize. Hope everyone has a great weekend.
Like i said one of these days i will write on my personal thoughts about the former governor when I have more time to organize. Hope everyone has a great weekend.
Friday, March 5, 2010
Oh Harry
My goodness is this sound byte priceless or what? I previously wrote about the lack of tact that the head of the RNC has. Well this is beyond irresponsible for the Senate Majority Leader to say. Yes thank you Harry, only 36,000 lost jobs last week. BUT government jobs continue to grow and expand. Interesting...
Hey good luck getting re-elected in November....
Hey good luck getting re-elected in November....
The latest flap
You may or may not have heard about this from the Politico, also Joe Scarborough spoke about it yesterday (3/4) on his MSNBC show Morning Joe. Quite frankly it is the only level headed programming that abomination of a news channel puts out, but I digress. While I agree with Joe that someone's head should roll, namely the finance officer of the RNC, it points to a more systemic problem with the guys currently at the top of the RNC. Namely Michael Steele. He has time and again failed to persuade the larger donors to donating to the RNC, no doubt he has increased the web presence and the smaller donors (which were significant in Obama beating Hillary) but that simply isn't enough. Mr. Steele inserts his foot into his mouth so often he has become quite the connoisseur of shoe leather. And I am pretty sure his tone is what turns off the major donors, but I'm just thinking out loud here.
See the funny thing is, the controversial presentation on it's face is mostly true. Is it overly cynical? Absolutely, and that is why it has no place in official documents. I have had my problems with the RNC this past year backing some non-conservative types, most notably Dede Scozzafava in upstate NY and Charlie Crist in FL's Senate primary. The problem for the RNC is that the trend is moving away from giving money to the larger party to giving it to the individual campaigns. That trend comes from the true grassroots nature of the whole tea-party, anti-tax, anti-big government movement. It is the kind of Internet fueled grassroots we saw in Howard Dean's candidacy in 2004 and Obama's primary battle with Hillary. Tea Partiers are for the most part independents but are moderate to conservative and have no brand loyalty so to speak. That accurately describes the majority of the country and this is a point that is often missed by media pundits and leaders on the left. They are getting out in front of the parties and endorsing candidate by candidate. This is easy to notice when you read how the movement is organizing, what candidates they are getting behind,etc. This is why when the Republican party drifts to the left they repudiate the hell out of them. See the 2006 mid-terms. And if you don't know the number of reasons how the Bush Administration went to the left in domestic policies and spending, see me after class. Look quite simply America already has one Democratic party they do not want another.
Now back to the controversy at hand, this PowerPoint presentation. Everyone is up in arms over the "fear" tactics, talking about "socialism". Oh G_d, really? Save the phony outrage for someone who hasn't followed election over election covering the last 16 years. Heck history shows that this kind of stuff has been going for HUNDREDS of years. Get over it. OK now that I got that off my chest. Let me take a look at what is really offensive in the presentation, it's the tack they use to attempt to shame the big donors into giving. Now I know most charities to an extent do this, BUT this isn't a freaking charity Mr. Steele! It is just one more embarrassment for this Chairman and it is becoming increasingly clear that the only thing standing between a Republican landslide in the midterm is Michael Steele.
As for the socialism talk, it is true. BUT the party heads should be talking about the real ideas being brought forth by the conservative leaders who happen to be Republican. The solutions are what should be presented to potential donors, but breaking out the MoveOn.org playbook from 2004 is not inspiring anyone. The problem is that some of them do not know what these ideas are, they haven't backed most of the candidates that espouse it! Every conservative has been saying it since Bush left office, it is time for the conservative principles of Ronald Reagan, Lincoln to come back. It is time for the party to once again embrace our philosophical forefathers, Alexis de Tocqueville , Edmund Burke, the Federalist papers, etc. When given the choice and if the principles are laid out, the American people WILL choose the conservative candidate, not some watered down John McCain type. Most of the inside the Beltway Republicans need to be reminded of these things, it is their path to electoral victory.
See the funny thing is, the controversial presentation on it's face is mostly true. Is it overly cynical? Absolutely, and that is why it has no place in official documents. I have had my problems with the RNC this past year backing some non-conservative types, most notably Dede Scozzafava in upstate NY and Charlie Crist in FL's Senate primary. The problem for the RNC is that the trend is moving away from giving money to the larger party to giving it to the individual campaigns. That trend comes from the true grassroots nature of the whole tea-party, anti-tax, anti-big government movement. It is the kind of Internet fueled grassroots we saw in Howard Dean's candidacy in 2004 and Obama's primary battle with Hillary. Tea Partiers are for the most part independents but are moderate to conservative and have no brand loyalty so to speak. That accurately describes the majority of the country and this is a point that is often missed by media pundits and leaders on the left. They are getting out in front of the parties and endorsing candidate by candidate. This is easy to notice when you read how the movement is organizing, what candidates they are getting behind,etc. This is why when the Republican party drifts to the left they repudiate the hell out of them. See the 2006 mid-terms. And if you don't know the number of reasons how the Bush Administration went to the left in domestic policies and spending, see me after class. Look quite simply America already has one Democratic party they do not want another.
Now back to the controversy at hand, this PowerPoint presentation. Everyone is up in arms over the "fear" tactics, talking about "socialism". Oh G_d, really? Save the phony outrage for someone who hasn't followed election over election covering the last 16 years. Heck history shows that this kind of stuff has been going for HUNDREDS of years. Get over it. OK now that I got that off my chest. Let me take a look at what is really offensive in the presentation, it's the tack they use to attempt to shame the big donors into giving. Now I know most charities to an extent do this, BUT this isn't a freaking charity Mr. Steele! It is just one more embarrassment for this Chairman and it is becoming increasingly clear that the only thing standing between a Republican landslide in the midterm is Michael Steele.
As for the socialism talk, it is true. BUT the party heads should be talking about the real ideas being brought forth by the conservative leaders who happen to be Republican. The solutions are what should be presented to potential donors, but breaking out the MoveOn.org playbook from 2004 is not inspiring anyone. The problem is that some of them do not know what these ideas are, they haven't backed most of the candidates that espouse it! Every conservative has been saying it since Bush left office, it is time for the conservative principles of Ronald Reagan, Lincoln to come back. It is time for the party to once again embrace our philosophical forefathers, Alexis de Tocqueville , Edmund Burke, the Federalist papers, etc. When given the choice and if the principles are laid out, the American people WILL choose the conservative candidate, not some watered down John McCain type. Most of the inside the Beltway Republicans need to be reminded of these things, it is their path to electoral victory.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
The Castro Connection...
As usual Humberto Fontova exposes the liberal hypocrisy when it comes to their fawning of Castro and Che. It would be funny if it wasn't so sad how these Black Liberation theology types get duped into supporting Castro and his Stalinist regime. If they only bothered to think or do the research on the man they love (and his Revolucion) they would realize how racist and antithetical Castro/Che/Communism is to any idea of racial equality.
» The Friends of Barack Hussein Obama: the Castro Connection - Big Journalism#more-31726
» The Friends of Barack Hussein Obama: the Castro Connection - Big Journalism#more-31726
Break out the Astroturf
This piece is just great. The work that the bloggers and writers do over at the Big Sites is encouraging. We are beating these lefty clowns at their own internet game. These types of stories would have been glossed over in the past but now the rest of the country can get to know the motives and tactics of those who "wanted to drain the swamp"....
» NY Times, Washington Post Hide Phony ‘Coffee Party’ Astroturf Roots — at the NY Times! - Big Journalism
Posted using ShareThis
» NY Times, Washington Post Hide Phony ‘Coffee Party’ Astroturf Roots — at the NY Times! - Big Journalism
Posted using ShareThis
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
The axe is out
I could not be more proud of a person I personally voted for and helped get elected. This is exactly why this guy won. He speaks the hard truth and so far is walking the walk. It is a 20 minute or so speech (without notes and teleprompter i might add) he made to 200 mayors from our state. By the way, just that number is part of the reason this state is a mess. Having over 500 taxing municipalities in a state of our size is outrageous, but that is a discussion for another time. Here is the video link:
Christie speech to mayor's conference in Trenton
Here is a partial transcript as well if you do not want to sit through a 25 minute policy speech:
"In the time we got here, of the approximately $29 billion budget there was only $14 billion left. Of the $14 billion, $8 billion could not be touched because of contracts with public worker unions, because of bond covenants, because of commitments we made accepting stimulus money. So we had to find a way to save $2.3 billion in a $6 billion pool of money.
When I went into the treasurer's off in the first two weeks of my term, there was no happy meetings. They presented me with 378 possible freezes and lapses to be able to balance the budget. I accepted 375 of them.
There is a great deal of discussion about me doing that by executive action. Every day that went by was a day where money was going out the door such that the $6 billion pool was getting less and less. So something needed to be done.
People did not send me here to talk, the people sent me here to do. So we took the executive action we did to stop the bleeding.
As we move forward, and we evaluate what we need to do three weeks from now in our fiscal year 2011 budget address, you all need to understand the context from which we operate.
Our citizens are already the most overtaxed in America. US mayors hear it all the time. You know that the public appetite for ever increasing taxes has reached an end.
So when we freeze $475 million in school aid, I am hearing the reverberations from school boards saying now you are just going to force us to raise taxes.
Well there is a 4% cap in place as you all know, yet school boards continue to give out raises which exceed that cap, just on salary. Not to mention the fact that most of them get no contribution towards the spiraling increase in health care benefits.
Now, we are going to reduce spending at the state level. And we are going to continue to reduce it because we have no choice but to do so. Our obligation to you is twofold. One, is to let you know that. So I'm' letting you know that.
Second to work with the legislature to give you the tools helping you to reduce spending at the municipal level. Now the pension and benefit reform package that was passed unanimously in the senate this week begins to give you some of those tools.
But it is only a beginning.
Do we need to change some of the rules of arbitration to level the playing field to allow municipalities and school boards to have a more level sense of collective bargaining?
I think the evidence of ever increasing raises being given to public sector workers as a result of the arbitration system tells us that we do. [Applause From Mayors]
But you have to stand up and give the support to the legislators in this building to get them to do that. I can guarantee you this, that more pension and benefit reforms which I will consider arbitration reform to be one of them, are things that when they come to my desk, they will be signed. [Applause From Mayors]
Because we can no longer continue on a path where we say we are going to reduce spending at the state level but we are not going to give you any tools to do that at the municipal level and the school board level.
By the same token I am tired of hearing school superintendents and school board members complain that there are no other options than raising property taxes. There are other options.
You know, Marlboro, after a two year negotiation, they give a five year contract giving 4.5% annual salary increases to the teachers, with no contribution, zero contribution to health care benefits.
But I am sure there are people in Marlboro who have lost their jobs, who have had their homes foreclosed on, and who cannot keep a roof over their family's head there is something wrong.
You know, at some point there has to be parity. There has to be parity between what is happening in the real world, and what is happening in the public sector world. The money does not grow on trees outside this building or outside your municipal building. It comes from the hard working people of our communities who are suffering and are hurting right now.
I heard someone in the legislature say two days ago that they wanted no fare hike in New Jersey Transit, no cuts in service, and no cuts in subsidy. And I was thinking to myself, man I should have made this guy treasurer. [Laughter] Because if you can pull that one off, you're obviously magic.
This is the type of awful political rhetoric that people sent me to this city to stop.
I would love to be able to do that, but I can't. I would love to tell you that municipal aid will stay level, but it's not. And it's not because we don't have the money. So you need to prepare. You need to prepare for what's coming down the line because we have no choice but to do these things.
And so we need to get honest with each other. In this instance, the political class,for which unfortunately all of us are a member of, the political class is lagging behind the public on this. The public is ready to hear that tough choices have to be made. They're not going to like it. Don't confuse the two. But they are ready to hear the truth.
In fact, they find it refreshing to hear the truth.
They are tired of hearing, don't worry I can spare you from the pain, because they have been hearing that for a decade, as we have borrowed and spent and taxed our way into oblivion.
We have done every quick fix in the book that you can do. And now we are left, literally holding the bag.
Leadership should be about making tough decisions. I'm not hear to tell you that anything you are going to have to do as mayors, council people will be easy. But I firmly believe after spending the last year traveling around the state of New Jersey, talking to regular citizens, that this is what they are expecting us to do.
They are also expecting us to ferret out waste and abuse. But they also know that old song that waste and abuse is going to balance the budget is an old and tired one, and it's not going to.
Now we are going to have a fight about COAH. And I have engaged in that fight and I have engaged in it directly. Not only will I be fighting COAH, I will be fighting the courts too. [Applause From Mayors]
That's OK.
We need to understand we are all in this together. And you know, all of you know in your heart, what I am saying is true. You all know that these raises that are being given to public employees of all stripes, we cannot afford. You all know the state cannot continue to spend money it does not have. And you all know that the appetite for tax increases among our constituents has come to an end.
And so the path to reform and success is clear. We know what it is. We just have to have the courage to go there. What we are doing is showing people that government can work again for them, not for us. Government has worked for the political class for much too long.
There's no time left. We have no room left to borrow. We have no room left to tax. So we merely have room left now, to do this. We are all reaching the edge of a cliff. And it reminds me a bit of that part of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid where the had a seminal decision to make. So what did they do? They held hands and they jumped off the cliff.
We have to hold hands at every level of government, state county, municipal, school board. We have to hold hands and jump off the cliff.
I firmly believe we will land and we will be fine. It does not mean it will not be a scary ride on the way down. And it does not mean there won't be moments of fear and moments of apprehension.
But for certain, the troops of the decades of overspending and overborrowing and overtaxing have gained on us. So the ruination of New Jersey's economy, and of the quality of life we want all our citizens to have, is certain if we do not take this course.
It's time for us to hold hands and jump off the cliff. It's time for us to do the difficult things that need to be done and to stop playing the petty politics of yesterday, of lying to the people telling them they do not have to pay for it because someone else will.
We are going to make the leap because that's what people elected me to do. We are going to make the leap because it is the responsible thing to do. We are going to make the leap and we are going to do it together because that is what leadership demands for us. That is what the responsibility of the offices we hold requires of us.
Forget about the next election. Forget about the next editorial in the newspaper, and forget about the next angry letter or phone call you are going to get from someone who wants something for nothing.
One thing is certain. The alternative will lead to certain defeat. And so it is time for us to show courage, and resolve. And we can do it because we are from New Jersey. And I have never, in all my travels around the country, met a group of tougher people than we all have the opportunity to lead.
Christie speech to mayor's conference in Trenton
Here is a partial transcript as well if you do not want to sit through a 25 minute policy speech:
"In the time we got here, of the approximately $29 billion budget there was only $14 billion left. Of the $14 billion, $8 billion could not be touched because of contracts with public worker unions, because of bond covenants, because of commitments we made accepting stimulus money. So we had to find a way to save $2.3 billion in a $6 billion pool of money.
When I went into the treasurer's off in the first two weeks of my term, there was no happy meetings. They presented me with 378 possible freezes and lapses to be able to balance the budget. I accepted 375 of them.
There is a great deal of discussion about me doing that by executive action. Every day that went by was a day where money was going out the door such that the $6 billion pool was getting less and less. So something needed to be done.
People did not send me here to talk, the people sent me here to do. So we took the executive action we did to stop the bleeding.
As we move forward, and we evaluate what we need to do three weeks from now in our fiscal year 2011 budget address, you all need to understand the context from which we operate.
Our citizens are already the most overtaxed in America. US mayors hear it all the time. You know that the public appetite for ever increasing taxes has reached an end.
So when we freeze $475 million in school aid, I am hearing the reverberations from school boards saying now you are just going to force us to raise taxes.
Well there is a 4% cap in place as you all know, yet school boards continue to give out raises which exceed that cap, just on salary. Not to mention the fact that most of them get no contribution towards the spiraling increase in health care benefits.
Now, we are going to reduce spending at the state level. And we are going to continue to reduce it because we have no choice but to do so. Our obligation to you is twofold. One, is to let you know that. So I'm' letting you know that.
Second to work with the legislature to give you the tools helping you to reduce spending at the municipal level. Now the pension and benefit reform package that was passed unanimously in the senate this week begins to give you some of those tools.
But it is only a beginning.
Do we need to change some of the rules of arbitration to level the playing field to allow municipalities and school boards to have a more level sense of collective bargaining?
I think the evidence of ever increasing raises being given to public sector workers as a result of the arbitration system tells us that we do. [Applause From Mayors]
But you have to stand up and give the support to the legislators in this building to get them to do that. I can guarantee you this, that more pension and benefit reforms which I will consider arbitration reform to be one of them, are things that when they come to my desk, they will be signed. [Applause From Mayors]
Because we can no longer continue on a path where we say we are going to reduce spending at the state level but we are not going to give you any tools to do that at the municipal level and the school board level.
By the same token I am tired of hearing school superintendents and school board members complain that there are no other options than raising property taxes. There are other options.
You know, Marlboro, after a two year negotiation, they give a five year contract giving 4.5% annual salary increases to the teachers, with no contribution, zero contribution to health care benefits.
But I am sure there are people in Marlboro who have lost their jobs, who have had their homes foreclosed on, and who cannot keep a roof over their family's head there is something wrong.
You know, at some point there has to be parity. There has to be parity between what is happening in the real world, and what is happening in the public sector world. The money does not grow on trees outside this building or outside your municipal building. It comes from the hard working people of our communities who are suffering and are hurting right now.
I heard someone in the legislature say two days ago that they wanted no fare hike in New Jersey Transit, no cuts in service, and no cuts in subsidy. And I was thinking to myself, man I should have made this guy treasurer. [Laughter] Because if you can pull that one off, you're obviously magic.
This is the type of awful political rhetoric that people sent me to this city to stop.
I would love to be able to do that, but I can't. I would love to tell you that municipal aid will stay level, but it's not. And it's not because we don't have the money. So you need to prepare. You need to prepare for what's coming down the line because we have no choice but to do these things.
And so we need to get honest with each other. In this instance, the political class,for which unfortunately all of us are a member of, the political class is lagging behind the public on this. The public is ready to hear that tough choices have to be made. They're not going to like it. Don't confuse the two. But they are ready to hear the truth.
In fact, they find it refreshing to hear the truth.
They are tired of hearing, don't worry I can spare you from the pain, because they have been hearing that for a decade, as we have borrowed and spent and taxed our way into oblivion.
We have done every quick fix in the book that you can do. And now we are left, literally holding the bag.
Leadership should be about making tough decisions. I'm not hear to tell you that anything you are going to have to do as mayors, council people will be easy. But I firmly believe after spending the last year traveling around the state of New Jersey, talking to regular citizens, that this is what they are expecting us to do.
They are also expecting us to ferret out waste and abuse. But they also know that old song that waste and abuse is going to balance the budget is an old and tired one, and it's not going to.
Now we are going to have a fight about COAH. And I have engaged in that fight and I have engaged in it directly. Not only will I be fighting COAH, I will be fighting the courts too. [Applause From Mayors]
That's OK.
We need to understand we are all in this together. And you know, all of you know in your heart, what I am saying is true. You all know that these raises that are being given to public employees of all stripes, we cannot afford. You all know the state cannot continue to spend money it does not have. And you all know that the appetite for tax increases among our constituents has come to an end.
And so the path to reform and success is clear. We know what it is. We just have to have the courage to go there. What we are doing is showing people that government can work again for them, not for us. Government has worked for the political class for much too long.
There's no time left. We have no room left to borrow. We have no room left to tax. So we merely have room left now, to do this. We are all reaching the edge of a cliff. And it reminds me a bit of that part of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid where the had a seminal decision to make. So what did they do? They held hands and they jumped off the cliff.
We have to hold hands at every level of government, state county, municipal, school board. We have to hold hands and jump off the cliff.
I firmly believe we will land and we will be fine. It does not mean it will not be a scary ride on the way down. And it does not mean there won't be moments of fear and moments of apprehension.
But for certain, the troops of the decades of overspending and overborrowing and overtaxing have gained on us. So the ruination of New Jersey's economy, and of the quality of life we want all our citizens to have, is certain if we do not take this course.
It's time for us to hold hands and jump off the cliff. It's time for us to do the difficult things that need to be done and to stop playing the petty politics of yesterday, of lying to the people telling them they do not have to pay for it because someone else will.
We are going to make the leap because that's what people elected me to do. We are going to make the leap because it is the responsible thing to do. We are going to make the leap and we are going to do it together because that is what leadership demands for us. That is what the responsibility of the offices we hold requires of us.
Forget about the next election. Forget about the next editorial in the newspaper, and forget about the next angry letter or phone call you are going to get from someone who wants something for nothing.
One thing is certain. The alternative will lead to certain defeat. And so it is time for us to show courage, and resolve. And we can do it because we are from New Jersey. And I have never, in all my travels around the country, met a group of tougher people than we all have the opportunity to lead.
Wow MSNBC....
...has gone off the deep end. The usual lefty dregs that have shows on there must be getting desperate. Then again looking at their ratings I can see why. This is an all too typical exchange you get on this channel and just about every host on MSNBC loves throwing around the "You're a racist! You're a Nazi" crap. It is funny and sad, because I am not sure that they realize they are diminishing real acts of racism. Hey geniuses if everything is racism, then NOTHING is.
Monday, March 1, 2010
When I am told...
....that we need Euro style social democracy, I shudder to think. I hear it all the time..."Ocho, we are the richest country in the world we should have (insert your favorite entitlement here) for EVERYONE!" Seems like an easy decision that is right, just mortgage everything to in essence have what the rest of Europe has slowly become. When that continent made the choices they made at the turn of the 20th Century to follow down the road of Bismarck and the welfare state for all they sealed their fate. We are in a position to reject it, we have had enough creeping socialism in this country (New Deal, Great Society) it is time to send the rest of it back to the dustbin of history. Otherwise we face the similar fate, plain and simple fact. Read this, and as always comments are welcome:
When Responsibility Doesn’t Pay -Welfare always breeds contempt
When Responsibility Doesn’t Pay -Welfare always breeds contempt
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