We flush money down the drain while people go hungry

Sounds like Federal Policy at it's best.  Only an all powerful Federal state with a magic money machine could be so utterly and comprehensively destructive.  Break it up.  Break it all up.

IS THIS REALLY GOOD NEWS? U.S. To Beat Brazil As World’s Leading Ethanol Exporter. Plus, a regulatory/subsidy fail: “Since the federal renewable fuel mandate classifies sugarcane ethanol as an advanced biofuel, but corn-based ethanol as only a biofuel, it’s quite likely the United States will continue to export corn-based ethanol to Brazil while at the same time importing mass quantities of the sugarcane-based biofuel from Brazil.” Well, it’s a “fail” except for the people making money off it.

The left reassesses Clarence Thomas

Wally Mead talks about Jeff Toobin's article on Thomas in the New Yorker.  It is dawning on our left elites that Justice Thomas is not a fool, but a very patient innovator - with innovations that threaten the very foundations of the Fascist Federal state.  Along with a Rick Perry as President, he could be the "Break it up, break it all up" man.

Read the whole thing.

Finally, an honest man running for President.

RICK PERRY CALLS SOCIAL SECURITY A PONZI SCHEME.

It remains to be seen whether the nation will elect an honest man.  

Colin Powell, the ultimate conventional wisdom weathervane is 'not sold' on Obama

Colin Powell succeeded by always backing the strong horse.  Always.  And he's going all wobbly on the the One.  More here.

So what numbers DO you put into your spreadsheet?

Was a question asked by an El Paso CFO.  For the economy to grow businesses must invest in new projects.  To invest in new projects they need to be able to reasonably project cash flows which means they must be able to project both costs and revenues.  With the regulatory tsunami, they can't.  Even if the regs don't turn out to have a negative impact, the sheer scale and capriciousness of the Federal Regulatory State is freezing them in their tracks.  It's called a capital strike and it replicates what happened in the 30s.  The only silver lining?  The Obami look like they are working themselves out of jobs.  Fortunately, actions still have consequences.

One doesn't have to look far for an explanation of why the economy grew at an anemic 1 percent rate during the last quarter.

Businesses large and small face more uncertainty today about the federal regulatory environment than at any point since the New Deal radically increased the role of the government in the nation's economy. Thanks to Obamacare and the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, plus President Obama's decision to use bureaucratic regulation to start major initiatives like cap and trade that Congress refused to pass, the federal bureaucracy has been drafting new regulations at an unprecedented pace. Seeing this tsunami of red tape flooding out of Washington, company owners and executives wisely opt to delay new hires and investments until they have a clearer idea how much their already huge compliance costs will increase and how the markets will be warped by changes mandated by the bureaucrats.

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/2011/08/obamas-regulatory-flood-drowning-economic-growth#ixzz1WQUnA2qL

Ooh, I'm scared...

....a black clad anarchist talking tough.  There isn't a Marine under the age of 70 who couldn't break him in two.  Pathetic.

Kinky Friedman, the founder and Maximum Leader of the Texas Jew Boys endorses Perry

Plus this: “So would I support Rick Perry for president? Hell, yes! As the last nail that hasn’t been hammered down in this country, I agree with Rick that there are already too damn many laws, taxes, regulations, panels, committees, and bureaucrats. While Obama is busy putting the hyphen between ‘anal’ and ‘retentive’ Rick will be rolling up his sleeves and getting to work.”

“These days, of course, I would support Charlie Sheen over Obama. Obama has done for the economy what pantyhose did for foreplay.”

The police: They're not on your side, they're on their side - DUI Roadblock edition

Profit driven policing is a scary concept.

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE CONSIDERS LIMITING DUI ROADBLOCKS: “Confiscating automobiles has become a significant source of revenue for cash-strapped California cities. Last Tuesday, the state legislature gave preliminary approval to legislation to impose limits on the practice.” I don’t think law enforcement should turn a profit. When it does, it shades too easily into piracy.

Yo, ho, ho and a bottle of Rum indeed.

The impact of technology innovation in one simple chart

New technologies create new wealth.  Peak oil and gas my eye.

Making large, no money down pay later loans to 18 year olds is predatory, isn't it?

Particularly when the majority of the borrowers won't even end up with the product that they are paying towards.  In a normal industry this would be considered unethical, even fraudulent.  But in our topsy turvey world, it is 'charities' founded to 'help' young adults that are the perps.  They've used it to quadruple their take per rube, I mean student.   This is what passes for responsible behavior at our most self righteously 'egalitarian' institutions.

A new low in cynicism.

BIGGEST COLLEGE REGRETS: “The day that I signed on the dotted line of my promissory note, I didn’t even understand what it would mean to have to pay back more than $40,000 in student loans. I’ll tell you what it means: living in a crappy apartment in Queens well into my 30s. I vaguely remember my dad trying to get the message through to me, but I must have had cotton in my teenage ears.” As stories like this spread, the higher education bubble will deflate.

We are the last line of defence. And we are failing.

It turns out that believers are increasingly affluent and connected while unbelievers are increasingly poor and disconnected.  Which turns Marx on it's head.  And it's a disaster for our society.  Social democracy and social liberalism those twin horsemen of the modern 'liberal' apocalypse have taught us first that we are the captain of our own ship and we can and have a right to 'do our own thing' and that the State is our savior.

The educated and capable are too smart to actually fall for such stupid notions - affluent doctrinaire liberals who advocate all sorts of flapdoodle behave as if it's not true in their private lives.  But the poor, weak, uneducated?  They've fallen for the 'Raw Deal' hook line and sinker.  Increasingly half of our society is flourishing and the other half is collapsing - not because they don't have money but because they don't believe in anything of true.

As usual, Walter Russell Mead spots the trend:

The stereotype, held apparently by none other than the President of the United States, is that religious people are less educated and less affluent than cosmopolitan and sophisticated seculars.  The bitter clingers handle snakes, guns and Bibles in West Virginia; the seculars discuss literature and economics at swank parties in Georgetown.

In fact, some recent research reveals, it is almost the other way round.  According to the American Sociological Association, the uneducated and the poor (often of course the same people) are dropping God like a hot brick; the ‘bitter clingers’ are increasingly better educated and more affluent than the unchurched.

As far as I can see, this is bad news for everybody.  Atheists and agnostics like to think of themselves as smarter than the God-bothering trailer trash on Tobacco Road, and deeply dislike the thought that they are losing the argument among the most intellectually qualified and best prepared; religious people have to be concerned for the future of religion when whole social classes are dropping away.

How can the church expose the lies of the false Gods of the all powerful state and social liberalism?  How will all of the lost ones be rescued from their temporal 'saviors'?

Lawlessness, thy name is Obama

You may not like our immigration laws but they are our laws.  Obama has just administratively gutted them.


In an announcement I would have expected them to try to bury on a Friday afternoon instead of Thursday, the administration said it would review the cases of 300,000 illegal aliens already in removal proceedings — and not just let some of them go, but give them work authorization as well.

Some good news: more peace than ever

When taken as a percent of population, the decline in deaths is even more striking.

In fact, the last decade has seen fewer war deaths than any decade in the past 100 years…If the world feels like a more violent place than it actually is, that’s because there’s more information about wars — not more wars themselves.

Tax Increases Calabresi Style

I think this would be a great idea.  Immigration from blue states would soar even  higher.

CALEB BROWN: End The Mortgage Interest Deduction. Republicans should take Obama at his word on tax increases and move to end it, or to cap it at a modest level. (Note: This will hit Blue State voters harder, since houses cost more there). Then they should move to end the deductibility of state income and property taxes. (Ditto!). You want tax increases, we got ‘em! And not just on Hollywood!

You just want to redistribute other people's advantages, not your own

I had forgot about Prof. Calabresi's famous query:

It’s like Guido Calabresi used to tell his students on the first day of classes at Yale. Are you in favor of high taxes? Yes. Are you in favor of high spending? Yes. Do you want to see your seats at Yale redistributed to people with lower test scores? Silence. Aha, he would say, you just want to redistribute other people’s advantages, not your own.”

Warren Buffet is Bankrupt

Warren Buffet has been making a big deal of how he wants to pay his 'fair share' of taxes.  So I decided to total up just what it would take for the People's Plutocrat to cover his 'fair share' of all of our nation's debt and unfunded liabilities.  To do this I compiled a National Balance Sheet that includes all net wealth plus the net value of all unfunded Federal promises and their associated liabilities.

When you do this you find that our net wealth is far less than most people think it is - we think we have money in the bank and future benefits promised by the government, but when we net everything out, we have only about 38 cents for every dollar in promised benefits and assets.

Note: I did not include net state and local liabilities or our Federal Debt owned by foreigners.  If were to do so, the picture would look somewhat worse.

   
















Apply the same logic to Warren Buffet.  Mr. Buffet is worth a lot of money - something like $55 Billion.  And he has quite a few social security and medicare benefits coming to him - perhaps a million dollars worth.  And according to Mr. Buffet, he should pay his 'fair share'.  In the case of this balance sheet exercise, that must mean his fair share of the nation's obligations, right?  This means that his share of the unfunded liabilities and debt is roughly $66 Billion.  Oh dear, it turns out the old Buffer is bankrupt.  Pay up, Warren, pay up.

But of course that's not what he's offering.  What he is saying is that of the tiny fraction of his wealth that he chooses to recognize as income this year, he (and all of the little people below him) should pay a higher share.  Let's say he increased his Federal tax rate from 17% to 100% of his income - all $39 Million.  That would constitute about 0.00072505 of his wealth.  That's the sacrifice that he wants to make and is getting showered with MSM plaudits for offering.  Another way to put it is the average household net worth is about $50,000.  If they were to offer an equivalent 'sacrifice' it would come to the princely sum of.....$36 and change.

His wealth, well that he's keeping and putting in a foundation that will keep his glorious name alive for generations to come - or at least until the economy collapses.

He's a homespun humbug.  Always has been and apparently always will be.

They need to hurry and get the rich....before they all disappear

Let me see, tax something and you get more, no wait, that's not right, less, yeah, less of it.  Going, going....

Everyone says they're worried about future generations. I say to heck with future generations.

A couple of weeks ago, Pajamas Media's Frank J. Fleming argued that it's actually a good idea to bury future generations under mountains of debt:

Future generations are a bunch of jerks.

Come on; we all know what future generations are like. They're going to look back at us and say, "Oh, look at those people from 2011 with their backwards morals and primitive scientific knowledge! What a bunch of cavemen!" Yeah, that's right; they're going to make fun of us. And while they're making fun of us, they'll be playing around with their laser guns and jet packs and robot maids--all of which they'll completely take for granted. Future generations are a bunch of arrogant, over-privileged punks! I hate them.

Rick Perry is right about the Fed: David Stockman

Zero interest rates are 'destroying our capital markets' in an orgy of speculation.  Finally a conservative leader with a bully pulpit, courage and brains.

Texas Governor Rick Perry made headlines in only his second day on the presidential campaign trail when he said the Federal Reserve's money printing policies are almost "treasonous." President Obama reacted Tuesday saying the GOP hopeful should be "a little more careful" with his words.

The Daily Ticker's guest David Stockman agrees with Obama about Perry's poor choice of words but also wholeheartedly agrees with Perry's sentiment. " I think he was dead on in his thought," the former director of the Office of Management and Budget in the Reagan administration tells Aaron Task in the accompanying clip. "I think it's time Republicans woke up to the fact that is the fundamental problem in our economy today."

Stockman, who has long been a critic of the Fed's low interest rate policy, says it is "totally wrong." Stockman says "exceptionally low" interest rates have resulted in excessive speculation on Wall Street "that is utterly destroying our capital markets" and adding to the already unsustainable debt crisis. He goes on to say, "The fact is the Fed is the number one problem holding back this economy, punishing savers, savaging low income people trying to buy food, energy or fuel."

Stockman fears the worst is yet to come when current tax breaks and stimulus come to an end in 2013. "The mother of all Keynesian contractions is coming in 2013 -- when all these tax cuts expire, when all this stimulus is gone."

What results will be another recession caused by a necessary but painful period of austerity that will crimp growth and job creation. Therefore, current deficit projections will have to be revised downward as tax revenues fall behind and the millions of new jobs Congress anticipates never materialize.

War is peace. We have always been at war with East Asia

Yesterday's leftist (oops!I mean fascist) darling, Amazon is now its demon, natch.

IF YOU’RE SUCCESSFUL, THEY HATE YOU: Leftists Groups Start Campaign Against Amazon. Ironically, I suspect that the once-hated Wal-Mart is behind this. . . .

UPDATE: Reader Alex Muniz writes: “So, wait, now we’re supposed to *support* big-box retailers like Wal-Mart? It’s so hard to keep track of who’s evil these days.” I think it’s whoever hasn’t made the proper payoffs. . . .

Like most 'progressive' nostrums, 'collective bargaining' screws the weak and powerless

Richard Epstein arguing for repeal of so called 'collective bargaining' (collective extortion, really).

There are two deep ironies in the current impasse. The first is that the strike lays bare one constant theme of union supporters etched on those picket signs—namely, that union members are the heart and soul of the middle class. That persistent and pretentious claim ignores all the nonunion workers at Verizon Wireless, as well as thousands of other small businessmen and women. The sad truth is that the CWA does not care about the middle class as such. It cares about its dues-paying members, whom this strike will ill serve.

The second irony hits a larger point: given today’s difficult job market, the current system of collective bargaining to impasse and strike is indefensible. The arrangement does nothing to improve overall productivity within the firm. And when the negotiations break down, strikes and lockouts impose tremendous dislocations on innocent third persons, such as customers and suppliers, for whom there is no compensation at all.

Hint to the Obami: You ain't running against Tea

The NYT on the Tea Party:

But in fact the Tea Party is increasingly swimming against the tide of public opinion: among most Americans, even before the furor over the debt limit, its brand was becoming toxic. To embrace the Tea Party carries great political risk for Republicans, but perhaps not for the reason you might think.

Polls show that disapproval of the Tea Party is climbing. In April 2010, a New York Times/CBS News survey found that 18 percent of Americans had an unfavorable opinion of it, 21 percent had a favorable opinion and 46 percent had not heard enough. Now, 14 months later, Tea Party supporters have slipped to 20 percent, while their opponents have more than doubled, to 40 percent.

Hmm, the "Tea Party" is 'toxic'.  Yet the values and positions that the Tea Party embraces (balance budgets, smaller government, reduced meddling, Obamacare Repeal, hell, Obama Repeal) have never been more popular.

Hint to the sophomores at our School Paper of Record:  Thomas Lipton will not be on the ballot.  This is a spectacular case of wishful thinking by our elites.  The Rookie in Chief and his StuCo cronies will be running against people, not a diffuse, ill defined, demonized concept.

I wonder if they're going to stay on Fantasy Island until it implodes next November?

Defining deviancy up and Banned in Boston

In Boston posting photos of a family at the beach with a naked infant are now considered 'kiddie porn'.  Bostonians never tire of telling us how sophisticated they are.  Well it turns out that New England sophistication is a bizzare combination of prudery and perverseness.  Because you really have to be perverted to look at toddlers on the beach and see porn.  And these people think that they are qualified to lead us.

Banned in Boston, indeed.

Are we Japan?

The US Market sag superimposed on Japan's.  Sigh.

But you don't understand, Federal Agencies aren't there to solve problems

They're there to exercise power.  And to do that there must be problems.  They must nurture their crises and keep them alive, for if they are 'solved' then the fascists would simply have to invent another 'crisis' to justify their power.  Like Global Warming, oops, I mean Climate Change.


Speaking of creating cabinet-level departments, the Energy Department was created in 1977 when the U.S. imported 35 percent of its oil. The department’s purpose was to make the U.S. energy-independent. Since its creation, the department has spent hundreds of billions of dollars and has 109,000 employees and contractors. We now import 65 percent of our oil and no new nuclear power plants have been built in over 30 years.

The Department of Education was created in 1980 for the purpose of improving U.S. education. Since then, overall per pupil K-12 spending has increased (in constant dollars) from approximately $6,000 per year to $12,500 per year. Hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent by the department since 1980, yet scores for 17-year-olds on the National Assessment of Educational Progress — often referred to as “The Nation’s Report Card” — have remained unchanged.

Warren Buffett: The Homespun Humbug is at it again

Warren Buffet to his investors:  "Our holding period is forever".

From Warren Buffett in today's NY Times:

"...Blessings are showered upon [the super-rich] by legislators in Washington who feel compelled to protect us, much as if we were spotted owls or some other endangered species. It’s nice to have friends in high places. 

Last year my federal tax bill — the income tax I paid, as well as payroll taxes paid by me and on my behalf — was $6,938,744. That sounds like a lot of money. But what I paid was only 17.4 percent of my taxable income — and that’s actually a lower percentage than was paid by any of the other 20 people in our office. Their tax burdens ranged from 33 percent to 41 percent and averaged 36 percent.

My friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress. It’s time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice.

The Warren Buffet says that he wants to pay more tax  yet one of the keys to the extraordinary returns that he generates for shareholders is that he buys and holds, ensuring that investors in Berkshire Hathaway are never exposed to short term capital gains taxes (taxed at regular income) and almost never exposed to long term capital gains.

This goes a long way towards explaining why Mr. Buffett has a lower effective tax rate than his secretary does.  Does Mr. Buffett consider the current treatment of capital gains to be a 'goody'? Is he advocating higher taxes on capital gains or perhaps annual taxation of capital gains?  Or simply on the income that the proles earn?  We know (and presumably he does as well) that Social Democracies fund themselves via regressive consumption or VAT taxes, not higher income or corporate taxes.  Canada's top personal income tax rate is 10 points below ours.

The more I watch Mr. Buffet, the more I understand his cynical attempt to position himself as the 'working man's' plutocrat.  It's a cynicism that diverts the debate from the real issues.  While he piles up billion after billion after billion in his empty quest to be remembered as the world's richest man.  

In a fascist world, the powerful take from the weak

In this case, powerful, wealthy, older farmers take from young families with children.  Naturally.  They dress it up as 'environmentalism' but it's actually an activity that is as old as man:  looting.  And without our Great and Righteous Federal Overseers they could not do the crime.  Break it up, break it all up.

Tea Part protests peacfully: Terrorists! Rioters burn down London - 'Frustrated Youths'

Our MSM is beyond parody.  Which is why their audience is evaporating like the summer dew.  Faster please.

When conservatives wave signs, it's not "unrest" caused by a "sense of disenchantment." It's because they're bigots. Society as a whole is not to blame; they are, individually. They need an attitude adjustment. When violent mobs of young people burn down a city, though, they are not individually responsible—society as a whole is (or at least that part of society that ostensibly ticked them off). They don't need an attitude adjustment: conservatives do.

White house thinking of a Department of Jobs

From the NYT.

What they really want is a 'Department of Votes'.

As Bugs Bunny would say:  "What a bunch of maroons!"

That's because seniors have power and children....

....well children are just these powerless midgets.  Want to know where the money flows in the fascist state?  Figure out who has the power.  That's where the looters will be.

The problem is that there are two periods of economic dependence in life — late and early. A healthy society not only cares for its elderly but also cultivates its children. Biggs estimates that the federal government now spends $6 on seniors for every $1 it spends on children, even though the poverty rate of children is much higher.

Obama isn't incompetent, he's simply who he always was

Norman Podhoretz argues that it isn't that Obama is incompetent but that he is simply implementing the social democratic agenda that he believes in.  I actually think he's both incompetent and a hard leftist.  For which I am eternally grateful - a competent leftist President could do far, far more damage.  I also believe that BHO has had bad luck - to be a social democrat elected at precisely the point that social democracy is imploding across the western world.  Ironic, isn't it?

I disagree with those of my fellow conservatives who maintain that Mr. Obama is indifferent to "the best interests of the United States" (Thomas Sowell) and is "purposely" out to harm America (Rush Limbaugh). In my opinion, he imagines that he is helping America to repent of its many sins and to become a different and better country.

But I emphatically agree with Messrs. Limbaugh and Sowell about this president's attitude toward America as it exists and as the Founding Fathers intended it. That is why my own answer to the question, "What Happened to Obama?" is that nothing happened to him. He is still the same anti-American leftist he was before becoming our president, and it is this rather than inexperience or incompetence or weakness or stupidity that accounts for the richly deserved failure both at home and abroad of the policies stemming from that reprehensible cast of mind.

Change you can believe in?

Not if you're a consumer.  Never have so many been so depressed for so long when not actually in a recession.

Heard on the street

I certainly hope so.

"They were going to name a street after Rick Perry, but no one crosses Rick Perry and lives."

"A riot issh an ugly think!"

Urban youth in the UK and now in cities like Milwaukee and Philadelphia are slipping the reigns of order.  Jonah Goldberg reminded me of something Hillaire Belloc said about our modern fascination with the barbarian:

We sit by and
 watch the Barbarian, we tolerate him; in
 the long stretches of peace we are not
 afraid. We are tickled by his irreverence,
 his comic inversion of our old certitudes
 and our fixed creeds refreshes us; we
 laugh. But as we laugh, we are watched
 by large and awful faces from beyond:
 and on these faces there is no smile


Indeed.

Another example of fascist rent seeking

The Obami are proposing CAFE fuel economy standards for trucks.  There is no logical case for this (none for cars, either, but that's beside the point) truckers are in the business of optimizing the cost, speed and accuracy of their deliveries.  There is no way that a Federal Bureaucrat is going to regulate them to more efficiency.  The purpose of this law like most regulations is rent seeking.  Once an area of life is regulated, then the regulators gain power and ultimately the wealth that comes from exercising power.   And powerful interests gain at expense of the weak.  It's just another outrage 'midst the horrid roar.

WILL C.A.F.E. STANDARDS FOR BIG RIGS MAKE A DIFFERENCE? “Trucking companies obsess about fuel costs. Talk to a trucker right now: you’ll get an earful. Better yet, talk to his manager. It’s like finding some sort of Rain Man savant whose hobby is tracking the price of diesel. And there is capital out there to help them make the transition to a more efficient fleet, if the trucks are available. So I have a hard time believing that if there were some even nominally cost-effective way to make trucks 25% more efficient, truck owners and haulers would be passing it up in favor of upgrading the leather on the heated seats. . . . Either something is missing in this story, or American manufacturing is in even worse shape than I suspected.”

BHO: Captain puffy blows again

 "By finally taking on the deficit over jobs, President Obama has become a weather vane. He was supposed to be the wind."

BHO: He's out of bullets

"Into the great wide open, into the skies of blue, into the great wide open, an ego without a clue".  Charles Krauthammer channels Tom Petty.


Well, we were talking here about how detached and disengaged he appears and how disturbing it is particularly to Obama’s allies in the press. But the irony is that even if he were undetached and concerned and involved, the markets have shown that he is the anti-E.F. Hutton. When he speaks, no one listens. The markets take no notice whatsoever of what he does.
And the reason is he has no ideas. He’s out of bullets, he’s out of arrows, he doesn’t have a clue.

And we just heard that sound bite from Jay Carney in which he said the president will havespecific ideas on debt reduction. Will have? This is after the government announced today that the deficit for this fiscal year – we’re only 10 months in, two months to go –already has exceeded a trillion dollars. After ‘09 and ‘10, you add this year’s deficit [and] here’s a president who’s run up $4 trillion in debt in less than three years — and he’s still [saying he] “will later have ideas on reducing debt.”
He is clueless and for now irrelevant.

It's the morality, stupid

Jonathan Chait does a good job of making the left argument for their version of 'deficit' reduction. But like most arguments for DefRed is really begs the question.

He assumes that we have a technical problem, that we have a 'deficit' and indeed we do. But I assert that first and foremost we have a moral problem and that failure to solve the moral problem will lead to constant repetition of the technical problem until like Europe is in the process of doing, we collapse.

The moral problem goes like this:
1. On 4 occasions (1935, 1965, 2002, and 2010) the Federal Government passed large scale entitlement programs that awarded money to today's voters at the expense of their children and grand children. (or in other words, the powerful in our nation appropriated the labor of the weak).

2. This is essentially taxation without representation and indeed, before the advent of 'social democracy' was unprecedented in the history of the world. No other society before in history has systematically looted their own children (indeed, before capitalist financial markets, they didn't have the tools to do so).

3. Resolution of this latest 'crisis' may or may not reduce the level of moral crime described in 2. But only temporarily. Sure as God made little green apples, the next time the left gets complete power (as in '35, '65, or '10) or the mushy middle tries to keep the left from power (as in '02) they will pass another looting of the children.

4. There is no evidence that the social democratic left has changed its views or if given this power again will not do the same thing. Indeed, it's only been a year since the last time they did it.

5. Therefore, 'saving' such a manifestly unjust and immoral system so in 20 years it can loot again is an act of supreme folly. Without fundamental reform that denies our leaders the right to loot our children it would be wrong, indeed immoral to bail out the existing crisis.

6. We must use the existing crisis to restore one of the most basic principles of morality: one does not steal from one's children. Then and only then should we consider handing any power or money to our squalid, corrupt Federal overlords. Of either party.

Break it up, break it all up.

The higher education bubble has popped

And who fueled this bubble?  Why the Federals, of course.  Just like they fueled the catastrophic real estate bubble.  When they are not looting us they using our money and credit to lure us into insane one way asset bets.  And who benefited from this bubble? - college faculties and staffs - a key part of our ruling class.

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR: The Higher Education Bubble Has Popped. “Like all booms, higher education has been fueled by credit. In June of last year, total student-loan debt exceeded total credit-card debt outstanding for the first time, totaling more than $900 billion. All of this credit has pushed the average cost of tuition up 440 percent in the last 25 years, more than four times the rate of inflation. But while the factors of production on campus have been bid up, just as they are in any other asset boom, the return on investment is a bust. In 1992, there were 5.1 million mal-employed college graduates. By 2008, the number was 17 million.”

Of Kings, Rioters and Rachel's last fund raiser

A friend sent me a poignant Nick Kristoff column from the NYT about Rachel - a little girl who truly understood what it meant to love one's neighbor.  I read it after viewing the nihilism perpetrated by 'youths' on the streets of London.  And then I went to bible study - always a bad idea if you're trying to avoid deep thoughts.

We're studying First Samuel. In it Israel asks God to give them a King like other lands. Samuel calls them sinners for wanting a King to stand between them and their true King - YHWH. But God gives them what they want. I think Samuel's point was that by seeking a temporal authority the Israelites were trying to outsource their responsibilities, under God, to care for the poor, to keep the peace and to live nobly.

Children, in their innocence don't understand that all of the problems that they see have already been 'funded' and 'solved' for us by the King. Naively, with God's word on their heart they still believe that they are personally responsible.

Of course by the time they become teens they will have learned that it's Barack Obama or George W. Bush's fault that cancer victims don't have wigs or water wells aren't dug. Just ask the London rioters.

After Samuel, Israel had kings who failed it (David, Solomon) and Kings who looted it. But all its Kings were in some basic sense 'bad' - manifestations of the people's sinful natures. Such are the wages of trying to outsource our humanity.

But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.

“He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.” - Dude

A list of California state agencies.  Ladies and gentlemen:  I give you the Californicators.

California Academic Performance Index (API) * California Access for Infants and Mothers * California Acupuncture Board * California Administrative Office of the Courts * California Adoptions Branch * California African American Museum * California Agricultural Export Program * California Agricultural Labor Relations Board * California Agricultural Statistics Service * California Air Resources Board (CARB) * California Allocation Board * California Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authority * California Animal Health and Food Safety Services * California Anti-Terrorism Information Center * California Apprenticeship Council * California Arbitration Certification Program * California Architects Board * California Area VI Developmental Disabilities Board * California Arts Council * California Asian Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus * California Assembly Democratic Caucus * California Assembly Republican Caucus * California Athletic Commission * California Attorney General * California Bay Conservation and Development Commission * California Bay-Delta Authority * California Bay-Delta Office * California Biodiversity Council * California Board for Geologists and Geophysicists * California Board for Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors * California Board of Accountancy * California Board of Barbering and Cosmetology * California Board of Behavioral Sciences * California Board of Chiropractic Examiners * California Board of Equalization (BOE) * California Board of Forestry and Fire Protection * California Board of Guide Dogs for the Blind * California Board of Occupational Therapy * California Board of Optometry * California Board of Pharmacy * California Board of Podiatric Medicine * California Board of Prison Terms * California Board of Psychology * California Board of Registered Nursing * California Board of Trustees * California Board of Vocational Nursing and Psychiatric Technicians * California Braille and Talking Book Library * California Building Standards Commission * California Bureau for Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education * California Bureau of Automotive Repair * California Bureau of Electronic and Appliance Repair * California Bureau of Home Furnishings and Thermal Insulation * California Bureau of Naturopathic Medicine * California Bureau of Security and Investigative Services * California Bureau of State Audits * California Business Agency * California Business Investment Services (CalBIS) * California Business Permit Information (CalGOLD) * California Business Portal * California Business, Transportation and Housing Agency * California Cal Grants * California CalJOBS * California Cal-Learn Program * California CalVet Home Loan Program * California Career Resource Network * California Cemetery and Funeral Bureau * California Center for Analytical Chemistry * California Center for Distributed Learning * California Center for Teaching Careers (Teach California) * California Chancellors Office * California Charter Schools * California Children and Families Commission * California Children and Family Services Division * California Citizens Compensation Commission * California Civil Rights Bureau * California Coastal Commission * California Coastal Conservancy * California Code of Regulations * California Collaborative Projects with UC Davis * California Commission for Jobs and Economic Growth * California Commission on Aging * California Commission on Health and Safety and Workers Compensation * California Commission on Judicial Performance * California Commission on State Mandates * California Commission on Status of Women * California Commission on Teacher Credentialing * California Commission on the Status of Women * California Committee on Dental Auxiliaries * California Community Colleges Chancellors Office, Junior Colleges * California Community Colleges Chancellors Office * California Complaint Mediation Program * California Conservation Corps * California Constitution Revision Commission * California Consumer Hotline * California Consumer Information Center * California Consumer Information * California Consumer Services Division * California Consumers and Families Agency * California Contractors State License Board * California Corrections Standards Authority * California Council for the Humanities * California Council on Criminal Justice * California Council on Developmental Disabilities * California Court Reporters Board * California Courts of Appeal * California Crime and Violence Prevention Center * California Criminal Justice Statistics Center * California Criminalist Institute Forensic Library * California CSGnet Network Management * California Cultural and Historical Endowment * California Cultural Resources Division * California Curriculum and Instructional Leadership Branch * California Data Exchange Center * California Data Management Division * California Debt and Investment Advisory Commission * California Delta Protection Commission * California Democratic Caucus * California Demographic Research Unit * California Dental Auxiliaries * California Department of Aging * California Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs * California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control Appeals Board * California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control * California Department of Boating and Waterways (Cal Boating) * California Department of Child Support Services (CDCSS) * California Department of Community Services and Development * California Department of Conservation * California Department of Consumer Affairs * California Department of Corporations * California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation * California Department of Developmental Services * California Department of Education * California Department of Fair Employment and Housing * California Department of Finance * California Department of Financial Institutions * California Department of Fish and Game * California Department of Food and Agriculture * California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CDF) * California Department of General Services * California Department of General Services, Office of State Publishing * California Department of Health Care Services * California Department of Housing and Community Development * California Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) * California Department of Insurance * California Department of Justice Firearms Division * California Department of Justice Opinion Unit * California Department of Justice, Consumer Information, Public Inquiry Unit * California Department of Justice * California Department of Managed Health Care * California Department of Mental Health * California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) * California Department of Personnel Administration * California Department of Pesticide Regulation * California Department of Public Health * California Department of Real Estate * California Department of Rehabilitation * California Department of Social Services Adoptions Branch * California Department of Social Services * California Department of Technology Services Training Center (DTSTC) * California Department of Technology Services (DTS) * California Department of Toxic Substances Control * California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) * California Department of Veterans Affairs (CalVets) * California Department of Water Resources * California Departmento de Vehiculos Motorizados * California Digital Library * California Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise Certification Program * California Division of Apprenticeship Standards * California Division of Codes and Standards * California Division of Communicable Disease Control * California Division of Engineering * California Division of Environmental and Occupational Disease Control * California Division of Gambling Control * California Division of Housing Policy Development * California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement * California Division of Labor Statistics and Research * California Division of Land and Right of Way * California Division of Land Resource Protection * California Division of Law Enforcement General Library * California Division of Measurement Standards * California Division of Mines and Geology * California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) * California Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources * California Division of Planning and Local Assistance * California Division of Recycling * California Division of Safety of Dams * California Division of the State Architect * California Division of Tourism * California Division of Workers Compensation Medical Unit * California Division of Workers Compensation * California Economic Assistance, Business and Community Resources * California Economic Strategy Panel * California Education and Training Agency * California Education Audit Appeals Panel * California Educational Facilities Authority * California Elections Division * California Electricity Oversight Board * California Emergency Management Agency * California Emergency Medical Services Authority * California Employment Development Department (EDD) * California Employment Information State Jobs * California Employment Training Panel * California Energy Commission * California Environment and Natural Resources Agency * California Environmental Protection Agency (Cal/EPA) * California Environmental Resources Evaluation System (CERES) * California Executive Office * California Export Laboratory Services * California Exposition and State Fair (Cal Expo) * California Fair Political Practices Commission * California Fairs and Expositions Division * California Film Commission * California Fire and Resource Assessment Program * California Firearms Division * California Fiscal Services * California Fish and Game Commission * California Fisheries Program Branch * California Floodplain Management * California Foster Youth Help * California Franchise Tax Board (FTB) * California Fraud Division * California Gambling Control Commission * California Geographic Information Systems Council (GIS) * California Geological Survey * California Government Claims and Victim Compensation Board * California Governors Committee for Employment of Disabled Persons * California Governors Mentoring Partnership * California Governors Office of Emergency Services * California Governors Office of Homeland Security * California Governors Office of Planning and Research * California Governors Office * California Grant and Enterprise Zone Programs HCD Loan * California Health and Human Services Agency * California Health and Safety Agency * California Healthy Families Program * California Hearing Aid Dispensers Bureau * California High-Speed Rail Authority * California Highway Patrol (CHP) * California History and Culture Agency * California Horse Racing Board * California Housing Finance Agency * California Indoor Air Quality Program * California Industrial Development Financing Advisory Commission * California Industrial Welfare Commission * California InFoPeople * California Information Center for the Environment * California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank (I-Bank) * California Inspection Services * California Institute for County Government * California Institute for Education Reform * California Integrated Waste Management Board * California Interagency Ecological Program * California Job Service * California Junta Estatal de Personal * California Labor and Employment Agency * California Labor and Workforce Development Agency * California Labor Market Information Division * California Land Use Planning Information Network (LUPIN) * California Lands Commission * California Landscape Architects Technical Committee * California Latino Legislative Caucus * California Law Enforcement Branch * California Law Enforcement General Library * California Law Revision Commission * California Legislative Analyst’s Office * California Legislative Black Caucus * California Legislative Counsel * California Legislative Division * California Legislative Information * California Legislative Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Caucus * California Legislature Internet Caucus * California Library De velopment Services * California License and Revenue Branch * California Major Risk Medical Insurance Program * California Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board * California Maritime Academy * California Marketing Services * California Measurement Standards * California Medical Assistance Commission * California Medical Care Services * California Military Department * California Mining and Geology Board * California Museum for History, Women, and the Arts * California Museum Resource Center * California National Guard * California Native American Heritage Commission * California Natural Community Conservation Planning Program * California New Motor Vehicle Board * California Nursing Home Administrator Program * California Occupational Safety and Health Appeals Board * California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board * California Ocean Resources Management Program * California Office of Administrative Hearings * California Office of Administrative Law * California Office of AIDS * California Office of Binational Border Health * California Office of Child Abuse Prevention * California Office of Deaf Access * California Office of Emergency Services (OES) * California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment * California Office of Fiscal Services * California Office of Fleet Administration * California Office of Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Implementation (CalOHI) * California Office of Historic Preservation * California Office of Homeland Security * California Office of Human Resources * California Office of Legal Services * California Office of Legislation * California Office of Lieutenant Governor * California Office of Military and Aerospace Support * California Office of Mine Reclamation * California Office of Natural Resource Education * California Office of Privacy Protection * California Office of Public School Construction * California Office of Real Estate Appraisers * California Office of Risk and Insurance Management * California Office of Services to the Blind * California Office of Spill Prevention and Response * California Office of State Publishing (OSP) * California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development * California Office of Systems Integration * California Office of the Inspector General * California Office of the Ombudsman * California Office of the Patient Advocate * California Office of the President * California Office of the Secretary for Education * California Office of the State Fire Marshal * California Office of the State Public Defender * California Office of Traffic Safety * California Office of Vital Records * California Online Directory * California Operations Control Office * California Opinion Unit * California Outreach and Technical Assistance Network (OTAN) * California Park and Recreation Commission * California Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) * California Performance Review (CPR) * California Permit Information for Business (CalGOLD) * California Physical Therapy Board * California Physician Assistant Committee * California Plant Health and Pest Prevention Services * California Policy and Evaluation Division * California Political Reform Division * California Pollution Control Financing Authority * California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo * California Postsecondary Education Commission * California Prevention Services * California Primary Care and Family Health * California Prison Industry Authority * California Procurement Division * California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) * California Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) * California Public Utilities Commission (PUC) * California Real Estate Services Division * California Refugee Programs Branch * California Regional Water Quality Control Boards * California Registered Veterinary Technician Committee * California Registrar of Charitable Trusts * California Republican Caucus * California Research and Development Division * California Research Bureau * California Resources Agency * California Respiratory Care Board * California Rivers Assessment * California Rural Health Policy Council * California Safe Schools * California San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission * California San Gabriel and Lower Los Angeles Rivers and Mountains Conservancy * California San Joaquin River Conservancy * California School to Career * California Science Center * California Scripps Institution of Oceanography * California Secretary of State Business Portal * California Secretary of State * California Seismic Safety Commission * California Self Insurance Plans (SIP) * California Senate Office of Research * California Small Business and Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise Certification Program * California Small Business Development Center Program * California Smart Growth Caucus * California Smog Check Information Center * California Spatial Information Library * California Special Education Division * California Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology Board * California Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) * California Standards and Assessment Division * California State Administrative Manual (SAM) * California State Allocation Board * California State and Consumer Services Agency * California State Architect * California State Archives * California State Assembly * California State Association of Counties (CSAC) * California State Board of Education * California State Board of Food and Agriculture *California Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) * California State Children’s Trust Fund * California State Compensation Insurance Fund * California State Contracts Register Program * California State Contracts Register * California State Controller * California State Council on Developmental Disabilities (SCDD) * California State Disability Insurance (SDI) * California State Fair (Cal Expo) * California State Jobs Employment Information * California State Lands Commission * California State Legislative Portal * California State Legislature * California State Library Catalog * California State Library Services Bureau * California State Library * California State Lottery * California State Mediation and Conciliation Service * California State Mining and Geology Board * California State Park and Recreation Commission * California State Parks * California State Personnel Board * California State Polytechnic University, Pomona * California State Railroad Museum * California State Science Fair * California State Senate * California State Summer School for Mathematics and Science (COSMOS) * California State Summer School for the Arts * California State Superintendent of Public Instruction * California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS) * California State Treasurer * California State University Center for Distributed Learning * California State University, Bakersfield * California State University, Channel Islands * California State University, Chico * California State University, Dominguez Hills * California State University, East Bay * California State University, Fresno * California State University, Fullerton * California State University, Long Beach * California State University, Los Angeles * California State University, Monterey Bay * California State University, Northridge * California State University, Sacramento * California State University, San Bernardino * California State University, San Marcos * California State University, Stanislaus * California State University (CSU) * California State Water Project Analysis Office * California State Water Project * California State Water Resources Control Board * California Structural Pest Control Board * California Student Aid Commission * California Superintendent of Public Instruction * California Superior Courts * California Tahoe Conservancy * California Task Force on Culturally and Linguistically Competent Physicians and Dentists * California Tax Information Center * California Technology and Administration Branch Finance * California Telecommunications Division * California Telephone Medical Advice Services (TAMS) * California Transportation Commission * California Travel and Transportation Agency * California Unclaimed Property Program * California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board * California Unemployment Insurance Program * California Uniform Construction Cost Accounting Commission * California Veterans Board * California Veterans Memorial * California Veterinary Medical Board and Registered Veterinary Technician Examining Committee * California Veterinary Medical Board * California Victim Compensation and Government Claims Board * California Volunteers * California Voter Registration * California Water Commission * California Water Environment Association (COWPEA) * California Water Resources Control Board * California Welfare to Work Division * California Wetlands Information System * California Wildlife and Habitat Data Analysis Branch * California Wildlife Conservation Board * California Wildlife Programs Branch * California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) * California Workers Compensation Appeals Board * California Workforce and Labor Development Agency * California Workforce Investment Board * California Youth Authority (CYA) * Central Valley Flood Protection Board * Center for California Studies * Colorado River Board of California * Counting California * Dental Board of California * Health Insurance Plan of California (PacAdvantage) * Humboldt State University * Jobs with the State of California * Judicial Council of California * Learn California * Library of California * Lieutenant Governors Commission for One California * Little Hoover Commission (on California State Government Organization and Economy) * Medical Board of California * Medi-Cal * Osteopathic Medical Board of California * Physical Therapy Board of California * Regents of the University of California * San Diego State University * San Francisco State University * San Jose State University * Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy * State Bar of California * Supreme Court of California * Teach California * University of California * University of California, Berkeley * University of California, Davis * University of California, Hastings College of the Law * University of California, Irvine * University of California, Los Angeles * University of California, Merced * University of California, Riverside * University of California, San Diego * University of California, San Francisco * University of California, Santa Barbara * University of California, Santa Cruz * Veterans Home of California

Obama is just a bad leader

VodkaPundit compares Jimmy Carter to BHO and finds BHO wanting.



Jimmuh was dealt an extremely weak hand on national defense, probably the weakest in the post-war era. The armed forces — especially the Army — were making the slow and painful transition to an all-volunteer force. Drugs were still a problem, and a sense of defeat still hung in the air after Vietnam. Public trust in the armed forces was at an all-time low. Carter couldn’t have engaged in any successful saber-rattling with the Soviets, even had he been inclined to. Instead, Carter made human rights the cornerstone of America’s foreign policy, setting the stage for Reagan’s “evil empire” speech. It was a weak policy, yes — but the best he could do given a weak hand. And when the invasion of Afghanistan made Soviet expansionism became too much to bear, Carter changed course. The defense buildup under Reagan really began under Carter.


Faced with inflation, Carter appointed inflation hawk Paul Volcker to head the Fed. Reagan kept him on for a second term. Faced with a weak economy, Carter undid New Deal transportation cartels. The man could and did learn on the job.


Was he perfect? Ha! Carter remained hostile to Israel under every circumstance, he never gained a clue on energy policy, and Iran’s newly-empowered mullahs embarrassed him (and all of us) on the world stage again and again.


Carter’s biggest failure wasn’t bad policy prescriptions. Some of his were terrible, but many he was willing and able to correct midcourse. Carter’s main failure was a failure of leadership. When we needed reassurance, he proved feckless. When we needed inspiration, he told us to lower our expectations. Carter could have been policy perfect from the beginning to the end of his administration — but he still would have lasted only one term.


Jimmy Carter could not lead this nation. He couldn’t lead the way out of a wet paper bag. He couldn’t lead a dog to kibble. Jimmy Carter is a bad leader.


Which brings us to President Barack Obama




We’ve seen over the last two years that Obama isn’t much of a leader, either. His speeches have become boring and pedantic and hectoring. His foreign policy is irresolute where it isn’t plain laughable (and laughed at from Moscow to Beijing to Caracas). His signature domestic achievements — ObamaCare and the stimulus — don’t even have his own fingerprints anywhere near them. Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid cobbled them together in the dead of night. All Obama did was wave his magic pen on the dotted line, and expect everything to turn out all right.


Barack Obama cannot lead this nation. He couldn’t lead the way out of a wet paper bag. He couldn’t lead a dog to kibble. Barack Obama is a bad leader.


And that’s where things really get bad.


Faced with the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression, faced with the weakest job market since WWII, faced with endless debt and out-of-control entitlements, Obama’s policy prescriptions haven’t changed one bit:


1. Soak the “millionaires and billionaires” making as little as $200,000.


2. Regulate the ever-loving life out of the economy.


3. Increase entitlements.


4. Spend, spend, spend.


The fact that these policies haven’t worked hasn’t deterred Obama. Just on Monday he took to the airwaves yet again to call for yet more taxes and yet more spending to fund the expanded welfare and regulatory state he refuses to trim.


Obama isn’t just a failed leader. Unlike Carter, the Smartest Man in the Room™ has proven unable or unwilling to learn on the job. Obama can’t recognize mistakes — even though the evidence is as plain as last month’s hideous jobs report. He will continue to demand that reality conform to his theories, no matter what damage he does to this country. He doesn’t doge, he doesn’t weave — he keeps pursuing failure in the face of failure.


Why? I don’t care why. Maybe it’s his ego. Maybe he really believed all those stoned-out-of-his-mind late-night Harvard bull sessions. Maybe he really is trying to drive this country into the ground, for whatever reason. Maybe, Barack Obama is just a dumbass.


What I do know is, the American people were sold a pig in a poke three years ago. What I don’t know is, if they’ll buy it again.

The abandoned orphans of the left are taking Britain by storm

Abe Greenwald of Commentary hits the nail on the head.  While we here in the US have problems, it is Europe that is totally, utterly screwed.  They're waking up from a 60 year dream with the mother of all hangovers.  Social Democracy is ending so, so badly.  And it's going to get worse.  Much worse.

The global economic downturn has made leftist ideology obsolete in the official political sphere, but that shift has left behind a nasty problem: Millions of people had expected leftism to make good on its myriad promises of contentment—equality of outcome, free goods and services, and less time spent slaving away at work. How do the post-war generations who were raised on modern liberal dreams—and who bought in to an ever-expanding entitlement state—come to terms with the realities of the left’s failure? (If you’re an American your leftism is likely an outgrowth of affluence, so you attend some anti-corporate documentary screenings and get on with the your life.) But if you’re in Europe, you’ve actually been let down by the system that was supposed to sustain you. Getting over that won’t be so easy. So without a viable leftist blueprint for actual political progress, you riot incoherently, collaboratively, and opportunistically. The abandoned orphans of the left are taking Britain by storm.

Hey, hey, ho, ho - all these creeps have gotta go

It's not the creeps, it's the system.  Which breeds looters like rotting flesh breeds maggots.  Bust it up.  Bust it all up.

HEY, HEY, HO, HO, BARACK OBAMA’S GOT TO GO: Gallup: Majority say Obama doesn’t deserve second term.

But hey, it’s not just Obama: Meltdown: For first time, most Americans believe their own rep doesn’t deserve reelection.

DHS wants to replicate Carnivore

Remember the scene in the Dark Knight where everyone is under surveillance.  Well now DHS wants to begin building it.

THEY TOLD ME IF I VOTED FOR JOHN MCCAIN, WE’D SEE CREEPY HOMELAND SECURITY SURVEILLANCE: And they were right! “Homeland Security plans to operate a massive new database of names, photos, birthdays and biometrics called Watchlist Service, duplicated from the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Database, which has proven not to be accurate many times in the past. DHS wants to exempt the Watchlist Service from Privacy Act provisions, meaning you will never know if you are wrongfully listed.”

Take away their money and fire them.  All of them.

Obama's gobsmackingingly sophomoric, naive rhetoric

This guy really doesn't know what he's doing.  Mickey Kaus explains:

“Not much further we can cut” seems like a hanging curve ball, an open invitation for ongoing ridicule–the sort of naive assertion that might come easily to someone who had never worked in the federal government, who only realized after promoting his half-trillion-dollar public works-based stimulus plan that there was “no such thing as shovel-ready projects.” Or someone who doesn’t want to know. Or who wants to act as if he doesn’t know.

Here is the official list of federal job openings. They are still hiring. Sure, big enterprises keep hiring essential employees even in tough times. But these aren’t essential jobs. Many of them seem like the sort of job a private firm, in a financial crisis like the feds are in, would consolidate with another job or leave unfilled. (The first one that jumps out is the “Associate Administrator for Administration” at the Department of Transportation, which pays $119,554 to $179,700. It seems that this person will do administrative work to maintain the layer of bureaucracy that “coordinates” the DOTs research programs. The new hire will also give “advice and assistance in directing, coordinating, controlling” etc. this little fiefdom. You don’t have to be Peter Drucker to realize that this position does not have to exist.)

Ever since Carter the outcome of the Left's gaining power has been disaster.  For the left.

Faster please.

Wisconsin recalls crushed. Unions blow $20 million to win...2 seats

Lets see that's ten million for every senate seat year.  Because one of the seats was solidly democratic and would probably have flipped in the next election anyway.  The other is solidly republican but with an incumbent who just left his wife who was campaigning for his recall.  It will flip back to R next year.

The Unions have now lost three in a row in Wisconsin.  Their blood is in the water and the sharks are circling.  With their demise the key source of money and foot soldiers that has fueled the Democratic party for generations will evaporate.  Paper tigers should stay away from open flames.

And if they won't buy what the unions are selling in Wisconsin, the birthplace of 'progressivism' then they are truly screwed.

Faster, please.

Record numbers of troops dying in war under Obama. And the anti-war movement is nowhere to be found.

It turns out that anti-war simply means anti-Republican.  What do you call someone who is against a war only when doing so helps him gain power?

Them crickets sure are getting loud.

Lies, damned lies and budget projections

So how much should we believe the projections that the CBO gives us about the debt ten years hence?  Well this is what they forecast ten years ago:


In any event, since so much is being made by the administration of CBO’s prowess at “basic U.S. fiscal budget math” in arriving at ten-year forecasts, thanks are in order to Zero Hedge, which dug out CBO’s 2001 forecast of where we’d be today. According to CBO, we were going to be sitting pretty: The debt would essentially be paid off (except for holders of bonds that hadn’t matured yet), the debt-to-GDP ratio would be a tiny 4.8%, Treasury would be in the black — holding $2.4 trillion more in uncommitted funds than it owed in debt obligations, and Leviathan would be collecting 2011 budget surplus of $889 billion!

Thanks to Andy McCarthy of NRO