Friday - July 09, 2010
Countdown To Impoverishment
For 9 solid years we’ve heard the BS but had the benefit. Soon, no more. The eviiil genius moron Shrub Chimpy McHilterburton’s unfair tax cuts only for the rich are going to expire. And there is pretty much no way that Congress can renew them, or make them permanent, or come up with any kind of similar tax breaks for anyone. The government is dead broke, and needs 1000 times more tax revenue than they can find. So don’t expect any Omiracle. Or any kind of Orescue. Pay up.
- The 35% bracket rises to 39.6%, an increase of 13%
- The 33% bracket rises to 36%, an increase of 9%
- The 28% bracket rises to 31%, an increase of 10.7%
- The 25% bracket rises to 28%, and increase of 12%
- The 10% bracket rises to an expanded 15%, an increase of 50%
- I’m not sure where the current 15% bracket goes. Do they get a break and get no tax hike? Don’t bet on it.
The Marriage Penalty will be back, Death Taxes will be back, Capital Gains Tax goes from 15% to 20% in 2011, the Dividends Tax more than doubles from 15% now to 39.6% in 2011. You think the market is bad now? You ain’t seen nothing yet baby.
And then we get to the 20 or more taxes hidden within Obamacare, which we have to start paying years before that plan comes online. Free Dunce Hats and a Time Out to everyone who thinks that money is going into one of those famous lockboxes for 4 years until the plan kicks in.
And your old friend the Alternative Minimum Tax is still around, sharpening his teeth. Since Congress hasn’t bothered to index the beast to inflation, the categories that once were only supposed to force “the rich” to “pay their fair share” will now start impacting the lower middle class. So those much higher tax rates above will seem like a cool dip in the pool on a sweltering hot day compared with the rates they will wind up paying. The Tax Policy Center calculates that more than 7 times as many families will be subject to it next year then are in it’s claws this year.
So, remember that campaign promise? The one about not a cent more taxes of any form for any family making under $250,000 $200,000 $125,000 $75,000 $50,000? It’s a lie. And you know what will happen? BO will blame Bush. Yup, it’s Bush’s fault the tax rates will skyrocket in 2011, because he only made his tax cuts short term. And when the Republicans controlled both houses, they never moved to make those cuts permanent. Don be blamin da new messiah! And the MFM lapdogs will repeat this endlessly.
Next up will be the VAT, and the Cap & Trade hits that get levied against us all. And since your state is likely bankrupt, expect your state taxes to double as well.
See lots more at Americans for Tax Reform.
Posted by Drew458
on 07/09/2010 at 01:26 PM
Filed Under: • Taxes •
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Permalink • woo hoo!
Just a little post to congratulate CBullit, who seems to be CMonster these days, about getting his first significant link from behind the Iron Curtain. It seems that some comrade over there found his place and has been borrowing his photo collection on a regular basis. But that comrade publishes some kind of proper online newspaper, so CB/CM’s pics get used as the Page 3 material there. And that’s the straight pravda! So I guess ... since his source material is being published in an officialish news organ ... that makes him an official journalist! An international journalist no less. Impressive on the resume, and we won’t tell anyone that it was all stuff he borrowed in the first place. Can The Daily Snooch Report be far behind?
He toasted his own sudden transcontinental prominence by posting a nice pic of Olga Kurylenko, the model-turned-actress who was in the latest Bond film Quantum of Solace. So to toast his toastiness, here she is again.
That one’s one of my favorites. It shows off her rather striking face without distractions. Not that there’s anything wrong with distractions. She rather reminds me of a young Karina Lombard, who was Catherine Zeta-Jones before CZJ was CZJ. Strong faces, bold eyes, rich dark hair, richer accents. Perfect but normal figures. Drewski likeski!
Posted by Drew458
on 07/09/2010 at 09:06 AM
Filed Under: • Blog Stuff • International •
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Permalink • Thursday - July 08, 2010
Twilight…for guys
I’m a bit out of the loop on this ‘Twilight’ craze. Sure, I’ve downloaded the ebooks. Haven’t read them yet. Haven’t seen any of the movies. But by all accounts the Twilight series is geared to teenage girls and metrosexuals. My only question is…why?
So here is Twilight…for guys:
“an army of lesbians”? What a waste!
The werewolf ate what???
Posted by Christopher
on 07/08/2010 at 03:12 PM
Filed Under: • CULTURE IN DECLINE • Humor • MOVIES •
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Permalink • Today’s Literary Quote
Formerly known as ‘What’s Christopher Reading’, I decided to change the title.
I’m reading Simon R. Green’s Secret History series. Book Two - Daemons Are Forever. (Mr. Green seems to like parodies of Bond books.)
Our hero Edwin is busy with an elf-lord. Two of Frankenstein’s monsters are ganging up on his girlfriend Molly the witch. Simon R. Green is really a sick man. Who else could imagine this?
By now everyone else in the cafe had run for the doors, not wanting to tangle with a Drood in full armour, and I was happy enough to see them go. They would only have got in the way. The two Frankenstein creatures had closed in on Molly, reaching out for her with their large, mismatched hands. Molly laughed in their ugly faces, and hit them with a simple spell that made all their stitches come undone at once. The two monsters cried out in harsh, hopeless voices as ancient cat gut exploded like rows of firecrackers in their skin, undoing them like zippers. They fell apart, bit by bit, their separate pieces pattering to the floor, slowly at first and then in a rush. Hands fell from arms, arms from elbows and then from shoulders. Legs collapsed. Torsos hit the floor hard and opened up, spilling long-dead preserved organs onto the floor. The heads were the last to go, features slipping one by one from the faces, until finally the skulls cracked open and the dry, gray brains fell out.
By then I had my own problems. The elf lord was closing in on me, smiling his nasty, superior smile.
Moral? Witches are bitches. They do not appreciate fine stitching.
Posted by Christopher
on 07/08/2010 at 12:56 PM
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Permalink • True Spirit
True grit and bloody stubbornness pays off with some help from Mother Nature
Scores of sailors from across the country have made the long journey into the Outback to take part in the event in the middle of the Simpson Desert.
A monsoon in Queensland in February, during which six inches of rain fell in one day, with some towns recording their average annual rainfall in just 24 hours, has sent flows of water rushing into a series of inland lakes and rivers in remote South Australia.
The influx of water has been so large and sustained that, for the first time in more than 20 years, some of the desert lakes are now deep enough to sail on.
More than 200 sailors from around the country have converged on Lake Killamperpunna, 520 miles north of Adelaide, with catamarans, trimarans, speedboats and even water skis.
Normally a parched dust bowl, the lake has not been sailed on since 1989 but thanks to the rains, which have transformed the desert into lush wetlands teeming with plants and bird life, the water is up to 9ft deep in places and perfect for sailing.
Bob Backway, commodore of the Lake Eyre Sailing Club, said conditions were “beautiful” for the three-day regatta. The LESC was formed in 2000 but has never had enough water to host a regatta – until now.
“To think that just a month-and-a-half ago this area was just bone dry,” he said.
“[Now] you’re sailing on this beautiful lake that looks like it’s been there forever but hasn’t had water this depth in it for 20 years, it’s just ... out of this world.”
Mr Backway said yacht owners had travelled from across Australia to take advantage of the rare opportunity for “desert boating”.
In keeping with the Club’s fun approach to yachting in the outback events will be laid back - no strict racing rules. Participants may even choose to design their own events - the emphasis is on enjoying the rare privilege of sailing in the desert.
A bush camping area on the edge of the Lake Killamperpunna will be supplied with firewood for use in approved fireplaces, and there will be Cooper Creek water for washing.
It won’t be good for keel boats however - they’ll be off-the-beach sized yachts with appropriate safety gear as required by SA Marine Authority, or trailer sailors. While it’s possible for a two-wheel-drive vehicle to make the journey, most participants are expected to take 4WD’s.
Participants will have to camp, and even caravans have to be handled with care to make the journey. Drinking water will also have to be carried, as they are not recommending drinking the Cooper Creek water.
Shallow draft boats are an absolute must; the depth of the lake is measured in millimeters. Strong backs and waterproof boots are required as well: this lake is subject to the unusual phenomena of wind tides, which can range up to 600mm or more. But since the lake is so shallow, and the land around it is so flat - insanely flat, “undulating” less than 5m per 75km - that 600mm of tide means that the lake can move 1 to 3 kilometers overnight. And that’s a long long push for your little boat across the salt crusted black ooze and mud.
Lake Eyre [nicknamed “the plug hole of Australia"], Australia’s largest salt lake and the world’s 13th largest lake, is located in Northern South Australia. It’s drainage basin, of 1,140,000 square kilometers, covers 15% of the continent extending into the south-east of the Northern Territory and south west and central Queensland.
Lake Eyre North is 144km long North-South and 77km wide. The lowest point, in Lake Eyre North, is 15.2 metres below sea level and its deepest flood (20th century) was in 1974 at 5.7 meters. Lake Eyre South is 64km long East-West and 24km wide and has a maximum depth of 3.7 meters. The two Lakes are joined by the 15km long Goyder Channel through which water has flowed in either direction in recent history. Both lakes have a combined area of 9 690 square kilometers.
Adventurers interested in sailing the blood red lake for several days should bring camping equipment, food, several hundred liters of drinking water and a small pull-behind dingy to carry it. Camping can be done at almost any point around the lake, and it is suggested you bring your own porta-potty as well. The Lake Eyre Yacht Club web page has lots of tips and suggestions, along with information about several of the rather bothersome medical conditions that can result from exposure to, and immersion in, water of such high salinity. Little things like Onion Toe and Sea Ulcers. But the highly saline water seems to cure plantar warts, so it’s not all downside.
And if you stick around long enough, you can attend the Cudimurka Outback Ball, a galah candlelit bi-annual affair held this year in at the old Ghan station there. Thousands attend to dance and drink the night away. That’s assuming that the Kudimudra, the local version of the Chupacabra, doesn’t get you first. Be warned.
Gotta love the Aussies. Tougher than nails and having a grand time doing the improbable.
Posted by Drew458
on 07/08/2010 at 09:38 AM
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Permalink • This saves a whole lot of writing
pictures being worth one thousand words and all that. Found over at Washington Rebel.
Posted by Drew458
on 07/08/2010 at 09:05 AM
Filed Under: • Commies •
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Permalink • Just when does a child become an adult?
My flippant answer is that liberals never become adults. The crap life throws at you is always someone else’s fault, and someone else’s responsibility.
Case in point: The new Ohio healthcare law:
A new Ohio law says employers offering health insurance must allow employees the opportunity to purchase coverage for their children up to age 28.
Age 28? Do you know what all I had done by age 28? I’d been through 2+ years of college, served 6 years active duty in the US Navy, been honorably discharged, and was currently working at a dance studio where I taught the lady who became my wife. Mom & Dad did not support me at all during those years.
(During college I came home for summer. Parents didn’t actually charge me rent or anything, but I was expected to contribute to the groceries, and do the chores I’d always done. But I was NOT on their medical insurance anymore. I also had to accumulate enough money for books, incidentals, etc, for the next semester. In 1980, the Carter recession made that impossible so I enlisted.)
I’m appalled. Just when do we quit coddling young people and treating them like children?
Please note: currently the law says must allow parents… Won’t be long before that becomes parents must buy…
After all, it’s for the children.
Posted by Christopher
on 07/08/2010 at 07:58 AM
Filed Under: • Big Brother • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Government • Health-Medicine •
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Permalink • Wednesday - July 07, 2010
This Is Too Much
Following a recent spate of attempted attacks in the region, Somali pirates successfully hijacked a vessel in the southern part of the Red Sea on Sunday.
According to a report received by the International Maritime Bureau’s (IMB) Piracy Reporting Centre (PRC), a chemical tanker was hijacked on 4 July 2010 whilst transiting the Bab el Mandeb straits. According to reports, she has 18 crewmembers on board and is sailing towards the Somali coast.
This successful hijacking follows on from an increase in activity in the Bab el Mandeb region since early June 2010. In that period, five vessels reported attempted attacks with a further four reporting having been fired upon.
The tanker Motivator, carrying lubricating oil, reported coming under fire near the strait between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden on Sunday.
Contact was lost and the vessel was confirmed hijacked on Monday.
An international flotilla has been patrolling the Gulf of Aden to deter an increase in hijackings of shipping.
“The MT Motivator reported it was under small arms fire from a pirate attack in the northern Bab al-Mandeb area in the southern Red Sea,” the EU’s naval task force, Eunavfor, said.
“After notification of this attack, attempts were made to make contact with the Motivator but to no avail. The hijack was confirmed early on July 5.”
The MV Motivator, IMO 9340386, is a small tankship, 128 meters long by 20 meters wide. It is registered in the Marshall Islands.
One more pirate hijacking isn’t the news here. It’s the Where, not the What, that is the story. The Red Sea is pretty much a large salt water lake, with the Suez Canal at the north end and the Bab el Mandeb Straights at the south end. It’s essentially closed off, m’kay? The waters at the Straights are so narrow that there is a bridge being built across, between Eritrea/Djibouti and Yemen. And the waters of the Red Sea are COVERED in Navy, from every country that can paint a ship gray and set it afloat. WALL TO FREAKING WALL MILITARY VESSELS. And there have been FIVE other attempted hijackings in the very same, very small area, all within the past month.
This is inexcusable. I don’t give a flying fart which navy was nearby, they did nothing. They allowed this hijack to happen. Come on. The damned Straight is only 16 miles wide, and 10% of the world’s oil ships through it every single day, plus a huge amount of trade goods. You’d think the ships would be bow to stern in a conga line going both ways. Billions of dollars of goods every hour. And pirates got into this ultra-dense zone, little wolves amongst the flock, and plucked themselves a lamb. And 500 sheepdogs stood around and did jack shit. You effers are so fired. 50 helicopters could have been on scene in 2 minutes and shot these fools to shreds. Hell, land batteries could have hit the pirates from shore! ( oh, and the US has a huge military force right the fuck there, called the Combined Joint Task Force - Horn Of Africa. Right there, at Camp Le Monier in Djibouti, not even 60 miles away. It’s full of jets and helicopters and tanks and Marines and stuff )
What’s next, Somali pirates hijacking ships when they are in the locks of the Suez Canal? WTF, why not? How about Somali pirates following the ships right to their destinations, and hijacking them right out of the ports? They can do it, easily! Because the world is WASTING BILLIONS OF DOLLARS on multiple navies who DON’T DO A FUCKIN THING to stop them.
Posted by Drew458
on 07/07/2010 at 12:53 PM
Filed Under: • Military • Pirates, aarrgh! •
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Permalink • Oopsie
A bag belonging to agents travelling with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was mistakenly put on a flight from New York to Los Angeles, not to Washington.
Alarmingly the bag contained four 9mm Glock handguns, which are now missing.
A Shin Bet spokesman told the AP news agency that it is not known whether the guns went missing before or after the luggage was put on the wrong flight.
The Israeli officers were accompanying Mr Netanyahu to Washington for White House talks with President Barack Obama.
NBC News reported that the handguns had, in accordance with security procedures at New York’s John F Kennedy airport, been placed inside checked luggage.
The luggage was then supposed to be put on a connecting flight to Washington however, American Airlines workers at the airport instead sent it right across the country to LAX in Los Angeles.
By the time the luggage was located and recovered, the guns had disappeared, and are presumed to have been stolen.
Port Authority police in New York are currently investigating whether the weapons went missing before or after the suitcase was transferred to LAX, NBC News has reported.
One source told NBC that the suitcase was inspected and cleared for shipment by Transportation Security Administration screeners who put a seal over the bag at Kennedy Airport.
First off, why aren’t the bodyguards of a leading world political figure allowed to carry arms on an airplane?
Secondly, why is Netanyahu on a public flight? If El Al couldn’t fly from Tel Aviv to DC direct, wouldn’t it be smarter to put this guy on a) a private government flight, or b) have his people charter a plane at random? They couldn’t have hired a limo, or schlepped a ride from somebody on the East Side? This doesn’t make sense.
Third, WTF is going on with TSA? What, did they put a big label on the bag that said “GUN!! STEAL ME!!” or something? Wouldn’t the old diplomatic pouch have been a better choice?
Fourth, who wants to bet that these guns a) are never found, or b) the investigation (ha!) will turn up nothing, ever?
Fifth, with the billions and billions that have been spent on airport security in the past decade, it is unconscionable that anything is stolen from any luggage ever. There are a zillion video cameras all over every airport. Heads should roll. I call for a full investigation with total disclosure and multiple arrests all the way to the top. Sure, once in a while a bag goes on the wrong flight, though with computer driven everything that should never happen. Baggage handling systems are so amazing these days they get their own Modern Marvels episodes on TV. Every piece of checked luggage should be tape sealed and signed off on upon opening, just like chain of evidence is handled by the police.
Lastly, I think this is no accident. This is Obama and his minions laying another dis on our allies. Our halfrican muslim leader’s enemies, the joooos.
Posted by Drew458
on 07/07/2010 at 12:06 PM
Filed Under: • Guns and Gun Control • Israel • Obama, The One •
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Permalink • Tuesday - July 06, 2010
Just Shoot Me Now Please
Everyone else posted on this earlier today. I didn’t, but I guess I ought to. Do I really even need to write the story? The headline and one little quote is enough to send me screaming.
There are not swear words strong enough. This Manchurian Candidate must go. We will not survive even one full term of this jackanapes.
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a recent interview that his “foremost” mission as the head of America’s space exploration agency is to improve relations with the Muslim world.
Though international diplomacy would seem well outside NASA’s orbit, Bolden said in an interview with Al Jazeera that strengthening those ties was among the top tasks President Obama assigned him. He said better interaction with the Muslim world would ultimately advance space travel.
We are beyond screwed.
But I can see it working, can’t you? Can’t you just Feel The Love™ that would result from one of these meetings when NASA pays a visit?
Hey Abdul! Remember when you were 15 and used to ride your camel naked across the desert while pulling your weasel? And you’d get the camel up to a gallop so that when you spooged off it would shoot up in the air and land right in your own mouth? That’s as close to lift-off as anyone in the entire muslime world has come to in the past 1400 years. You losers can’t even do fireworks, and your first cousins the paleoswinians make such poor baby-dick missiles that they can’t even hit the ground half the time.
So yeah, let’s send NASA over to sandland to help build up their self esteem. That’ll work!
Hey, see this rocket? Yeah, the one that’s taller than every other building in the Middle East except that one empty and unfinished office tower in Yemen. Uh huh, that one. Says Saturn V on the side. That one we spent $12 billion dollars on 41 years ago, more than your entire nation’s gross national product at the time, to send 3 white guys to the moon. Where they planted our flag. And took a zero gravity dump on the koran, but that’s part’s a state secret. Then we brought them all home again. And then we did it again ... half a dozen times. Just for fun, because we could. In your country at that time ... they hadn’t even invented clean water. Still haven’t, come to think of it. Feeling better yet?
OTOH, I have a terrible fear that Obama’s flunky is gonna “build self esteem” the same way Clinton did for the Chicoms - by the traitorous act of giving them our missile technology. I don’t doubt it for a second, since my nation’s enemies are my president’s friends, and my nation’s allies are his new enemies. Let’s see if those Kassams that Hamas uses all the time suddenly develop precision accuracy and doubled range after a Bolden visit. That’s how you’ll know.
Posted by Drew458
on 07/06/2010 at 09:56 PM
Filed Under: • DIVERSITY BS • Obama, The One • Stoopid-People •
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Permalink • Down and then up again
I should have just given up years ago. Seriously. I seem to only be able to bowl well when I don’t try. Go figure.
We played “Mr. 300’s” team again tonight, and whupped them severely in all 3 games. After being in first place last week, then losing all 7, we dropped to 4th. This 7 will put us back up again. Hey, it’s a very tiny, short league, so the numbers can change really fast.
I did Ok the first game. Nothing great, about a 150 I think. Maybe a 130. All I recall is that I could not get the ball to move. I even gave up my out-n-back line, and went with the down-n-in line I thought I’d put behind me ages ago. Even that didn’t help much. Mr. 300 pulled a 223, our anchor Rex went 222, and with the bit of handicap we had (39) we managed to win by about a dozen.
Game 2 I quit trying. Since the ball seems to zoom off my longer than average arms no matter how slowly I walk, I decided to hardly walk at all. No step-out on the push away, wait until the ball is down in front of my knees, then take a baby step a mere half a shoe long. Swing free, the ball goes back, and I take another baby step. Coming forward I’m not crouching or bending forward, and I take another very short step. Eyes down on the target as the ball comes through, my last step is not a lunge, just another short step. Turn the hand, elbow locked, pull the thumb ... feel it, feel it ... now! Snap up on the lifters and carry through all the way, one smooth motion and “answer the phone”. And the ball launches off my hand, glides through the air a good 6 or more feet while building up some decent rev, hits on the 14 and skids out ... still revving strongly ... finds the breakpoint and turns in, almost, almost, yes! Into the pocket. BLAMM! Strike. And again. And again. And again. Then I pulled it a little and left the 10, so I tried the same “grandpa” approach with a flat hand, thumb up. And drove my strike ball right across the lane with no hook and nailed the 10er right in the middle. Dink. 9/! But I kept grandpa-ing it, and the strikes kept coming. I finished with a 223. Nice! And that served to get my team hot, so even though Mr. 300 pulled a 243 and the rest of his team did well, we smeared them. By 138 pins. Woo hoo!
I am not going to mess with a good thing, so I kept right on bowling like I was 129 years old. My entire approach, from the middle dots, was about 40 inches. I was letting go of the ball at least 5 feet behind the foul line, so I guess my ball was gliding - I wouldn’t call it lofting - at least 12 feet before touching the boards. At this point the other team started doing some serious drinking, and never came closer than the 97 pins we were up by the 3rd frame. I finished with a 211. We won that one big time, I think by 173. Total destruction! Our team total was an 759 for the 3rd, plus handi for an 798. Not bad at all!!
I try really hard to use a free swinging arm, but I’m wondering if I’ve been muscling the ball the last bit. I want so very much to come “through the ball” and to “rip the cover right off” to get some rev ... have I been lifting up too early this whole time, when my hand is still moving forward not upwards? That would explain the excess ball speed. Come on, a grandpa approach and a release from 5 feet back? The ball should have hooked 2 lanes over by the time it got to the pins. Not tonight! Tonight it either went out easy and back hard, or, if I threw inside a bit, it went straight down and broke hard really late on a very inside (15 board) line. Whatever! I want to have a good technique, but sometimes it’s just nice to blast the crap out of the pins and get some good scores.
Posted by Drew458
on 07/06/2010 at 09:02 PM
Filed Under: • Bowling Blogging •
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Permalink • Stupide Dems Can’t Even Pretend Properly
Don’t know how I missed this one the other day, but hey, better late than never.
You know, because making a budget is only their ... primary responsibility!!
House Democrats ‘Deem’ Faux $1.1 Trillion Budget ‘as Passed’
by Connie Hair
07/02/2010Last night, as part of a procedural vote on the emergency war supplemental bill, House Democrats attached a document that “deemed as passed” a non-existent $1.12 trillion budget. The execution of the “deeming” document allows Democrats to start spending money for Fiscal Year 2011 without the pesky constraints of a budget.
The procedural vote passed 215-210 with no Republicans voting in favor and 38 Democrats crossing the aisle to vote against deeming the faux budget resolution passed.
Never before—since the creation of the Congressional budget process—has the House failed to pass a budget, failed to propose a budget then deemed the non-existent budget as passed as a means to avoid a direct, recorded vote on a budget, but still allow Congress to spend taxpayer money.
House Budget Committee Ranking Member Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) warned this was the green light for Democrats to continue their out-of-control spending virtually unchecked.
“Facing a record deficit and a tidal wave of debt, House Democrats decided it was politically inconvenient to put forward a budget and account for their fiscal recklessness. With no priorities and no restraints, the spending, taxing, and borrowing will continue unchecked for the coming fiscal year,” Ryan said. “The so-called ‘budget enforcement resolution’ enforces no budget, but instead provides a green light for the Appropriators to continue spending, exacerbating our looming fiscal crisis.”
Was this all over the news 3 days ago, discussed ad-nauseum by all the talking heads, then jeered at and allowed to fall by the wayside? Because I wasn’t really watching too much news over the holiday weekend, and I’m certain that Congress “deeming” themselves a PRETEND BUDGET would be earth-shattering news that would zoom to the top of the news cycle and stay there for at least ... 72 hours? But I personally haven’t heard a single peep. Not even on Fox. Wazzup wit dat?
I looked up the vote, and along with the numbers, all it told me was
H RES 1500 YEA-AND-NAY 1-Jul-2010 8:02 PM
QUESTION: On Agreeing to the Resolution
BILL TITLE: Providing for consideration of the Senate amendments to the bill (H.R. 4899) making emergency supplemental appropriations for disaster relief and summer jobs for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2010
So I’m a bit befuddled here.
But Paul Ryan (R-WI) seems to understand the dealio and is more than a bit miffy:
“Yesterday, the Congressional Budget Office rang the latest fiscal alarm with the release of The Long-Term Budget Outlook,” Ryan said. “Today, Congress again hit snooze. To avert a fiscal and economic calamity, Washington needs to wake up.”
“It is unclear how many more fiscal alarms need to go off before Washington takes action to avert our looming debt crisis,” Ryan said. “Earlier in the month in testimony before the House Budget Committee, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke emphasized the urgent need for a ‘fiscal exit strategy.’ Last week, Admiral Mike Mullen warned that our debt is ‘the biggest threat we have to our national security.’ Over the weekend, Europeans lectured us at the G-20 summit on the unsustainability of continued profligacy. [Tuesday], the CBO reiterated what all but Washington Democrats understand: we are careening off a fiscal cliff.
Lucky for me the GOP put out a helpful pamphlet explaining that this was all smoke and mirrors, even though the smoke is a clear indication of an actual bonfire, and the mirrors are busy hiding the flames from people’s vision. Oh look, over there, a shiny unicorn! Ooooh, aaaah!
What House Democratic leaders call a “budget enforcement resolution” is in fact just another “deeming” scheme – one that concedes they cannot meet their most fundamental governing
responsibility: writing a congressional budget. They have created a masquerade that only advances their spend-as-you-go philosophy, accelerating the march toward a fiscal and economic crisis. They are doing so because a majority of rank-and-file Democrats cannot vote for a budget with trillion-dollar deficits. As even House Budget Committee Chairman Spratt has acknowledged: “You can say that that’s a lack of courage.”The analysis below makes the following points:
* This is not a budget. The measure fails to meet the most basic, commonly understood objectives of any budget. It does not set congressional priorities; it does not align overall spending, tax, deficit, and debt levels; and it does nothing to address the runaway spending of Federal entitlement programs.* It is not a ‘congressional budget resolution.’ The measure does not satisfy even the most basic criteria of a budget resolution as set forth in the Congressional Budget Act.
* It creates a deception of spending ‘restraint.’ While claiming restraint in discretionary spending, the resolution increases non-emergency spending by $30 billion over 2010, and includes a number of gimmicks that give a green light to higher spending.
* It continues relying on the flawed and over-sold pay-as-you-go [pay-go] procedure. Paygo – which Democrats have used mainly to raise taxes, and have ignored when it was inconvenient – does nothing to reduce deficits or restrain spending growth in existing law. The pay-go statute adopted in this resolution does not correct its fundamental flaws.
* Outsourcing fiscal responsibilities. The measure is another hand-off by the Democratic Majority of Congress’s power of the purse – this time relying on the Fiscal Commission created by the President to do Congress’s job.
...
Since enactment of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, the House has never failed to mark up and pass its own budget resolution. The “budget enforcement” measure conjured up by the Democratic Majority cannot hide their unprecedented collapse in congressional budgeting. It creates skepticism in global financial markets that the U.S. government is even capable of managing its fiscal affairs. The uncertainty it creates inhibits job creation and economic growth.This is far more than a failure of procedure or politics. It is an abdication of a fundamental responsibility by a Majority that is losing both its will, and its ability, to govern – and it is threatening America’s prosperity in the process.
What, so Obama’s Fiscal Commission is actually going to come up with the budget? Great! Since that’s Congress’s main job, we can do without them then. You’re all fired! Think of how much money that can save.
While Democrats try to claim their “enforcement resolution” is the “full equivalent, the full complement of a budget,” it is in fact a façade that attempts to hide their failure in the most basic function of government: passing a budget. This is not a budget, even in the most commonly understood terms.
* It does not set priorities, or account for spending demands. Like any budget, a congressional budget resolution is a blueprint for allocating resources among the government’s major activities. It is the only legislative vehicle that views government spending, taxes, and borrowing comprehensively: everything else is piecemeal. This “enforcement resolution” offers no blueprint for budgeting. It does not show how the House intends to meet the government’s major obligations – such as national defense, Medicare, Medicaid, veterans’ benefits, and so on – as laid out in a budget resolution. It
makes no choices among the broad categories of spending – which ones should get more funds, and which less. It leaves all the budgeting to someone else.* It does nothing to control entitlement spending. The biggest problem in the budget outlook is uncontrolled entitlement spending – and this resolution does nothing to address it. The Democrats already have worsened the entitlement crisis, first by ignoring it, then by adding their $2.6-trillion health care program, among other things. The “enforcement resolution” simply endorses an already reckless spending binge.
* It makes no attempt to align spending, tax, deficit, and debt levels. The resolution fails to show how government spending in fiscal year 2011 will be financed – how much by taxes, how much by borrowing – and thereby ignores the alarming deficits and debt run up by this President and Congress. Under the President’s budget, debt held by the public doubles in 5 years (compared with 2008) and triples in 10 years; and by doing nothing, the Democratic leadership is endorsing that path.
Ok, so this is all Democrat shenanigans, and the Republicans are calling them on it. Wouldn’t that be news too? I mean, WTH, it’s only another trillion plus of new debt. It’s only our future. Isn’t anybody listening anymore? Don’t any of these journalists even want to tell this story?
Posted by Drew458
on 07/06/2010 at 03:50 PM
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Permalink • The Intellectual Activist
TIA Daily sent me this. They want me to subscribe to their journal. If this essay is any indication, it might be worth it. Outstanding.
TIA Daily • July 5, 2010
A Right to Exist If We Don’t
To Preserve Liberty, Defend the Individual’s Right to Exist for His Own Sake
by Robert TracinskiThis year, we are called upon to decide the most important political issue there is: are there any limits on the power of government? The question is not, what are the limits on government? The question is: are there any limits at all?
What we have discovered in the last eighteen months is that there is a faction in American politics that wants to sweep away all limits on the state.
We saw this in the health care debate, when Democratic congressmen were quizzed on the constitutionality of the law and answered with a collective shrug of indifference. New York Congressman Charlie Rangel spoke for his colleagues when he cited their authority under the “good and welfare clause.” I’ll pause for all of you constitutional scholars out there to rack your brains trying to remember that one. In fact, there is no such clause. What he was referring to is actually the “general welfare” clause, which states that one of the goals of the Constitution is to “promote the general welfare.” This has been interpreted by the left as an unlimited grant of power for Congress to do whatever it likes to us, so long as they tell us it’s for our own good.
Or consider another example. In a revealing moment in the confirmation hearings for Obama’s latest nominee to the Supreme Court, Elena Kagan was asked whether there were any limits to federal power under the interstate commerce clause of the Constitution—and she evaded the question, refusing to give an answer.
The interstate commerce clause was originally intended, not to expand the power of the federal government, but to limit the power of the states by preventing them from interfering with interstate commerce. But as Thomas Jefferson predicted, the interstate commerce clause became a kind of political game of “the house that Jack built.” That’s the old nursery rhyme, which goes something like, “This is the dog that chased the cat that ate the cheese that lay in the house that Jack built.” The idea is that if you work hard enough, you can draw a connection from anything to anything, so there is no part of our lives, even the seemingly most personal and private, that cannot be connected somehow to interstate commerce. With ObamaCare, for example, an individual’s decision not to buy health insurance, to engage in no commerce at all, is said to affect interstate commerce. Under this kind of reasoning, there is absolutely nothing that is outside the reach of government.
Here’s one more example, and probably the biggest example: the EPA’s declaration that it has the power to regulate carbon dioxide emissions—regulations that will deeply affect everyone and give the EPA power over the entire economy—without any specific authorization from Congress.
In our system of government—or perhaps I should say, in our former system of government—there was a division of power between the legislature and the executive. Our nation’s Founders knew that if the executive branch could both write the laws and enforce them, there would be no limits on its power. They knew that a system in which all power is concentrated in one institution—an institution that is not composed of the representatives of the people—is a form of dictatorship.
That is precisely what we now have, if the EPA is allowed to get away with imposing its own rules on carbon dioxide.
There is a single theme to President Obama’s term in office: his attempt to break the last of the bonds that used to limit the power of government.
That’s the practice, and behind it is a theory, the moral theory behind all forms of dictatorship and totalitarianism. The left believes that the government has unlimited power, because they believe that the individual has no moral right to his own life.
The nomination of Elena Kagan has been instructive, because it has shown that even freedom of speech—the one area of liberty the old-fashioned “liberals” used to defend—is not immune from this theory of unlimited power. As the chief lawyer for the administration, Kagan argued before the Supreme Court that “whether a given category of speech enjoys First Amendment protection depends upon a categorical balancing of the value of the speech against its societal costs.” Let me repeat that for you: a “balancing of the value of the speech against its societal costs.” The key phrase here is “the societal costs.” The individual no longer has a non-negotiable right to speak. Instead, he has to petition for permission from the government, which will decide based on a pragmatic calculation of the costs and benefits to “society” of his particular “category” of speech. The basic moral assumption is that there is no limit on the power of the collective over the individual.
Kagan has also written about how it would be legitimate for the government to engage in the “redistribution of speech opportunities” to serve the government’s social goals. Notice that the party that begins by advocating the redistribution of wealth ends up advocating the redistribution of speech.
If you want to know what this looks like in practice, consider the so-called DISCLOSE Act which passed in the House recently—with the support of [Virginia 5th District Congressman] Tom Perriello, I should add. It imposes costly bureaucratic restrictions on political speech and political activism, which are selectively applied, targeting groups the left doesn’t like, while leaving its favored groups free. So for example, if you do business with the government as part of a corporation, your right to political speech will be suppressed—but if you do business with the government as a member of a government employees’ union, you are free to engage in unlimited political activism.
From the left’s perspective, this makes sense. The unions, well, they’re the good guys, so their speech serves the interests of the collective. But the views of businessmen and investors, that’s just “corporate speech,” driven by “greed” and corruption. Whatever value their speech may have is outweighed by its “societal costs,” so it can be banned.
There you see at work the basic moral premise behind this administration and its policies. Every aspect of our lives is to be judged, not according to the rights and freedoms of the individual, but according to its supposed social utility. What this means is that all of your most important, most deeply held personal values are subject to be sacrifice, casually and without notice, if they are deemed not to serve the interests of “society” at large.
The deepest issue that we’re facing this year issue is the moral issue behind all of the political controversies. That issue is: does the individual have a moral right to exist for his own sake, or are we just cogs in the collective, whose every choice to be judged according to its value to society? If you thought we settled that question once and for all, in the Cold War battle against Communism, think again. They’re back. The Obama administration has revived the moral doctrines of real, serious, consistent collectivism.
But we also have to be careful that we ourselves do not give inadvertent moral support to these notions. We have to reject any variation of the idea that the individual has no moral right to his own life and happiness, that the individual exists to serve others.
Thomas Jefferson had something to say about this. When the issue of demands for “public service” came up, he replied, in a letter to James Monroe, “If we are made in some degree for others, yet in a greater [degree] are we made for ourselves. It were contrary to feeling and indeed ridiculous to suppose a man has less right in himself than one of his neighbors or all of them put together. This would be slavery and not that liberty which the Bill of Rights has made inviolable and for the preservation of which our government has been changed.”
And so it’s no wonder that Jefferson chose to include, in the Declaration of Independence, not only our rights to life and liberty, but our right to “the pursuit of happiness.” He chose to emphasize the moral issue that the individual is an end in himself, that the moral purpose of liberty is to make it possible for us to pursue our own happiness.
Of course, Jefferson did devote a significant portion of his life to the benefit of his nation, for which all of us are deeply grateful. But to keep the issue clear, we should remember the distinction made by a later defender of liberty, the great 20th-century philosopher of individualism, Ayn Rand. As she put it, the real moral issue is not whether you give a dime to a beggar—or it’s not whether you choose to volunteer your time and effort in some other way, out of good will to your fellow man. The issue, she said, is whether you have a right to exist if you don’t.
That is a real question, and let me give you a concrete example which will also remind us that things can get worse, if we don’t take action to turn back from the course we’re on. You may all have heard about the economic turmoil in Europe, which is being caused by the collapse of the European welfare state. The worst case is Greece, which has a system that might sound familiar. There are generous unemployment benefits, a nationalized health care system, and a pension system where the average retirement age is 61 years old, but government employees can start collecting their benefits at 58—and one out of every three workers is employed by the government. The result is out of control spending, a government budget deficit that was spiraling toward 15 percent of the Greek economy, and a total debt at more than 100 percent of the country’s annual output.
This is basically what President Obama has been doing here in America, but the Greeks just went a bit farther down the road, and they ended up so deep in debt that the government can no longer pay its bills.
But the Greek disaster isn’t just a warning about the economic consequences of the socialist welfare state. Notice what happened when Greece was forced to start considering cutting some of the welfare benefits it is paying out. The recipients of those benefits rioted in the streets, throwing firebombs at banks in the financial district of Athens, killing three people. This is the real meaning of the idea that we don’t have a right to exist unless we pledge ourselves to unlimited service to “society"—which means, in practice, service to the parasites who live off of the government dole. It means that they assert a total claim on our lives and effort, and they enforce that claim through force and violence
The Greek rioters put us all on notice that as far as they’re concerned, the shop owners whose windows they smashed, the bankers whose buildings they firebombed, the poor conscientious employees they burned to death—all of these people, the ones who pay the bills for everyone else’s welfare benefits, have no right to exist.
That’s the next step on the road that President Obama and the Democratic Congress are pushing us down. It is the logical consequence of their basic moral theory, and it that theory, the collectivist view that the individual exists only to serve society, that we have to reject.
Today, this year, in this election, we are called upon to fight once again the basic issue of the American Revolution. To preserve the liberties our Founding Fathers fought to secure for us, we have to uphold the individual’s moral right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Posted by Drew458
on 07/06/2010 at 01:00 PM
Filed Under: • The New Conservatives •
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Permalink • Sunday - July 04, 2010
Weekend Women
Peiper, please hurry back. I can’t do this onerous duty properly.
Posted below the fold;
Posted by Christopher
on 07/04/2010 at 02:12 PM
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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:
It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.
- Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
- Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
- Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
- Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere
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Oh, and here's some kind of visitor flag counter thingy. Hey, all the cool blogs have one, so I should too. The Visitors Online thingy up at the top doesn't count anything, but it looks neat. It had better, since I paid actual money for it.
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