| Pat Buchanan, who we don’t always agree with, wrote an excellent piece in Human Events that sheds the right kind of light on why the government voted yet more money to “save teachers’ jobs.” Here’s the main point, but please read it all. Purpose: Vote $26 billion to prevent layoffs of state, municipal and county employees whose own governments had decided they had to be let go if they were to meet their constitutional duty to balance their books. Workers their own governments thought expendable, Congress decided were so essential, it borrowed another 26 thousand million dollars from China to keep them on state and local payrolls. And anyone who thinks this Obama party is ever going to cull the armies of tens of millions of government workers or scores of millions of government beneficiaries to put America’s house in order is deluding himself.
There’s more, particularly about the real reasons for this “emergency” legislation, but the article makes it plain why this current bunch in Washington MUST be removed in November. By the way, the bill in question is HR 1586. One proposed method of covering the $26 billion is to take money from food stamp programs and some scientific research. This might slow the bill up, but it’s likely to pass. We have a hope, irrational though it may be, that Joe Donnelly will vote no this time. The problem with this bill and others like it is that it carries a requirement that the states maintain their level of spending after the money runs out. Which they may or may not be able to do under their own constitutions — not to mention the fact that the states can’t just print money. They’re set up for failure in the future, when layoffs now would be far less painful. The Federal government is simply prolonging the pain by continuing to prop up both private and public sector institutions that should be allowed to fail, or at least, shrink. The way they’re doing it now, just when we see the light at the end of the tunnel, the federal government makes the tunnel longer. Breitbart Reports: Just in case you thought you were under the threshold for a tax increase, Steny Hoyer has a word for you: sucker. See, even though Obama wants to extend the Bush tax decreases a little longer (say, until sometime after the election), Hoyer says we can’t extend them forever because that’s “too costly,” in light of the huge government debt we have. I am forever sickened by the doublespeak that makes tax cuts costs and wasteful spending “investments.” Hoyer and the gang are oblivious to the concept that the costs are in their own spending, not in citizens wanting to keep their own money. Here’s the quote from Hoyer: As the House and Senate debate what to do with the expiring Bush tax cuts in the coming weeks, we need to have a serious discussion about their implications for our fiscal outlook, including whether we can afford to permanently extend them before we have a real plan for long-term deficit reduction,
Of course. There’s NO PLAN for long-term deficit reduction. So taxes increase, and the economy goes further into the tank. For those who voted for Obama on the promise that 95 percent of us would have lower taxes, you’ve just been punked. But you knew that already, didn’t you? November can’t come too soon, in our opinion. To us, Barack Obama’s dislike for business, regardless of who his animosity hurts, has been painfully apparent for a very long time. Today in the Wall Street Journal, Daniel Heninger lays it out for anyone who might have missed it. Money quote: The agenda Mr. Obama described at (a speech at) Carnegie Mellon is so vast you’d think he’d at least enlist the private sector’s help. But there’s nothing in the speech’s enumerations to suggest any desire to have them along on these projects. If they contribute or comply, it will be out of intimidation. It’s all him or the government or its “investments.” Some might say that instead of being a cheerleader for business, Mr. Obama is simply a tough-minded public official holding well-shod feet to the fire. I don’t buy it. His tone and vocabulary, in use since he took office, goes beyond public policy. It sounds personal. Too personal for a president.
Obama continuously reveals an ideological agenda that is devoid of any actual knowledge or experience. He is a hate-monger against American business, and the people who make the American dream possible. It has to stop. The Associated Press reports the most and least “stressed” counties in the United States, and Elkhart County isn’t on either list. Elkhart County’s current stress index is 17.99, which is down about 3 points from this time last year. AP’s most stressed county is Imperial County, California, with an index of 31.27. Number 20 on the most stressed list is Boone County, Illinois with an index of 22.59, or about five points higher than Elkhart. The top 20 list is dominated by California, with three Michigan counties, Cheboygan, Iosco and Lapeer, also making the list. No Indiana Counties made the “most stressed” list. See AP’s interactive stress index map. Podcasting is a terrific medium for news, information and analysis of issues and a whole lot more. For listeners, Apple’s iTunes makes subscribing and listening extremely easy, even for those who don’t have or want an actual iPod. For producers, it’s so easy to master the basic technical issues that almost anyone with a pulse can record and distribute a podcast. For political listening there are a lot of choices on all sides of the spectrum, and a lot of them are garbage. But here are several podcasts that we think are best of the best, from our conservative/libertarian point of view. All of these can be found in the iTunes store or from the respective websites (just click on the pictures), and they’re FREE. Official Mark Levin Show Audio Rewind Mark Levin Levin is an American treasure. For those of you who listen to his radio show and find him to be a shouter and hanger-upper, you haven’t listened long enough. Rush Limbaugh has always said you won’t really “get” his (Limbaugh’s) show in less than six weeks, and that’s true of Levin as well. Maybe it’s true of all radio hosts with substance. Give them time. They’ll grow on you if their aim is true. The left tends to dismiss conservative radio hosts as mere “entertainers” (while deifying actual entertainers such as Sean Penn as deep thinkers). But while Levin is incredibly funny at times, he’s mainly a passionate voice for America who happens to be entertaining. He’s a constitutional scholar with a Jon Lovitz delivery. He’s Gilbert Gottfried with a law degree and a deep sense of morality. Levin is also the head of Landmark Legal Foundation, a group that actually holds government’s feet to the fire on matters of vital constitutional importance. And he’s the author of Liberty and Tyranny, the brilliant million-selling treatise on the meaning of America. The podcast is basically Levin’s radio show (heard 6-9 pm Eastern on WABC in New York and at various times around the country), with most of the commercials removed. It’s usually added to the podfeed about an hour after the live radio show ends. It’s well worth the listening, as Levin bemoans our present political situation, not from a strictly partisan viewpoint, but from the point of view of a true patriot who understands in detail the legal and moral framework of America. Even though the subjects are weighty, Levin is lots of fun to listen to, and while his anger can be palpable at times, so is his compassion for his country and its people. This is a truly accomplished guy who has the ability to communicate his passion and knowledge in a fun, interesting way. Spend some time with him. http://www.marklevinshow.com KCRW’s Right, Left and Center Photo from L-R: Matt Miller, Arianna Huffington, Tony Blankley, Robert Scheer RLC is an NPR show hosted by Matt Miller, who is supposedly a centrist (we respectfully disagree, since he’s a fellow at John Podesta’s decidedly lefty Center for American Progress), with a panel of three: progressive Robert Scheer of Truthdig.com, conservative Tony Blankley from The Washington Times and Arianna Huffington, from The Huffington Post. Huffington is away from the show a lot (but from our point of view, she’s mentally absent even when she’s present.) Ok, so it’s NOT a conservative podcast per se, but Dave listens to it every week (the podcast version comes out on Friday, after the NPR show runs). Blankley is usually alone in his opinions, and plays the role of the articulate smart guy (a la Wm. F. Buckley), to Scheer’s socialistic curmudgeon. Arianna is there for comic relief — she seemed a lot smarter when she was a conservative — and Matt Miller plays cat-herder to this diverse bunch. Dave listens for the fun of the arguments, as well as for the fact that (mostly) the participants don’t cut each other off in mid-sentence with weird non sequiturs, etc. It’s good to hear the opposing points of view, and although it’s not often, Dave even finds himself occasionally agreeing with Scheer. http://www.kcrw.com/news/programs/lr No Agenda Adam Curry & John C. Dvorak Dave’s current fave, No Agenda, comes from an outside-the-box, “makes ya think don’t it?” sensibility that really can’t be pinned down. The hosts are media veterans Adam Curry and John C. Dvorak. Curry is the former MTV Vee-Jay who originated the idea of podcasting and is one of the driving forces behind the online media company Mevio. Dvorak is a longtime tech journalist and podcaster who knows his tech, and apparently, his politics as well. As Crackpot and Buzzkill (their nicknames, not ours), Curry and Dvorak research stories and angles on stories they believe the the MSM ignore, and if there’s any political “ism” involved it’s “No BS-ism.” Curry and Dvorak don’t suffer fools or political hacks gladly. It’s fun and fast-paced, produced by Curry with the same manic panache baby boomers heard in the likes of Murray the K and Larry Lujack. Dave has to laugh every time Curry hits the “douche-bag” button and, well, you get the idea. But again, the show isn’t all fun-and-games. Not by a long shot. Curry and Dvorak ask some serious questions about some very important issues. For example, in a recent episode they lamented that the media and politicos (on the right AND left) prefer not to discuss the fact that Arizona’s immigration law is a response to criminal activity that’s far more heinous than just walking across the border. Just for starters, Arizona is the second-most kidnap-prone place in the world. While they may not have all the answers, they call things as they see them. Besides the fact that these are both pretty smart guys, what makes the show work is the juxtaposition of personalities — Curry as the conspiracy theorist with an actual point, and Dvorak as the shrewd curmudgeon who cuts through the memes-of-the-moment. It’s recorded (with live listening possible at mevio.com) Thursday and Sunday mornings, and it’s really great radio conversation. NOTE: No Agenda does have a bit of crude language, mostly from Curry. So f***ing get over it. http://noagenda.mevio.com Robert Scheer
Obama health care supporters: Florida doctor tells Obama health care supporters to go elsewhere – OrlandoSentinel.com.  AP reports that the government can’t explain the runaway Toyota incident that happened on the San Diego freeways last week.
James Sikes called from his Toyota Prius last Monday to report his car was accelerating out of control. He drove for more than 20 minutes before a California Highway Patrol officer helped him bring it to a stop. The story has seemed fishy, perhaps even staged, to us for a number of reasons. First, Sikes claims to have been standing on the brakes for a good bit of the time, finally telling the 911 operator he called that he smelled his brakes burning. At 90 miles an hour, there should have been fire coming out from under his car. Second, he claims he couldn’t handle a number of logical methods to turn off the car, such as putting it in neutral, pressing the ignition-off button, etc., because he was afraid to take his hands off the wheel. And yet, he was talking on his cell phone. Ok, maybe he had a bluetooth (no word on this), but he apparently tried pulling UP on the accelerator — a very risky move for a guy who was afraid to take his hands from the wheel. Third, the recording from the 911 operator seems odd. She too-quickly jumps to the conclusion that the accelerator is stuck, before Sikes mentions it (keep in mind there are only about 60 reports of this happening, nationwide). Second, she ASKS HIM FOR HIS TELEPHONE NUMBER. She’s from 911, right? They have caller id, right? Then she calls Border Patrol, she says. And it takes 20 minutes for anyone to get to this guy. Fourth, the fact that the NHTSA boys can’t duplicate this problem is bothersome. As the AP story indicates, this fact leaves the question open, but normally, we’d think some aspects of the malfunction could be concretely identified. Fifth, the incident appears to be a ploy for a lucrative lawsuit for Sikes and his shyster, John Gomez. Class action lawsuits have already been filed as well. Toyota’s mostly pristine record is being besmirched for money. And for power. We’ve been suspicious of the sudden rise in “malfunctions” at Toyota. The company outsells the other American based automakers and it’s not unionized. We should consider who stands to benefit from this whole episode. John C. Dvorak and Adam Curry, on their podcast No Agenda, humorously skewer the San Diego incident — Listen to it here (some explicit language). Michael Fumento in Forbes.com also writes about the “Toyota Hybrid Horror Hoax” USATODAY.com reports that states in trouble are likely to withhold state income tax refunds for months while they struggle with record deficits, etc. California and New York are mentioned in the article along with several others. We suspect this problem will become more widespread, especially if Congress manages to cram its health care bill through. The bill contains a number of unfunded mandates for states, which will make their cash crunch even worse. States cannot print money to cover their debts, as the Federal government can, nor can they really be sued for money owed. What WILL happen, however, is that states will become increasingly unable to borrow money, and more government and contracted services will end as vendors refuse to do business with states. Indiana is actually in better shape than many states, with employment rising about 5% in the last month or so, and this is largely because the state as actually kept its taxes LOW, which makes it easier to do business here. Unfortunately, unfunded mandates passed by the federales essentially amount to a tax increase, because state and local governments have to do SOMEthing to cover the costs. When will Washington learn? Maybe never, but that’s what elections are for. | |
