Regarding the fires in Australia – (these are NOT funny, but this AP line is)
The fires were so massive they were visible from space Saturday
Can’t they read license numbers on cars from space these days?
Archive for February, 2009
A couple of things today.
1) Watch this.
2) Now tell me if you find Obama acting “tough” or like a “fighter”.
E. J. Dionne did. Per Dionne:
…the new tone reflected the very thing about Obama that has won so much notice: He’s a pragmatist who takes a method and tries it until it no longer works.
Initially, Obama hoped to win broad Republican support for his stimulus package, but most Republicans preferred to bloody up this new, young president. Obama adjusted. If the GOP wanted a fight, he would not back down.
I suppose Obama “hoped” to win the support by “hoping” Pelosi would all of a sudden turn into a reasonable sane person. That’s a lot of “hope” for some serious “change”. And “Republicans preferred to bloody up…” what the hell is that?
Aren’t Republicans just trying to be the voice of reason here?
This is the most sane thing I’ve read on the recession. Entitled “It’s a recession, not a catastrophe”.
Go read the whole thing, but this is how it ends.
The president needs to be a calming voice right now, a source of strength. It’s not helpful for him to be warning of a “catastrophe” and making vague, untenable allusions to the Great Depression.
Recessions have almost always ended within a year or so, long before there was a Federal Reserve or Keynesian theory. Debts have to be worked down and excess inventories sold off so that profits, and therefore stock prices and wealth, can revive.
Such curative processes do not take years, as the president suggests – unless the government does too much foolish tinkering. But recovery will require more perspective and patience than we’ve been seeing from the White House lately, because time really does heal many economic wounds.
Well – ok, John Kerry doesn’t want that……
If you put a tax cut into the hands of a business or family, there’s no guarantee that they’re going to invest that or invest it in America.
They’re free to go invest anywhere that they want if they choose to invest.
(via the Weekly Standard through instapundit)
Ellen Goodman’s a little unsure about freedom when it comes to all that reproductive freedom we have.
(regarding the fertility treatment of the women who just had octuplets)
We are far more rigorous about accepting people for adoption or foster care than for fertility treatments. But shouldn’t there be limits?
Blair Holt is pretty sure you shouldn’t be free to own guns unfettered with testing/registration/ every 5 years
This nefarious bill seeks to strip us all of our Constitutional Rights to possess and bear firearms of any distinction. It requires, within the first two years, that all new guns be registered. The bill goes retroactive after two years. Meaning that two years after the passage of the bill, ALL FIREARMS in a citizen’s possession must be registered, not just those purchased after the bill passes, and this apparently applies to antique firearms as well.
Every five years the firearm owner must go through a complete renewal process for each weapon owned. Failure to comply carries stiff penalties including confiscation of the firearms and jail time (penalties as high as ten years imprisonment in some cases). The bill also authorizes government searches without warrant, the creation of a federal bureaucracy to monitor firearm possession, etc.
(ht regular commenter dd)
Apparently priorities are shifting for a lot of people here in this country. Freedom is less important that “Democrat Agenda”.
In a couple more points
Gateway Pundit notes that Obama has figured out how to “inspire” union membership by requiring the government to only hire companies who’s employees chose union membership over not.
and
Anatreptic notes that someone, somewhere, on the left in the justice department, is “accidently” releasing personal information of right leaning foes.
Let’s just call it what it is–Fascism. As far as the Democrats are concerned, you have no rights, unless they are politically convenient for Obama and his associates.
HACMA (hope and change my ass)
With a bonus of a Friday funny.
First the funny. Reed Hastings in the NYtimes wants to be taxed more because then he wouldn’t feel so bad about making so much money and the government/citizens/rest of the public would get his tax dollars.
He hasn’t been paying attention now has he? Cheating on your taxes seems to be standard operating procedure for a whole lot of people!
Direct from our President in an open letter to the Washington Post. (I wonder what the NYTimes feels like today?)
First, let’s make sure everyone knows that this is a serious, drastic situation.
By now, it’s clear to everyone that we have inherited an economic crisis as deep and dire as any since the days of the Great Depression.
[I didn't know that, but then I don't actually know that but "everyone knows" that the earth is warming so fast we can never survive either. Apparently I just don't know enough.]
What Americans expect from Washington is action that matches the urgency they feel in their daily lives — action that’s swift, bold and wise enough for us to climb out of this crisis.
Personally I expect a little more “hope” vs “change”. Ie I don’t want the new Agricultural secretary saying that we might as well give up on California because I can tell you right now you can’t turn the carbon emissions boat around on a dime. (not even that I would, I’m just saying – it that’s what’s needed, it isn’t going to happen. And if it’s education that’s needed, its going to happen even more slowly.)
‘We’re looking at a scenario where there’s no more agriculture in California,’ Steven Chu says. He sees education as a means to combat threat.
Back to Obama:
And if nothing is done, this recession might linger for years. Our economy will lose 5 million more jobs. Unemployment will approach double digits. Our nation will sink deeper into a crisis that, at some point, we may not be able to reverse.
So if we allow ourselves to suffer now instead of later we will NEVER EVER be successful again. See? I’d like a little more hope with my change.
And it’s a strategy that will be implemented with unprecedented transparency and accountability, so Americans know where their tax dollars are going and how they are being spent.
Except that apparently this strategy needs to pass this week so there can be a junket to Germany. And the more that folks look into this, the more the GOP is told they are being well, here it is:
“I reject these theories,” he continued. “And, by the way, so did the American people when they went to the polls in November and voted resoundingly for change.”
And by the way “I won”.
Back to the oped.
Now is the time to protect health insurance for the more than 8 million Americans at risk of losing their coverage and to computerize the health-care records of every American within five years, saving billions of dollars and countless lives in the process.
Now is the time to save billions by making 2 million homes and 75 percent of federal buildings more energy-efficient, and to double our capacity to generate alternative sources of energy within three years.
Now is the time to give our children every advantage they need to compete by upgrading 10,000 schools with state-of-the-art classrooms, libraries and labs; by training our teachers in math and science; and by bringing the dream of a college education within reach for millions of Americans.
And now is the time to create the jobs that remake America for the 21st century by rebuilding aging roads, bridges and levees; designing a smart electrical grid; and connecting every corner of the country to the information superhighway.
If you actually bother to read that, the only one of these “Now is the time”s that sound like stimulus is the last one. The others are Democrat talking points.
Therein lies the problem.
Nancy Pelosi has a chance to take over the government without any oversight with this bill that is more than the amount of $1million for every single day since Jesus was born!!!
If people want to take a moment to reflect first before jumping in I think that’s wise. In the meantime, maybe a press conference where you can take actual questions might be the better route vs a letter through the Washington Post!
I remember my first management job. I sucked at it. At first. It took awhile to get the concept down that yes, I was in charge and running things and my decisions had consequences.
Consequences
like a trade war. “Maybe I’ll back down.” (EU unhappy with the Buy American provisions of the stimulus bill)
like an unhappy ally. “Maybe, I’d better take another look.” (India unhappy with Obama’s thoughts on Kashmir)
like behind the scenes negotiations to screw your party. “Hmmm – how’d that get in ‘my’ media?”
(Blue Dog dem Jim Cooper secretly encouraged by the WH to not back the stimulus package)
like encouraging the building of housing developments in the midst of a housing glut? (see the stimulus bill and the $5 billion to be used there)
I’m not even talking about his appointments and his “exceptions” to his rules. Or how it might be a little hard to hire experts in the fields of knowledge without actually hiring folks with ties to lobbying.
Amazing.
In the meantime, see the Anchoress for her stimulus plan:
1) Give all taxpayers that amount of money.
[$67,372.42. An amount pulled out of thin air, kind of like Nancy's number.]
2) Make the Bush tax cuts permanent.
3) Make people who don’t pay their taxes pay them.
My only problem with her plan is that then you get the illegal immigrant problem. ie In 1987 Ronald Reagan gave eligible illegals amnesty. It encouraged the extra 12 million we had last year. (I realize that with the economy no longer booming, they’re going home)
Give me $67,373.42, I’ll spend it, then wait for my next check.
Bottom line: Before becoming a manager of important things, like this country, it might have been better if our President had practiced first on some less important things.
Today in the NYTimes, David Brooks has a column up about the “new” morality. It’s basically saying that rich people need to be careful about what they’re doing/saying/treating others because they are being watched.
Why? Because now it’s the taxpayers who get to say what is the proper way to act/talk/treat. Otherwise, taxpayers are going to mow you down. ie automakers using private jets to travel to DC. etc, etc.
Here’s what I think. I can not get my head around 1 trillion dollars. I just can’t. And then I go looking to see what it’s about and I think to myself……Hmmmm – “build 2 dog parks….that will need about $10,000. ” Then I go and read that these 2 dog parks are being allocated $550,000. (that’s half a million!!!) and my head instead moves to the dirty rotten bastards in DC who get chauffeurs.
See. I don’t really care about chauffeurs, but I can’t deal with trillions/billions/millions.
Try it with me. New building for a police station? Hmmm – a new home is maybe $300,000. Let’s multiply that by 50 and get $150 million. Yet they’re being allocated $450 million!! Do you know how many dog parks you could get for $450 million?
Back to keeping track of those bastards who don’t pay their taxes.
See.
I can’t get my head around the money, so I put it around things I can.
Back in October 2008 the world was going to end unless we DID something and DID it fast!!!! Credit would dry up. People couldn’t get money to expand businesses, buy homes etc etc. We HAVE to bail out these financial institutions who essentially made bad decisions.
So what happened. Someone came up with some figure that I can’t get my head around. $700 billion. Why? Because it’s the perfect amount. Just what is needed. Yeah, right. It came out of someone’s rear end is my guess. Then what happened?
Loans from banks are down. doh.
And whoosh, I’m back to giving a rip if Tom Daschle pays his taxes.
I can get my head around that one anyway.
Here’s a headline that made me laugh:
Man arrested in hybrid vs. pickup confrontation
Now what are you expecting out of this story??
Some guy in a hybrid upset because of the wasteful ways of the pickup?
No. It was an accident. Just an accident. Kind of like “Sedan vs Coupe” or “SUV vs Hummer”.
Change. Yes, change in how the news is reported. Love it.
From the Wall Street Journal, copied in full.
We mean the tax increase on smokers that is part of the new children’s health-care subsidy bill. To finance this $73 billion entitlement expansion over 10 years, the bill imposes an additional federal tax of 61 cents per cigarette pack, from 39 cents today. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, 96% of America’s 25 million smokers make less than $150,000 a year. The Tax Foundation estimates that 99% of the smokers who will pay the new tax make less than $250,000, which is the income below which President Obama promised would see no tax increase.
“No other federal tax hurts the poor more than the cigarette tax,” says the Tax Foundation. These are the same folks the Obama Administration wants to help by raising the amount of the earned-income tax credit, but wait. A 61-cent cigarette tax hike is the equivalent of a 25% cut in that tax credit for some low-income families. So the politicians give these families money with one hand and take it back with the other.
Oh, and there’s another problem. The number of smokers keeps falling, but health-care costs keep rising. So paying for the biggest new health-care expansion in years with a declining revenue source is a guarantee of future red ink that will increase pressure for higher income taxes too. Just ask the politicians in Maryland, who doubled their cigarette tax two years ago to finance a new health-care program. That has led to 25% less tobacco revenue than expected because of declining sales, so the program is already in the red after its first year. But hey, it’s the thought that counts.
In simple terms,
taxing the poor to increase the number of children eligible for SCHIP insurance, even as that means pulling these children from the ranks of upper middle class people.
In simpler terms:
taxing bad behavior to increase the number of people on government run healthcare.
Ed Morrissey has the quote of the day.
Concerning having to to the Times of India to get the full figures for Obama’s exceptions to his own rules for his appointees.
But Obama appointing lobbyist after lobbyist to government positions, with enforcement power, despite his promise not to do that at all? Crickets chirp among the American media. I guess they’ve outsourced their Truth-to-Power divisions to India.
