Last Rites
A group of socially conservative leaders is demanding Huffington Post publisher Arianna Huffington apologize for allowing a column to be published on her website that compares Catholics to pedophiles and attacks communion as a "barbaric ritual." (Foxnews.com, 2/28/2012)
RedStateVT just told you about Liberals mocking Mormonism. Now they switch to Catholicism. Funny how they never have anything to say about Islam. Wonder why.
Testify
RedStateVT watched today as a female Georgetown University law student finally got her chance to testify in front of Nancy Pelosi on the issue of insurance coverage for birth control. (You'll recall that evil Congressman Issa silenced her testimony.) It was riveting television as the future barrister described in heart-wrenching detail the trauma faced by some of her classmates who were unable to afford birth control. Yes, that is true. In a civilized country like America some law students cannot afford condoms.
Liberals have now turned students attending prestigious law schools into victims. The good news for sane people everywhere is that this testimony is so ludicrous that it will undermine their argument.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Trying To Make It Pay
Pharisees
In 2008 the Liberal media had no interest in talking about religion. But for Fox News and Breitbart, no one would have known about President Obama's spiritual mentor Jeremiah Wright and the racist black liberation hatred that he preached. Obama said that he had never heard it and was given a pass. Roll forward to 2012 and we have a new found Liberal media interest in Mormonism because of Mitt Romney. And so last night we had (at least) two instances of Liberal commentators mocking the religion. Yes, mocking it. The absolute and utter hypocrisy is unfathomable given that Senate majority leader and Obamacare champion Harry Reid is also...a Mormon. How does Lawrence O'Donnell explain this?
Battle Lines
Democrats See Benefits in Battle on Contraception Access: With the cameras running and the microphones on, Congressional Democrats express outrage over Republican efforts to limit the types of health care that employers have to offer to their workers, particularly contraception. This is a fight Democrats are perfectly pleased to have. (NYT, 2/27/2012)
Apparently in America it is very difficult to obtain birth control. Therefore the country needs Democrats to fight for the "right" to get (free) birth control.
Fill-Up
Passing thought: How about a “Buffett Rule” for gas? The idea would be that people like Warren Buffett pay substantially more at the pump so the rest of us can pay less, or even nothing at all. As it stands right now, somebody who makes $50 million a year pays $4 a gallon, and somebody who makes $30,000 a year also pays $4 a gallon. That’s just not fair to Buffett’s secretary.
To make it fair, the former should be paying about $8,500 a gallon for gas, and the latter nothing. Whaddaya say, Mr. Buffett? …Mr. Buffett? **Written by Doug Powers (MichelleMalkin.com, 2/28/2012)
Seems to us that there are actually many things that we can apply the Buffett Rule to!
In 2008 the Liberal media had no interest in talking about religion. But for Fox News and Breitbart, no one would have known about President Obama's spiritual mentor Jeremiah Wright and the racist black liberation hatred that he preached. Obama said that he had never heard it and was given a pass. Roll forward to 2012 and we have a new found Liberal media interest in Mormonism because of Mitt Romney. And so last night we had (at least) two instances of Liberal commentators mocking the religion. Yes, mocking it. The absolute and utter hypocrisy is unfathomable given that Senate majority leader and Obamacare champion Harry Reid is also...a Mormon. How does Lawrence O'Donnell explain this?
Battle Lines
Democrats See Benefits in Battle on Contraception Access: With the cameras running and the microphones on, Congressional Democrats express outrage over Republican efforts to limit the types of health care that employers have to offer to their workers, particularly contraception. This is a fight Democrats are perfectly pleased to have. (NYT, 2/27/2012)
Apparently in America it is very difficult to obtain birth control. Therefore the country needs Democrats to fight for the "right" to get (free) birth control.
Fill-Up
Passing thought: How about a “Buffett Rule” for gas? The idea would be that people like Warren Buffett pay substantially more at the pump so the rest of us can pay less, or even nothing at all. As it stands right now, somebody who makes $50 million a year pays $4 a gallon, and somebody who makes $30,000 a year also pays $4 a gallon. That’s just not fair to Buffett’s secretary.
To make it fair, the former should be paying about $8,500 a gallon for gas, and the latter nothing. Whaddaya say, Mr. Buffett? …Mr. Buffett? **Written by Doug Powers (MichelleMalkin.com, 2/28/2012)
Seems to us that there are actually many things that we can apply the Buffett Rule to!
Monday, February 27, 2012
Living As It Was
Long Ago
“I have long advocated that one of the biggest obstacles to job growth in Vermont is the inability of employers to afford the rising cost of health insurance,” Shumlin said. “It is killing business." (VTdigger.org, 2/22/2012)
You learn something everyday. We would have thought that the biggest obstacles to job growth in Vermont include the state's anti-business climate. For one example, let's turn to IBM, the state's largest employer. Might IBM be frustrated by the Shumlin administration's policies? What policies? Well, the decision not to complete the Circ Highway. What else? How about the desire to shut down Vermont Yankee with its cheap and reliable power required by IBM to run its manufacturing facilities. What else? Well, Shumlin's mad dash toward single payer health care with its unknown costs.
If health care costs are killing job growth in the state, does Shumlin honestly believe that businesses will flock to Vermont if it leads on implementing his health care plans? Everything we have read says that businesses are moving to states that enact right-to-work laws, reduce regulations, and reduce taxes.
Down
In the midst of a contentious Republican primary season, we have read and heard numerous media reports which speak of Obama's rising poll numbers. Just tonight, Chris Matthews repeated the DNC talking point that Obama's popularity was rising. RedStateVT had its doubts and so was interested to see the following (from the New York Times, no less!):
But the downsides for Mr. Obama have become clear. His partisan turn undercuts a central promise of his 2008 campaign, to rise above the rancor. And by neither embracing Bowles-Simpson nor explaining his objections and quickly offering an alternative, Mr. Obama arguably failed to show leadership on perhaps the country’s biggest problem. This month, in a New York Times/CBS News poll, 59 percent of Americans disapproved of his handling of the deficit. (NYT, 2/27/2012)
And then we saw this:
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday shows that 26% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty-two percent (42%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -16 (see trends). That’s the president’s lowest rating in over a month. (Rassmussenreports.com, 2/27/2012)
And finally there is this:
For the first time ever, Texas Congressman Ron Paul also leads the president. In that matchup, 43% prefer Paul and 41% Obama. Ten percent (10%) would vote for some other option, a figure that includes 17% of Republicans. (Rassmussenreports.com, 2/27/2012)
If Ron Paul leads Obama then we wonder whether it is game over!
“I have long advocated that one of the biggest obstacles to job growth in Vermont is the inability of employers to afford the rising cost of health insurance,” Shumlin said. “It is killing business." (VTdigger.org, 2/22/2012)
You learn something everyday. We would have thought that the biggest obstacles to job growth in Vermont include the state's anti-business climate. For one example, let's turn to IBM, the state's largest employer. Might IBM be frustrated by the Shumlin administration's policies? What policies? Well, the decision not to complete the Circ Highway. What else? How about the desire to shut down Vermont Yankee with its cheap and reliable power required by IBM to run its manufacturing facilities. What else? Well, Shumlin's mad dash toward single payer health care with its unknown costs.
If health care costs are killing job growth in the state, does Shumlin honestly believe that businesses will flock to Vermont if it leads on implementing his health care plans? Everything we have read says that businesses are moving to states that enact right-to-work laws, reduce regulations, and reduce taxes.
Down
In the midst of a contentious Republican primary season, we have read and heard numerous media reports which speak of Obama's rising poll numbers. Just tonight, Chris Matthews repeated the DNC talking point that Obama's popularity was rising. RedStateVT had its doubts and so was interested to see the following (from the New York Times, no less!):
But the downsides for Mr. Obama have become clear. His partisan turn undercuts a central promise of his 2008 campaign, to rise above the rancor. And by neither embracing Bowles-Simpson nor explaining his objections and quickly offering an alternative, Mr. Obama arguably failed to show leadership on perhaps the country’s biggest problem. This month, in a New York Times/CBS News poll, 59 percent of Americans disapproved of his handling of the deficit. (NYT, 2/27/2012)
And then we saw this:
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday shows that 26% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty-two percent (42%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -16 (see trends). That’s the president’s lowest rating in over a month. (Rassmussenreports.com, 2/27/2012)
And finally there is this:
For the first time ever, Texas Congressman Ron Paul also leads the president. In that matchup, 43% prefer Paul and 41% Obama. Ten percent (10%) would vote for some other option, a figure that includes 17% of Republicans. (Rassmussenreports.com, 2/27/2012)
If Ron Paul leads Obama then we wonder whether it is game over!
Sunday, February 26, 2012
On And On
PAC Men
RedStateVT editors spend hours each day scouring news publications searching for evidence of Liberal bias. Well that's not exactly true. It doesn't take very long at all.
Today, for example, we see that the New York Times and Washington Post have coordinated stories on Super PACs. (More on this aspect in a minute.) The Times article runs 34 paragraphs and mentions Democrat Super PACs only once in paragraph twenty..one sentence! This notwithstanding Obama's recent call for more Democrat Super PAC money. The Post article likewise focuses almost exclusively on Republicans, but at least gives us this:
...the liberal billionaires George Soros and Peter Lewis, for instance, contributed $23 million apiece to Democratic-aligned 527s in 2004. (Washington Post, 2/25/2012)
Cynical readers will conclude that the Post was trying to soften the negative impact on Dems by mentioning contributions from a long eight years ago. Why that's old news!
Now to the coordination. What is clear is that the media continues to follow the playbook as dictated by the DNC. So several weeks ago we have George Stephanopoulas introducing the issue of contraception at a Republican debate. DNC objective? Paint Republicans as religious zealots. Let that play out for a while and then feather in Super PACs. DNC objective? Cast Republicans as bought and sold by shadowy rich businessmen.
And Liberals scratch their heads and wonder why Fox News is so successful.
Hot Times
There is something truly baffling about the 2012 presidential candidates hotly debating Planned Parenthood and birth control. These battles were fought — and won — half a century ago. (Elaine Tyler May, Washington Post, 2/24/2012)
May, a professor at the University of Minnesota, gives us this bit of journalistic malpractice. The essence: the Church and those backward Republican have it wrong on birth control. Of course May does not answer the question that RedStateVT has posed - and that no Liberal has addressed. Namely, why does birth control have to be covered under health insurance plans?
But May's real crime here is in bringing up Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger AND FAILING TO MENTION HER PROMOTION OF EUGENICS! Why it is akin to discussing the life of Ted Kennedy and not mentioning a little thing called Chappaquiddick....actually that probably happens a lot. Do even the most basic Google search and you can read about this side of "Birth Control Pioneer" Sanger. Is it too late to deny May tenure?
RedStateVT editors spend hours each day scouring news publications searching for evidence of Liberal bias. Well that's not exactly true. It doesn't take very long at all.
Today, for example, we see that the New York Times and Washington Post have coordinated stories on Super PACs. (More on this aspect in a minute.) The Times article runs 34 paragraphs and mentions Democrat Super PACs only once in paragraph twenty..one sentence! This notwithstanding Obama's recent call for more Democrat Super PAC money. The Post article likewise focuses almost exclusively on Republicans, but at least gives us this:
...the liberal billionaires George Soros and Peter Lewis, for instance, contributed $23 million apiece to Democratic-aligned 527s in 2004. (Washington Post, 2/25/2012)
Cynical readers will conclude that the Post was trying to soften the negative impact on Dems by mentioning contributions from a long eight years ago. Why that's old news!
Now to the coordination. What is clear is that the media continues to follow the playbook as dictated by the DNC. So several weeks ago we have George Stephanopoulas introducing the issue of contraception at a Republican debate. DNC objective? Paint Republicans as religious zealots. Let that play out for a while and then feather in Super PACs. DNC objective? Cast Republicans as bought and sold by shadowy rich businessmen.
And Liberals scratch their heads and wonder why Fox News is so successful.
Hot Times
There is something truly baffling about the 2012 presidential candidates hotly debating Planned Parenthood and birth control. These battles were fought — and won — half a century ago. (Elaine Tyler May, Washington Post, 2/24/2012)
May, a professor at the University of Minnesota, gives us this bit of journalistic malpractice. The essence: the Church and those backward Republican have it wrong on birth control. Of course May does not answer the question that RedStateVT has posed - and that no Liberal has addressed. Namely, why does birth control have to be covered under health insurance plans?
But May's real crime here is in bringing up Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger AND FAILING TO MENTION HER PROMOTION OF EUGENICS! Why it is akin to discussing the life of Ted Kennedy and not mentioning a little thing called Chappaquiddick....actually that probably happens a lot. Do even the most basic Google search and you can read about this side of "Birth Control Pioneer" Sanger. Is it too late to deny May tenure?
Friday, February 24, 2012
In Dreams
Drilling Down
Mr. Obama yesterday also repeated his proposal that now is the time to raise taxes on oil and gas companies, as if doing so will make them more likely to drill. He must not believe the economic truism that when you tax something you get less of it, including fewer of the new jobs they've created. (WSJ, 2/23/2012)
Does President Obama actually think that levying higher taxes on oil companies is going to LOWER gas prices at the pump? Republicans say DRILL DRILL DRILL and our Liberal friends reflexively say that even if you starting drilling today, prices are not going to come down tomorrow. But, in fact, they might. Market sentiment drives prices as well as immediate supply and demand issues. What do Liberals think would happen to Middle East oil prices if the U.S. announced that 1000 new drilling permits were issued today? The Arabs would flood the market with cheap oil in order to provide a disincentive to the U.S. drillers. In fact, there is NO downside to more U.S. drilling...prices would fall in the short term and in the long term the U.S. would be less dependent on Middle East oil. But, of course, absent the political considerations, Obama prefers - as he has said - higher gas prices. He believes that this is the wedge needed in the U.S. to transform the country toward his green energy fantasies. This is our president: secretly wishing for higher gas prices.
Of course, Liberals could claim the moral high ground by giving up their cars en masse and taking the bus or train. But in their world, the sacrifices are never ones that they would make.
Teach Your Children
The New York City Education Department will release the ratings of thousands of teachers on Friday, ending a nearly year-and-a-half-long legal battle by the teachers’ union to keep the names confidential.
...
The union, the United Federation of Teachers, is responding to the release with a $100,000-plus newspaper advertising campaign starting on Friday.
...
The union had sued to stop the reports’ release, arguing that it would violate teachers’ privacy rights and that the reports were exempt from public-disclosure rules because they were subjective and often inaccurate. A judge rejected the argument, ruling that the union had failed to prove that the city’s decision to release the names was “arbitrary and capricious,” the prerequisite for preventing their release under state disclosure laws, and that the information was of general public interest. The union’s appeals were unsuccessful.(NYT, 2/23/2012)
Once again, teachers unions fight for LESS accountability...and they are willing to pay big bucks to discredit anything that has accountability as its objective. Not happy with the methodology? Why don't they propose an alternative. One thing is certain...they will continue to clamor that we need to invest more in education.
Mr. Obama yesterday also repeated his proposal that now is the time to raise taxes on oil and gas companies, as if doing so will make them more likely to drill. He must not believe the economic truism that when you tax something you get less of it, including fewer of the new jobs they've created. (WSJ, 2/23/2012)
Does President Obama actually think that levying higher taxes on oil companies is going to LOWER gas prices at the pump? Republicans say DRILL DRILL DRILL and our Liberal friends reflexively say that even if you starting drilling today, prices are not going to come down tomorrow. But, in fact, they might. Market sentiment drives prices as well as immediate supply and demand issues. What do Liberals think would happen to Middle East oil prices if the U.S. announced that 1000 new drilling permits were issued today? The Arabs would flood the market with cheap oil in order to provide a disincentive to the U.S. drillers. In fact, there is NO downside to more U.S. drilling...prices would fall in the short term and in the long term the U.S. would be less dependent on Middle East oil. But, of course, absent the political considerations, Obama prefers - as he has said - higher gas prices. He believes that this is the wedge needed in the U.S. to transform the country toward his green energy fantasies. This is our president: secretly wishing for higher gas prices.
Of course, Liberals could claim the moral high ground by giving up their cars en masse and taking the bus or train. But in their world, the sacrifices are never ones that they would make.
Teach Your Children
The New York City Education Department will release the ratings of thousands of teachers on Friday, ending a nearly year-and-a-half-long legal battle by the teachers’ union to keep the names confidential.
...
The union, the United Federation of Teachers, is responding to the release with a $100,000-plus newspaper advertising campaign starting on Friday.
...
The union had sued to stop the reports’ release, arguing that it would violate teachers’ privacy rights and that the reports were exempt from public-disclosure rules because they were subjective and often inaccurate. A judge rejected the argument, ruling that the union had failed to prove that the city’s decision to release the names was “arbitrary and capricious,” the prerequisite for preventing their release under state disclosure laws, and that the information was of general public interest. The union’s appeals were unsuccessful.(NYT, 2/23/2012)
Once again, teachers unions fight for LESS accountability...and they are willing to pay big bucks to discredit anything that has accountability as its objective. Not happy with the methodology? Why don't they propose an alternative. One thing is certain...they will continue to clamor that we need to invest more in education.
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Back To Back
Pay the Man
Christie, who said in the interview that he'd prefer if New Jersey slash all income taxes by 10 percent, said he thinks Buffett should take matters into his own hands instead of advocating for a boost in taxes for the wealthy. "I'm tired of hearing about it," Christie said in the interview. "If he wants to give the government more money, he's got the ability to write a check. Go ahead and write it." (Huffington Post, 2/22/2012)
RedStateVT is loving the combative spirit of Republicans like Christie who are not afraid to call out Liberals. Newt Gingrich has done this marvelously well in his broadsides against the state-controlled media debate moderators. Gingrich has inspired others including Rick Santorum to do the same.
While we are on the subject, we have been meaning to circle back to Mitt Romney's taxes. Never mind the 14% rate (which is perfectly legal given his tax structure, by the way), let's look at the absolute amount of taxes he paid on his $22 million income. Why that number would be about $3 million! So in one year, Romney paid more taxes than the average American will pay in a lifetime. Imagine how much he will pay over ten years.....over his lifetime! Still think he paid too little?
Well maybe it's the 49% who paid too little:
Yet 49 percent of U.S. households pay no federal tax at all. And a Heritage Foundation chart shows the top 10 percent of income earners paid 70 percent of all federal income tax in 2008. (MyHeritage.org, 1/30/2012)
Found
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has confirmed the key finding of Heritage Foundation research on federal employee compensation: federal workers are paid substantially more than comparable private-sector workers. (MyHeritage.org, 1/31/2012)
Government work used to mean a boring job for modest pay, but lifetime employment. The only thing that has changed is that now the pay is great!
Christie, who said in the interview that he'd prefer if New Jersey slash all income taxes by 10 percent, said he thinks Buffett should take matters into his own hands instead of advocating for a boost in taxes for the wealthy. "I'm tired of hearing about it," Christie said in the interview. "If he wants to give the government more money, he's got the ability to write a check. Go ahead and write it." (Huffington Post, 2/22/2012)
RedStateVT is loving the combative spirit of Republicans like Christie who are not afraid to call out Liberals. Newt Gingrich has done this marvelously well in his broadsides against the state-controlled media debate moderators. Gingrich has inspired others including Rick Santorum to do the same.
While we are on the subject, we have been meaning to circle back to Mitt Romney's taxes. Never mind the 14% rate (which is perfectly legal given his tax structure, by the way), let's look at the absolute amount of taxes he paid on his $22 million income. Why that number would be about $3 million! So in one year, Romney paid more taxes than the average American will pay in a lifetime. Imagine how much he will pay over ten years.....over his lifetime! Still think he paid too little?
Well maybe it's the 49% who paid too little:
Yet 49 percent of U.S. households pay no federal tax at all. And a Heritage Foundation chart shows the top 10 percent of income earners paid 70 percent of all federal income tax in 2008. (MyHeritage.org, 1/30/2012)
Found
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has confirmed the key finding of Heritage Foundation research on federal employee compensation: federal workers are paid substantially more than comparable private-sector workers. (MyHeritage.org, 1/31/2012)
Government work used to mean a boring job for modest pay, but lifetime employment. The only thing that has changed is that now the pay is great!
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
No Place To Hide
Small Change
Collectively, their contributions have totaled more than $50 million this cycle, making them easily the most influential and powerful political donors in politics today. They have relatively few Democratic counterparts so far, with most of the leading liberal donors from past years giving relatively small amounts — or not at all — to the Democratic super PACs. (NYT, 2/21/2012)
Twenty three paragraphs today on Republican Super PAC donors. We learn that they are "secretive" and "reluctant to talk." For balance, we get the comment above that rich Liberals give very little. Soros, Lewis, Geffen.....all minor players then.
And by the way, the Washington Post today also gives us twenty three paragraphs on Republican Super PAC donors! And you thought we had an objective and independent press in this country! (To be fair, the Post includes a slide show depicting Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg as Dem Super PAC contributors, along with four Republican contributors - just to get the numbers right.)
Secret Code
The administration plan to revamp a corporate code that is widely derided as inefficient and anticompetitive has been in the works at Treasury for two years, and is a priority of Mr. Geithner. Yet he has been preoccupied with crisis management, and is unlikely to see the project through since he plans to leave office after this year. (NYT, 2/22/2012)
So RedStateVT gives Geithner an "Incomplete" on his work. On second thought, change that to "Fail."
Hall Pass
When Barack Obama was campaigning for president in 2008, he declared that marriage is between a man and a woman. For the most part, his position was treated as a nonissue.
Now Rick Santorum is campaigning for president. He too says that marriage is between a man and a woman. What a different reaction he gets.
There's no mystery why. Mr. Santorum is attacked because everyone understands that he means what he says.
President Obama, by contrast, gets a pass because everyone understands—nudge nudge, wink wink—that he's not telling the truth. The press understands that this is just one of those things a Democratic candidate has to say so he doesn't rile up the great unwashed.
It's arguably the most glaring double standard in American life today. (William McGurn, WSJ, 2/21/2012)
A devastating - and irrefutable - indictment of the media.
Collectively, their contributions have totaled more than $50 million this cycle, making them easily the most influential and powerful political donors in politics today. They have relatively few Democratic counterparts so far, with most of the leading liberal donors from past years giving relatively small amounts — or not at all — to the Democratic super PACs. (NYT, 2/21/2012)
Twenty three paragraphs today on Republican Super PAC donors. We learn that they are "secretive" and "reluctant to talk." For balance, we get the comment above that rich Liberals give very little. Soros, Lewis, Geffen.....all minor players then.
And by the way, the Washington Post today also gives us twenty three paragraphs on Republican Super PAC donors! And you thought we had an objective and independent press in this country! (To be fair, the Post includes a slide show depicting Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg as Dem Super PAC contributors, along with four Republican contributors - just to get the numbers right.)
Secret Code
The administration plan to revamp a corporate code that is widely derided as inefficient and anticompetitive has been in the works at Treasury for two years, and is a priority of Mr. Geithner. Yet he has been preoccupied with crisis management, and is unlikely to see the project through since he plans to leave office after this year. (NYT, 2/22/2012)
So RedStateVT gives Geithner an "Incomplete" on his work. On second thought, change that to "Fail."
Hall Pass
When Barack Obama was campaigning for president in 2008, he declared that marriage is between a man and a woman. For the most part, his position was treated as a nonissue.
Now Rick Santorum is campaigning for president. He too says that marriage is between a man and a woman. What a different reaction he gets.
There's no mystery why. Mr. Santorum is attacked because everyone understands that he means what he says.
President Obama, by contrast, gets a pass because everyone understands—nudge nudge, wink wink—that he's not telling the truth. The press understands that this is just one of those things a Democratic candidate has to say so he doesn't rile up the great unwashed.
It's arguably the most glaring double standard in American life today. (William McGurn, WSJ, 2/21/2012)
A devastating - and irrefutable - indictment of the media.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Solemn Vow
History Lesson
There have been many times in the past when there were warmer decades. It may have been warmer in medieval times, when the Vikings settled Greenland, and when wine was exported from England. Many proxy indicators show that the Medieval Warming was global in extent. And there were even warmer periods a few thousand years ago during the Holocene Climate Optimum. The fact is that there are very powerful influences on the earth's climate that have nothing to do with human-generated CO2. The graph strongly suggests that the IPCC has greatly underestimated the natural sources of warming (and cooling) and has greatly exaggerated the warming from CO2. (WSJ, 2/21/2012)
The authors of the WSJ's January 27th op-ed piece debunking climate change claims respond (smack down?) their critics. We quote only the above paragraph which echoes the assertion RedStateVT has made that any student of history knows the planet periodically heats up and cools down.
OK, one more quote:
The Trenberth letter states: "Research shows that more than 97% of scientists actively publishing in the field agree that climate change is real and human caused." However, the claim of 97% support is deceptive. The surveys contained trivial polling questions that even we would agree with. Thus, these surveys find that large majorities agree that temperatures have increased since 1800 and that human activities have some impact.
The last one, we promise:
A premature global-scale transition from hydrocarbon fuels would require massive government intervention to support the deployment of more expensive energy technology. If there were economic advantages to investing in technology that depends on taxpayer support, companies like Beacon Power, Evergreen Solar, Solar Millenium, SpectraWatt, Solyndra, Ener1 and the Renewable Energy Development Corporation would be prospering instead of filing for bankruptcy in only the past few months.
Read the article!
Appreciated
“The types of affluent voters who have been going to vote for Democrats are unlikely to be driven away” by the prospect of higher taxes, said Geoff Garin, a pollster for Democratic candidates and for the “super PAC” backing Mr. Obama. “They have an appreciation for what those higher taxes pay for.” (NYT, 2/20/2012)
So wealthy Liberals are OK with higher taxes because they know what these taxes are used for. Well, first of all, if the taxes are used to advance their ideology then, of course, they do not mind. But where does that leave wealthy Republicans? Are they cheap? Uncaring toward the poor? Unappreciative? In fact, study after study shows that wealthy Republicans give more to charitable causes than Democrats. The distaste for taxes then, is more about the ineffectiveness of government programs. Simply throwing more money at - you name it - poverty, education, green energy, has not had the desired effect. Maybe, Republicans say, we need to rethink how we address these issues. The Democrat answer is always to tax more and spend more.
Exploitation!
Most of that money came in six- and seven-figure checks from just a few dozen individuals or corporations — the billionaire casino executive Sheldon Adelson, the mutual fund investor Foster S. Friess and the PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, among others — who have exploited recent court rulings and changes in campaign finance rules to exert unprecedented influence over their party’s choice of presidential nominee. (NYT, 2/20/2012)
In a nineteen paragraph article about Super PAC money, the Times gives us one paragraph about Obama. And then it is only to say how little his campaign has received and how he has been forced to seek more. Note also how Republican Super PAC contributors have "exploited" court rulings. We would, of course, have said that they did what the courts said was legal.
There have been many times in the past when there were warmer decades. It may have been warmer in medieval times, when the Vikings settled Greenland, and when wine was exported from England. Many proxy indicators show that the Medieval Warming was global in extent. And there were even warmer periods a few thousand years ago during the Holocene Climate Optimum. The fact is that there are very powerful influences on the earth's climate that have nothing to do with human-generated CO2. The graph strongly suggests that the IPCC has greatly underestimated the natural sources of warming (and cooling) and has greatly exaggerated the warming from CO2. (WSJ, 2/21/2012)
The authors of the WSJ's January 27th op-ed piece debunking climate change claims respond (smack down?) their critics. We quote only the above paragraph which echoes the assertion RedStateVT has made that any student of history knows the planet periodically heats up and cools down.
OK, one more quote:
The Trenberth letter states: "Research shows that more than 97% of scientists actively publishing in the field agree that climate change is real and human caused." However, the claim of 97% support is deceptive. The surveys contained trivial polling questions that even we would agree with. Thus, these surveys find that large majorities agree that temperatures have increased since 1800 and that human activities have some impact.
The last one, we promise:
A premature global-scale transition from hydrocarbon fuels would require massive government intervention to support the deployment of more expensive energy technology. If there were economic advantages to investing in technology that depends on taxpayer support, companies like Beacon Power, Evergreen Solar, Solar Millenium, SpectraWatt, Solyndra, Ener1 and the Renewable Energy Development Corporation would be prospering instead of filing for bankruptcy in only the past few months.
Read the article!
Appreciated
“The types of affluent voters who have been going to vote for Democrats are unlikely to be driven away” by the prospect of higher taxes, said Geoff Garin, a pollster for Democratic candidates and for the “super PAC” backing Mr. Obama. “They have an appreciation for what those higher taxes pay for.” (NYT, 2/20/2012)
So wealthy Liberals are OK with higher taxes because they know what these taxes are used for. Well, first of all, if the taxes are used to advance their ideology then, of course, they do not mind. But where does that leave wealthy Republicans? Are they cheap? Uncaring toward the poor? Unappreciative? In fact, study after study shows that wealthy Republicans give more to charitable causes than Democrats. The distaste for taxes then, is more about the ineffectiveness of government programs. Simply throwing more money at - you name it - poverty, education, green energy, has not had the desired effect. Maybe, Republicans say, we need to rethink how we address these issues. The Democrat answer is always to tax more and spend more.
Exploitation!
Most of that money came in six- and seven-figure checks from just a few dozen individuals or corporations — the billionaire casino executive Sheldon Adelson, the mutual fund investor Foster S. Friess and the PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, among others — who have exploited recent court rulings and changes in campaign finance rules to exert unprecedented influence over their party’s choice of presidential nominee. (NYT, 2/20/2012)
In a nineteen paragraph article about Super PAC money, the Times gives us one paragraph about Obama. And then it is only to say how little his campaign has received and how he has been forced to seek more. Note also how Republican Super PAC contributors have "exploited" court rulings. We would, of course, have said that they did what the courts said was legal.
Monday, February 20, 2012
That Old Moon Dust
Follow the Money
Considered the prime facilitator in Washington for those seeking to “monetize” their political service, Mr. Barnett negotiated a reported seven-figure book advance for Mr. Plouffe and set him up for speaking gigs. Mr. Plouffe earned $1.5 million in 2010, according to White House disclosure statements, which included management consulting work for Boeing and General Electric, and close to $500,000 for speeches around the world, including $100,000 from MTN Nigeria, an African telecommunications firm. (NYT, 2/20/2012)
In a shocking story today, it is revealed that David Plouffe who is managing the Obama re-election campaign is a millionaire! What taxes did he pay? And where is Occupy DC when you need them?
Foregone
With the economy on its knees, many American families have had to forgo their annual holiday just to make ends meet. But barely a month after returning from a luxury Christmas break in Hawaii Michelle Obama is on holiday again - this time at the exclusive Colorado ski resort of Aspen.
The First Lady Michelle Obama is spending Presidents' Day weekend in the upmarket resort with her daughters, Sasha and Malia, and was seen hitting the slopes - albeit apprehensively - on Saturday. (Dailymail.co.uk, 2/20/2012)
Speaking of one percenters!
Spain, Colorado, Hawaii and back to Colorado. Say what you want about Michelle Obama she is not going to be denied. George Bush stopped playing golf because he thought the optics of it - juxtaposed to American military casualties - was not right. No such concern with the Obamas when it comes to vacations and the economy. More and more Obama reminds us of the old Kremlin leadership. Issue dictates from on high, claim to support the workers and enjoy the spoils of power.
Considered the prime facilitator in Washington for those seeking to “monetize” their political service, Mr. Barnett negotiated a reported seven-figure book advance for Mr. Plouffe and set him up for speaking gigs. Mr. Plouffe earned $1.5 million in 2010, according to White House disclosure statements, which included management consulting work for Boeing and General Electric, and close to $500,000 for speeches around the world, including $100,000 from MTN Nigeria, an African telecommunications firm. (NYT, 2/20/2012)
In a shocking story today, it is revealed that David Plouffe who is managing the Obama re-election campaign is a millionaire! What taxes did he pay? And where is Occupy DC when you need them?
Foregone
With the economy on its knees, many American families have had to forgo their annual holiday just to make ends meet. But barely a month after returning from a luxury Christmas break in Hawaii Michelle Obama is on holiday again - this time at the exclusive Colorado ski resort of Aspen.
The First Lady Michelle Obama is spending Presidents' Day weekend in the upmarket resort with her daughters, Sasha and Malia, and was seen hitting the slopes - albeit apprehensively - on Saturday. (Dailymail.co.uk, 2/20/2012)
Speaking of one percenters!
Spain, Colorado, Hawaii and back to Colorado. Say what you want about Michelle Obama she is not going to be denied. George Bush stopped playing golf because he thought the optics of it - juxtaposed to American military casualties - was not right. No such concern with the Obamas when it comes to vacations and the economy. More and more Obama reminds us of the old Kremlin leadership. Issue dictates from on high, claim to support the workers and enjoy the spoils of power.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Long Before
Demanding
A gallon of gas had dropped to $1.89 when Mr. Obama took office in 2009, in large part because of the fall in oil demand caused by the financial crisis, and has almost doubled since. (NYT, 2/18/2012)
So, let's make sure we have this correct. Yes, gas has almost doubled under Obama. But that is only because it was low when he took office. And why was it so low? Because of the financial crisis. And who caused the financial crisis? Why it was George Bush! Ergo, the reason that gas is now so expensive compared to when Obama took office is...Bush's fault! Do you follow?
Act Out
An intensifying conservative legal assault on the Voting Rights Act could precipitate what many civil rights advocates regard as the nuclear option: a court ruling striking down one of the core elements of the landmark 1965 law guaranteeing African Americans and other minorities access to the ballot box.
Voting Rights Act Under Siege screams the headline. It seems that those racist Republicans want to go back to the days when blacks were denied the right to vote. How do they want to do it? The Politico article is not entirely clear, but it might be by requiring voters to show a photo ID. The bastards! Then again they might choose another approach.....
If the key provision were removed, he (Dan Tokaji, professor of election law at Ohio State) said, “I don’t think we would go back to the days of Jim Crow. We wouldn’t have literacy tests or other of the most blatant disenfranchising devices used in 1965. On the other hand, it would be easier for states to enact more subtle measures that make voting more difficult and that dilute the vote. … The impact will probably be most significant at the local level [where] a lot of things might slip by without anyone noticing it.” (Politico.com, 2/19/2012)
Oh, no! Those evil Republicans could be even more devious, using "subtle measures" that no one would notice. This is tyranny!
A gallon of gas had dropped to $1.89 when Mr. Obama took office in 2009, in large part because of the fall in oil demand caused by the financial crisis, and has almost doubled since. (NYT, 2/18/2012)
So, let's make sure we have this correct. Yes, gas has almost doubled under Obama. But that is only because it was low when he took office. And why was it so low? Because of the financial crisis. And who caused the financial crisis? Why it was George Bush! Ergo, the reason that gas is now so expensive compared to when Obama took office is...Bush's fault! Do you follow?
Act Out
An intensifying conservative legal assault on the Voting Rights Act could precipitate what many civil rights advocates regard as the nuclear option: a court ruling striking down one of the core elements of the landmark 1965 law guaranteeing African Americans and other minorities access to the ballot box.
Voting Rights Act Under Siege screams the headline. It seems that those racist Republicans want to go back to the days when blacks were denied the right to vote. How do they want to do it? The Politico article is not entirely clear, but it might be by requiring voters to show a photo ID. The bastards! Then again they might choose another approach.....
If the key provision were removed, he (Dan Tokaji, professor of election law at Ohio State) said, “I don’t think we would go back to the days of Jim Crow. We wouldn’t have literacy tests or other of the most blatant disenfranchising devices used in 1965. On the other hand, it would be easier for states to enact more subtle measures that make voting more difficult and that dilute the vote. … The impact will probably be most significant at the local level [where] a lot of things might slip by without anyone noticing it.” (Politico.com, 2/19/2012)
Oh, no! Those evil Republicans could be even more devious, using "subtle measures" that no one would notice. This is tyranny!
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Why Not
Off and On
Amber Strader, 27, was in an on-and-off relationship with a clerk at Sears a few years ago when she found herself pregnant. A former nursing student who now tends bar, Ms. Strader said her boyfriend was so dependent that she had to buy his cigarettes. Marrying him never entered her mind. “It was like living with another kid,” she said.
When a second child, with a new boyfriend, followed three years later — her birth control failed, she said — her boyfriend, a part-time house painter, was reluctant to wed. (NYT, 2/17/2012)
The Times gives us this charmer in an article on the new normal: out-of-wedlock births. What are we supposed to feel about Amber the Trainwreck? Is it possible that she is responsible for her own life and her own mistakes? Liberals will say that this is exactly the person who society has to protect via the safety net of entitlement programs.
Heavy D
Though Maryland is heavily Democratic, the party is sharply divided on the issue of same-sex marriage.
Of 98 Democrats in the House, as many as 30 — mostly more-conservative Democrats known as Blue Dogs, and African-Americans from districts where churches are strong — had been undecided. (NYT, 2/17/2012)
Dems and African-Americans who oppose gay marriage are bigots, cretins, homophobes! How dare they deny gays this "basic human right." Oh, wait. It is only "conservative activists" who oppose gay marriage who are the homophobes:
Gay-rights activists accused Christie of scuttling gay marriage to curry favor with conservative activists within the GOP. (NYPost.com, 2/18/2012)
PCH
Hundreds of protesters lined Pacific Coast Highway Thursday morning to greet President Obama who was visiting Newport Beach for a campaign fundraiser. Most of the attendees awaited the arrival of the president in protest though a number of pro-Obama supporters were sprinkled throughout the crowd. (Brian Calle, Foxnews.com, 2/17/2012)
What is happening on the Left Coast? Is California trying to get back in the good graces of RedStateVT?
Long Term
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, speaking on behalf of the Obama White House, to Rep. Paul Ryan: "You are right to say we're not coming before you today to say 'we have a definitive solution to that long term problem.' What we do know is, we don't like yours." (Guy Benson, Townhall.com, 2/17/2012)
Benson calls Geithner's comment to Paul Ryan on the deficit the "political quote of the year." It might be the Political Quote of the Millenium!
Amber Strader, 27, was in an on-and-off relationship with a clerk at Sears a few years ago when she found herself pregnant. A former nursing student who now tends bar, Ms. Strader said her boyfriend was so dependent that she had to buy his cigarettes. Marrying him never entered her mind. “It was like living with another kid,” she said.
When a second child, with a new boyfriend, followed three years later — her birth control failed, she said — her boyfriend, a part-time house painter, was reluctant to wed. (NYT, 2/17/2012)
The Times gives us this charmer in an article on the new normal: out-of-wedlock births. What are we supposed to feel about Amber the Trainwreck? Is it possible that she is responsible for her own life and her own mistakes? Liberals will say that this is exactly the person who society has to protect via the safety net of entitlement programs.
Heavy D
Though Maryland is heavily Democratic, the party is sharply divided on the issue of same-sex marriage.
Of 98 Democrats in the House, as many as 30 — mostly more-conservative Democrats known as Blue Dogs, and African-Americans from districts where churches are strong — had been undecided. (NYT, 2/17/2012)
Dems and African-Americans who oppose gay marriage are bigots, cretins, homophobes! How dare they deny gays this "basic human right." Oh, wait. It is only "conservative activists" who oppose gay marriage who are the homophobes:
Gay-rights activists accused Christie of scuttling gay marriage to curry favor with conservative activists within the GOP. (NYPost.com, 2/18/2012)
PCH
Hundreds of protesters lined Pacific Coast Highway Thursday morning to greet President Obama who was visiting Newport Beach for a campaign fundraiser. Most of the attendees awaited the arrival of the president in protest though a number of pro-Obama supporters were sprinkled throughout the crowd. (Brian Calle, Foxnews.com, 2/17/2012)
What is happening on the Left Coast? Is California trying to get back in the good graces of RedStateVT?
Long Term
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, speaking on behalf of the Obama White House, to Rep. Paul Ryan: "You are right to say we're not coming before you today to say 'we have a definitive solution to that long term problem.' What we do know is, we don't like yours." (Guy Benson, Townhall.com, 2/17/2012)
Benson calls Geithner's comment to Paul Ryan on the deficit the "political quote of the year." It might be the Political Quote of the Millenium!
Friday, February 17, 2012
Feelings
Girl Power
"What I want to know is, where are the women?" Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) asked Issa before walking out of the hearing after the first panel. "I look at this panel, and I don't see one single individual representing the tens of millions of women across the country who want and need insurance coverage for basic preventative health care services, including family planning. Where are the women?" (Huffington Post, 2/16/2012)
Liberals are apparently so broke or so stupid that they now think that everyone should pay for their birth control. How much does a box of condoms cost these days?
Ten Years After
Pat Buchanan is out at MSNBC. The conservative pundit, who spent ten years on the air for the network, wrote in an essay that political pressure was behind his departure. (WSJ, 2/17/2012)
What is another way that Liberals are like Communists? They prefer a single, state-controlled media (think Pravda). They despise Fox, but Fox employs Beckel, Williams and Colmes among its commentators. And all have admitted at one time or another how they are quietly pressured by the Left for appearing on Fox. MSNBC would rather just not have any conservatives....makes things simpler.
Parking Wars
The Rev. Al Sharpton tried to move heaven and earth yesterday to keep his SUV from being towed at La Guardia Airport — but no amount of preaching could stop Port Authority cops from impounding the vehicle. An officer rolled up on the 2008 Lincoln Navigator at around 2 p.m. outside the Delta and US Airways terminal as the MSNBC host’s driver waited to pick him up in a clearly marked “no standing” zone, said PA Police spokesman Al Della Fave. PAPD cop Oscar Ruiz asked the driver for his paperwork and quickly discovered that the SUV had a suspended registration “due to lack of insurance,” the spokesman said. At that point, Sharpton emerged from the terminal after a flight from Washington, DC, and raised holy hell over the situation. “He begins yelling, saying the cop was just doing this because of who he was,” a source said. (Foxnews.com, 2/17/2012)
What is the Rev doing in an SUV? Shouldn't he be in a Prius? And what's with the no insurance? During the healthcare debate, Liberals said that forcing people to buy health insurance was no different than forcing them to buy car insurance. But the Rev apparently doesn't even want to buy car insurance....so where does that leave us?
On the Rise
Since the end of 2011, the national average for a gallon of regular gasoline is up more than 8% to $3.52, according to data released on Monday by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Gas prices tend to increase during the first half of the year, but this is the earliest the average price per gallon has surpassed the $3.50 mark. Prices at the pump could break $4 later this year – typically the point where fuel costs start eroding economic growth, says IHS Global Insight economist Chris Christopher. (fortune.cnn.com, 2/16/2012)
The media is ginning up the economy to aid Obama's reelection effort. Let's see what they say about $4 gas.
"What I want to know is, where are the women?" Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) asked Issa before walking out of the hearing after the first panel. "I look at this panel, and I don't see one single individual representing the tens of millions of women across the country who want and need insurance coverage for basic preventative health care services, including family planning. Where are the women?" (Huffington Post, 2/16/2012)
Liberals are apparently so broke or so stupid that they now think that everyone should pay for their birth control. How much does a box of condoms cost these days?
Ten Years After
Pat Buchanan is out at MSNBC. The conservative pundit, who spent ten years on the air for the network, wrote in an essay that political pressure was behind his departure. (WSJ, 2/17/2012)
What is another way that Liberals are like Communists? They prefer a single, state-controlled media (think Pravda). They despise Fox, but Fox employs Beckel, Williams and Colmes among its commentators. And all have admitted at one time or another how they are quietly pressured by the Left for appearing on Fox. MSNBC would rather just not have any conservatives....makes things simpler.
Parking Wars
The Rev. Al Sharpton tried to move heaven and earth yesterday to keep his SUV from being towed at La Guardia Airport — but no amount of preaching could stop Port Authority cops from impounding the vehicle. An officer rolled up on the 2008 Lincoln Navigator at around 2 p.m. outside the Delta and US Airways terminal as the MSNBC host’s driver waited to pick him up in a clearly marked “no standing” zone, said PA Police spokesman Al Della Fave. PAPD cop Oscar Ruiz asked the driver for his paperwork and quickly discovered that the SUV had a suspended registration “due to lack of insurance,” the spokesman said. At that point, Sharpton emerged from the terminal after a flight from Washington, DC, and raised holy hell over the situation. “He begins yelling, saying the cop was just doing this because of who he was,” a source said. (Foxnews.com, 2/17/2012)
What is the Rev doing in an SUV? Shouldn't he be in a Prius? And what's with the no insurance? During the healthcare debate, Liberals said that forcing people to buy health insurance was no different than forcing them to buy car insurance. But the Rev apparently doesn't even want to buy car insurance....so where does that leave us?
On the Rise
Since the end of 2011, the national average for a gallon of regular gasoline is up more than 8% to $3.52, according to data released on Monday by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Gas prices tend to increase during the first half of the year, but this is the earliest the average price per gallon has surpassed the $3.50 mark. Prices at the pump could break $4 later this year – typically the point where fuel costs start eroding economic growth, says IHS Global Insight economist Chris Christopher. (fortune.cnn.com, 2/16/2012)
The media is ginning up the economy to aid Obama's reelection effort. Let's see what they say about $4 gas.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Sweeter Memories
Walking It Back
Vermont's most self-absorbed and self-serving politician, Senator Bernie Sanders, is at it again! This time, Sanders has admitted that taking money from Super-Pacs is "something we would look at" if he had a well-funded opponent. (VTGOP.org, 2/15/2012)
Colonel Sanders has made the evil influence of Super-Pac money a signature issue. Like Obama, it turns out that he too is a hypocrite.
Prohibited
If liberals like it, it's subsidized; if they don't, it's prohibited. And now they can impose their left-wing authoritarianism on the entire country by calling their mandates and prohibitions "insurance."
...
Insurance is not supposed to be for normal expenses in the ordinary course of events, such as multivitamins, house painting or oil changes. Insurance is for unexpected catastrophes: fires, accidents, cancer.
...
The basic idea is to spread the risk of unforeseen disasters.
...
So why is birth control covered by insurance? Birth control pills aren't that expensive -- generics are about $20 a month -- nor is the need for them a bolt out of the blue. Why not have health insurance cover manicures, back massages, carrot cake and nannies? (AnnCoulter.com, 2/16/2012)
Coulter gets it exactly right....again. Because Liberals work in government (or don't work at all) they have no conception of how capitalism works. What are those oil industry subsidies for? Why it must be payback from the evil Republicans to their buddies in the oil companies. Birth control for all? Why simply make the insurance companies provide it for "free."
Certainty
No more certain sign exists that a nation has chosen to step off its historic upward path than the creation of wealth taxes. A nation imposes a wealth tax when it wakes up one day to conclude that it has become embarrassed, rather than proud of, its wealth, which is to say, its national success. (WSJ, 2/17/2012)
It's been said, but can always be said again. Liberals view a wealthy person and ask what crimes he committed.
Vermont's most self-absorbed and self-serving politician, Senator Bernie Sanders, is at it again! This time, Sanders has admitted that taking money from Super-Pacs is "something we would look at" if he had a well-funded opponent. (VTGOP.org, 2/15/2012)
Colonel Sanders has made the evil influence of Super-Pac money a signature issue. Like Obama, it turns out that he too is a hypocrite.
Prohibited
If liberals like it, it's subsidized; if they don't, it's prohibited. And now they can impose their left-wing authoritarianism on the entire country by calling their mandates and prohibitions "insurance."
...
Insurance is not supposed to be for normal expenses in the ordinary course of events, such as multivitamins, house painting or oil changes. Insurance is for unexpected catastrophes: fires, accidents, cancer.
...
The basic idea is to spread the risk of unforeseen disasters.
...
So why is birth control covered by insurance? Birth control pills aren't that expensive -- generics are about $20 a month -- nor is the need for them a bolt out of the blue. Why not have health insurance cover manicures, back massages, carrot cake and nannies? (AnnCoulter.com, 2/16/2012)
Coulter gets it exactly right....again. Because Liberals work in government (or don't work at all) they have no conception of how capitalism works. What are those oil industry subsidies for? Why it must be payback from the evil Republicans to their buddies in the oil companies. Birth control for all? Why simply make the insurance companies provide it for "free."
Certainty
No more certain sign exists that a nation has chosen to step off its historic upward path than the creation of wealth taxes. A nation imposes a wealth tax when it wakes up one day to conclude that it has become embarrassed, rather than proud of, its wealth, which is to say, its national success. (WSJ, 2/17/2012)
It's been said, but can always be said again. Liberals view a wealthy person and ask what crimes he committed.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Giant Steps
Roll Call
The nation’s voter registration rolls are in disarray, according to a report released Tuesday by the Pew Center on the States. The problems have the potential to affect the outcomes of local, state and federal elections. (NYT, 2/14/2012)
Republicans want voters to show an ID, but Liberals say there is no problem with voter fraud.
Yard Work
Liberal media watchdog group Media Matters once contemplated harassing Fox News employees with yard signs in their neighborhoods, hiring private investigators to dig into their personal lives and retaining a "major law firm" to study legal action against the network, according to a report Tuesday in the Daily Caller. (Foxnews.com, 2/14/2012)
Further proof - not that you needed it - that Liberals are absolutely without morals when it comes to the political debate. Note to loyal readers: RedStateVT will not be intimidated!
Paint By Numbers
Dick Morris has an interesting take on the whole Obama contraception controversey. Morris believes that Democrats are losing the abortion debate as an increasing number of Americans against it. Hence Obama wants to shift the discussion to contraception where they can paint Republicans as being against it. Morris points to the questions that Romney was asked by debate moderator George Stephanopoulas - questions that seemed to come out of nowhere - as proof that Dems are teeing up this issue. With social conservative Rick Santorum rising in the polls, Dems think they may have an issue. It is an interesting analysis, and one of the reasons that Morris is always worth listening to.
Faded Glow
The luster of the Kennedy family name and the Camelot myth has increasingly lost its shine since that time.
We have learned that Joe Kennedy, Senior, had many affairs including with the actress Gloria Swanson.
That Senator Ted Kennedy, a known boozer and serial adulterer at one point in his life may have been responsible for the death of Mary Jo Kopechne at Chappaquiddick (1967).
And, that William Kennedy Smith, President Kennedy's nephew stood accused of rape although he was later acquitted. (Phyllis Chesler, Foxnews.com, 2/7/2012)
The nation’s voter registration rolls are in disarray, according to a report released Tuesday by the Pew Center on the States. The problems have the potential to affect the outcomes of local, state and federal elections. (NYT, 2/14/2012)
Republicans want voters to show an ID, but Liberals say there is no problem with voter fraud.
Yard Work
Liberal media watchdog group Media Matters once contemplated harassing Fox News employees with yard signs in their neighborhoods, hiring private investigators to dig into their personal lives and retaining a "major law firm" to study legal action against the network, according to a report Tuesday in the Daily Caller. (Foxnews.com, 2/14/2012)
Further proof - not that you needed it - that Liberals are absolutely without morals when it comes to the political debate. Note to loyal readers: RedStateVT will not be intimidated!
Paint By Numbers
Dick Morris has an interesting take on the whole Obama contraception controversey. Morris believes that Democrats are losing the abortion debate as an increasing number of Americans against it. Hence Obama wants to shift the discussion to contraception where they can paint Republicans as being against it. Morris points to the questions that Romney was asked by debate moderator George Stephanopoulas - questions that seemed to come out of nowhere - as proof that Dems are teeing up this issue. With social conservative Rick Santorum rising in the polls, Dems think they may have an issue. It is an interesting analysis, and one of the reasons that Morris is always worth listening to.
Faded Glow
The luster of the Kennedy family name and the Camelot myth has increasingly lost its shine since that time.
We have learned that Joe Kennedy, Senior, had many affairs including with the actress Gloria Swanson.
That Senator Ted Kennedy, a known boozer and serial adulterer at one point in his life may have been responsible for the death of Mary Jo Kopechne at Chappaquiddick (1967).
And, that William Kennedy Smith, President Kennedy's nephew stood accused of rape although he was later acquitted. (Phyllis Chesler, Foxnews.com, 2/7/2012)
JFK - the spiritual guru to Bill Clinton - was apparently an earlier abuser of interns. Here we see only a very short list of the Kennedy family sins. So can we - for once and for all - bury the myths and move on from America's First Family of Dysfunction?
Monday, February 13, 2012
Tableau Vivant
Pointed
The point is that today’s dismal G.O.P. field — is there anyone who doesn’t consider it dismal? — is no accident. Economic conservatives played a cynical game, and now they’re facing the blowback, a party that suffers from “severe” conservatism in the worst way. And the malady may take many years to cure. (Paul Krugman, NYT, 2/13/2012)
We love it when Liberals talk about things like how conservatism has lost its way. It is as though the 2010 mid-term elections never happened and as though Mitt Romney were NOT polling even or better with Obama. Thanks, but no thanks for the advice.
Crosshairs
RedStateVT recently heard a university president briefly discuss President Obama's warning to higher education over the rising cost of a college education. The university president was tempered in his remarks, but clearly dismayed that Obama did not understand the fundamental economics of running an educational institution. As we have stated, higher education is only the latest of industries to come into Obama's crosshairs as he continues his efforts to "fundamentally transform the country." His words.
Throwback
Chris Matthews (Sunday, 2/12/2012): Mitt Romney, is he going to have to throw a hail Mary or whatever his religion calls for in this case?
This is what the increasingly despicable Chris Matthews said about Mitt Romney on his Sunday program yesterday. Are we the only ones who are offended?
We Respond
Loyal reader Global View requests that RedStateVT write more about the Republican primaries and divulge our preferred candidate. To date our comments on the primaries have been largely to educate readers about how the Liberal media systematically sets about to smear Republican candidates. Hence we have the broadside attacks against Herman Cain and Michelle Bachmann. Why? Well they represent existential threats to the Left. Liberals believe that these two groups are the exclusive domain of Democrats. Therefore, Republican women and blacks must be marginalized and eventually destroyed. Mission accomplished for the media. Also in the media playbook is to fabricate some damning incident or situation which "proves" that the Republican is a racist. And so we had the news cycle about Rick Perry and the hunting camp. Mission accomplished. Moving on, the media will pull out its golden nuggets. The candidate is rich and that wealth may have been acquired in suspicious ways and/or the candidate has not voluntarily paid more than he should have in taxes. Again, mission accomplished. The old chestnut - the candidate either was or cavorted with lobbyists is a perennial. The Times even played that one today on Mitt Romney. So these are the things that RedStateVT has focused on in the primaries to date.
Paraphrasing Ann Coulter, the Republican candidate will always be asked to name the past three presidents of Swaziland; while the Democrat will be asked how it feels to have the great honor of his party's nomination bestowed on him.
Who do we support? We support whichever candidate stands the best chance to defeat Obama.
The point is that today’s dismal G.O.P. field — is there anyone who doesn’t consider it dismal? — is no accident. Economic conservatives played a cynical game, and now they’re facing the blowback, a party that suffers from “severe” conservatism in the worst way. And the malady may take many years to cure. (Paul Krugman, NYT, 2/13/2012)
We love it when Liberals talk about things like how conservatism has lost its way. It is as though the 2010 mid-term elections never happened and as though Mitt Romney were NOT polling even or better with Obama. Thanks, but no thanks for the advice.
Crosshairs
RedStateVT recently heard a university president briefly discuss President Obama's warning to higher education over the rising cost of a college education. The university president was tempered in his remarks, but clearly dismayed that Obama did not understand the fundamental economics of running an educational institution. As we have stated, higher education is only the latest of industries to come into Obama's crosshairs as he continues his efforts to "fundamentally transform the country." His words.
Throwback
Chris Matthews (Sunday, 2/12/2012): Mitt Romney, is he going to have to throw a hail Mary or whatever his religion calls for in this case?
This is what the increasingly despicable Chris Matthews said about Mitt Romney on his Sunday program yesterday. Are we the only ones who are offended?
We Respond
Loyal reader Global View requests that RedStateVT write more about the Republican primaries and divulge our preferred candidate. To date our comments on the primaries have been largely to educate readers about how the Liberal media systematically sets about to smear Republican candidates. Hence we have the broadside attacks against Herman Cain and Michelle Bachmann. Why? Well they represent existential threats to the Left. Liberals believe that these two groups are the exclusive domain of Democrats. Therefore, Republican women and blacks must be marginalized and eventually destroyed. Mission accomplished for the media. Also in the media playbook is to fabricate some damning incident or situation which "proves" that the Republican is a racist. And so we had the news cycle about Rick Perry and the hunting camp. Mission accomplished. Moving on, the media will pull out its golden nuggets. The candidate is rich and that wealth may have been acquired in suspicious ways and/or the candidate has not voluntarily paid more than he should have in taxes. Again, mission accomplished. The old chestnut - the candidate either was or cavorted with lobbyists is a perennial. The Times even played that one today on Mitt Romney. So these are the things that RedStateVT has focused on in the primaries to date.
Paraphrasing Ann Coulter, the Republican candidate will always be asked to name the past three presidents of Swaziland; while the Democrat will be asked how it feels to have the great honor of his party's nomination bestowed on him.
Who do we support? We support whichever candidate stands the best chance to defeat Obama.
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Winding Paths
Net Result
The government safety net was created to keep Americans from abject poverty, but the poorest households no longer receive a majority of government benefits. A secondary mission has gradually become primary: maintaining the middle class from childhood through retirement. The share of benefits flowing to the least affluent households, the bottom fifth, has declined from 54 percent in 1979 to 36 percent in 2007, according to a Congressional Budget Office analysis published last year. (NYT, 2/11/2011)
This is one of an ongoing series of articles written by the Liberal media over the past several months, obviously at the direction of the DNC. The overall objective is to counter Republican arguments that the poor are not a stagnant pool and that there is upward mobility in this country for those willing to work for it.
Here the Left argues that it is actually the middle class who receive the biggest slice of government goodies! Further, the insinuation is that many of those who get the benefits are conservatives who are hypocrites in taking government largess. Of course it is inevitable that as Liberals have extended the range and scope of entitlement spending, more people would get benefits. Apparently good conservatives should refuse Social Security and Medicare benefits. The end game to all this is so obvious that even Liberals should see it - the more people that get the goodies, the fewer people there are to pay for it.
The other objective to these articles, of course, is to make the case that taxes need to be raised. The solution to the growing cost of entitlement programs is NEVER that government spending should be cut. Where to cut? For starters, end the sinkhole of green energy subsidies.
Confirmed
Insurance companies won't be making donations. Drug makers will still charge for the pill. Doctors will still bill for reproductive treatment. The reality, as with all mandated benefits, is that these costs will be borne eventually via higher premiums. The balloon may be squeezed differently over time, and insurers may amortize the cost differently over time, but eventually prices will find an equilibrium. (WSJ, 2/11/2012)
The WSJ echoes RedStateVT's ongoing discussion: Who really pays for "free stuff?"
Breathe
Standing for limited government, low taxes and a balanced budget is not a “racist” agenda. It is an American agenda, supported by persons of every hue and ethnicity. It is sheer blockheaded nonsense for pundits to keep assailing nonwhites who support the Tea Party and the GOP as racial tokens or mere tools of the white power structure.
Let’s all take a deep breath and acknowledge: We as a nation have turned the corner on “race,” something evidenced by a rising chorus of minorities of every political stripe who criticize the first African-American President, and who will pick their choice for the Oval Office without regard to the skin color of the candidates. (Michael Meyers, NYDailyNews.com, 2/8/2012)
A voice of reason on race.....from no less than the executive director of the New York Civil Rights Coalition.
Legalize It!
Tony Bennett, the evening's first performer, recounted other recent big-name deaths in the music industry. "First it was Michael Jackson, then Amy Winehouse, now the magnificent Whitney Houston. Let's legalize drugs, like Amsterdam, it's a very sane city now." (Huffington Post, 2/12/2012)
The Left's solution to social problems in America!
The government safety net was created to keep Americans from abject poverty, but the poorest households no longer receive a majority of government benefits. A secondary mission has gradually become primary: maintaining the middle class from childhood through retirement. The share of benefits flowing to the least affluent households, the bottom fifth, has declined from 54 percent in 1979 to 36 percent in 2007, according to a Congressional Budget Office analysis published last year. (NYT, 2/11/2011)
This is one of an ongoing series of articles written by the Liberal media over the past several months, obviously at the direction of the DNC. The overall objective is to counter Republican arguments that the poor are not a stagnant pool and that there is upward mobility in this country for those willing to work for it.
Here the Left argues that it is actually the middle class who receive the biggest slice of government goodies! Further, the insinuation is that many of those who get the benefits are conservatives who are hypocrites in taking government largess. Of course it is inevitable that as Liberals have extended the range and scope of entitlement spending, more people would get benefits. Apparently good conservatives should refuse Social Security and Medicare benefits. The end game to all this is so obvious that even Liberals should see it - the more people that get the goodies, the fewer people there are to pay for it.
The other objective to these articles, of course, is to make the case that taxes need to be raised. The solution to the growing cost of entitlement programs is NEVER that government spending should be cut. Where to cut? For starters, end the sinkhole of green energy subsidies.
Confirmed
Insurance companies won't be making donations. Drug makers will still charge for the pill. Doctors will still bill for reproductive treatment. The reality, as with all mandated benefits, is that these costs will be borne eventually via higher premiums. The balloon may be squeezed differently over time, and insurers may amortize the cost differently over time, but eventually prices will find an equilibrium. (WSJ, 2/11/2012)
The WSJ echoes RedStateVT's ongoing discussion: Who really pays for "free stuff?"
Breathe
Standing for limited government, low taxes and a balanced budget is not a “racist” agenda. It is an American agenda, supported by persons of every hue and ethnicity. It is sheer blockheaded nonsense for pundits to keep assailing nonwhites who support the Tea Party and the GOP as racial tokens or mere tools of the white power structure.
Let’s all take a deep breath and acknowledge: We as a nation have turned the corner on “race,” something evidenced by a rising chorus of minorities of every political stripe who criticize the first African-American President, and who will pick their choice for the Oval Office without regard to the skin color of the candidates. (Michael Meyers, NYDailyNews.com, 2/8/2012)
A voice of reason on race.....from no less than the executive director of the New York Civil Rights Coalition.
Legalize It!
Tony Bennett, the evening's first performer, recounted other recent big-name deaths in the music industry. "First it was Michael Jackson, then Amy Winehouse, now the magnificent Whitney Houston. Let's legalize drugs, like Amsterdam, it's a very sane city now." (Huffington Post, 2/12/2012)
The Left's solution to social problems in America!
Friday, February 10, 2012
In Other Times
Modern Moderates
It's interesting to see Obama's political metamorphosis from proud, progressive "community organizer" -- a term that has since been adopted by his opposition as an insult -- to a president who has led the country, as political scientist Keith Poole calculates, as "the most moderate Democratic president since the end of World War II." (Huffington Post, 2/9/2012)
Among the moderate things that Obama has done are: a nationalized health care program, a massive government stimulus, billions on boutique green energy projects, denying the Keystone oil pipeline, stopping offshore drilling, forcing contraception on Catholic institutions, imposition of massive new regulation on the financial sector, etc.
We simply cannot have an honest political debate in this country if Liberals continue to insist that Obama is a moderate.
Short and Frozen
They also agreed to shorten the terms of collective bargaining agreements, freeze private sector salary increases until unemployment drops below 10 percent from its current 19 percent, loosen job protections in the public sector and by the end of 2015 cut 150,000 jobs from the government payroll of 800,000. (NYT, 2/9/2012)
Do Liberals - including those pushing for recall in Wisconsin - recognize that even in Greece the solution to massive government overspending involves cutting the goodies for public sector employees?
Notional
The notion that Obama wants to turn the United States into a “European-style entitlement society” is laughable. It’s not even a fair description of Europe, which boasts of some highly productive and innovative capitalist economies. (E.J. Dionne, Washington Post, 1/15/2012)
But crisis has given way to a grinding reality for Europe: economic stagnation and even, for much of the Continent, the specter of another downturn less than three years after the last recession ended. (NYT, 2/9/2012)
Liberals love Europe, but they see it through colored lenses.
It's interesting to see Obama's political metamorphosis from proud, progressive "community organizer" -- a term that has since been adopted by his opposition as an insult -- to a president who has led the country, as political scientist Keith Poole calculates, as "the most moderate Democratic president since the end of World War II." (Huffington Post, 2/9/2012)
Among the moderate things that Obama has done are: a nationalized health care program, a massive government stimulus, billions on boutique green energy projects, denying the Keystone oil pipeline, stopping offshore drilling, forcing contraception on Catholic institutions, imposition of massive new regulation on the financial sector, etc.
We simply cannot have an honest political debate in this country if Liberals continue to insist that Obama is a moderate.
Short and Frozen
They also agreed to shorten the terms of collective bargaining agreements, freeze private sector salary increases until unemployment drops below 10 percent from its current 19 percent, loosen job protections in the public sector and by the end of 2015 cut 150,000 jobs from the government payroll of 800,000. (NYT, 2/9/2012)
Do Liberals - including those pushing for recall in Wisconsin - recognize that even in Greece the solution to massive government overspending involves cutting the goodies for public sector employees?
Notional
The notion that Obama wants to turn the United States into a “European-style entitlement society” is laughable. It’s not even a fair description of Europe, which boasts of some highly productive and innovative capitalist economies. (E.J. Dionne, Washington Post, 1/15/2012)
But crisis has given way to a grinding reality for Europe: economic stagnation and even, for much of the Continent, the specter of another downturn less than three years after the last recession ended. (NYT, 2/9/2012)
Liberals love Europe, but they see it through colored lenses.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
The Lines of Age
On the Run
In a sane world, the government would be running the whole health care plan... (Gail Collins, NYT, 2/8/2012)
The New York Times labels this column on the Obama contraception mandate: Forcing Dogma on the Public.
So let's review. A government in power for three years pushes a mandate on a 2000 year old institution that violates the latter's core beliefs. Only in the world of Liberals can this be termed "forcing dogma on the public."
Oh and on that other point of the government running the whole health care plan, let's take a random look (from the very same New York Times!) at how the government does on this type of big program:
Despite the billions earmarked in the accord, the aid will help a relatively small portion of the millions of borrowers who are delinquent and facing foreclosure. The success could depend in part on how effectively the program is carried out, because earlier efforts by Washington aimed at troubled borrowers helped far fewer than had been expected. (NYT, 2/9/2012)
Oooops!
Still Hoping
The president better hope those Occupy Wall Street voters don’t read Bloomberg News. Hans Nichols, who covers Obama for Bloomberg, has a richly reported piece that Obama’s most important advisers are privately pleading with the same Wall Street titans they vilify to help fund their reelection campaign. (Politico.com, 2/9/2012)
So far Wall Street appears to have learned its lesson and has effectively defunded Obama. Will they hold firm? RedStateVT bets no.
In a sane world, the government would be running the whole health care plan... (Gail Collins, NYT, 2/8/2012)
The New York Times labels this column on the Obama contraception mandate: Forcing Dogma on the Public.
So let's review. A government in power for three years pushes a mandate on a 2000 year old institution that violates the latter's core beliefs. Only in the world of Liberals can this be termed "forcing dogma on the public."
Oh and on that other point of the government running the whole health care plan, let's take a random look (from the very same New York Times!) at how the government does on this type of big program:
Despite the billions earmarked in the accord, the aid will help a relatively small portion of the millions of borrowers who are delinquent and facing foreclosure. The success could depend in part on how effectively the program is carried out, because earlier efforts by Washington aimed at troubled borrowers helped far fewer than had been expected. (NYT, 2/9/2012)
Oooops!
Still Hoping
The president better hope those Occupy Wall Street voters don’t read Bloomberg News. Hans Nichols, who covers Obama for Bloomberg, has a richly reported piece that Obama’s most important advisers are privately pleading with the same Wall Street titans they vilify to help fund their reelection campaign. (Politico.com, 2/9/2012)
So far Wall Street appears to have learned its lesson and has effectively defunded Obama. Will they hold firm? RedStateVT bets no.
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
On The Way
Freedom
Facing vocal opposition from religious leaders and an escalating political fight, the White House sought on Tuesday to ease mounting objections to a new administration rule that would require health insurance plans — including those offered by Catholic universities and charities — to offer birth control to women free of charge. (NYT, 2/7/2012)
More free stuff! The way it works is like this: drug companies incur the costs associated with the manufacture of birth control products; these are provided to doctors and health clinics who incur the costs associated with distributing them to people; health insurance companies apparently then agree to just give them to patients for free. It is kind of like magic.
Down the Avenue
That's the meaning of the White House decision, announced late Monday night, to encourage donations to a struggling Super PAC trying to raise money to attack President Obama's Republican opponent this year. This would be the same kind of political action committee that Mr. Obama and other good liberals have been denouncing for months as an avenue for corruption and a blight on America's national honor. ... After the election, and especially if Mr. Obama wins, the President will switch one more time and become a reformer demanding limits on money in politics. And good liberals will praise him for it. (WSJ, 2/8/2012)
The article also reminds us of the head fake that Obama pulled on John McCain regarding campaign financing in the last election. Do Liberals even notice Obama's hypocrisy anymore?
Facing vocal opposition from religious leaders and an escalating political fight, the White House sought on Tuesday to ease mounting objections to a new administration rule that would require health insurance plans — including those offered by Catholic universities and charities — to offer birth control to women free of charge. (NYT, 2/7/2012)
More free stuff! The way it works is like this: drug companies incur the costs associated with the manufacture of birth control products; these are provided to doctors and health clinics who incur the costs associated with distributing them to people; health insurance companies apparently then agree to just give them to patients for free. It is kind of like magic.
Down the Avenue
That's the meaning of the White House decision, announced late Monday night, to encourage donations to a struggling Super PAC trying to raise money to attack President Obama's Republican opponent this year. This would be the same kind of political action committee that Mr. Obama and other good liberals have been denouncing for months as an avenue for corruption and a blight on America's national honor. ... After the election, and especially if Mr. Obama wins, the President will switch one more time and become a reformer demanding limits on money in politics. And good liberals will praise him for it. (WSJ, 2/8/2012)
The article also reminds us of the head fake that Obama pulled on John McCain regarding campaign financing in the last election. Do Liberals even notice Obama's hypocrisy anymore?
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
The Spur Of Peril
RedStateVT is reading Winston Churchill's account of World War II. It is a fabulous retelling by one of history's greats. Which, of course, reminds us that one of Obama's first acts was to return a bust of Churchill to the Brits....
Pardon Us
President Barack Obama’s reelection campaign is moving to actively support a pro-Obama group that has struggled to raise money, hoping wealthy supporters will give large contributions and counter the impact of well-funded groups doing the same for Republicans.
To encourage donations, senior campaign officials, White House aides and Cabinet members will speak at fundraising events for Priorities USA, a group started by two former White House aides. The group, a so-called “Super PAC,” is legally entitled to accept unlimited donations from individuals and corporations but has failed to raise much money. Some Democrats blame lack of overt support from Mr. Obama.
The president repeatedly railed against the influence of groups like this during the 2010 midterm elections, and he rejected outside support for his 2008 campaign. Obama campaign manager Jim Messina acknowledged the contradiction in a note posted on the campaign’s blog late Monday and said Mr. Obama would still like to change the law to bar these operations. (WSJ, 2/7/2012)
Colonel Bernie Sanders could not be reached for comment.
Pardon You
Two American brothers of a Mexican casino magnate who fled drug and fraud charges in the United States and has been seeking a pardon enabling him to return have emerged as major fund-raisers and donors for President Obama’s re-election campaign. ... the campaign said it was refunding the money raised by the family, which totaled more than $200,000. (NYT, 2/6/2012)
Colonel Bernie Sanders could not be reached for comment.
Pardon Us
President Barack Obama’s reelection campaign is moving to actively support a pro-Obama group that has struggled to raise money, hoping wealthy supporters will give large contributions and counter the impact of well-funded groups doing the same for Republicans.
To encourage donations, senior campaign officials, White House aides and Cabinet members will speak at fundraising events for Priorities USA, a group started by two former White House aides. The group, a so-called “Super PAC,” is legally entitled to accept unlimited donations from individuals and corporations but has failed to raise much money. Some Democrats blame lack of overt support from Mr. Obama.
The president repeatedly railed against the influence of groups like this during the 2010 midterm elections, and he rejected outside support for his 2008 campaign. Obama campaign manager Jim Messina acknowledged the contradiction in a note posted on the campaign’s blog late Monday and said Mr. Obama would still like to change the law to bar these operations. (WSJ, 2/7/2012)
Colonel Bernie Sanders could not be reached for comment.
Pardon You
Two American brothers of a Mexican casino magnate who fled drug and fraud charges in the United States and has been seeking a pardon enabling him to return have emerged as major fund-raisers and donors for President Obama’s re-election campaign. ... the campaign said it was refunding the money raised by the family, which totaled more than $200,000. (NYT, 2/6/2012)
Colonel Bernie Sanders could not be reached for comment.
Monday, February 6, 2012
Hey Now
Troubled Child
A more troubling interpretation is that a conservative majority knew exactly what it was doing: that it set out to remake our political system by fiat in order to strengthen the hand of corporations and the wealthy....American politics has become a bazaar for the very wealthy and for increasingly aggressive corporations. We might consider having candidates wear corporate logos. (E.J. Dionne Jr. Washington Post, 2/6/2012)
Taking Dionne's suggestion then, Obama would wear a Goldman Sachs logo on one sleeve and a GM logo on the other. SEIU would be emblazoned above his chest pocket. On his hat would be the name Solyndra.
Baseline Jumper
The conservative American Enterprise Institute estimated that if the labor participation rate – the portion of adults in the workforce or seeking work – was the same as when Obama took office, the baseline unemployment rate would be 11 percent. (Foxnews.com, 2/6/2012)
All that high-fiving in the White House may be ill-advised.
A more troubling interpretation is that a conservative majority knew exactly what it was doing: that it set out to remake our political system by fiat in order to strengthen the hand of corporations and the wealthy....American politics has become a bazaar for the very wealthy and for increasingly aggressive corporations. We might consider having candidates wear corporate logos. (E.J. Dionne Jr. Washington Post, 2/6/2012)
Taking Dionne's suggestion then, Obama would wear a Goldman Sachs logo on one sleeve and a GM logo on the other. SEIU would be emblazoned above his chest pocket. On his hat would be the name Solyndra.
Baseline Jumper
The conservative American Enterprise Institute estimated that if the labor participation rate – the portion of adults in the workforce or seeking work – was the same as when Obama took office, the baseline unemployment rate would be 11 percent. (Foxnews.com, 2/6/2012)
All that high-fiving in the White House may be ill-advised.
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Hand To Hand
Self-Inflicted
By and large, their shoes are good; some have smartphones.....
At 38, Ms. Lewis has three sons with three men....
Out came Apple Jacks and Frosted Flakes, bought for the morning. (NYT, 2/3/2012)
One of those stories that the Times runs regularly about the plight of the poor. Conservatives are deemed heartless when it comes to poverty. Actually, it is more like frustrated.
Illegal and Rare
A combined 58 percent of Americans stated that abortion should either be “illegal in all circumstances” or “legal in only a few circumstances.” .... But if you’ve followed the media frenzy surrounding the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation’s decision — which it backpedaled from, with an apology, after a wave of frankly brutal coverage — to discontinue about $700,000 in funding for Planned Parenthood, you would think all these millions of anti-abortion Americans simply do not exist.... Planned Parenthood likes to claim that abortion accounts for just 3 percent of its services, for instance, and this statistic has been endlessly recycled in the press. But the percentage of the group’s clients who received an abortion is probably closer to 1 in 10, and Planned Parenthood’s critics have estimated, plausibly, that between 30 and 40 percent of its health center revenue is from abortion. (Ross Douthat, NYT, 2/4/2012)
There are few issues about which the media gets more energized (Mitt Romney's taxes being another) than abortion. And so there are few issues about which it is more dishonest. Good column by Douthat.
Quests and Openness and Promises
Each case grows out of a struggle between left and right where politics have pushed the law: between a quest for universal coverage and the defense of big health care providers; between an emphasis on openness and hostility toward immigrants; and between a promise of access to the voting booth made nearly 50 years ago and the unyielding opposition to keeping that promise. (NYT editorial, 2/4/2012)
This is how the New York Times editors frame the health care, immigration and voting rights issues. Yes, it is as though they have turned the editorial page over to a high school civics class.
Evolving and Devolving
The evolving strategy (in Afghanistan) is far different from the withdrawal plan for Iraq, where almost all American forces, conventional or otherwise, have left. Iraq has devolved into sectarian violence ever since the withdrawal in December, which threatens to undo the political and security gains there. (NYT, 2/4/2012)
Just a reminder for those who have been touting Obama's foreign policy accomplishments as a strength heading into the next election. (Good job NYT!)
By and large, their shoes are good; some have smartphones.....
At 38, Ms. Lewis has three sons with three men....
Out came Apple Jacks and Frosted Flakes, bought for the morning. (NYT, 2/3/2012)
One of those stories that the Times runs regularly about the plight of the poor. Conservatives are deemed heartless when it comes to poverty. Actually, it is more like frustrated.
Illegal and Rare
A combined 58 percent of Americans stated that abortion should either be “illegal in all circumstances” or “legal in only a few circumstances.” .... But if you’ve followed the media frenzy surrounding the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation’s decision — which it backpedaled from, with an apology, after a wave of frankly brutal coverage — to discontinue about $700,000 in funding for Planned Parenthood, you would think all these millions of anti-abortion Americans simply do not exist.... Planned Parenthood likes to claim that abortion accounts for just 3 percent of its services, for instance, and this statistic has been endlessly recycled in the press. But the percentage of the group’s clients who received an abortion is probably closer to 1 in 10, and Planned Parenthood’s critics have estimated, plausibly, that between 30 and 40 percent of its health center revenue is from abortion. (Ross Douthat, NYT, 2/4/2012)
There are few issues about which the media gets more energized (Mitt Romney's taxes being another) than abortion. And so there are few issues about which it is more dishonest. Good column by Douthat.
Quests and Openness and Promises
Each case grows out of a struggle between left and right where politics have pushed the law: between a quest for universal coverage and the defense of big health care providers; between an emphasis on openness and hostility toward immigrants; and between a promise of access to the voting booth made nearly 50 years ago and the unyielding opposition to keeping that promise. (NYT editorial, 2/4/2012)
This is how the New York Times editors frame the health care, immigration and voting rights issues. Yes, it is as though they have turned the editorial page over to a high school civics class.
Evolving and Devolving
The evolving strategy (in Afghanistan) is far different from the withdrawal plan for Iraq, where almost all American forces, conventional or otherwise, have left. Iraq has devolved into sectarian violence ever since the withdrawal in December, which threatens to undo the political and security gains there. (NYT, 2/4/2012)
Just a reminder for those who have been touting Obama's foreign policy accomplishments as a strength heading into the next election. (Good job NYT!)
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Not Buying It
Shadow Dance
Yet Citizens United, which allows unlimited corporate and union political spending, casts a partisan shadow over the Court two years later. For many, the five-member conservative majority's decision to strike down an act of Congress may presage a willingness to do the same in the health care cases. (Huffington Post, 2/3/2012)
Loved this one! When the courts decide an issue against Liberals it is "partisan." When the decision goes their way it is 'just."
Far and Away
Mr. Buffett’s overall rate was about 17 percent, largely because the federal government taxes most investments as capital gains at a top rate of 15 percent, far less than the top rate on wages. (NYT, 2/3/2012)
So Buffett pays about the same rate as Mitt Romney. But because he is a liberal Democrat and he publicly says that he "wants" to pay more, he gets a free pass from the media. Meanwhile Romney is excoriated.
To Infinity (and Beyond)
The front wheels have lifted off the runway. Now, Americans are waiting to see if the economy can truly get aloft....
Small businesses, though, are still not hiring much. And while sales of existing homes have started to rise, home prices continue to fall. Incomes are not growing and consumer spending is still restrained, and could come under further pressure with gas prices edging higher in recent months and as consumers revert to building up savings. (NYT, 2/3/2012)
Small businesses - the true engine of the U.S. economy - are not hiring. Home prices are falling. Income is stagnant. Consumer spending is stalled. Gas prices are rising. But the Obama economy is taking off!
Really Cool
Higher education institutions are predictably cool to President Obama’s proposal to shift federal aid away from colleges that fail to control rising tuition. (NYT, 2/3/2012)
Like those Wall Street firms who donated heavily to Obama only to become the object of his wrath, the Liberal bastions of education will now get their turn. Wall Street may have learned its lesson. We'll see if university administrators do.
This is what happens when Liberals govern. They have an insatiable need to "fix" things and inevitably end up making matters worse.
Adaptation
The Obama administration has given Catholics a year to adapt to the new rule, which is a laughably obtuse approach. The Catholic Church is a 2,000-year-old institution that has faced more severe persecutions than a government mandate to provide funding for morning-after pills. But this politically inept and morally fungible step does reveal utter disregard for religious liberty. (Kathleen Parker, Washington Post, 2/3/2012)
The best comment we have read on the Obama administration's assault on the Catholic Church.
Yet Citizens United, which allows unlimited corporate and union political spending, casts a partisan shadow over the Court two years later. For many, the five-member conservative majority's decision to strike down an act of Congress may presage a willingness to do the same in the health care cases. (Huffington Post, 2/3/2012)
Loved this one! When the courts decide an issue against Liberals it is "partisan." When the decision goes their way it is 'just."
Far and Away
Mr. Buffett’s overall rate was about 17 percent, largely because the federal government taxes most investments as capital gains at a top rate of 15 percent, far less than the top rate on wages. (NYT, 2/3/2012)
So Buffett pays about the same rate as Mitt Romney. But because he is a liberal Democrat and he publicly says that he "wants" to pay more, he gets a free pass from the media. Meanwhile Romney is excoriated.
To Infinity (and Beyond)
The front wheels have lifted off the runway. Now, Americans are waiting to see if the economy can truly get aloft....
Small businesses, though, are still not hiring much. And while sales of existing homes have started to rise, home prices continue to fall. Incomes are not growing and consumer spending is still restrained, and could come under further pressure with gas prices edging higher in recent months and as consumers revert to building up savings. (NYT, 2/3/2012)
Small businesses - the true engine of the U.S. economy - are not hiring. Home prices are falling. Income is stagnant. Consumer spending is stalled. Gas prices are rising. But the Obama economy is taking off!
Really Cool
Higher education institutions are predictably cool to President Obama’s proposal to shift federal aid away from colleges that fail to control rising tuition. (NYT, 2/3/2012)
Like those Wall Street firms who donated heavily to Obama only to become the object of his wrath, the Liberal bastions of education will now get their turn. Wall Street may have learned its lesson. We'll see if university administrators do.
This is what happens when Liberals govern. They have an insatiable need to "fix" things and inevitably end up making matters worse.
Adaptation
The Obama administration has given Catholics a year to adapt to the new rule, which is a laughably obtuse approach. The Catholic Church is a 2,000-year-old institution that has faced more severe persecutions than a government mandate to provide funding for morning-after pills. But this politically inept and morally fungible step does reveal utter disregard for religious liberty. (Kathleen Parker, Washington Post, 2/3/2012)
The best comment we have read on the Obama administration's assault on the Catholic Church.
Friday, February 3, 2012
Straight And Stronger Course
Devotion
The abandonment of the president by the financial sector has, indeed, been remarkable in scope and speed. Some of the very companies whose employees cut checks for Obama in 2008 now seem fully devoted to funding his competitor in 2012. (Huffington Post, 2/2/2012)
Perhaps Wall Street is not so dumb after all.
Rank and Roiled
The nation’s leading breast cancer advocacy organization confronted the growing furor Thursday over its decision to largely end its decades-long partnership with Planned Parenthood, with rising dissension in its own ranks and a roiling anger on the Internet showing the power of social media to harness protest. (NYT, 2/2/2012)
The Komen Foundation runs headlong into the buzzsaw of abortion advocates. Don't buy the bull about "women's healthcare" and "underserved poor women." The issue is abortion.
And then, hounded by pro-abortion fascists, Komen folds.....
Susan G. Komen for the Cure said on Friday it was retreating from a decision to cut funding to Planned Parenthood, which provides abortion and birth control services, and apologized for a move that thrust the breast cancer charity into a deeply politicized controversy. (NYT, 2/3/2012)
The abandonment of the president by the financial sector has, indeed, been remarkable in scope and speed. Some of the very companies whose employees cut checks for Obama in 2008 now seem fully devoted to funding his competitor in 2012. (Huffington Post, 2/2/2012)
Perhaps Wall Street is not so dumb after all.
Rank and Roiled
The nation’s leading breast cancer advocacy organization confronted the growing furor Thursday over its decision to largely end its decades-long partnership with Planned Parenthood, with rising dissension in its own ranks and a roiling anger on the Internet showing the power of social media to harness protest. (NYT, 2/2/2012)
The Komen Foundation runs headlong into the buzzsaw of abortion advocates. Don't buy the bull about "women's healthcare" and "underserved poor women." The issue is abortion.
And then, hounded by pro-abortion fascists, Komen folds.....
Susan G. Komen for the Cure said on Friday it was retreating from a decision to cut funding to Planned Parenthood, which provides abortion and birth control services, and apologized for a move that thrust the breast cancer charity into a deeply politicized controversy. (NYT, 2/3/2012)
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Heartland
Field Notes
Loyal readers know that RedStateVT periodically hits the road to do on-the-ground research so as to better reflect the tenor of the the average American, i.e. not people in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. This past week RedStateVT traveled to the mid-West. What did we find? Football, faith and firearms. Yes, as much as it rankles coastal Liberal elites, these are the things that middle America holds dear and they have nothing to apologize for.
In other news while we were gone, we noted the following:
--Another green energy company folded (how many is that now?). Crazy Joe, the VEEP, called it Enron 1.
--Indiana is close to passing a "right to work" law. For those of you not up on this, such laws prohibit unions from automatically deducting dues from your paycheck. Liberals are in favor of "choice" except when it comes to payroll deductions for dues to fund contributions to Democrats.
--Oakland exploded in another wave of violence from the peace-loving Occupiers.
Keeping Secrets
Newly disclosed details of the millions of dollars flowing into political groups are highlighting not just the scale of donations from corporation and unions but also the secrecy surrounding “super PACs” seeking to influence the presidential race. (NYT, 2/1/2012)
The Times comes clean on the union money supporting politicians but then spends the bulk of the article talking about hidden rich Republican donors.
Sands of Nevada
...(unemployment) is 13 percent today, the highest in the nation. The optimism and political spirit that enlivened Nevadans as they found themselves at ground zero in the fight for the White House have been replaced with gloom and apathy. Voters speak of abandoned homes, dispiriting battles in Washington and disappointment with President Obama. (NYT, 2/1/2012)
Two words to Nevadans: Harry Reid.
High Anxiety
Mr. Obama may not know much about the private economy, but he knows a lot about the uses of human anxiety. Proposing to replace his own bad economy with a virtual substitute "built to last" allows Mr. Obama to place himself outside the White House and on the street making common cause with the genuine economic anxieties of the American people. It also lets this president put in motion what he thinks he knows best—empathy. In "The Audacity of Hope" he put empathy "at the heart of my moral code." Practice makes perfect.
It is beyond audacious. How can a president simultaneously hammer real job creation with the Keystone XL pipeline decision, then go into the country and claim kinship with the anxieties of the jobless? No problem. Just do it. (Daniel Henninger, WSJ, 2/2/2012)
Good column from Henninger although we disagree with his concern that people will be snowed by Obama's tactic. We think that after three plus years, the folks pretty much see through Obama.
Loyal readers know that RedStateVT periodically hits the road to do on-the-ground research so as to better reflect the tenor of the the average American, i.e. not people in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. This past week RedStateVT traveled to the mid-West. What did we find? Football, faith and firearms. Yes, as much as it rankles coastal Liberal elites, these are the things that middle America holds dear and they have nothing to apologize for.
In other news while we were gone, we noted the following:
--Another green energy company folded (how many is that now?). Crazy Joe, the VEEP, called it Enron 1.
--Indiana is close to passing a "right to work" law. For those of you not up on this, such laws prohibit unions from automatically deducting dues from your paycheck. Liberals are in favor of "choice" except when it comes to payroll deductions for dues to fund contributions to Democrats.
--Oakland exploded in another wave of violence from the peace-loving Occupiers.
Keeping Secrets
Newly disclosed details of the millions of dollars flowing into political groups are highlighting not just the scale of donations from corporation and unions but also the secrecy surrounding “super PACs” seeking to influence the presidential race. (NYT, 2/1/2012)
The Times comes clean on the union money supporting politicians but then spends the bulk of the article talking about hidden rich Republican donors.
Sands of Nevada
...(unemployment) is 13 percent today, the highest in the nation. The optimism and political spirit that enlivened Nevadans as they found themselves at ground zero in the fight for the White House have been replaced with gloom and apathy. Voters speak of abandoned homes, dispiriting battles in Washington and disappointment with President Obama. (NYT, 2/1/2012)
Two words to Nevadans: Harry Reid.
High Anxiety
Mr. Obama may not know much about the private economy, but he knows a lot about the uses of human anxiety. Proposing to replace his own bad economy with a virtual substitute "built to last" allows Mr. Obama to place himself outside the White House and on the street making common cause with the genuine economic anxieties of the American people. It also lets this president put in motion what he thinks he knows best—empathy. In "The Audacity of Hope" he put empathy "at the heart of my moral code." Practice makes perfect.
It is beyond audacious. How can a president simultaneously hammer real job creation with the Keystone XL pipeline decision, then go into the country and claim kinship with the anxieties of the jobless? No problem. Just do it. (Daniel Henninger, WSJ, 2/2/2012)
Good column from Henninger although we disagree with his concern that people will be snowed by Obama's tactic. We think that after three plus years, the folks pretty much see through Obama.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
All Good People
Super Duper
Close to 60 corporations and wealthy individuals gave checks of $100,000 or more to a “super PAC” supporting Mitt Romney in the months leading up to the Iowa caucuses, according to documents released on Tuesday, underwriting a $17 million blitz of advertising that has swamped his Republican rivals in the early primary states. (NYT, 1/31/2012)
As reported by the New York Times, Mitt Romney is rich and has rich friends that give him lots of money. Rich, rich, rich. Did we mention that he and his friends are rich? When you are rich and have rich friends, those rich friends will give you money, but only if you are rich (and they are rich, too). That - according to the Times - is how things work among the rich.
By contrast, Obama (who is not as rich as Romney, but does have a million dollar home in Chicago) does not take money from rich people like Warren Buffett, Peter Lewis and Steven Spielberg. What? He does take money from rich people?
By the way, rich Democrats include Nancy Pelosi (really rich), John Kerry (also really rich) and the Kennedys past and present (really, really rich).
Obama Writes Off The (Fill In The Blank) Vote
An analysis a couple of weeks back noted that Obama and the Dems have written off the white working class vote. With his actions on the Keystone pipeline, he has also apparently written off the union vote. And now with his mandate to Catholic hospitals to provide birth control, he has written off the Catholic vote. We would love to see the coalition that his advisers believe he can cobble together to get re-elected. We suspect that it includes the "illegal alien" and "convicted felon" constituencies!
Headlines from the Huffington Post
--Democrats' Plan to Destroy Romney
--Democrats Ready Character Attacks Against Mitt Romney
So, we guess the gloves are off and the civility thing is over.......
Close to 60 corporations and wealthy individuals gave checks of $100,000 or more to a “super PAC” supporting Mitt Romney in the months leading up to the Iowa caucuses, according to documents released on Tuesday, underwriting a $17 million blitz of advertising that has swamped his Republican rivals in the early primary states. (NYT, 1/31/2012)
As reported by the New York Times, Mitt Romney is rich and has rich friends that give him lots of money. Rich, rich, rich. Did we mention that he and his friends are rich? When you are rich and have rich friends, those rich friends will give you money, but only if you are rich (and they are rich, too). That - according to the Times - is how things work among the rich.
By contrast, Obama (who is not as rich as Romney, but does have a million dollar home in Chicago) does not take money from rich people like Warren Buffett, Peter Lewis and Steven Spielberg. What? He does take money from rich people?
By the way, rich Democrats include Nancy Pelosi (really rich), John Kerry (also really rich) and the Kennedys past and present (really, really rich).
Obama Writes Off The (Fill In The Blank) Vote
An analysis a couple of weeks back noted that Obama and the Dems have written off the white working class vote. With his actions on the Keystone pipeline, he has also apparently written off the union vote. And now with his mandate to Catholic hospitals to provide birth control, he has written off the Catholic vote. We would love to see the coalition that his advisers believe he can cobble together to get re-elected. We suspect that it includes the "illegal alien" and "convicted felon" constituencies!
Headlines from the Huffington Post
--Democrats' Plan to Destroy Romney
--Democrats Ready Character Attacks Against Mitt Romney
So, we guess the gloves are off and the civility thing is over.......
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