RedStateVT

Mercenary Territory

2012-01-22T18:33:00.000-05:00

Crystal Clear
His answer is to make it crystal clear in the Constitution that corporations are not people, through his Saving American Democracy Amendment. (Bernie Sanders e-mail, 1/20/2012)

U.S. Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia has a simple solution for people who don't like all the political advertisements unleashed by the court's decision two years ago that ended limits on corporate contributions in political campaigns – change the channel or turn off the TV. (Huffington Post.com, 1/21/2012)

Scalia tells Bernie Sanders what to do! And, by the way, if corporations are not "people" does that mean that unions are not people either?

Ethics Violation
It was Mr. Gingrich who pulled the race into the gutter, where he found considerable support. He repeatedly called Mr. Obama “the greatest food-stamp president in American history,” and lectured a black questioner at Monday’s debate about the amount of federal handouts to blacks, suggesting their work ethic was questionable. (NYT, 1/22/2012)

It's always racism with Liberals. More than half the country opposes Obamacare? Racism! Obama's approval ratings below 50%? Racism! Gingrich wins South Carolina? Racism!

Got the Fever
The foreign minister’s statements, taken with other developments, suggests that the war fever over a quick confrontation at the strait is ebbing. There’s no progress yet on the core issue of Iran’s nuclear program, but the United States has clarified its “red lines” in the crisis, and Iran has indicated by its public response that it understands. (David Ignatius, Washington Post, 1/20/2012)

Post writer Ignatius tells us that the Iranians got the tough message sent by the U.S. and now - presumably - we do not have to worry about their nuclear weapons development program. Naivete can be charming......and deadly. We trust the Iranians at our own peril, a lesson learned from the North Koreans.

Tilted
Deborah Howell, Post ombudsman from 2005 through 2008, said at the end of her tenure that “some of the conservatives’ complaints about a liberal tilt [at The Post] are valid.” I won’t quibble with her conclusion. I think she was right. (Patrick B. Pexton, Washington Post, 1/20/2012)

The Washington Post vows that THIS time they are really going to examine the Obama record.

Mind Control

2012-01-21T08:23:00.000-05:00

Fueled
Many church-affiliated institutions will have to cover free birth control for employees, the Obama administration announced Friday in an election-year move that outraged religious groups, fueling a national debate about the reach of government.

In a concession, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said nonprofit institutions such as church-affiliated hospitals, colleges and social service agencies will have one additional year to comply with the requirement, issued in regulations under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul. (Townhall.com, 1/20/2012)

What if - RedStateVT wonders - President Santorum issued an executive order that all non-profit organizations would have to provide religious counseling to employees before paying for their free birth control? What would Liberals even say?

Piping Hot
“President Obama’s decision on the Keystone XL pipeline is a major setback for the American economy, American workers, and America’s energy independence,” Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., said.

“The rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline permit is a missed opportunity to drastically turn this economy around. This pipeline would have created thousands of new jobs and helped to ensure our energy independence,” Rep. Jason Altmire, D-Pa., lamented.

“This delay is just playing politics with American jobs and American energy security,” Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, pointed out. (from MichelleMalkin.com, 1/20/2012)

Dems weigh in on Keystone. Dems who want to keep their jobs, that is.

Trans-Ceremony
Massachusetts officially became the 16th state to treat transgender citizens as a protected class today as Governor Deval Patrick hosted a ceremonial signing of the groundbreaking rights bill.

As Colorlines is reporting, the law legally protects transgender individuals from discrimination in housing, education, employment and credit, in addition to providing additional civil rights and protections from hate crimes. (Huffington Post, 1/20/2012)

Frankly we just never got the whole protected class/hate crimes thing. There are already laws that protect people from discrimination. And there are already laws that protect citizens from crimes. To us, it seems like nothing more than finding new ways to slice and define the Liberal pie. Eventually ALL Liberals will fall into a pre-determined protected class.

You Can Find It Any Time

2012-01-20T12:25:00.000-05:00

Taxing
It's Republican primary time so we have to have a national conversation about the tax filings of the contenders. (Precious little time was spent - by the way - on Bill Clinton's returns. You remember - the one where he deducted the donation of his used boxer shorts. Likewise, there was almost no discussion about the Obamas' stingy charitable contributions.)

Anyway, here is another way of looking at the question of Mitt Romney's taxes. Did he pay what the tax code said he was supposed to pay or did he break the law? If he paid what he was supposed to pay then this part of the discussion is over. Critics can then work to change the tax code so he is forced to pay whatever they think is the right amount. Put another way, do we want to elect a president who is dumb enough to pay MORE taxes than he is supposed to pay?

One more thing. Romney tithes ten per cent to his church. How much - we wonder - does Obama give to his?

LGBTQRSPWC
In South Carolina, Rick Santorum has fielded fewer questions on LGBT rights than he did in New Hampshire, but things got tense on Thursday when a transgender activist stormed his press conference in Mt. Pleasant.

Kneena Raheja, 20, yelled, "Mr. Santorum, you have spilled queer blood!" as the GOP presidential hopeful finished speaking, according to BuzzFeed. (Huffington Post, 1/19/2012)

This is what Republican candidates for president have to endure.

Banished
But he stays out of those halls, thanks to restrictions on his ability to lobby Congress until 2013. (NYT, 1/19/2012)

Former high-ranking Democrat Chris Dodd (who along with Barney Frank attempted to exculpate his own sins by burdening the country with the Dodd-Frank legislation) has become.....A LOBBYIST! Well that was fast. What we don't get in this puff piece by the New York Times are the insinuations of nefarious doings that we get when a Republican is outed as......A LOBBYIST!

Block and Tackle
A federal judge on Thursday blocked Vermont from forcing the Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor to shut down when its license expires in March, saying that the state is trying to regulate nuclear safety, which only the federal government can do. ...Vermont Yankee produces more than 70 percent of the electricity generated in the state... (NYT, 1/20/2012)

So for now at least, the lights will remain on in Vermont. Sales of candles will decline, but that should not hurt the local economy which will see the 600 jobs at Vermont Yankee preserved. Notwithstanding Governor Shumlim's protestations, we cannot help but think that he is secretly relieved. By publicly supporting the closing of the plant he maintains his credibility with Vermont's mooonbat Left. Further, the judge's decision gets him off the hook for figuring out how to replace almost 3/4s of the state's energy. On the downside, he can now focus full-time on state-run health care.

Whatever

2012-01-19T13:29:00.000-05:00

The Press Vets Romney
Here is what the state-controlled media focused on yesterday as they work diligently to introduce Mitt Romney to the public: his tax rate and polygamy. Yes, that is correct. Apparently the 15% tax rate that Romney paid is not high enough for Liberals (even though it is the legal rate for investment income). No mention was made that the money that was taxed at 15% had ALREADY been taxed at a higher rate as earned income. Likewise, no mention was made that Romney did not take a salary as Massachusetts governor. Then - after swatting him around on these issues - they turned to polygamy as practiced by radical Mormons (but not Romney). Harry Reid - another Mormon, but a Democrat - was not discussed. Nor were the radical beliefs of some Muslims.

Meanwhile here is what the honorable press did NOT discuss about Obama - the Democrat presidential candidate: the shady Chicago real estate deal wherein the Obamas bought a strip of land next to their Chicago mansion at a reduced price from a convicted felon. Nor was there any discussion about the fact that Obama's college and law school transcripts have never been released - notwithstanding that this is demanded of every Republican candidate. We can only guess that he must not have done very well and releasing them would shatter the story the press has advanced that Obama is extraordinarily brilliant.

Full Voice
As Mr. Obama moves toward a full-throated campaign, delivering a State of the Union address on Tuesday and inching closer to directly confronting his Republican challenger, a majority of independent voters have soured on his presidency, disapprove of how he has dealt with the economy and do not have a clear idea of what he hopes to accomplish if re-elected. (NYT, 1/18/2012)

Soured, disapproving and unclear. Sounds like three strikes!

Of Shovels...and Jobs
The American Petroleum Institute, the industry’s main lobbying group, has begun a multimillion-dollar lobbying and advertising campaign promoting the pipeline. Jack N. Gerard, the group’s president, was unusually harsh in his remarks on Mr. Obama’s decision. “How can you say you are for jobs and reject the largest shovel-ready project in America today?” Mr. Gerard said at an energy forum on Wednesday afternoon. “Mr. President, what are you thinking?” (NYT, 1/19/2012)

To be fair, Obama says that more time is needed to study the potential issues associated with building the pipeline. But wait, what is this?:

Keystone XL has been planned for years and only became a political issue after the well-to-do environmental lobby decided to make it a station of the green cross. TransCanada filed its application in 2008, and State determined in 2010 and then again last year that the project would have "no significant impacts" on the environment, following exhaustive studies. The Environmental Protection Agency chose to intervene anyway, and the political left began to issue ultimatums and demonstrate in front of the White House, so President Obama decided to defer a final decision until after the election. (WSJ, 1/19/2012)

So the issue HAS been studied and a verdict rendered!

Calling Chevy Chase
Vice President Joe Biden had his “oops” moment Wednesday speaking in a 49er-crazed San Francisco when he told a crowd at a city political fundraiser that “the Giants are on their way to the Super Bowl.” (SFGate.com, 1/19/2012)

We cannot wait until Biden hits the campaign trail!

Day Or Night

2012-01-18T16:23:00.000-05:00

Propeller
Even as student enrollment declined by 18%, Vermont's education revenues jumped from $850M in 1999 to $1.5B in 2011 - propelled by a convoluted funding mechanism that has fueled increasing staff levels. While enrollment has been falling, the report found that, from 1999-00 to 2009-10, teaching positions increased by 3.1%, and administrative staffing levels increased by 22% from 2000-01 and 2009-10. (VTGOP.com, 1/9/2012)

Anytime that you hear Liberals talk about how the country needs to "invest more in....(fill in the blank)" you can almost certainly bet that they are paying off their donors. You can also bet that the money will be wasted. And so RedStateVT calls for government to invest LESS in education, green jobs and infrastructure!

Depth Charge
Mr. Gingrich is correct that food stamp program participation is at record levels but he ignores the depth of the recession inherited by Mr. Obama when he took office. (NYT, 1/17/2012)

So Gingrich was right after all! (Except it is all Bush's fault).

Laughing Boy
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 Jr., Washington Post, 1/15/2012)

From Great Britain to Greece, their citizens take to the streets to protest (and commit violence) whenever their governments threaten to cut - however slightly - their government goodies. The highly productive and innovative capitalist economies that Dionne is referring to (but does not name) include Germany which has reduced its entitlement obligations.

That Thing They Do

2012-01-17T12:27:00.000-05:00

Land of the Free
RedStateVT is constantly reminded by Liberals that the U.S. is the ONLY civilized nation in the world that does not have free health care for its people.....or some such variant. (Of course, as we have noted previously, someone always has to pay for "free" but that is another story.) Yet when RedStateVT asks which country they would like to emulate that provides better, faster, cheaper health care, they never have an answer and usually say something like: Bush lied.

And, by the way, we will NOT accept "Cuba" as an answer!

Outrage (The Selective Kind)
As the Obamas return from another million dollar vacation and word leaks out about their million dollar Halloween party, we can only ask: Where is the outrage from the Occupy crowd?

Vows
Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, declared that “we have to realize that our schools are not an employment program” and vowed to press for the speedy establishment of a statewide teacher evaluation system. (NYT, 1/16/2011)

He took on public employee unions. Now he appears willing to take on the teachers' union. On the negative side, he raised taxes. Overall, however, we give Cuomo credit for recognizing where the fundamental problems lay and attempting to cure them.

Air Time
Yes, in the Bush years the air was also thick with accusations that the Constitution was being "shredded." We now know that the professed concern for the Constitution was fake. We know it was fake because the same Bush claims of executive authority in war that provoked such apoplexy in our pundits, professors and politicos have for the most part been embraced by Mr. Obama—all to the distinct sound of silence. (William McGurn, WSJ, 1/17/2012)

We are still awaiting the thoughtful Liberal who reflects, and then announces: maybe we were unfair toward Bush...

Exegesis

2012-01-16T11:35:00.000-05:00

Reworked
A few years ago, for instance, Germany’s budget deficit was higher than Spain’s, but the competitiveness of the German economy far outpaced that of its southern neighbor. A major reason is that Germany had spent the better part of a decade reworking its inflexible labor market and revising a costly and cumbersome social safety net. Those changes have helped turn Germany into the economic powerhouse it is today. (NYT, 1/16/2012)

So the Germans figured out how to avoid economic Armageddon. Meanwhile Democrats continue pushing the U.S. toward the precipice:

By a state deadline on Tuesday, these volunteers, many of them Democrats and union supporters, say they will submit at least 720,000 names on petitions to recall Gov. Scott Walker, the Republican who curtailed collective bargaining rights for public workers, leading to a face-off in this state. (NYT, 1/16/2012)

Bottom Feeding
The Senate’s top Democrat on Sunday accused Republicans — three times — of “obstructionism on steroids," which he blamed for Congress’s rock-bottom approval ratings this year.

“I would hope that they understand that everything doesn’t have to be a fight,” Reid said of the GOP on NBC's “Meet the Press.” “Legislation is an art of working together … and I hope that the tea party doesn’t have the influence this year that they had in the previous year.” (Politico.com, 1/15/2012)

Reid, of course, is widely admired for his bipartisan approach to passing Obamacare. Just kidding!

Say It Loud
“I want to hear from them — do they support Dr. King and the New South movement? Do they appreciate Dr. King’s legacy?” Jackson told POLITICO. “These candidates talk about free enterprise, but do they understand that there would be no Boeing plant in South Carolina if blacks and whites couldn’t work together? That you couldn’t have CNN with a segregated Atlanta, or a Disney World in a segregated Florida?” (Politico.com, 1/16/2012)

In a nation with black congressmen, governors, mayors, CEOs, coaches - indeed with blacks in leadership roles throughout American society - one-trick-pony Jesse Jackson proves once again that he is a walking anachronism. Oh, and there is an African American president as well.

Change Of Plans

2012-01-15T12:05:00.000-05:00

Revealing
Two longtime Republican congressmen have acknowledged that their names appeared on a list of House members who received special loans through a Countrywide Financial program that set off a Congressional inquiry into whether the disgraced mortgage firm granted special treatment to politically connected clients. (NYT, 1/14/2012)

Only the New York Times could write an article about Countrywide Financial loans to politicians and NOT mention its loan to Democrat Christopher Dodd WHO WAS THE CHAIRMAN OF THE SENATE BANKING COMMITTEE! As a public service, RedStateVT reminds readers:

...it was revealed that Senate Banking Committee chairman Christopher Dodd (D., Conn.) got a sweetheart deal on his Washington, D.C., townhouse directly from Angelo Mozilo, the CEO of troubled subprime-mortgage lender Countrywide Financial. Participating in the “Friends of Angelo” program saved Dodd about $75,000 on his mortgage, and raised more than a few eyebrows about whether Dodd should be accepting such hefty gifts from entities he’s tasked with overseeing and regulating. (Nationreview.com, 1/29/2009)

Essences
That was the essence of the “Southern strategy” that Republicans, beginning with Richard Nixon, used to urge white voters to defect from a Democratic Party that supported civil rights. (NYT, 1/14/2012)

The Republican Party opposed civil rights? Well, the Times has a short memory. Here is how voting in the House of Representatives broke down for the Civil Rights Act of 1964: Dems - 152 (59%) and Repubs - 138 (78%). So actually, Republican support was stronger. And then there is this:

On the critical vote to end the filibuster by Southern Democrats, 71 senators voted to invoke cloture. With 67 votes needed, 44 Democrats and 27 Republicans joined together to bring the bill to a final vote. Of those voting “nay,” 80 percent were Democrats, including Robert C. Byrd and former Vice President Al Gore’s father, who was then a senator from Tennessee. Again, it is clear that the civil rights bill would have failed without Republican votes. (www.capitalgainsandgames.com, 12/7/2009)

The fact-checker for the New York Times is obviously still on vacation.

Failing Grade
A country spending twice as much per capita on education as it did in 1970 with zero effect on test scores is not underinvesting in education. It’s mis-investing. (Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post, 12/8/2011)

Have we not quoted Krauthammer yet this year? Shame on us!

Crying Out

2012-01-14T10:34:00.000-05:00

Battle of Nerves
Reprehensible behavior, combat veterans and military experts say, is an ever-present risk when troops in their teens and early 20s are thrown into nerve-racking battle for months at a time. And if there are weaknesses in their leadership or breakdowns in discipline, that behavior can easily spill over into acts that might be considered war crimes. (NYT, 1/14/2012)

It is now undeniable: the New York Times is THE most dishonestly biased publication masquarading as an objective purveyor of news in the country. Under an Obama presidency, soldiers urinate on enemy corpses and we get this: a nuanced analysis of the psychological stress of war. Under a Bush presidency, soldiers abuse enemy prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison and we get journalistic outrage, calls for Bush, Cheney Rumsfeld, Rice, and various others to resign or be impeached, calls for investigations, court martials, tribunals, demands for reparations, release of prisoners, etc, etc.

Channeling
Not that President Obama won’t have enough money to buy a channel of his own, if he wants one. So far, the president is behind Mitt in the billionaire donor sweepstakes, but he is still doing fine, thank you very much. So well, in fact, that a spokesman for the re-election campaign has been forced to denounce the idea that Obama will raise $1 billion. There’s that number again. (Gail Collins, NYT, 1/14/2012)

This is what qualifies for balance in the New York Times: Collins writes a fifteen paragraph op-ed column decrying Super PACs and billionaire donors to Republicans. To be fair she includes one paragraph about Obama's billionaire donors. But, of course, she fails to name them. So we will. Last time around Obama counted on the support of billionaires including Jobs, Buffett, Lewis and Soros.

Measured Up

2012-01-13T11:17:00.000-05:00

Mission Work
Private equity's impact on job creation has come to forefront over the last week of the Republican presidential candidate primaries, as critics took aim at Mitt Romney's Bain Capital career. Never in my memory have we had a political issue that so distorts reality in favor of emotion in an effort to gain office on an issue that has nothing to do with economic policy in this country. Private equity is a non-issue because capitalism is about generating returns for capital. If you work outside of government, that is your mission. (Thomas J. White, American Banker, 1/12/2012)

At least someone understands the capitalist model. Unfortunately, those that work FOR government apparently do not.

Meritorious
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, directly confronting leaders of the teachers’ union, proposed on Thursday a merit-pay system that would award top performers with $20,000 raises and threatened to remove as many as half of those working in dozens of struggling schools.

Bloomberg (rebounding from his dismal Occupy performance) proposes education initiatives and how do teacher union officials and Democrats react?

...the union’s president, Michael Mulgrew, conspicuously declined to applaud during education-related moments of the speech and declared afterward that the mayor was living in a “fantasy education world,” proposing ideas that he did not have the power to put into effect. The city’s public advocate, Bill de Blasio, called the education proposals “needlessly provocative,” and the Manhattan borough president, Scott M. Stringer, said the mayor was taking “a lone ranger approach to education.” (NYT, 1/12/2012)

Remember this the next time that Obama and Liberals talk about the desperate need to invest in "education." Teachers unions are a massive fund-raising arm of the Democrat party who do not want accountability for their performance.

Looking Good
“We think the fundamentals of the expansion going forward still look good,” Timothy F. Geithner, then president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, told his colleagues when they gathered in Washington in December 2006....The transcripts of the 2006 meetings, released after a standard five-year delay, clearly show some of the nation’s pre-eminent economic minds did not fully understand the basic mechanics of the economy that they were charged with shepherding. The general consensus on the board, summarized by Mr. Geithner, was that problems in the housing market had few broader ramifications.... “We just don’t see troubling signs yet of collateral damage, and we are not expecting much,” he said at the September meeting. (NYT, 1/12/2012)

Where have we heard that name before? Oh, yes, isn't he the current Treasury secretary?

Here is another thing that we recently learned about the Geithners:

...Ann Dunham (mother of Barack Obama) was working on a microfinance program for the Ford Foundation that was overseen by Peter Geithner, the father of Timothy Geithner, the current U.S. Secretary of the Treasury.... (Where's the Birth Certificate, Jerome R. Corsi Ph.D.)

The reason for Obama's loyalty to an ineffective Treasury secretary?

Fun Facts
One-third of the total US debt has been accumulated since President Obama took office. (Fox News, 1/13/2012)

Apotropaic

2012-01-12T17:09:00.000-05:00

Conflict Resolution
About two-thirds of Americans now believe there are “strong conflicts” between rich and poor in the United States, a survey by the Pew Research Center found, a sign that the message of income inequality brandished by the Occupy Wall Street movement and pressed by Democrats may be seeping into the national consciousness. (NYT, 1/12/2012)

So critics of Obama and the Democrats WERE right. Liberals HAVE been engaging in class warfare. "Seeping into the national consciousness?" Well with the non-stop drumbeat of the state-controlled media, how could it not?

Merit-Based
Santorum's political limitation is that his theme is a cultural one--or, more specifically, a countercultural one. His arguments are not without merit, and there is a considerable amount of rot in America's dominant culture. But that culture would not be dominant without the assent of most Americans. (James Taranto, WSJ, 1/12/2012)

The quote above comes from James Taranto, a WSJ columnist who we very much enjoy reading. RedStateVT does, however, take exception to Taranto's point here that most Americans assent to the cultural rot in America. First, let's define "cultural rot." Simple definition: the Kardashians. More broadly it refers to the rampant depiction, and glorification of immorality including drug use, alcohol abuse, promiscuity, profanity, pornography and illegitimacy in society. Make no mistake, the vast majority of Americans deplore these things. So why does it exist? Why is it dominant? Because those who produce it and/or tolerate and promote it control the avenues through which it is disseminated. And those avenues are the airwaves, the frequencies, the ink and even the schools. Academia and the media are not - Hillsdale College and Fox News being among the few exceptions - run by conservatives or even moderates. Liberals dominate here and so the entire country suffers from their cultural excesses.

You're Fired!
Talking about insurance providers, he (Mitt Romney) said: "I want individuals to have their own insurance. That means the insurance company will have an incentive to keep you healthy. It also means if you don't like what they do, you can fire them. I like being able to fire people who provide services to me. You know, if someone doesn't give me a good service that I need, I want to say I'm going to go get someone else to provide that service to me." (Ann Coulter, 1/11/2012)

RedStateVT tends to ignore it when the Huffington Post and the Liberal media splash some seemingly shocking quote from a conservative across the top of their mastheads. One hundred per cent of the time it is something taken out of context. So when Mitt Romney said that he likes to fire people, Liberals cited that as proof positive that he is a heartless capitalist. Turns out he just wants to get what he pays for...like anyone else.

Captivate The Hearts Of Men

2012-01-11T19:07:00.000-05:00

Just for fun RedStateVT recently read "Where's the Birth Certificate" by Jerome R. Corsi. Loyal readers know that we have generally steered clear of the so-called "Birther" controversey, but what better way to get educated? Because Liberals love credentials, academic and otherwise, it is worth noting that Corsi received a Ph.D. from Harvard. Liberals may also remember that Barack Obama attended Harvard Law School.

In any case, rather than debate the question of whether Obama was born in this country, we will simply summarize several points found in the book of which we were not previously aware.

--Obama was born six months after the marriage of his parents.

--His mother left Hawaii for Washington state within weeks of Obama's birth leaving her husband behind.

--Barack Obama Sr. was already married to a Kenyan woman when he married Ann Dunham.

--Because his father was a Kenyan and because Kenya had not yet gained its independence from Great Britain, Obama was a dual citizen of the U.S. and the United Kingdom at the time of his birth.

--Supporters of Obama's presidential bid were the original "Birthers" questioning the eligibility of opponent John McCain. McCain was born to military parents in the Panama Canal Zone.

--Barack Obama Jr. was registered in school in Indonesia as Barry Soetoro taking the last name of his mother's second husband.

--The name of the hospital in Hawaii in which Obama was first said to have been born was Queen's Medical Center. Later he was said to have been born at a different hospital, Kapi'olani Hospital.

Rest assured that by the time Mitt Romney becomes the Republican presidential nominee, the ever-vigilant state-controlled media will have examined every e-mail and every receipt they can get their hands on and interviewed every chambermaid and landscaper who ever came in contact with him. It was never so with Obama.

Because We Say So

2012-01-09T17:50:00.000-05:00

RedStateVT turns today to local Vermont news where a Burlington Free Press story discusses the death of an armed robber at the hands of a store clerk. For those of you who do not follow local Vermont stories, this type of crime happens ALL THE TIME here, the state being plagued with abusers of prescription drugs.

Here is what we learned of the deceased burglar:
- Her autopsy indicated that she was "acutely intoxicated with cocaine."
- She wielded a knife during the burglary.
- She was the mother of four children ages 9 months to 19 years.

No doubt this poor soul had a tough life, but no doubt she made some really bad decisions along the way. Getting hooked on drugs was one. Getting pregnant at age 15 (she was 34 when she died) was another. Continuing to have children was yet a third.

But here is the kicker to the BFP story:
"The Attorney General’s Office also intends to review the Vergennes case. Attorney General William Sorrell has said his office could levy charges against the clerk, or ask a grand jury to consider whether charges are warranted."

Yes, you read that correctly. The AG is considering charges against the clerk who subdued a knife-wielding drug addict. Only in Liberal America. Years ago, the clerk would have received a commendation on the steps of City Hall from the mayor. Not any more.

Liberals have found a new class of victims: armed drug addicts.

Proof Positive

2012-01-07T10:53:00.000-05:00

No Regrets
On a late fall morning, the president hosted a breakfast for a handful of members of Congress who had lost their seats: Kathy Dahlkemper, from Pennsylvania; John Spratt, the House budget chairman, from South Carolina; Jim Oberstar, the House Transportation Committee chairman, from Minnesota; and Melissa Bean, from Illinois. All were from moderate middle America districts. Over breakfast in the Roosevelt Room, they told Obama that unless he acted quickly, he was going to end up like them in 2012 -- out.

This group, too, was struck by Obama's lack of regret. "In retrospect, we can look back and say we could have done things differently, but I had a very ambitious agenda," Oberstar recalled Obama saying. "In the end, this is for the greater good of the country." He seemed entirely sure he knew what was best for the country; he seemed to think that he was a better judge than the public. (from "The Obamas" by Jodi Kantor as quoted in the Huffington Post, 1/6/2011)

A Democrat confirms what those on the Right have been saying for years about the mindset of the modern Liberal.

Encouragement
Congress allowed a grant program important to the solar power industry to expire at the end of the year. The program encourages private investment in solar power, is credited with creating thousands of jobs and should be renewed. (NYT editorial, 1/7/2012)

Only the New York Times could write an editorial advocating more government subsidies for solar power.....and not mention Solyndra.

Noted
RedStateVT has been watching Liberal commentators giggle over the past several days about how "unpresidential" the Republican challengers to Obama look and - by contrast - how very presidential Obama appears. Well we will note first that any politician is going to have an advantage standing at a podium with the presidential seal or stepping off of Air Force One. Second, there is nothing particularly presidential about the primary process itself. It tends to be an extended food fight. Obama certainly did not stand out for his gravitas while slugging it out with Hillary Clinton.

Pressured
The left’s centuries-old mission is to increase social harmony by decreasing antagonisms arising from disparities of wealth — to decrease inequality by increasing government’s redistributive activities. Such government constantly expands under the unending, indeed intensifying, pressures to correct what it disapproves of — the distribution of wealth produced by consensual market activities. But as government presumes to dictate the correct distribution of social rewards, the maelstrom of contemporary politics demonstrates that social strife, not solidarity, is generated by government transfer payments to preferred groups. (George Will, Washington Post, 1/6/2012)

New year, same old brilliance from George Will.

The Harp Unstrung

2012-01-06T17:58:00.000-05:00

Really Truly
The 2010 reform law gives Americans a truly competitive health insurance market. In the past, insurers could get away with huge premium hikes because there was little transparency or accountability. People saw their insurance rates rise but had little way of knowing whether the increase was justified. In a market where consumers had little information, prices and insurance-company profits soared. (Kathleen Sebelius, Washington Post, 1/5/2012)

RedStateVT's health insurance premiums increased in 2012 by 57.46214% This is not a misprint. When we questioned the increase, we were told that it was because of the new health insurance law.

Fashioned
As Mr. Santorum’s standing in the race for the Republican presidential nomination has been energized by his strong showing in the Iowa caucus, so too has the scrutiny of his activities since leaving the Senate. When he left office he was not especially wealthy, but records show he wasted little time fashioning a lucrative post-government career based largely on income from businesses that had benefited from his work in Congress. (NYT, 1/6/2012)

As one Republican candidate after another has surged in the polls, the New York Times has had to work overtime to dig up dirt. Inevitably, it is Rick Santorum's moment. His sin? He had a career (and made lots of money!) after he left government. Frankly, we are much more concerned about politicians who get rich WHILE in office. How about it Mr. Reid?

Embattled Illusions

2012-01-05T22:00:00.000-05:00

Recess Time
Republicans had attempted to block the president from installing nominees they opposed over the long break by holding “pro forma” sessions over the holidays, in which members of both chambers — usually those who live in states close to the Capitol — gavel in for minutes or even seconds before gaveling out to try to meet the definition of holding a Congressional meeting. Senate Democrats had taken similar steps to block President George W. Bush from making what are known as recess appointments, which can last up to two years. Until Wednesday, the tactic had prevented two administrations from putting their choices in place without Senate confirmation.

The action by Mr. Obama immediately sparked questions of what constitutes an actual Congressional recess, the legality of Mr. Obama’s move and the future of the Congressional confirmation process. (NYT, 1/5/2012)

Democrats had used a similar process to try to thwart Mr. Bush's recess appointments late in his term when they controlled both the House and the Senate. Prodded by West Virginia's Robert C. Byrd, who has since died, Majority Leader Harry Reid kept the Senate in pro forma session. Some advisers urged Mr. Bush to ignore the Senate and make recess appointments anyway, but he declined. Now Mr. Reid is supporting Mr. Obama's decision to make an end run around a Senate practice that he pioneered. (WSJ, 1/5/2012)

Where to begin? Reid hypocritical. Bush principled. And where are the Liberals who screamed about Bush and Cheney running roughshod over the Constitution?

Head, Hands and Feet
But many researchers have reached a conclusion that turns conventional wisdom on its head: Americans enjoy less economic mobility than their peers in Canada and much of Western Europe. The mobility gap has been widely discussed in academic circles, but a sour season of mass unemployment and street protests has moved the discussion toward center stage. (NYT, 1/5/2012)

Astute readers know that these stories are a staple of state-controlled media reporting during Republican administrations (the legions of homeless during the Reagan years, spiraling poverty in the Bush years, etc.) So what is going on here? Why the stories under Obama?

Allow RedStateVT to explain.

Obviously the blame does not accrue to Obama. Instead the objective is to "document" the inequities in the American system as it now works so that Obama and the Democrats can build the case for more wealth redistribution. This is another part of the "fundamental transformation of the country" that Obama talked about at his inauguration. Yes, we were listening.

Troubled Track

2012-01-03T20:11:00.000-05:00

In Which RedStateVT Breaks Its 2012 Resolution Not To Write About Paul Krugman
Deficit-worriers portray a future in which we’re impoverished by the need to pay back money we’ve been borrowing. They see America as being like a family that took out too large a mortgage, and will have a hard time making the monthly payments. This is, however, a really bad analogy in at least two ways. First, families have to pay back their debt. Governments don’t — all they need to do is ensure that debt grows more slowly than their tax base. (Paul Krugman, NYT, 1/1/2012)

Here's the problem with Krugman's "grow the tax base faster than the debt" solution: He and his fellow Liberals are constantly reducing the tax base by increasing the number of people dependent on government. If 50% or so of all Americans don't pay ANY taxes, then the other 50% have to pick up a larger share. Surely a PhD could figure that out.

One More Thing
But right now, other things matter more. We need more, not less, government spending to get us out of our unemployment trap. (Paul Krugman, NYT, 1/1/2012)

It occurs to us that Liberals should be reminded that they are naive to think that politicians - given access to more taxpayer dollars - are going to behave responsibly. More dollars in the hands of politicians are only going to lead to more payoffs to supporters (unions and teachers in the case of Democrats) and more waste (see Solyndra). THAT is why RedStateVT argues for austerity.

Wagering
President Obama's campaign has boasted that it will have as much as $1 billion to spend this campaign year, and you can bet his super PACs will come out swinging at the GOP nominee as soon as that choice is clear. (WSJ, 1/4/2012)

Sen. Bernie Sanders will be a guest on The Colbert Report tonight to discuss his Saving American Democracy Amendment. Bernie’s amendment to the Constitution would reverse a Supreme Court ruling that lets corporations spend unlimited and undisclosed amounts of money to influence elections. (Sanders.enews, 1/3/2012)

Guess we will have to wait and see if the Colonel's outrage extends to Obama's super PAC....

Closing Time

2012-01-02T12:50:00.000-05:00

Bright and Shiny
While the economic picture in the United States has brightened recently with more upbeat employment figures, Europe remains mired in a slump. (NYT, 1/2/2012)

Preparing for Obama's reelection campaign, the New York Times announces that the U.S. economy is squarely on the rebound. Job growth came in the "shovel-ready green energy" sector.

The Case
The country obviously needs more jobs. Mr. Obama needs to lay out the case that industry, with government help, can create hundreds of thousands of clean energy jobs without incurring environmental risks — by upgrading old power plants to comply with environmental laws, retrofitting commercial and residential buildings that soak up nearly 40 percent of the country’s energy (and produce nearly 40 percent of its carbon emissions) and promoting growth in new industries like wind and solar power and advanced vehicles. (NYT, 1/2/2012)

Speaking of those green energy jobs! What the country needs - according to the Times - is more Solyndras.

RedStateVT Announces 2011 Cheney Award Winner

2012-01-01T19:36:00.000-05:00

Loyal readers know that every year at this time RedStateVT selects one individual to receive our coveted Cheney Award. Given to the person who has done the most to preserve and promote the values of American liberty, strength and exceptionalism, the award honors former Vice-President Dick Cheney for his service to and defense of this great country. Past winners have included Glen Beck and Dick Morris.

Of course each year there is a strong field of contenders and 2011 was no exception. Representative Paul Ryan, author and commentator Mark Steyn, and media watchdog Brent Bozell were among the names we considered and all are certainly deserving. One person in particular stood out for her dogged pursuit of the scandals and hypocrisy of the Obama administration and the Democrat party. Her best seller – Culture of Corruption – illustrates in shocking and gory detail the corruption of the Chicago political machine which gave us Obama. You cannot read the book and ever again view Obama as the above-the-fray visionary and savior that the media writes about. He is a product of Chicago in all its political grime. Of course, we are talking about author and commentator Michelle Malkin.

Malkin did the hard work digging into the dirty details and connecting the dots of Chicago politics: who scratched whose back, why and what the payback was. She was at it first and continues to this day with her latest column reminding us of – what else – the Obama scandals. Listen to her on her television appearances and several things come through: her detailed recitation of the corrupt dealings of the Obama-Chicago nexus and her absolute outrage that they are getting away with it. For her passion and her advocacy, Michelle Malkin is the winner of the 2011 Cheney Award from RedStateVT.

Crimson Shores

2011-12-31T15:18:00.000-05:00

Declare Victory
In declaring Keynesian economics vindicated I am, of course, at odds with conventional wisdom. In Washington, in particular, the failure of the Obama stimulus package to produce an employment boom is generally seen as having proved that government spending can’t create jobs. But those of us who did the math realized, right from the beginning, that the Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (more than a third of which, by the way, took the relatively ineffective form of tax cuts) was much too small given the depth of the slump. And we also predicted the resulting political backlash. (Paul Krugman, NYT, 12/29/2011)

Like those pesky New Year's resolutions that you just can't seem to keep, RedStateVT promises to stop writing about Paul Krugman and...well, you know the rest. In a column audaciously entitled: "Keynes Was Right" Krugman declares himself to be correct all along. The proof? The Obama stimulus did not work because it was not big enough. Come again? This argument strikes us akin to one of those "prove that you stopped beating your wife" riddles that you can't really prove. Maybe the stimulus didn't work because it was a pork-ladened pay-off to Democrat constituencies. Maybe it didn't work because those shovel-ready jobs weren't really shovel-ready as Obama himself chuckled about. Or maybe just, investors and businesses are sitting on the sidelines waiting for Obama to be gone.

And that austerity that Krugman decries? Well here's another view of it:

Amid this month's payroll tax fracas, few noticed that Congress passed a 1,200-page, $1 trillion omnibus spending bill for fiscal 2012. Maybe no one in Washington boasted because it's a victory for spending as usual. (WSJ, 12/31/2011)

Let's end the year on a positive note:

Although they have become prone to apocalyptic forebodings about the fragility of the nation’s institutions and traditions under the current president, conservatives should stride confidently into 2012. This is not because they are certain, or even likely, to defeat President Obama this year. Rather, it is because, if they emancipate themselves from their unconservative fixation on the presidency, they will see events unfolding in their favor. And when Congress is controlled by one party, as it might be a year from now, it can stymie an overreaching executive. (George Will, Washington Post, 12/30/2011)

How any Liberal could read a George Will column and not have a "Road to Damascus" conversion is unfathomable to RedStateVT!

RedStateVT Presents the Worst of 2011

2011-12-30T10:03:00.000-05:00

Occupy – No leaders, no agenda and no soap. But give us free stuff. Special mention to the mayors who coddled them.

Green – Bankrupt companies which took hundreds of millions from the taxpayers, subsidized electric cars which can drive a full 40 miles before the battery dies…or explodes, and dishonest science all fueled by self-righteous politicians. Despite all evidence to the contrary, still viewed as the future by the Left.

The Gay Agenda – Two people should be free to love each other no matter what their sex. There – we said it. But simply agreeing with this statement is not enough and anyone who disagreed with the larger gay agenda was immediately branded as a bigot. Disagree with gay marriage – bigot! Disagree that soldiers should not disclose their sexual preferences – bigot! Disagree that sexuality should not be taught in elementary school – bigot! At least we finally found out the size of the population driving the argument: <1%.

Jon Corzine – If he were a Republican, the media would be clamoring for him to repay the missing billions from his personal account. How about it Mr. Corzine?

The Mainstream Media….again - With an unpopular president for whom they shilled tirelessly and an election coming looming, old media finds only rare opportunities to reflect on Obama. Meanwhile, after admitting that they did not vet Obama, they determine not to make the same mistake with the Republican slate.

Eric Holder….again – The nation’s top lawman decides not to enforce laws with which he disagrees. Embroiled in a gun-running scandal he gets amnesia. Alberto Gonzales was run out of town for partisan reasons amounting to nothing. By that standard, Holder should be indicted.

Barney Frank – The scandal-ridden (sub) prime mover behind the mortgage crisis finally calls it quits, but only after his gerrymandered ride is revoked. He could have used his exit to mend fences and admit that mistakes may have been made. He didn’t, remaining belligerent and showing in the end what everyone suspected all along – he was a very small man.

Jimmy Carter – A late entry when he thoughtfully reminded us with his paean to North Korea’s Dr. Evil why he is officially: The Worst Ex-President of the Modern Era.

The Kardashians - In 2010, RedStateVT singled out Reality TV. This year, there is no way to avoid honing on the Kardashians. They truly represent everything that is wrong with America encapsulated in one family.

The Fundamentals

2011-12-27T16:23:00.000-05:00

Obama will thus be the conservative in 2012, in the truest sense of that word. He is the candidate defending the modestly redistributive and regulatory government the country has relied on since the New Deal... (E.J. Dionne Jr., Washington Post, 12/25/2011)

In the upside down world of the Liberal, Obama is a "conservative" defending the modest redistribution of wealth. How modest? Let's check with Dionne's colleague Robert J. Samuelson:

From 1960 to 2010, the share of federal spending going for “payments to individuals” (Social Security, food stamps, Medicare and the like) climbed from 26 percent to 66 percent....

Oh, 66 percent!

Samuelson continues:
No one wants to take away; it’s more fun to give. All of 2011’s budget feuds — over the debt ceiling, the supercommittee, the payroll tax cut — skirted the central issues. There’s a legitimate debate about how fast deficits should be reduced to avoid jeopardizing the economic recovery, notes Charles Blahous, a White House official in George W. Bush’s administration. But the long-term budget problem, as he says, stems from Social Security, Medicare and other health programs. (Robert J. Samuelson, Washington Post, 12/25/2011)

2011-12-25T18:00:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas from RedStateVT

Around Every Corner

2011-12-24T18:48:00.000-05:00

Suspicious Minds
A federal judge dealt a new setback Friday to the immigration enforcement efforts of America's self-proclaimed "toughest sheriff," barring his deputies from detaining people based solely on the suspicion that they're in the country illegally. (Foxnews.com, 12/23/2011)

RedStateVT has developed a foolproof formula to help law enforcement (including border patrol agents and airport security) catch the bad guys without offending Liberals who favor political correctness over protecting America. Notwithstanding that young males from Muslim countries are more likely to blow things up and Hispanics are more likely to cross the border illegally, agents cannot show bias. Therefore, for every Muslim/Hispanic detained, security personnel must also detain one Swede, one Pole, one Samoan and one Japanese. It is a foolproof system for sure.

Battle Lines
President Barack Obama's reelection campaign returned political donations made by Jon Corzine, the embattled former Democratic governor and senator from New Jersey, on Friday. (CNN.com, 12/24/2011)

Shouldn't they first verify that the money does not belong to MF Global customers?

The Dark Sea Of Awareness

2011-12-23T17:08:00.000-05:00

Eating Cake
2012 will be no cakewalk for Republicans, and they’re fully capable of bungling the opportunity history has given them. But if Obama is defeated, then it will be one of the most stunning turnarounds in the history of modern politics. Consider: George W. Bush entered his first term with a roughly 55% approval rating (averaging the various polls) and left it with about a 47.5% approval rating — a drop of 7.5% over the course of four years full of dissension, accusation and mockery. Obama began his first term with 65% approval ratings and has stood below 45% for the majority of the past four months — a drop of 20%, nearly three times the Bush figure. (Timothy Dalrymple, Patheos.com, 12/22/2011)

A simple, yet stunning indictment of modern Liberalism. Read the entire column. RedStateVT is going to start following Dalrymple.

Adversity
Plaintiffs put up by liberal lawsuit shops routinely claim that ID laws endanger the rights of hundreds of thousands, but lawsuits in Indiana and Georgia were dismissed because they couldn't produce a single eligible voter who'd been turned away due to the ID requirement. Turnout has risen in states that have passed the voter ID laws, with no adverse impact on minorities. (WSJ, 12/23/2011)

About the only voters turned away were those scared off by the New Black Panthers....

Not Saying
President Obama, when asked who is to blame for the schism between him and the Republican, said he doesn't want to say "it's all them," but claims Republicans are against everything he is for. (RealClearPolitics, 12/22/2011)

Once again, RedStateVT will explain why Republicans are "against" Obama. You may remember something called Obamacare. With control of all three branches, Obama, Pelosi and Reid jammed through a massively unpopular new entitlement program using bribes to fellow Dems and questionable legislative tactics. Anything the Repubs have done or will do through the end of Obama's term is payback.

Bringing The Yearlings Home

2011-12-22T14:44:00.000-05:00

Matching Purse
How and when Congress acts will also have an important, if impossible to quantify, impact on consumer and business confidence, economists say. Households and companies uncertain about their income, unclear about their tax rates and lacking confidence in their government might hold off on major financial purchases and tighten their purse strings. (NYT, 12/22/2011)

So is The New York Times now on board with the Republican position that regulatory uncertainty caused by, for example, Obamacare, hinders economic growth?

Imperatives
Despite Saudi Arabia's promises to clean up textbooks in the kingdom, recent editions continue to raise alarms in the West over jihadist language...In a textbook for 10th-graders, printed for the 2010-2011 academic year, al-Ahmed said teenagers are taught barbaric practices. “They show students how to cut (the) hand and the feet of a thief,” he said. In another textbook, for ninth-graders, the students are taught the annihilation of the Jewish people is imperative. One text reads in part: “The hour (of judgment) will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them. ... There is a Jew behind me come and kill him.” (Foxnews.com, 12/22/2011)

Long before he announced his presidential run this year, Newt Gingrich had become the most prominent American politician to embrace an alarming premise: that Shariah, or Islamic law, poses a threat to the United States as grave as or graver than terrorism....The idea that Shariah poses a danger in the United States, where the census pegs Muslims as less than 1 percent of the population, strikes many scholars as quixotic.

Even within that 1 percent, most American Muslims have no enthusiasm for replacing federal and state law with Shariah, as some conservatives fear, let alone adopting such ancient prescriptions as stoning for adulterers, said Akbar Ahmed, chairman of Islamic studies at American University in Washington, who spent a year traveling the United States and interviewing Muslims for his 2010 book “Journey into America: The Challenge of Islam.” (NYT, 12/22/2011)

So the Saudis are still teaching their kids to hate, but Gingrich is ginning up the Sharia threat?

Here is the problem, Americans cannot trust the Arabs. Yasir Arafat was well known - and eventually exposed - as someone who would talk about peace in English to the Western press and then about annihilation of the infidels in Arabic to the Palestinians. The Saudis promise to clean up the hatred and then get caught red-handed.

The Sharia threat? Take it seriously until there is 100% certainty that the threat is gone.

Lacking
Matt Damon is expressing his disdain for Barack Obama’s presidency again, this time saying that the President doesn’t have any “balls.” (Foxnews.com, 12/22/2011)

If the president has lost Mat Damon then we don't know what to say. Plenty of room on the Right, Matt.

Citation
The attorney general cited race in explaining why a "more extreme segment" of his critics were going after him. "This is a way to get at the president because of the way I can be identified with him, both due to the nature of our relationship and, you know, the fact that we're both African-American," Holder said in an interview with The New York Times. (Foxnews.com, 12/22/2011)

Even our friends on the Left have got to be embarrassed by Holder.

Message In A Bottle
Former President Jimmy Carter has sent North Korea a message of condolence over the death of Kim Jong-il and wished "every success" to the man expected to take over as dictator, according to the communist country's state-run news agency. (Washington Times, 12/21/2011)

Even our friends on the Left have got to be embarrassed by Carter.

Estimations
BT and the city, however, underestimated the cost of building the system, and they overestimated the revenues the service would generate. By late 2007 or early 2008, the new money from Citibank was spent, and Mayor Bob Kiss and Chief Administrative Officer Jonathan Leopold decided to use money from the city’s checking account, the cash pool, to pay Telecom expenses. BT’s license permitted use of cash pool money, but with the stipulation the money be repaid within two months. It wasn’t.

Kiss and Leopold spent $16.9 million from the cash pool on Burlington Telecom without informing the Board of Finance, the City Council, state regulators or the public. BT’s inability to repay the money on time was a violation of the terms of its state license.

The violations were disclosed after Kiss was re-elected in 2009 to a second term as mayor. (Burlington Free Press, 12/22/2011)

In the world of the Progressive, you do not have to pay back your student loans, you do not have to pay your mortgage and you do not have to pay back your lenders. Good intentions trump the rule of law.

Empty Horizons

2011-12-21T21:36:00.000-05:00

At The Beginning
A look at Mr. Gingrich’s earliest days in politics, and the evolution of his thinking, helps explain the rocky relationship between Mr. Gingrich and the movement he once led. He emerges as more of a pragmatist than a purist, a believer in “activist government” whose raw ambition made colleagues uneasy, provoking questions about whether he was motivated by conservative ideals, personal advancement — or both. (NYT, 12/21/2011)

RedStateVT remembers as if it were yesterday how during the 1990s the New York Times often described Gingrich as a pragmatist. Oh wait, that didn't happen.

Clear As Can Be
The Securities and Exchange Commission's lawsuits against six top executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, announced last week, are a seminal event. For the first time in a government report, the complaint has made it clear that the two government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) played a major role in creating the demand for low-quality mortgages before the 2008 financial crisis. More importantly, the SEC is saying that Fannie and Freddie—the largest buyers and securitizers of subprime and other low-quality mortgages—hid the size of their purchases from the market. (Peter J. Wallison, WSJ, 12/21/2011)

Sadly, Barney Frank has not yet been indicted.

Unopposed
Vermont's Colonel Bernie Sanders appeared on local news last night in the context he so often favors, i.e. no opposition to refute his extremist comments (shame on the Vermont media for never challenging him). Sanders is in a bit of a quandary as he wants the Social Security payroll tax abatement to continue, but also worries about the effect; namely further underfunding of the Social Security trust fund. Asked to explain the motivations of Republicans in holding out for a one year cut, Sanders conjured up nefarious Republican motives saying it could only be because they were planning down the road to defund other entitlement programs. Sanders should call director Oliver Stone to see if there is a movie here.

Round And Round

2011-12-20T16:18:00.000-05:00

Incredible
Shumlin administration officials and the state employees union announced on Friday afternoon that they have come to an agreement on a two-year contract that includes the restoration of the 3 percent pay cut that was instituted two and a half years ago and a 2 percent pay increase in July 2012 plus a 2 percent increase in July 2013....John Reese, the president of the union, which represents about 5,500 members, said he was “incredibly” happy with the arrangement....In fiscal year 2013, the restoration of the 3 percent cut will cost $9.2 million, according to Joint Fiscal Office estimates. The 2 percent increase in pay will cost $7.7 million, Spaulding said. (VTdigger.org, 12/9/2011)

Throughout the country, tough-minded governors (Republican and Democrat) are forcing concessions from public unions. Not in Vermont! No wonder the union president is ecstatic. And the taxpayer, pays.

Know Your Enemy
The White House on Monday defended Vice President Joe Biden for saying that the Taliban isn't an enemy of the United States despite the years spent fighting the militant Islamic group that gave a home to Al Qaeda and its leader Usama bin Laden while he plotted the Sept. 11 terror attacks. (Foxnews.com, 12/19/2011)

Ramping up for the coming election we get the return of Crazy Joe. We missed him! And his comment could not have been better, reminding us of how Liberals will always choose appeasement. This is exactly why you guys should not be in charge.

Statistics
New York City has a little more than 8 million residents. Of those many millions, 1% -- ONE PERCENT -- pays 43% of the income taxes. You know how many people that works out to? About 35,000 people. (T.J. McCormack, Foxnews.com, 12/16/2011)

This is the kind of thing that George Will does so well. Put a number on it.

Drifting Away

2011-12-19T14:58:00.000-05:00

Banned in Boston
The ban on 100-watt incandescent Thomas Edison light bulbs, which was supposed to begin Jan. 1, was put off. Congress has denied the green fundamentalists any funds to impose their eco-sharia law on the rest of us infidels who have figured out that global warming is a scam, or should I say false religion. What’s ironic about the Church of Green is that these are the same people who want government out of their bedroom, or their uteruses, now want government in your light socket, or your toilet. (Howie Carr, Boston Herald.com, 12/18/2011)

RedStateVT has already developed a strategy to deal with the potential ban on the 100 watt bulb. We will utilize two 60 watt bulbs instead. How does that sound to the Luddite crowd?

Poached
Both Indiana and Ohio have been aggressively poaching Illinois businesses, especially since January, when lawmakers raised the state income tax to a flat 5% from 3% and the corporate tax to 9.5% from 7.3%. (WSJ, 12/18/2011)

Simple cause and effect.

Bolstered
In what would be the final deal of his private equity career, he negotiated a retirement agreement with his former partners that has paid him a share of Bain’s profits ever since, bringing the Romney family millions of dollars in income each year and bolstering the fortune that has helped finance Mr. Romney’s political aspirations. (NYT, 12/19/2011)

It's "Bash Romney" day at the New York Times which temporarily pivots away from Newt Gingrich. The Times will consider Obama's drug use and shady Chicago real estate deal old news, but Romney's pension deal from 1999 is fair game. Notwithstanding that it was a legal arrangement signed by willing parties. Unlike, say, the sweetheart pension deals public sector employees received in return for greasing the Democrat machine with campaign contributions.

Transformed
It’s not as if the criticisms being leveled at Gingrich are wrong. On the contrary, there is a flamboyant self-importance and an eerie sense of mission about him. “I am a transformational figure,” he has said. (E.J. Dionne Jr., Washington Post, 12/18/2011)

Now who else sees himself as a "transformational politician." Dionne doesn't tell us so we have to remember on our own. Thinking, thinking...is it Obama?

Sweet Release

2011-12-17T16:22:00.000-05:00

Triggers
Manning supporters say the leaks exposed war crimes and triggered pro-democracy uprisings in the Middle East. (Boston Herald.com, 12/16/2011)

The Lady Gaga Fan Club is pushing hard this novel defense. Traitor Bradley Manning spurred the Arab Spring! Really?

Really
Many stories The Post writes can affect a person’s reputation. Any reporter doing a story that questions a person’s reputation in a direct and public way, such as accusing Mitt Romney of using a KKK slogan, should stop and consider whether, first of all, does that make sense, knowing what you know about the person. If it seems counterintuitive, then you should be extremely sure of your facts, every fact, and that you have appropriate response from the party affected.

I mean, really, Mitt Romney may be many things, but has anyone, anywhere, accused him of being a KKK sympathizer, racist, or anything similar? I don’t think so. (Patrick B. Pexton, Washington Post, 12/16/2011)

Detailed description of how the Romney - KKK quote story evolved with an honest apology. The last comment - that reporters failed to consider what they know about Romney as a person - is interesting. It can be applied equally to any number of Liberal epithets about any number of Republicans. To wit: Bush lied. Really? Reporters know that Bush was a religious man. Do they think he knowingly lied. The examples are endless: Bush is Hitler, Republicans are racists, Republicans want children to starve, Republicans want to destroy the planet, etc. It's a great standard to apply. Before you vilify someone, consider what you know about that person or persons. Would that Liberals and their friends in the press hold to it more often.

Six Hundred

2011-12-16T17:15:00.000-05:00

Urges
... (Gingrich) urged Republicans to support the Bush administration’s expansion of Medicare’s prescription drug benefit... (NYT, 12/16/2011)

It is Gingrich's turn in the New York Times's "War on Republican Candidates" and so we get this one. We are never quite sure where Liberals are coming from when they criticize Bush for the Medicare prescription drug benefit. They all wanted it and yet, they will never laud him for this expansion of the welfare state, straight out of their playbook.

Sympathies
From the opening moment, the seven Republican candidates faced a series of questions on their biggest vulnerabilities, a tough, year-end parting gift from the moderators of Fox News, a network that has a lineup of sympathetic opinion hosts, but whose news anchors have pulled no punches on Republican candidates in debates and interviews. (NYT, 12/16/2011)

Wow, the Times admits that Fox news people have been objective.

Conveyance
The pipeline would create thousands of new jobs, both immediately and downstream, which is why the Teamsters and other unions support it. But Mr. Obama's green financiers see the pipeline as a conveyor of evil carbon, and so the President recently postponed any decision past the election into 2013. Now, that's economic leadership. (WSJ, 12/16/2011)

So will the Teamsters leadership direct the rank and file to vote against Obama and if not, why not?

First Timers
For the first time, a majority of Americans say President Barack Obama should be voted out of the White House next year, despite a small increase in the number of people who say the country’s economic outlook is improving, a new poll shows. (Politico.com, 12/16/2011)

Just an idea, but given that the polls are now unanimous let's skip the Dem vs. Repub general election and replace it with a nationwide election to pick the president from among the Republican contenders. What do you say?

Go Down Fighting

2011-12-15T15:06:00.000-05:00

You Started It
The war was started by the Bush administration in March 2003 on arguments that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and had ties to Al Qaeda that might grow to an alliance threatening the United States with a mass-casualty terrorist attack. (NYT, 12/15/2011)

This is how history gets rewritten. The state-controlled media endlessly repeats their version of events until it becomes - de facto - history. Some of us remember that the Iraqi regime defied UN sanctions, violated the Kurdish no fly zone, locked radar on US fighter jets, invaded Kuwait, gassed the Kurds, tried to assassinate a US president, set the Kuwaiti oil fields on fire, tortured its citizens, harbored terrorists.....should we go on? Oh, and according to Bill and Hillary Clinton, it had weapons of mass destruction.

It Just Gets Harder
For months, the Justice Department has largely been silent as Republican-dominated legislatures in state after state made it harder for minorities, poor people and other Democratic-leaning groups to vote. On Tuesday, however, Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. spoke out forcefully and promised to use the full weight of his department to ensure that new electoral laws are not discriminatory. To live up to that vow, he will have his hands full. (NYT Editorial, 12/14/2011)

Yes, much harder. Potential voters will now have to show an ID - the same one that they use to buy beer will work just fine.

Heavy Hands
The federal government issued a scathing report Thursday that outlines how Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's office has committed a wide range of civil rights violations against Latinos, including a pattern of racial profiling and discrimination and carrying out heavy-handed immigration patrols based on racially charged citizen complaints. (Huffington Post, 12/15/2011)

We guess that if you are Eric Holder and you have publicly said that you will enforce the laws selectively and you are embroiled in a disastrous gun-running scandal in which an agent was killed and which you very possibly lied to a congressional committee about, then the best response is to go on the offensive in another highly charged political debate.

In The Queue

2011-12-14T11:47:00.000-05:00

Thinking
The evidence is overwhelming that the Obama regulatory surge is one reason the current economic recovery has been so lackluster by historical standards. Rather than nurture an economy trying to rebuild confidence after a financial heart attack, the Administration pushed through its now-famous blitz of liberal policies on health care, financial services, energy, housing, education and student loans, telecom, labor relations, transportation and probably some other industries we've forgotten. Anyone who thinks this has only minimal impact on business has never been in business. (WSJ, 12/14/2011)

OK, we promise to stop writing about Obama and regulations.....soon.

Suited
Our world that's coming is a world of narrowing, not widening, choices. It's a world that suits Mr. Romney's skills and history, his knack for operating within constraints and making choices based on data, data, data. Mr. Obama lives in the same world, of course, but is unequipped to deal with it given his dubious gifts for execution, execution, execution. Also, given his inclination to seek refuge in a clueless reverie of big new programs at a time when the resources simply don't exist. (Holman W. Jenkins, Jr., WSJ, 12/14/2011)

Jenkins is good.... Nice piece on Romney's work including the Olympics and Bain Capital (where he fixed companies!).

Recall This Mayor
New Haven Mayor John DeStefano plans to ask the state Legislature to allow illegal immigrants who live in the city to be able vote in municipal elections. (NBCConnecticut.com, 12/14/2011)

Liberals are endlessly worried about Republicans suppressing the minority vote. Only they can never point to any instance where it happened (unless, of course, you believe that asking someone to show an ID is voter intimidation). Meanwhile Liberals apparently commit election fraud in Chicago regularly, support the right of the New Black Panthers to stand outside polling places with batons, and want illegals to vote.

Easily
It’s easy to see billionaire George Soros’s imprint on most major American left-wing organizations. All you have to do is look at their financial forms. Soros aids hundreds of left-wing groups in America each year under the auspices of his Open Society Foundations. In just 10 years, Soros has given more than $550 million to liberal organizations in the United States. (Foxnews.com, 12/14/2011)

Where is Colonel Bernie Sanders decrying the effects of Soros money in the U.S. electoral process?

Line Around The Block

2011-12-13T09:57:00.000-05:00

RedStateVT Announces New Service
It is a frustrating time for Liberal millionaires/billionaires who have publicly stated their wishes to be taxed more. Intransigent Republicans have blocked Democrats at every turn in their efforts to raise taxes on their rich constituents. Although the Treasury permits voluntary contributions, it appears as though wealthy Liberals are not aware of this. Therefore, RedStateVT has stepped into the void and announces today a new service wherein we will collect "extra taxes" from Liberal millionaires/billionaires and forward them to the United States Treasury. We will charge only a small handling fee for this service.

Signatories
The chairman of the Indiana Democratic Party announced his resignation Monday, as investigators probe allegations of election fraud stemming from the 2008 Democratic presidential primary...The alleged forgeries have raised the question whether the Obama campaign actually filed the necessary number of signatures, 500 from the county, to get on the state's primary ballot. (Foxnews.com, 12/12/2011)

Expect to read countless stories in 2012 about how Republicans are suppressing the black/minority vote. Meanwhile, possible election fraud in 2008 by Democrats will be conveniently ignored.

The One Question That Obama Must Answer
Mr. President: Is the country more or less divided than when you took office? If more, why as the most powerful and influential politician in the country have you not been successful in this stated goal?

Sir Tax
Democrats have sought a surtax on income over $1 million to pay for an extension of a tax break for the middle class, a surtax that Republicans have rejected. Employees’ share of the payroll tax, now 4.2 percent of wages, is scheduled to rise to 6.2 percent in January unless Congress takes action. (NYT, 12/13/2011)

Why is it that no one is calling the "payroll tax" by its real name: the Social Security payroll tax? Notwithstanding Vermont's Colonel Bernie Sanders who swears that Social Security is fully funded, what do other politicians think about the fact that the government is collecting LESS in Social Security taxes?

Share Alike
The share of income received by the top 1 percent — that potent symbol of inequality — dropped to 17 percent in 2009 from 23 percent in 2007, according to federal tax data. Within the group, average income fell to $957,000 in 2009 from $1.4 million in 2007. (NYT, 12/12/2011)

RedStateVT is calling for protests in the streets. We are the 1%!!!!

Sign Language
For Obama advisers in need of a little lift after months of bad news, there have been some encouraging signs in recent weeks. (Washington Post, 12/12/2011)

So things are looking up according to Obama reelection team reporters at the Washington Post, who, a few sentences later tell us this:

Obama’s overall standing in national public polls has improved slightly since hitting new lows earlier this fall, but on the economy — the major focus of the campaign — he remains at or near record lows. (Washington Post, 12/12/2011)

So things are looking up, except on that pesky "major focus of the campaign." And just to confirm that things are moving in the right direction for Obama we also note this:

In a dozen key swing states across the country, President Barack Obama is trailing Mitt Romney by 5 percentage points and Newt Gingrich by 3 percentage points, according to a new Gallup/USA Today poll on Tuesday. (Politico.com 12/12/2011)

Face The Music

2011-12-12T11:14:00.000-05:00

Heartfelt
Although Mr. Corzine had been a United States senator, governor of New Jersey, co-head of Goldman Sachs and a confidant of leaders in Washington and Wall Street, he was at heart a trader, willing to gamble for a rich payoff. (NYT, 12/11/2011)

Clarification that we will not see:
In an earlier edition, the New York Times failed to note Corzine's political affiliation. He is a Democrat. We also failed to note that Goldman Sach's made the largest political contribution to President Obama's 2008 campaign from a private company.

Faithful
In the case of Mr. Tebow, what seems to fuel many of his fans—and to drive many of his critics crazy—is not so much his evangelical faith itself but the equanimity and generosity that his faith inspires in him. Can he really mean it when he says that football isn't that important to him, that he cares more about transcendent things? (WSJ, 12/10/2011)

Here's a question for you: How would Tebow's critics react if he was a Muslim and stopped to pray several times each game? Not sure, but we suspect these same critics would be enormously supportive!

Dependency
But the Persian Gulf represents 16% of our imports, and Venezuela 9%. By far the largest, and growing, source of imports is Canada, which supplies about 25%; Mexico is second, at 11%.

The main reason for Canada's large role is the expansion of output from its oil sands. Canada's oil sands now yield more output than Libya's total exports prior to its civil war. Current plans could double production to three million barrels per day by the beginning of the next decade. That would mean a higher share of our imports coming from our friendly neighbor and largest trading partner.

But how much more oil the U.S. imports from Canada will depend upon whether sufficient transportation exists. And in response to the State Department's postponement of the decision on the Keystone XL pipeline last month, the Canadian government has indicated that it cannot be wholly dependent on the vagaries of U.S. politics. (Daniel Yergin, WSJ, 12/12/2011)

Nowhere is Liberal hypocrisy more evident than in the XL pipeline issue. They vehemently oppose a project that would make the U.S. LESS dependent on unfriendly countries and that would create MORE U.S. jobs.

Universal
The Durban pit-stop in the endless array of climate summits has just ended, and predictably it reaffirmed the United Nations' strong belief that the most important response to global warming is to secure a strong deal to cut carbon emissions. What is almost universally ignored, however, is that if we want to help real people overcome real problems we need to focus first on adaptation. (Bjorn Lomborg, WSJ, 12/12/2011)

Good article by Lomborg. Whether or not you believe that man is causing global warming, if you believe that it is happening the most important thing is to ADAPT TO IT. This is what prehistoric man did: "Getting colder and fewer mastodons to hunt? Well, we better move....."

Silence Drowns The Screams

2011-12-09T09:51:00.000-05:00

Strangely
Washington's efforts at Wall Street reform and consumer protection keep having strange and unintended consequences for Main Street businesses and customers. The Durbin Amendment, part of the Dodd-Frank Act, set a cap on the amount financial institutions can charge merchants to process debit card transactions. Previously, the average "interchange" fee was 44 to 45 cents per transaction. As of Oct. 1, the maximum swipe fee was cut to 21 cents. The intent was to keep the cost of doing business down, but that goal is reportedly being thwarted by the credit card companies' response.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Visa (V) and Mastercard (MA) have eliminated the discounts they previously offered on interchange for small transactions -- those under roughly $10. Instead, the credit card companies now charge many small businesses the maximum 21-cent fee allowed by the law. (Daily Finance, 12/8/2011)

From Barney Frank meddling with the housing market (and precipitating the financial crisis) to Dick Durbin messing with the banks, this is why RedStateVT pushes back against regulation. Politicians are not capable of thinking two steps ahead.

Planning Ahead
With Ms. Sebelius’s decision on Wednesday, the Obama administration is taking a more socially conservative stance on Plan B, one closer to that of the Bush administration than to many of its own liberal supporters, even as President Obama has taken a tougher position on higher taxes on the wealthy to pay for a broad payroll tax cut — a stance popular with his political base. (NYT, 12/7/2011)

Isn't the New York Times marvelous? See how they tie together two seemingly unrelated topics: the abortion pill and taxes on the wealthy.

Again And Again
Ann Coulter is at it again. In her upcoming appearance on Logo's "A List: Dallas," the conservative pundit told gay Republican cast member Taylor Garrett that it was in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community's best interests to be pro-life as "liberal yuppies" will start aborting their unborn gay children once scientists discover a gene for homosexuality. (Huffington Post, 12/8/2011)

Not sure we see the controversy here.....straight liberals who embrace abortion in all its forms (any trimester, partial birth, birth defect, etc.) would NOT do what Coulter suggests?

Protection Racket
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says the Chevy Volt is safe to drive even though the government is investigating fires caused by damage to the electric car’s battery. LaHood told reporters today that his department isn’t trying to protect the maker of the Chevrolet Volt, General Motors, from possible repercussions from the government’s safety investigation. LaHood says his department isn’t in the business of protecting the automobile industry. (Boston Herald, 12/8/2011)

Well, maybe DOT isn't in the business of "protecting" car companies, but POTUS is and problems with the Volt will put yet another nail in the "all-things-green coffin."

Droned
Iran paraded what its military described as a captured C.I.A. stealth drone on national television on Thursday and lodged an official diplomatic protest, portraying the visual images as an intelligence and propaganda windfall in its conflict with the West over its nuclear program. (NYT, 12/9/2011)

Obama's drone campaign has been a signature success. Still we can't help but wonder at the reaction of the media had a Bush drone been lost...

At First
When he first took office, President Obama promised to cut the federal deficit in half by 2013. But instead he's increased it by more than $4 trillion. Indeed, under his direction, the U.S. government spent about $1 trillion on a Keynesian-style stimulus that failed to create the jobs promised, will spend trillions more creating a European-style health-care entitlement with ObamaCare, and has more Americans on welfare than ever before. (Jim DeMint (R-SC), WSJ, 12/9/2011)

A well-stated reminder to bloggers on the Left who keep telling RedStateVT: "Bush didn't raise taxes to pay for the war."

What It All Means

2011-12-08T09:05:00.000-05:00

The second thing we’re doing is we’re ramping up our effort to get rid of outdated, unjustified regulations that stifle trade and job creation. This is especially important in sectors like the auto industry, where so many cars and products are built on both sides of the border. But sometimes that's slowed down by regulations and paperwork that, frankly, just doesn't make sense.

So we're going to strike a better balance with sensible regulations that unleash trade and job creation, while still protecting public health and safety. And this builds on the efforts that we have here in the United States, led by Cass Sunstein at OIRA, where we're eliminating billions of dollars in costs from regulations. (President Barack Obama, 12/7/2011)

Fellow bloggers on the Left harp incessantly about the need for more regulation of business. Apparently George Bush gutted the regulatory controls of the country, thereby leading to the financial collapse. Or so the simplistic narrative goes. Well here we have the president calling for less regulation. So which is it? Maybe Bush got rid of the 'good' regulations while Obama is getting rid of the 'bad' ones.....?

All Is Fair

2011-12-07T10:48:00.000-05:00

Tiny Taxes
They call it the Robin Hood tax — a tiny levy on trades in the financial markets that would take money from the banks and give it to the world’s poor. And like the mythical hero of Sherwood Forest, it is beginning to capture the public’s imagination....The Obama administration has also been lukewarm, expressing sympathy but saying it would be hard to execute, could drive trading overseas and would hurt pension funds and individual investors in addition to banks. (NYT, 12/7/2011)

Well alright, once in a while Obama gets it.

Hacked Off
British police officials said on Wednesday that a 41-year-old man had been arrested in connection with the phone hacking scandal that has rocked Rupert Murdoch’s media outpost here, the 18th suspect taken into custody since inquiries into the scandal intensified in January. (NYT, 12/7/2011)

Breathless reporting from the Times on a publishing scandal in another country, but no updates on Climategate, Solyndra, or Fast and Furious and precious little on other Democrat scandals like Blagojevich or Corzine.

More Talk
The president gave a fine speech in Kansas. President Obama has given some great speeches. Good speeches are not his problem. The problem with voters is that they believe that they have heard it all before.

As Carter said, “The speech had a powerful moral dimension.” Well, that is not difficult to do in writing. Who can’t deploy carefully crafted words that are lofty and noble? President Obama has done that, and perhaps only that, more than any other politician in recent memory.

The problem is that he must govern, and the governed are waiting. His too-frequent righteous phrases and lofty verbiage have become part of his problem, not his solution. (Ed Rogers, Washington Post, 12/7/2011)

Liberals - even those who have recently fessed up to Obama speech fatigue - have briefly revived the notion that Obama has made another 'historic' speech. Good job by Rogers at bringing them back to earth.

Dependency
Such a progressive code will make the state (NY) fisc even more dependent on millionaire incomes, which soar on capital gains and bonuses during good times but crash during recessions. This is the same progressive trap that has made California's budget hostage to economic boom and bust.

The good times create an unsustainable revenue boom, which the politicians spend, only to find that the budget goes quickly and steeply into red when the economy slows. Then the politicians cry poverty and raise taxes again, driving more of the wealthy taxpayers the politicians need out of the state. This is why the highest-taxed states are always under fiscal duress. (WSJ, 12/7/2011)

Two paragraphs of required reading for Liberals. It's pretty simple, really.

No Mercy

2011-12-06T13:21:00.000-05:00

The 'Trash A Republican Candidate' Target in Today's New York Times is Newt Gingrich
Many observers seem surprised that Mr. Gingrich’s, well, colorful personal history isn’t causing him more problems, but they shouldn’t be. If hypocrisy is the tribute vice pays to virtue, conservatives often seem inclined to accept that tribute, voting for candidates who publicly espouse conservative moral principles whatever their personal behavior. (Paul Krugman, NYT, 12/6/2011)

Krugman wants to talk about Newt Gingrich's personal history - three marriages and infidelity. Fine, let's also talk about Obama's drug use and real estate dealings with a Chicago felon. Or is that old news? Here's the difference: Gingrich has asked for forgiveness and embraced religion. Maybe he should have flaunted his personal failings like Bill Clinton and Barney Frank. Oh, and that convicted felon? Here is how dishonest the New York Times is. They tie him to Rod Blagojevich - a Chicago Democrat that even they are unwilling to defend (some Dems are beyond saving) - rather than to Obama who famously got a sweetheart land deal:

Will he get more than Antoin Rezko, a former top fund-raiser for Mr. Blagojevich, who was sentenced last month to 10 1/2 years in prison for fraud and bribery? (NYT, 12/6/2011)

The Tall Grass Bends

2011-12-01T18:43:00.000-05:00

The Barney Frank of Vermont Calls It Quits
(Burlington Mayor Bob) Kiss will surely be remembered as the Burlington Telecom mayor, but in his own mind that story is incomplete. He has not yet accepted blame for the financial debacle the municipally owned fiber-to-the-home company represents to many residents, and when the issue comes up, he invariably refers to Burlington Telecom as an “asset” to the city, as if the debate has been about whether to go with the dazzling new information highway of the Internet or with the telegraph...When he first took the oath of office, BT was not a problem. The issue bedeviling the City Council was the underfunded pension fund (still a problem). (Burlington Free Press, 12/1/2012)

Like Barney, Kiss will be remembered for creating financial ruin and refusing to own up to it.

Preferences
The conservative-preferred, free-market fundamentalist, shareholder-only model—so successful in the 20th century—is being thrown onto the trash heap of history in the 21st century. In an era when countries need to become economic teams, Team USA's results—a jobless decade, 30 years of flat median wages, a trade deficit, a shrinking middle class and phenomenal gains in wealth but only for the top 1%—are pathetic...While we debate, Team China rolls on. Our delegation witnessed China's people-oriented development in Chongqing, a city of 32 million in Western China, which is led by an aggressive and popular Communist Party leader—Bo Xilai. A skyline of cranes are building roughly 1.5 million square feet of usable floor space daily—including, our delegation was told, 700,000 units of public housing annually. (Andy Stern, WSJ, 12/1/2011)

After greasing the Democrat Party with union dues, being paid off in jobs, wages and benefits and ultimately causing financial ruin, former SEIU President Stern has found a better economic model. Communist China! You can't make this stuff up.

Open Skies

2011-11-30T11:42:00.000-05:00

Influential
Newt Gingrich is adamant that he is not a lobbyist, but rather a visionary who traffics in ideas, not influence. But in the eight years since he started his health care consultancy, he has made millions of dollars while helping companies promote their services and gain access to state and federal officials. (NYT, 11/30/2011)

The lead in the race to become the Republican presidential nominee has shifted rapidly over the course of several weeks between Perry, Cain, Gingrich and Romney. As a result, the New York Times has had to work overtime to trash each prospective candidate. So far they have been up to the task. Here they level a devastating charge against Newt: He may have been a lobbyist!

Extra Extra
The leading conservative voices who have come to Herman Cain’s defense began backing away on Tuesday as he acknowledged that he was reassessing his Republican presidential bid, uncertain that he could withstand a report of an extramarital affair after accusations of sexual harassment and stumbling foreign policy responses. (NYT, 11/30/2011)

Count RedStateVT as flummoxed. Under the Clinton Rules for Presidential Candidates, as enthusiastically championed by both the Democrat party and the media, extramarital affairs are NOT considered grounds for dropping a presidential bid.

All About
“Four years ago it was about hope,” the mayor said. “Now it’s about his (Obama's) record.” (Scranton, Pennsylvania Mayor Christopher A. Doherty (D), NYT, 1129/2011)

If Obama has lost Scranton, he's lost the race!

Blarney
Barney Frank is leaving office at the end of his term. Maybe he just wants to spend more quality time with his pot-growing prostitute friends in the sub-prime lending business. (Michael Graham, Boston Herald, 11/29/2011)

Leave it to the Boston Herald to sum it up for Barney!

Debts That No Honest Man Can Pay

2011-11-29T10:00:00.000-05:00

Packaged
Following on from the original 'climategate' emails of 2009, the new package appears to show systematic suppression of evidence, and even publication of reports that scientists knew to to be based on flawed approaches...Yet one of the newly released emails, written by Prof. Jones - who is working with the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) - said: 'Any work we have done in the past is done on the back of the research grants we get – and has to be well hidden. (Daily Mail, 11/28/2011)

As predicted yesterday by RedStateVT, no discussion of Climategate in the state-controlled media today, but we do get a new Herman Cain scandal. Thankfully we have the Climate Depot web site. And now, at last, we have incontrovertible proof that - as RedStateVT has told you - global warming is all about money, i.e. the research grants that grease the "scientists."

Finally, global warming's epitaph:
Yet a funny thing happened on the way to the climate apocalypse. Namely, the financial apocalypse. The U.S., Russia, Japan, Canada and the EU have all but confirmed they won't be signing on to a new Kyoto. The Chinese and Indians won't make a move unless the West does. The notion that rich (or formerly rich) countries are going to ship $100 billion every year to the Micronesias of the world is risible, especially after they've spent it all on Greece.

Cap and trade is a dead letter in the U.S. Even Europe is having second thoughts about carbon-reduction targets that are decimating the continent's heavy industries and cost an estimated $67 billion a year. "Green" technologies have all proved expensive, environmentally hazardous and wildly unpopular duds. (Bret Stephens, WSJ, 11/29/2011)

Featured
Mr. Gingrich taught college history before entering politics, and his historical references on the campaign trail are such a feature of his public remarks as to be nearly a rhetorical tic. They strike some as evidence that Mr. Gingrich is the smartest candidate in the room — and others that he is a man determined to let you know how much he knows. (NYT, 11/29/2011)

One of the requirements that Liberals have for a president is that he appear to be smart. Hence, because Bush sometimes mangled his syntax we got 'Bush is Dumb.' Obama's qualifications for president - given that he had no experience and no accomplishments - were that he was a brilliant orator. (The bloom is off that rose now, however). All this was notwithstanding that Bush was a Harvard MBA and Obama is reported to have been a mediocre student.

So what to do with Newt Gingrich who is demonstrably smart and well-spoken? Well, the script now being written is obviously going to be that he is "too smart for his own good...nobody likes a smarty pants."

Scandal-Ridden Congressman To Retire
Simply put, Barney Frank has had enough. (NYT, 11/29/2011)

RedStateVT is by no means an expert on the Barney Frank scandals, but here are the ones that we recall:

- His boyfriend was running a male prostitution ring out of Barney's basement.
- His boyfriend was growing marijuana in his beach house.
- Barney recommended his boyfriend for a job at Fannie Mae (no pun intended).

We do not know whether this was the same boyfriend or not.

Oh, and of course, the biggest Barney scandals was when he told Fannie/Freddie that he wanted to "roll the dice" on providing more loans to the poor (unqualified) mortgage applicants.

Finally, Barney's epitaph:
However, it is unlikely that Mr. Frank is leaving for the reason he should depart Congress: out of shame for all he did to stop reform of Fannie and Freddie while there was still time to avert the disaster that almost took down the American economy.

In 2003, he called Fannie and Freddie “fundamentally sound financially” and accused the Bush Administration of trying to “exaggerate a threat of safety… [to] conjure up the possibility of serious financial losses to the Treasury, which I do not see."

A year later, he said talk of financial problems at Fannie and Freddie were “an artificial issue created by the administration...I don't think we are in any remote danger here."

In 2007, as Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee and just as Fannie and Freddie – overleveraged and stuffed to the gills with risky mortgages they’d encouraged and facilitated – were about to go over the cliff, Mr. Frank attacked President George W. Bush’s call for reform as “inane.” (Karl Rove, WSJ, 11/29/2011)

Stranger Passing Through Put Up A Sign

2011-11-28T10:58:00.000-05:00

All the Dishonesty, All the Time(s)
The debate over whether to reduce tax shelters and preferences for the rich is one of the most volatile in Washington and will move to the presidential campaign, now that repeated attempts in Congress to strike a grand bargain over spending cuts and an overhaul of the tax code have failed.

A handful of billionaires like Warren E. Buffett and Bill Gates have joined Democrats in calling for an elimination of the breaks, saying that the current system adds to the budget deficit, contributes to the widening income gap between the richest and the rest of society, and shifts the tax burden onto small businesses and the middle class. Republicans have resisted, saying the tax increases on the wealthy would harm the economy and cost jobs. (NYT, 11/27/2011)

Here the Times fudges the issue of tax hikes and tax shelters using Ronald Lauder as the punching bag. Apparently unable to find a rich Democrat who engages in legal tax avoidance, the Times settles on Lauder, a contributor to Republicans. The Republican position has been no tax hikes on the rich or anyone else for that matter. But Republicans have endorsed reform of the tax code to eliminate various deductions, loopholes, and shelters. You would not learn the distinction from reading this article. We suspect that Buffet and Gates utilize every known tax avoidance strategy their bevies of lawyers and accountants can muster up.

First, successive rounds of Tea Party-driven budget cuts this year have clarified this tradeoff: unless taxes go up on the wealthy, Medicare and Social Security must be cut drastically. (NYT, 11/27/2011)

This literary gem focuses on the political genius of New York's Chuck Schumer who is pushing this canard. Of course as has been pointed out, you could confiscate all the wealth of the top 1% and Medicare and Social Security would not be fixed.

Can't See the Forest
He wants to see, among other things, “a Robin Hood tax” on all financial transactions... (NYT, 11/28/2011)

This from Kalle Lasn, the Canadian who is the true spiritual leader of OWS (sorry Elizabeth Warren).

Under Water
He badly underestimated the length of this economic crisis.... (Nicholas D. Kristof, NYT, 11/26/2011)

Having seen this repeated in several Liberal columns of late, we now know that this likely comes directly from the Obama re-election campaign. Goes like this: Given a ticked-off electorate, Dems know that they cannot run on Obama's economic record. Therefore they have to do some kind of a mea culpa. The softest way to spin this disaster is to say that Obama erred only in not realizing how bad things were. Of course, it had nothing to do with his policies! A variation is to say that the economy that Obama 'inherited from Bush' was much worse. Of course, the Blame Bush argument is losing steam with voters as we approach the end of Obama's term.

Appeasement
Los Angeles has been relatively accommodating to its Occupy group compared to other major cities, with (Los Angeles Mayor Antonio) Villaraigosa at one point providing ponchos to campers when it rained. But after the collapse of negotiations aimed at persuading protesters to relocate voluntarily, the mayor said last week the encampment would have to go. He said he hoped to avoid violence that erupted in other cities when police used force against Occupy protesters. (NYT, 11/28/2011)

Will the Bloombergs, Quans, and Villaraigosas learn? The Occupiers will take the free stuff you give them and still not obey. We think not, hence the pepper spray.

Make the Case
If the case for man-made global warming is really as strong as the so-called consensus claims it is, why do the climategate emails show scientists attempting to stamp out dissenting points of view? Why must they manipulate data, such as Mr. Jones's infamous effort (revealed in the first batch of climategate emails) to "hide the decline," deliberately concealing an inconvenient divergence, post-1960, between real-world, observed temperature data and scientists' preferred proxies derived from analyzing tree rings? (James Delingpole, WSJ, 11/28/2011)

One has to search hard for an article on the latest Climategate scandal revelations! Now if there had been a new accusation made against Herman Cain we know it would have been front page news.

Poorly

2011-11-26T17:14:00.000-05:00

RedStateVT has discussed with many of you our feelings about "the poor," a topic which Liberals endlessly invoke as the rationale for their social engineering goals. Like babies and puppies, the poor are held out as beyond judgment. How could the mean Republicans (fill in the blank) punish/cut programs for/ deny the poor. Vermont's own Colonel Bernie Sanders has "the poor" hardwired into every utterance he makes (along with "tax the rich" and "it's all Bush's fault"). The Judeo-Christian ethic of this country (and indeed all of the great religious traditions of the world) counsel empathy for those less fortunate. And empathetic RedStateVT is, although we do make an important distinction. Namely, the biblical notion of the suffering and downtrodden poor must be updated. No longer is society divided between the elite and the oppressed. Occupy Whatever notwithstanding, in America and much of the world today, there are limitless opportunities for upward advancement for those willing to work hard. Why in America, the biracial child of a peripatetic single mom can grow up to be the President! For those who suffer the ravages of poverty through no fault of their own - illness, abuse, even bad luck - we extend a helping hand. For others, who suffer as a result of poor choices - drug abuse, profligacy, laziness, unwillingness to take advantage of public education, etc. - we say: "buck up little pony." In the wake of a recent CBO report on poverty which was widely trumpeted by the state-controlled media, we revisited an explanatory report from The Heritage Foundation which attempts to provide clearer insights into who exactly the poor are and how they live. (Or as RedStateVT is fond of asking: do the poor have a flat screen television and a cell phone with internet access?) It is highly recommend reading to all.

Here is a brief summary:

--The typical poor household, as defined by the government, has a car and air conditioning, two color televisions, cable or satellite TV, a DVD player, and a VCR. If there are children, especially boys, the family has a game system, such as an Xbox or PlayStation.

--In the kitchen, the household has a refrigerator, an oven and stove, and a microwave. Other household conveniences include a clothes washer, clothes dryer, ceiling fans, a cordless phone, and a coffee maker.

--The home of the typical poor family is in good repair and is not overcrowded. In fact, the typical average poor American has more living space in his home than the average (non-poor) European has.

-- By its own report, the typical poor family was not hungry, was able to obtain medical care when needed, and had sufficient funds during the past year to meet all essential needs.

(The Heritage Foundation, Air Conditioning, Cable TV, and an Xbox: What is Poverty in the United States Today?, Robert Rector and Rachel Sheffield, July 19, 2011)

Vise Grip

2011-11-25T11:35:00.000-05:00

Validated
The Republican inquiry has raised valid questions, but it has also unfairly tried to exploit one bad bet to discredit public investments in renewable technologies. As the investigations continue, Congress must not lose sight of the bigger picture: the need to invest in promising alternatives to fossil fuels. (NYT, 11/25/2011)

The New York Times editors conclude that the loss of one-half of one billion dollars of taxpayers' money (Solyndra) was just, gosh darn it, bad luck. And shame on those Republicans for trying to politicize it!

Eliminated
Raising revenue through tax reform is better than simply raising rates, which Democrats insist upon with near religious fervor. It is more economically efficient because it eliminates credits, carve-outs and deductions that grossly misallocate capital. And it is more fair because it is the rich who can afford not only the sharp lawyers and accountants who exploit loopholes but the lobbyists who create them in the first place.

Yet the Democrats, who flatter themselves as the party of fairness, are instead obsessed with raising tax rates on the rich as a sign of civic virtue. (Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post, 11/24/2011)

Democrats have identified their weapon of choice - tax hikes on the rich - and they are determined to ride it all the way through the 2012 elections. We'll see where it gets them. Meanwhile they ignore the two levers which really can have an impact: tax loopholes and entitlements.

Turkey Time

2011-11-24T18:03:00.000-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving to All! RedStateVT is thankful to live in the freest, fairest country in the world.

Vividly
As the busiest retail weekend of the year begins late Thursday night, the differences between how affluent and more ordinary Americans shop in the uncertain economy will be on unusually vivid display. Budget-minded shoppers will be racing for bargains at ever-earlier hours while the rich mostly will not be bothering to leave home. (NYT, 11/23/2011)

So now the New York Times is using Black Friday to push Obama's class warfare agenda...

Violated
But the investigators currently looking at MF Global's messy implosion, specifically the disappearance of as much as $1.2 billion in client money, are now coming to a far different conclusion: that people at the firm likely violated securities laws in the handling of these customer accounts, and that those violations could ultimately turn out to be criminal in nature, the FOX Business Network has learned. (Foxnews.com, 11/23/2011)

A Wall Street firm led by a former Republican governor who donated heavily to George Bush and was also a large bundler of contributions as well collapses and over $1 billion of client money goes missing. How much media coverage do you think that story would get? Which networks, commentators and prominent Democrats would be calling for investigations? Which would be explaining that this incident proves their point about the need for greater regulation or the corruption of Wall Street, abetted by Republicans? Make the appropriate substitutions - Obama for Bush, Democrat for Republican - and what do you get? Ho, hum...

Deceived
Along with the day-to-day work of science, the emails reveal internal debates, anger at skeptics and even deception from scientists investigation whether man's actions are warming the planet. (Foxnews.com, 11/23/2011)

Climategate Part II heats up! Of course, the outcome is preordained. An internal investigation will reveal that - notwithstanding what the Climategate scientists said in their e-mails - climate change is real and skeptics are ignorant.

Fall Into The Gap
We already have a huge welfare state, with entitlements -- Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid -- the biggest expenditure of the federal budget. Europe's welfare state is larger, with a slightly smaller "gap" between the rich and the poor. Yet its citizens also take to the street to denounce inequality. Puzzling, isn't it? (Larry Elder, Townhall.com, 11/24/2011)

Great point from Elder!

For God And Country

2011-11-23T14:54:00.000-05:00

Pepper Time
To the American Civil Liberties Union, its use as a crowd-control device, particularly when those crowds are nonthreatening, is an excessive and unconstitutional use of force and violates the right to peaceably assemble. (NYT, 11/23/2011)

The peace and love crowd - yes, the same group that stood by idly while murder, rape, and drug use took place in their midst - is all upset about pepper spray. Let's review the facts: 1) They refused to obey the orders of police to disburse; 2) ...Well, there really is nothing else to know. They refused to obey the law. They were told they would be sprayed if they refused and they were sprayed. End of story. As a society, do we want the rule of law or not?

Au Contraire
The anonymous hacker who shook the world of climate science two years ago by posting a trove of stolen e-mails delivered a new batch on Tuesday, stirring up climate-change contrarians a little more than a week before global negotiations on greenhouse gases are to begin in Durban, South Africa. (NYT, 11/23/2011)

More great stuff from the 'scientists who stand to gain financially from pushing climate change.' Not surprisingly, the Times and all "scientists" involved quickly conclude that there are no damaging or contradictory revelations. End of story.

Mr. Big Stuff
I voted for Barack Obama, and I don’t want my money back. He’s never gotten the credit he deserves for bringing the economy he inherited back from the brink of a depression. He’s fought the war on terrorism in a smart and effective way. He’s making health care possible for millions of Americans with pre-existing conditions, and he saved the auto industry. This is big stuff. (Thomas L. Friedman, NYT, 11/22/2011)

Another view - using the same fact pattern - is as follows: unemployment remains sky high and the economy is moribund after three years of Obama; he has emboldened Islamic terrorists by pre-announcing the date of U.S. troop withdrawals; he jammed through a highly unpopular health care plan using dishonest accounting for its costs; and, he bailed out his union supporters in the auto industry which now produce a highly subsidized $40,000 electric car which no one will buy. Big indeed.

Arc of a Diver
Mr. Obama's career has been one in which the main effect has been the impression he leaves on audiences—the main effect has been himself. Familiarity with his country—or any other country—would be helpful at this point, if only to counterweight his mesmerization with the arc of his personal story. (Holman W. Jenkins, Jr., WSJ, 11/23/2011)

There is an increasing eloquence on the part of all writers - Left and Right - in describing the abject failure of Obama.

You Can Hear The Whistle Blow

2011-11-22T17:59:00.000-05:00

Combative
In response to the growing tension between the politicians who debate and the journalists who moderate — a dynamic that will be tested again Tuesday night as CNN hosts the latest of more than a dozen nationally televised Republican debates planned through the end of the year — the news media outlets that sponsor the face-offs have been steeling themselves for combat. (NYT, 11/21/2011)

As well they should. Good job by Newt Gingrich (and others) for standing up to and exposing the Liberal bias inherent in the questions of these "moderators."

Sample question for Republicans: Why is your side unwilling to compromise?
Sample question for Democrats: How difficult is it when the other side won't compromise?

Squeezed
After years of watching the state’s budget for higher education erode, they (University of California students) are demanding that the state and university administrators find a way to lower tuition that they say is squeezing out the middle class.

“These are institutions that we call the people’s university, but all of us who are in it have just watched this thing collapse on itself being starved for resources year after year,” said Lillian Taiz, the president of the California Faculty Association, the union that represents professors in the California State University system.
(NYT, 11/21/2011)

First, these are the same students, no doubt, who demand a "living wage" for university workers. Then they cannot understand why tuition goes up.

Second, why not ask the union representing these professors for givebacks in salary and benefits...so that the state can afford the "resources" so badly needed?

Disconnected
And Mark Mellman, a Democratic pollster who is not connected to the Obama campaign, said, “There is a clear sense that the president has reached out and tried to work with Republicans, and there is an equally clear sense that they have not tried to reach out and work with him. (NYT, 11/22/2011)

New York Times objectivity: they quote a pollster not connected to the Obama campaign...who is a Democrat!

Embattled
The result is that at a time when the nation is looking for ways to battle unemployment, big companies are creating fewer jobs, and critics say they are neglecting to lay the foundation for future growth by expanding into new businesses or building new plants. (NYT, 11/22/2011)

Let's see, businesses have the twin specters of more regulation and Obamacare hanging over them and Liberals cannot figure out why they are not hiring or spending their cash. RedStateVT prediction: the day Mitt Romney is elected president the market goes up 500 points and businesses begin investing again.

Preferred
Of course it would have been preferable if the two sides had come together now to cut spending, reform the tax code and remake Medicare. Preferable, but implausible. That would have required President Obama to have shown more respect for the will of the voters when they revoked his credit card by giving Republicans control of the House in 2010. Or for the President to have honored the findings of his own Bowles-Simpson deficit commission by using it as a basis for negotiation. Instead, he ignored them. (WSJ, 11/22/2011)

This is one of the enduring mysteries of Obama. He is blind to seminal events like the election of Scott Brown and the 2010 mid-term elections. It is why his presidency has failed.

Regained and Regarded

2011-11-21T17:33:00.000-05:00

Mounting Calls
(Obama) should abandon his candidacy for re-election in favor of a clear alternative, one capable not only of saving the Democratic Party, but more important, of governing effectively and in a way that preserves the most important of the president's accomplishments. He should step aside for the one candidate who would become, by acclamation, the nominee of the Democratic Party: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

...Put simply, it seems that the White House has concluded that if the president cannot run on his record, he will need to wage the most negative campaign in history to stand any chance. With his job approval ratings below 45% overall and below 40% on the economy, the president cannot affirmatively make the case that voters are better off now than they were four years ago. He—like everyone else—knows that they are worse off. (Patrick H. Caddell and Douglas E. Schoen, WSJ, 11/21/2011)

In a stunning statement (not likely to be reported by the state-controlled media) Democrat heavyweights call for Obama to step aside. Hillary comes with her own baggage, of course, and we are not certain how well she can work with both Dems and Repubs. But, it couldn't be worse, could it?

Meanwhile Democrat lightweights like Chris Matthews are voicing similar sentiments. Matthews asks: What is Obama's case for deserving a second term? He also speaks mysteriously of late night phone calls - presumably from Washington insiders - expressing profound frustration with Obama.

It's Over
In the midst of crackdowns on Occupy Wall Street movements across the country, police in Colorado Springs removed protesters from Acacia Park at 1 a.m. Monday. (Huffington Post, 11/21/2011)

Newt Gingrich's philosophical skewering of the premise of OWS this weekend said it all. Naturally, die-hard Liberals were outraged, but not about the drugs, sexual assaults, murder or violence...

Aimlessly Askew

2011-11-20T10:18:00.000-05:00

The Great Divide
The divide was further illustrated by the House’s rejection of a constitutional amendment that would generally require the federal government to balance its budget. The House voted 261 to 165 in favor of the proposal, but that was 23 votes short of the two-thirds majority needed to advance a constitutional amendment. The vast majority of Republicans supported the measure. Democrats, even some who voted in favor of a similar measure in 1995, pushed it to failure. (NYT, 11/19/2011)

So just to be clear, Democrats oppose fiscal responsibility.

Revisited
The Obama administration pressured analysts to change an environmental review to reflect fewer job losses from a proposed regulation, the contractors who worked on the review testified Friday. The dispute revolves around proposed changes to a rule regulating coal mining near streams and other waterways. The experts contracted to analyze the impact of the rule initially found that it would cost 7,000 coal jobs. But the contractors claim they were subsequently pressured to not only keep the findings under wraps but "revisit" the study in order to show less of an impact on jobs. (Foxnews.com, 11/18/2011)

Fast and Furious, Greengate (Solyndra, et. al.) and now Minegate. Will Obama's turn out to be the most corrupt administration in modern times? Meanwhile, the state-controlled media yawns.

Strike Out
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said ahead of a meeting Friday with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak that he would warn his Israeli counterpart about the global economic consequences of a military strike on Iran's nuclear program, adding that he still favors sanctions and diplomacy over a strike. (Foxnews.com, 11/18/2011)

Two Truths: Dems always want sanctions; sanctions are meaningless.

Hedged Bets
“Senator Brown is a free-market advocate who believes that our strength as a nation comes from the ingenuity and hard work of its people,” read an invitation to a fund-raiser at a New Canaan, Conn., country club last week, that circulated among hedge fund and private equity executives. His Democratic opponent, the invitation noted, was all but certain to be the financial industry’s most prominent foe: “big government liberal Elizabeth Warren.” (NYT, 11/19/2011)

Maybe the hedge fund geniuses who have fallen all over themselves to support Democrats in the past have wised up. We are skeptical.

Ovewhelmed
As night fell on Tuesday, protesters voted overwhelmingly to put up tents in defiance of Robert J. Birgeneau, Berkeley’s chancellor, who has prohibited encampments synonymous with the Occupy demonstrations. More than a week ago, the police dragged protesters by the hair and struck them with batons as they tried to protect a similar encampment. (NYT, 11/19/2011)

There are three inalienable tenets of Liberal protest: 1) They support non-violence, 2) When they are asked to obey the law, they become violent, and 3) They then whine about being mistreated by the police.

Frankly, we think the police have shown remarkable restraint...including the cops in Oakland!

Who Said It?

2011-11-19T09:40:00.000-05:00

It’s hard to quarrel with (disgraced Democrat Charlie) Rangel’s reasoning. The fete Wednesday night at the upscale Bistro Bis, near Union Station, was a way for House Democrats to demonstrate that their punishment of the defrocked Ways and Means committee chairman was insincere. By attending the up-to-$5,000-per-ticket soiree, they were proclaiming that all was forgiven.

a) WSJ Editorial
b) Sean Hannity
c) Liberal Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank
d) Charles Krauthammer
e) Bill O'Reilly

If you guessed c) you are today's winner!

*Dana Milbank, Washington Post, 11/18/2011

Seeds Of Time

2011-11-17T22:30:00.000-05:00

Battered Down
Two major clean air rules have been delayed, at least temporarily. The Interior Department announced a significant expansion of offshore drilling in the Arctic and the Gulf of Mexico over the next five years. Last week, the administration bowed to pressure from protesters, environmental groups, and residents and officials in Nebraska in announcing that it would delay a decision on the bitterly contested Keystone XL oil pipeline until after the 2012 election. Taken together, the moves mark the White House’s growing awareness of the costs of environmental regulation in a battered economy. (NYT, 11/17/2011)

See, these are the type of decisions that Obama makes (including preserving the Bush tax cuts) that show that he does understand the pernicious economic effects of Liberal policies.

Dynamic Civic Process Update
The mayor said that a witness told CNN that during a faceoff in Zuccotti Park, protesters tried to provoke officers by flicking lit cigarettes at them. (NYT, 11/17/2011)

Support OWS? These are the animals that you give aid and comfort to. And note to the state-controlled media: the Tea Party will now accept your apologies.

No Future
Last week, Tim Weldon, 35, quit his job in Connecticut and moved from home to devote his time to Occupy Wall Street. “I think this will end up being the biggest and best career move I ever made,” he said in an interview. That was before the police cleared protesters from their encampment at Zuccotti Park. Now, he said, “I have no place to go.”

...Mr. Weldon graduated from the University of West Virginia, has a master’s degree in economic and social history from the University of Manchester in England, and has worked toward a Ph.D. in social anthropology at the University of Budapest. (NYT, 11/16/2011)

The dumbest person on the planet has now been found! By the way, this is exactly why Republicans want there to be accountability for teachers. This guy has a good case for suing his teachers.

Cease And Desist

2011-11-16T12:34:00.000-05:00

The Visitor
And Democrats have made plenty of gaffes in the past, including President Obama, who once said he had visited 57 states. (NYT, 11/16/2011)

Gaffes happen. Just ask Gaffe Machine Joe Biden. Anyone in the public eye who is called upon regularly for spontaneous comment will occasionally slip-up. Most of the time miscues provide a quick laugh and do not reveal anything fundamental about a politician. As always, however, the state-controlled media seeks to define the worthiness for office of a Republican candidate on the basis of a single slip-up. Hence we have been subjected to virtually nonstop "gaffe watch." Obama's "57 states" comment was virtually ignored until now, when in a belated attempt at fairness, the Times mentions it.

The Battler
As Barack Obama battled Hillary Rodham Clinton over health care during the Democratic presidential primaries of 2008, he was adamant about one thing: Americans, he insisted, should not be required to buy health insurance.... Polls show the mandate is by far the most unpopular provision of the 2010 bill, and now Mr. Obama, who ultimately embraced the idea, is in the awkward position of defending something he once rejected. (NYT, 11/16/2011)

Now they tell us? Does this make Obama a flip-flopper or is that term reserved for Mitt Romney?

Assertions
The Post writes that supporters of enhanced interrogation “have asserted that waterboarding led to important intelligence gains. It is not clear this is true.” Yes it is. In response to a direct question about the role of enhanced interrogation in the bin Laden operation, then-CIA Director Leon Panetta confirmed that, “Obviously there was, there was some valuable intelligence that was derived through those kind of interrogations.” His immediate predecessor, Mike Hayden, was even more explicit, declaring, “Let the record show that when I was first briefed in 2007 about the brightening prospect of pursuing bin Laden through his courier network, a crucial component of the briefing was information provided by three CIA detainees, all of whom had been subjected to some form of enhanced interrogation.” (Marc Thiessen, Washington Post, 11/15/2011)

The state-controlled media revives the dormant waterboarding issue expressly for the purpose of trying to make Republican candidates look bad. Good for most of them for standing up. And good for Thiessen for reminding the Washington Post that waterboarding is what got bin Laden; the event which the very same press will point to during the campaign season as proof of Obama's foreign policy competence. Can't have it both ways folks!

Sudden Bitter Rain

2011-11-15T17:27:00.000-05:00

Pain and Suffering
Mr. Obama’s economic team failed to help him prepare Americans for the pain ahead. It has proved a defining mistake of the Obama administration. (NYT, 11/13/2011)

Liberal media bias is endemic (hence RedStateVT), but it is also subtle. Here we learn that the failure of Obama is 1) not his fault, 2) the fault of his advisers, and 3) not a result of his policies. That clears it up!

Zuccotti Zucchini
(Mayor Bloomberg) added that on Monday, Brookfield asked the city to assist in enforcing “the no sleeping and camping rules. (NYT, 11/15/2011)

After two months Mayor Feckless finally agrees to enforce the law, but only when pressed by the park's owners.

Dynamic Civic Process*
One part of the group chanted "We are peaceful." Others responded with chants of "We're not peaceful." (WSJ, 11/15/2011)

The great unwashed - peaceful and not peaceful - are asked to move along.

*actual description from OWS blogger.

You Might Say

2011-11-12T16:05:00.000-05:00

Tip of the Iceberg
A great deal of attention has been focused on Solyndra, a start-up that received $528 million in federal loans to develop cutting-edge solar technology before it went bankrupt, but nearly 90 percent of the $16 billion in clean-energy loans guaranteed by the federal government since 2009 went to subsidize these lower-risk power plants, which in many cases were backed by big companies with vast resources. When the Obama administration and Congress expanded the clean-energy incentives in 2009, a gold-rush mentality took over. (NYT, 11/12/2011)

With every boom there is a bust. Several years hence RedStateVT will be writing about the vast amounts of taxpayer dollars wasted during the "clean energy boom years" of the Obama administration.

Fight Back
Small business owners and local residents fed up with the “Occupiers” at Zuccotti Park in New York City are planning a counterprotest and news conference of their own Monday, to make clear the crowd has long overstayed its welcome — and that businesses will not survive if the “occupation” continues. (Foxnews.com, 11/11/2011)

So here is the choice for gutless mayors like Bloomberg and Quan: keep spending millions of taxpayer dollars to avoid confronting freeloading criminals and anarchists OR protect taxpaying small businessmen. Why are we even asking this question?

Heal Thyself
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is the subject of a report on the stock investments of members of Congress that is to air Sunday on CBS' "60 Minutes." (Sfgate.com, 11/11/2011)

The Pelosi Swamp Clean-Up takes an unexpected turn!

Happy Veterans Day

2011-11-11T20:50:00.002-05:00

A special thanks to all past and present veterans. Thank you for your service and your sacrifices.

More Of The Same

2011-11-11T15:13:00.000-05:00

Peas and Pods
On the surface, Greece and Italy seem remarkably alike. Both countries have entrenched patronage networks that predate the European Union by centuries and suffocating regulations and work rules. (NYT, 11/11/2011)

Hmm....reminds us of what? Now to avoid or reverse these issues, the best course of action is to do what?

The Sutton Principle
To solve our debt problems, we have to go to where the money is — the middle class. People who earn between $30,000 and $200,000 a year make a total of around $5 trillion and pay less than 10 percent of that in taxes (owing mostly to tax incentives and the fact that most families make less than $68,000, where larger tax rates begin). Increasing the middle-class tax burden an additional 8 percent, however, would actually have a bigger impact than taxing millionaires at 100 percent. (Adam Davidson, NYT, 11/9/2011)

Why the Republican firewall against raising taxes on "millionaires and billionaires?" One reason is that Liberals won't stop there. They will then carve away until everyone is paying confiscatory taxes. Of course, another alternative to raising taxes is for government to spend less.

Germ Warfare
Dr. Philip M. Tierno Jr., the director of clinical microbiology and immunology at NYU Langone Medical Center, said the conditions could leave park-dwellers susceptible to respiratory viruses; norovirus, the so-called winter vomiting virus, which can lead to vomiting and diarrhea and which could quickly overwhelm the limited bathroom facilities in the area; and tuberculosis, which is more common in indigent populations and can be spread by coughing. (NYT, 11/11/2011)

Like the microbes that brought down the alien invaders in War of the Worlds, the Occupiers could also be felled by the unseen!

What Fate Arranges

2011-11-10T20:12:00.000-05:00

The Peace and Love Crowd
Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann was about 10 minutes into a foreign policy speech in South Carolina on Thursday when she was drowned out by the shouting of protesters. About 30 people rose in unison and began shouting a scripted message during Bachmann's address aboard the USS Yorktown, a World War Two aircraft carrier. The group, which later identified itself as being part of Occupy Charleston, accused Bachmann of "dividing Americans" and promoting discrimination. (Reuters.com, 11/10/2011)

Occupiers have clashed with police in City Hall Park this evening after police tried to close down the encampment following a fatal shooting. (Burlington Free Press, 11/10/2011)

This is Liberal dissent. The ones who believe in free speech prevent conservatives from speaking. Or they get violent.

Extra Large
Federal officials postponed a crucial permitting decision for the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline Thursday afternoon, issuing plans to consider a new route for the pipeline. The project was proposed by Calgary-based TransCanada to link a vast oil patch in Alberta to refineries in Texas. The additional analysis would not likely be concluded until the early months of 2013. (Huffington Post, 11/10/2011)

Another decision (like gay marriage) that Obama punts to his possible second term. Another gutsy call from our fearless leader!

Double Down

2011-11-09T20:15:00.000-05:00

Disunion
Unions have also intervened with politicians on behalf of the protesters. In Los Angeles, labor leaders have repeatedly lobbied Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa not to evict the protesters. When New York City officials were threatening to evict the Occupy Wall Street protesters from Zuccotti Park, hundreds of union members showed up before daybreak to discourage any eviction, and the city backed down. (NYT, 11/9/11)

At the site of the Occupy San Diego camp, street cart vendors were forced to close up shop Monday when protesters, angry that they stopped receiving free food, ransacked and vandalized the carts. (Foxnews.com, 11/9/2011)

Two points on Occupy Whatever today: The Occupiers want free stuff (wait, we said that yesterday and the day before and the day before)! Second, these protests reveal the utter fecklessness of mayors from coast to coast. Afraid of upsetting the little darlings, mayors from Bloomberg to Quan let them break the law. Now, because they have ceded power to the mob, they cannot get it back.

Bounce
Mr. Gingrich predicted, too, that late on Election Night—after it was clear that President Obama had been defeated along with the Democrats in the Senate—the recovery would begin, at once. (Dorothy Rabinowitz, WSJ, 11/9/11)

RedStateVT will now make public its prediction heretofore only mentioned to close associates. If Obama is defeated, the Dow Jones Industrials will register a 500 point gain the next day.

The Wall
In Italy, as in Greece, Spain and Portugal and eventually France, the welfare-entitlement state has hit a wall. Successive governments on the Continent, right and left, have financed generous entitlements with high taxes and towering piles of debt. Their economies have failed to grow fast enough to keep up, and last year the money started to run out. The reckoning has arrived.(WSJ, 11/9/11)

It is stunning that with the future of America in five years foretold by the collapse of the European socialist model, Liberals nonetheless want to follow the same path.

Change Is No Stranger

2011-11-08T16:52:00.000-05:00

California Files
Now even unions are catching on to the damage. The Los Angeles Times reports that the California Air Resources Board (CARB) gave final approval to the new scheme two weeks ago after listening to "scathing comments from union workers fearful of losing their jobs." Hard-hat union members from the steel, concrete and oil and gas industries were among the opponents. (WSJ, 11/31/2011)

The Journal editorial references California's adoption of a cap and trade policy....and the potentially devastating effect on union jobs. As RedStateVT has remarked before, Dems are NOT the party of the working man.

Acting Out
(Actress Ellen) Barkin also takes issue with the cable broadcaster often tied to the Tea Party. "The blatant lying that passes itself off as journalism. I don’t even need to get there to go mental. Can you imagine a legitimate newsperson—Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw—just lying on the news?" she asked, heating up in rhetoric. "Let alone the entertainment factor—you know, news as entertainment. And because of the enormity of the money behind that machine, they have convinced this ever-growing group of really struggling, working-class people, that these f--kers can somehow, in some way, represent them. They do not. I mean, let’s not even start, because that’ll take up a whole month if I go down that road."

Barkin has never been shy to share her political beliefs, and often in very colorful ways. She once tweeted that, "If Ann Coulter didn't have a dick...I'd call her a c*nt." Following a night of live tweeting a Republican presidential debate, she said, "G'mornin my frenz...Im still all f*cked up from debate nitemares & sh*t...dreamt Newt stuck his Mitt up my a** w/o any Santorum." (Huffington Post, 11/8/2011)

Making fun of celebrity nit-wits is a lot like fishing with dynamite. It's too easy. So Barkin can't imagine Don Rather "just lying." Even middle schoolers know that Rather was exposed for peddling forged documents about George Bush's military service. Does that count as a lie? Readers will also recall that Barkin was married to Billionaire One-Percenter Ron Perelman and got millions in a divorce settlement. She then turned around and donated most of this windfall to a local homeless shelter. Oh wait, she didn't?

Weave A Wall

2011-11-07T18:03:00.000-05:00

RedStateVT Proposes New Advocacy Group
Readers may remember that the Liberal advocacy group MoveOn.org was formed during the Clinton Administration. Stuck defending a perverse sex predator, Liberal supporters of Clinton wanted to change the conversation. The best they could come up with was: "let's just move on and stop talking about it." And so, MoveOn.org was born. Unlike the Clinton scandal, there is no, well let's call it "physical evidence," that the allegations against Cain are true. Nonetheless, RedStateVT suggests taking a page from the Liberal playbook and look to move past this issue. We propose the formation of MoveAlong.org. Reader feedback is requested. With enough support, we can get this off the ground.

RedStateVT Watches MSNBC
As a public service to readers, RedStateVT will occasionally watch MSNBC to see how Liberals are spinning the truth. Last week we watched a few minutes of Hardball with Chris Matthews. Here is what we saw. Apparently unable to live down his "leg tingle" for Obama, Matthews has given up any hope of being a serious journalist. In one segment, he asked both a Democrat and Republican commentator the question of which party would take the high road in the upcoming election. He interrupted the Republican response to say words to the effect of: "You guys will probably paint swastikas on pictures of Obama." RedStateVT has been trying to get the exact language from the transcript of the program. Mysteriously, it cannot be found on the Hardball website!

RedStateVT also caught a few minutes of an MSNBC show called: The Mr. Ed Show. Apparently this show is a remake of the old series about a talking horse. Here is what we saw. Mr. Ed played a clip of a frustrated unemployed blue collar worker who called Elizabeth Warren a completely inappropriate name. The title of the segment was: Tea Party Hate. Mind you this was a single individual at a small town hall event in Massachusetts. Why report the story? Because Mr. Ed wanted to deflect attention away from the violence and vandalism committed the day before by numerous members of Occupy Oakland. "A horse is a horse, of course, of course......"

This is MSNBC.

Teachable Moment
Jason Richwine and Andrew Biggs, researchers at the Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute, two leading conservative think tanks, argue in a new report that the country's 3.2 million teachers may be overpaid by over 50 percent or more, given their salary, benefits, job security, and intellectual ability. (AOL.com, 11/4/2011)

It is a reflexive Liberal axiom that we need to spend more money on education in this country. It's rare (and nice) to see someone question the conventional wisdom.

Dolly Back

2011-11-06T17:54:00.000-05:00

Committed
Sleeping in Zuccotti once was evidence of a deep commitment to Occupy’s politics, but now, some people seem to be there mainly for the donated clothes and free food. (NYT, 11/6/2011)

As RedStateVT told you from the start, the Occupiers want free stuff. Want more proof? Consider:

An "Occupy Wall Street" protester threw a violent fit in a McDonald’s after employees refused to give him free food. (Foxnews.com, 11/5/2011)

Plunged and Poised
As the United States prepares to withdraw its troops from Iraq by year’s end, senior American and Iraqi officials are expressing growing concern that Al Qaeda’s offshoot here, which just a few years ago waged a debilitating insurgency that plunged the country into a civil war, is poised for a deadly resurgence. (NYT, 11/6/2011)

Obama's enduring legacy?

Leveled
Mr. McConnell and his fellow Republicans have blocked a short-term jobs bill proposed by President Obama that has broad support from independent economists, and for the most part they have failed to level with voters about cuts to Medicare, Social Security and the military that a no-new-taxes pledge would require. Democrats, including Mr. Obama, have vowed not to raise taxes on households making less than $250,000, which seems impossible without larger benefit cuts than Democrats have acknowledged. (NYT, 11/6/2011)

Interesting analysis from the Times, reasonably attempting to be objective. We'd quibble, however, with the comment that Republicans haven't been honest about cuts to entitlement programs. They have certainly tried to...and then been eviscerated by Dems... and the Times!

Field Notes

2011-11-05T11:41:00.000-04:00

LA LA Land
RedStateVT has just returned from a research trip to the Left Coast. Here is what you need to know. Liberal hypocrisy is alive and well. The folks who want to tell America how to live are - no surprise - not heeding their own advice. The prime example is the California car culture. While Liberals want the rest of America to take the bus, carpool, buy American or drive hybrids, none of this is happening in LA LA Land. It appears that Californians are overwhelmingly driving solo in big black German luxury cars. So no public transportation, no carpooling, limited number of hybrids on the road, and certainly the leader in sales of foreign luxury cars. And they are overwhelmingly black, thereby requiring extra air conditioning. Oh, they are sparklingly clean, too. Californians love shiny cars and upscale car washes (often they are called "car spas") are a growth business. For a state that (we thought) had water shortage problems, we found lots and lots of car washes and no flow restrictors.

Caned
RedStateVT is frankly befuddled by the uproar over allegations of sexual harassment against Herman Cain. We thought that the enduring legacy of Bill Clinton was that inappropriate sexual behavior by politicians was no longer to be considered newsworthy. What has changed?

Do you wonder, by the way, why black conservatives are accused of misdeeds of a sexual nature? The answer is simple, really. Chapter One of the Liberal playbook is first to accuse a conservative of racism. Case in point is Rick Perry. This is always where Liberals begin. However, the strategy has to be modified when a black conservative appears. Racism is tough to allege. And so Liberals turn next to the charge of sexual harassment. Ultimately - as more black conservatives hit the national spotlight - these Liberal tactics will prove increasingly ineffective.

World On A String

2011-10-26T14:24:00.000-04:00

Tip Top
The top 1 percent of earners more than doubled their share of the nation’s income over the last three decades, the Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday, in a new report likely to figure prominently in the escalating political fight over how to revive the economy, create jobs and lower the federal debt. In addition, the report said, government policy has become less redistributive since the late 1970s, doing less to reduce the concentration of income. (NYT, 10/26/2011)

Liberals and their ideological soulmates camped out in the park will love this report and claim that it validates their views. Of course what they do not understand is that wealth is not finite. Because one person make more money does not mean that another person makes less. Want to be that person who makes more? The answer is simple...work harder.

Big Money
(Bernie) Sanders, 70, said almost 47,000 people nationwide have donated to his campaign, including about 2,600 Vermonters. He said the average donation was $46.98. His campaign has also received $249,066 in contributions from political action committees, mostly connected with labor unions. (Burlington Free Press, 10/26/2011)

So - doing the math - the Colonel has received campaign donations from 44,400 people OUTSIDE of Vermont, as well as, from big labor unions. Cry foul! This election is being bought by external interests!

Arresting
Authorities made a series of arrests at Occupy Wall Street protests in California and Georgia on Tuesday and Wednesday, with clashes in one city that involved tear gas being used on demonstrators. Police said they fired the tear gas on protesters in Oakland, California, after the crowd threw paint and other objects at officers.
(CNN.com, 10/26/2011)

As could have been easily predicted, the OWS crowd turns violent when asked to obey the law and disperse.

Anger To Stone

2011-10-25T16:12:00.000-04:00

Now It Is Clear
A two-hour “teach-in” Monday afternoon prompted by the Wall Street protest produced an array of ideas from economists and their students about how to counter big-monied interests and nurture a more egalitarian society that values genuine wellbeing over raw growth.

The forum, organized by the Gund Institute of Ecological Economics at the University of Vermont, drew more than 200 people to the Ira Allen Chapel and offered a mix of rousing rhetoric and lower-key policy-speak.

The presenters were all on the progressive/interventionist side of the ideological divide. Ardent proponents of free markets and less government were not on the dais. (Burlington Free Press, 10/25/2011)

Ever wonder why so many college graduates have not found jobs? Here we have the answer: this is the nonsense that they are being taught. Note also the time-honored Liberal practice of presenting one side of the issue. It reminds RedStateVT of going to a meeting years ago that was billed as "a discussion of the Patriot Act." Presenters included Colonel Bernie Sanders, a lawyer from the ACLU and progressive librarians. All were upset that the government could take a look at what terrorists were researching on computers in public libraries. When RedStateVT questioned the Colonel as to why there was no one taking the opposite side of the argument, the Colonel just shrugged.

Turn Up The Heat
For the clueless or cynical diehards who deny global warming, it’s getting awfully cold out there. The latest icy blast of reality comes from an eminent scientist whom the climate-change skeptics once lauded as one of their own. Richard Muller, a respected physicist at the University of California, Berkeley, used to dismiss alarmist climate research as being “polluted by political and activist frenzy.” Frustrated at what he considered shoddy science, Muller launched his own comprehensive study to set the record straight. Instead, the record set him straight. (Eugene Robinson, Washington Post, 10/25/2011)

In a shocking development, a scientist from UC Berkeley concludes that global warming is real. Wow, we didn't see that one coming! Muller reminds us of those seemingly random members of the public that the state-controlled media will often interview. They always explain that they USED to be Republicans until Bush invaded Iraq or Bush cut taxes for the rich or Bush committed some other heresy. Here's a tip for those former Republicans: you weren't ever REALLY a Republican. Meanwhile, check out www.Climatedepot.com for rebuttals to Muller.

Morning Plow

2011-10-24T12:46:00.000-04:00

After The Fall
“After every major conflict — World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the fall of the Soviet Union — what happened was that we ultimately hollowed out the force, largely by doing deep, across-the-board cuts that impacted on equipment, impacted on training, impacted on capability,” he said. “Whatever we do in confronting the challenges we face now on the fiscal side, we must not make that mistake.” (Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, NYT, 10/24/2011)

Wow! Tip of the hat to Leon Panetta for firing a warning shot across the Liberal bow: "You will not jeopardize the security of this country!"

Easement
And Wednesday in Denver, the official said, Mr. Obama will announce policy changes to ease college graduates’ repayment of federal loans, seeking to alleviate the financial concerns of students considering college at a time when states are raising tuition. (NYT, 10/24/2011)

The OWS crowd whines about their college loans and Obama caves. Liberals blamed predatory banks for "forcing" big mortgages on the poor. What are they going to say now, that banks forced college loans on unsuspecting students?

Deluded
(Liberals) will continue to delude themselves into thinking, as Al Gore said in 2000, that their rivals represent "the powerful" and that they themselves act on behalf of "the people," even though President Obama's policies have poured money into Wall Street and the politically connected "green" businesses that form the upper half of his top-bottom electoral coalition. (Fred Siegel, WSJ, 10/24/2011)

Aided by a supine press (thanks to Charles Krauthammer for that phrase), Dems have pushed the narrative that they represent the little guy while Repubs represent Big Business. In fact, that is exactly backwards.

Exploitation
The eagerness to exploit the politics of Medicare is already influencing the Democratic party's approach to policy. The Washington Post recently reported that Senator Patty Murray, chairwoman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC)—and newly appointed Democratic co-chair of the deficit reduction super committee—is working behind the scenes to stop any Democratic compromise or effort to reform Medicare. A source close to Murray described her political rationale: "We shouldn't be giving away our advantage on Medicare….We should be very careful about giving away the biggest advantage we've had as Democrats in some time." (Tevi Troy, WSJ, 10/24/2011)

A point made in RedStateVT's compelling post: Treatise on the Liberal (Part 2). Dems purposefully resist for political advantage any changes to an entitlement program that they know is unsustainable.

Bless The Children
Thirty-five days into New York City's Occupy Wall Street protest, a new type of crowd -- 500 parents with their children -- gathered in Zuccotti Park. The event, sponsored by Parents for Occupy Wall Street, was a family sleepover that started at 4 p.m. on Oct. 21 and ran through 11 a.m. on Oct. 22. It came complete with crafts, storybooks and ... politics. (Huffington Post, 10/24/2011)

The innocence of youth is lost. For Liberals it is never too early to begin the politicization or sexualization of youth.

Calm Before The Storm

2011-10-23T09:59:00.000-04:00

To The Core
The core essence of their (OWS) proposals involve $1.5 trillion in new revenue to create 25 million public sector jobs paying union wages, free public transportation, free university education, a single payer health care system and other initiatives. They also favor "reappropriating our business structures and culture, putting people and the earth before profit." Further, they want to end free trade, spend a trillion additional dollars on environmental programs, and forgive all debt. (Douglas E. Schoen, Foxnews.com, 10/22/2011)

RedStateVT's analysis of the Occupy Wall Street demands - admittedly less scientific than that of Schoen - concludes the following: the Occupy Wall Street protesters want free stuff.

With Occupy Wall Street we see the soft echo of the 1960s without the singular issue of the Viet Nam War to rally the disgruntled. The Occupy crowd, no doubt, grew up listening to Mom and Dad talk about the good old days of marching in the streets. (For those who do not remember, during the 60s part of the country supported the peace loving people of South Viet Nam while the Democrats supported the Communists of North Viet Nam.)

Role Call
But the role that helped propel Mr. Cain into politics was that of an ultimate Washington insider: industry lobbyist. (NYT, 10/23/2011)

Taking a respite from savaging Rick Perry, The Times pivots to Herman Cain and reveals a stunning charge: He was a lobbyist! (For those who do not know, in a representative government, a lobbyist is someone paid to represent the interests of a specific constituency.)

Short
By conventional measures, state and local pensions nationwide now face a combined shortfall of about $3 trillion...Efforts to balance the state budget by shrinking the public work force have left Rhode Island with a problem like the one that plagues General Motors: the state has more public-sector retirees than public-sector workers.... (NYT, 10/23/2011)

And flying in the face of the facts, Obama proposes hiring more public sector workers.

Harbinger
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal on Saturday easily coasted to a second term, winning in a landslide election after failing to attract any well-known or deep-pocketed opposition....His win comes amid the virtual collapse of the Democratic Party's clout in the state. In the current term, Republicans have gained control of all seven statewide elected posts and both chambers of the legislature. (Foxnews.com, 10/22/2011)

What 2012 looks like?

Night Ride

2011-10-21T09:56:00.000-04:00

Choices
An unusually powerful American delegation arrived here Thursday and, according to a senior American official, intended to warn Pakistan that the United States would act unilaterally if necessary to attack extremists groups who use the country as a haven to kill Americans.

The delegation, which included Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton; the new Director of Central Intelligence, David H. Petraeus; and the new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, would push their Pakistani counterparts to make a definitive choice between fighting terrorists or supporting them, the administration official said. The two sides met late into the evening Thursday. (NYT, 10/20/2011)

Hillary proving her bona fides again as the toughest Dem out there. Who does RedStateVT fear more as an opponent of the eventual Repub nominee, Obama or Hill? Why Hill, of course!

Compared
You're headed for a one-term presidency," he told Obama at the start of their meeting, insisting that the administration needed to be more business-friendly. As an example, Jobs described the ease with which companies can build factories in China compared to the United States, where "regulations and unnecessary costs" make it difficult for them.

Jobs also criticized America's education system, saying it was "crippled by union work rules," noted Isaacson. "Until the teachers' unions were broken, there was almost no hope for education reform." Jobs proposed allowing principals to hire and fire teachers based on merit.... (Huffington Post, 10/21/2011)

President Obama has been running around the country quoting Warren Buffett on the need to raise taxes on the rich. What does he have to say - we wonder - about these comments from Steve Jobs?

Your Daily Greengate Update
With the approval of the Obama administration, an electric car company that received a $529 million federal government loan guarantee is assembling its first line of cars in Finland, saying it could not find a facility in the United States capable of doing the work.

Vice President Joseph Biden heralded the Energy Department's $529 million loan to the start-up electric car company called Fisker as a bright new path to thousands of American manufacturing jobs. But two years after the loan was announced, the job of assembling the flashy electric Fisker Karma sports car has been outsourced to Finland. (ABC News, 10/20/2011 - thanks to Bobcod)

After a while, you run out of words to describe the immeasurable waste resulting from Obama's policies.

Know the Truth

2011-10-19T12:01:00.000-04:00

Wrung Out to Dry
This summer, Goldman said that it would wring out $1.2 billion in costs from its operations by mid-2012, including eliminating about 1,000 jobs. Bank of America announced it would lay off 30,000 employees, as part of a wide-ranging plan to save $5 billion in annual costs by the end of 2013. (NYT, 10/19/2011)

A free markets primer for Liberals. Goes like this. If you demonize banks and tell them how much they can charge for services and restrict their ability to do business, they lay off workers. That increases unemployment. Then there are fewer people paying taxes and more people collecting benefits. That leads to higher deficits. So then you have to raise taxes on the people who are working. Next thing you know you have the Tea Party. Make sense?

Smashed
Skirmishes between demonstrators and police broke out outside the Greek Parliament at the start of a two-day general strike on Wednesday as tens of thousands of Greeks took to the streets in the largest demonstration in Athens in months, if not years. A crowd of dozens of youths took advantage of the moment to smash several storefronts and begin looting. (NYT, 10/19/2011)

Teaching moment for Liberals. When the nanny state is no longer supportable, spending cuts become necessary and your constituency takes to the street to protest and do violence. So to avoid this...

Hustle On Inside

2011-10-18T20:02:00.000-04:00

The Israeli - Palestinian Problem Explained
Released Israeli Prisoner: He was told that Israel still had thousands of prisoners and was asked if he would like them released. “I will be happy for them to be released if they don’t return to fight us,” he said. “I very much hope that this deal will advance peace.” (NYT, 10/18/2011)

Released Palestinian Prisoner: Wafa al-Bass, in prison since 2005 when she used the chance for treatment at an Israeli hospital as a pretext to bring a suicide belt through the Erez crossing — trying to explode it when caught — said upon arrival in Gaza that Palestinians should “take another Shalit” every year until all the remaining 5,000 Palestinians prisoners in Israeli jails went free. (NYT, 10/18/2011)

Far From It
But it (Solyndra) is far from the only blemish on the administration’s much-touted green agenda. In addition to weatherization problems, an internal Labor Department report disclosed this month that a multibillion-dollar program to retrain workers for green-energy jobs met only 10 percent of its goal of creating 80,000 jobs. A federal renewable-energy lab in Colorado that got nearly $300 million from another green-energy program began laying off 10 percent of its workforce last month. (Eleanor Clift, The Daily Beast, 10/17/2011)

Even Liberal columnists are disgusted by the breadth of Greengate.

Come Alive

2011-10-17T19:07:00.000-04:00

Secret No More
It is no secret that the relationship between President Obama and Wall Street has chilled. A striking measure of that is the latest campaign finance reports. Mitt Romney has raised far more money than Mr. Obama this year from the firms that have been among Wall Street’s top sources of donations for the two candidates. (NYT, 10/15/2011)

So one more time. Just to be clear. 2008. Dems the party of Wall Street. Obama the biggest recipient of Wall Street money.

Across the Universe
Across the nation, too, belief in man-made global warming, and passion about doing something to arrest climate change, is not what it was five years or so ago, when Al Gore’s movie had buzz and Elizabeth Kolbert’s book about climate change, “Field Notes From a Catastrophe,” was a best seller. The number of Americans who believe the earth is warming dropped to 59 percent last year from 79 percent in 2006, according to polling by the Pew Research Group. (NYT, 10/15/2011)

Once again we are reminded of the words of Ronaldus Maixmus: "The people usually get it right."

Volunteers
Republican lawmakers have introduced their own “Buffett Rule” that would allow billionaire investors like Warren Buffett who say they’re not paying enough taxes to voluntarily give more money to the federal government. (Foxnews.com, 10/15/2011)

We'll see if Buffett coughs up although we tend to doubt it. And a reminder for everyone out there that - business genius or not - Buffett is a Liberal Democrat.

Otherwise Occupied
Obama has been cautious in offering support for the "Occupy Wall Street" movement, which has turned sharply against corporate America, from which members of his own Cabinet came. (Foxnews.com, 10/17/2011)

Now hold on a second. First we learn that Obama was the largest recipient of money from Wall Street in 2008. Now we learn that his own Cabinet is made up of former Wall Streeters. It's enough to make RedStateVT take to the streets!

Effects
At that time he (Mortimer Zuckerman) supported Mr. Obama's call for heavy spending on infrastructure. "But if you look at the make-up of the stimulus program," says Mr. Zuckerman, "roughly half of it went to state and local municipalities, which is in effect to the municipal unions which are at the core of the Democratic Party." He adds that "the Republicans understood this" and it diminished the chances for bipartisan legislating. (WSJ, 10/15/2011)

RedStateVT has been beating this drum for all who would hear. The Obama/Dem nonsense about infrastructure spending is nothing more than a shill for rewarding their union supporters who will - in turn - funnel more campaign contributions back to them.

Bombs Away
During the health-care debate Washington insisted on treating CBO's cost estimates as if God Himself had carved them into stone tablets, but as Class's mercy killing shows all they proved was that Democrats were good at manipulating its assumptions and synthetic budget conventions. HHS's own experts were warning Democrats all along that Class was a fiscal time bomb, so including it in the bill was a special act of fiscal corruption. (WSJ, 10/15/2011)

So now - in fairness - Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are going to have to amend all of the comments that they made about the CBO and Obamacare.

Judgment's Blade

2011-10-15T09:30:00.000-04:00

Dreams
Thus far the Republican field of 2012 is a Democratic dream come true. This crop of candidates is not just weak, it is a joke. (James Carville, CNN.com, 10/14/2011)

Let's see, we've got former and present governors, a former CEO, a former Speaker of the House, a former Ambassador, a current congressman, and a former congressman, just to name a few. Meanwhile, the last time around (in a move reminiscent of a third world country) the Dems fielded the wife of a former President who - granted - had worked as a backwoods lawyer. Also, they offered up a junior Senator with no legislative accomplishments who refused to vote (sorry, voting "present" doesn't count). Granted he had worked as a community organizer, whatever that is.

Tap Tap
Should Mr. Perry, who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, reach the White House, it will be in no small measure because of the efforts of Mr. Toomey. A lobbyist, former legislator and onetime chief of staff to the governor, Mr. Toomey has tapped a sprawling network of donors, business allies and friendly (or indebted) lawmakers to help Mr. Perry accomplish ambitious political and legislative goals. (NYT, 10/14/2011)

Continuing their assault on Rick Perry, the Times levels a devastating charge. He cavorts with a lobbyist!

Swinging
“Who do you think pays the taxes?” said one longtime money manager. “Financial services are one of the last things we do in this country and do it well. Let’s embrace it. If you want to keep having jobs outsourced, keep attacking financial services. This is just disgruntled people.” He added that he was disappointed that members of Congress from New York, especially Senator Charles E. Schumer and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, had not come out swinging for an industry that donates heavily to their campaigns. “They need to understand who their constituency is,” he said. (NYT, 10/14/2011)

So now we have the proof: Dems are the party of Wall Street.

Occupado

2011-10-14T13:25:00.000-04:00

By Popular Demand:
Things the Occupy Wall Street Protesters Could and Should be Doing Instead (Part 2)

Volunteering at a veterans' hospital.
Helping out at a soup kitchen.
Assisting at a shelter for battered women.
Volunteering at a hospice.
Mentoring a child.

The Best of OWS Commentary
From 1965 through 1968, the left found its voice and style in consciousness-raising demonstrations and disruptions. In November 1968, the nation, its consciousness raised, elected Richard Nixon president and gave 56.9 percent of the popular vote to Nixon or George Wallace. Republicans won four of the next five presidential elections. (George Will, Washington Post, 10/12/2011)

...the applause of Democrats suffering acute Tea Party envy and now salivating at the energy these big-government anarchists will presumably give their cause. Except that the real Tea Party actually had a program — less government, less regulation, less taxation, less debt. What’s the Occupy Wall Street program? Eat the rich. (Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post, 10/13/2011)

As the early '70s repeat themselves with the chaotic Occupy Wall Street demonstrations in lower Manhattan, we need to grasp what a peril this movement is to President Obama and the entire Democratic Party. It is like the Obama campaign run wild without Obama in it. (Dick Morris, 10/11/2011)

Scratch Faith on Nameless Graves

2011-10-13T18:11:00.000-04:00

Things the Occupy Wall Street Participants Could and Should be Doing Instead:

Fine-tuning their resumes.
Working on their interviewing skills.
Networking with people who have jobs.
Checking the on-line job sites.
Taking an on-line course.
Working at a job outside their field of interest in order to have some income.

We proudly note today that Newt Gingrich - one of the brightest and most maligned Republicans - has taken up RedStateVT's call for the imprisonment of Barney Frank and Christopher Dodd for their roles in the US housing market collapse.

Treatise on the Liberal (Part 2)

2011-10-12T19:10:00.000-04:00

RedStateVT is pleased to present the second installment of our groundbreaking analysis of the modern day Liberal. Happy reading!

Liberals honestly believe that Cuba has a better health care system than the U.S.

Liberals honestly believe that death row is teeming with innocent men who have been falsely accused of killing police officers.

Liberals are distrustful of the police, but conciliatory towards America’s enemies.

Liberals look at any beggar, addict or criminal and see the failure of society.

In the world of the Liberal, there is no place for personal accountability or personal responsibility.

Liberals are distrustful of the rich, unless their name is Soros, Kennedy or Buffet (or any Hollywood mogul or actor).

Liberals look at a rich businessman and wonder what crimes he committed. Conservatives look at a rich businessman and wonder what he did right.

Liberals look at Social Security and Medicare, do not see any problems and scare seniors that Republicans are going to take them away. Conservatives look at the same entitlement programs, know that they are unsustainable in their current form and want to fix them for future generations.

The political base of Liberals consists of people who receive government entitlements paid for by the political base of Republicans.

Liberals believe in free speech, unless a conservative is speaking at a university.

Liberals take Hugo Chavez at this word, but know that Bush lied.

Liberals believe in personal freedom, but they want to tell you what to eat, what car to drive and what school to send your child to.

Liberals believe in compromise, but only if they don’t have the votes.

Protocol

2011-10-11T20:50:00.000-04:00

Misaligned
Leading Democratic figures, including party fund-raisers and a top ally of President Obama, are embracing the spread of the anti-Wall Street protests in a clear sign that members of the Democratic establishment see the movement as a way to align disenchanted Americans with their party. (NYT, 10/10/11)

Do Dem fund raisers actually think they are going to get money from the Occupy Wall Street crowd? They have no money and no jobs! Worse for Dems, if they do embrace these loonies, their true benefactors on Wall Street just may turn off the spigot.

Unidentified
At Operation Breakthrough, which provides day care services to low-income women here in Kansas City, Nicole, 22, who asked to be identified only by her first name, began to cry as she described trying to provide for her three children on a monthly welfare check of $342, plus $642 in food stamps. (NYT, 10/10/2011)

In an article on drug testing as a requirement for receiving government benefits, the Times serves us this sad story, designed to invoke sympathy for poor Nicole. To which we respond: 22 years old with three children? Is there a father involved? Is there more than one father involved? If there is no father involved, why not? Did Nicole bother to finish high school before she started churning out her babies? Is there any alcohol or cigarettes in her house? Does Nicole have a cell phone and a flat screen television? Does Nicole take any responsibility for the situation that she finds herself in?

Unsure
The president’s workdays are said to end early, often at 4 p.m. He usually has dinner in the family residence with his wife and daughters, then retreats to a private office. One person said he takes a stack of briefing books. Others aren’t sure what he does. (Michael Goodwin, New York Post, 10/10/2011)

It is late August 2012. President Obama is holed up in the White House with David Axelrod and Valerie Jarrett. Obama has started smoking again and he lights up his fourth cigarette. Vice President Joe Biden and Harry Reid have asked for an emergency meeting and are due any moment. Obama knows without being told what they want to talk to him about. Across town, Hillary Clinton waits nervously. She knows that as soon as Biden and Reid leave the Oval Office she will be the Democrats' new candidate for President.

No Escape
Finally, most of America’s rich — however defined — don’t escape taxation. In 2007, the richest 10 percent paid 55 percent of all federal taxes, estimates the Congressional Budget Office. The richest 1 percent paid the lion’s share of that: 28.1 percent of federal taxes. The average tax rate on the top 1 percent was 29.5 percent. Similarly, the richest 3 percent account for 36 percent of charitable contributions. (Robert J. Samuelson, Washington Post, 10/10/2011)

Because it cannot be said enough and because the facts don't lie.

The Fives Have It

2011-10-10T10:37:00.000-04:00

Focused
Illegal immigrants can now apply for state-funded scholarships and aid at state universities after Gov. Jerry Brown announced Saturday that he has signed the second half of a legislative package focused on such students. (Foxnews.com, 10/8/2011)

The average family plays by the rules, sacrifices and saves to send their children to college. To which Governor Brown replies...what?

Magnetism
No wonder then that Occupy Wall Street has become a magnet for discontent. There are plenty of policy goals to address the grievances of the protesters — including lasting foreclosure relief, a financial transactions tax, greater legal protection for workers’ rights, and more progressive taxation. The country needs a shift in the emphasis of public policy from protecting the banks to fostering full employment, including public spending for job creation and development of a strong, long-term strategy to increase domestic manufacturing. (NYT editorial, 10/9/2011)

This is the prescription from the New York Times for the country's economic woes: forgiving mortgage deadbeats, more taxes, preventing companies from laying off workers, and more taxes. Sounds like a winner...not!

Spotlit
White House staff discussed in emails that either President Obama or his chief of staff were eager to help spotlight a solar company in early 2009, despite numerous internal warnings that the company could be financially unstable, according to new e-mails. (Washington Post, 10/7/2011)

Was the real reason Rahm Emanuel left town that he was afraid of getting caught up in Greengate?

Designs
It has been a record year for new legislation designed to make it harder for Democrats to vote — 19 laws and two executive actions in 14 states dominated by Republicans, according to a new study by the Brennan Center for Justice. As a result, more than five million eligible voters will have a harder time participating in the 2012 election....There is almost no voting fraud in America....Many of them are poor, or elderly, or black and Hispanic and could have a hard time navigating the bureaucracy to get a card. (NYT editorial, 10/9/2011)

What's that great expression? The "tyranny of low expectations." This is how the New York Times views the poor, elderly, blacks, and Hispanics: You folks are just not smart enough to figure out how to get a voter ID card. It is downright insulting. Meanwhile, the only voter intimidation of late involved two members of the New Black Panthers standing outside a polling place holding clubs. Attorney General Eric Holder declined to prosecute.

RedStateVT Names Green Energy Scandals

2011-10-08T09:57:00.000-04:00

RedStateVT announces today the official naming of the Obama administration green energy scandals. The scandals - beginning with Solyndra and, no doubt, to grow in the weeks and months ahead as more waste and nepotism is uncovered - will now be known as Greengate.

Granted
A science program at the University of Vermont is going to use a $20 million grant, the largest in the school’s history, to help study the health of the Lake Champlain basin. (Burlington Free Press, 10/7/2011)

$20 million? Are they kidding? This could not have been accomplished with, say, $250,000? Your tax dollars at work...or at waste.

Out of the Office
Governor Shumlin is off on another vacation this year, just one month after he promised Vermonters that he would be working full time on recovery efforts: (VTGOP.com, 10/7/2011)

What is it with Dems and their vacations?

Walking Dead
They're calling it the zombie in the budget. It's a long-term care plan the Obama administration has put on hold, fearing it could go bust if actually implemented. Yet while the program exists on paper, monthly premiums the government may never collect count as reducing federal deficits.

Real or not, that's $80 billion over the next 10 years.

The Community Living Assistance Services and Supports program, CLASS for short, may just keep lurching along indefinitely. It would join other peculiar creatures of the federal budget such as "trust funds" that are actually more like IOUs and Medicare cuts that can be counted twice.

"It's a gimmick that produces phantom savings," said Robert Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition, a nonpartisan group that advocates deficit control..

"That money should have never been counted as deficit reduction because it was supposed to be set aside to pay for benefits," Bixby added. "The fact that they're not actually doing anything with the program sort of compounds the gimmick."

The program was created under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, and arguably provided much of the 10-year, $143 billion in savings claimed under the law. But now some Capitol Hill aides have dubbed CLASS a "budget zombie." (NYT, 10/8/2011)

Maybe Nancy Pelosi was right! We did have to pass Obama's healthcare bill to find out what was in it. Let's see where this revelation takes us.

Inferences
This week, when Palin finally announced her decision, she made her priorities clear. In a statement to supporters, she said that she and her husband, Todd, “devote ourselves to God, family and country.” Her decision, she said, maintains that order.

We can only infer from these tidings — glad or sad, you pick — that God did not open that door or reveal it. I’m not exactly sure how this works, but clearly Palin got the word that she should not run for president. (Kathleen Parker, Washington Post, 10/8/2011)

Kathleen Parker mocks Sarah Palin and her faith. What a bold and courageous journalist!

Fade to Black

2011-10-07T11:26:00.000-04:00

Mushroom Soup
To hear some Democratic analysts tell it, the mushrooming protests could be the start of a populist movement on the left that counterbalances the surge of the Tea Party on the right, and closes what some Democrats fear is an “enthusiasm gap” between their party and Republicans in the 2012 election. But that assumes the president is able to win the support of these insurgents, rather than be shunned by them. (NYT, 10/7/2011)

Obama is in the White House and a grubby band of miscreants have taken to the streets. And this somehow might be good for him? We don't think so. Which is why - in our view - the Dems have sent organized labor to these protests. The idea is that labor gives the protest more legitimacy and deflects attention aware from Obama and the Dems and toward Repubs.

Opposition Party
And oil-state Democrats opposed his (Obama's) plans to increase oil companies’ taxes. (NYT, 10/7/2011)

Democrats oppose more taxes on oil companies? This has got to be a misprint. First we learn that Goldman Sachs was the largest contributor to Obama in 2008 and now we learn that Dems are in the pocket of the oil companies. The world is upside down.

Hopes and Dreams
Black individuals who don't see themselves primarily as victims are a threat to the political left, which helps explain why MSNBC commentators have derided Mr. Cain as a token and why Jon Stewart has mocked him in tones that evoke Amos 'n' Andy or Stepin Fetchit. To secure political victories, Democrats need blacks to vote for them in unison. Independent thinking cannot be tolerated.

No one is hoping more than the White House that Mr. Cain fades away. If he doesn't, Mr. Obama's fear of Mr. Romney winning independent voters next year could turn into a fear of Mr. Cain peeling away black support. Black enthusiasm for the president remains high but has slipped in recent months, and a black alternative to Mr. Obama is not a scenario that Democrats would welcome. (Jason L. Riley, WSJ, 10/7/2011)

With the ever-increasing appearance of politicians like Herman Cain, Bobby Jindal, Michele Bachmann, Nikki Haley, etc. the standard Liberal smear of Republicans as the party of rich white men is being debunked. This has got to be the Dems worst nightmare.

Separately, RedStateVT has heard from three independents in recent days who voted for Obama in '08 and now say they would not do so again. It's unscientific, of course, but is also reflective of what we have heard on a broader scale. This has got to be Obama's worst nightmare.

Bottom Line
Four in 10 Americans “strongly” disapprove of how President Obama is handling the job of president in the new Washington Post-ABC News poll, the highest that number has risen during his time in office and a sign of the hardening opposition to him as he seeks a second term. While the topline numbers are troubling enough, dig deeper into them and the news gets no better for Obama. Forty-three percent of independents — a group the president spent the better part of the last year courting — strongly disapprove of the job he is doing. Forty-seven percent of people 65 years of age and older — reliable voters in any election — strongly disapprove of how he is doing his job. (Washington Post, 10/5/2011)

And this is a Washington Post - ABC News poll! Imagine what an objective poll would show!

Solar Plexus
The head of the Energy Department’s embattled loan program announced Thursday that he was stepping down amid an expanding probe of the agency’s $535 million loan to a now-shuttered solar company. (Washington Post, 10/6/2011)

Of course, this had to be done, but no doubt Obama must realize that it will not be enough. Despite the state-controlled media's veritable blackout on this scandal (what would their coverage look like under a Bush presidency?), Republicans and Fox News will keep it alive well into the election cycle.

Sign in Stranger

2011-10-06T09:04:00.000-04:00

Established
Chris Christie’s decision on Tuesday to pass up a White House bid means that only one establishment candidate remains: Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, who offers brainy competence and private-sector experience as the answer to four years of Mr. Obama. (NYT, 10/5/2011)

This unexpectedly complimentary description of Mitt Romney by The Times gave us pause until we remembered Ann Coulter's warning. She tells us that the liberal media tries to pick the Republican candidate for us, hence we get beatable Republicans like Bob Dole and John Cain. Good to remember.

Failed
...the day's events underscored that as submitted by the White House, Obama's bill would not only fail in the Republican-controlled House, but faced enough opposition from Democrats to endanger its prospects in the Senate, as well. (Foxnews.com, 10/5/2011)

It cannot be said enough.

Distanced
Democrat Earl Ray Tomblin overcame weeks of Republican attack ads to win the West Virginia governor's race Tuesday, successfully distancing himself from the Obama administration and the president's health care plan. (Foxnews.com, 10/5/2011)

The real question is how Obama is going to distance himself from Obamacare.

Stumbled
With an offhand attack on Bank of America’s plans to impose a $5 debit card fee, President Barack Obama may have stumbled into a ready-made populist issue for the 2012 campaign.

Obama’s aides insist that his sharp criticism of the bank during an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos this week wasn’t intended to kick off a campaign against banking industry bad guys. But it has already had a galvanizing effect on Democrats who see it as the perfect way to hop on the right side of the Wall Street vs. Main Street divide. (Politico.com, 10/5/2011)

It is telling that time after time, Obama's reflexive action is always to demonize business. As we have said, we only hope the bankers are smart enough not to write checks to him this time.

Harped
One thing you won’t hear the MSM harp on the way they harped about the Tea Party: The overwhelmingly pale face of the “99 percent” movement. Just like their ideological elders in the liberal media, they are a lot more skilled at carping over lack of proportional representation among conservative institutions and the GOP than they are at demonstrating it in their own ranks. (Michelle Malkin, 10/5/2011)

Despite questions about the protesters’ hostility to the authorities, many union leaders have decided to embrace Occupy Wall Street. On Wednesday, for example, members of the A.F.L.-C.I.O.’s executive council had a conference call in which they expressed unanimous support for the protest. One A.F.L.-C.I.O. official said leaders had heard from local union members wondering why organized labor was absent. (NYT, 10/6/2011)

The Occupy Wall Street movement is a hoot. The inability of any of the "protesters" to articulate what they stand for is - in itself - a stunning indictment of the teachers' unions. Apparently they are upset about their students loans and their lack of job prospects. Well, they should talk to the guy in Washington. Of course, Obama's solution will likely entail something like "student loan forgiveness" to go with "mortgage forgiveness," thereby creating yet another group that is dependent upon central government.

Meanwhile, we have others like Van Jones and the labor unions looking to get involved. The more nut jobs the better, we say. The Tea Party stood for something which is why it survives. We suspect Occupy Whatever dries up - as has been pointed out - when the weather turns cold.

Apocrypha

2011-10-04T18:35:00.000-04:00

Temper Tantrum
Christie’s temper represents an opportunity for his opponents and a real burden for him. He operates a lot on instinct, but that instinct can come off as bullying. So in New Jersey debates, he has dialed back his personality and comes off as flat. The quick retort, the cutting rejoinder — the classic “You’re no Jack Kennedy” moment — will never be his. He has to be nice, and nice is the one thing Chris Christie is not. (Richard Cohen, Washington Post, 10/4/2011)

You know that Liberals like Cohen are scared when they start throwing this nonsense around. It's too bad that Christie decided not to run. We would have loved to see him debate Obama....temper and all!

Dial Tone
Reid has been Obama’s most important ally in Congress, but the relationship has never been particularly affectionate, even though Reid was one of Obama’s first Senate colleagues to privately urge him to run for president. Obama and Reid speak frequently on the phone, but the conversations can be terse. One Democratic source quipped that it’s often a contest to guess who will hang up on the other first. Reid, as it turns out, doesn’t have a habit of saying goodbye when he ends a call. (TheHill.com, 10/4/2011)

An under-reported story is just how little - in private - fellow Dems care for Obama.

Fundamentals
Obama said in an interview with ABC News that Bank of America's decision to charge debit card users highlights the need for the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau....

"It's disappointing and puzzling that the President would attack a private corporation for responding to government price fixing that has fundamentally altered the economics of offering a debit card," American Bankers Association President Frank Keating said in a statement. "As a direct result of the Durbin Amendment, consumers have started paying for financial services they previously enjoyed free of charge." (Huffington Post, 10/4/2011)

More Liberal adventures in capitalism. Every time that they muck around in the private sector they end up costing you more money.

Anyway
Newly released documents show that a Silicon Valley investor and senior administration officials warned the White House against having President Obama visit the solar company Solyndra in May 2010 because of its mounting financial problems, saying he might be embarrassed later. (Washington Post, 10/3/2011)

It is undeniably a characteristic of the Obama presidency that he does not follow the often sensible advice given to him. Therefore, in the midst of a recession we see Michelle Obama traveling to Spain for vacation with the kids, the President partying with Jay-Z before a dismal economic report, more vacations and golf on Martha's Vineyard, and this report. Well now he must pay the price. Republicans will time the investigations for the 2012 campaign.

Distant Early Warning

2011-10-03T17:56:00.000-04:00

Smoking Gun
Environmental groups said the e-mails were disturbing and evidence of “complicity” between TransCanada, the pipeline company, and American officials tasked with evaluating the pipeline’s environmental impact. (NYT, 9/3/2011)

No doubt these same environmental groups saw no issues concerning the e-mails in the Climategate or Solyndra scandals.

On The Hunt
The campaign of Gov. Rick Perry of Texas found itself on the defensive on Sunday over a report that he had hunted at and taken guests to a West Texas camp with a racially charged name that his father, and later Mr. Perry, had leased. (NYT, 10/3/2011)

As loyal readers know, the state-controlled media vets Republican candidates by innuendo. We forgot to include this one - he's might be a secret racist - on our previous list that any Republican is likely to face. Its gets added to: he might cheat on his wife and he might drink too much. Meanwhile, we still don't know anything about Obama's past use of illicit drugs.

Droning On
The U.S. drone program has been highly effective in killing senior al-Qaeda leaders, but the administration needs to work harder to explain and defend its use of drones as lawful and appropriate — to allies and critics — if it wants to avoid losing international support and potentially exposing administration officials to legal liability. (John B. Bellinger III, Washington Post, 10/3/2011)

Yes, by all means, let's ask the French what they think of U.S. use of drones to kill our enemies before they kill us. It will certainly be enlightening to get the European perspective. Another idea? How about we ask the United Nations to take up the issue? It would be very interesting to hear what the Chinese Communists and the North Koreans think. Alternately, we could conduct U.S. foreign policy as best suits the interests of the safety and security of our citizens.

Everyone's a Winner

2011-10-01T09:46:00.000-04:00

Fire in the Sky
The decision to make Mr. Awlaki a priority to be sought and killed was controversial, given his American citizenship. The American Civil Liberties Union, which fought unsuccessfully in the American court system to challenge the decision to target Mr. Awlaki, condemned the killing. (NYT, 10/1/2011)

Another excellent call by Obama to take out a murderous thug. We can only imagine the outrage from the Left had Bush done the same thing. Protest so far seems to be limited to the ACLU. As we have said before, generally you have done the right thing if the ACLU objects. Ron Paul: take note.

Headlines
Tycoon Warren Buffett, headliner of last night’s fund-raiser for President Obama at the Four Seasons, reiterated his advice for a tax on “ultra-rich people who are paying very low tax rates.” But the message appeared to have limited appeal to donors expected to pay $10,000 a plate; the turnout was “disappointing,” according to one guest.

An Obama fund-raising insider said the campaign has been getting resistance from some Wall Street donors from 2008 over the proposal, though Buffett said the event “went OK.” (New York Post, 10/1/2011)

Wall Street donates to Obama? Who would have thought it? We thought they supported Republicans. If Wall Streeters fold and double-down on Obama, they deserve what they get. In a second term, Obama will make them bleed.

Footings
The Cuomo administration killed a controversial proposal that would have required taxpayers to foot the bill for transgender patients to get sex-change surgery. (New York Post, 10/1/2011)

OK, this is getting crazy now. New York Governor Cuomo is on the fast track to being named as an honorary Republican.

Wherever You Are

2011-09-30T20:15:00.000-04:00

Prescription
A first-term governor whose paucity of government experience may be just what the doctor ordered, Mr. Christie is a jumble of political contradictions. He’s a conservative with some liberal views, a bullying New Jersey politician who frequently talks about compromise, and an obviously reluctant candidate who clearly hears the siren song of the national stage. (NYT, 9/30/2011)

The New York Times fires a warning shot across the bow of a possible Christie presidential bid. Their attacks - in the guise of objective reporting - will surely increase should Christie decide to run. Note also the Times's concern about "paucity government experience." They said exactly the same thing about Obama. Just kidding!

In the 10 years Mr. Perry has been governor, his critics say there have been few effective initiatives out of his office to increase either public or private health coverage significantly in Texas, where today an estimated 6.2 million people — one-quarter of the state’s population — are uninsured, including 1.3 million children. (NYT, 9/30/2011)

...while they continue their attacks - in the guise of objective reporting - against Rick Perry.

Bank On It
The rising fees reflect the big consumer banks' efforts to offset billions in predicted losses due a fee-cap on merchant-processing fees under the Durbin Amendment. The new law goes into effect on Saturday, and caps interchange fees at 24 cents a swipe, previously that averaged 44 cents. (DailyFinance.com, 9/30/2011)

Yet another example demonstrating the end result of Liberals meddling in the private sector.

Crow in the Corn

2011-09-29T17:48:00.000-04:00

Good Money After Bad
As the federal fiscal year ends, and with it the part of the stimulus program that finances some energy loans, the Energy Department issued $1.07 billion in loan guarantees on Wednesday afternoon, for two solar energy production plants, and on Thursday it plans to announce $156 million in grants for high-risk but potentially high-reward research projects. (NYT, 9/28/2011)

As our Liberal friends used to say: if you are not outraged, you haven't been paying attention. These are your tax dollars at work...or rather, at waste.

Not Enough
"It's not going to be enough to simply point fingers of blame and try to lay on him (Obama) responsibility for all of America's ills without offering credible prescriptions for how we solve them," he said of the Republican slate on presidential hopefuls. (David Axelrod, CNN.com, 9/27/2011)

Pretty funny comment from Obama's chief strategist Axelrod considering that Dems have spent the past three years "pointing fingers of blame" at Bush.

Sun Spots
It’s as if Solyndra never happened. The Obama Administration is giving $737 million to a Tonopah Solar, a subsidiary of California-based SolarReserve. PCG is an investment partner with SolarReserve. Nancy Pelosi’s brother-in-law happens to be the number two man at PCG. (Foxnews.com, 9/28/2011)

In a story not reported by the state-controlled media....

Sue You
The Obama administration is escalating its crackdown on tough immigration laws, with lawyers reviewing four new state statutes to determine whether the federal government will take the extraordinary step of challenging the measures in court. Justice Department attorneys have sued Arizona and, where a federal judge on Wednesday allowed key parts of that state’s immigration law to take effect but blocked other provisions. Federal lawyers are talking to Utah officials about a third possible lawsuit and are considering legal challenges in Georgia, Indiana and South Carolina, according to court documents and government officials. The level of federal intervention is highly unusual, legal experts said. (Washington Post, 9/29/2011)

If there is anything that RedStateVT abhors, it is pandering for votes by politicians. Here we see Obama doing just that in an effort to wrap up the illegal alien vote.

No Strings

2011-09-28T18:46:00.000-04:00

Follow the Leader
United States officials worked with Portuguese authorities to follow that lead, using the Portuguese national identity database, which includes fingerprints. (NYT, 9/28/2011)

This article on the arrest of a fugitive caught the attention of RedStateVT. So Portugal has a "national identity database, which includes fingerprints?" Well good for the Portuguese! In the U.S., of course, Liberals oppose having to show a drivers license to vote.

Basking
In Los Angeles, at a slick West Hollywood restaurant, the president basked in the love of an entertainment-industry crowd that included the actress Eva Longoria; the director Judd Apatow; the music producer Quincy Jones; and Jeffrey Katzenberg, a DreamWorks studio executive. (NYT, 9/28/2011)

Obama's base.

Far Far Below
Overall, the households with same-sex couples are far below 1% of total U.S. households, the Census Bureau said....According to the Census Bureau, the revised estimate of married same-sex households is 131,729, well below the initial count of 349,377. The revised estimate of same-sex households with unmarried partners was 514,735, much closer to the original census count of 552,620. (CNN.com, 9/28/2011)

Given the attention demanded and given to gay issues, one could be forgiven for thinking that gays represented upwards of 50% of the population. Now even the original low estimates are revised downward.

No Way
We cannot spend our way out of this. We cannot tax our way out of this. We cannot artificially stimulate our way out of this. We cannot regulate our way out of this. Shaming the successful or redistributing income won't get us out of this. We cannot fund our government coffers by following the "Buffett Rule," i.e., raising taxes on Americans earning more than $1 million a year. (Charles R. Schwab, WSJ, 9/28/2011)

Obama wants a "Buffett Rule," Repubs counter with a "Schwab Rule."

Worser
The decision to focus on health care was the president's own. It could have been even worse. Some staffers advised him—this was just after the American economy lost almost 600,000 jobs in one month—that he should focus on global warming. (Peggy Noonan discussing Ron Suskind's book on the Obama administration, Confidence Men, WSJ, 9/24/2011)

RedStateVT once again states the obvious: Obama's problems are self-inflicted.