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!
Friday, November 11, 2011
Thursday, November 10, 2011
What Fate Arranges
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!
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!
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Double Down
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.
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.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Change Is No Stranger
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?
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?
Monday, November 7, 2011
Weave A Wall
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.
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.
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Dolly Back
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!
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!
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Field Notes
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.
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.
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