Category Archives: Politics: National

Words And Definitions

After the debt debate and compromise, all the talk was about the Tea Part and extremists holding the Republican party hostage.  In fact, our administration even refers to that element as terrorists lamenting the fact that there is simply no compromising with them.  That when faced with a group of people, “that extreme”, there is nothing that can be done.

I resonate.

Compromise in general and typically implies a healthy merging of ideas and policies.  It means we’ll take a little of this and combine it with a little of that and we’ll end up with something that resembles what we each started with.  However, since Barack Obama has come into office, that version of compromise has changed.

Since he famously started “negotiations” with “we won” he has done business differently.  Compromise no longer means moving from one’s position in order to find a reasonable solution.  To this administration compromise doesn’t mean “meeting in the middle”.  It means, rather, how much will it cost me.

So conversations begin with Obama saying that I want this thing.  And that thing doesn’t change during the debate.  What DOES change is what he’s willing to pay to have it.  And THAT is what he calls compromise.

Which means, of course, that there is no compromise.  Instead, you have ideology being forced through salesmanship. And the people we’re dealing with, the ideology of these people, is frightening.  Absolutely frightening.  In normal times, times when people will walk away from the cliff, it’s bad enough.  They are taking positions as a point of negotiation.  But not this President.  Not today’s Democrats  Not these people.

These people wanna rule by force.  They want to impose their agenda and are unwilling to walk it back.  I’ve used words like Socialist and Fascist.  Folks have objected to such language.  It’s very unpleasant being called socialist or fascist.  I get it, I don’t like those words or ideas either.

But when the facts are the facts, it’s hard to hide from ’em:

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) has had an outspoken recess, sparring with the Tea Party, the president and other members of Congress during the Congressional Black Caucus’s (CBC) multicity jobs tour.

Tuesday night was no different, as the congresswoman urged President Obama to use his bully pulpit to demand that “gangsta” banks offer mortgage modifications that would enable people to stay in their homes or face withering taxation.

It’s time for the bully pulpit of the White House to bring the gangstas in, put them around the table and let them know that if they don’t come up with loan modifications and keep people in their homes that they’ve worked so hard for, we’re gonna tax them out of business,” Waters said at an event in Los Angeles.

She is specifically advocating that Obama use his power by fiat to force banks to change mortgage contracts for people who can’t pay on them or “force them out of business”.

THAT is the definition of fascist.

THAT is the implication of socialism.

Take from other people in order that others may benefit.  And if that must be done through force of law, gun and sword, so be it.

When Biden says that you can’t negotiate with these people, it’s because there is no negotiating with Obama and his people.  You can not even START to have a conversation that includes the concept of the government taxing these people out of business.

When you combine an administration made up of people unwilling to step away from their ideology and are willing to to use the White House as a “dictator” to institute their version of society, you push away from the table and walk away.

Stimulus And Jobs

More good news today out of California regarding Green Technology and the creation of jobs in that sector through Obama’s stimulus:

Solar company to file for bankruptcy

Knowing what we know about Obama’s business acumen the story here isn’t that he was wrong about a company and it’s ability to flourish.  While interesting, THAT aspect of the story has been told and retold.

No, the REAL story here is the fact that the company failed even though it received some money, a LOT of money:

A California-based solar company that received a $535 million loan guarantee from the Obama administration announced Wednesday that it will shut down.

The company, Solyndra Inc., said Wednesday it would suspend its manufacturing operations and lay off 1,100 employees effective immediately. The company said it intends to file a petition for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Another one bites the dust.

I’m interested though, what were the details surrounding the company’s decision to throw in the towel?

“Regulatory and policy uncertainties in recent months created significant near-term excess supply and price erosion,” Solyndra CEO Brian Harrison said in a statement. “Raising incremental capital in this environment was not possible. This was an unexpected outcome and is most unfortunate.”

Oh.  You mean that laws being passed make it difficult to predict the future?  And this inability to predict the future is creating a situation where banks don’t wanna lend you more money?

Weird.  Who woulda thought THAT?

Should The Ugly Be A Protected Class?

I like my talk radio.  And I like my North Carolina.  That’s why I listen to local talk whenever I can.  That means on the way TO work and on the way FROM work I get the local liberal talk.  In the morning I get Brad and Britt and the afternoon brings me Allan Handelmman.  Today they BOTH got me going.

First Allan.

It’s well know that the Left feels the best way to remove a bias against a particular group is to take society, group them according to characteristics that match the oppressed group and treat them differently than they do the rest of the population.  I know, I know, it doesn’t make sense to me either.  But, ya know…..

Okay, so, today’s group of people that are being exploited by the evil rich capitalists?

Ugly people:

In addition to whatever personal pleasure it gives you, being attractive also helps you earn more money, find a higher-earning spouse (and one who looks better, too!) and get better deals on mortgages. Each of these facts has been demonstrated over the past 20 years by many economists and other researchers. The effects are not small: one study showed that an American worker who was among the bottom one-seventh in looks, as assessed by randomly chosen observers, earned 10 to 15 percent less per year than a similar worker whose looks were assessed in the top one-third — a lifetime difference, in a typical case, of about $230,000.

There ya have it; a clear cut case of discrimination against a certain group of people.  And what should we do?

A more radical solution may be needed: why not offer legal protections to the ugly, as we do with racial, ethnic and religious minorities, women and handicapped individuals?

Certainly this is more satire?

We actually already do offer such protections in a few places, including in some jurisdictions in California, and in the District of Columbia, where discriminatory treatment based on looks in hiring, promotions, housing and other areas is prohibited. Ugliness could be protected generally in the United States by small extensions of the Americans With Disabilities Act. Ugly people could be allowed to seek help from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and other agencies in overcoming the effects of discrimination. We could even have affirmative-action programs for the ugly.

Come on….there is NO way we could do this:

The mechanics of legislating this kind of protection are not as difficult as you might think. You might argue that people can’t be classified by their looks — that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. That aphorism is correct in one sense: if asked who is the most beautiful person in a group of beautiful people, you and I might well have different answers. But when it comes to differentiating classes of attractiveness, we all view beauty similarly: someone whom you consider good-looking will be viewed similarly by most others; someone you consider ugly will be viewed as ugly by most others. In one study, more than half of a group of people were assessed identically by each of two observers using a five-point scale; and very few assessments differed by more than one point.

For purposes of administering a law, we surely could agree on who is truly ugly, perhaps the worst-looking 1 or 2 percent of the population.

Serious?

Economic arguments for protecting the ugly are as strong as those for protecting some groups currently covered by legislation. So why not go ahead and expand protection to the looks-challenged? There’s one legitimate concern. With increasingly tight limits on government resources, expanding rights to yet another protected group would reduce protection for groups that have commanded our legislative and other attention for over 50 years.

You might reasonably disagree and argue for protecting all deserving groups. Either way, you shouldn’t be surprised to see the United States heading toward this new legal frontier.

I’m sure many generations of fathers have felt this.  But I seriously think that my America will have been better than my child’s.  As Sean Patrick says:

And so passes the glory of America.

Hurricane Irene and Global Warming

Even though hurricanes often hit those places in the country where people are concerned about “guns and Bibles” I knew that the media would be quick to jump on Irene as an indication that we are experiencing Global Warming.  The fact that t hit the North East only assured that this mem would come all the sooner.

I wasn’t disappointed:

The scale of Hurricane Irene, which could cause more extensive damage along the Eastern Seaboard than any storm in decades, is reviving an old question: are hurricanes getting worse because of human-induced climate change?

“On a longer time scale, I think — but not all of my colleagues agree — that the evidence for a connection between Atlantic hurricanes and global climate change is fairly compelling,” said Kerry Emanuel, an expert on the issue at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

So says the New York Times.  Or, rather, so the New York Times says that Mr. Emanuel says.

Any more?

Among those who disagree is Thomas R. Knutson, a federal researcher at the government’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in Princeton, N.J. The rising trend of recent decades occurred over too short a period to be sure it was not a consequence of natural variability, he said, and statistics from earlier years are not reliable enough to draw firm conclusions about any long-term trend in hurricane intensities.

“Everyone sort of agrees on this short-term trend, but then the agreement starts to break down when you go back longer-term,” Mr. Knutson said. He argues, essentially, that Dr. Emanuel’s conclusion is premature, though he adds that evidence for a human impact on hurricanes could eventually be established.

While scientists from both camps tend to think hurricanes are likely to intensify, they do not have great confidence in their ability to project the magnitude of that increase.

One climate-change projection, prepared by Mr. Knutson’s group, is that the annual number of the most intense storms will double over the course of the 21st century. But what proportion of those would actually hit land is another murky issue. Scientists say climate change could alter steering currents or other traits of the atmosphere that influence hurricane behavior.

So.  There ya have it.

We agree that global warming is real, that it increases storms and their intensity, but….BUT we disagree on where those storms may go.  Why do we disagree?  Well, because, naturally, we disagree because of global warming.

Oh how I wish I majored in English and wanted to write novels:

Gore enrolled in Harvard College in 1965, initially planning to major in English and write novels, but later deciding to major in government.  On his second day on campus, he began campaigning for the freshman student government council, and was elected its president.

Although he was an avid reader who fell in love with scientific and mathematical theories,he did not do well in science classes in college, and avoided taking math.   His grades during his first two years put him in the lower one-fifth of the class. During his sophomore year, he reportedly spent much of his time watching television, shooting pool, and occasionally smoking marijuana.

Ahhh…the joys of Harvard education!

So, what do scientist say?  Ya know, scientist who actually study science and stuff?  Oh, AND study climate science?

Tropical cyclone accumulated cyclone energy (ACE) has exhibited strikingly large global interannual variability during the past 40-years. In the pentad since 2006, Northern Hemisphere and global tropical cyclone ACE has decreased dramatically to the lowest levels since the late 1970s. Additionally, the frequency of tropical cyclones has reached a historical low.

So.  There ya go.  The short term trend is showing s decrease in ACE; or storm strength.  The Times reports an increase, as if it’s fact, and then Al Gore announces anyone disagreeing with that statement is a racist.

Sounds about right.

Make up a fact, report it in the Times and then let a raging Leftist report that anyone who disagrees must be racist.  Then, don’t report it.

By the way, for further evidence that tropical storm activity is just CRAZY increasing, see this chart:

Scary isn’t it?  The way that storms are increasing isn’t it?

–shiver–

Racist Republicans

Long before Barack Obama become President, the Republican party has been accused of being racist.  I guess it’s because conservatives advocate policies that don’t transfer wealth from one group of people to another that’s the cause of this shrill shriek.  In a similar vein, the Left could argue that conservative parents who think it’s a good idea to do your homework could be called “kidists”.  Clearly those parents hate their kids.

However, since Barack Obama IS the President, the case against conservatives being labelled as racists has increased.  It seems that not one single critique of the President or his policies can be leveled without the hammer of race being raised to combat that critique.

The most recent example of this phenomenon is when Rick Perry referred to the debt as a “black-cloud”.  Ed Schultz jumped on the occasion and labeled the man a racist for his racist comments.  Normally I would say that Ed is just an entertainer trying to make a living and using what he can to do so.  However, this isn’t an isolated case, this is systemic, this is premeditated and this is a strategy.

Only look back to Obama’s 2008 campaign when he mentioned that:

“…you know, he doesn’t look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills.”

He knew it then, he knows it now.  He signaled it then and the folks have followed.

The problem is, fewer and fewer people are buying it:

ONE of the most dispiriting aspects of going through university as a humanities major in the mid 1990s was the insistence on viewing everything—or at least every work of literature—through the prisms of race, class and gender. It turned the pleasurable act of reading into a tawdry little detective game, in which students were expected to ferret out every conceivable shred of “evidence”, plausible or not, for bias on the part of the author, the publisher, society, etc. Offer precocious undergraduates the chance to rail against society’s (read: their parents’) hidden biases and they will surely take it, but these readings were for the most part boring, wrong and trivial.

All of which is by way of saying that I have a great deal of sympathy for Reihan Salam’s argument against reductionism. He begins by giving Ed Schultz a well-deserved raspberry for imputing racist sentiment to Rick Perry’s reference to debt as “a black cloud” (boneheaded as Mr Schultz’s comment may be, it is hard to wholly deplore something that led to such a great Daily Show sketch). “Many on the left are convinced that Perry must in his heart of hearts be a racist,” Mr Salam writes, “and indeed that conservatism itself is rooted in racist sentiments.” Does one even need to say that this is wrong—that conservatism is not, in fact, rooted in racist sentiment? That opposition to a Democratic president, even one who happens to be black, is not inherently racist?

There was a reason, even as a liberal 18 year-old, that I mocked CLA’ers.  CLA is short hand slang for “College of Liberal Arts” at the University of Minnesota.  We attended the Minnesota Institute for Technology.  Rightly so, we reasoned that many of those gaining a degree at the “other school” were really gaining what some people called a degree.

But fun at the expense of silly degree programs aside, the idea that conservatives must be racist because we don’t agree with the prevailing thought mentality of the average Leftist is as silly as those degrees.  The idea that I have to have my ideas and intentions vetted for validity by the likes of  those who build programs that don’t help the people they’re meant to help is absurd.

Sadly, absurd sells.

 

Meanwhile, In Other News

With all the news this weekend focusing on Irene, it’s important to note that Obama and his administration continue to operate in the back-ground.

For example, there are reports that the “War on Terror” is moving along swimmingly:

Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) — Al Qaeda’s second-in-command, Atiya Abdul Rahman, has been killed in Pakistan, a U.S. official said Saturday.

The official would not discuss the circumstances behind his death, but did say Rahman is a key loss for al Qaeda.

“There’s no question this is a major blow to al Qaeda. Atiya was at the top of al Qaeda’s trusted core,” the official said. “He ran daily operations for the group since Shaykh Sa’id al-Masri was killed last year, and has been (Osama bin Laden successor Ayman al-Zawahiri’s) second-in-command since bin Laden’s death in May.”

Excellent news during a day filled with storm damage!

Further, on the science front, specifically geology, the Obama administration is equally busy:

Richmond, Aug 27 (Reuters) – Scientist studying the recent Virginia earthquake have identified a new geological structure that many feel explains the recent seismic activity in the region.  The region had known boundaries, referred to as tectonic zones.

Researchers began studying historical sources for past earthquakes in the region and were surprised to find indications of such activity from an unlikely source; Native American relics.  In fact, there are records dating back as far as the 1600’s that show significant activity in the region, known as Unega Gihli.

The Obama administration, eager to understand what Unega Gihli meant brought in linguistic experts to study the reference.  As it turns out, Unega Gihli is Cherokee for “Bush’s Fault”.

All is well in the world of Team Obama!

Disaster Planning: Free Market vs. Government

Sadly, most conversations regarding damage, preparedness and reaction to catastrophes take place during or AFTER an event takes place.  Such is the nature of people, and is what separates us from even squirrels.  Even they gather for the winter.

However, there are people, organizations who do look ahead and plan.  They take the responsibility seriously and give great thought to the subject.  These people study disasters and recoveries.  In fact, the organizations they work in are aptly named; Disaster Recovery.  We have one for my company, in fact, we have staff at my building.

As with anything, there are certain people more skilled at this than others.  In fact, again, just like we would expect, there are groups of people, organizations, that are better at it than other groups of people.  It should not surprise anyone that when it comes to government preparedness and the private sector’s planning, who’s side I’ll take.

Consider this: Via Carpe Diem

Forecasters don’t expect Hurricane Irene to make landfall until Saturday. But for nearly a week now, big-box retailers like Walmart and Home Depot have been getting ready.

They’ve deployed hundreds of trucks carrying everything from plywood to Pop-Tarts to stores in the storm’s path. It’s all possible because these retailers have turned hurricane preparation into a science.

At Home Depot’s Hurricane Command Center in Atlanta, for example, about 100 associates have been trying to anticipate how Irene will affect its East Coast stores from the Carolinas to New York.

At times like this, the Command Center looks much like NASA Mission Control during a shuttle launch, says Russ Householder, the company’s emergency-response captain.

“We’ve got all the key news agencies on the big screens up front,” he says. “We’re also monitoring our store sales so we can better be in tune to what’s happening in our stores, and we’re also connected live one-on-one with district managers in the impacted areas.”

Walmart is able to anticipate surges in demand during emergencies by using a huge historical database of sales from each store as well as sophisticated predictive techniques, Cooper says.

He says that with Irene on the way, that system is helping them allocate things like batteries, ready-to-eat foods and cleaning supplies to areas in the storm’s path.

Walmart also has the advantage of having a staff meteorologist, Cooper says.

Walmart’s preparedness system helped the company emerge as a hero after Katrina, says Steve Horwitz, an economist at St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y., who studied the company’s response.

“They know exactly what people want after a hurricane,” he says. “One of my favorite stories from Katrina is that the most popular food item after a major storm like this is strawberry Pop-Tarts.”

Wanna see what Wal-Mart’s preparation for moving supplies in, before Katrina, looked like?

Care to see the Government’s preparation for moving people OUT?

As 1,000’s of people needed to leave the city, a city that sits BELOW sea level, the government left a fleet of buses to simply flood.

Government simply can not DO like the private, for profit, sector operating in a free market.

 

Social Programs For The Poor: Open Question To The Left

As I was typing this one single question, I thought of  more:

  1. Does your definition of “poor” predicate itself on things needed to live?  Or does it involve definitions based on relative wealth?
  2. If the government capital “O” Ought provide for the poor, does this include those who choose to put themselves in that group of people defined in question #1?
    1. I.E. If a person chooses to be poor, is the government still bound by the Ought?
  3. If you could compel a citizen to work in a pure socialist state, why can’t you do the same in this one?

On Why We MUST Fix Global Warming

This sums up my view of why the Left is so very critically concerned about the whole warming of the globe:

The solutions proposed by the left aim to leverage this problem to build the economic order they have failed to achieve by other means.

Exactly!

It would be easier to listen to the Liberal solution to this problem if it didn’t sound EXACTLY like the normal meme of taking resources from the evil rich and giving it to the victimized poor.

Now, go read the whole article.

What The?

You have to win to govern.  And winning vs. losing in political races is a zero sum game.  When your opponent gets more votes, you lose and he wins.  This creates a situation where elected officials want to “win” the vote as much, or more, than they want to “win” the debate.

I get it, but this still sucks:

WASHINGTON — Congressional Republicans are so anti-tax, surely they will fight to prevent a payroll-tax increase on virtually every wage earner starting Jan. 1, right?

Apparently not.

They’re saying a tax cut should end as planned, opposing President Obama, who wants to extend it. The policy helps the 46 percent of all Americans who owe no federal income taxes but who pay a “payroll tax” on practically every dime they earn.

Huh?

Surly they can explain themselves?

Tax reductions, “no matter how well-intended,” will push the deficit higher, making the panel’s task that much harder, Camp’s office said.

Nope.  They can’t.

I may give this whole thing up and just go watch some baseball.