Patterico Explains It All

This cannot possibly be improved.

Looks like the cash-for-clunkers program may be near an end. I don’t qualify; I made the mistake of buying a fuel-efficient car in 2000.

Didn’t get any money for my house either. I made the mistake of getting a mortgage I could afford.

I’d love to get my student loans paid off — but dammit, I paid them off myself.

I’m trying to think if there’s some area of life where I can be stupid and irresponsible now, so I can get paid by Obama in the future. Because so far I’ve really screwed myself by doing things right.

And the winner of best comment on the thread so far:

Why work for a living when you can vote for one instead?

Tax Cuts For The Rich!

(and other assorted fiction).

Newly released data from the IRS clearly debunks the conventional Beltway rhetoric that the "rich" are not paying their fair share of taxes.

Indeed, the IRS data shows that in 2007—the most recent data available—the top 1 percent of taxpayers paid 40.4 percent of the total income taxes collected by the federal government. This is the highest percentage in modern history. By contrast, the top 1 percent paid 24.8 percent of the income tax burden in 1987, the year following the 1986 tax reform act.

Remarkably, the share of the tax burden borne by the top 1 percent now exceeds the share paid by the bottom 95 percent of taxpayers combined. In 2007, the bottom 95 percent paid 39.4 percent of the income tax burden. This is down from the 58 percent of the total income tax burden they paid twenty years ago.

To put this in perspective, the top 1 percent is comprised of just 1.4 million taxpayers and they pay a larger share of the income tax burden now than the bottom 134 million taxpayers combined.

Taxes For Thee, But Not For Me

Or, as my grandfather always puts it, "Never a problem to order steak for everyone when you're not paying the bill".

Wait For It....Wait For It....

and there it is!

The intraparty dispute had racial overtones. One African-American Democrat, Representative Hank Johnson of Georgia, pointed out that the seven Blue Dog Democrats holding up the health care bill in the Energy and Commerce Committee were “a nondiverse group” of white men.

Question to all liberals: what, exactly, is the amount of minorities that you need to have in a group for it to be "diverse"?

So Right, Yet So Wrong

You know the whole healthcare dog-and-pony show is in trouble when even Pravda DC is saying it's a bad idea.

But what I thought particularly hilarious was the equivocating paragraph used to at least preserve some shred of leftist cred.

THERE IS a serious case to be made that the U.S. income tax system should become more progressive. The average rate paid by the top 1 percent of households shrank from 33 percent in 1986 to about 23 percent in 2006. At the same time, the share of adjusted gross income claimed by that highest-earning sliver of American society doubled, from 11 percent to 22 percent. So, in principle, higher taxes for the well-heeled could make sense -- as part of a broader rationalization of the unduly complex tax code.

However, what the non-mathematicians leave out is the fact that, while their share of income doubled (increased by 100%), their taxes only fell by 30% (23% divided by 33% = 70%). In other words, if you were making $100 before and paying $33 in taxes, you're making $200 now and paying $46 in taxes.

That explains why a) the total share of Federal taxes paid by the top 1% has gone steadily UP since 2001 and b) the Treasury was collecting record revenues prior to the crash.

Question: What, exactly, SHOULD the top 1% be paying, then?

What Newspapers Does Pelosi Read?

Because evidently one of them isn't the New York Times.]

The Bush administration has prepared a list of terrorist leaders the Central Intelligence Agency is authorized to kill, if capture is impractical and civilian casualties can be minimized, senior military and intelligence officials said.

The previously undisclosed C.I.A. list includes key Qaeda leaders like Osama bin Laden and his chief deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, as well as other principal figures from Al Qaeda and affiliated terrorist groups, the officials said. The names of about two dozen terrorist leaders have recently been on the lethal-force list, officials said. "It's the worst of the worst," an official said.

President Bush has provided written legal authority to the C.I.A. to hunt down and kill the terrorists without seeking further approval each time the agency is about to stage an operation. Some officials said the terrorist list was known as the "high-value target list."

But of course, the Obama Party insists they never knew anything about it.

What Founding Father Am I?

It's the ginger thing, I guess.

New Truisms for Our Society

If you even consider airing an advertisement critical of socialized medicine, Obama will shut you down.

If your legal case that you won threatens the confirmation of an Obama nominee, Obama will have you publicly smeared.

Hope and change!

Who Knew?

For those of you who don't go around reading the DSM-IV, here's a bit about what one of the larger Internet exams says about me.

Advanced Global Personality Test Results Extraversion |||||||||||||||||| 78% Stability |||||||||||||||| 62% Orderliness |||||||||||| 46% Accommodation |||||||||||||||||| 74% Interdependence |||||||||||| 50% Intellectual |||||||||||||||| 70% Mystical |||||||||||||||| 70% Artistic |||||||||||||| 56% Religious |||||||||||||||||||| 90% Hedonism || 10% Materialism |||||| 30% Narcissism |||||||||||| 50% Adventurousness |||||| 30% Work ethic |||||||||||||||||||| 83% Humanitarian |||||||||||||||||| 76% Conflict seeking |||||||||||||||| 63% Need to dominate |||||||||||||| 56% Romantic |||||||||||| 43% Avoidant || 10% Anti-authority |||||| 23% Wealth |||||||||| 36% Dependency |||| 16% Change averse |||||||||||| 50% Cautiousness |||||||||||||| 56% Individuality |||||||||||| 50% Sexuality |||||||||||||||| 70% Peter pan complex |||||||||||| 43% Family drive |||| 16% Physical Fitness |||||||||||||||||||| % Histrionic |||||| 30% Paranoia |||||| 23% Vanity |||||||||||| 43% Honor |||||||||||||||| 63% Thriftiness |||||||||||||||||||| 90%

Take Free Advanced Global Personality Test
personality test by similarminds.com

And, more specifically:

Stability results were moderately high which suggests you are relaxed, calm, secure, and optimistic.

Orderliness results were medium which suggests you are moderately organized, hard working, and reliable while still remaining flexible, efficient, and fun.

Extraversion results were high which suggests you are overly talkative, outgoing, sociable and interacting at the expense too often of developing your own individual interests and internally based identity.

F'ing Brilliant

She just changed the paradigm.

Gov. Sarah Palin announced Friday that she will step down as Alaska's chief executive by the end of the month. She will not seek election to a second gubernatorial term in 2010.

Ace and Allah seem pretty convinced that this is the end for her.

Says Ace, “It’s over. You can’t resign from a governorship and then run for higher office.” I agree. Placing your ambition over your commitment to the state looks shady, especially for someone who won’t have a single full term as governor under her belt for the primaries.

Love you, guys, but that analysis and those objections are based on 11/3 tactics -- or, more precisely, the maxims of politics that were in place prior to November 4th, 2008.

Let's go over them in more detail, shall we?

Substance always trumps style. Palin should concentrate on serving her term in Alaska so she has a record of accomplishments there, and then she can run.

There are two phrases that ruin that one completely: "President Barack Obama" and "Senator Al Franken".

Seriously, fellas. If substance were what mattered, we'd be back in the good old days where every word out of the President's mouth was a lie, every misstep was a scandal, and Helen Thomas's diatribes about controlled press conferences would have been six months earlier.

Palin has a tremendous record already of fiscal conservativism, fighting corruption, doing what's right, and sticking up for principles of good government. No one cared. They were all too busy dancing along to "HopeyChange, The Musical" and vague promises to be even looking at Obama's dismal record, much less hers.

Substance is indeed important. But what Palin has recognized is that substance is irrelevant unless it is heard, which brings us to:

You can overcome blatant and obvious media bias by having great, perfectly-timed interviews and speechmaking opportunities.

Um, no. There are enough times when TelePrompTer Jesus has fallen into the Pit of "Uhhhhhhs" and Land of 57 States to demonstrate that foulups in message don't really matter -- unless those are the only clips that the Main$tream Media has to run.

As a former point guard, Sarah knows the gospel of the run-and-gun: it doesn't matter if you only make half your shots if you're taking twice as many of them. The only way to prevent yourself from being pigeonholed by the media is to flood the zone with bigger and better material, and dilute the impact of anything negative.

With that in mind, we come to the last maxim:

Staying put is better than being branded a quitter.

Problem with that one is this: it assumes that the people who are most likely to attack Palin would be cowed by her staying in office.

Doubtful at best.

This is simple political calculus. To win against Obama, Palin needs to do only one thing: get her face and story out in the media on her terms.

That simply cannot be done while she is governor of Alaska. Her job precludes it. She is hamstrung both by her official duties, which she cannot neglect, and the fact that, as governor, she is subject to abuse of good-government laws by Obama's flying monkeys. It's the worst Catch-22; if she fulfills her duties and responsibilities, people can take constant potshots at her without her being able to fight back, and if she fights back, they'll claim she's putting her interests ahead of her constituency.

Palin has come to one of the most empowering realizations in politics: if you are going to be criticized regardless of what you do, then there's no reason you shouldn't do the right thing. By resigning her position, she has the capability now to take the initiative and attack. When David Letterman makes rape jokes about her daughter, she can pound the bejesus out of him on all three morning shows instead of having to do it by remote before the throwing out of the ceremonial first salmon. The only scheduling conflicts she'll have to worry about are the ones she chooses. She can wear what she wants, spend what she needs, and go where she pleases without worrying about frivolous "ethics complaints". Most of all, she can be out there telling her story and connecting with the people who will ultimately put her in the White House.

Most of all, she has Obama in exactly the box she was. If he stays put, she owns the media field. If he starts campaigning, she nails him for not doing his job and unleashes her own bevy of people to file ethics complaints. Sweet, ironic, and perfect.

And the obvious question? I can hear the response already: "All politicians quit their jobs to go campaigning. My constituents deserved me being honest about it. Some politicians don't care that their voters are paying them for full-time work while they're not working; I do."

I could certainly be wrong on this. But hoping to God that I'm right.

When Moonbats Attack.....Each Other

Rule #3 of Really Bad B-Movie Sci-Fi: Any monster you build to take your revenge on others will invariably come back to kill you.

And yet, people still keep building them.

Anyone got the popcorn?

Have Some Carrots, Karen

'Cause it sure looks like you're going blind.

How do you think conservative talk radio has affected the Legislature's work?

The Republicans were essentially threatened and terrorized against voting for revenue. Now [some] are facing recalls. They operate under a terrorist threat: "You vote for revenue and your career is over." I don't know why we allow that kind of terrorism to exist. I guess it's about free speech, but it's extremely unfair.

But of course, it's not "terrorism" when Speaker Karen Bass's Obama Party is the one doing the "threatening".

Love it. Exercising your constitutional right to remove an elected official with which you disagree is "terrorism" and "career-ending" -- but destroying a private individual's business and career over a political donation is perfectly OK with Karen Bass and the Obama Party.

Jenny Sanford, You Are My Hero

Word.

Jenny Sanford said Thursday that her husband Mark Sanford's political career is "not a concern of mine" and that she'd be just fine -- regardless of whether their marriage survives.

"His career is not a concern of mine," she told reporters as she departed the family's vacation home in Sullivan's Island, South Carolina. "He's going to have to worry about that. I'm worried about my family and the character of my children."

She added that she would be fine, with or without her husband.

"I have great faith and great friends and great family. We have a good Lord in this world and I know that I'm going to be fine and not only will I survive, I'll thrive," she said.

"I don't know if he'll be with me, but I'm going to do my best to work on my marriage because I believe in marriage. I believe in raising good kids is the most important thing in the world," she said.

Call it, sister.

This Makes Perfect Sense, I Suppose....

if you're a complete and total idiot.

San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris' office on Monday defended allowing about a half dozen first-time drug offenders to clear their records by going through a job-training program, even after prosecutors learned they were deportable as undocumented immigrants.

But Harris' aides said they have since made changes in the program that would prevent a recurrence of instances in which illegal immigrants got their criminal records cleared by going through the Back on Track jobs program, which trains offenders for jobs that undocumented immigrants legally would be prevented from holding.

But wait, there's more!

Harris was quoted in the Times as saying that enforcing federal immigration law was not the job of local authorities. The district attorney was explaining how her office handled the case of Alexander Izaguirre, an illegal immigrant from Honduras who had been enrolled in the Back on Track program in July when he allegedly robbed a woman of her purse in Pacific Heights, then got into an SUV that drove into the victim.

Again, given Obama Kamala's past record, this is not a surprise to anyone; it merely has become a question of just how far off a rocker one can go.

It's Not Always Bad.....

After three years of habitation here, you get used to people who know you and your opinions opining how anyone to the right of Bill Ayers can possibly live in San Francisco.

The answer: A faith in the inherent good nature and rebelliousness of people who fully realize and are used to the fact they're living under a completely-dysfunctional totalitarian state constructed on screwball ideology and run by nitwits. Sort of like Das Kapital meets A Night at the Opera.

This week's prime example:

He sleeps under a bridge, washes in a public bathroom and was panhandling for booze money 11 months ago, but now Larry Moore is the best-dressed shoeshine man in the city. When he gets up from his cardboard mattress, he puts on a coat and tie. It's a reminder of how he has turned things around.

In fact, until last week it looked like Moore was going to have saved enough money to rent a room and get off the street for the first time in six years. But then, in a breathtakingly clueless move, an official for the Department of Public Works told Moore that he has to fork over the money he saved for his first month's rent to purchase a $491 sidewalk vendor permit.....

Moore is nothing if not dutiful. He attempted to work his way through the byzantine city government channels, although he didn't get much help.

"I guess my gripe is that when the city came by and told him to get his papers in order but couldn't tell him how to do it," said Travis See, who manages the Custom Shop Clothiers on the corner of Market and New Montgomery. "This lady couldn't even tell him which building to go to so he could stand in line and waste all day."

But don't despair, folks; there is a happy ending.

Larry Moore shined so many shoes on Thursday that he ran through two bottles of polish.

Then there were the women who walked up to give him a hug, the tourists who had their photo taken with him, and the people - more than one - who stuffed $100 bills in his shirt pocket.

"Honestly," Moore said, "it is probably the best day of my life. And not for financial reasons. It just means so much to have people come out and recognize someone working hard."

Now we just have to work on the general realization that our main control on this system is failing to re-elect the idiot politicians who appoint, employ, otherwise protect, and receive generous campaign contributions from the dimbulb city employees who cause these sort of problems.

But there is hope.

It Lives....It LIVES!

It never fails. Just when you remove someone from your blogroll for lack of activity, they come back to life.

But given that it's Matt and Robbie....I have never been happier to see a reanimated corpse.

Save a Step and Skip to "Nyah, Nyah!"

Blogger Ed Whelan at The Corner offers an explanation for his behavior in outing an anonymous blogger that has to be described in only one word: "Obamaesque".

Excuse #1: "Nobody needs to be pseudonymous."

A blogger may choose to blog under a pseudonym for any of various self-serving reasons, from the compelling (e.g., genuine concerns about personal safety) to the respectable to the base. But setting aside the extraordinary circumstances in which the reason to use a pseudonym would be compelling, I don’t see why anyone else has any obligation to respect the blogger’s self-serving decision.

With this much projection, Whelan needs to be opening a movie theater.

For some reason, despite the clear and present danger that this blogger's anonymity presents, in Whelan's opinion, the person has managed to blog for years without anyone else engaging in the same sort of e-stalking that Whelan has done. Did Whelan bother to postulate why so many other people were content to live and let live?

Excuse #2: "He's a hypocrite."

Blevins desired to be unaccountable—irresponsible—for the views he set forth in the blogosphere. He wanted to present one face to his family, friends, and colleagues and another to the blogosphere.

Based, of course, on Whelan's exhaustive analysis and Cerebro scans that says the blogger has never actually told anyone else about their blog.

The irony of this is that these kind of outings are self-fulfilling prophecies; people blog pseudononymously because they don't want their families, friends, and jobs involved in online arguments, and then people like Whelan go right ahead and drag their families, friends, and jobs into these things.

Why? Well, that leads us to Excuse #3: "It's HIS fault!"

If he wanted to avoid the risk of being associated publicly with his views, he shouldn’t have blogged.

Sure. And if people didn't want their employers picketed, their churches vandalized, or white powder mailed to their offices, they shouldn't have donated to organizations that were against Proposition 8.

This really is what puts the godawful stink on this whole process. Whelan has inadvertently made it clear that his whole point in doing this is to create problems for the blogger with said blogger's "family, friends, and colleagues". This has nothing to do with what was said; this has everything to do with creating trouble outside the blogosphere for someone who disagrees with you with the sole intent of getting them to stop doing whatever it is with which you disagree by hurting them somehow.

That isn't honest dialogue; it's hostage taking.

This blog exists primarily because of my utter revulsion and disgust for people who engage in this sort of behavior. Ed Whelan is now among them.

Roundup of opinion at Instapundit.

R.S. McCain offers a slightly-different perspective (Rule #2! Rule #2!).

Along similar lines, I'm linking Little Miss Attila's post because a) she's in California, b) she qualifies as a Talented, Sexy, and Beautiful Straight Woman Who Blogs, and 3) she has a gun and knows how to use it.

Updated the Blogroll

Any and all omissions are purely due to oversight. Email me if you want to be added (or re-added).

The Reports Of My Death Have Been Greatly, Etc., Etc.

Yes, it has been quiet lately.

Perhaps the schedule will explain matters somewhat.

January 15th: Start new volunteer commitment

January 30: Start new job

February 1: Start teaching flagship classes for professional organization

February 15th: New volunteer commitment expands to two weeknights a week

February 28th: Flagship classes expand to the other two weeknights a week

March 1st: New job kicks into high gear of basically redesigning entire department

March 15th: Other instructors for flagship classes unable to teach for remaining class

March 30th: Volunteer commitment sprouts required trip to England in 30 days

April 1st: Redesign shifts to layoff of 10% of organization

April 15th: First of three weeks where I am busy every night

April 28: Give classes final exams

April 29 - 30: Perform individual layoff counseling meetings for 10% of workforce

May 1: Hop plane to England

May 5: Return from England

May 8 - 12: Family celebration and emergency

May 16: Husbear's milestone birthday celebration with 70 people, 4 staying at house

May 20: Drop off husbear at airport at 5 AM for five-day trip, run household

May 21: Massive all-day volunteer commitment

May 25: First day off in months


Man, I got tired just writing that.

Here Comes Another One

My husbear insists that this is the sign that he is successfully influencing me to be "practical".



Ha.

Although I must admit that it does suit the times; next year, when, thanks to The One, gas is $5 per gallon, inflation is at 7%, and interest rates are at 14%, I will have 34 mpg, positive equity, and 0% financing.

Not to mention a stinking huge tax deduction and credit.

Sweet.

Mmmm, Tasty

The schadenfreude has been particularly thick these past few days.

What A Surprise

Turns out Obama's vaunted "tax cut for 95% of Americans" really isn't a tax cut at all.

Buy The Book

One of the better perks of having been around a while in the gay blogosphere is that, between the numerous and depressing bits of flotsam and jetsam, you do run into some rather unique individuals -- folks who are charming, funny, intelligent, and extraordinarily talented.

Such a man is Famous Author Rob Byrnes.

His latest novel, Straight Lies, is rapidly creeping its way up the charts and soon will supplant Harry Potter as the book most likely to be banned for encouraging witchcraft and devil worship. Or something. At any rate, buy and read it. Or watch Rob talk about it.

And remember, everything goes with cheap white wine.

We Get (More) Letters

Same ol' song and dance, though.

You're not posting at any where nere the rate you used to, is it because you have AIDS? Is that why you hate gays so much, you blame them for your own irresponsibility?

Followed a week later by:

Here's a link you might find useful.

http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/resources/brochures/livingwithhiv.htm

Again, the amusement of watching the gay community using HIV status to demand sympathy on the one hand and insult and attack on the other never really gets old.

Sort of like their claims bemoaning suicide among gays while at the same time they busily encourage it.

Today's Public Service Announcement

How to Tell if Your Cat is Plotting to Kill You.

(aka Why John in IL is Living on Borrowed Time).

For No Particular Reason At All

Admit it. You knew you wanted to look like Chase and act like Angela.

And of course, as a former citizen of the Republic of, I am thus obligated to post this.

Opportunities for Hotness Lost #42,576

Here's another one of those, "Oh, if he only would get a haircut....."

Today's Nice Warm Fuzzy

Lovely.

In an online Spanish language chat room, people from all over the East Coast seek tips on how to get driver's licenses in Maryland even though they don't live there. Businesses run classified ads in Spanish-language publications in Washington, D.C., Virginia and Maryland urging "undocumented Hispanic friends" to take advantage of the opportunity to get Maryland ID without having to prove they're in the country legally.

Makes me feel a lot better about getting on an airplane.

My Own Personal TelePrompTer

Been pretty busy lately, so it's kind of nice when people, as has happened before, step in to write my copy for me.

You're not posting at any where nere the rate you used to, is it because you have AIDS? Is that why you hate gays so much, you blame them for your own irresponsibility?

Priya Lynn

It just sort of answers itself, doesn't it?

There's a Saying About This

Something about living by the sword......

What a Surprise!

It truly does boggle the mind.

Among the eight members named Friday to the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry and the 10 senior policy aides who will assist them in their work, two own American models. Add the Treasury Department's special adviser to the task force and the total jumps to three.

Do we have any more takers for my new line of Obama Party bumper stickers?

Welcome to Ludicrous Land

Line of the day:

Assembly Speaker Karen Bass urged state employees facing layoffs to call Republican senators and press them to vote for the budget.

Obviously her primary concern is the state employees' unions that fill her campaign coffers, versus the constitutents that she's planning to soak with a massive tax increase.

The tax hikes include an increase of 1 cent on the dollar in the state sales tax, a 12-cent-a-gallon hike in the gasoline tax and a boost in vehicle licensing fees.

The measure also includes a one-time, 5-percent income tax surcharge for taxpayers who owe money to the state at the end of 2009.

My personal opinion: if 10,000 California state employees were abducted by aliens overnight, the next morning, state offices would operate exactly in the same fashion they do now -- late, surly, and patently incompetent.

What Bass and her fellow nitwits have not and will not figure out is that people have reached the price limit they are willing to pay for this state's shitty government. Californians are not opposed to premium prices; they are opposed to paying premium prices for pathetic services.

Do As I Say, Not As I Do

The headline alone of this op-ed by Netflix CEO Reed Hastings tells the story.

I’M the chief executive of a publicly traded company and, like my peers, I’m very highly paid. The difference between salaries like mine and those of average Americans creates a lot of tension, and I’d like to offer a suggestion. President Obama should celebrate our success, rather than trying to shame us or cap our pay. But he should also take half of our huge earnings in taxes, instead of the current one-third.

Then, the next time a chief executive earns an eye-popping amount of money, we can cheer that half of it is going to pay for our soldiers, schools and security. Higher taxes on huge pay days can finance opportunity for the next generation of Americans.

Ah yes, another one of those lovely "billionaire whines that they should pay more in taxes" stories.

Warren Buffett, the third-richest man in the world, has criticised the US tax system for allowing him to pay a lower rate than his secretary and his cleaner.

Speaking at a $4,600-a-seat fundraiser in New York for Senator Hillary Clinton, Mr Buffett, who is worth an estimated $52 billion (£26 billion), said: “The 400 of us [here] pay a lower part of our income in taxes than our receptionists do, or our cleaning ladies, for that matter. If you’re in the luckiest 1 per cent of humanity, you owe it to the rest of humanity to think about the other 99 per cent.”

My response: Messrs Buffett and Hastings, if you really, really want to give 50% of your assets to the US Treasury, be my guest. You certainly don't need the tax codes to be changed to do that; all you need to do is get a pen and write the damn check.

But of course, you're not doing that. You're getting up in front, you're blustering, you're posturing about how your secretary is (inexplicably) paying a higher tax rate than you are, but every April 15th, you're still only paying your 17.7% or whatever rate.

Put your money where your mouth is. If you want to pay 50% of your assets in taxes, pay it. No one's stopping you. No one's complaining. But if you did, that would actually require you to pay what you're demanding of others, and as we see from Daschle, Rangel, Franken, Solis, Geithner, and Obama, that is the last thing any good Obama Party member is ever going to do.

Can They Get Any Clearer?

One would think this would be enough.

President Obama's economic recovery package will actually hurt the economy more in the long run than if he were to do nothing, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday.

CBO, the official scorekeepers for legislation, said the House and Senate bills will help in the short term but result in so much government debt that within a few years they would crowd out private investment, actually leading to a lower Gross Domestic Product over the next 10 years than if the government had done nothing.

That is, if you thought the concerns of the Obama Party actually had anything to do with the economy.

Savor the Irony

Rarely do examples this stark of the priorities of the Obama Party come along.

Alaska governor Sarah Palin’s support for aerial wolf-hunting has sparked a heated cross-country war of words between the governor and an environmental ad campaign fronted by the actress Ashley Judd, with Palin calling the organization funding the ads an “extreme fringe group.”

The squabble began Tuesday when the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund unveiled a campaign called “Eye on Palin,” targeting the governor for what they call her “extreme anti-conservation policies.”

The group is highlighting “Palin’s championing of the brutal and unnecessary aerial killing of wolves and other carnivores” — a controversial practice allowed by permit in Alaska since 2003, with the goal of protecting populations of moose and caribou.

My question: Why does Judd oppose the limited killing of wolves for logical and scientific reasons when she herself endorses the unlimited killing of humans for personal convenience?

Smoot-Who-Ley?

To paraphrase Santayana, those who choose to ignore history are doomed to repeat it.

Smells Like Desperation

If there is one theme going through all the propaganda outlets of the Obama Party this week, it's why the government needs to waste billions of dollars on contraceptives, resodding the National Mall, and god knows what else instead of simply cutting taxes.

The stimulus is about one-third tax cuts and two-thirds government spending. The trade-off is fairly simple: Tax cuts work quickly but ineffectively, because much of the money is saved. Most government spending takes longer to implement, but generates more impact because the money is spent.

Um, according to the Obama Party's own chief economic advisor, bullshit.

A key issue facing the new Obama administration is to what extent the economic stimulus should take the form of spending increases versus tax reduction. One way to think about the issue is the size of the fiscal policy multipliers. The multipliers measure bang for the buck--the amount of short-run GDP expansion one gets from a dollar of spending hikes or tax cuts.

So what are these multipliers? In their new blog, Bob Hall and Susan Woodward look at spending increases from World War II and the Korean War and conclude that the government spending multiplier is about one: A dollar of government spending raises GDP by about a dollar. Similarly, the results in Valerie Ramey's research suggest a government spending multiplier of about 1.4. (Valerie does not present her results in multiplier form, but she emails me this translation: "The right column of figure 5A of my paper shows that for a log change of government spending of 1, log GDP rises by 0.28, implying an elasticity of 0.28. To back out the implied multiplier, we can use the fact that government spending averages around 20% of GDP. This implies a multiplier of 1.4.")

By contrast, recent research by Christina Romer and David Romer looks at tax changes and concludes that the tax multiplier is about three: A dollar of tax cuts raises GDP by about three dollars. The puzzle is that, taken together, these findings are inconsistent with the conventional Keynesian model. According to that model, taught even in my favorite textbook, spending multipliers necessarily exceed tax multipliers.

So when that blows up, again, the Obama Party Ministry of Propaganda mainstream media, starts with the ultimate scare tactic: we can't have tax cuts because Americans will save the money instead of spending it!

Americans are hunkering down and saving more. For a recession-battered economy, it couldn't be happening at a worse time.

Economists call it the "paradox of thrift." What's good for individuals — spending less, saving more — is bad for the economy when everyone does it.

Little did I know how much my grandparents hated America when they bought a house with cash and just used their old living room set; if they had been truly patriotic, they would have taken out a no-money-down subprime mortgage, maxed out their cards to fill it with furniture, and then demanded that their Social Security checks be increased to pay their interest costs.

And how evil and unpatriotic I am for buying a seven-year-old American-brand car with cash; had I really cared about the good of our country and self-sacrifice, I would have spent nine times the amount to impress the neighbors with an appropriate high-end brand, borrowed it all, and spent eight years paying through the nose for depreciation, interest, and insurance.

However, because of this treasonous behavior, our banks have one less toxic mortgage, bad credit card, and nonperforming auto loan -- and two rapidly-growing savings accounts. Meanwhile, my financial terrorism against the United States has made several hundred more dollars a month available for me to use in purchasing good, strong, dividend-paying value stocks and bonds.

In short, what we are doing is keeping toxic assets off the banks' books, injecting cash into the banking system, and providing companies and local entities with investment money for improvements. We are making all of these changes without it costing taxpayers a dime or requiring any bit of government intervention.

Which is likely why the Obama Party hates it.

Who Cares, As Long As It's Free?

Read and be frightened.

If Democrats learned anything from the HillaryCare defeat, it was the danger of admitting to their wish to federalize the health market. Since returning to power, they've pursued a new strategy: to stealthily and incrementally expand government control. "What no one is paying attention to in the [stimulus]," says Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, "is that Democrats are making a big grab at the health-care sector."

First grab: the children.

Initially designed for children of working-poor families, this new Super-Schip will be double in size, and even kids whose parents make $65,000 a year will be eligible.

Given that the US median average household income is just over $44,000 per year, that means that nearly 65% of American households qualify as "working-poor" and thus get free health insurance.

And the kicker:

The Congressional Budget Office estimates 2.4 million individuals will drop their private coverage for the public program.

Read that again. These are people who already HAVE health coverage; all they're doing is taking advantage of a government "freebie".

And yes, it does get worse.

Under "stimulus," Medicaid is now on offer not to just poor Americans, but Americans who have lost their jobs. And not just Americans who have lost their jobs, but their spouses and their children. And not Americans who recently lost their jobs, but those who lost jobs, say, early last year. And not just Americans who already lost their jobs, but those who will lose their jobs up to 2011. The federal government is graciously footing the whole bill. The legislation also forbids states to apply income tests in most cases.

House Democrat Henry Waxman was so thrilled by this blowout, it was left to Republicans to remind him that the very banking millionaires he dragged to the Hill last year for a grilling would now qualify for government aid. His response? A GOP proposal to limit subsidies to Americans with incomes under $1 million was accepted during markup, but had disappeared by final passage. In this new health-care nirvana, even the rich are welcome. CBO estimates? An additional 1.2 million on the federal Medicaid dime in 2009.

And if that wasn't enough:

The "stimulus" also hijacks Cobra, a program that lets the unemployed retain access to their former company health benefits -- usually for about 18 months. The new stimulus permits any former employee over the age of 55 to keep using Cobra right up until they qualify for Medicare at age 65. And here's the kicker: Whereas employees were previously responsible for paying their health premiums while on Cobra, now the feds will pay 65%. CBO estimates? Seven million Americans will have the feds mostly pay their insurance bills in 2009.

So let's see; the average COBRA cost is $1,069 per month, so times 65%, times seven million people, times ten years.

Oh well, that's only $4.8 billion a month, or $583 billion over ten years if you're counting -- plus the minor detail of tens of billions more on Medicaid. All on the taxpayer's dime, and all coming out of the pockets of working people, of course.

But what do the Obama Party nitwits pushing this care? They don't pay taxes.

Robbery By Any Other Name

Today's example of the Obama Party mentality, brought to you by liberal and self-determined Social Security expert Susan Alexander.

Let's exclude high rollers from receiving Social Security benefits. Affluent individuals can refuse to receive them, but many have chosen to take them instead, creating a glaring example of waste.

A means test that would exclude seniors who live in wealthy households could start us on the road to saving Social Security.

Problem is, Social Security already HAS a means test that is used to reduce benefits for the affluent; it's called the bend points.

PIA formula
For an individual who first becomes eligible for old-age insurance benefits or disability insurance benefits in 2009, or who dies in 2009 before becoming eligible for benefits, his/her PIA will be the sum of:
(a) 90 percent of the first $744 of his/her average indexed monthly earnings, plus
(b) 32 percent of his/her average indexed monthly earnings over $744 and through $4,483, plus
(c) 15 percent of his/her average indexed monthly earnings over $4,483

Put into English, what that means is that the more you earn, the less you get credited for it -- even though the more you earn, the more you pay into the system.

And where is the income threshold cutoff for what constitutes "affluent", at which point you have too much money and should start receiving proportionately less in benefits?

$8,928 per year.

In short, the Obama Party believes that the key to "saving" Social Security is to punish success on both ends; not only will those who earn more and pay in more get credited less, but now they'll have even that taken away if they dare to accumulate assets or retirement savings.

One can only hope that Susan Alexander gets the trip to Washington she so obviously deserves to advise Pelosi and Obama. It should be hailed as another example of Obama Party political brilliance to state to the public that they are going to take people who have worked, saved, and paid into the Social Security system at the highest rates for over forty years that they get no benefits -- especially as they put into power officials like Timothy Geithner who don't pay their Social Security taxes.

Who Needs Skills?

In this case, the title says it all.

The Stimulus: How to Create Jobs Without Them All Going to Skilled Professionals and White Male Construction Workers

And yes, it's real. Here's the video of Reich telling Congress the same thing.

I'm telling you, it makes me feel a whole lot better to drive over roads, cross bridges, and use telecommunication networks built by unskilled labor instead of skilled professionals. After all, remember; it's not the integrity of the structure that counts, it's the color of the person who built it.


(/sarc)

(h/t AoSHQ)

More "Name That Party!"

Read it. Then read more.

So let's review the situation here.

-- Send suggestive instant messages to former interns and be hounded out of office

-- Have romantic and sexual relationship with then AND former intern, lie about it yourself, tell said intern to lie about it, initiate full-blown coverup with things like hiring a person who just happens to know more than you would like about the relationship to a job as a city planner for which she's wholly unqualified....and nothing will happen.


I suppose the lesson here is either to go for the gusto -- or, if you want to prey on teenagers, change your party affiliation.

And It Can Get Worse

Much, MUCH worse.

The government wouldn’t be able to spend at least one-fourth of a proposed $825 billion economic stimulus plan until after 2010, according to a new report that suggests it may take longer than expected to boost the economy.

A Congressional Budget Office analysis of President Barack Obama’s plan found that most of the approximately $355 billion in proposed discretionary spending on highways, renewable energy and other initiatives wouldn’t be spent before 2011. The government would spend about $26 billion of the money this year and $110 billion more next year, the report said.

But wait, there's more!

The analysis suggests that much of the stimulus may not come until after the economy has begun to recover. The CBO has previously said it expected a “slow” recovery to begin later this year and that the economy will expand by a “modest” 1.5 percent in 2010.

That clinches it. This "stimulus" has nothing to do with the economy; it has EVERYTHING to do with increasing government spending and is using the recession as an excuse.


(h/t DrewM at Ace of Spades HQ)

So Much For Science

Remember how the Bush administration was constantly accused of letting ideology get in the way of research?

Turns out they had nothing on the Obama one.

Top Obama economic adviser Christina Romer has studied 20th-century recessions and concluded that monetary tools, not fiscal spending, produced recoveries. Even in the Great Depression, monetary expansion, not FDR's public works, opened the way toward recovery beginning in the spring of 1933.

But wait -- it gets even better.

Now, though, Romer and other Obama advisers are betting that the $825 billion package under consideration in the House will be big enough to alter the history that they've all studied.

They are also betting on the fact that a package divided between $550 billion in spending and $275 billion in tax cuts will be the right mix, even though Romer's research also shows tax cuts to have a larger multiplier effect on the economy than spending.

Now we've reached the point of ludicrous.

The New Deal has been invoked for six months as proof that rampant government spending works to slow or stop recessions -- only to have it admitted that government spending really didn't do anything to slow or stop the Great Depression.

Tax cuts have been determined to provide more bang for the buck than government spending -- so Obama is doing double the spending and half the tax cuts, deficit and value be damned.

These people have zero concept of reality. They don't want to fix the economy; they want to spend government money.

From where, exactly, do they intend to get that money?

Mistakes Do Happen

I must correct this mistake by PinkNews.co.uk.

Long-running TV comedy show The Simpsons has revealed that the character of Duffman is gay.

The revelation comes in the latest episode of the programme, now in its 20th series.

Actually, in the episode "Homerazzi", Homer accidentally takes a picture that shows Duffman and Boobarella in the background, to which Bart responds, "Hey! He's supposed to be in a committed gay relationship!"

That is all. Carry on.

There's Nothing Wrong that Wasting Money Can't Fix

There are so many things wrong with this it's hard to know where to begin.

A hydrogen fuel cell car driven by U.S. Rep. Eric Massa to Washington, D.C. on Monday didn’t actually get him all the way there.

Massa had to be in the nation’s capital Tuesday for his swearing in as the 29th Congressional District’s new representative. He drove the General Motors Equinox prototype car to draw attention to the technology, some of which is being developed in the district.

The problem is the car can go about 150 to 200 miles without a refill, and the trip from Corning to Washington, D.C. is 282 miles. And there are no hydrogen refilling stations along the way.

As a result, Massa had to switch to another GM hydrogen fuel cell vehicle that was standing by in Harrisburg.

Here's the kicker.

After the trip, both cars were towed back to their original locations by two Chevrolet Tahoe hybrid SUVs.

So let's see; making the optimistic assumption that these two Tahoe hybrids were getting their EPA-rated 22 mpg on the highway while towing other vehicles, that means one burned 7.4 gallons of gas going the 162 miles from Harrisburg to Corning, NY, and the other burned 5.5 gallons going the 120 miles from Washington to Harrisburg, for a total of 12.9 gallons of gas.

Or he could have simply driven a Chevy Malibu, which, given a highway average of 30 miles per gallon, would have gotten there on 9.4 gallons of gas -- meaning he blew nearly 30% more in cash, gasoline, and carbon in the process.

Which is probably why the article in question is another fine example of "Name That Party!"

(h/t Reason Hit and Run)

Seriously, You Can't Make This Up....

Obama's nominee for Treasury Secretary apparently doesn't know you have to pay taxes.

Truth In Labeling

As pointed out by Victor Davis Hanson, those of us here in California are surrounded by people who will proudly proclaim the necessity of the Big Three automakers bailout -- as they head for their Lexus, Infiniti, Volvo, BMW, Volkswagen, Mini, Porsche, Audi, Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Mazda, Saab, Subaru, Suzuki, and Isuzu.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I think they should advertise the fact. Hence, I am soliciting suggestions for a new line of bumper stickers. Feel free to insert your own.

"I Believe in (Someone Else) Buying American"

"My Help Drives a Chevy"

"I Support The UAW -- I Just Won't Own Anything They Make"

"Unions Build Better Benefits. Cars, Not So Much"

"I Voted Democrat So I Didn't Have To Buy Their Crap"

"Solidarity Forever, Except When It Comes to My Money"

We're Still Not Getting It

There was an interesting comment left on my previous post about the cluelessness of gay organizations calling for "dialogue" with religious people and organizations while they support and endorse antireligious bigotry that warranted bringing forth here.

When you realize that Brigham Young's edict to his church was to "put to death" anyone who committed a homosexual act or slept with a black person, and made the edict "eternal," I think you might better appreciate the defensive and offensive nature of the LGBT community.

Oh, I do, I do.

Given the following:

-- Brigham Young died in 1877

-- I personally know black Mormons

-- I personally know interracial Mormon couples with children

-- I have never been threatened with death or even had an attempt made on my life by the numerous Mormons I know

it becomes obvious that you are allowed to take a defensive and offensive view towards a group of people based on the words and behavior of someone who died over a century ago that said group is quite obviously not following or caring much about today.

In that case, I hereby give license to all people who would take a defensive and offensive view towards the gay community to do so, given that I can quote Harry Hay saying publicly that gays should support and include NAMBLA and other exploiters of children as part of the gay community.

Tales of the Clueless, Part Dos

It's no news that a gay and lesbian liberal is refusing to use or reference the Bible because it's "offensive" -- but it becomes even more entertaining when that person claims to be a Christian pastor.

As for himself, Robinson said he doesn't yet know what he'll say, but he knows he won't use a Bible.

But after all, it's not what you say or do that matters; it's the fact that you're a minority.

"It's important for any minority to see themselves represented in some way," Robinson told the newspaper for a story in Monday's editions. "Whether it be a racial minority, an ethnic minority, or in our case, a sexual minority. Just seeing someone like you up front matters."

One wonders if Robinson has ever read either Matthew 6:5, Matthew 6:7, or Matthew 10:33.

UPDATE: Robinson is now much more direct, letting the world know that he has been reading past inaugural prayers, was “horrified” at how “specifically and aggressively Christian they were", and assures us that his will "not be a Christian prayer".

Yes, because, as we know, that Jesus fellow and the whole book about him are just too, you know, offensive.

Tales of the Clueless

It does occasionally boggle the mind.

Last week, Sacramento-based Equality Action Now sent a formal dinner invitation to evangelical pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church who was selected to deliver the invocation at President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration........

"We'll meet with him anytime, anywhere. Whatever he wants," said Tina Reynolds, who added the offer is a genuine attempt to initiate dialogue with the evangelical community.

And, just as an example of the type of dialogue they have already initiated:

More notably, Reynolds's organization has been responsible for five of the media-focused Capitol protests so far, including Margaret Cho's appearance last month where the comedian sang endearing lyrics suggesting Mormons shove their religion up their asses.

Personally, I fail to see why Rick Warren, or any other religious leader, should waste the dollars, carbon, and oxygen to talk with this group when what it believes and professes is readily available on YouTube.

Reap the Whirlwind, Part Deux

The local gay newspaper, the Bay Area Reporter, is usually very good about putting their letters to the editor up on their website, but apparently this week, they seem to have slipped up.

As a public service, I now provide you two of the three letters that appeared in this week's print edition.

Graffiti at church

Someone put graffiti on Most Holy Redeemer this week. I'm not surprised.

Every day that I walk past this mega-million dolar structure, thoughts of defacing it go through my own mind. This church funds fashion victims Archbishop George Niederauer and the pope. Niederauer single-handedly did the most to support Prop 8 by enlisting the Mormons to bankroll it.

Cries of, "but it's a gay-friendly church!" make me laugh. They gladly take money from gays, that much is true. "But look what they've done for the community!" Okay, let me look. Decades ago, MHR was one of the first to provide AIDS hospices. Fantastic. Nowadays their support is tied directly to funding.

What else has MHR done? The archbishop told them to stop gay bingo. What did they do? They succumbed. The archbishop told them to provide e-mail addresses of its members so that it could send out Yes on 8 propaganda. What did they do? They succumbed. They were told not to hold legal same-sex weddings. They succumbed. This church puts on a gay-friendly front in order to oppress gays worldwide.

The pope wants to eradicate homosexuals from the planet. This hateful spewing directly leads to violence against gays. Catholics espouse guilt. They certainly have plenty for which to be guilty, especially the ones who attend MHR.

Gary Young
San Francisco

Conspiracy theory

I believe the graffiti on the church in the Castro was put there by either the Yes on Prop. 8 people or by the secret Catholic organization Opus Dei to defame gay and lesbian people. The cabal of churches were more than willing to use deceit to promote Prop. 8 and I see no reason why they would stop now that their civil rights busting proposition is being challenged by the high court.

Jerry Royer
San Francisco

Gee, I wonder why these weren't published. Is it that it shows the gay community as a bunch of whackjob tinfoil-hat wearing DaVinci Code-spewing antireligious bigots, and makes a mockery of the attempt at PR spin that said bigots' leaders and encouragers are trying?

Reap the Whirlwind

The rioting in Oakland over the shooting of a minority individual has managed to do one thing spectacularly -- hurt minority-owned and operated businesses.

Leemu Tokpa and several family members stayed overnight at Creative African Braids on 14th Street, the hair salon Tokpa started four years ago. Protesters smashed the store windows Wednesday night.

"I understand they were mad because a black man was killed, but I'm a black lady. If they're protesting, why would they come into the store?" Tokpa said Thursday morning.

And of course, what does the dimbulb who organized the riot think?

"The mayor was forced to come out and acknowledge that the citizens of Oakland are angry and that we want Justice," Shamar said. "I'm not condoning violence, but sometimes to get justice, you can't just sit around holding hands singing 'Kumbaya.' "

Of course, he was at home watching TV at the time, so it's probably easy for him to look at things "objectively". Not like his business was being vandalized or anything.

Happy Whatever

As of yesterday, I have officially been in the business of blogging for four years.

I can't tell whether that's funny -- or really, really scary.

Oddly Enough, This Doesn't Surprise Me At All

Your results:
You are Uhura

Uhura 75% Worf 70% Jean-Luc Picard 65% Chekov 60% Mr. Sulu 60% Beverly Crusher 55% Will Riker 55% Deanna Troi 55% Spock 52% Data 51% James T. Kirk (Captain) 50% Leonard McCoy (Bones) 45% Mr. Scott 35% Geordi LaForge 30% An Expendable Character (Redshirt) 30%

You are a good communicator with a pleasant soft-spoken voice. Also a talented singer.

Click here to take the Star Trek Personality Test


And we both have damn fine legs that look good in miniskirts.

New Year, New Auto

Long story short, it's looking like I'll be doing more commuting to the South Bay and Peninsula (San Jose and Palo Alto, for those of you who aren't au fait with the messed-up way we do geography here in the City and its environs) -- which means much more dependence on the 101 and its all-day parking lot traffic pattern. However, the thought of navigating my poor little stick-shift Geo Tracker through the morass of stop, go, grind, slam, and swear was just more than either it or I could bear.

So I used the Donald Trump method: get a younger one with more buttons.


Ten inches longer, seven hundred pounds heavier, forty-seven horsepower stronger, a real Ahmurrrican name (no more of that Geo world car multiculturalistic crap) and a (eech) automatic.

In the immortal words of my husbear, "Wow, you finally bought a real car."

And don't worry; my older one found a new home with a loving family literally within fifteen minutes of having it advertised.

Your Daily Brain Hygiene

After 18 straight months of owning Jamie's daily online trivia game (and several of FARB's, too), it's high time that one was established here.

Hence, witness the canned glory that is Mental Floss.

(Contrary to popular belief, it is not seven days of "Bible Trivia".)

So go play already. The link is in the sidebar.