South Carolina Republicans are Idiots Too

Don’t yell Democrats are worse at me;  I don’t want to hear it.  Deciding which Party is worse is like asking me into which eye I want your thumb inserted.

South Carolina’s Winthrop University in Rock Hill does regular political polling.  Their latest involved 589 self identified local state Republicans who are registered voters.

http://www.thestate.com/2011/04/26/1792796/sc-poll-huckabee-gop-favorite.html

http://www.winthrop.edu/winthroppoll/default.aspx?id=9804

The title of this post was almost “Bring on the Death Panels and Soylent Green” because American seniors – including 69% of SC Republican seniors – don’t want to pay their own way.  I refrained because despite the consistent poll results, I still don’t believe it.

Most important issue facing U.S.?

Economy/financial crisis – 33 percent

Budget deficit or debt – 32 percent

Would you be willing to have your current Social Security or Medicare benefits reduced in order to address national budget concerns?

Yes – 23.3 percent

No – 69 percent

Can you believe these people?  These polls should all ask an additional question: 

Would you be willing to have your current Social Security or Medicare benefits reduced in order to avoid passing enormous debt to your grandchildren?

I believe seniors will not only support sacrifice, they are getting fed up with the lack of national leadership. 

Here’s another question I’d like to see on these polls:

If you are one of the 43% of American workers that pay no income tax, would you be willing to pay a few dollars a week in order to avoid passing enormous debt to your grandchildren?

There’s more sad news from the poll:

Whom would you vote for to be the GOP nominee for president?

Mike Huckabee – 17.8 percent

Not sure – 16.9 percent

Mitt Romney – 16.1 percent

Donald Trump – 9.9 percent

First we pick Mike Huckabee, the tax and spend, religion on his sleeve, George W Bush wannabe, former Republican governor of Arkansas who is almost certainly not running. 

We still like Mitt Romneycare? 

One modestly redeeming result was Not Sure.  They should have provided a Not in this Lifetime option for each candidate and a None of the Above option for the bunch.  That might have produced more reassuring numbers.

If we want to stretch for good news, Trump only got 10% from us while other polls had him leading nationally.

Ask Not

We have met the enemy and he is us.

-          Walt Kelly, Pogo, 1970.

Polls continue to show that seniors and the 43% of workers who pay no income taxes want things to stay just the way they are.  On Friday’s PBS News Hour Mark Shields was spouting the tired old class war crap about Republicans balancing the budget on the backs of people who don’t have a seat at the table – the elderly, the poor, the homeless, blah, blah, blah. 

Brooks quietly responded that the people with no seat at the table are our grandchildren and it’s Medicare that’s taking money away from the poor and all those other groups and programs.

http://newshour-tc.pbs.org/newshour/rss/media/2011/04/22/20110422_shieldsbrooks.mp3

The middle class is going to pay off this debt, now or later, and the debt is growing rapidly as we argue and deny.  Any moment now the cost of money is going to rise from zero.  When that happens, it will mean crisis.  We need leaders who will act.

Right to Work

When the Wagner Act – aka National Labor Relations Act – was debated and passed in 1935, Republicans were supporters and conservative Democrats were in fierce opposition.

·         Democrats viewed the act as a threat to democracy and advocated repeal of these "socialist" efforts.

·         Democrats encouraged employers to refuse to comply with the NLRA and supported suits challenging the law’s Constitutionality.  SCOTUS settled the issue in the same year in National Labor Relations Board v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation.

·         Businesses at the time were faced with competing unions operating in the same workplaces.  Employers didn’t want to work with more than one bargaining unit so they and Republicans supported NLRA.  [Take care what you wish for.]

·         Most unions were opposed to the details affecting competition between unions.

It took until 1947 to pass legislation that began to reign in unions.  Communists, violence and out of control work stoppages after the war led to the Taft–Hartley Act – aka the Labor–Management Relations Act.  This law added a list of "unfair labor practices" on the part of unions where previously only employers could be unfair.

Purging unions of communists made more space for that other great pillar of organized labor, mobsters.

The most important aspect of Taft-Hartley was enabling states to pass Right-to-work laws.  Such laws, now in force in twenty-two states, address two Constitutionally protected, inalienable individual rights:

1.      No worker may be required to join a union as a condition of employment.

2.      No worker may be required to pay dues to any organization, even a union.

The fact that right-to-work is left out of our Federal law is testament to the power of unions – not workers – and to the ineptness of legislators.

New Hampshire – of “Live Free or Die” renown – is now likely to become the 23^rd right-to-work state.  This is the strategy I believe Republican Governors should follow, rather than Governor Walker’s lead in Wisconsin.  New Hampshire’s Democratic Governor vows to veto the legislation but it passed the state house with good margins and has now passed the senate with a veto proof margin of 16 to 8 – not our biggest state.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/22/us/22newhampshire.html?scp=1&sq=new%20hampshire%20passes%20right%20to%20work&st=cse

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Labor_Relations_Act

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taft-Hartley

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-to-work_law

Even For California, This Is Over the Top

I don’t know what they’ve done with that pinko-commie hippy Governor Jerry Brown or who this guy is that claims to be the current Governor Jerry Brown – maybe he’s just living the Churchill doctrine.  In any case, I could not agree more with his evaluation of this piece of California governance:

“The situation reinforces the worst stereotype of ineffective and inefficient government,” Mr. Brown said.   He is ordering all state agencies to “immediately investigate the backlog of uncollected debts and find every penny owed to taxpayers.”

The deal is – again, only in California – when state government in 2009 couldn’t pay public workers, they began handing out i.o.u.s.  That would be sufficiently unthinkable in most places but at the same time the state started handing out interest free loans in the form of salary and travel advances.

·         Nobody knew.  Government saw no reason to make a public statement.

·         Where was our fourth estate?

·         Nobody has explained yet how government might become legally unable to spend additional money – we all know about government shut-down – but then whence comes the authority to loan money?

·         And then we have the only-in-California cherry on top:  the state never tried to get the loans repaid.

These clowns make Greece look good. 

California Is Owed Millions of Dollars by State Employees      by Jennifer Medina      NYT, April 21, 2011

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/22/us/22california.html

The Churchill doctrine:  Any 20 year-old who isn't a liberal doesn't have a heart and any 40 year-old who isn't a conservative doesn't have a brain.

Democrats Sue the Federal Election Commission for Transparency

Who in the nation could be against full disclosure of all substantial political contributions?  Why in the name of justice do America’s laws work any other way, ever?

Democrats Sue to Force U.S. Election Agency to Reveal Political Donations      by Eric Lichtblau      NYT, April 21, 2011

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/22/us/politics/22campaign.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

As individuals, we have a right to privacy up to a certain limit.  But groups?  Who could not be in favor of full disclosure by churches, NGOs, corporations and political groups?

Righties seem to be up in arms about this suit.  I’m up in arms because Democrats are in the courts rather than doing their job on the floors of Congress.  Sue?  Write a law you morons.

This should make you as angry as it does me.  Ask yourself what a court is going to say.  The Federal Election Commission is obeying the law – bet on it.  If they are protecting privacy, of corporations in particular, in one of the most progressive Administrations in our history, then that is the law.  The courts will not change the law, so this is pure grandstanding and time wasting.

The NYT, being the partisan crowd they are, reports that Senate Republicans blocked the Disclose Act last year – thus we are supposed to believe, that a suit is somehow warranted or proper.  But if you go to the link provided, you’ll find that the act did a lot more than legislate transparency. 

Why can’t our out of control, radical government find its way to pass a simple transparency law?  How outrageous is it that that is not already the law of the land?

Not to pass up an opportunity for grandstanding of his own, President Obama may issue an Executive Order that would require contractors with federal business to report their political donations.

That has to be law already. 

If it is not, why isn’t the President calling for the law to be changed?  Could it be because this kind of Executive action would affect corporations but not unions or the climate cult, et al?

This suit should be denied – it won’t be.  It will never be “won” either – what could they hope to win?  The suit gives cover for legislators who are not performing their basic responsibilities.  Congress must return to writing simple legislation to solve important simple problems.  The Congressional majority must stop writing legislation with partisan poison pills in order to forward the Party at the expense of the greater good.

We have to throw the bums out until we find representatives that work to serve the nation.

47% of Republicans Think Obama Was Born In another Country

The latest NYT/CBS Poll is out.  How incredibly embarrassing.  We are sandwiched between pinko-commies and the galactically stupid.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/04/22/us/politics/20110422-poll-republicans-economy.html

Feds Demand Boeing Move South Carolina Assembly Work Back To Washington State

In an outrageous move, the National Labor Relations Board filed a complaint against Boeing that demands the company move its South Carolina 787assembly line back to Washington under union jurisdiction.

Feds Accuse Boeing of Retaliating Against Union in 787 Decision      AP, April 21, 2011

http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2011/04/feds_accuse_boeing_of_retaliat.html

The NRLB appears miffed that Boeing executives don’t like strikes happening every three to four years in Puget Sound or that one reason for moving to South Carolina was to reduce Boeing's vulnerability to delivery disruptions caused by work stoppages.  Those morons seem to think that gives them authority to mandate where a company builds its products.

Boeing has every right under both federal law and its collective bargaining agreement to build additional U.S. production capacity outside of the Puget Sound region, said the Boeing General Counsel.

Senator Lindsey Graham said the NLRB complaint, if successful, would give unions a virtual veto over business decisions.  "Left to their own devices, the NLRB would routinely punish right-to-work states that value and promote their pro-business climates," he said.

It’s a cynical political move with no chance of success but it will cost Boeing a lot of money and some disruption.  Congress should take the opportunity to clip NRLB wings and Boeing should resolve to move vastly more operations away from union states.

Most importantly, this President has to go.  We cannot tolerate every aspect of government bureaucracy being run by radicals.

Steven Wrightisms from Bud

Is it good if a vacuum really sucks?

Why is the third hand on a watch called the second hand?

If Webster wrote the first dictionary, where did he find the words?

Why do we sing "Take Me out to the Ball Game" when we are already there?

Why is it called "after dark" when it really is "after light"?

Why is phonics not spelled the way it sounds?

If you are cross-eyed and have dyslexia, can you read all right?

Why doesn't glue stick to the inside of the bottle?

Political Accounting: $38 billion = $352 million

I cannot let this pass. 

Remember the recent continuing resolution fight and threat to shut down the government?  Remember the controversy in the press?  They cut $38 billion in spending for this year, right?  Well, not so much.

CBO: Budget Deal Cuts This Fiscal Year’s Deficit by Just $352 Million, Not $38 Billion Touted      Associated Press, April 13, 2011

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/cbo-budget-deal-cuts-this-fiscal-years-deficit-by-just-353-million-not-38-billion-touted/2011/04/13/AFFJnkWD_story.html

The CBO [Congressional Budget Office] shows that the spending bill just passed will produce less than 1 percent of the $38 billion in promised savings by the end of this budget year – just $352 million.  The lying liars called their actions historic – the biggest one-time cut in government spending in history. 

·         The lying liars cut $38 billion in “new spending authority” which is not necessarily just like money – sorry Yogi.

·         Spending authority takes months or years to actually leave the federal Treasury, so cuts made in authority have little immediate impact.

·         The CBO believes many cuts to spending authority were unlikely to be used anyway. 

·         One “cut” was for the new Capitol Visitor Center which has been completed for less money than authorized.  Removing the spending authority was sold to us as 2011 savings.

·         When war funding is factored in, the legislation increases total federal outlays by $3.3 billion.

·         When fully implemented, Republicans claim the legislation will reduce the deficit by $315 billion over the coming decade – not $380 billion.

Lie number one is that there will be savings this year – there will be little or none.  Lie number two is that the 10 year benefit will be $315 billion [maybe] rather than $380 billion.

Then we have the grandstanding tea party blowhards who promised while campaigning to immediately reduce government spending by $100 billion a year – that would be $1 trillion over ten years.  They delivered $352 million.

Now the legislation seems good – certainly better than nothing.  So, why all the lies?  Because the lying liars are pathological.  I believe they learn it in law school – a few seem to pick it up on the job.

My final and perhaps greatest complaint is that the cynical media did not call any of these jerks on their grandstanding.  Why?

Can We Balance the Budget with Taxes?

Keeping score on which party is the least helpful, most divisive or biggest bunch of lying liars is a waste of time.  Similarly, it makes more sense to find the commonalities in the Simpson/Bowles, Ryan and Obama budgets than it does to look at individual flaws.  The “gang of six” is supposed to be doing that right now.

Democrats

Mark Warner (Virginia)

Dick Durbin (Illinois)

Kent Conrad (North Dakota)

Republicans

Saxby Chambliss (Georgia)

Mike Crapo (Idaho)

Tom Coburn (Oklahoma)

When it comes to the rhetoric, Ryan comes off as the adult with details while the President – now running for office – is demonizing and vague.  Obama says that Republicans want to take money from the poor and the elderly and give it to billionaires.  Despicable as that is, it will probably get him a second term.  Will Paul Ryan be rewarded by Wisconsin voters for his part or be dumped?

Polls show clearly that most of us are flatly unwilling to pay for the government services we demand.  Republicans are sounding the alarm but won’t admit that entitlements are here to stay and therefore taxes will go up.  Democrats are worse;  they are telling us that we can have our entitlements if Republicans will just agree to tax the rich.  The President says that adding 30 or 40 million people to Medicaid saves money.

Nobody tells us the truth because we make it clear that we don’t want to hear it.  The middle class will pay off this problem, this time and every time.  If we don’t step up soon, our kids and their kids will be paying off our irresponsibility.  The rich will happily pay more than they are now but there are definite limits and they can leave.  The little guy stays and pays.  And the rich didn’t cause the problem, our elected officials did – meaning, we did.

What’s Missing From The Great Budget Debate: Seriousness     

by Robert J. Samuelson      Washington Post, April 17, 2011

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/whats-missing-from-the-great-budget-debate-seriousness/2011/04/16/AFoNN8vD_story.html

But let me return to the progressive concept of ignoring spending and raising taxes. 

Super Rich See Federal Taxes Drop Dramatically      by Stephen Ohlemacher      Associated Press, Apr 18, 2011

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_NO_TAXES?SITE=VANOV&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

The IRS tracks the tax returns with the 400 highest adjusted gross incomes each year.  The average income on those returns in 2007 was nearly $345 million.  Their average federal income tax rate was 17 percent, down from 26 percent in 1992.

Over the same period, the average federal income tax rate for all taxpayers declined to 9.3 percent from 9.9 percent.  Some of us pay higher sales tax than that.

There are so many breaks that 45 percent of U.S. households will pay no federal income tax for 2010.  The tax code provides a total of $1.1 trillion in credits, deductions and exemptions – an average of $8,000 per tax filer or about $14,300 per tax payer.  Some lefties want to eliminate all deductions and not reduce the rates.  How would that feel?

The mean American income is about $42,000 per year.  That person pays about $4,000 a year in federal income tax.  If we eliminate all deductions, that person would pay $18,300 in taxes or 44% of income.  The wealthy would pay far more.  Trust me, there are countries where this happens and there are plenty of progressives that think it should happen here too.

There is substantial bipartisan support for reforming the tax code, particularly for corporations, by eliminating deductions and lowering the rates.  The only real arguments are about whether to raise revenue, by how much and when.  

On the individual side 77 million American workers pay income taxes and 63 million don’t.  If we asked for an additional tax payment of $10 a month from non-payers and $100 a month from payers, we’d raise $100 billion a year.  A good idea if it’s combined with spending cuts at 2 or 3 to 1.

[Note, I’m speaking in averages;  actual rates would be progressive and the wealthier would pay more than the less wealthy.  My personal view – not in any of the budget plans – is that everybody should pay something even if it’s a buck.  The poorest workers that get paid by the tax system can accept a dollar less and so on up the ladder.]

Unfortunately the annual deficit is currently $1.3 trillion and climbing.  If we made the $100 billion tax increase and cut three times that much spending, the annual deficit would still be $600 billion.  See the scope of the problem?  We just don’t want to think about it.

In political speak, Ryan wants to “lower the rates and broaden the base” while the President wants to “decrease tax spending”.  Ryan says we’ll keep tax changes revenue neutral and the President says no tax increases on ordinary folks.  They’re both lying.  We have to pay more taxes and when we do, we’ll still have to cut many times that much spending just to address the current deficit.

But there’s more.  There are two more critical things to remember after looking at these frustrating numbers:

1.      Getting the deficit to zero still leaves us with over $14 trillion of debt to pay off. 

Said another way, to pay off $14 trillion in debt, each tax payer must shell out an extra $3,600 per year for the next 50 years – that’s extra money, over the new taxes to keep the deficit at zero.

But while we argue, the deficit is not zero;  the debt is rising by $1.3 trillion per year – about $17,000 per year per tax payer.

2.      The deficit is still growing because we have done nothing about root causes.

In addition to debt, we have $40 trillion in unfunded entitlement liabilities.  That means things such as boomer couples paying Medicare $171,000 and drawing out $530,000.  Because we have not addressed entitlements, each year the deficit will grow ever larger.

Don’t listen to lefty goofballs who claim we will grow our way out of trouble.  All the budgets expect the economy to improve and as more people work and companies earn more profits government revenue will grow.  This is good but the economy cannot grow fast enough to cover $40 trillion in old promises that are coming due.

Fundamental changes are needed.  It will mean higher taxes, vastly less spending and structural changes to entitlements.  Seniors should not be spared;  nobody should be.  The alternative is ruin.

Fifty years is more than two generations.  Our kids will be paying off our national credit card and their kids too.  How does that feel?  Do you care if it gets worse?

See why people are excited?  See why popular denial is a problem?  See the fundamental failure of leadership?

Let’s wake up folks.  We must stop shooting the messenger and start punishing the lying liars.  Politicians:  get results or get out.

Bumper Stickers from Paul

It’s not whether you win or lose, but how you place the blame.

You are not drunk if you can lie on the floor without holding on.

We have enough youth.  How about a fountain of "smart"?

The original point and click interface was a Smith & Wesson.

A fool and his money can throw one heck of a party.

When blondes have more fun do they know it?

Five days a week my body is a temple.  The other two it's an amusement park.

Learn from your parents' mistakes, use birth control.

Money isn't everything but it sure keeps the kids in touch.

Don't Drink and Drive.  You might hit a bump and spill something.

If at first you don't succeed skydiving is not for you.

Reality is only an illusion that occurs due to a lack of alcohol.

Time's fun when you're having flies.

-          Kermit the Frog

We are born naked, wet and hungry.  Then things get worse.

Red meat is not bad for you.  Fuzzy green meat is bad for you.

Ninety-nine percent of all lawyers give the rest a bad name.

Xerox and Wurlitzer will merge to produce reproductive organs.

Alabama state motto:  At least we're not Mississippi.

Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.

The latest survey shows that three out of four people make up 75% of the population.

You know why a banana is like a politician?  When he first comes in he is green, then he turns yellow and then he's rotten.

I think Congressmen should wear uniforms like NASCAR drivers so we could identify their corporate sponsors.

Can Government Run Anything Well?

Part of President Barack Obama's 2009 economic recovery package – aka Stimulus Package – was a tax credit of up to $8,000 to first-time homebuyers.  Unable to leave bad enough alone, Congress later both expanded and extended the program.

The Treasury inspector general for tax administration now reports that the IRS has paid out more than a half-billion dollars in homebuyer tax credits to people who didn't qualify. 

IRS Paid $513M in Undeserved Homebuyer Tax Credits      by Stephen Ohlemacher      Associated Press, Apr 15, 2011

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_NO_TAXES?SITE=VANOV&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

The program was in place for just over 14 months and the IRS managed to pay out $513 million in questionable claims.  The IRS has said that the Treasury estimates are overstated.  So when investigations are complete, do we think the number will go up or down?

·         $326 million went to more than 47,500 taxpayers who were not first-time homebuyers.

·         More than 13,400 taxpayers claimed the credit even though they had not yet purchased a home – $97.8 million in credits.

·         More than 1,000 taxpayers said they purchased homes while they were incarcerated in prison, claiming $7.7 million.

·         More than 2,500 taxpayers claimed credits for buying homes for which at least one other taxpayer also claimed the credit for buying – $11.4 million.

·         More than 2,700 taxpayers claimed credits for homes that were purchased before the tax credit went in effect – $17.6 million.

These are obvious cases to be flagged for audit by any institution let alone one with the resources of the IRS.  But the IRS response is that the agency worked hard to enforce a complicated tax credit that provided nearly $29 billion to more than 4 million taxpayers.  The agency audited 448,000 returns and blocked 426,000 questionable claims, they said.  In all, the agency's enforcement efforts saved more than $1.3 billion and identified more than 200 criminal schemes, they said.

This is the “nobody’s perfect” defense – no remorse, no shame, no accountability.

The IRS also said that the extensions and expansion of the credit created a complicated and confusing system that made it hard for many taxpayers to determine which credit they qualified for, if any.  

I don’t doubt it for a second – lawyers should be barred from writing anything.

However, what has complexity got to do with missing the obvious nonsense caught by the Treasury?  They’re not even good at excuse making – the “it’s not my fault” defense.

All this waste already and the lawsuits have not yet begun to be filed.

My Snapshot of the Coming Campaign

Here’s a preview of the coming propaganda war masquerading as the 2012 Presidential election. 

Perhaps it’s unfair to select a column from a progressive as straw man.  There are lots of other writers to choose from, including mirrors on the right.  But the basics are the same.  Progressives are to economics what children are to nutrition – I only eat what I like and if I haven’t tasted it before, I don’t like it.  Republicans are no different.

Raise America’s Taxes      by Nicholas D. Kristof      NYT, April 13, 2011

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/14/opinion/14kristof.html?_r=1&ref=nicholasdkristof

The starting fallacy in the column is that the budget was balanced under Clinton when the dot-com bubble inflated Federal coffers beyond the wildest progressive’s dream.  Entitlements were just as out of control then as now, with $trillions in unfunded liabilities.

We all know the truth:  we cannot balance the budget, pay for the services we want and pay down the debt unless we raise revenue.  The second truth, well known by all, is that no amount of new taxes will solve the problem.  The third truth is that no matter what the rich contribute, the middle class will eventually have to pay off the debt – this generation or the next one, likely both.

Next, Kristof moves to “three fallacies.”  In other words, what the lying liars on the other side claim.

1.      Republicans are the party of responsible financial stewardship.

I agree – this is a fallacy.  Fiscal conservatives are the responsible ones.  There used to be many, now there are too few.  Blue Dogs were especially hard hit by Obamacare in November – by the design of Democratic leadership, in my view.  The Tea Party doesn’t have a fiscal clue and the “main stream” Republican Party has replaced conservatives with this destructive new breed of libertarian loonies and Bible-thumping Johnny-one-notes.

2.      Low tax rates are essential to create incentives for economic growth.

This is not a fallacy, it’s a basic truth. 

But it’s also true that Republicans use the concept as both a political club and a panacea for every problem in politics.

Kristof types try to make a case that taxes don’t matter while Republicans start wars and create new entitlements without paying for them.  Now it’s “tax and spend” vs “spend and don’t tax”.  In which eye shall I insert my thumb, sir?

3.      We can’t afford Medicare.

This is true.  The real fallacy is that government healthcare is affordable anywhere.  A second fallacy is that Medicaid isn’t part of Medicare.  The third fallacy is that these programs aren’t necessary and here to stay.

Everyone acknowledges that the root problem, here and in every other nation, is that medical costs are rising far faster than the economy.  However, nobody is doing anything about that.  Ryan’s vouchers do not address the problem in any way.  Best practices – aka rationing, aka death panels – are absolutely necessary but have nothing to do with addressing rising costs.

Kristof is right;  nobody knows how to address the root problem – anywhere in the world.  There are ideas in the Ryan plan and in Obamacare but those are buried so deeply under the partisan debate that nothing can happen.

Kristof closed with the left side’s bumper sticker:  Raise My Taxes.  The other side’s sticker will say:  Read My Lips – No New Taxes.  It’s going to be a long year and a half until November 2012.

Any politician that utters either slogan should be voted out of the way, even if we have to write in Alfred E. Newman.

The President’s Higher Angels Took a Hike

Well, the Prez couldn’t resist.  He came back on the Ryan budget with a partisan attack.  Republicans responded to the response in kind.  People like me were stupid to even consider that we might get anything else.

Serious leaders would immediately look to see what is the same in the two plans and work to implement the agreements.  Reform the corporate tax code for example.  Fix Social Security, perhaps. But no – we have no leaders in government at the moment.

So it looks like Congress will do nothing beyond grandstanding and make the 2012 election a referendum.  Both sides think they can bury the other with the same tired old sloganeering.  It’s going to be a long year and a half.

I say throw the bums out.  President Obama has to go too, regardless of our alternative, because his office sets the tone – he is the leader of leaders.  Like Bush before him, President Obama continues to select the low road.  We need a President that can put our interests ahead of her own. 

We need to ignore the rhetoric and vote only for results. 

The Rocky Mountain Wolf – Score One for Common Sense

The cult of greens/animal protectors/tree huggers/et al is frothing at the mouth.  Congress has stepped in and overridden the cult and one of their judges allowing Interior Department scientists to take an action they determined was appropriate.

The Rocky Mountain Wolf has been on the endangered species list but has seen its numbers grow significantly in recent years, particularly in Montana and Idaho.  There is always tension between predators, ranchers and hunters. 

Ranchers and hunters in these two states have been asking to hunt wolves in order to protect livestock and declining elk, moose and deer herds.  The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks went to the Interior Department and the Feds agreed to adopt the states’ management plans, removing wolves from the endangered list in those two states. 

The cults sued.  Never the less, the two sides had recently reached a settlement but the judge – 9^th Circuit, of course – rejected it.

So a bipartisan pair of legislators passed a bill requiring the Interior Department to do what it originally intended and also precluded judicial review.  Hallelujah.

If you read this NYT article on the subject, you might be as amazed as I was by the utter hypocrisy of reporter and the cults.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/13/us/politics/13wolves.html?scp=5&sq=wolves&st=cse

First the reporter makes it sound as though Congress overrode the Interior Department when if you keep reading you discover that it was a judge that got overridden.

The reporter and the cult conflate budget cuts with the wolf issue – the propagandist at work.

Next, the two try to suggest that the government scientists have been overridden by politicians.  The truth is that the state and federal scientists were over ridden by cultists taking advantage of our broken tort system.  And even after the scientists and the cultists agreed, a judge decided he knows better than everyone.  How screwed up is that?

It’s past time we put the cultists back in their box.  Doing so will likely require either tort reform or a return to government immunity from harassment.