Saturday, November 6, 2010

On a glorious fall day

I’m a bit old fashion, so I don’t like to “get” into the Christmas spirit before the Thanksgiving weekend. It just seems today we see too much Christmas stuff right after Labor Day for my taste. Similarly we are already seeing things on the 2012 election. I plan not to run any of those stories until after New Year’s Day on this blog.


How to Defund Obamacare


It’s been done before.  No, not obamacare per se, but Dukakiscare 20 years ago.

The three-stage vaccine with which the GOP can stop the spread of PPACA has already been proven effective -- in Massachusetts of all places. It will come as a surprise to many that Romneycare was not the first "universal coverage" law to be inflicted on the long-suffering citizens of the Bay State. In 1988 that state's legislature passed a health care bill containing many of the provisions that later reappeared in the 2006 boondoggle signed by Romney. That "reform" program was signed into law by then-governor Michael Dukakis, who gave it a prominent place in his résumé during his unsuccessful bid for the presidency. Like polio, however, "DUKAKISCARE" IS ALL BUT FORGOTTEN. Why? Because A GROUP OF NEWLY ELECTED STATE LEGISLATORS DEFUNDED THE PROGRAM, delayed its implementation and, for all intents and purposes, killed it after Republican William Weld was elected governor in 1990


http://spectator.org/archives/2010/11/05/how-the-gop-can-stop-the-sprea


Defeat, then Denial

In 2007, when police busted Rep. Barney Frank’s partner for illegally growing pot, Frank waved away the controversy by SAYING HE HADN’T NOTICED since he’s “not a great outdoorsman” and has trouble recognizing any plants.

Twenty years earlier, Frank endured another controversy when his one-time partner, personal aide, and roommate was revealed to be running a prostitution service out of Frank’s home. The Massachusetts congressman INSISTED HE HADN’T NOTICED ANYTHING AMISS until informed by his landlord.

And when Frank helped fuel A HOUSING BUBBLE that nearly crippled the economy for a generation, HE AGAIN FAILED TO NOTICE ANYTHING WAS AWRY until it was obvious for all to see…..

To his credit, President Obama eschewed the nasty arrogance of Frank and Moran. But his denial runs just as deep.

In a press conference that WAS HUMBLE IN TONE BUT MYOPIC IN SUBSTANCE, Obama reiterated again and again that he got all of the policies right and the American people who disagreed hadn’t studied the issues closely enough. It only “felt” like the government was getting too “intrusive,” Obama explained. VOTERS HAD MISUNDERSTOOD THE NATURE OF HIS PURELY “EMERGENCY” MEASURES

Arrogance and denial appear to be a problem for some Democrats.


http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/252578/defeat-then-denial-jonah-goldberg




What the Election Means for Greens


It’s mostly over for the Greens. But be wary of people talking about green jobs in this recession. Over and over, green jobs have been shown to be job killers.
Various pre-election surveys suggest that “it was the spending, stupid.” Americans do not blame President Obama for the economy, but they DO FAULT HIM FOR HIS RESPONSE TO IT, increasing inefficiencies and debt to little avail. ON NET, HE INCREASED THE DOWNTURN’S DURATION AND EXTENT. It is remarkable how quickly the public grasped the notion that debt equals taxes.

CAP AND TRADE IS NOW DEAD, having proven — as we predicted — to be the 1993 BTU tax redux. Members in the House voted on both measures on the assurance that the Senate would not leave them hanging, only to see their trust misplaced. As opposition grew more intense from the people — who were not at the table when their wealth was redistributed to various interests — the senators realized that they wanted to save jobs. Theirs, that is.


Combine these and we see that cap-and-trade’s ugly cousin, “GREEN JOBS,” IS SURE TO BE AN OBSESSION VERY SOON. IT ALSO IS SURE TO MEET AN UNHAPPY FATE.


The public will soon understand the bankrupting expense of green-jobs programs. In President Obama’s erstwhile model, SPAIN, IT COST THEM $750,000 PER (TEMPORARY) “GREEN JOB,” placing the nation’s energy infrastructure and economy in peril and its politics in crisis. ONCE CONSTITUENCIES BECOME DEPENDENT ON THESE SCHEMES, THEY ARE EXTREMELY DIFFICULT TO HALT. Yet all over Europe, Obama’s previously touted model states are struggling to rein in the subsidy schemes which threatened to expand the Greek “contagion.“ THESE ARE ECONOMIC BLACK HOLES PAYING SMALL FORTUNES FOR EACH JOB CREATED, CROWDING OUT PRIVATE-SECTOR GROWTH, and displacing real jobs that respond to market forces with temporary jobs that disappear once the subsidy does. Meanwhile, they create higher energy costs, which make them much worse than other make-work programs like ditch-digging.


http://www.nationalreview.com/planet-gore/252542/what-election-means-greens-chris-horner



Peggy Noonan and the lessons from 2010


I’m a big fan of Peggy Noonan’s writing style. I don’t always agree with her, but she has a great way of expressing her opinions.

What Democrats have to learn from this election: CUT LOOSE FROM THAT. Join with Republicans where you can, create legislation together, send the bill to the White House, see what happens. EVEN AS THE REPUBLICANS HAVE SUCCEEDED IN GETTING OUT FROM UNDER GEORGE W. BUSH, THIS IS YOUR CHANCE TO GET OUT FROM UNDER MR. OBAMA, and possibly prosper in 2012 whatever happens to him.

What the TEA PARTY, by which I mean members and sympathizers, has to learn from 2010 is this: NOT ONLY THE MESSAGE IS IMPORTANT BUT THE MESSENGER.


http://peggynoonan.com/


Krauthammer’s analysis of the 2010 election


In the meantime Dr. Charles Krauthammer looks at the election as a return to normalcy. Rather than seeing a change in 2006 and 2008 that was fundamental to the political alignment of the country, it was an aberration which has rectified.

Our two most recent swing cycles were triggered by unusually jarring historical events. The 2006 Republican "thumpin'" (to quote George W. Bush) was LARGELY A REFLECTION OF THE DISILLUSIONMENT AND NEAR-DESPAIR OF A WEARYING WAR THAT APPEARED TO BE LOST. And 2008 occurred just weeks after the worst financial collapse in eight decades.

Similarly, the massive REPUBLICAN SWING OF 2010 WAS A REACTION to another rather unprecedented development - a ruling party spectacularly MISJUDGING ITS MANDATE and taking an unwilling country through a two-year experiment in hyper-liberalism.

A massive government restructuring of the health-care system. An $800 billion-plus stimulus that did not halt the rise in unemployment. And a cap-and-trade regime reviled outside the bicoastal liberal enclaves that luxuriate in environmental righteousness - so reviled that the DEMOCRATIC SENATORIAL CANDIDATE IN WEST VIRGINIA LITERALLY PUT A BULLET THROUGH THE BILL in his own TV ad. He won. Handily. …..

The Republicans won by default. And their prize is nothing more than a two-year lease on the House. The building was available because THE PREVIOUS OCCUPANT HAD BEEN EVICTED FOR ARROGANT MISBEHAVIOR and, by rule, alas, the House cannot be left vacant.

THE PRESIDENT, HOWEVER, REMAINS CLUELESS. In his next-day news conference, he had the right demeanor - subdued, his closest approximation of humility - but was uncomprehending about what just happened.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/04/AR2010110406581.html




Here’s a feel good story

A retired Canadian couple who won $11.3 million in the lottery in July have already given it (almost) all away.

"What you've never had, you never miss," 78-year-old Violet Large explained to a local reporter.

She was undergoing chemotherapy treatment for cancer when the couple realized they'd won the jackpot in July.

"That money that we won was nothing," her tearful husband, Allen, told Patricia Brooks Arenburg of the Nova Scotia Chronicle Herald. "WE HAVE EACH OTHER."

The money was a "headache," they told the paper--mainly, it brought anxiety over the prospect that "crooked people" might take advantage of them. Several people called them out of the blue to ask for money when the news first broke that they'd won the jackpot. So THEY BEGAN AN $11 MILLION DONATION SPREE TO GET RID OF IT AND HELP OTHERS, the Chronicle Herald reports:

They took care of FAMILY FIRST and then began delivering donations to the two pages' worth of groups they had decided on, including the local fire department, churches, cemeteries, the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, hospitals in Truro and Halifax, where Violet underwent her cancer treatment, and organizations that fight cancer, Alzheimer's and diabetes. The list goes on and on.

Violet told the Canadian Press that they retained about 2 percent of the money for a rainy day.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20101104/od_yblog_upshot/nicest-canadian-couple-in-world-doles-out-lottery-winnings

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