More people abandon the Democrats

What’s new Today

Our #1 story is bad news for the Democrats.   More and more people are affiliated with the Republicans and fewer are affiliated with the Democrats.  It’s in line with the current Gallup polls that say Obama has an approval rating of approximately 42%.  #2 talks about how the Democrats are reinventing history.  In other words, reality is not what they claim it is.  #3 is great news.  New technology is opening up more and more oil.  Experts are saying that we will soon be an energy exporting nation.  #4 Dave Berry takes a look at 2011.  #5 runs against everything the left thinks finding that Gorden Gecko was right, “Greed is good.”  Well at least is works better than what Obama is giving us.

1.  Rasmussen: Republicans gain and Democrats Lose in Party Affiliation

The number of Republicans in the country increased by a percentage point in December, while the number of Democrats fell back two points to the lowest level ever recorded by Rasmussen Reports.

During December, 35.4% of Americans considered themselves Republicans. That’s up from 34.3%   in November and just below the high for the year of 35.6% reached in May.

At the same time, just 32.7% of adults said they were Democrats, down from 34.9% in November. The previous low for Democrats was 33.0% in August of this year. .

The number of voters not affiliated with either of the major political parties rose to 32.0% in December from 30.8% the month before.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/mood_of_america/partisan_trends

More bad news if you are a Democrat. Looking at the numbers and using Gallup’s support by categories, Obama’s support works out to 41.6%.  At the same time in Reagan’s presidency his approval was 51.4%.  

2.  Obama’s strategy:  Lie

…But to really enter the Twilight Zone, consider these two priceless sentences from the Times story: “Winning a full-year extension of the payroll tax, Mr. Earnest said, will still be a top priority. He noted that House Republicans were now also arguing that it should be extended for a year, after some initially opposed extending it at all.”

Come again? On December 13, the GOP House passed a full-year extension of the payroll tax cut – and was promptly criticized by – you guessed it — the president. Obama favored a much shorter, two-month extension. House Republicans, under intense political pressure, eventually agreed to the two-month extension. Now the White House is declaring a full-year extension is a “top priority.” Yet as recently as three weeks ago the opposition to the president’s “top priority” came not from House Republicans but from Obama himself.

We are now reaching the point in which the president is running a truly post-modern campaign, in which there is no objective truth but simply narrative. Obama’s campaign isn’t simply distorting the facts; it is inverting them. This kind of thing isn’t unusual to find in the academy. But to see a president and his campaign so thoroughly deconstruct truth in order to maintain power is quite rare. The sheer audacity of Obama’s cynicism is a wonder of the modern world.

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2012/01/02/obama-re-election-congress/

In the movie A Few Good Men, Jack Nickolson has the line when asked by Tom Cruise for the truth.  Nickolson’s character says, “You can’t handle the truth.”  That appears what is going on with BHO in his reelection campaign.  They can’t handle the truth so they don’t plan to use it in the campaign.

  

3.   America’s Future:  Oil exports

A rush of recent reports indicates that the explosion of non-conventional fossil fuel production continues to transform the world. (Non-conventional fossil fuel production is the production of oil and natural gas by hydraulic fracking and horizontal drilling.) In fact, 2011 will mark a major turning point in energy production worldwide -- one with profound geopolitical consequences.

The first report is that Anadarko Petroleum has just raised its estimate for its Colorado Wattenberg field holdings. Anadarko estimates that the field will yield more than one billion barrels of oil and national gas. This would place it right up there with the now-legendary Bakken shale field (in North Dakota) and the Eagle Ford formation (in Texas).

The second story is that North Dakota hit a record high oil production in October of 488,000 barrels per day (bpd). This was up 100,000 bpd (or 25%) from June's production. Lynn Helms, director of the North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources, projects that the state's total oil production will exceed 500,000 bpd next year and 900,000 bpd the year after that. The state will soon surpass California (539,000 bpd) and Alaska (550,000 bpd), rivaling top-producing Texas (1.2 million bpd).

Another story reinforces these bracing estimates. The National Petroleum Council estimates that by 2035 -- if the regulators will just stop endlessly excreting new hurdles -- the U.S. will hit 3 million bpd of shale oil alone. There are about 14 to 16 new American shale oil fields just starting to be exploited.

This has led the federal Energy Information Administration to raise its estimates for total American liquid fuel output by nearly 40% -- for next year alone!...

…. For decades, the environmentalist fanatics have repeated the Malthusian myth that we are running out of fossil fuels. But the whole Thanatos-worshiping pagan enviro-religion is now facing its Copernican challenge.


http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/01/unlimited_domestic_energyright_now.html#ixzz1iOcLlRg9

This is revolutionary.  An oil boom like this will bring prosperity to America, raise the value of the dollar, while making our industry much more competitive.  The so-called “green energy” boom which was supposed to create 5 million jobs is nothing but an illusion, but this is reality.

4.  Dave Berry looks back at 2011

It was the kind of year that made a person look back fondly on the gulf oil spill.

Granted, the oil spill was bad. But it did not result in a high-decibel, weeks-long national conversation about a bulge in a congressman’s underpants.  Which is exactly what we had in the Festival of Sleaze that was 2011. Remember? There were days when you could not escape The Bulge.  At dinnertime, parents of young children had to be constantly ready to hurl themselves in front of their TV screens, for fear that it would suddenly appear on the news in high definition. For a brief (Har!) period, The Bulge was more famous than Justin Bieber.

And when, at last, we were done with The Bulge, and we were able to turn our attention to the presidential election, and the important issues facing us, as a nation, in these troubled times, it turned out that the main issue, to judge by quantity of press coverage, was: groping.  

So finally, repelled by the drainage ditch that our political system has become, we turned for escape to an institution that represents all that is pure and wholesome and decent in America today: college football.

That was when we started to have fond memories of the oil spill...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/dave-barrys-year-in-review-the-2011-festival-of-sleaze/2011/12/08/gIQAyK5QTP_story.html

How can you not enjoy Berry?  This is from the first page of a five page article. 

5.  Greed is Good

…In a free-market system, in order for one to get more for himself, he must serve his fellow man. This is precisely what Adam Smith, the father of economics, meant when he said in "An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations" (1776):

"It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest…."

…Free-market capitalism is relatively new in human history. Before the rise of capitalism, the way people amassed great wealth was by looting, plundering and enslaving their fellow man.

Capitalism made it possible to become wealthy by serving one's fellow man. Capitalists seek to discover what people want and then produce it as efficiently as possible.

Free-market capitalism is ruthless in its profit and loss discipline. This explains much of the hostility toward free-market capitalism; some of it is held by businessmen….

…Free-market capitalism has other enemies -- mostly among the intellectual elite and political tyrants. These are people who believe that they have superior wisdom to the masses and that God has ordained them to forcibly impose that wisdom on the rest of us.

Of course, they have what they consider to be good reasons for restricting liberty, but every tyrant who has ever lived has had what he considered good reason for restricting liberty.

A tyrant's agenda calls for the attenuation or the elimination of the market and what is implied by it -- voluntary exchange. Tyrants do not trust that people acting voluntarily will do what the tyrant thinks they should do. They want to replace the market with economic planning and regulation….

http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/2012/01/heres-why-i-love-greed-and-so-should-you/2054186#ixzz1iQWgh8Zt

The last paragraph I copied explains my distrust of government and the regulations that come forth from Washington.  The people in government are not saints. 

Top concerns today

What’s new today

Our #1 tells the story us what the real top concerns of small business are.  #2 relates who liberal Rhode Island has created a welfare state that is breaking the government.  Article #3 demonstrates how even the anarchists in the Occupy movement appear to be a bit greedy.  #4 speculates on what happens as OWS drags on.  Story #5 tells us of what the number 2 general under General Petraus looks at the withdrawal from Iraq.  #6 relays what the left really wants to do with its constant tax the rich tome. 



1.  Top Concerns of Small Business

A new Gallup survey asked small-business owners an open-ended question about what they viewed to be “the most important problem” facing the small-business community. It’s not “lack of demand,” as Democrats like to argue. In fact, 22 percent of respondents listed “complying with government regulations” as their top concern.

House Republicans have been leading an effort to roll-back or repeal some of the most onerous federal regulations, and have already passed a number of measures that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) has yet to take up. Democrats have been particularly loathe to accept the idea that concern over federal regulations is anything more than a self-serving fiction conjured up by Republicans as part of their sinister effort to “end the EPA” and expose the nation’s children to mercury. From President Obama’s “jobs” address to Congress in September:…

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/281165/gallup-govt-regulation-top-concern-among-small-business-owners-andrew-stiles

Despite what the Democrats are saying, they are a big part of the problem rather than the solution. 

 

 2. Rhode Island: Athens of America?

Rhode Island is looking more and more like Greece, and not in a good way. That is one message of this important piece by Mary Williams Walsh in the New York Times. YEARS OF BLUE SOCIAL POLICY HAVE WRECKED LOCAL AND STATE GOVERNMENT FINANCE IN THE COUNTRY’S SMALLEST STATE, AND NOW THE BILLS ARE COMING DUE. Services are being cut to the bone and elderly retirees are losing money they thought was secure.

In Rhode Island, it is Democrats, not nasty union-hating Republicans, who are doing the dirty work. Democratic mayors are telling their unions that there isn’t any money — not because they are vicious corporate stooges who hate working people and want to see them suffer, but because There. Isn’t. Any. Money.

Because Rhode Island listened to timeserving blue politicians too long, and union leaders and public sector workers lost their grip on any mathematical realities beyond the numbers at the ballot box, the pension system grew more and more out of control. State and local governments lurched into a crisis. VOTE YOURSELF A RAISE, VOTE YOURSELF A PENSION: WHY NOT?...

http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2011/10/23/rhode-island-athens-of-america/

Blue states seem to be the places people are leaving and red states seem to be the place where they are going.  This census marks the first one in which California didn’t gain any seats in congress while New York, New Jersey, etc. are losing seats.

3.  Is OWS getting Greedy?

Even in Zuccotti Park, greed is good.

OCCUPY WALL STREET’S FINANCE COMMITTEE HAS NEARLY $500,000 IN THE BANK, and donations continue to pour in -- but its reluctance to share the wealth with other protesters is fraying tempers.

Some drummers -- incensed they got no money to replace or safeguard their drums after a midnight vandal destroyed their instruments Wednesday -- are threatening to splinter off.

“F--K FINANCE. I HOPE MAYOR BLOOMBERG GETS AN INJUNCTION AND DEMANDS TO SEE THE MOVEMENT’S BOOKS. WE NEED TO KNOW HOW MUCH MONEY WE REALLY HAVE AND WHERE IT’S GOING,” said a frustrated Bryan Smith, 45, who joined OWS in Lower Manhattan nearly three weeks ago from Los Angeles, where he works in TV production.

SMITH IS A MEMBER OF THE COMFORT WORKING GROUP -- ONE OF ABOUT 30 SMALL COLLECTIVES THAT HAVE SPRUNG UP WITHIN OWS. The Comfort group is charged with finding out what basic necessities campers need, like thermal underwear, and then raising money by soliciting donations on the street.

“THE OTHER DAY, I TOOK IN $2,000. I KEPT $650 FOR MY GROUP, AND GAVE THE REST TO FINANCE. Then I went to them with a request -- so many people need things, and they should not be going without basic comfort items -- and I was told to fill out paperwork. Paperwork! Are they the government now?” Smith fumed, even as he cajoled the passing crowd for more cash. …


http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/they_want_lice_of_the_occu_pie_9xKCxcI4aectFYkafMb8UJ#ixzz1bi5G8CcQ

OWS is learning what basic human nature is.  When you go beyond subsistence, you suddenly have fights about who gets the surplus and how it’s divided.  OWS is being hoisted on their own petard. 

4.   When and What will eventually happen with OWS? 

…OWS protests are being treated by the mainstream media like the newest American political fad. Unfortunately, INCLUDED WITHIN THE MANY OWS PROTESTS AROUND THE COUNTRY ARE; OPEN SEX, DRUG AND ALCOHOL USE, ACCUSATIONS OF RAPE, VIOLENCE, ANTI-SEMITISM, THEFT, URINATING AND DEFECATING IN PUBLIC, PAN-HANDLING, DESTRUCTION OF PROPERTY, CALLS FOR KILLING AND DESTRUCTION, DOZENS OF ARRESTS AND VARIOUS OTHER ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIORS. What's happening at some of these OWS protests should give rise to the mainstream media to consider where all of this could eventually be heading, but it seems the media is just to "into it" to be concerned about any possible negative outcomes.

So what's going to happen when all these OWS host cities decide it's time for the occupations to end? WILL THE ENTRENCHED "OCCUPIERS" LEAVE GRACEFULLY WITHOUT OBJECTION, or will they take offense at being told the party is over and refuse to leave?

We've all seen what typically happens around the world when the authorities eventually decide it's time to disperse a protest or demonstration crowd, especially one that's been allowed to grow and become entrenched for a prolonged period of time.

Allowing any protest or demonstration to organize and "occupy" a public place for a prolonged period of time, especially when the protesters are initially given leeway by local authorities to do so, WILL ONLY EMBOLDEN THE OCCUPIERS TO CONTINUE TO HOLD THEIR GROUND AND EVENTUALLY ASSUME OWNERSHIP OF THEIR NEW DIGS.

Once that assumption of ownership by the occupiers takes root, it will be difficult, if not impossible, for authorities to have them all calmly disperse. It's unfortunate that the leaders of the host cities of all the OWS protests across the country didn't anticipate the risk and possible danger of allowing "perpetual" demonstrations and protests….

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2011/10/will_ows_end_well.html

I think the coming cold weather will thin out the ranks and eventually lead to the cities shutting down the protests.  I don’t think there will be a lot of violence. 




5.  Iraq pull out

"WE WON THE WAR IN IRAQ, AND WE'RE NOW LOSING THE PEACE." So said retired General John Keane to Rowan Scarborough of the Washington Times, in a scathing critique of the plans announced to the nation on Friday. General Keane was an architect of the Surge, working with General Petraeus.

"Forty-four hundred lives lost," Gen. Keane said. "Tens of thousands of troops wounded. Over a couple hundred thousand Iraqis killed. We liberated 25 million people. There is only one Arab Muslim country that elects its own government, and that is Iraq.

"WE SHOULD BE STAYING THERE TO STRENGTHEN THAT DEMOCRACY, TO LET THEM GET THE KIND OF POLITICAL GAINS THEY NEED TO GET AND KEEP THE IRANIANS AWAY FROM STRANGLING THAT COUNTRY. THAT SHOULD BE OUR OBJECTIVE, AND WE ARE WALKING AWAY FROM THAT OBJECTIVE."…

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2011/10/key_general_labels_obamas_iraq_pullout_absolute_disaster.html

This is another decision that is likely to divide America.  Winning the same war twice means you’ve wasted the first time. 

6.  Tax the Rich:  What it really means

When I was in college, I took a course in clinical psychology. One day, the professor shared an experience he had with a paranoid schizophrenic patient. In one of his first months working at a mental hospital (as they were then called), he met with the patient in his office. The patient said, "WELL, I DON'T FEEL COMFORTABLE TALKING TO YOU BECAUSE THERE IS A HIDDEN MICROPHONE IN THIS OFFICE." "WHERE IS IT?" MY PROFESSOR ASKED. THE PATIENT RESPONDED: "IT'S HIDDEN IN THE DOORKNOB." The professor then took apart the door knob, laid all the parts out on his desk, and said to the paranoid patient, "SEE, THERE'S NO MICROPHONE HIDDEN HERE." THE PATIENT LOOKED AT THE PARTS, LOOKED UP AT THE CEILING, AND INSISTED, "IT'S UP IN THE LIGHT BULB!"

The point of this story is THAT THERE'S NOTHING YOU CAN DO TO ALLAY THE PARANOID THOUGHTS of a paranoid schizophrenic. Those analysts who address the "tax the rich" and "the rich must pay their fair share" rhetoric are facing the same issue: those who use this rhetoric will never acknowledge the tax rates paid by the rich, accept the facts, and respond with the words, "oh, I didn't realize that the top 15 percent pay seventy percent of the income taxes. Never mind!"

THEY WILL PERSIST WITH THEIR RHETORIC FOREVER. The reason is that the rhetoric is driven not by the numbers of who pays how much in taxes, but by a desire to build a public relations foundation, an image. THOSE WHO DON'T RESPOND TO REAL FACTS DON'T CARE WHAT THE REAL FACTS ARE. The "tax the rich" slogan was not begun after a careful analysis of IRS data in the first place.

Here are some of the clues: THOSE WHO SAY "TAX THE RICH" ALMOST NEVER SAY "TAX ONLY THE RICH." Or "let's increase taxes on the rich and lower the taxes on everyone else." THE REAL GOAL OF THIS STRATEGY IS TO RAISE EVERYBODY'S TAXES….

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/10/what_the_taxing_the_rich_rhetoric_really_means.html

That is what the TEA Party knew and that is why they started to demonstrate when Obama started spending.  And when the TEA Party protests tax increases, the left likes to posit they are shills for the rich.  No, they understand what the left actually wants to do and they are resisting it. The divide and conquer strategy of the hard left is being resisted by honest tax paying Americans.