Stupid is the word of the day

Why Hollywood Types Should Not Be Allowed Freedom of Speech.

Woody Allen was recently interviewed by a Spanish language newspaper. In his interview he says “I am pleased with Obama. I think he’s brilliant. The Republican Party should get out of his way and stop trying to hurt him.”

The director said "it would be good…if he could be a dictator for a few years because he could do a lot of good things quickly." I do believe that was the justification for Hitler's being given absolute power.

I guess an 800 billion dollar stimulus package, a $1 trillion healthcare package, the acquistion of GM and Chrysler, and a multibillion dollar mortgage bailout program aren't "enough" good things for Woody. He's looking for Obama to make us much more like ---Greece? I guess there's no point in being stupid, if you can't prove it once in a while.

Are the Obama Appointees Really That Stupid?

Assistant Secretary of State Michael Posner in meetings with the Chinese on Human Rights violations said in addition to talks on freedom of religion and expression, labor rights and rule of law, officials also discussed Chinese complaints about problems with U.S. human rights, which have included crime, poverty, homelessness and racial discrimination.

He said U.S. officials did not whitewash the American record and in fact raised on its [sic] own "a new immigration law in Arizona that requires police to ask about a person's immigration status if there is suspicion the person is in the country illegally."

So let me see if I have this correct. The Obama Administration thinks enforcing the immigration law is a human's right violation. We need to get these people out of government and back in academia where they don't cause so many problems.

Gingrich predictions for November

Newt Gingrich making predictions for November’s midterms, said House Republicans will pick up “somewhere between 40 and 65 or 70 seats” — enough to gain control of the House. “I believe John Boehner will be speaker in January,” he said.

And Gingrich added he even sees a chance of Republican control of the Senate. “If they can beat Barbara Boxer [in California], I think that [Mitch] McConnell is going to be the Senate majority leader.”

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0510/37399.html#ixzz0oI14fE00

In the meantime, politico ran a story that if the Democrats can hold on to the House, Nancy Pelosi's power will increase even with fewer Democrats. They see a Democrat house purged of DINOs so the remaining members would be further left and more aligned with Speaker Pelosi. Of course this goes against EJ Dionne's column on how the Republicans will be more conservative, but the Democrats will be more diverse.

Finally, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut who has been the odds on favorite to replace Chris Dodd in the US Senate seems to have run into problems.

“We have learned something important since the days that I served in Vietnam,” Mr. Blumenthal said to the group gathered in Norwalk in March 2008. “And you exemplify it. Whatever we think about the war, whatever we call it — Afghanistan or Iraq — we owe our military men and women unconditional support.”

The problem with this according to a NY Times story is that Mr. Blumenthal never served in Vietnam. After using five deferments to avoid the draft, Mr. Blumenthal got a place in the Marine Corp Reserve and was never in Vietnam.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/18/nyregion/18blumenthal.html

MassCare Stupid

And speaking of Stupid, How is MassCare doing? It was supposed to lower the average cost of health care by getting relatively cheap young people into the system, and ending the inefficiencies of caring for the uninsured. Unfortunately, it hasn't quite worked out that way.

The bill for the uninsured only dropped by about 40%; the young, cheap people turned out to almost all need subsidies, and worse, some of them figured out how to game the system

by buying insurance, getting a bunch of expensive procedures, and then dropping the insurance again.

It's gotten so bad Deval Patrick, the governor of Massachusetts, imposed price controls on the insurance companies. They refused to write policies at these prices and Patrick ordered them to write the policies. They now have complained about how much money they've lost in the first quarter of 2010.

So MassCare which was the prototype for ObamaCare may be giving us a picture of the future.

All really stupid statements or actions are in red.

Why in the world?

Must Gay People vote a certain way?

A side issue that is going on is whether or not Elana Kagan is gay. The funny part here is it is a concern of both the extreme right and the extreme left.

On the extreme right, the concern is that a person shouldn't be gay in this position because it might influence their decisions on gay rights issues. On the extreme left the concern is related to the extreme right's position in that they feel if a person is gay, there is a certain way they are supposed to vote.

Hopefully, a judge would not allow their personal circumstances guide their vote. Unfortunately it doesn't appear that this belief will be acceptable to either side of the aisle and there also appears to be a belief or a fear that there is only one side to the issue if you are a member of a certain group.

EJ Dionne screws it up again

EJ Dionne just wrote a column titled "Democrats' Diverse Coalition." In it he says:

"Republicans will, indeed, end the year a more philosophically coherent right-wing party. But the Democrats will, if anything, become more ideologically diverse."

What absolute nonsense! He sees the Democrats running in more conservative areas as proof that the Democrats are diverse. He cites the race of U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak (a moderate democrat) against Arlan Spector (a Republican turned Democrat) as proof of how Democrats have a big tent while the loss of while relatively conservative incumbents such as the defeated Sen. Bob Bennett of Utah indicates to Dionne that the Republicans are less tolerant. I guess he missed the election of Scott Brown in Massachusetts. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas who recently said: "Just like the far right, I think the far left also believes that you've got to be with them 100 percent of the time or you don't meet the test,"

Finally Dionne should read the Huffington Post sometime and see how many in his "diverse coalition" are calling for voting out the DINOs. In fact, there are many Democrats who aren't left wing enought who aren't safe this year from their own voters while those who are left wing enough aren't safe from independent voters.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/05/17/democrats_diverse_coalition.html

Kerry-Lieberman -- The wrong problem, the wrong solution and the wrong time

" Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., have managed to write a cap-and-trade energy bill that should be greeted with guffaws from both believers and skeptics of man-made global warming. At a cost of billions of dollars and millions of jobs across America, the proposal would produce virtually no reduction in global temperatures even after being in force for decades. Using the MAGICC/SCENGEN climate model originally developed for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and assuming no other nation adopts the same measure, climate researcher Paul Knappenberger found that Kerry-Lieberman would reduce the average global temperature 0.077 degrees Fahrenheit by 2050, compared with what it would be if the bill were not adopted "

That's right folks. If the IPCC models say we will increase 2 degrees C by 2050, this will reduce that number to 1.923 degrees instead. Now that may be a liberal's idea of progress, but it isn't mine.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/Kerry-Lieberman-is-a-bad-joke-93798049.html#ixzz0oBiOxh1Q

And this. G20: Climate Change No Longer A Priority

Thursday, 13 May 2010 14:49 The Canadian Press Canada brushed aside a direct public demand Wednesday by the visiting United Nations chief and reiterated that it will not make climate change a priority agenda item when it hosts the G20 summit next month.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper stuck to his G20 plan to keep the summit's focus squarely on the global economic recovery after he met UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in his Parliament Hill office.

At least they are getting the message in Canada.

AZ Governor, Palin Criticize AG Eric Holder For Not Reading Law.

Below you will find a link to a video showing this. When I saw it I was struck by the realization we keep seeing people on the left passing laws and criticizing other's laws without reading them.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2010/05/16/az_governor_palin_criticize_ag_eric_holder_for_not_reading_law.html

To me this indicates that these people are ideologues first, and thinking humans beings only as an after thought. Is it too much to ask people to get the facts straight before they comment on them?

More Bad News for the Democrats

"Young voters capture this Obama-base problem. Obama won a larger share of younger voters than any president since at least the Second World War.

History, however, appears unlikely to repeat itself. About half of voters under age 30 are enthusiastic about voting this year, according to Gallup, compared to about two-thirds of seniors.

Young Republicans are also more likely to vote in 2010 than young Democrats, 41 to 35 percent respectively, according to a Harvard poll earlier this year. The same is true for young adults who disapprove of the president, compared to those who approve."

While a lot of liberals pooh pooh the TEA Party, we do know it is filled with people who are enthusiastic about voting this year. And I know I've seen numbers of young people there as well somewhat supporting the above information.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/05/17/reality_check_obamas_base_likely_to_disappoint_dems_105610.html

A Review of Obamacare

Healthcare News

During the healthcare debate, Republicans and some Democrats objected the cost. A CBO estimate came out projection the cost for 10 years at $940 billion. Opponents called it a bogus number and less than two months later we are beginning to hear more about the true cost.


President Obama's new health care law could potentially add at least $115 billion more to government health care spending over the next 10 years, congressional budget analysts said Tuesday.

If Congress approves all the additional spending called for in the legislation, it would push the 10-year cost of the overhaul above $1 trillion - an unofficial ceiling the Obama administration set early on in its push for the law.


http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/may/12/cbo-hikes-estimate-of-cost-of-health-care-law/

Rationing Healthcare

Another debate had to do with whether the new healthcare bill would lead to rationing. Some supporters said no, while others simply said there already was rationing based upon whether you had insurance or not. Now we hear from Mr. Obama's pick for Medicare and Medicaid services his view.

'The decision is not whether or not we will ration care — the decision is whether we will ration with our eyes open" is what Dr. Donald Berwick, President Obama's nominee to head the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, said in an interview published in Biotechnology Healthcare in June 2009.

He seems to be agreeing with those who didn't deny there would be healthcare rationing. But to the American public we have bought a pig and a poke having no idea of what this rationing might entail.

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=534205

So what's so wrong about Sarah?

"This is why the Democrats' feverish attempts to link Palin to Republican candidates have failed. Democrats love to bring up Palin because her poll numbers are lousy. They brought her up with Bob McDonnell in Virginia and with Scott Brown in Massachusetts. Lately they've been trying to link her to Mark Kirk in Illinois. But the McDonnell and Brown attacks didn't work, and the Kirk attack won't work, either. Voters are sophisticated enough to distinguish between politicians. They know who is on the ballot and who isn't -- and Sarah Palin isn't. (Nor is George W. Bush.)"

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/palin-mainstream

I think the Democrats have got the worst of all world with Sarah. She can raise a lot of money for Republican Candidates, but she isn't in office and she isn't so far running for any office. Trying to link Republicans to her does exactly what the above article says, nothing as the voters know who is on the ballot and who isn't. And the more they make fun of her and disparage her the stronger fund raising appeal gets.

News that if you think about it, is expected

Which Would You Want--Lower Spending or Higher Taxes?

"According to the survey, less than one in five voters is willing to pay more taxes to lower the federal budget deficit. That’s probably because two-thirds of Americans believe that the country is already over-taxed, and more than eight in ten believe that the federal deficit is the result of politicians overspending, not a lack of tax revenue."

As someone who has been around for a while, lower spending is the only logical choice. Somehow when you raise taxes, politicians find even more ways to spend the money and the deficit never goes down.

Remember in the late 1990s when the deficit was tamed? It was lower spending not increased taxes that brought that about.

http://www.bankruptingamerica.org/2010/05/03/poll-americans-want-lower-spending-not-higher-taxes/

From Instapundit:

EUGENE VOLOKH ON bisexual erasure. Well, the Kagan nomination certainly seems to have inspired one of those “national conversations” people are always calling for — this time on sexuality.

When I read this it occurred to me that it is the left who are constantly calling for "national conversations" on things they want to change. However, on issues that they've already gotten their way, they aren't too keen on these conversations.

A couple of examples of a national conversation I've not heard the left ask for include ending affirmative action or a national conversation on the under representation of men in college and post graduate work (degrees) or a national conversation on the science of anthropogenic global warming.

It reminds me of the old saying, "What's mine is mine. What's yours is negotiable."

Obama losing Jewish Support

If senior journalist David Goldman is right, the correct word for describing the way a growing number of US Jews feel about President Barack Obama is not 'anger' but 'rage' – white-hot rage, at that, and a conviction that they have been swindled.

Goldman quoted a top Jewish campaign donor who used the word 'sociopath' to describe Obama. In an interview with Israel National News, he predicted a possibly dramatic 'train wreck' for the Democrats in the November mid-term elections, with Jewish fundraising for Democrats drying up and a possibly high turnout of anti-Obama evangelical Christians.

Recent surveys are indicating that Obama has lost about half the support he had in his presidential bid from Jewish voters.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/137515


Holder's conundrum

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., who has been critical of Arizona's new immigration law, said Thursday he hasn't yet read the law and is going by what he's read in newspapers or seen on television.

With the American people supporting the law by 2 to 1, but the MSM running anti Arizona law by 12 to 1 perhaps Mr. Holder should read the law, or at least turn on Fox News.

Worse than waterboarding?

During the Bush administration many people felt he had taken away rights of American citizens. Most notably was the Patriot Act and the warrentless wiretaps. We now have a situation where the Obama Administration has made sure that Anwar al-Alwaki, a US citizen, will not have his telephone tapped without due process, but has put him on a list for the CIA to assassinate.

“American citizenship doesn’t give you carte blanche to wage war against your own country,” said a counterterrorism official who discussed the classified program on condition of anonymity. “If you cast your lot with its enemies, you may well share their fate.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/14/world/14awlaki.html?hp

Although I agree with this decision by the Obama Administration, I do think it puts the left in the position of seeming hypocritical. Tapping a phone or even water boarding doesn't seem to be as heinous as a summary execution by the government.

Hold on to your wallets

The Role of Clouds in Climate

This was very interesting. It is a beautiful video talking about the influence of clouds on climate change.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4XYxL66O_s&feature=player_embedded#!



Climate Bill proposed

In the meantime, the Kerry-Liebermann bill has been unveiled.

“The global temperature “savings” of the Kerry-Lieberman bill is astoundingly small—0.043°C (0.077°F) by 2050 and 0.111°C (0.200°F) by 2100. In other words, by century’s end, reducing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 83% will only result in global temperatures being one-fifth of one degree Fahrenheit less than they would otherwise be. That is a scientifically meaningless reduction.”

So why would we do it? It lets Washington control a lot more of our lives and this is something progressives find irresistible.

Financial Reform

The Senate today rejected a proposal by Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., to impose a minimum 5% down payment for virtually all home mortgages. The amendment to the broader financial regulatory overhaul bill, which failed 42-57, would have required income verification and an assessment of borrowers’ ability to repay.

FHA requires 3.5% down and has said if they raised that to 5% they would lose 40% of their business. I do remember when anything less than 20% required title insurance which was an extra X dollars per month.

Shouldn't we be reforming Freddie and Fannie as we reform the financial sector of the country. As I've said before Fannie and Freddie were the Typhoid Mary of the financial meltdown that happened in 2008. It appears until the Democrats are no longer in charge you won't have any serious reform.

Women and Pay

While the average earnings for women still lag behind those of men, they're turning the tables in the most exclusive corporate club of all. A new report from Bloomberg News, the leading provider of business news worldwide, shows that women who head the nation's largest companies are earning substantially more than their male counterparts. Their average annual pay over the last few years? Just over $14 million dollars.

"That means women earned 40 percent more than men in 2009," says Alexis Leondis of Bloomberg.

Fiscal Reality

With the advent of the Trillion dollar plus ANNUAL deficit in Washington, the rest of the world is actually trying to deal with unsustainable spending. We've seen the riots in Greece where public employees revolted against the idea of austerity, but Spain has just followed suit and the socialist government there is cutting civil service pay by 5%.

In the USA, New Jersey Govenor Chris Christie is leading the way.

"Upon taking office Christie declared a state of emergency, signing an executive order that froze spending, and then, in eight weeks, cutting $13 billion in spending. In March he presented to the Legislature his first budget, which cuts 9 percent of spending, including more than $800 million in education funding; seeks to privatize numerous government functions; projects 1,300 layoffs; and caps tax increases."

Of course the teachers' union is up in arms, but Christie may be showing the rest of the country what needs to be done and how to do it.

http://thehill.com/opinion/columnists/ab-stoddard/97603-nj-gov-sets-tone-for-us

If you want to have some fun, I just found this on Foxnation. Watch Christie tell it like it is to a "thin skinned reporter." Great fun. I'm starting to see a good Republican bench for the 2012 Presidential contest assemble.

http://www.thefoxnation.com/gov-chris-christie/2010/05/13/must-watch-gov-christie-destroys-thin-skinned-reporter

May 11, 2012 News and conjecture

The Euro and Greece

The situation in Greece has gotten so shaky that the EU has created it's own TARP program with just under $1 trillion available. This is a huge shift for Europe as the European rejected the US solution over a year ago. The big question is will it work and what will be the fall out? Some experts see it as slowing growth in Europe. Another expert predicts that the Euro and Dollar could reach parity by the end of the year.

Personally, when I look at it, it tends to prop up the dollar. The monetary policies of the Obama Administration are ridiculous, but the dollar hasn't fallen as much as it should. The reason for this is, what other currency would be a better bet. Right now there isn't any.

Elena Kagan

Elena Kagan has become the latest controversy for the Obama Administration. Right now according to Rasmussen, 33% Want Kagan Confirmed, 33% Do Not, 34% Not Sure... That is what I call a split decision. And if you read the blogs she is getting flack from both the left and the right.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/may_2010/82_think_kagan_likely_to_be_confirmed_for_supreme_court

WHO wants to Tax You

The World Health Organization is moving full speed ahead with a controversial plan to impose billions of dollars in global consumer taxes on such things as Internet activity and everyday financial transactions like paying bills online — while its spending soars and its own financial house is in disarray.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/05/10/world-health-organization-moving-ahead-billion-dollar-internet-tax/



The United Nations has shown itself to be a huge nonresponsive bureaucracy that his the fiscal integrity of Bernie Madoff. In addition this is the same organization that hyped up the bird flu and swine flu scares. Now WHO can do good works as well. But the funding increase they are looking at is bound to end up with more scandals.




Fannie and Freddie and Financial Reform


Our congress seems bent on putting restrictions on Wall Street while totally ignoring Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. With the financial crisis we had in 2008, Fannie and Freddie were basically the Typoid Mary's of the crisis, yet the Congress has done nothing to rein them in.


Already bailed out to the tune of $140 billion, in December the Treasury announced it was removing the caps that limited the amount of available capital to the companies to $200 billion each through 2012.


This is the most expensive bailout in history and it seems the Obama Administration wants to double down on it.

Illegal?

Obama doesn't know how to use an Ipod?

In a speech given over the weekend at Hampton University, President Obama said:
"With iPods and iPads and Xboxes and PlayStations, -- none of which I know how to work -- information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation."

Hmmm, we are seeing a pattern here. When BHO doesn't know how something works, he seems to have strong opinions on its value and it quick to criticize it. And I thought he was supposed to be the cool and savvy President?

Settled science? At least it settled to your stomach.

We are currently seeing more and more in the area of nutrition on actual role of saturated fats, refined carbohydrates, etc.

"Eat less saturated fat: that has been the take-home message from the U.S. government for the past 30 years. But while Americans have dutifully reduced the percentage of daily calories from saturated fat since 1970, the obesity rate during that time has more than doubled, diabetes has tripled, and heart disease is still the country’s biggest killer."

It now appears that not only are saturated fats not so bad for you, but that refined carbs are much worse for you.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=carbs-against-cardio

Similar to what we are finding regarding the role of CO2 in the climate. It appears that CO2 is not the villain the left likes to portray it as.

Why would the anyone falsify climate change data, etc.?

“We’ve got to ride the global-warming issue. Even if the theory of global warming is wrong, we will be doing the right thing in terms of economic policy and environmental policy.”
- Timothy Wirth, U.S./UN functionary, former elected Democrat Senator

Why is the MSM in such bad shape?

The MSM has found itself way out of step with the American public on Immigration especially the new law in Arizona.

"From April 23 to May 3, the top three television networks offered viewers 50 stories and interview segments on their morning and evening news programs. The tone was strongly hostile to the law and promotional to the "growing storm" of left-wing protesters: 37 stories (or 74 percent) were negative, 10 were neutral, and only three were positive toward the Arizona law's passage -- 12 negative stories for every one that leaned positive."

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tim-graham/2010/05/06/mrc-study-12-1-abc-cbs-and-nbc-rip-arizonas-immigration-law#ixzz0nXIeGBWz

So the MSM was against the bill 12 to 1 while the American people are 60 to 70 percent for the bill. No wonder Fox News is looked upon as the best source for fair news.