The Music Festival For The 2012 Election

An all-English (geriatric edition) virtual concert documenting the zeitgeist of the coming election.

Opening things up ... The Kinks, in their art house incarnation, giving us Acute Schizophrenia Paranoia Blues ... for the anti Patriot Act crowd, some of whom may have knee-jerked a hopey-changey vote in '08 to help put the republic in its current predicament.




Next up is Ten Years After, with one for the now thoroughly disillusioned October 2011 Occupy Wall Street wave of maladjusted malcontents, who learned the hard way throwing public temper tantrums is not a persuasive form of argument - I'd Love To Change the World.




But, of course, Van Jones and the rest of Team Leftie are not done with their self-appointed mission to replace capitalism with socialism. So, the next one is for the next wave of lunatic occupiers they will unleash on the republic this spring and summer ... Street Fighting Man, by the Rolling Stones, appropriately in their advanced age to represent the arthritic state of Team Leftie's ideology.




Pink Floyd will now perform Sheep from the Animals album, complete with a grandiloquent visual presentation notably appropriate to the Floyd as it would be for no one else ... for the clueless independent voters that are destined to swing the most important general election of my lifetime.




The next one is for the corrupt and biased liberal media - which will do their deceitful best to misrepresent and shade each and every news cycle to guide these clueless independent sheeples toward the media's preferred outcome - Van Jones' preferred outcome, that is. The Wizard, by Black Sabbath ... you will need to translate the Spanish subtitles for yourself, as a metaphor for translating the high grade equine manure the liberal media feeds you daily.




The Kinks, in their arena rock incarnation, return with Low Budget, an ode to the real issue, the issue the corrupt and biased liberal media will do their deceitful best to prevent from being honestly discussed - Barry's dysconomy.




Finally, to predict the full economic recovery that will accrue directly and simply from defeating the Empty Suit Known as Barack Hussein Obama ... Rock and Roll by Led Zeppelin.





Update 2/29/12

The two primaries on the Tuesday before “Super Tuesday” bring a warning for the republic. Mittens squeaks one out in one of his three home states, and proves Jan Brewer’s endorsement, unlike Nikki Haley’s, is worth something. Mittens still has not cleared 50% anywhere.

According to some exit polling, Mittens is garnering a majority of the vote for people who stipulate they are looking for the candidate most likely to defeat Obama. As with so many “majorities,” this one is dead wrong. All I can figure is they are going for the Gary Cooperish matinee idol looks. Newsflash – Obama already has this angle covered – only updated – metrosexual and half-black for modern voter.

As I’ve explained, and will continue to explain until it sinks in, Romney is the opponent Obama wants. Romney lacks the chops to score a knock-out punch on the all-important one-on-one debate stage, and Romney is the Richie Rich villain to cast as the target of Team Leftie’s rotten class warfare message.

I’m not saying Romney can’t beat Obama. I’m saying he makes it harder than anyone else still running, with the one exception of Ron Paul. We still have a long way to go. And in honor of this reality, the music festival continues with the considerable talents of geriatric Englishmen Steve Winwood and Eric Clapton combined, to deliver Can’t Find My Way Home, originally by Blind Faith.

Why You Are Paying More At The Pump

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Future historians will mark this moment as the beginning of the end of the regime of the Empty Suit Known as Barack Hussein Obama. LAS guarantees it.




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There will be no further posts here until next week. Doing the assistant scout master thing this weekend ... aaaaaaaaaaah, fresh air.

Debate Rumble in Jungle!!!!!

(Because you can’t rhyme ‘rumble’ with ‘desert’, or ‘corrupt and biased propaganda organ’, or ‘CNN’)

I came up with the post title thanks to radio man Chris Plante introducing me to this hilarious piece of slick ‘news’ production from the corrupt and biased hacks at CNN.



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I tuned in last night just as the candidates were coming on stage, so Mr. Plante’s airing this morning was my first exposure to this hilarious production, obviously designed to frame-up a debate atmosphere the corrupt and biased CNN hacks wanted to be a farce sliming all four Republicans.

As Mr. Plante is eloquently ranting over the AM radio waves even at this moment … yes, CNN’s assigned hatchet man, John King, then went on to orchestrate the whole thing to come off as a Republican food fight over irrelevant and ancient ‘issues.’

King did not deign to mention rapidly rising gasoline prices, the Fast and Furious gunwalking scandal, out of control deficit spending, the ‘occupy’ mobs of maladjusted malcontents roaming the nation and vandalizing everything they touch like the barbarians they are, First Amendment religious freedoms, or anything else currently in the news that could reflect poorly on his messiah – the Empty Suit Known as Barack Hussein Obama. Because he’s there to protect Barry’s flank, plain and simple.

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But, here’s the central point, kiddies – it is what it is. Whining about it doesn’t help us win the game with the team on the field and inside the defined dimensions of the field. The task is simply to play the game to win (with apologies to Herman Edwards).



This is the media and electoral landscape today. The national media is in the tank for Democrats, period. More and more citizens are noticing, and the national media is thusly becoming more irrelevant every day … but we have a few more years before we can enjoy its final and complete descent into total irrelevance. In other words, we are stuck with the bastards for this election cycle. And it’s a “must win” for the republic – meaning the Saul Alinksy radical in the White House must be defeated, or we are destined to become as financially and morally bankrupt as Greece is today. Also, as I’ve argued before and will continue to argue, the clueless independents that swing general elections will make their decision in the traditional one-on-one September / October debates between the two party nominees.

We need a nominee up to the task of deftly reframing and deflecting the corrupt and biased media’s crooked questions, while simultaneously pounding BHO’s record of abject failure directly and mercilously. It’s a tall order and a hard skill to find. It requires a rare combination of a quick mind and blue collar fighting spirit. That’s what LAS was grading last night. Here is the grade report, left to right.

Ron Paul has too much of a tendency to go off on tangents making him sound like the crazy old uncle I will probably be remembered as. He will instantly become an enduring stock figure for SNL mockery if nominated.

Rick Santorum is getting better as a debater. He’s on the right learning curve but still has a way to go. We need to keep up the competitive primary season to toughen him up for the main event, should he become the nominee.

God help us if Mittens pulls through. He spent most of the night dropping names and picking the irrelevant fights John King teed up for him, like the country club dining room Republican he is. He will be the perfect foil for Barry’s crooked class warfare campaign strategy. He just doesn’t possess the quickness of mind or fighting spirit needed on this field.

Newt proved once again he is the best fit to the task at hand. It was a masterstroke, for example, when he turned one of King’s screwballs on contraception into a reminder Barry has repeatedly voted in favor of Partial Birth Abortion. (That is, pulling a viable late term fetus out of the womb and then sucking its brains out upon its first experience of daylight.) I hope Newt stays in the race until the last gavel is pounded in the convention. If he can’t be the nominee, he’s the best coach the eventual nominee can possibly learn from in the meantime. Start taking notes Mittens, or you may simply be remembered as the hapless establishment GOP’s last loser nominee.

Update 2/24/12

While availing myself of a rare listen to Limbaugh today, I realized the final paragraph to this post needs a correction.  Newt wasn't talking about partial-birth abortion, in which the abortion is successfully performed using the procedure I described, he was talking about allowing an abortionist to kill living infants that survive a botched abortion.  A whole new level of grisly as far as the facts are concerned, but of no matter to the central point - Newt is the deftest debater available.

Rick Santorum is Right

The news of the day has been saturated with reportage, analysis, and opinion circling the drain around one word uttered by today's leading GOP Not-Romney candidate.

Big Government neatly summarizes the facts of Rick Santorum's use of the word 'theology.'

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Santorum is right. Barack Hussein Obama is the titular head of the American Progressive Left, for whom the state sits above all. Statism is their theology. Period. End of sentence.

The American Progressive Left believes the state should be empowered to correct all perceived wrongs, determine economic winners and losers, direct the tiniest minutia of each and every subject’s existence. To the Progressive, there is no institution that should not be required to bow to the all-knowing dictates of the state; not the church, not the family, and certainly not any citizen so misguided as to actually believe he or she is endowed by any power higher than the state with a right to pursue life, liberty, and happiness. In the American Progressive's theology we are all Oliver Twist, reduced to requesting permission for each additional allotment of gub'ment rationed gruel.





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All respectable Progressives are in fact theologically (strictly speaking) atheist. This is why they feel compelled to pursue the dictation of a form of heaven on earth by way of state directed "fairness" for "all." As history amply shows, the result is always equality in bleak misery - due to the inherent limits of the human condition and their fatal conceit (Hayek’s term).

BHO, as the political front man for the Progressives, in what is still a Judeo-Christian country, cannot be so honest as to openly proclaim his total detachment from the fly-over rubes clinging to their bibles (and guns). He has to pretend to be a Christian, to further his theology of statist equality for all on Earth. It's his job.

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And now I am reminded of a something that came up on the television screen while I was half not paying attention to Brett Bair's report tonight. Santorum, compelled by the protocols surrounding his position as today's leading Not-Romney, apparently said something like "if the President says he's a Christian, then he's Christian."

Unless, of course, if he's a liar, Rick. Joe Wilson was right, too.



Update 2/22/12

Media hyprocisy on display, edition umpteen bazillion .... It's OK for Barry to assume the cloak of Jesus as POTUS, but scary for Santorum to talk about Satan as a private citizen.

Matt at Conservative Hideout and LAS collaborate to give Santorum the advice he needs.

LAS commenting at CH:

You've hit on the best response Santorum can make to this caricature assassination attempt - essentially ignore it. That is, play the context card as you lay out, then instantly switch the subject to limited constitutional government and economic growth - which he has shown he can also be articulate about. The bonus is being convincing on limited constitutional government automatically diffuses any concerns about imposing religious values via gub'ment - kind of like JFK giving the speech stating he won't take orders from the Pope.

Announcing the Bob Schieffer Memorial Blog Roll, Version 2.0

It's been a full week since I've posted here, partly because the percentage of my time and energy going toward the blog has been spent heads down under the covers - 'fundamentally transforming' the RSS feed coming into the blog. Just trying to keep up with the Obamas, you know.

This blog's RSS feed widget had become quite obese in the two years and several weeks of its operation, reaching in excess of 150 feeds and actually hitting some damn limit preventing any further maintenance using Blogger's default widget. It was time to follow Mooshell Obama's lead and mandate some belt tightening around here.

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The RSS feed already had the perfect moniker - the Bob Schieffer Memorial Blog Roll. The sclerotic MSM hack named Schieffer earned this honor when he failed to even ask Eric "My People" Holder about the New Black Panther voter intimidation case, then employed the pathetic excuse he had been on vacation when the story broke, in a pathetic attempt to cover his incompetent tracks. Look it up, kiddies. You have the Google, you know.

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Well, anyway, back to the point at hand. I resolved to cull the RSS feed back to 100 or less feeds, keeping the overall compilation true to the ethos of this blog. I might describe this ethos as 20th Century Conservatism, nee Classical Liberalism, with a strong dose of snarky humor. After two years and several weeks burying my head inside the conservative blogosphere, I feel perfectly competent to assume this editorial role. Because I'm really INTJ that way (Myers-Briggs reference). And in the full spirit of spontaneous order, I stipulate my selections here are a sufficient foundation for my purposes.  Maybe yours, too.

The feeds that made the version 2.0 cut meet the measure of this ethos and/or occupy some specialized niche within it, to one degree or another. For example:

* Watt's Up With That representing (among others) the Global Warming Hoax Deniers.

* Randy's Roundtable (American war bird proclaiming 'Jihad This') and Sister Toldjah (elf queen dancing in the field) - among others - possessing the killer graphics.

* Cato, Heritage, and AEI representing the conservative think tanks toiling in perpetual obscurity.

* Caroline Glick reporting on conditions in Israel, the furthermost outpost of western civilization in the Arab/Persian world. Predicted by LAS to be the flashpoint of Barry's precipitous downfall, Jimmah Cahtah style.

* Libertas et Memoria (among others) for the uptight social con crowd. Couldn't do it without ya, babe.

Well, you get the idea. Congratulations to all the roll members. I have good taste, and I know it.

==

Then there's the concept of enlightened self interest. If we have shared links, you should consider yourself a virtual shoe in for inclusion. However, there was the occasional conflict between this policy and my capacity to find your feed with the new tools. I'm thinking of you, Pundies. I'll be in touch at some point.

Now, of course, it's always possible I overlooked a worthy candidate. I am only human, after all. So, if you feel you deserve inclusion with this exclusive collection of classically liberal bloggers, drop me a note at libertyatstake@gmail.com. I will respond with either my mea culpa and include you, or explain why you didn't make the cut.  PaulBots need not apply.  Appeasing the Islamists is a DQ, plain and simple.

And no need for you to correspond, Angry White Dude. I'll explain here. Your incessant use of ALL CAPS makes you sound like a lunatic. We here in the LAS camp are tough minded and tough skinned - but we are not berserkers. We know how to shoot, but it's more the 'revenge is best served cold' kind of shooting. If Barry gets re-elected, we'll re-establish contact with your hot shooting camp.  Until then, keep your powder dry.

So, read the roll! Especially, you, Schieffer!  After your nap, of course.

Footnote

The formatting of the v2.0 roll breaks down with IE8 for some damn reason I haven't isolated yet. Perfectly fine in Chrome, Mozilla, and Safari. The wife's IE9 machine is asleep, and she is, too - so testing not possible right now. If you are using IE8 as I am now - shame on you, troglodyte!

On Growth

(No, not that kind of growth, Beavis and Butthead. We’ve already covered the progressive outrage hidden inside ObamaCare that is free Viagra for all.)


What with all the political tragedy and comedy lately - the Community Agitator In Chief appointing himself Pope, his OccupyDC camp out for socialism fading into irrelevance with a pathetic whimper, his rapidly unraveling Mideast policy swiftly turning LAS into a literal believer in the Book of Revelations, the GOP contenders for his job thumbing each other in the eye Three Stooges style on a glide path to a brokered convention, etc. – the most important political topic to the American voter (the economy, stupid) has been receiving short thrift.

I, LibertyAtStake, shall now repair this gross oversight. Because as the great “Cool Cal” Calvin Coolidge once opined: “the business of America is business.” So, let’s now turn our attention to the program of economic annihilation administered by BHO and His Corrupt Gang of Progressives.

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Of course, this gang of treasonous incompetents has been patting themselves on the back lately for some economic numbers they are trying to spin as positive. It’s an election year, you know.

They are ready to break out the champagne because the official U3 unemployment rate the past three months has been officially measured as 8.7%, 8.5%, and 8.3%. They seem to like this trend; notwithstanding the fact they were the geniuses who told us their trillion dollar ‘Stimulus’ boondoggle was necessary to keep this number below the 8% we should have expected by doing nothing. They are telling us this trend puts the republic back on the right track notwithstanding the fact that economists traditionally peg the notion of “full domestic employment” on the meter at 4% to 5% U3.

They’ve released the balloons and confetti because growth in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has been officially measured the last two quarters at 1.8% and 2.8%, respectively. They seem to like this trend, too – notwithstanding the fact this is the slowest and shallowest recovery from a recession since World War II.

Of course, this is an election year. So, they want you to believe George W. Bush dug such a big hole they will need not one term, but two terms, to heroically return the greatest economy the world has ever seen to full prosperity. Well, that’s the election pitch, anyway. They’ve concocted this election pitch despite the plain fact their actual policies are consistently anti-growth.

• Such as consistently preventing the development of all kinds of domestic energy resources – to satisfy their tree-hugging “green” lobby in an election year.

• Like consistently demonizing and threatening the republic’s job creators with confiscatory taxes and crushing regulations in the health care realm and other realms.

• And consistently strengthening the hand of labor unions to extort more and more capital from employers – most destructively in the public sector where the “employer” is you and me.

This one clearly falls under the heading “watch what they do, not what they say.” Now, let me be clear about one thing – LAS is no fan of George W. Bush’s domestic policies. ‘No Child Left Behind’ would not have occurred in an LAS administration … it would have been more like ‘What the hell is the Department of Education even for?’ The Medicare prescription drug entitlement expansion was compassionate conservativism ersatz progressivism at its most blinkered. No, on second thought, the TARP bailout was, actually. However, none of this gives Bush’s successor the right to blame previous administrations for its’ blatant failure to generate economic growth.

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The fact of the matter is the only thing this gang of treasonous incompetents has proven is you couldn’t kill the American economy even if you tried, as I recently heard the great Lawrence Kudlow opine on WMAL radio.

As this graph shows, the long term trend in annual growth since World War II has followed a basically straight line trend through all manner of administrations, various recessions, and every twist and turn in the natural free market boom and bust cycle. The 65 year trend line looks to be about 30 degrees positive to my eyeballs – what a beautiful economic engine for prosperity.

Actually, the most interesting part of the trend is the plain fact that annual growth clearly lags the 65 year trend in precisely one period – the present one, the one under Obama’s stewardship.

These numbers make Obama the most anti-growth President since World War II. Period. For a review of the philosophy making it so, and a contrast with the competing philosophy that informed Ronald Reagan’s incredibly successful two terms – you can read my 5/11/11 post ‘Stuck On Keynesian Stupid.’

This graph I’ve been keeping up presents the contrast by the numbers.

Big Government has additional secondary measures documenting the misery of Obamanomics.

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Now, the real turd in the economic toilet bowl, of course, is the ridiculous debt Obama has run up to create these abysmal results.

In fact the national debt now equals annual GDP for the first time ever. That means you would have to confiscate every dollar earned by everyone for an entire year to pay it off.

You are going to need serious pro-growth policies to dig out of this debt hole, America. You are going to need to elect people willing to take bold and, yes, ‘radical’ (dictionary definition) action to get DC the hell out the way of the business of America (business, per Coolidge, as previously noted). Before casting a vote, listen carefully to what this year’s candidates say – and more, importantly, look very closely at what the record says they’ve done in the past with respect to economic growth. The future of the republic depends on it.

Footnotes

Following are my two favorite general ideas for radical tax code reform, which are mutually exclusive in my mind, in ascending order of preference.

Eliminate all loopholes in the income tax code, tax all forms of income equally, cap the top rate at something non-confiscatory (say 15%), and make sure everyone pays in at least something (even if it has to be 1% on the lowest rung). Want to get money out of politics? Flattening the tax rates, broadening the tax base, and simplifying the code goes a hell of a long way toward doing it. If there are no tax advantages to lobby for, no one will see economic benefit in buying a politician.

Alternatively, scrap the income tax altogether, and replace it entirely with a consumption tax. What could be a more simultaneously libertarian and progressive proposal, I ask you? If you want something, and can afford it, you pay the tax. Period. ‘Poor’ people consume less (so it’s “progressive”), and I won’t be coerced into paying for your Viagra under ObamaCare (making it “libertarian.”).

Update 2/14/12

One Trick Crony submits 2012 budget proposal campaign strategy with the usual suspects: 'soak the rich' tax plan, deficit spending on 'infrastructure' nobody needs, gutting defense, and smoke and mirrors deficit reduction projections.

Fellow DemoHack Dingy Harry Reid promises DemoHack controlled Senate will pass no budget for fourth straight year nevertheless.

2/15/12

The Conservatory blog has a great post on an important component of Team Obama's anti-growth regime ... burdensome regulations.  The picture is precious.

Sign Me Up!

You, too, can sign up here, to exercise your First Amendment right to tell the gub'ment to take a long walk off the nearest short pier.

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The timing of this rally is exquisite. The chicken eggs hidden inside the ObamaCare bill are comin' home to roost!

(1) The Supreme Court will be simultaneously reviewing the obvious unconstitutionality of the Individual mandate.

(2) Team Obama has stepped into it big time, politically, by trying to shove contraception down the Catholic church's throat. (see yesterday's LAS post).

(3) And, of course, one of Team Obama's jackbooted progressive brownshirts - the ersatz Catholic known as Rosa DeLauro - was sent out to instruct us in the Washington Post's opinion propaganda pages that it's really about more free stuff for women. (Hat Tip to radio man Chris Plante) I especially love her "fairness" pitch based on the stipulation men can acquire Viagra without a co-pay. Hey, here's an idea - make it "fairer" by making the l*mp d*cks pay for their own damn Viagra.

(4) And last, but not least, the petting zoo known as OccupyDC will still be in town to provide a brilliant contrast. After we assemble, make our point, and pick up after ourselves, we should drop by to review and photograph the camp squalor. iow - do the corrupt and biased liberal MSM's job for them.


d(^_^)b
http://libertyatstake.blogspot.com/
“Because the Only Good Progressive is a Failed Progressive”


Update 6:30 pm

Screen snapped from my Feedjit Live log.  If this doesn't prove it's really about the size and scope of gub'ment, nothing does.  Click to embiggen.

Update 2/13/12 10:00 pm

I've designed my business cards for the rally.


Front:

Back:

Whaddya think?

'Constitutional Lawyer' Face Palm, #1

Newton's Three Laws (Part 25)

Despite my best intentions to leave this title behind ... basically due to the monotony … sometimes you just can’t ditch a good idea.

Sock! Mittens loses a triple header to today’s Not-Romney, Rick Santorum.

Pow! Look out Rick, Mittens the Hun and his Establishment caricature assassination squad will be gunning for you next.

Zock! LAS is still a Newt guy, rest assured. Because results matter and Newt is still the only Speaker in my lifetime to balance a federal budget. Everything else is bread and circuses. Maybe Santorum will return the favor and make the mistake of publicly instructing Newt to leave the race. :)

Bif! Give Santorum his due, though – he’s the first candidate to clear 50% with room to spare in any single contest.

Bam! LAS suspects Santorum – the natural candidate for the devoutly religious – is benefiting from BHO and His Corrupt Gang of Progressives trying to shove contraception down the Catholic church’s throat.

Sok! Meanwhile, BHO’s Secretary of Defense has either been stricken with Alzheimer’s or is sending discreet signals to Tehran, breathing new life into the Stupid or Treasonous series.

Blap! The Israelis have stopped trying to figure out the Stupid or Treasonous angle, and will be taking care of business themselves.

Whap! LAS is glad to see the initiative displayed by the Israelis. Because we here in the US have things to attend to domestically. Like getting conservatives and unrepentant domestic terrorists to the same dinner table for a little light bi-partisan political discourse.

Bif! And stealing elections, if you are a Democrat.

Oooof! And harassing conservatives, if you are an Occupier.

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Writing style inspired by the blogging visionary known as the Backyard Conservative.

Content inspired by the greatest example of children’s programming in all history.

BREAKING NEWS: Kabuki on the Square

(AP) - Jack Wiley Dithers reporting.



Today Barry's Park Police cleaned up after Barry's Bolshevik Brigade on the Square.

Operations were "largely peaceful" - only six arrests. All arrested were sent directly to the "joovie," where they belong.

Many dead rats were pulled out of the cess pool formerly known as McPherson Square.  Authorities have speculated the explanation could be Lestat the Vampire has been living in the camp.

The cost of the cleanup operation to the civil society remains uncalculated. Nearby residents reported no cost would be too high to endure.

The remaining occupiers have been sent back to their rooms to continue the whine-fest until Barry finally decides this foolishness is a liability for him. (Memo to Barry:  Too late).

Updates will be provided as necessary. Just not until tomorrow. I have a previous engagement this evening, which history predicts will require much sleep to recover from. I expect the republic will still be there when I awaken.

(AP) - Jack Wiley Dithers reporting.


Update

This somehow became necessary.  Arrest count climbs to eight. Cops assaulted. Still "largely peaceful."

Hat Tip Ironic Surrealism.

Update 2/6/12

McPherson Square gives the observer the surreal image of a tiny scorched earth war zone in the middle of a prosperous city going about its' normal business.

A handful of tents remain, apparently to contain random "stuff" and garbage. A few of the stalwart derelicts are milling about. "Bear" was spotted outside the Vermont Avenue Starbucks wearing his filthy yellow "October 2011 First Aid" tee shirt. The Artist was in his usual corner, with a much smaller tent to protect his creative works, and appropriately wearing a Siberian style (read czarist) fur cap.

No one in camp seems to be able to explain where anyone is sleeping now. Probably accommodations underwritten by Soros, Inc. Unfortunately, decontamination is being underwritten by We The People.

When I asked a Park policeman how the injured cop was doing, his answer was (paraphrasing) "he's doing fine, he's regaining his lost eyesight."

The one man counter protest I blogged about previously was back out on K street with a sign that said "Don't Believe the Liberal Media." The distinct lack of media covering the park's destruction by Barry's Bolshevik Brigade supported his assertion.

An Occupier was taken out of the 15th Street Starbucks by DC EMS on a gurney. I guess that's what sleep deprivation and massive amounts of caffeine will do. No word on whether ObamaCare will cover treatment.

d(^_^)b
http://libertyatstake.blogspot.com/
“Because the Only Good Progressive is a Failed Progressive”

Update 2/8/12

The Artist was spotted on the square at approximately 3:30 pm. Pacing in tight circles in the mud, utterly alone, with the beginning of tonight's wintery mix falling down around him. My thought at the time: "poor lost soul." The Pandora radio selection ringing in my ears right now: "I'd Love To Change the World" by Ten Years After. I assume the Park Police on duty tonight won't allow his actual demise to occur on their watch.

Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics

(Also known as the Obama Re-election strategy)

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A math lesson for children, the mathematically impaired, and registered Democrats.

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A percentage is a method for expressing a ratio. A ratio is a division problem whose result (R) is derived by dividing a numerator (N) by a denominator (D).

R = N / D

The same N divided by a bigger D yields a smaller R. The same N divided by a smaller D yields a bigger R. A bigger N divided by the same D yields a bigger R. A smaller N divided by the same D yields a smaller R. If you have no freakin' idea where N and D came from, then R is just a number.

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Perhaps an example will help.

If Little Johnny shows Little Janet his 6 apples, and gives her 3; he has shared 6 / 3 = 50% of his apples. Little Johnny is really fair, isn't he?

But - if Little Johnny hides 2 of his apples, shows Little Janet 4 of them, and gives her 2; Janet thinks he has shared 4 / 2 = 50% of his apples, when in fact he only shared 6 / 2 = 33% of his apples. Little Johnny looks fair to Janet, but still in fact keeps more for himself. Clever devil.

Got that? OK, let's have some fun with ratios, kiddies!

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A year ago, in January 2011 the official labor participation rate (people who have or want a job) was 64.2% and official unemployment was 9.1% This month the numbers are 63.7% and 8.3%, respectively.

Assume a static pool of 1000 people who could use work.

A year ago 642 of these people were counted because they were either actually employed or showed up to be counted by the nameless and faceless bureaucrat as looking for work. 58.5 of them couldn't find a job and kept on reporting this in order to collect the Unemployment Insurance (UI). 58.5? Sorry, that's just the math, maybe imagine one doing black market work under the table while collecting the UI. Official unemployment is therefore published at 9.1%.

Now, a year later, 5.5 of the people looking for work got so fed up they stopped showing up to be counted by the nameless and faceless bureaucrat. Or maybe it's 5 got fed up and the black market guy went completely underground. Never mind. Now the gub'ment calculates official unemployment as 637 / 53 = 8.3%

See how that works, kiddies?

The Conservative Idea Campaign and the Inevitable RINO

Two videos LAS initially encountered today during his morning read view.

|||||

For a simple summary presentation of the contrast, using another medium (the word cloud), you can digest what the American Enterprise Institute has cooked up this morning.

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OK, you tell me - who sounds like he's reading a speech and who sounds like he's talking from the heart?

OK, you tell me - who sounds like he can't wait to *be* coronated President and who sounds like he seeks the Presidency to *do* something for the country.

OK, you tell me - who made generic promises and who made perfectly specific commitments.

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As the estimable Jeffrey Lord has recently been pointing out eloquently in the pages of LAS's all time favorite conservative punditry mag - The American Spectator - Mitt Romney is the candidate of the GOP Establishment, losers to the Saul Alinksy radical, and Newt Gingrich is the candidate who gives voice to the new conservative grass roots that has sprung up in reaction to that very same Saul Alinsky radical.

That Newt Gingrich gives voice to the TEA Party patriots who entered politics for the first time in the spring of 2009 is an irony of historic proportions. He has, after all, more or less made his living as a Washington "insider" for about 30 years. However, he has done so in the manner of an iconic (and polarizing) figure this blog has dubbed "the outsider's insider." Newt has pi$$ed off a lot of insiders, to be sure. And that's because, to Newt, ideas are more important than feathering the bed of the status quo. If you are one of those TEA Party patriots who experienced a political awakening in the spring of 2009, I think you get what I mean. And I probably don't need to repeat Newt is the last Speaker - the only Speaker in your lifetime probably - who balanced a federal budget. Working with William Jefferson Clinton, for chrissake.

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The "outsider's insider" has vowed to carry his campaign of ideas all the way to the GOP convention in August. This is good for the republic. The voice of the grass roots TEA Party movement deserves an articulate spokesman for at least that long. And September and October is plenty long enough to wipe the floor with the abysmal record of the Empty Suit Known as Barack Hussein Obama. That's the only time clueless independents pay attention anyway. The only difference is how much heavy lifting will be required by the grass roots. (hint: way more for Mittens, much less for Newt.)

Footnote

Memo to Mittens: We all know what happens when you make assumptions.





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Memo to patriots: Let's have a knock-down drag-out until the last gavel of the convention.

d(^_^)b
http://libertyatstake.blogspot.com/
"Because the Only Good Progressive is a Failed Progressive"

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Update 2/2/12

The American Spectator's iconic editor R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. disagrees with LAS and AS contributor Jeffrey Lord. The good news is, as a long time AS subscriber, I'm certain Mr. Tyrrell is a defender of 1st Amendment rights, and therefore Mr. Lord's right to submit articles to Mr. Tyrrell's publication will not be adversely impacted. Let the conservative sorting continue through the convention. As I've said, the Saul Alinsky radical in the White House is plenty noxious enough to unite us behind the surviving candidate in the two months coming afterward.