So, you’ve stumbled onto my humble little blog. Perhaps you are a Millenial wondering why most of your friends aren’t fully employed. Or wondering why ObamaKare is being shoved down your throat. Or why your generation is on the hook for a national debt that stands at $17 $18 Trillion and counting. Maybe you are scratching your head wondering why your President thinks Global Warming the weather is more worrisome than Islamic Terror. And perhaps you’ve started to become aware there might be something the corrupt and biased lame stream media isn’t telling you. The answer, to these and other existential questions, is ... the Left - specifically, the modern American Progressive. Think of this site as a portal to a richer understanding of this answer, a portal purposely designed with a consciously cock-eyed bent to keep it entertaining. Because the First Amendment is forever and the Internet never forgets. (Plus you better figure out FICA isn't the name of a Swedish bikini model, before she eats your entire paycheck.)
How to use the portal? You could dive into my archive*. I was most active here 2010-2012, but that matters not. How many times do I need to demonstrate the central point? To wit, the political / ideological Left is a menace to the constitutional republic and must be resisted lest the American experiment in liberty devolve into socialist dystopia. If it's the more pointed hand-to-hand combat of the comment board that whets your appetite, click the 'My Disqus Comments' widget. I continue to visit that world from time to time as a light diversion. Or you could browse through my blog roll. It's a very representative collection of center-right blogs, though hardly exhaustive. I can't do the political / ideology thing 24x7, and you probably can't either. Leave that to the hysterical, talking point chanting, mob agitating, race baiting, election stealing, gaia worshiping, straw man torching, Islamic Terrorist appeasing, organized Left (aka OFA, MSNBC, UAW, SEIU, Think Progress, Media Matters, most of legacy media, the politically correct faculty lounge, anybody who belonged to Journolist, anybody connected to Occupy Wall Street, anything funded by George Soros or Tom Steyer, their paid Internet trolls, and the rest of the usual Team Leftie suspects).
*Re-posting encouraged. No need to ask for permission. Just follow the commonly accepted convention of acknowledging this site as original source with a link back. That way, you leave the asking for forgiveness to me.
In the event of a Herman Cain vs. Barack Hussein Obama match up in the 2012 general election for President of the United States, I believe I have come up with a very effective bumper sticker sized campaign slogan. Personally, I think it is a clever and pithy statement that the party of the Right evaluates people on the basis of their ideas and character, rather than their demographics. This is why the intramural divisions on the Right are philosophy based - social conservative, libertarian, neo con, and so forth. A stark distinction as measured against the class, gender, and race based constituency definitions the Left uses.
I have field tested the slogan on a few comment boards, and got positive feedback at the Daily Caller from a denizen of the Intertubes who uses the pseudonym Hollywood4Cain.
However, my genius has been misinterpreted by wider audiences before ... so before I open that Zazzle account anticipating hot cakes level sales, I'd like to poll my readership on how this slogan strikes them.
The 'Our Black Guy is Smarter Than Their Black Guy' Slogan Strikes You As (choose the one that most fits) ...
Update 11/05/11
LAS has noticed a pattern of visits to this post recently, from people using Internet search engines in search of Herman Cain bumper stickers. Why look any further. LAS has opened the store!
If any long time readers of this blog (you know who you are) thought I had abandoned the Newtonian thread … fear not. The post I classified as part 15 in the series (April 11, 2011) posited the republic, on that particular date, was calmly sailing through the eye of the storm toward more headwinds, toward a penultimate Newtonian collision (which will become forever known as “Shellacking II” when the votes are counted on November 6, 2012).
The leading edge of these headwinds has arrived. There has been a portentous flurry of news events in the past couple of weeks. These news events demonstrate to anyone paying attention (once again) that the American Progressive Left is amoral, illiterate on economic matters, illiterate in foreign relations, and lives solely to direct the micro details of other peoples’ lives. And always with disastrous results - because it’s simply an impossible pursuit.
Most prominently, a prominent Demo-hack corruptly used government resources and time for – ahem! – ‘personal pursuits,’ and then doubly corruptly lied about it through his teeth (Lesson 1 from my May 28 post). This very same corrupt Demo-hack, possibly even with the approval of a sizable bloc of his morally challenged constituents, obviously with the support of the criminally biased MSM, and hardly a peep from the majority opposition party – shamelessly retains his seat in the republic’s national legislative body (Lessons 2, 3, and 4 from my May 28 post). Make no mistake, this shameless moral miscreant will have to dragged off of Capitol Hill kicking and screaming – because he is a Leftist, and therefore cannot imagine doing anything else with his (professional) life other than micromanaging the choices available to other people.
Simultaneously, and almost without notice due to the aforementioned shenanigans, there was a flurry of terrible economic news. While the criminally biased MSM was caught off guard by the news, LibertyAtstake was not at all surprised – because as I explained in my May 11 post, your current administration is Stuck on Keynesian Stupid. They also seem to be running out of Keynesians over there, as the “economic team” seems to be reenacting ‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail’ (Run away!) in the face of abject failure. I am undecided as to whether this is good or bad news for the republic, on balance.
Still less noticed, because it hasn’t come to a head yet, which is to say the mushroom cloud isn’t rising above Israel just yet, is the now near certainty Iran will acquire nuclear weapons. This easily predicted outcome is largely due to the incredibly naïve foreign policy doctrine followed by the administration of the Empty Suit Known as Barack Hussein Obama. The wages of BHO’s naiveté vis-à-vis Iran will be one big smelly ‘inheritance’ for the next POTUS - that much is for sure.
And, finally, the bill Nanny Pelosi told us she needed to pass to find out what’s in it ... is coming to a head - for millions of Americans who are about to find out what's in it and experience the loss of their employer provided health insurance plans because ObamaCare made those plans far more expensive. [ begin heightened sarcasm alert ;) ] Gee, Leftist intervention making a market product far more expensive? No, that’s never happened before. [ end heightened sarcasm alert ;) ]
==
The good news is: LibertyAtStake The Predictor can now predict with virtually absolute certainty the republic will thankfully be rid of the Empty Suit Currently Occupying the Oval Office in January 2013. If you’ve been paying close attention, I’ve been using this blog space to work out for myself whether or not a sufficient percentage of politically clueless independents would be sufficiently awakened to the non-stop misery carousel that is Leftism to vote the Demo-Hacks, and their current champion (BHO), out of office in November 2012. With all hell breaking loose around them, and misery raining down upon them, the politically clueless independent bloc will at least be as sophisticated as Pavlov’s dog … this much we can be sure of. (See the election of Richard Nixon, even with the influential third party run of George Wallace, circa 1968, as the historical precedent)
The bad news is: there are two long, hot summers between now and the November 6, 2012 elections. And Leftists do not relinquish power willingly or easily. LibertyAtStake The Predictor predicts a growth economy for his Just Another Unhinged Leftie (JAUL) Gallery over the next seventeen months or so. Try to enjoy the wild ride best as you can ... it’s better that way. Happy Friday.
Footnote
I had a bunch of links teed up to accent various statements in this post. Screw it - I'm going John Lennon and White Album on this one - that is, just throw everything out there. Here's the links I collected this week in so-called 'preparation.'
Our cracker-jack investigative journalism team has acquired a copy of the Super Secret Double Secure Monthly Meeting Minutes of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy (VRWC), which some knucklehead left on an unsecure file server with anonymous permissions enabled. This document will clear the heroic Progressive Congressman from New York with the unfortunately ironic screen name, RepWeiner. The VRWC meeting attendees used their Intertubes screen names, as is their usual practice.
==
MEETING MINUTES
SUPER SECRET DOUBLE SECURE MONTHLY MEETING
Friday May 27, 2011
Taken By: HillsdaleIntern
** BURN AFTER READING **
========================
LibertyAtStake began the meeting by stating what the VRWC needed right now was a distraction from Obama's recovering economy. All present agreed entirely with this brilliant political analysis.
GayPatriot stated he had a picture of his willy in grey tighty-whiteys. After an awkward pause, MrBreitbart stated he thought we could use that.
MrBreitbart explained there was a Democrat Congressman from New York with the last name Weiner. MrBreitbart also explained this Congressman Weiner is an unfettered user of social media systems, often using the alias RepWeiner. Manna from Heaven.
After some group brainstorming, IowaHawk outlined a plan for simultaneously hacking the RepWeiner Twitter account, RepWeiner yfrog account, and (the true genius) TweetCongress.org. DougRoss said his second cousin worked as a developer at Twitter, and he could get him on it right away. AngryWhiteDude (AWD) grumbled something about despising amphibians, before explaining one of his shooting range buddies had venture capital riding inside yfrog - which could use the publicity. The problem was AWD had already lowered the "ban hammer" on this person on the AWD site. The group encouraged AWD to talk to his shooting buddy about making peace and incentivizing a developer at yfrog. LibertyAtStake looked up from what he called his "damn blackberry" long enough to say he knew a guy at TweetCongress.org that owed him a favor.
WilliamTeach stated he had a number of shirtless camera phone photos of himself, strictly for the research purposes, mind you - that could easily be photoshopped with RepWeiner's face. He was certain RepWeiner's face on his body was a good photoshop fit. No one asked for additional details.
MrBreitbart said, "Great, we will need to leak one photo a day." Group discussion made clear to all this was the best way to trap the quarry into being caught in a drawn out series of lies.
TheLonelyConservative asked "what if RepWeiner contacts the FBI?" LibertyAtStake said he would simply activate the guy at FBI who owes him a favor, in the event it was needed.
TheWarPlanner wondered out loud how we could be sure the criminally biased MSM wouldn't uncover our plot. The entire room erupted in laughter and moved on.
MrBreitbart observed what we needed to complete the plan was several young fetching females willing to lie in full accordance with the set up. LeftCoastRebel said he knew a conservative beach volleyball club with some spare time on its' hands.
MrBreitbart volunteered to be primary manager for daily plan execution.
Woodsterman woke up from his nap and vowed to forward the brilliant plan for immediate release with the next Newsbusters video.
(AP) - Jack Wiley Dithers Reporting
Update 6/8/11
Only one day since we have broken this blockbuster revelation, and the conspiracy theory is gaining momentum. It won't be long before I'm stroking my Pulitzer ... -JWD
Update 6/9/11
The nefarious hacking plot now extends to several other esteemed members of Congress. AngryWhiteDude's shooting range buddy's mole at yfrog appears to be very, very, very incentivized. What's next?
This blog will be quiet for at least the next two days … LAS will be spending the weekend in the woods and on the Shenandoah River. The Bob Schieffer Blog Roll will of course continue to be updated in real time, 24 x 7, thanks to the magic of the Intertubes, and Google’s enormous hosting cloud. Not that I expect Google to tweet the cloud diagram to anyone while I’m gone.
Until I return - I offer this paean to the intrepid Right Wing bloggers who will be manning their posts throughout the weekend …The Volunteers of America.
Or … Liberty vs. Tyranny 2012, Lessons (5:6) *Because the stakes are that biblical*
These lessons are not what most of the dolts who comprise the criminally biased MSM have told you they are over the past week. This collection of mindless lemmings has rushed to another superficial and ultimately meaningless groupthink conclusion. This over credentialed gaggle of pseudo intellectuals has concluded this one very special election represents a pattern for the upcoming general election – even after actually living through (in recent memory!), the 2009 NY-23 special election and 2010 general election. Pavlov’s dog was smarter, for chrissake.
==
First of all, the so-called “conventional wisdom” (aka “me-too-itis”) – as exemplified by this completely useless David Gergen piece – is tantamount to accepting the end of the republic. Gergen and the rest of his useless gaggle is recommending to both political parties that they should not go near Medicare, one of the two biggest unfunded entitlements (Social Security being the other) driving our national debt spiral.
The 2009 NY-23 special election had a completely inverse relationship to the results of the 2010 midterm elections. I, LibertyAtStake, shall now explain why the same will be true of NY-26 and 2012 – provided We The People continue the learning curve we began around TEA Party season 2009, and the GOP establishment manages somehow to catch up to us.
==
They (Demo-hacks and criminally biased MSM) also think NY-26 is somehow a template for massive Democrat gains in 2012. This “analysis” (charitably stated) is utterly destroyed by two utterly obvious observations:
1. No way in hell can the Demo-hack party run a fake TEA Party candidate in every 2012 race. This corrupt strategy simply does not scale.
2. While it may be the case the Demo-hacks can win with an intellectually dishonest “MediScare” platform today, it may not be the case in 18 months – depending upon how well the real lessons (following) are applied, if you please.
==
Lesson 1: The modern Democrat Party is corrupt, period.
The modern Democrat Party is willing to run a false flag candidate, as long as it means they are “winning!” (per Charlie Sheen).
The modern Democrat Party is willing to tell flat out lies about their opponents’ plans , as long as it means they are “winning!” (per Charlie Sheen).
Just for the record, the false flag candidate is one Jack Davis. And the lie (in this case) they will repeat again and again is this: the Paul Ryan plan affects current retirees and ObamaCare does not. The exact opposite is true. The Paul Ryan plan touches no one above the age of 55, and ObamaCare removes $500 Billion (half a trillion dollars) from Medicare right now.
The Demo-hack party is quite simply third world corrupt. (Kudos to radio man Chris Plante for his clever formulation: “the Third Worlding of America”). The Demo-hack party actually places winning elections above the morality of simply being truthful.
They prove it every day with the vicious demagogic ads full of falsehoods they run every cycle, including this obnoxious recent example:
==
Lesson 2: The criminally biased MSM is corrupt, period.
The criminally biased MSM, in case it’s not obvious yet, is working directly for the Demo-hack party.
I shall support this assertion with a challenge. Send me any article or post (via comments or email, I just don't care) by the criminally biased MSM that makes either of the two factual points above – i.e. Jack Davis’ false flag impact and the truth about your Granny’s status as of today. I know you David Plouffe trolls are waiting in the wings, show me something for a change – but be prepared for the “exception proving the rule” defense (if you even get that what I mean).
As a matter of fact I believe I’ll open the engagement with a pre-emptive “exception proves the rule” strike - with this simple Google search ….
Search executed 2011-05-28, 7:28 PM.
Find the exception if you can, trolls ...
==
Lesson 3: The public at large is still far too gullible – still far too susceptible to Demo-hack lies as amplified by the criminally biased MSM.
Here I point to one element of the “conventional wisdom” that should be heeded – for the sake of the republic. Far too many citizens with voting rights still fall for Demo-hack lies. There remains a deep information deficit amongst those who live among us with voting rights. (Ameliorative topic for another post: the No Representation Without Taxation Amendment)
Lesson 4: The GOP had better take off the gloves … or all hell may break loose throughout the republic.
The hapless establishment GOP is still waging politics by the Queensbury Rules. The Demo-hack party, or more accurately the Left, has been bringing brass knuckles, knives, and loaded guns to this fight - from at least the moment they invented the verb ‘to bork.’ The hapless establishment GOP had been getting its collective ass handed to it as a result – until 2010. The unique aspect of the 2010 election season was an infusion of fighting spirit from a nationwide uprising of TEA Party patriots, who wisely determined using the previously empty husk of the GOP as their political party was a winning strategy in 2010.
It is still the best strategy going into 2012, in my opinion. Unfortunately, I had hoped this opinion would be unarguable by this point in the Conservative Ascendancy. It is not – because the establishment GOP is still (disappointingly) the weak sister in this partnership.
Memo to GOP: We cannot afford to have you put up any more RINOs. Jane Corwin is the perfect example of who *not* to run. She was inarticulate, squishy, and unpersuasive on the big issue - Medicare. You know the Demo-hacks are going to demagogue Medicare from now until election day 2012. It’s in their DNA, period. The Conservative Ascendancy needs articulate spokes people, who also possess a fighting spirit. We need people who are willing and able to take the argument directly to the Demo-hacks. And I mean directly. No quarter, no compromise – because none will be given. For chrissake, you’ve been having your ass handed to you for 20 some odd years – are you even smarter than Pavlov’s dog?
And besides, if you lose the respect and trust of the TEA Party patriots … you will hand the Left exactly what it seeks to exploit … anarchy.
Footnotes
A round up of professional Analyzers and Opinionators who see eye to eye with LibertyAtstake …
Lesson 2 shall stand on my challenge to readers and trolls. Bring it on, [removed by adminsistrator].
Update 5/31/2011
The long Memorial day weekend has dropped an object lesson in Lesson 2 into our national lap (so to speak). Watch the ironically named Democrat congressman with a taste for young party girls, and a lack of control over his social media technology, get a pass from the criminally biased MSM. Join the search for justice initiated by a senior member of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy. My sense is the final spin depends on Mrs. Weiner - which surely cannot portend well for Representative Weiner.
My Mossad contact has provided me with a transcript of the private meeting between Barack Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday, May 20, 2011.I have no knowledge of how he acquired it.And if questioned under oath, I will plead Fifth Amendment privilege.Our staff of highly trained Analyzers have authenticated the source material.
==
Netanyahu:“What the hell were you thinking?1967?Really?”
Obama: “Valerie told me that’s what you agreed to.”
Netanyahu:“Who’s Valerie?”
Obama: “My advisor.”
Netanyahu: “If she’s advising you on Israel, why haven’t I heard of her?”
Obama: “I dunno. Let’s get her in here right now.She’ll show you.”
{intercom comes on}
Obama: “David.David?”
Unidentified voice: “This is Monica, David’s intern.”
Obama: “Where’s David?”
Unidentified voice: “Ummmm….temporarily indisposed, sir.May I assist?”
Obama: “Please summon Valerie Jarrett to the Oval Office, please.”
Unidentified voice: “Sir, remember?She’s delivering the keynote to the Socialist Workers Collective Union Party Conference today.”
Obama: “Ah yes.”
{intercom off}
Netanyahu: “Good God, it’s worse than I thought.OK, Barry, listen up and listen good …”
Obama:“How dare you address …”
Netanyahu: “Cut the crap N.W.O. boy!I need to make lunch with Eric Cantor.If you make me late to that, then I’ll really be pissed.Now, here’s the deal – if you didn’t know it before, know it now and know it good … we define our borders, right of return is a dead letter, and no way in hell is Jerusalem ever going to be divided again.
Obama: “Hey, I think we can negotiate here, Bibi”
Netanyahu:“That’s ‘Prime Minister’ to you N.W.O. boy. Listen, I don’t care what you say to save face.Just as long as you make two points to AIPAC on Sunday, and I’ll take it from there.Number one – the negotiation is strictly bi-lateral, got it?”
Obama: “What’s Kevin Jennings got to do with this?”
Netanyahu: {sigh} “That means no U.N. role – strictly between Israel and Palestine.Number two – There is no negotiation until the Palestinians formally recognize Israel’s right to exist.Got it?”
Obama:“I’ll get Valerie on it right away.”
Netanyahu: {sigh} “I’ll be watching on Fox.Don’t screw this up.”
Have you heard? The Empty Suit Known as Barack Hussein Obama gave a major policy speech on Thursday morning, to an audience consisting of the republic’s Department of State diplomats and bureau-weenies. I was unable to catch it in real time – pinned down as I was a mere two Metro stops away, looking after my tiny and insignificant slice of Barry’s dysconomy.
Eventually that afternoon, I had the opportunity to read the text, courtesy of Wall Street Journal Online. I was only able to take out enough time to read it about ¾ of the way through. This initial contact gave me the sense that the speech was a great big nothing-burger, a real “yawner,” which is the speech Heritage’s James Jay Carafano apparently saw in real time.
==
Then during the day, something started happening on my personalized Google home page and my blog roll. This particular something sent me from “yawn” to “wtf?!?” – in the manner an amplifier can be sent from one to eleven simply by turning a knob. Posts from others began appearing that made clear the Empty Suit Known as Barack Hussein Obama had saved the best for last – presuming to instruct Israel it must withdraw to its’ 1967 borders. A more naked abandonment of an ally one could hardly imagine.
This information moved my thinking forward to the sentiment expressed by the following comment I wrote on the Daily Caller site:
Initial Reaction from LAS: (1) Barry voted “present” on “Arab Spring” – if classically liberal democracy miracously emerges, the soaring but empty rhetoric allows him to swoop in and claim Great Man credit, but if (much more likely) Islamist rule emerges the foreign aid proposals just continue the line of pandering started in Cairo; and (2) Barry never misses a chance to throw Israel under the bus. There is toasting happening in official Tehran right now.
==
I was unable to record this comment until 10:08 pm on Thursday because I had some “required fun” to attend earlier that evening – namely a high school band concert, in which my eldest son participated as first chair bassoonist. (The boy can shred a bassoon – let me tell you).
While silently taking in the talented utes’ musical exertions – Gershwin, Mancini, Sousa, and such – I allowed my mind to wander across the landscape of this topic. One of the many connections I made during this period of silent reflection was a new label (as far as I know) for BHO – the Tehranian President – you know, in the spirit of the Manchurian Candidate.
==
The outline for this post really took shape the next morning, when I was driving back into the office, and I heard Chris Plante start his radio show with a bit of grade-A snark implying BHO is in fact the 12th Iman.
During the day on Friday, I literally jotted down the outline itself.
==
I mean, really, ask yourself – what has BHO done that is any different than a hypothetical US President secretly working in Tehran’s interests would do?
Kick off term of Office with major speech pandering to the region
Take Palestinian negotiating position on Israeli settlements
Offer no support to democracy protestors demanding regime change in Iran
Turn a blind eye while Iranian Islamist regime builds a nuclear weapons program
Throw Egyptian secular regime under the bus, creating a vacuum Islamists may yet fill
Pursue policies to repeat previous in Libya, Bahrain, Yemen, and Syria
Assassinate UBL - when finally utterly unavoidable
Bend over backwards to give UBL a proper Islamist burial
Take Palestinian negotiating position on Israeli borders
==
And so, I come back to the framework of my ‘Stupid or Treasonous?’ series. The only way to square BHO’s actions with the notion he’s the “smartest guy in the room” is to conclude he is double-dealing.
But, at least for now, this is not BHO’s top problem. His immediate problem is that Benjamin Netanyahu is in town. Bibi – as his friends call him – is no BHO. Bibi is a stand up guy. Bibi also has the support of a lot of Americanswise enough to stand with the only established democracy in the region. Oh, and an American Presidential candidate, too. And Bibi has been schooling Barry while in town, with more to come.
Things are really, really, interesting right now ….
I just managed to catch BHO’s speech to AIPAC in real time – via Fox News. Overall - much better. The pander on commitment to Israeli security appeared genuine, though with this guy who can really tell? The clarification on his Thursday remarks wasn’t bad, though one yearns for a POTUS who doesn’t need to clarify the firestorms he creates so often.
Most importantly, he hit the right note on the only two points that really matter (to the negotiation process, that is): (1) The UN has absolutely no role to play here – it must be a two party agreement between Israelis and Palestinians, and (2) Negotiations are meaningless until the Palestinians formally recognize Israel’s right to exist.
Maybe Bibi slipped Barry a teleprompter draft when they met privately Friday …. ;)
In my most recent post, “Barry’s Pyrrhic Victory Lap,” I explained why the Empty Suit Known as Barack Hussein Obama running for re-election on newly manufactured national security credentials is an absurdity.
Now I shall explain why BHO may have no choice but to run on this absurdity - all the way to “Shellacking II,” scheduled for November 6, 2012.
The explanation is summarized by the following Lisa Benson cartoon, and this simple truth we are all living in real time – BHO’s economy sucks. And it will continue to suck as long as he remains in office, because BHO and the Progressives are stuck on Keynesian stupid.
==
Before I explain in further detail, I offer to the reader a very clever YouTube videothat is very educational on three points in a very entertaining format: (1) the assumptions underlying the macroeconomic theory of John Maynard Keynes, (2) the competing assumptions underlying the macroeconomic theory of Friedrich Hayek, and (3) the plain fact that policy makers have generally preferred Keynes’ ideas over Hayek’s ideas, despite a better record of performance from latter.
Keynesian economics is a top down, centrally managed, command driven, theory that assumes "experts" can direct capital where it is most needed in a complex market system. Hayek’s competing framework is a bottom up model based on the idea that trusting individuals to make independent decisions in their own self-interest produces the most good for the greatest number of people.
According the macro-economic theories of John Maynard Keynes, the $862 Billion stimulus package that was BHO’s first significant act should have had the US economy humming along beautifully by now. According to the theory, public “experts” pumping huge amounts of public cash into the private economy revitalizes the private economy - and BHO's stimulus was the biggest money pump in human history.
It didn’t work in the Great Depression of the 1930’s, it didn’t work for Japan in the 1990’s, and it’s not working now. The reason it never works is the false premise that government money pumped into the private economy is somehow “new” to the economy. A moment’s reflection exposes the fallaciousness of this premise. Governments only have two ways to raise revenue: (1) print new paper money, which is not actually new wealth, and is therefore inflationary (unless interest rates are artificially held down - which is the building stress fracture in US monetary policy right now), or (2) tax existing wealth out the private economy – which merely redistributes wealth from one set of private hands to another, with overhead built into the transfer to fund the government intervention itself. Governments simply produce no new wealth, ever.
Hayek, on the other hand, based his macroeconomic theories on the far more subtle notion of spontaneous order. That is, for my purposes here, the complex system of exchange between self-interested consumers and producers does something truly magical – it actually creates new wealth in the economic system merely via the exercise of economic activity. Every time a producer supplies a valuable product or service to a consumer, the fair market value the consumer provides back in exchange is economic activity. When government policy encourages and rewards economic activity, over time it results in measurable economic growth, which is good to one degree or another for everyone.
If you are thinking at this moment “show me the proof” – congratulations, you are a sentient being. Prepare to begin the chartapalooza.
==
It turns out our 40th President – Ronald Reagan - implemented policies inspired by the Hayek school of thought. It also turns out Mr. Reagan “inherited” a deep recession very similar to the one Mr. Obama told us at the beginning of his term he would fix with his Keynesian Stimulus package.
The Wall Street Journal recently compared the growth in GDP during the two officially measured “recoveries,” and found Messrs. Keynes and Obama to be lagging Messrs. Hayek and Reagan considerably. I took the Journal’s numbers, covering the first seven quarters of official “recovery,” and captured them in a very sophisticated charting system known as MS Excel. Here’s the chart for quarters one through seven. (I think I’ll bring this chart back, updated, each quarter moving forward. The trend will not change, trust me on that.)
And apparently, there is an inverse relationship between GDP growth and unemployment. Whoulda thunk it? The trend lines are the important part of the following data series, spanning the 21 months equating to the previously charted 7 quarters.
==
I’m not the only blogger who has been charting the economic wreckage the Keynesian impulses of BHO and the Progressives have inflicted upon the republic.
Doug Ross, on April 12, posted eight very troubling measures of this wreckage. Under Progressive stewardship dating back to the 2006 mid terms, the republic is deeply worse off on ALL of these measures: unemployment rate, price of gasoline, national debt, budget deficits, housing values, stock market values, employment rate, and consumer price index.
On May 9, Mr. Ross demonstrated when the government reports the economy stuck at 9% unemployment, Main Street actually feels 20% (or more).
On May 6, the Weekly Standard showed us how real wages are dropping for those still lucky enough to have a job. (Notice the positive curve slope for Reagan vs. the (charitably stated) flat curve slope for Obama so far)
So, who wants to debate the odds that the nation upon which the Empty Suit Known as Barack Hussein Obama has visited all this wreckage will re-elect him?
The Empty Suit Known as Barack Hussein Obama has been running around the nation this week patting himself on the back for making a decision LibertyAtStake is confident no fewer than 80% of all Americans would have had no trouble making. He will find this victory lap to be pyrrhic.
I love the sensibility offered by the origins of the term ‘pyrrhic victory’ - probably because it connects with my own hyper-developed sense of irony. From the Greek literary tradition, I also like how it tangentially connects to the eastern concept of ‘Karma’ – that is, what one does today sets in motion unseen ripple effects in one’s future.
BHO has created some really bad Karma this week, for the only thing he really cares about all, his re-election in 2012.
==
For starters, after making the ‘gutsy’ decision almost no one would criticize, the week of celebrations exposed total incompetence in the most basic executive function – telling a consistent story.
I mean, really, how hard is it to hold the internal meeting that ends with “that’s our story and we’re sticking to it”?
==
Also damaging to BHO’s re-election prospects in the immediate aftermath of History’s Most Obvious ‘Gutsy’ Decision is what it revealed about his character, and the character of his Leftist fellow travelers.
Even the liberal operative Lanny Davis noted this character defect. It is the Left’s absolute unwillingness to give President Bush any credit whatsoever for putting into place the very policy framework that made BHO’s victory lap possible.
In the spirit of my humble little blog project - which might be summarized as “returning fire in kind” – I have created the following little graphic to more accurately summarize the reality. Earlier this week I had it in my “Snark U.” space with the caption ‘Giving Credit Where Credit is Due.’
The Powerline Blog performed a deeper examination of the ungracious ingratitude demonstrated by BHO and the Progressives.
The character defect of the Left that prevents them from acknowledging President Bush's contribution is: for them all things are political. This mindset leads them easily into fits of intellectual dishonesty that are sometimes tortuous, and often humorous, to watch. In this particular case, acknowledging the now obviously established fact the intelligence trail that led to UBL started with enhanced interrogation would run counter to one of their central political narratives of the past ten years – therefore it cannot be acknowledged and must be whitewashed. The hemming and hawing they are now forced into will have negative political effects for them that are perfectly captured by this Eric Allie cartoon.
BHO himself displayed this very character defect when unexpectedly confronted with the plain fact his administration is engaged in making life a living hell for the very CIA interrogators who made his Sunday night I-Me-My speech possible. When 9-11 family member Debra Burlingame asked him politely to consider dropping the politically motivated charges on these men, Barry petulantly dismissed her.
Taking on his Leftist base by ensuring this case gets dropped immediately – now that would be real political courage. Which is why you won’t see it from BHO.
==
Also exposed in the discussions opened by Barry’s unseemly victory lap is the plain fact his administration has no idea what to do with enemy combatants captured in the War on Terror. This is why every mission is a kill mission – even for American citizens. (I love the line “[t]his week is the week we settle all family business” in the linked Hot Air article.)
The law enforcement centric policy they came into office with has been an abysmal failure, and they can’t fall back on it now for political reasons. They aren’t willing to use the interrogation or detention tools they inherited from the previous administration for political reasons. This means the loss of a vitally important intelligence capability. It also means this administration’s only option for every high value target is assassination. Including American citizens such as Anwar al-Awlaki – and I fault both the Bush and Obama administrations for failing to produce a due process for convicting this pig for treason.
Forthright discussion of these national security issues during the campaign will redound to the benefit of any candidate running against BHO that chooses to raise them.
The initial raw intelligence that lead to getting UBL was the code name of a UBL associate, gleaned under George W. Bush's enhanced interrogation policy.
That raw intelligence was connected to a specific person by CIA analysts during George W. Bush's administration.
That person was tracked down to a location by CIA analysts during Barack H. Obama's administration.
That person's location turned out to be UBL's location.
US Navy SEALs did a magnificent job of taking UBL into custody (or his body, anyway).
Other members of our magnificent professional military no doubt performed the forensics necessary to establish beyond a shadow of doubt, for any but the most ardent conspiracy theorist, the body the SEALs took into custody was indeed UBL.
UBL's body was given an appropriately unceremonious and disgraceful internment as fish food.
The United States of America remains exceptional. At least when our elected leaders acknowledge we are, and allow us to be.
==
Oh yeah, and the question hangs - what did the Pakistani government know and when did they know it? They got some 'splainin to do regarding their true sympathies in the ongoing War on Terror. Now comes the hard part for BHO.
Update 5/3/11
Even when BHO and the Progressives are doing the right thing, they can't help but do the wrong thing. New reporting is informing us of this politically correct outrage - BHO actually went to great pains to make sure the mass murderer UBL was interned at sea according to Muslim tradition. Memo to Barry: Drop the stupid PC Muslim outreach thing - it's not working with them and it's not working with us.
Update #2 5/3/11
Just thinking about some other SEALs who have been in the news during this administration's reign of comedy. Will Barry have a beer summit to thank Petty Officers Julio Huertas, Jonathan Keefe, and Matthew McCabe for their service?
6/9/14
Jack Wiley Dithers reports Bowe Bergdahl has received a 'care package' from his former platoon mates. It consists of a copy the nod-disclosure agreement the four star bureaucrats from the Pentagon made them sign, a plain paper bag filled with dog sh*t, a bic lighter, aand instructions to set the lot on fire.
== 5/26/14
Quickie Analysis: Barry's Big Arlington National Cemetery Speech, Memorial Day 2014 ... (1) Pats self on back for ending war in Afghanistan. Actually, what he did was launch a half-ass "surge" pre-announcing a withdrawal, resulting in 3/4 of total conflict casualties, and moving the ball from where Bush handed it to him not one single yard. (2) Hand picks a handful of heroes to highlight based on Leftist political criteria around skin color and surname. Alright, if that's the compromise we need to make with the Leftist ideologue for civil speechifying, so be it. (3) Completely glosses over VA scandal. A couple of sentences containing generic bullsh*t, no specific solutions offered. Probably because the best solution involves completely eliminating the VA and just giving vets access to congress' insurance plan. All they have to do is print some cards and mail them out, then turn off the lights at VA. The problem for Barry is, this common sense solution exposes the closest thing we have to "single payer" socialized medicine as the death trap it actually is, and therefore creates an inconvenient news cycle for the Left's evolutionary plans for ObamaKare. In summary: no leadership, no surprise.
== 5/25/14
OK, on this Memorial Day weekend 2014, my final thoughts have come to me concerning a solution to the Veteran's Administration FUBAR. It's a simple three point point plan. So simple even the hacks in DC's ruling elite could pull it off. (1) Immediately fire every bureaucrat that had anything to do with the secret waiting lists, revoking for all time each one's right for a government job of any kind. (2) Abolish the VA. Those bureaucrats not convicted of secret wait listing may apply for another government job if they so wish. (3) Every vet gets the same health insurance plan we give to congress. I believe the four star bureaucrat named Shinseki will be falling under point (1).
==
The largest potential market ever (China's) is why Vladmir Putin can take the European market so lightly.
== 5/21/14 NO MORE G-D CRONY CAPITALIST BAILOUTS! The insurance companies made their bed with Obama, they can sleep in it and take the consequences damn it!
== 5/19/14
Mary Katherine Hamm has broken the code for understanding the Obama administration's playbook for stonewalling scandals on the Hot Air blog. (hat tip: Pirate's Cove) Next she needs to get off her mistaken idea these hacks didn't come into office with a plan. Jeezus, the guy meant something when he said "...fundamentally transform America." Tactical buffoonery may muddle strategic goals, but it does not exclude them. ObamaKare is the archetypal model of the "end state" in "fundamentally transform," Ms. Hamm. The VA scandal gives us the prototype for bureaucratic obfuscation that will be an integral facet of that end state.
== 5/16/14
The surname Shinseki sounds Japanese. Shouldn't the Veteran's Administration Secretary be falling on his sword by now? Figuratively, of course. Either fire the people responsible for the secret waiting lists, or get on with the Hari-Kari so somebody else can, General.
== 5/14/14
If the St. Louis Rams cut Michael Sam in training camp this summer the Left will assure us global warming is to blame. Racism if he makes the squad but a white guy starts ahead of him. Homophobia if he makes the squad, but a black guy starts ahead of him. Koch brothers conspiracy if he makes the squad, gets a lot of snaps, but very few tackles - must have paid those offensive coordinators to single him out in the blocking schemes. If he actually performs well, the petitions to draft him for President in 2016 will start circulating among the Leftists.
== 5/12/14 THIS is why immigration amnesty is a non-starter until we have an administration willing to enforce existing law. If they were playing catch and release with the undocumented gardeners and housekeepers, that would be one thing. But their own reports reveal they are releasing undocumented murderers, sexual predators, and other career criminals into the so-called "shadows." No deal on amnesty. It's about undocumented Democrat votes for them, and they are already pretty good at manufacturing those.
== 5/8/14
Ted Cruz has drafted the Articles of Impeachment for the Saul Alinsky Radical Occupying the Oval Office. Let's keep this documentation safe for after the next election, in which Dingy Harry Reid's Praetorian Guard of Democrat lickspittles is scheduled to lose control of the US Senate.
== 5/7/14
Lois Lerner, employee of the people and corrupt Leftist apparatchik, will be slapped with her richly deserved contempt of congress charge today. Lerner can now consider the possibilities for saving her own skin by delivering her political masters to justice – compelled by a contempt of congress charge after asserting a 5th Amendment right she does not enjoy as the people's employee. What I really want to know is: when do we get to see her hauled out of her tony Bethesda crib in cuffs by the law?
== 5/3/14
Jack Wiley Dithers (JWD) reports it was Ellie Light who fabricated the Benghazi video lie. Dithers also claims it was Ellie Light who came up with 'What Difference Does It Make!' as Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign slogan.
== 5/2/14 Liars of Benghazi to be held to account by Special House Investigation.Memo to Speaker Boehner: Should have been done two years ago. Don't think this gives you flight clearance for an immigration amnesty bill, either.
== 5/1/14 What ails the republic in precisely three paragraphs. GDP only grew one tenth of one percent in first quarter 2014, 5 full years into the so-called "recovery" given to us by the progressive geniuses of the Obama administration, and their lickspittles in the corrupt and biased liberal media haven't even noticed. The photograph in the linked post is misguided, though. Wall Street is doing fine. Crony. Capitalism. Takes. Care. Of. Number. One. This is a main street recession.
== 4/29/14 Disastrous poll for Democrats. They've spun up the youth vote so much, without delivering results, that the poor pitiful idealistic kids are being driven away from voting at all. My comment to the original post is worth repeating here: A sign of Obama Fatigue Syndrome (OFS) among the nation’s utes, which will lead to some reflection, leading perhaps to some mitigation of the Low Information Voter problem.
== 4/28/14
Kinkophiles will be glad to learn from this Dave Davies BBC interview that he and Ray are getting along well enough (at least for now) to be considering a band reunion. Fantastic news ... but left unaddressed is this question - is Dave getting along well enough with original drummer Mick Avory to let him back in?
== 4/27/14
Concerning racist remarks proven to be have been uttered by cattle rancher and grazing fee scofflaw Cliven Bundy, and (probably soon to be) proven to have been uttered by LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling ... the exception proves the rule. Don't overplay your hand with this recent bounty of race warfare riches, Lefties. These two men will pay a price for their racism, we all know it, and you have already cried racist wolf too many times with the rest of us. At least wait until you can prove even one case of TEA Party racism after leveling the charge ad nauseam for the past five years, before trying to capitalize too much on this week's news.
== 4/26/14
AYFKM? Our state department now proposes to prevent the Red Army from invading Ukraine with a firestorm of ASCII binary code 00100011.
== 4/22/14 Good Supreme Court decision today upholding Michigan's ban on racial hiring quotas. Combined with tolerating the incompetent reign of the Quota President for six going on eight years now, maybe we can put this whole silly sixty year old white guilt driven 'Affirmative Action' industry behind us eventually after all. For if this group or that group is held to a lower standard in perpetuity, what does that say about what we think of the group in question? It's called the soft bigotry of low expectations, kiddies.
== 4/19/14
It has begun. Read the comment tussle between me and the anonymous OFA troll 'Fannysyeraunt'. The Left is already gearing up to play off ObamaKare's failures by agitating for a 'Single Payer' solution - which is to say all care and all finances routed through Big Brother's central bureaucracy. As the comment thread demonstrates, they will try to bamboozle the public with cherry picked and carefully packaged data. Like with 'climate change.' My automatic response to this tactic on the 'climate change' front has long been 'explain how the Roman and Medieval Warm Periods in the data fit your theory.' They of course cannot. I'm still working on a stock killer response for the Single Payer argument we will soon be forced into with the Left - but 'British teeth' is pretty good for now I think.
== 4/15/14
The good news on how the Cliven Bundy / BLM stand off resolved is the BLM withdrew their storm troopers, proving Tyranny still has a long way to go before ruling the day in this republic. The bad news is Bundy actually doesn't have a legal leg to stand on, meaning this was the wrong fight to pick for Team Liberty. Even if the BLM had overreacted, they would have had their apologists picking at Bundy's lack of standing much like the DEA has its apologists for Waco based on David Koresh's weirdness. Now for the really weird part of the current drama ... Dingy Harry Reid seems to have some kind of financial interest in an adjoining piece of property. Coincidence? Methinks not. I'm guessing the funereal Senate Majority Leader (soon to be Senate Minority Leader) is lamenting an unfortunate delay in the progress of his personal financial plan. How's he supposed to buy that land from Uncle Sam for development if those damned cattle are still grazing on it?
== 4/11/14
Now THIS is technology at work. The perfect storm from a smartphone, stupid crook, and alert 911 dispatcher gives us another story you just coudln't make up.
== 4/10/14
The Democrats are now running around executing the gender warfare page of their playbook (they really only have three plays in the book: race warfare, class warfare, and gender warfare). It is a political strategy in an election year designed to distract from their failures of governance, chiefly ObamaKare and the economy. This time it's the 'gender pay gap' canard, based on faulty statistics that are based on blended averages that in no way account for measuring equal work. In other words, statistics not properly normalized to measure gender as the only variable with everything else (i.e. equal work) held constant. In other words, useless statistics: or to quote Mark Twain (according to some) - "lies, damned lies, and statistics."
==
There is, however, one *real* 'war on women' these Donkey Party corruptniks won't be endlessly and breathlessly talking about - Radical Islam's systematic persecution of women. They won't be mentioning Brandeis University's cowardly act of political correctness that denied Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who would be a Leftist feminist heroine if the Left had consistent scruples, the honorary degree she earned with scars inflicted by the brutalizing hand of Radical Islam itself.
== 4/9/14
I just figured out what's been rubbing me the wrong away about Fox's hot show 'The Five.' They come off like they're not talking to anybody but each other. In that snickering vibe you get from the cool kids' middle school lunch table, as a matter of fact. And they seem to be enjoying the place at the cool kids' lunch table a little too much. It's almost like a high production value cable access show now where a small clique comments on the headlines available to everybody else, and gets off on the self-perceived notoriety from repeating the obvious on the boob tube. I know their format makes it tough, but they need to figure out how to bring in people to talk to that actually add information to the discussion.
== 4/2/14
Barack Hussein Obama took a Rose Garden victory lap yesterday associated with the announcement of a sophistical seven million number. While the sarcastically partisan staged celebration may have lifted the Empty Suit's spirits for one day, there is still much time between now and November for those spirits to be dampened by a few simple follow up questions: 1. How many enrollees have actually paid in to initiate coverage? 2. How many enrollees were actually previously uninsured? 3. What is the true future cost passed on to state governments by the law's expansion of medicaid? 4. What is the true future cost passed on to taxpayers by the exchange subsidies? Lord knows we won't get any such thing from the corrupt and biased liberal lamestream media, but I think the hacks of the Establishment GOP might get enough grass roots conservative (aka TEA Party) help in this cycle to pull it off. Despite themselves.
== 3/31/14
April 8: Windows XP R.I.P. As far as I'm concerned, Microsoft could have ended the desktop upgrade scam right there and focused more energy on hardening the enterprise server product line. But they had the money to waste, so ... no harm, no foul?
== 3/28/14
The vaguely talented left wing comedian Stephen Colbert finds himself in hot twitter water with his Leftist audience. It seems he tried to make light of Daniel Syyder's Native American Bribery Foundation, and Colbert's joke fell flat with fellow race obsessed Lefties. Karma. Defined. And, btw, here's the memo to Dan Syder: Your bribe will not make them go away permanently. The bribes never do. They will be back in due time. Probably before the Redskins are a legitimate contender under your regime.
== 3/26/14 THIS is how fascist regimes enlist useful idiots to replace parenthood with fearful worship of the state in the minds of children. Both the principal and the cops in this case richly deserve to lose their jobs without pay, and to be awarded a scarlet 'I', permanently worn as the mark of their Idiocy.
3/24/14
Obama administration English translation for 'Reset' - unilateral disarmament for NATO missile defense system. Putin regime Russian translation for 'Reset' - reclaim Soviet empire territory. Talk about asymmetrical warfare.
== Man oh Man Manischewitz! If aborted fetuses can be used for heating fuel ... how close, really, is western civilization to sinking to the level of Soylent Green for food?
== 3/22/14 Moochelle's crew exporting their sense of entitlement to America's banker. No word on how Wall Street feels about possibly being left holding the bag if the Chinese become annoyed enough to call in the loans.
== 3/18/14
I can no longer stand all the blubbering on the Right about “losing sovereignty” and “giving up control of the Internet” just because ICANN’s contract with the Department of Commerce is up for renewal in 2015. The italicized excerpt is my comment to a NewsBusters post.
I'm yawning. The US isn't "giving up control of the Internet." Nobody "controls" the Internet. The proposal is simply to transfer stewardship over the low level administrative function of making sure addresses are unique and routable. Until 1998 it was literally one guy at USC. Since 1998 it has been a bunch of non-profit IT geeks called ICANN with a Deprtment of Commerce contract. With IP v6 there are 2 to the 128th power possible ip addresses and associated domain names. Nobody is in danger of running out anytime soon. It's no more insidious than the international cooperation that is necessary to ensure phone calls connect worldwide. Except you pretty much get to pick your own block of phone numbers from a practically unlimited range and all you have to do is register them to make them uniquely routable. Holding this database of unique location identifiers offers no more security access to the locations themselves than the postman knowing my address offers access to everything in my home. Plus, if I do it right, everything in every letter (ip packet) the guy handles is encrypted so that only I can read it. Yawn.
I should have also mentioned none of this has anything to do with the actual activity of routing Internet packets. That is accomplished by the incomprehensibly deep redundancy of all the Domain Name Servers out there, too numerous to count, to which the entire database has been propagated.
Nobody is taking our Internet away. Nobody can. That’s why it’s the greatest 1st Amendment weapon in history. Every entry level sys admin everywhere essentially has a complete image of the Internet's topology. Focus, people! The issue for Liberty vs. Tyranny 2014 is ObamaKare.
== 3/17/14
There are reports some precincts in the Crimean secession vote yesterday had more votes than living souls. Well, if any American President can pin this type of corruption on someone else it should be OFA's political leader!
== 3/14/14
The only solution to this "dilemma" is a blanket order deputizing all First Responders as ICE agents. Only in Obama's America could an illegal immigrant dare to go on the top rated cable news TV channel to press his case for a civil lawsuit against the very people who saved him from drowning. The watery motif also bring s back to mind that old lawyer joke ... "What do you call a thousand lawyers at the bottom of the sea? A good start."
== 3/11/14
Why is Bolshevik thug Vladmir Putin annexing Crimea? Because he wants a friendly puppet government in Kiev running Ukraine according to his wishes. And because he can. He wants domain over the people of Ukraine because Russian imperialism (whether czarist or communist) is alive and well, despite the naive and bungled 'reset' diplomacy of the Obama/Clinton/Kerry foreign policy regime. He can because he sees retreat and retrenching in every move made by the naive and bungling Obama/Clinton/Kerry foreign policy regime. Three things our so-called national leadership should be doing right now (but isn't) ... (1) freeze every single dollar of wealth the Russian thugocracy has stashed in western assets, (2) forward deploy significant offensive military formations to NATO's new eastern frontier in Poland, Slovakia, Romania, and Hungary (a short drive to Kiev), (3) start exporting America's abundant supply of natural gas to Europe to begin severing their dependence on Russian pipelines. I might add a fourth project - build time machine to go back to 2009 with today's newspaper in order to convince the newly elected Chicago Community Organizer that cancelling ABM defense for NATO is not a good idea. Nah, the odds of success would be too long ... not of building the machine, but of convincing the Whirled Peas ideologue.
== 3/6/14
There is great irony in the corrupt IRS apparatchik Lois Lerner seeking constitutional protection in the 5th Amendment - when she is clearly guilty of scheming to abuse her official powers to deny her political enemies their 1st Amendment rights. In any event, unfortunately for her, she was too loquacious in her May 2013 testimony to Congress. When she asserted she did nothing wrong she effectively waived her right to hide behind the Fifth. The next logical step is to hold her in contempt of Congress and let her think about her options behind bars for awhile. I would advise Ms. Lerner to choose the orange jump suit over the striped two piece. She seems more of a fall in terms of fashion.
==
Oh yeah, have I mentioned ... when it comes to high stakes international poker - always take the KGB Colonel over the Community Organizer. Putin's line that the Russian soldiers in Crimea spontaneously generated is especially entertaining. He will get away with it.
== 3/4/14
Quick note on the human capacity to learn from experience. I have been very accurately (trust me, very accurately) measured by the Myers-Briggs instrument as an INTJ. The dead on proof of the human capacity to learn from experience is this line from the linked Wikipedia article: "Perhaps the most fundamental problem [with INTJs], however, is that INTJs really want people to make sense." I have based every analysis for god knows how long on the sure knowledge they almost never do.
== 3/3/14
The italicized excerpt is my concluding remarks from a Daily Caller comment board encounter. I have reprinted it here because it neatly encapsulates my position on immigration amnesty, crony capitalism, and why the US Chamber is on the wrong side of the issue. Also note I waited an entire day for my sparring partner to answer a simple and direct question. He did not - the dead on sign I was sparring with a paid troll. Probably paid by the US Chamber.
Since you have avoided answering my simple, direct question for an entire day (What number of employees constitutes "big" on your scale?), I will give you the reply I already had teed up. In my experience, it is just above 100 employees where the pressures of making the payroll creates pressures transforming company leaders from entrepreneurs with the best intentions to naked capitalists. At that relatively smallish (compared to GE) scale, the math of meeting a payroll, maintaining cash flow, and staying profitable with shrinking margins is very daunting. The corporate leader will begin to cut corners, such as taking on the habits of the crony capitalist. It may start with seeking favors from local politicians and zoning boards. It can certainly include joining a trade association (such as the US Chamber) in the hopes of aggregating into an entity with the scale Jeff Immelt's GE has to hire lobbyists to create loopholes that allow GE to pay zero taxes. Agri-business, construction, restaurants (fast, slow, and in-between) with 100+ employees … how many of these smart capitalists valuing cheap labor to help tight margins do you think there might be? By your own description, most would be Chamber members, no? The solution to crony capitalism is neither more cheap labor nor demonizing these employeers. The solution is removing gub'ment's power to grant special favors to the employers that the rest of us pay for. == 3/2/14
Those Vast Right Wing Conspiracy (VRWC) liars who, according to Dingy Harry Reid, have been smearing the glorious roll out of ObamaKare with dastardly lies are now building Mardi Gras floats to spread their lies. I expect Team Obama to blame the spontaneous demonstration represented by these floats on a Koch Brothers funded YouTube video.
== 2/18/14
A few words on DC’s recent passage of a “clean” (i.e. unconditional) bill to raise the debt ceiling, in the style of ‘LAS the Predictor.’ (1) It will contribute to deeper Democrat losses in the 2014 midterm elections. Because nothing brings out voters like anger, and the angry bloc this year is fiscally conservative. (2) But, not so fast, Establishment GOP cronies. Don’t count on 2014 being a boon election for you, either. The principled grass roots conservative (i.e. TEA Party affiliated) caucus within the GOP will increase in strength. Because nothing brings out voters like anger, and the angry bloc this year is fiscally conservative. (3) The leadership challenged Campaigner-In-Chief will spend his last two years in office complaining about a do-nothing Congress, while he does nothing to negotiate with the co-equal branch of government about doing things . (4) The constitutionally challenged Saul Alinksy Radical Occupying the Oval Office will continue to push the limits of lawless governance with increasingly blatant unconstitutional unilateral executive actions. (5) The republic will survive because the Founders gave us a brilliantly designed, tyranny resistant, system of governance featuring divided powers. For example, I believe we will see the House exercise the power of the purse with more vigor in the coming years. That means cutting off the Executive branch’s allowance for those unfamiliar with how the constitution works.
I believe Speaker Boehner would have liked to have attached a spending restraint condition to the debt ceiling bill. I also believe he could have accomplished this if he approached the problem differently. He foolishly tried to present a lame condition he came up with himself (cleaning up the Veteran’s benefits mess left over from the budget deal ) to the TEA Party caucus as a fait accompli. Wrong time, wrong bill. Not only does it increase the debt bottom line (the opposite of a restraint condition!), but it was also transparently an insider political gift to Paul Ryan. More spending *and* more pork barrel … it’s almost as if Boehner set out to piss off his future party leaders. (The veteran’s benefit cuts were restored the very same day in a separate “clean” bill with overwhelming bi-partisan support, proving how lame the Speaker invented quid-pro-quo was. But, if nothing else, this trend toward smaller bills is a good thing.)
There were other, much better, conditions to attach. I liked Keystone XL pipeline approval. It would have created a favorable debate context in which to explain the principle of debt reduction by economic growth. Plus it would have put Obama into a pickle with the gaia worshiping enviro-wacko Left, as well as the 80% of the public that doesn’t understand why he just doesn’t approve it already. Charles Krauthammer suggested attaching a provision preventing any bail outs for the insurance companies from the ObamaKare train wreck. Also an argument the GOP could have won with TEA Party caucus support. If Boehner had exercised a little different leadership style, engaging the TEA Party caucus to solicit ideas on what to attach, these and other superior ideas would have surfaced. The Speaker of the Other Party of Government needs to be replaced and the mid-term elections of 2014 will make that clear.
== 2/13/14
Federal government closed today due to standard issue nor'easter snow storm. My back of the envelope calculations have determined the republic will save eight gazillion bazillion trazillion dollars in compliance costs, from regulations not published today. Any more of this 'climate change' and Obama's economy might actually create a real full time job.
== 2/10/14
NBC's coverage of the winter olympics has included giving us an empathetic portrayal of the all time statistical leader for genocide in the 20th Century Ideologies competition.
== 2/7/14
Speaker Boehner has announced the perfect condition for moving forward with an immigration bill. The Saul Alinsky Radical Occupying the Oval Office must convincingly demonstrate he is enforcing the laws currently on the books. Even the most casual observer knows selective enforcement of the laws (an impeachable offense in my opinion, and many others) has been a core feature of this administration's mad rush to 'fundamentally transform' us. This quid-pro-quo forces the corruptniks in this radical administration to justify their unconstitutionally ideological executive practices. Well done, Speaker.
==
Soon it will be time to pick the best fight to have over our now ritualistic semi-annual debt ceiling debacle. I'm partial to tying approval of the Keystone XL pipeline to adding another couple of trillion to the national credit card. The recently released State Department analysis leaves no reason not to approve the multitude of jobs it will create. Bringing this issue to the forefront puts Obama in a pickle with the only people who object - the 20% (at most) of the voting public belonging to his gaia worshiping fringe Leftist base. But, who knows, maybe the Speaker will come up with a better condition. He's on a roll now.
2/6/14 Has the GOP gone mad? One of their hacks actually thinks it's a good idea to require every single driver in America to keep meticulous records of mileage driven and pay a "mileage tax." Orwellian, supremely impractical, and fraught with the potential for fraud. We're supposed to leave that stuff to the real party of government. It's news like this that earns the GOP the title The Other Party of Government.
== 2/5/14
Local news anchor informs me this morning it is 'National Weatherperson Day.' I can see why it is a group recognition, as opposed to individual awards like the Oscars or something. I get exactly the same predictive data regardless of which 'Weatherperson' outlet I access, the time horizon for reliable prediction is exactly the same for all (24-36 hrs), and when they are wrong they are all wrong at the same time.
== 2/2/14
On a lark yesterday, picked up a couple of cheap toy remote control helicopters. Even found the perfect environment for playtime with my teenage son - an enclosed racquetball court. While becoming competent at hovering mine, learning to crash less often, and dodging the kamikaze attacks from my son's machine, it became clear why the Jetson's vision of flying cars has not been realized during my lifetime. Also, the preparation procedures clarified why the Department of Energy - a very well funded federal agency that has a habit of endowing "green energy" administration crony start-up companies with taxpayer funded loans bankruptcy "investments" - has failed to bring us the mass produced electric car. Charge time 30 minutes = flight time 6 minutes. Hmmmmmmm.
== 1/30/14
After delivering a State of the Union address that drove the nation to drink, the Campaigner-In-Chief is running around the country doing the only thing he ever really knew how to do - delivering red meat political speeches to hand-picked friendly audiences. The problem he has now is everyone will soon notice that this trick, the only trick he has ever really known, is doing nothing to improve his sorry a$$ poll ratings. The Empty Suit has a record now, and no amount of speechifying can fix it.
== 1/29/14
In last night's monumental waste of time State of the Union address, the second biggest applause line (second only to the obligatory standing O for the wounded war vet) was after the Redistributionist-In-Chief trotted out that old leftist talking point about equal pay for equal work for women. What this signals politically is Team Leftie will be out there maniacally executing the gender warfare chapter of their playbook to promote Hillary's 2016 run at the Oval Office. Some prominent conservatives - Rand Paul comes to mind - have apparently noticed this, but are taking the wrong counter-measure. Paul and others are resurrecting the Lewinsky sex and lies scandal as an attempt to discredit Hillary's credibility. This is a mistake, as it paints Hillary a sympathetic victim and enhances the victim hood politics of Team Leftie's gender warfare strategy. Better to just stay focused on Hillary's empty public record of "accomplishment." Hammer on, in descending order: (1) The leadership failure before Benghazi coupled with the YouTube video lie invented during Benhghazi (literally while the firefight was still hot) and after Behngahzi, (2) HillaryCare (1993) was the original ObamaCare, only even more buraucratic and Big Brother inspired, and (3) yeah, did you know her college thesis was about Saul Alinksy? In other words, make sure the people know electing Hillary is electing the Empty Suit Known as Barack Hussein Obama to a third term - except it's an empty pant suit filled with a white female stealth Saul Alinsky radical this time.
== 1/25/14
Last week the hacks of the Establishment GOP (aka the RNC) met to strategerize the 2016 nomination cycle. The two time losers to the Saul Alinsky Radical Occupying the Oval Office believe Mittens lost the general in 2012 because his coronation wasn’t easy enough. They want to shorten the length of the primary season, have an earlier convention, and have fewer debates. They think Mittens was ‘pulled too far to the right' in the primaries. Wrong. Mittens lost because he was the perfect ‘Richie Rich’ caricature to be pilloried by the class warfare demagoguery of the Left. If anything, the competitive primaries pulled Mittens out of the crony capitalist bubble in which the Establishment GOP (the other party of government) lives, and gave him a chance to win the general.
I saw one of the hacks on TV say he didn’t want anyone like Newt rising in the next primary. Translation: ‘Don’t pop my crony capitalist bubble, dude.’ As I explained repeatedly on this blog in 2012, Newt was their only chance to break through voter ADD and media bias to win in 2012 - because Newt was by far the best debater. On today’s uneven political playing field, debates are the only forum on which anyone not tagged (D) can break through. Mittens' poll bump during his uninspiring performance against the Empty Suit during the 2012 debates proved it. (Newt, of course, would have had the chops to go for the kill on that stage.) So, how does less debate help us identify the best debater? It doesn’t.
== 1/23/14 It begins. The wave of employer based health plan cancellations is already underway. Neither the Leftists who gave us the Train Wreck Known as ObamaKare,nor their propagandists in the legacy media, can spin the economic realities for these employers. "If you like your plan, you can keep your plan" is destined to be remembered as the lie that launched one of two socio-political waves. I believe it will be a living monument to government incompetence launching a new small government libertarian gestalt. But it's still entirely possible it launches, in a twisted Machiavellian way, the excuse for the Left to make a successful argument for Single Payer. Maybe the campaign slogan will be something like "If you like your ObamaCare, you will love Single Payer."
== 1/21/14
Federal government closed today for a few inches of snowflakes. Jack Wiley Dithers has intercepted and decoded an encrypted cable from the White House to the Park Service, invoking Executive Order 1800FU, which initiates Operation Barrycade whenever the government is shut down.
== 1/20/14
Today is Day 1 of a deal struck between a committee of experts and bureaucrats representing the civilized world (lead by Monsieur John Kerry-Heinz), and the Shi'ite mullahs of Tehran. The civilized world agrees to lift economic sanctions on Iran, and the mullahs agree to pretend to give up their dream of producing a nuclear bomb (the better to put the fear of Mohammed into infidels). The civilized world believed the cover story offered by the mullahs, in which they are interested in nuclear power for generating electricity - even though Iran sits on a veritable sea of fossil fuels. (Note global warming is not recognized by Islam as valid canon. The only religion elevating global warming to sacred mythology is the atheist Left.)
Many pundits are now saying an Iranian nuclear bomb is inevitable, and we will be forced to adopt a policy of 'containment.' This won't be your father's Cold War era 'containment' - in which the nukes were handled in plain view by uniformed military forces bound by the Geneva Conventions. Iran is also recognized as the leading state sponsor of terror on this planet.
== 1/15/14
Now we are being told the petty little tyrant in the White House "has a pen" - and he intends to use it to issue a flurry of executive orders designed to close the "income inequality" gap his policies have widened. Where to begin? A rant on the compound interest of unintended consequences to be accrued from the ham fisted statist instincts of the socialist Left? Not today. Should I make the easiest prediction ever? That is, BHO's childish concept of "governance" (in a kind of 'Lord of the Flies' raw power abuse way) has now guaranteed his economy will officially suck for his entire two terms in office. Nah. Let's keep it simple. Maybe he should finish his January 22, 2009 executive order to close Gitmo before launching any new projects. A clueless demagogue can only multitask so much.
== 1/10/14
Jack Wiley Dithers' old cohort in DC journalistic debauchery, Scoops Delacroix, has gone soft and departed the DC rat race. When reched for comment, JWD said "Meh. More booze for me."
== 1/7/14
According to our pundits and pontificators, the Democrats will be railing non-stop about "income inequality" in the run up to the 2014 midterm elections - even though the gap between rich and poor has dramatically widened under five years of Democrat policies (stimulus, crony bail outs, crony hand outs, regulation, more regulation, and did I mention more regulation, and finally unemployment extensions made necessary by the previously listed policies). It's as if the Mighty Casey, after taking his mighty swing and missing for all to see, went around afterward blaming the pitcher for a lack of offense in Mudville.
== 1/2/14
This just in ... Global Warming "scientists" finally rescued from being trapped by Antarctic ice they didn't expect. They were in search of data proving the Earth is dangerously heating, but instead produced a news event once again proving the the lame stream media's left wing bias.
== 1/1/14
New Year's Day 2014. No ObamaKare riots visible yet from where I sit. Give it a little time, 2014 will be a long, hot year. And I'm not talking about the Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) hoax. Just ask the AGW enthusiasts of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition ... now ironically frozen in place by the expanding ice sheet of Antartica. It's summer down there, don't you know.
== 12/31/13
New Year's Eve is upon us. Or, as my cop father called it ... amateur night. If you are a professional who usually does your drinking at home, like me, tonight is no night to change your modus operandi. It's gonna be wild out there on the roads tonight.
== 12/29/13
Harvard government and sociology professor agrees with what I've been saying for three and a half years on this blog ... TEA Party movement not going anywhere anytime soon. Memo to Establishment DC hacks in both parties: The clock is ticking on our present two party system consisting of the party of government and the other party of government. Resistance is futile.
== 12/27/13
Read the comment thread on this American Thinker post - GOP Establishment's War on It's Base. The battle for control of The Other Party of Government - the one labeled (R) - is on in earnest. May the grass roots conservative insurrection against the hacks of the Establishment GOP succeed in pulling the GOP back to the federalist principles of the founding. Let the corporatist wing of the GOP sleep with the big gov / big biz progressives of the Donkey Party, where they belong.
== 12/26/13
This Breitbart post - Eight Ways to Opt Out of ObamaCare - could be the most important thing you read or have read for a very long time. May you live long and prosper. And not just because Spock says so.
== 12/23/13
Quarter 4 of tax year 2013 draws near to close, and I am reminded it will soon be time to file Form 941: Quarterly Income Tax Return for my small business. I am also reminded I can pay electronically, but can't submit the matching report electronically, unless I engage a paid third party to perform this trivial administrative task for me. Therefore, filing (but not paying, mind you) the quarterly 941 tax continues to be the sole remaining paper and snail mail supported part of my entire business process. Quarter 4 of tax year 2013 has also seen the comically grotesque roll out of healthcare.goof. On second thought, maybe we should just leave well enough alone on the IRS site.
== 12/20/13 Phil Robertson vs. Pajama Boy - the cage match ... if Pajama Boy somehow improbably wins, the effete pseudo-intellectual Progressive elites get to keep their ObamaKare ... if the aging duck hunter kicks Pajama Boy's pampered little a$$ as expected, the rest of us get to have the train wreck repealed immediately ... this epic pay-per-view is screaming out to be promoted by WWE.
== 12/18/13 Study conducted by self-professed liberal Yale professor finds correlation between TEA Party affiliation and high level of scientific knowledge. Still hope for the integrity of the scientific method to survive these times. (And all along we just thought TEA Partiers were only better than DC at math.)
== 12/16/13
Another high profile shooting ... another left wing lunatic on the trigger. Sorry Corrupt and Biased Liberal Media, your wait continues for the next perfect news template to waive your agenda like a bloody shirt.
== And the solution for a viable defense against lunatic shooters reveals itself. Hint: It has nothing to do with Gun Free Zones Criminal Free Fire Zones.
== 12/10/13
Just watched the Paul Ryan / Patty Murray budget deal press conference Mutual Admiration Society Meeting. Here's my take on the sum total of what they told us ... PUNT! Here's my my advice to conservatives and libertarians. Run down field like a bat out of hell and crush that Democrat punt returner with extreme prejudice in the 2014 election cycle.
==
The federal government is closed today due to a snow storm. The Left would have you believe this means a cataclysmic blow to the national economy and result in societal meltdown. That is, based on the arguments they always make when the discussion turns to trimming a little fat off the federal leviathan. If the whole thing suddenly disappears, that must mean apocalypse! Actually, all it really means is one day without the average daily production of 300 new pages of federal regulations. Carpe diem! You can stop reading the federal register and do something productive today. Quick, before the snow stops! Before the bureau weenies waddle back to their desks!
== 12/9/13
If you blinked you missed it. The administration regime of the Saul Alinsky Radical Occupying the Oval Office has extended the ObamaKare sign up deadline from December 15 to December 23. What a pathetic joke. Eight whole extra days for a program that still depends completely on a buggy web front end, and a business process back end that is still partially constructed and completely untested. Completely untested for either business functionality or data security. And the small percentage of people who actually think they've signed up (yes - "think" - see back end issues) have been greeted with the news their premiums and deductibles will be skyrocketing as a result of this stealth redistribution plan built on the lie "if you like, you can keep ..." "Clusterf*ck" is Greek for the Democrats are in charge.
== 12/5/13
This morning I again saw the professional panhandler and Occupy Wall Street foot soldier I mentioned in this log on 11/13. He was in line ahead of me at Starbucks, acquiring his cup of overpriced caffeine. Meanwhile, the Food Stamp President, the President presiding over the lowest American labor participation rate in recorded history, is out on the campaign trail - trying to distract from his own failures with that old Leftist whine about "income inequality." The ironies abound.
== 12/3/13
The latest in ObamaCare Debacle News is this: a large failure rate for the batch file transfers from Healthcare.Goof to insurance carriers that are meant to activate coverage for people who think they have signed up. The error rate is as much as one third of all transactions according to the Obama apology rag known as the Washington Post. The good news, according to the WaPo spin, though, is sign up rates are still so low, the carriers claim the present volume of errors can be corrected manually. Except - in a nationalized system now dependent on human correction to 1/3 of all its transactions - is there really a way to know now how many consumers who now think they have coverage will actually have it when they think they need it? How many people will experience this nasty surprise as this nationalized system scales up to the entire nation? The nation is left with fingers crossed hoping the back end error rate is reduced faster than the growth rate in front end sign ups? Reduced fast enough for error prone human error correction procedures to keep up? As always, chaos is the sure sign Democrats are in charge.
== 12/2/13
Epic Thanksgiving Holiday road trip completed without major incident … left town with rented Land Yacht Lincoln Wednesday … successfully navigated into midtown Manhattan Wednesday evening without murdering any of the dozen or so cabbies who thoroughly deserved it … Wednesday night’s stay in Euro Trash boutique hotel on 8th Avenue OK … room clean and everything worked … got to see prodigal son march in Macy’s parade … his once in a lifetime experience complemented by another – he was interviewed by NY Daily News ... except I’ve seen him play a lot of instruments and “xylophone” isn’t one of them, and beside he was on the banner for the parade march … oh well, more crack American journalism at work … then a rented helicopter flight around Manhattan … man, Ellis Island is a lot smaller than I thought … 3 hour drive north for the annual tryptophan fix in Grandma’s kitchen, just later than usual … scenic westerly drive back to DC (I-88 to I-81 to I-70/I-270) … because that way there aren’t any NYC cabbies or New Jersey Turnpike Road Warriors … settled back into home base Saturday night. Now, let’s see what the Empty Suit has been up to … oh yeah, I almost forgot – he’s “fixing” that pesky website at “private sector velocity” … fixing it up so fast that eventually it might even be able to handle actual commerce. Real commerce on a web site? Unbelievable! The wonders that hundreds of millions in taxes can buy these days.
== 11/26/2013
On Chris Plante's radio show this morning they are talking about the Community-Agitator-In-Chief issuing instructions to his hypnotized zombie followers, with the assistance of his personal brown shirt gang (OFA), to get aggressively political at the Thanksgiving dinner table. You have to figure a lot of these glassy eyed kamikaze politicos will be college students. The anti-aircraft defense for the parents of these crazed dive bombers is simple. Give the young scholar an easy calculation they will immediately understand. Shut up or the beer stipend is cut off.
== 11/25/2013
Have you seen the trailer for the "Amazon original series 'Alpha House'"? It seems I can't go to any political site without hearing "We're the GOP, winning is what we do." A more ridiculous premise I have never heard.
==
Yesterday, an historic diplomatic deal was announced between western civilization and the leading state sponsor of terrorism from Mohammed's Murder Monkey Cult From Hell. Western civilization agreed to lift the economic sanctions that were designed to prevent Mohammed's Murder Monkey Cult From Hell from acquiring nuclear weapons. In return, Mohammed's Murder Monkey Cult From Hell pinky swore that all that stuff about destroying the Great Satan and wiping Israel off the map was the camel water talking.
== 11/21/2013
During my day job, I sometimes review resumes for Information Technology and Software Development people. In the coming years I expect I will see a lot of "2010-2013: personal sabbatical." where I might have instead seen something like "2010-2013: CGI, Obamacare Exchange."
== 11/20/2013
In a congressional hearing yesterday, it was revealed the back end systems for accepting premium payments through healthcare.goof still haven't been developed, much less tested. These Democrats really are hell bent on giving away more free stuff.
== 11/19/2013
Today the Empty Suit Known as Barack Hussein Obama mumbled something on camera about "one side of Capitol Hill being invested in [the] failure [of Obamacare]." What he meant to say was "the Democrats literally changed the locks on committee hearing room doors while packing 3000 pages with nothing but their ideas on the way to passing the law with nothing but Democrat votes, so the train wreck is completely 100% owned by the Democrats."
==
What is the special skill set required for "journalism"? Reading and writing? The school of journalism that can build a time machine and transport its graduates back a thousand years might have something useful to say about its product.
== 11/18/2013
On the comment boards, and inside my own noodle, I have played with the idea of supporting Representative Fred Upton’s Obamacare “fixit” bill. It’s not a terrible bill – that is if it does what it seems it will do - which is drive a stake through the fiscal heart of ObamaCare while simultaneously saying to the baying masses Republicans care too. The downside is it gives some Democrats a place to hide politically, but that consideration alone is politics too clever by half. Every Democrat who voted for the law, and then even refused to vote for funding the rest of the government at current levels during the shutdown fight, is hopelessly tied to the sinking ship already.
However, I’ve decided to be against the Upton bill. On the grounds it is a half measure itself, missing the true political and policy moment. It’s time for the GOP to do a full on “repeal and replace” bill with conservative ideas for reforming the health insurance business. The baying masses wouldn’t know it because the corrupt and biased liberal media hasn’t told them, but the Republican Study Committee has had multiple complete bills on the shelf ready to go for three years. Over to you, Speaker Boehner. Do you have the sand? The Saul Alinsky radical occupying the Oval Office, who has smeared you mercilessly lo these many years, is bleeding political capital daily. Here’s your chance to make him pay with a veto to the replacement to his “signature achievement” only to have that veto overridden. Revenge is always best served cold. Especially when the entire Donkey Party is trampling over each other in a full on panic. An opportunity like this comes less often than once a generation.
== 11/17/2013
If Barack Hussein Obama II were a man of honor, he wouldn't have said "I'm sorry" to the American people concerning his ObamaCare lies ... he would have said "Joe Wilson was right."
== 11/14/2013
I did something unusual today - I put French dressing on my salad. To honor the new leaders of the free world - at least as it concerns checking Tehran's nuclear ambitions.
==
Memo to the hacks of the Virginia Establishment GOP: Run Ken Cuccinelli for Mark Warner's Senate seat in 2014. Make ObamaCare the top issue. (even you can do that now). Make sure everybody knows Cuccinelli was the first state attorney general with the sand to challenge the legislative train wreck that Warner voted for. Not only will you flip a US Senate seat from (D) to (R) but we (grass roots conservatives) will consider keeping you on the payroll when we finish the takeover of the party.
== 11/13/2013
Walking into work this morning I distinctly recognized a panhandler as a former regular camper during the 2011-2012 McPherson Square OWS occupation. He's the guy I identified in my November 10, 2011 post "The #Occupy Meltdown Will Be Swift and Ugly From Here" as making a point of wearing the anarchist's bandana mask. Just a little full circle reminder of the utter disaster that has been the now undeniably collapsing administration of the Empty Suit Known as Barack Hussein Obama.Only 1164 days left to go.
== 11/11/2013
Navy Yard shooter, Pennsylvania Avenue car slammer, LAX shooter ... somewhere deep inside a neatly manicured campus right now, a gaggle of aging New Left socialist revolutionaries are holding the symposium Why haven't we seen more crazy violent acts, like Cloward and Piven said we would after overloading the social welfare system and destroying the economy? Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn flying in as keynote speakers.
== 11/08/2013
It's been a week since the LAX shooting. I became curious about the relative silence in the lame stream media regarding the shooter. After all, intrepid NBC "newsman" Pete Williams had all but declared the shooter was a TEA Party wing nut on the day of the shooting, based on his interpretation of what he heard was in a note no one has yet to see. A few moments in my Google machine and I understood why Williams and his fellow travelers have dropped the story. It has since been determined the shooter is a registered Democrat.
==
The practical debate surrounding the lessons of the LAX shooting seems to boil down to a choice between arming TSA or increasing the local police presence in terminals. Arming TSA is like sitting a 2 year old in front of an electrical outlet with a steel butter knife. That's my take.
== 11/07/2013
Generic 2014 campaign slogan for any Republican Senator: "Democrat is Greek for 'liar'!" You're welcome, Establishment GOP hacks.
== 11/06/2013
If you are a self-professed Libertarian who cast a vote yesterday for the false flag candidate Robert Sarvis, who got on the ballot with the financial aid of a top Obama bundler - you need to do some self reflection on how your vote helped give the VA Governor's mansion to a crony capitalist Big Government progressive, and on on how big of a dupe you think you are.
== 11/05/2013 (10 pm)
Terry McCauliffe is the new Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Congratulations, ladies, no need to stay up late with worries somebody might 'outlaw birth control.' Now, about that health insurance policy ...
==
McCauliffe's victory margin is being reported as less than 1%. Imagine what the result might have been if the Establishment GOP had actually gotten behind its nominee, instead of passively surrendering to the ruling class narrative that Ken Cuccinelli is a dangerous TEA Party anarchist principled conservative, who must be defeated to preserve the Big Government status quo. The hacks of course play into this narrative time and again because the status quo stipulates the Establishment GOP's comfortable place at the table as junior partners in the welfare state. And the hacks couldn't even get a House of Delegates name on the ballot in my voting district. How's that for a useless political party?
== 11/03/2013
If you believe the polling industry (the universe of the Real Clear Politics average) ... the corrupt political careerist, Terry McCauliffe, Democrat, the hack that rented out the Lincoln Bedroom during Bubba's administration, is a shoe in to be elected my next Governor. But the trend over time has been a narrowing lead, right up to this report: a last minute poll from "The Emerson College Polling Society" that gives McCauliffe only a +2 advantage. McCauliffe's lead has always depended on a huge advantage with women, bolstered by his campaign's lie that Republican candidate Ken Cuccinelli is in favor of outlawing birth control. Think about that for a minute - outlawing birth control. In 2013. As if. Sorry, deep thinkers, but being against government subsidies for Sandra Fluke's nine dollar a month habit isn't the same thing as outlawing it. LAS wonders if enough members of the single issue birth control vote will receive their ObamaCare induced health plan cancellations in time to put the pieces together and tip this election away from the bald-faced liar McCauliffe.
== 11/02/2013
I don't usually link to other articles in this particular space, but I recently ran across one American Thinker post that I think perfectly captures the present zeitgeist, now that 1/6 of the economy is trapped inside an incompetently rolled out web site ... Dialing 1-800-F**K-YOU.
== 10/31/2013
If you like a social security insurance program with a lock box containing nothing but IOUs from a Treasury $17B in debt ... you are going to love a health insurance exchange that gives 32 year old single males tax credits to buy insurance policies mandated to include maternity coverage. Hey, I think Steve Carell just got an idea for the '40 Year Old Virgin' sequel.
== 10/30/2013
Jack Wiley Dithers will trick or treat this year wearing the most terrifying costume of the year – health insurance salesman.
==
In 2008, the Left wanted to run against the War Monger - and they helped the Establishment GOP nominate him. In 2012, the Left wanted to run against the Rich Guy - and they helped the Establishment GOP nominate him. Unintended consequence of the ObamaCare train wreck for the Left: Obama's bromance with Christ Christie won't help them help the Establishment GOP nominate who they think will be the perfect 2016 opponent for Tan. Rested. Ready. Hillary! - the Fat Guy. (note to self: remember the Hillary / Nixon parallel, it's a good one.)
== 10/25/2013
As of today, more people who used to have health insurance have received cancellation notices than the number of people who have signed up for ObamaCare. And every person who will have the same policy in 2014 they had in 2013 (unless covered by unconstitutional exemption) will see significant premium and deductible increases for less coverage. If ObamaCare is the answer ... what was the question again?
== 10/23/2013
Here's why the government shutdown fight was well worth it. Given the increasing pace of the ObamaCare disaster, having the fight increased the probability Johnny Clueless Low Info Voter will have this thought between now and the 2014 elections: "You mean we could have avoided *both* shutdown and this ObamaCare nightmare if only they went with the House GOP bill in the first place?" You're welcome, Establishment GOP hacks.
==
Remember when Chief Justice Roberts bent himself into pseudo-intellectual pretzels to re-label the ObamaCare mandate a "tax"? Turns out he was right. He must have meant how taxing on your patience it is to use the Exchanges to sign up, and how taxing it is on your wallet to pay the higher premiums for less coverage.
== 10/20/2013
Visits originating from the Russian Federation have increased dramatically in the past few days. I seem to recall the last time I saw this pattern was around the time of Edward Snowden's usefully idiotic treason. Keep readin' fellas. There's less here than meets the eye. Or is it fella? D'ya think Putin grants Internet privileges to Snowden?
== 10/19/2013
My Google machine informs me "Starting now, the Treasury Department is allowed to issue as much debt as needed through Feb. 7. There is no specific number for debt limit." So, the drunken sailor has four months with a blank check in his pocket (apologies to drunken sailors everywhere for the comparison to DC). That marching sound is an army of really p*ssed off TEA Party patriots coming to town to slap the cuffs on him and throw him into the brig. Oh yeah, by the way, where the f*ck is the new fiscal year budget, traditionally due on October 1?
== 10/16/2013 (8 am)
That clanging sound is DC kicking the debt and deficit can down the road once again. That clinking sound is the hacks of the Establishment GOP, taking breakfast in the country club dining room, and celebrating yet another unconditional surrender to their Donkey Party overlords. That ticking sound is the official lame duck clock running out on the Empty Suit Known as Barack Hussein Obama. That honking sound is my commute sucking again, as hordes of “non-essential” bureau-weenies resume their rightful place snarling the local roads. With a nice fat back pay check waiting for them at the office. Well at least those Barrycade eyesores might go away soon if the Park Service Gestapo gets around to cleaning up its mess.
== 10/16/2013
Future readers of this archive are owed a succint explanation for the small government libertarian society in which they live. By far, the biggest reason is the dishonest messaging behind ObamaCare, which was followed by the incompetent roll out of its online Exchanges. As I write this, legions of low information young adults who thought ObamaCare was supposed to be free stuff are finding out the hard way it's going to cost them dearly to satisfy a mandate to purchase something they know they don't need ... after struggling through a federally developed web site they can see sucks ... while struggling to survive in a crappy economy that can't grow fast enough to employ all of them due to the policies of the same people that gave them the ObamaCare train wreck. They will figure it out and pass the lessons to their offspring.
== 10/14/2013
If anything perfectly encapsulates the unhinged and disingenuously overheated state of our politics today, it is loose talk of debt default from our so-called 'leaders' in DC. The plain fact is enough current revenue flows into the Treasury to pay interest on the debt and entitlements. All that is needed is sufficient leadership to prioritize these things ahead of the least necessary discretionary spending budget line items. Every household in the country not filing for bankruptcy is familiar with the process - you pay mandatory bills first, then prioritize discretionary spending and live without those things that don't make the cut. Now consider the argument offered by the hyperventilating fear mongers of 'default.' They proclaim we simply must borrow more from new creditors to pay off the old creditors. There's a term for that. Pyramid Scheme. It never ends well.
== 10/13/2013
Remember that snotty White House tweet on the anniversary of ACA passage. You know, the one with Barry's signature captioned by "It's. The. Law." Tomorrow is the two week anniversary of the ObamaCare Exchange rollout train wreck. Somehow I don't expect any White House tweets with the url captioned by "It. Don't. Work."
== 10/10/2013
I love it when a plan comes together. I honestly believe the GOP is on the precipice of winning the politics on this shutdown thing - despite media bias and low information voter ADD. All they have to do now is execute a simple two part game plan. (1)Keep sending specific spending bills to the Senate for the Donkey Party to reject. Important sign of success - Dingy Harry Reid and DC Mayor Vincent Gray are reportedly at one another's throats over funding the DC budget. (2) Keep hammering on the rank hypocrisy of Obama's twenty some odd ObamaCare exemptions to get a delay in the individual mandate. The individual mandate is the sole thin thread holding together the program financially, at least in theory. 2014 is looking a lot like 2010 squared from here. You Establishment GOP RINO hacks should just retire to your martini bars in the country club dining room and let the new de facto party leadership show you how it's done in today's arena.
== 10/9/2013
The House GOP is finally showing signs of being able to wage politics the only way it can be successfully waged against the Left. Ruthlessly. No quarter can be given because none can be expected. The strategy of passing specifically focused micro spending bills is perfect. It turns the tables. Keep putting the White House and Dingy Harry in the position of explaining why they won't fund kittens and puppy dogs while the larger debate carries on. And make no mistake - if the GOP doesn't fold as usual they will reap a massive 2014 electoral victory. The Donkey Party owns the train wreck that is ObamaCare. They own the train wreck that is the ObamaCare Exchange roll out. Keep passing bills to fund kittens and puppy dogs, keep making them explain why it's so important to them to reject these bills in order to preserve the ObamaCare train wreck, and they will own the shutdown as well.
== 10/8/2013
In today's daily report on spitefully petty ideological governance from the Obama admin ... the hypocritical hacks have OK'd a rally for so-called immigration reform on the ostensibly closed National Mall. I have a news flash for Barry and the Undocumented Democrats: you aren't getting comprehensive amnesty in this session either. Your Saul Alinksy community agitator negotiation tactics have guaranteed it.
== 10/7/2013
Now that the ObamaCare Exchanges are undeniably a train wreck, can we talk about simple measures left out of the ACA that would actually reduce cost and and increase accessibility? (1) Tort reform. (2) Allow insurance competition across state lines. (3) Allow individuals and small businesses to voluntarily form risk pools via voluntary trade, professional, interest, and religious associations (that means, for example, AAA or your local church). The Donkey Party will have none of #1 because they are beholden to the trial lawyer lobby. The Donkey Party will have none of #2 because they are the party of government. The Donkey Party will have none of #3 because they are viscerally opposed to the concept of voluntary association.
== 10/5/2013
Here's how I know The Saul Alinksy Radical Temporarily Occupying the Oval Office is overplaying his hand with his petty (non)negotiation strategy for dealing with House Republicans ... I went to the Tame Impala / Flaming Lips show at Merriweather Post Pavilion last night. The vibe on the lawn among the assembled utes and psychedelic music enthusiasts was relaxed, friendly, and polite. Festive, but in a very unconcerned and laid back way. No signs whatsoever of anyone gripped by fear at the prospect of the evil Republicans shutting down the precious nectar provided by their federal government. And cannabis, medical or otherwise, cannot be held culpable, either. No contact high for LAS on that lawn that particular evening. Memo to GOP: Hold firm. No deal until the rank hypocrisy of the twenty some odd ObamaCare exemptions and waivers given to Big Business, Big Labor, and Big Government are matched by a delay in the individual mandate. Removing the congressional exemption isn't sufficient. It's the individual mandate against every single stinkin' selectively applied tyrannical exemption. Every single one.
== 10/3/2013
The term "Barrycade" has entered the political discourse. It refers to the Park Service's petty and petulant practice of placing cheap plastic and wooden barriers around open air spaces - in a comically ironic attempt to prove how important they are to our daily existence. In a much publicized case they used this pathetic tactic to try to keep a bunch of 90 year old vets away from the WW II memorial. The old men of Normandy and Okinawa valor famously stormed the park service Barney Fifes and got to see their monument anyway. There should be a blogger contest for identifying the most ridiculous Barrycade erected. I nominate the one near my house about which I commented on the great blog Political Clown Parade: "Near my house the Park Service has erected a barrier of plastic sawhorses around 50 sq feet of parking spaces just off the GW Parkway. A lone teenage prankster could hide the entire eyesore in the woods behind in, oh, about a minute and a half. Those sirens you here are armed Park Service policemen racing to the scene because school is about to let out." I have a news flash for Barry and his Corrupt Gang of Petty Progressives If the opinions expressed by my teenager and the gang he runs with are any indication, your silly tyrannical pettiness is fostering a future generation of small government libertarians. And *that* observation causes LAS to channel Mr. Burns from The Simpsons ... "Exxxxcellllent."
== 10/2/2013
Not sure if the traffic would actually be sufficient to crash healthcare.gov or not, but it's worth noting visits to my August 2011 post "In a Democracy, the People Get the Government They Deserve" have picked up quite a bit the past couple of days.
==
The morning commute was much lighter this morning. So, I guess all the "non essential" gub'ment werkers know who they are now.
== 10/1/2013
Day One of the highly anticipated apocalyptic partial gub'ment shutdown. Here's what I've noticed so far. (1) The morning commute was a little better, but not as improved as I anticipated. Perhaps OMB hasn't finished sorting out which bureau-weenies are "non-essential" yet. Which is to say ... maybe they haven't told everyone who needs to be told they will be given a nice break with a guarantee of back pay when the CR finally passes. (2) The calender says October 1st, the IRS still has a direct connection to my business checking account, and the IRS will surely levy the usual fine if I fail to make my monthly tax deposit on time. Oh, and don't forget the quarterly 941 they will be demanding or there will be another fine. (3) It's still true that the IRS takes in enough revenue from monthly business tax deposits to cover each month's debt and entitlement obligations. So, if the Obama administration chooses the dreaded 'default' they own that train wreck, too.
==
LAS wonders what The Empty Suit Known as Barack Hussein Obama has already given away to the Iranian regime in exchange for that nice photo op with the telephone.
== 9/29/2013
The yard signs I've seen for the Democrat candidate for Virginia Governor - career left wing political hack Terry McCauliffe - are green and talk about jobs. Green. Jobs. Hmmmmm ... now, where have I seen that bullsh*t before?
== 9/26/2013
LAS says shut down the federal gub'ment so LAS' commute to and from downtown DC improves. I calculate every day we take the bureau-weenie corps off the local roads is a day I save a full hour of my valuable taxable time. And I'm pretty sure the IRS will expect me to keep making my monthly deposit and filing my quarterly 941 on time. So, I figure I'm owed the improved commute as a courtesy.
== 9/25/2013
Let's equate Senator Ted Cruz' principled filibuster stand to the epic Greek stand at Thermopylae in 480 BC. Yes, of course, the Persians will eventually get what they want in this battle. After all, a self-styled godhead on a mission of conquest is their dictator, and he leads his mob from behind into this battle enjoying overwhelming odds. But the courageous stand will be remembered and used as a clarion call by Team Liberty until the war against the invaders of Team Tyranny is finally won. Queue "Remember the Alamo" double mixed metaphor ...
== 9/23/2013
ObamaCare: 3000 pages of Leftist ideology hastily legislated, corruptly implemented, and incompetently administered. What's not to like?
== 9/19/2013
Memo to Establishment GOP hacks: Defunding or delaying ObamaCare in a CR that funds the rest of the government at current levels is the correct strategy. It's not about passing the legislation, or even about winning the politics in the short term. It's about putting people on record and pounding that record for the next 14 months going into the 2014 elections. If the House has funded the entire government except for ObamaCare - and at the end of the fight the Democrats have shut down the government to get their ObamaCare, they own *both* train wrecks come next election.
== 9/17/2013
I shall now spoon feed the correct headline from yesterday's Navy Yard shooting to the corrupt and biased liberal media. Obama administration ineptly issues security clearance to lunatic with police record. == 9/15/2013
The current situation on the arms control front is Putin watching Assad watching WMD stockpiles acquired only God knows how. Wolf watching fox watching hen house. Oh well, I guess we'll have to wait for the declassified KGB files to finally learn what happened to Saddam's WMD.
== 9/13/2013
Harry Reid's talking point yesterday regarding the House Conservatives' push to pass a Continuing Resolution that funds the entire government except for ObamaCare was 'the anarchists are winning.' That's rich ... coming from a Senate Majority Leader whose Senate failed to pass any budget at all in fiscal years 2010, 2011, and 2012. Hey, Dingy Harry, here's an idea ... follow the constitutional process. Put your head down, shut your mouth, and do your job. Pass your CR, let the House pass its CR, hash out the differences in conference, and send the compromise to the President. Or is that too much work?
== 9/11/2013
Putin vs. Obama in diplomatic chess is about as even a match as Navy SEALs vs. Swedish Bikini Team in a marksmanship contest.
== 9/11/2013
One year anniversary of the Benghazi terrorist attack ... and who has been held accountable? For the attack? For issuing stand down orders to American responders? For the YouTube video lie?
== 9/10/2013
The big news today on the war and peace / highstakes diplomacy front is that the KGB Colonel has brokered the deal with his Syrian puppet that will save the planet from the war mongering, red line ultimatum issuing, Community-Agitator-In-Chief. Whew! See, that overload reset button is paying big dividends with Russia already. Obama’s next bold move should be to drape his Nobel Peace Prize around Putin’s neck in a Rose Garden ceremony. Maybe then Putin would be willing to return the Super Bowl ring he stole from Robert Kraft. You know, as a good will gesture. Then … who knows? Anything might be possible! We might even be in a position to convince the KGB Colonel to exchange Edward Snowden for a year’s supply of Stoli vodka.
== 9/7/2013
Obama's most recent rhetorical justification for intervening in Syria is steeped in Susan Rice's "Responsibility To Protect" (R2P) nonsense. Translation: We are the world's cop. Let us review the last time R2P was applied in the real world. On the advice of Rice (peddler of the Benghazi YouTube lie), we bombed the snot out of an inert threat - Ghadaffi - for nearly a year. So, what is the situation on the ground in Libya today? Total chaos. A veritable 'Thunderdome' of Jihadi misery and strife. Brilliant. R2P nonsense is exactly what I expect to come out of the Empty Suit's mouth during the big speech to the nation this coming Tuesday.
== 9/5/2013
My congressional representative has come out in favor of the big plan to lob a few ineffectual missiles into Syria. He's the OFA funded, CAIR-linked, socialist technocrat known as Gerry Connolly. Well, that's it then ... if Obama has the lickspittle vote locked up, I guess the resolution is fated to pass.
== 9/4/2013
I have a question for New York Times ersatz conservative David Brooks. Who would win the street fight - Hafez Bashar al-Assad or a neatly creased pair of trousers? Who would win the chess match?
==
The Empty Suit's 'red line' dodge today is it wasn't his standard, it was the world's. So, channeling Cuba Gooding ... 'Show me the coalition, Barry!'
== 9/3/2013
Assad has stated plainly that if the Empty Suit Known as Barack Hussein Obama lobs even one missile into Syria, Syria will respond with missile attacks on Israel. Then what? Who's up for World War III? And for what? To protect the rhetorical credibility of the amateur occupying the Oval Office? Count me out.
==
If Congress votes 'No' on authority to go to war in Syria, and the Demagogue-In-Chief does it anyway, the constitutional remedy is impeachment. Period. End of sentence.
== 9/2/2013
So, Bathhouse Barry finally sees a reason to follow the constitution and consult with Congress ... the reason being he desperately needs a exit ramp off the Stupid Highway he built for himself in relation to Syria. The combatants in Syria are a brutal puppet dictator whose strings are pulled in Moscow versus a witch's brew of Islamist radicals. The US has no interest in either side winning. The only rational courses are staying completely out of it, or bombing them both back to the stone age. May our elective representatives make the correct choice. Happy Labor Day.
== 8/30/2013
The big national debate today is whether to bomb or not to bomb in Syria ... with or without Congressional approval ... with or without an international coalition ... all because the Speechifier-In-Chief, who was the candidate who ran on Bush is a war criminal, drew a rhetorical red line in the sand before thinking through the consequences. IMHO the solution is to issue a 'red line waiver' to Syria. If the 'waiver' dodge is good enough for ObamaCare ...
== 8/29/2013
Hey, did you hear about the big MLK commemorative march yesterday? You might think they would have invited the one and only black US Senator to speak. That would be Tim Scott, SC (R)(T). Oops, my bad - wrong party.
== 8/28/2013
When Obama bombs the snot out of Assad, what will become of the evidence on the ground Assad has Saddam's WMD? Future histories hang in the balance.
== 8/26/2013
Remember when Obama (stupidly and divisively) said if he had a son it would look like Trayvon? Well, then, I guess if he was a scout master with a Boy Scout troop it would look like those three stone cold killers in Oklahoma. And not reaching out to the victim's family in what is literally an international incident? Only Obama could screw up relations with Australia (Australia!) from the White House.
== 8/22/2013
With the advent of ObamaCare, I predict an increase in the number of Jewish mothers pressing their sons to become, and their daughters to marry, bureaucrats.
== 8/21/2013
Seen today on the corner of 6th and E Streets, NW, District of Columbia ... a big shiny rescue truck with the markings "National Capital Region Homeland Security" and "Mobile Air Unit 1." A truck. WTF? Does the driver say "Go go gadget, rotors!" to make it fly? And it needs to be numbered? Are there yet more out there?
== 8/19/2013
The difference between Democrat politicians and Mob bosses is the Mob bosses actually find work for their union toadies.
== 8/18/2013
15 year old son informed me today two rival "rap gangs" at his lavishly financed public middle school had been suspended for engaging in a "knife fight" last spring. As a concerned parent, I naturally probed for details to determine if it was time to consider taking on the extra expense of private high school. I asked "was anybody cut"? The answer was "no." A "knife fight" where no one was cut? He has four more years left in the public school system. We might just make it to the end without needing to take the radical action of flight to private school.
LibertyAtStake is the alter ego of a vaguely accomplished Northern Virginia based Project Manager. He is known to have a somewhat unsettling obsession with the music of the Kinks ... but as far as anyone knows, has never dated a "composite".
