Even the Socialists are Raising the Retirment Age

Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez vowed he would rule until 2031 today, when he would be 77. Chavez has recently been undergoing chemotherapy for an undisclosed form of cancer raising the issue of whether or not he can continue his reign of insanity rivaled only by Sean Penn's reign in Hollywood.

Moments Like This Make Me Wonder if There is a Drug Testing Policy in Congress

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D. CA) today noted to reporters that Democrats are fighting to save the planet and life as we know it against Republican budget cuts. Shouldn't we be gently easing out the psychotic, senile grandparent rather than letting her talk to reporters?

I Think We All Saw This Coming

With a September 14 expiration of the United Auto Workers contract with the "Big Three" Detroit auto companies, rumblings have sprung up that the UAW workers want a bigger share of the profits being made by those auto companies. Apparently no one in the UAW noticed that the companies started making a profit only after they stopped paying ridiculous wages to unskilled laborers who use their lunch breaks to get drunk or high before returning to work. They've forgotten the short history that even with the cuts to union labor benefits and, gasp!, forcing the pensions to be put in a trust, the three auto companies needed to be bailed out to stay alive. Chrysler is run by an Italian company now, and pulled commercials about having repaid its government bailout because it wasn't entirely true. You and I still own 6.6% of the company, which is a significant investment and the government acknowledged it doesn't expect to get about $2 billion of the bailout back, but hey, what's $2 billion between friends. Let's also not forget that, in order to save the unions in the first place, the President of the United States, whose constitutional duty is to enforce the law, violated federal bankruptcy law and simply preempted the rights of creditors to do as he saw fit with Chrysler and GM. Even Ford had to take out private loans to keep afloat.

But go right ahead, UAW, kill your employers again. At least the current UAW president, Bob King, appears to have some inkling that being anti-business is not smart for labor, what with needing business to employ them and all.

Today's Recommended Reading

Presidential candidate Herman Caine has come under fire for some controversial comments he has made regarding the appointment of Muslims in his cabinet and, more recently, his support of a town seeking to ban the building of a mosque. This article on American Thinker supports Herman Caine's position under the analysis of federalism and is an interesting read. Both logically and legally I cannot find the fault in his reasoning, but I would have to go back to the debate language over the language and passing of the 14th Amendment to be certain if he is right. I will say that the current case law utilizing the 14th Amendment to apply the Bill of Rights to the individual states probably was never meant to restrict states from making laws establishing their own religions or to put a stop to school prayer, as they had throughout the history of this country.

I Wonder How He Compares to a Sock

Rasmussen reports that a poll of likely voters has Republican Congressman Ron Paul (TX) only 4% points behind President Barack Obama. Former Republican Governor of Massachusetts Mitt "I Ran a State Just Like Obama Did a Country" Romney, the apparent Republican front runner actually comes out ahead of the Demagogue-in-Chief.

Don't get me wrong, I'll vote for Romney if I have to, but I prefer Ron Paul...and maybe a sock.

Today's Liberal English to English Translation

Taxing the rich.

Liberal English = raising taxes on people who earn a lot of money, because it is not theirs and they are evil. Note that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D. CA) is fond of this concept despite being rich. Why, you ask? Because Nancy Pelosi doesn't earn a lot of money. Nancy-poo takes in $193,400.00 in salary this year (funny, I believe that falls below the President's constant talking point "rich" people tax raise level of $200,000.00 per year). Estimates vary, however, on what she's worth. Once site claims $35.5 million while a 2009 article on Roll Call claimed $58 million. Her most recent disclosure report shows $48.2 million in assets and $8.1 million in liabilities. There is no estate tax (at least not until you die). So Nancy, who identifies with all the poor victims in this world, gets to be rich, but not rich, only paying taxes on items which qualify as income to the federal government. Now it's likely that some of that $48.2 million was taxable (after all, her net worth apparently grew by 62% while everyone else's was falling), but it is likely far less than what a CEO making several million yearly pays, who is likely helping to generate wealth for others by employing them and expanding the business. You see, taxing the rich doesn't apply if the rich have accumulated wealth instead of earning it on a yearly basis.

Don't get me wrong, I don't want to start taxing people's estates. I would honestly love to eliminate the income tax entirely. My point is that you have to see the hypocrisy of the liberal class-warfare mongerers. They only attack the people who are producing wealth in this country, so guys like the Rockefellers can sit pretty and "serve the public" as Congressmen and Senators. Let's propose an income tax based on yearly net worth instead of merely yearly income and watch as the color drains from the faces of the Liberal English speakers. It would be fun to try, because there is no way that one would pass. Senator John Kerry (D. MA) might just pick up his boat and move it to avoid the taxes...wait, that sounds familiar.

I Refuse to Spend Less Unless You Give Me More Money!!!!

The Statists on the left collide with logic about as often as Earth does with other planets. Today Senate Majority Leader Harry Ried (D. NV) (it's hard for me to connect "leader" and Harry Reid with any seriousness) rejoiced today as the Senate Democrats (and let's be clear, only Senate Democrats and every single one of them) voted down the House proposed "cut, cap and budget". Ried was so ecstatic, in fact, that he took to the floor of the Senate to brag that it was "over, done and dead". Thanks, Harry, you're a peach! Senate Democrats were "outraged" that the Bill didn't "increase revenue" (Liberal English = raise taxes so that we can take even more money from the few remaining people in the country who are producing wealth)!

Luckily there is the Gang of Six "plan". Unfortunately, that plan raises taxes by $2.3 trillion over 10 years according to some reports. The way they do this while supposedly cutting tax rates is by eliminating deductions (Liberal English = loopholes that (gasp!) allow people to keep their filthy lucre) and not mentioning that the Bush tax rates would be allowed to quietly sunset, raising tax rates. And those spending cuts that the Six Amigos proposed? We'll just have to work out the details down the line. You know, like they did with Reagan and the first President Bush. I'm sure that will pan out all hunky-dorey.

Somebody better get the CBO on that plan to have unicorns crap gold.

Shocker! President Obama Lied About Something!

Color me unsurprised, but in painting insurance companies as the devil incarnate, President Obama has consistently used the death of his mother and her battle with her health insurance company to pay the bills for her cancer treatment. The only problem with that story (other than being anecdotal and not valid evidence in any case) is that it was a complete falsification. So if President Obama volunteers to swear on his mother's grave...well, believe him at your own peril.

Today's Recommended Reading

This is the danger we face. The circular Republican firing squad is lining up to shoot themselves in the foot.

I Could Stand Being Poor

The average poor family, as defined by the census, has A.C., two TVs, DVD or VCR, washer and dryer, cable or satellite, and the kids have a modern console gaming system like a Playstation. It must be hell.

Finally the United States Borders Will Be Secured

Oh, crap, it's just Borders bookstores closing down.

This Bears Watching

Stories are surfacing that Representative Michelle Bachmann (R. MN) has debilitating migraines. Traditionally, candidates' medical records are released to the public as part of the campaign. You may remember the rather ridiculous questions about Senator John McCain (R. AZ) and skin cancer during the 2008 campaign. However, Bachmann's condition, if true, would prove to be an unpredictable and sudden, debilitating effect that could potentially render her incapable of leading in the event of a crisis. This is obviously a problem in terms of a President.

I hope this story proves false. I believe Michelle Bachmann is a solid candidate and the kind of person that can bring back fiscal sanity to the country, and, through that, prosperity. The loss of even her voice in this campaign could be a critical blow to that agenda. In any case, my prayers go out to her.

Epic Must Read of the Day

Want to know if all the claims of conservatives that this administration is chilling the business environment? Read what a self-described Democratic businessman thinks and says when talking to other businessmen. Why he supports Harry Ried (D. NV) is beyond me, though.

We Must Get Our Deficit Under Control Unless That Means Spending Cuts!

President Barack Obama boldly came out against balanced budgets, spending cuts and spending caps today. The White House announced today that he would veto the House's proposed cut, cap and balance legislation if it passed. It was very bold of the President to finally announce his official position in favor of bankrupting the country. In all honesty, he had flirted with the position early on by proposing a budget earlier this year that actually increased the deficit. This while attacking the Paul Ryan budget and threatening this veto all while complaining that the Republicans won't produce a workable plan.

So as our petulant President pouts in pressers pleading for partisans to be pliant, he gets out ahead of the curve in threatening to block legislation that would achieve the goal he supposedly has (or had) of deficit reduction and keeping the government running. The statement is all the stronger in that it was unnecessary. There is no way the Democrats would let the plan get passed the Senate. Of course, he may be providing political cover for Democrats who may feel they need to vote for the legislation to get re-elected. In any case, the demagogue-in-chief apparently doesn't feel all that worried about those social security recipients and veteran's (who from everything I've seen could easily continue to be paid during a government shutdown) who he has spent all his time scaring with the shut down bogeyman. The day he is out of the White House will be one of the happiest of my life. I may actually cry.

Look What We Found!!

Today, the United States recognized the Libyan rebels as the legitimate government and not Quadaffi. Nick of time, too! We might have had to go to war or something instead of just dropping love pat bombs on them.

Arguably the Most Consistent of the Members of Congress

Representative Sheila Jackson Lee (D. TX) flashed her ability to be a moron once more. The queen of idiots pulled ye olde race card on the debt talks today. Clearly no one could disagree with a Presdient who tripled the deficit for any reason other than him being black. I'm going out on a limb here, but I'm almost certain her IQ is less than her number of years in office between elections (2).

President Obamaniscient Knows You Better than You Know Yourself

Petulant President Obama held another scolding conference about how Republicans haven't put forward a serious plan to cut the deficit and raise the debt ceiling. You know, to compare with the plan he hasn't put forward. Apparently he's forgotten that the Democrats have prevented any budget from being passed for over two years now, including the Paul Ryan budget that was voted down by the Democrat-controlled Senate. The ever-present and all-knowing saviour of the Earth, protector of the seas and life on this planet, reported that 80% of people are in favor of raising taxes to reduce the deficit. Unfortunately for the American people, apparently only 34% of them know that they are in favor of raising taxes to reduce the deficit. Stranger still, it appears 55% of them are totally deluded and actually think they oppose a tax raise to reduce the deficit.

Even if he was correct on his mythological numbers, why the hell would he care? Public opinion didn't seem to matter when he pushed through Obamacare. As the title of this post notes, he is Obamaniscient. He knows what is best for you.

Some Days it is Hard to Keep the Faith

A Washington man accused of viewing child pornography is viewing child pornography in jail. By representing himself in his case, he is allowed to view the evidence.

Please Watch the Video in the Link

There is a square in Berlin, at the center of the square is a Plexiglas window which looks down into an underground library painted all in white. There are no books on the shelves. The plaque refers to German poet Heinrich Heine's quote "Where they burn books, at the end they also burn people" (loose translation). The plaque and memorial sit in the middle of the square made famous in "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" (sad that a movie is the relevant reference, rather than the fact we should all know this from history classes) where the Nazi's had a book burning party early in the days of the burgeoning hatred. Heine's quote proved prophetic. I've been to that square and I've been to that square, and I've been to a concentration camp outside of Mainz. When I say Hitler was evil, it isn't lip service to some abstract, societally acceptable concept. I cried seeing those places, seeing the bullet holes in buildings still evident in much of East Germany, the lines on the streets where the Berlin Wall once stood. I am blessed to never have felt the persecution that the Jews have, or to have been asked to make the sacrifice that many did to topple the Nazis. What I do know is that we are losing the values of freedom when a) we aspire to ban books, and b) the choice includes the results of this little experiment.

Most of what I write on here has at least some aspect of sarcasm and making light of serious evens. This just scares me. Hitler is more appropriate than Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, and Ayn Rand?

Today's Liberal English to English Translation

Tax breaks (English) = legal deductions and/or credits, utilized by people to reduce their tax liability to the government.

(Liberal English) = greedy rich people robbing the government of what is theirs, effectively stealing it from poor people. This is because wealth belongs to the government. You are evil for trying to keep what you earn.
Stay tuned for more Liberal English to English translations.

A Partial Retraction

In yesterday's Liberal English to English translation I may have been mistaken. Perhaps liberals do, in fact, feel that the rich haven't been paying their fair share. For example, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and censured Representative Charles "What Would Jesus Debt" Rangel (D. NY) both failed to report income for tax purposes. So maybe liberals were just calling themselves out. I'd pay good money to see a reporter ask Representative Nancy Pelosi (D. CA) how much she has decided to give to the government to make up for the fact that her family isn't paying its fair share through the income tax.

Today's Liberal English to English Translation

Representative Xavier Barcerra (D. CA) echoed a common theme on FOX News Sunday parroting the Democratic line of paying "their fair share". Specifically, he said that rich people haven't been paying their fair share. Let's translate this liberal English into English.

The rich need to pay their fair share = wealth belongs to the United States government, not to the individual. If a person earns money, what they are allowed to keep is only by the grace of the United States government. This is especially true if they are good at creating wealth or earning money. The more you earn, the more you are taking away from the government and we intend to take it back from you. You are evil.

Tomorrow we will translate "tax breaks for the rich".

No Comment

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the commentary of disgraced and unrepentant Representative Charlie Rangel (D. NY) commenting on the budget deficit negotiations. If you keep your lunch down, you have bested my response.

Must See TV

CNBC contributor Rick Santelli is on fire again. The arguable father of the Tea Party, popped off today on the mythical potential of default and the spending addiction of Congress. He's dead right, no compromise on spending.

Today's Recommended Reading, Part II

I rarely find much of interest in Pat Buchanan's opinions. However, this article on Real Clear Politics makes a compelling case for why the Republicans should hold their ground on no net tax increases as part of any budget deal. Notice that he mentions President Reagan cut a deal in 1982 for $3 in cuts for every $1 in tax increases and was burned. President Bush the elder made a similar deal, backtracking on his pledge of no new taxes in return for $2 in cuts for every $1 in taxes, which was turned into an actual spending increase. Not surprisingly, President Bush lost his reelection bid. You can bet that Democrats want to see the same thing happen so that they can retake the House.

Today's Recommended Reading

Charles Krauthammer knocks it out of the park again with this piece. I adore the part where he notes that our demagogue in chief's favorite targets of late, oil and corporate jets, if taxed in the manner he proposes, would, in 50 years, make up President Obama's deficit spending for February 2011. The problem is, will the public see thought the rhetoric, or will the liars who appeal to emotion and class warfare over logic win again?

Must See TV

Wow. Talk about your blatant lies. Yesterday President Obama talked about his pay freeze for White House employees, and indeed, bragged about how they have had their pay cut. Unfortunately, that has nothing to do with reality.

In the "How is This Legal" Category

Earlier this weak, the National Education Association (which is rivaled only by the league of jumbo shrimp in the realm of oxymorons) "early endorsed" the reelection campaign of President Barack Obama. The NEA is a union consisting of approximately 3 million teachers, which as far as I can tell, are exclusively from public schools. This activity raised a couple of points.

First, the NEA has abandoned any pretense of impartiality. By announcing its support of President Obama before the Republican field has even been finalized, before the platforms have even been revealed, the NEA has shown its hand as an ideological organization that is just another public employee organization dedicated to electing Democrats who will feed them public funed pensions that help bankrupt the states. Of course, when Democrats openly tell unions if they vote Republican, they are off the Democratic public teet, as Vice Presiden Joe Biden did in Las Vegas yesterday to loud applause from the union, it's easy to see that there is no arms length relationship, the unions and the Democrats are family.

Second, the union already automatically pulls $10 dollars of all members' dues to put into its political campaign fund. Earlier this year, that amount was doubled to $20 per member. Overall, the amount is up from $5 in 2004 by 400% (I guess they are just tracking the increase in college tuition). At first glance this is nothing scandalous. However, let's take Michigan, a pro-union, heavily Democratic state that has given us such luminaries as Michael Moore and the third world country that is Detroit (notice how Chrysler even acknowledges this by advertising itself as "imported from Detroit"). Michigan is not a "right to work" state. That is, if you want to work as a public school teacher in Michigan, you cannot do so unless you join the union. So what's my point? This means that the union is forcibly taking funds from public employees and channeling them to Democrats. More simply put, the unions act as a channel to take tax dollars and funnel them to Democrats. In right to work states, I have no problem with this act, as by joining the union, the teacher has effectively indicated they want this done, but in states that are not right to work, this is the forcible transfer of tax dollars to a particular political cause.

Personally, I believe this should be a national scandal, yet it is barely meriting a blip on the radar. This is likely because it has been going on for so long that people have resigned themselves to the practice.

The solution is to get behind the national right to work legislation proposed earlier this year by a group of conservative Senators. Normally, I advocate local solutions to problems and a minimum of federal interference. In this case, however, I believe that not only is this a federal issue, but that such an action is well within the scope of the United States Constitution and the powers granted to Congress. The idea that a union can force an employee to join, thereby restricting the ability of labor to flow freely in the marketplace and placing a fundamental restriction on the freedom of citizens is pretty much an insane concept. I personally believe not only that all states should be right to work, but that federal government should ban unions from public sector employment at the national level. Keep in mind, I'm fine with private sector unions as long as they cannot coerce membership within a profession (this would be called an illegal tying agreement if it were done by a business and constitute a violation of antitrust law).

In any case, if a Republican does take the Oval Office in 2012 and somehow both houses of the Congress are controlled by Republicans, I think if you agree with me, it will be time to push for passage of this legislation to end this pubic union money laundering operation for the Democrats.

Today's Recommended Reading

As if you needed to see the obvious.

All I Can Say is Yippee!!

Representative Thaddeus McCotter has announced his bid for the White House. If nothing else, he should inject some life into the primaries. That and he may actually be the best overall candidate. He immediately moves into place as a favorite of mine.

Not Appropriate to Call the President a Dick...Unless It Is in Your Mouth

MSNBC suspended contributor Mark Halperin indefinitely for saying that President Barack Obama acted like "kind of a dick" after his petulant rant of a press conference on June 28, 2011, where he chided Congress for not being around like he has (right before he headed off for another vacation). Personally, I find Halperin, who also works for noted conservative voice TIME Magazine (you got peanut butter on my sarcasm!), to have been dead on point, if inappropriate. The White House officially called the comment inappropriate and unacceptable, and announced that they had told MSNBC as much (whither Freedom of the Press?). The point I'd like to make here is this: if this comment is so inappropriate, why hasn't the President apologized for calling Tea Partiers the derogative term teabaggers, in reference to a sexual act? Or maybe for saying the people of Pennsylvania and the Midwest who don't agree with him are just clinging to religion and their guns? As I've written before, how can we honor the office of the President when it's occupant shows so much disdain for the people he is supposedly serving?

Possible Blow to SCOTUS Prospects for Obamacare?

CNSNews reports that 49 members of the House of Representatives are calling for a judicial committee investigation into Supreme Court Justice (I shiver every time I see that in writing) Elena Kagan's work while with the administration in preparing a legal defense to Obamacare while Solicitor General to President Obama. Specifically, they are citing to documents recently uncovered pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act request which may contradict her testimony regarding role during her confirmation hearings in the Senate. The FOIA request has met with a great deal of resistance by the administration (the most open administration since Kim Jong Il's) and the full disclosure of documents does not appear to have been released over a year later. If the documents do contradict her testimony, she shouldn't just abstain from any Supreme Court hearings on Obamacare, she should resign as a perjuror.

NBC's Legacy of GEvil Continues Under New Management

If you've read this blog for a long time you know about the relationship of GE, former owner of NBC (the unrepentant mouthpiece of the progressive agenda), and the Obama Administration. It appears the purchase of NBC by Comcast hasn't removed the media-administration marriage. Last night Comcast Executive VP David Cohen hosted a cozy dinner for 120 people at his home, each of whom donated $10,000.00 to the Obama campaign. That's a cozy $1.2 million dinner.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

E=mc^2(ideology)

Conservation International Co-founder and CEO Peter Seligmann was being interviewed on the Charlie Rose Show when he baldly stated what most of us already knew global warming scare mongerors think:

Rose : Why does the debate (about climate change) linger?

Seligmann : Ah, it lingers because, um...as I say, science is partially ideology.

So now we can conclusively say that at least one major environmental group has absolutely zero concept of what constitutes science.