I can't find a link to a printed story, but I just saw an interview with the California treasurer who said that despite the incoming Porkulus money, it could take months before state taxpayers get their refunds. Apparently taxpayers who were unfortunate enough to overpay their taxes (like me) are low man on the totem pole when it comes to state disbursements.
If I was late sending in my taxes I would be charged interest and penalties. How much extra do you think they'll pay me?
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Dim Bulb of the Day
From somewhere in Ohio:
KETTERING — A Harrison Twp. woman faces child endangering charges after police said she admitted to breastfeeding her child and talking on a cell phone while driving, according to Kettering Police Officer Michael Burke.If she had been smoking at the same time she would have had the child endangerment trifecta.
Legendary Radio Voice Paul Harvey Silenced
Paul Harvey, the legendary news voice of ABC Radio, has died at the age of 90. I always enjoyed his 15 minute news broadcasts and his "Rest of the Story" shows.
They don't make them like him anymore.
Paul Harvey....Good Day!
They don't make them like him anymore.
Paul Harvey....Good Day!
Buffett: Economy Will Be in Shambles by End of Year
Apparently big Obama supporter Warren Buffett doesn't think The One's stimulus and other plans will make much difference:
I wonder what that will do to the Dow on Monday?
Feb. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Billionaire Warren Buffett said the economy will be “in shambles” for the rest of this year as financial firms take losses tied to reckless loans made during the housing boom.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index will probably gain in three quarters of the next 44 years, just as it did in the period since Buffett took over Berkshire Hathaway Inc. in 1965, he said today in his annual letter to the company’s shareholders.
While Buffett and business partner Charlie Munger can’t predict how stocks will perform in 2009, they’re certain “that the economy will be in shambles throughout 2009 -- and, for that matter, probably well beyond,” he wrote.
I wonder what that will do to the Dow on Monday?
Political Quote of the Day
From Ann Coulter, speaking at the CPAC convention:
There are a lot more good lines at the link.
“The media compared Obama to Jesus. I lost a bet. They do know who Jesus is.
But as the leader of twelve apostles, even Jesus had more executive experience than Obama.”
There are a lot more good lines at the link.
Obama's Plan "Declares War on Investors" and Others
So says financial guru Larry Kudlow:
Read the whole thing here.
Interesting side note: Kudlow is being courted by the GOP to run against Chris Dodd for his Senate seat in Connecticut. He'd be good.
Let me be very clear on the economics of President Obama’s State of the Union speech and his budget.
He is declaring war on investors, entrepreneurs, small businesses, large corporations, and private-equity and venture-capital funds.
That is the meaning of his anti-growth tax-hike proposals, which make absolutely no sense at all — either for this recession or from the standpoint of expanding our economy’s long-run potential to grow.
Read the whole thing here.
Interesting side note: Kudlow is being courted by the GOP to run against Chris Dodd for his Senate seat in Connecticut. He'd be good.
Increasing Taxes on Charitable Giving
Not directly, of course, since that would be political dynamite, but indirectly:
And of course, heartless Republicans will get the blame.
Here's another article on opposition from both Dems and Republicans to the new taxes.
The White House proposal would reach into these deductions and effectively levy an additional tax of 7% on charitable contributions and mortgage interest (and up to 11.6% if Obama’s tax increases go into effect) for those in the highest tax bracket—in other words, those with the most ability to support America’s charities.Assuming these tax hikes make it into law, let's look at the nation's charities and see what shape they're in in a year or so. There are going to be problems.
And of course, heartless Republicans will get the blame.
Here's another article on opposition from both Dems and Republicans to the new taxes.
No Pepsi - Coke!
Probably the most fawning example of corporate rear end kissing of the new administration is Pepsi's revamped logo which is almost identical to the Obama logo. However the fawning hasn't paid off in attracting loyalty from the Obama people:
Pepsi can't be happy about this article.
For the record, I prefer Pepsi despite their fawning over Obama.
In an apparent homage to the new President, PepsiCo has plastered the sides of buses and bus stops in the nation's capital with slogans like "Yes You Can," "Optimismmmm" and "Hope." In each poster, the letter O is inscribed with the redesigned Pepsi logo, a red, white and blue sphere that echoes the rising-sun image used by the Obama campaign.
It is not hard to interpret the message. Since 1984, Pepsi has been marketing itself as the hip, happening beverage of youth — "The choice of a new generation," as its longtime slogan went. And Barack Obama, one of the youngest men to serve as President, is nothing if not hip, especially among young consumers who supported him by wide margins. Pepsi says the campaign is not a political endorsement. "We're not interested in following political tailwinds," says Nicole Bradley, a Pepsi spokeswoman. "But we are interested in cultural change."
That said, the marketing campaign, which includes TV and print ads as well, does raise a question: Is Pepsi actually the choice of the Obama Administration?
My reporting at the White House suggests the answer is a resounding no. Several senior Administration officials are committed cola drinkers, and without fail they spend their days sipping from a can of Diet Coke, a product of Pepsi's chief competitor, Coca-Cola. On Monday, as members of Congress and key lobbyists filed into a briefing room for the final event of a daylong fiscal summit, they were greeted with an ice chest full of complimentary Diet Coke, not Diet Pepsi. (Montana Democratic Senator Max Baucus was one of many to grab a can.) Hours earlier, at a breakout session with members of Congress in the Indian Treaty Room, Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag handled not one, but two cans of Diet Coke during the nearly two-hour session. Larry Summers, Obama's top economic adviser, rarely walks anywhere in the White House complex without a can of Diet Coke in his hand. He is well known for interrupting conversations to take another swig.But these examples do not even constitute the most damning evidence against Pepsi. Late last year, Obama's nascent Administration worked out of transition offices in a downtown government building, which was serviced by only Pepsi-brand vending machines, according to three people who worked in the building. Two Administration officials have told me that a group of Obama aides, frustrated by having to run the security gauntlet to go to the corner store, stocked a refrigerator with Diet Coke in open rebellion against the available options. The pattern has continued at the White House. In his West Wing office, as in his previous office at Harvard University, Summers has a refrigerator stocked with cans of the decidedly non-Pepsi beverage.
Pepsi can't be happy about this article.
For the record, I prefer Pepsi despite their fawning over Obama.
Banks: You Can Have Your Bailout Back
Do you want Barney Frank and Chris Dodd running your business? Do you want Chuckie Schumer telling you what you can or can't do?
Neither do these people:
Northern Trust Bank was more or less forced to take government funds. They didn't need them and in fact made a profit in 2008.
However, once the government got their claws in Northern Trust they felt entitled to manage their business. Northern Trust sponsored the professional golf tournament in Los Angeles and as part of that promotion they sponsored some concerts and other marketing events designed to reward their existing customers and attract new customers. It's a very common practice.
When I was in banking we did the same thing. My bank sponsored the Newport-Ensenada yacht race for several years, and also put our name on other events like a night of Camelot at the Orange County Performing Arts Center (I met Robert Goulet at the after show party). This was all part of the bank's marketing budget and we got that money back with the increased business it generated.
Well, in today's banking world those institutions which have taken bailout bucks aren't allowed to conduct these kinds of marketing efforts. They can't hold sales meetings in Las Vegas to honor their top performers, they can't entertain their best clients or attract new clients. Instead, they have to grovel to their new overlords in Washington.
Barney Frank, Chris Dodd and Chuckie Schumer have already done their best to critically injure the banking industry. Now they're trying to finish it off.
Neither do these people:
Bankers are increasingly asking themselves whether taking government funds is a good deal -- and coming up with more reasons not to.
...."The complete spirit of this deal changed," said Blake Chatelain, the president and chief executive of Red River Bancshares Inc. in Alexandria, La. "Every bank's concern was that the public would understand it was for healthy banks to improve the economy. Along the way the entire spirit of the deal changed to, if you are taking the money from the government then you did something wrong and we are going to control you."
The $5.4 billion-asset Iberiabank Corp. in Lafayette, La., is the first banking company in the country to announce it is giving back the money it received from the Treasury.
"We have gotten the message that if you took" government funds "you are open to all kinds of changes to the way you do business," said Daryl G. Byrd, Iberia's CEO. "We don't think that would be good for our shareholders or the community we serve."
Northern Trust Bank was more or less forced to take government funds. They didn't need them and in fact made a profit in 2008.
However, once the government got their claws in Northern Trust they felt entitled to manage their business. Northern Trust sponsored the professional golf tournament in Los Angeles and as part of that promotion they sponsored some concerts and other marketing events designed to reward their existing customers and attract new customers. It's a very common practice.
When I was in banking we did the same thing. My bank sponsored the Newport-Ensenada yacht race for several years, and also put our name on other events like a night of Camelot at the Orange County Performing Arts Center (I met Robert Goulet at the after show party). This was all part of the bank's marketing budget and we got that money back with the increased business it generated.
Well, in today's banking world those institutions which have taken bailout bucks aren't allowed to conduct these kinds of marketing efforts. They can't hold sales meetings in Las Vegas to honor their top performers, they can't entertain their best clients or attract new clients. Instead, they have to grovel to their new overlords in Washington.
Barney Frank, Chris Dodd and Chuckie Schumer have already done their best to critically injure the banking industry. Now they're trying to finish it off.
Newspaper Convention Canceled
It's hard to have a convention if no one's left to attend:
Between online version and Craigslist, there really isn't must reason to buy a physical newspaper anymore.
I canceled mine a couple of months ago.
An annual convention of newspaper editors has been canceled for the first time since World War II, undone by the worst economic crisis since that harrowing era.
The American Society of Newspapers Editors' decision to skip this year's meeting was announced Friday, coinciding with the final edition of the Rocky Mountain News—the largest daily U.S. newspaper to shut down so far during a steep two-year slide in advertising revenue that's draining the life out of the industry.
Between online version and Craigslist, there really isn't must reason to buy a physical newspaper anymore.
I canceled mine a couple of months ago.
Nobody Knows
From CNS News:
That's pretty much all you need to know. They haven't got a clue.
Even President Obama’s budget chief doesn’t know how much it will eventually cost to enact the president’s vision of health-care reform.
That's pretty much all you need to know. They haven't got a clue.
Obama Reverses "Conscience" Abortion Rule
Does this mean he has no conscience?
Along with other amendments that are being tossed aside, I guess freedom of religion is no longer allowed.
WASHINGTON — Taking another step into the abortion debate, the Obama administration Friday will move to rescind a controversial rule that allows health-care workers to deny abortion counseling or other family-planning services if doing so would violate their moral beliefs, according to administration officials.
The rollback of the "conscience rule" comes just two months after the Bush administration announced it last year in one of its final policy initiatives.
The new administration's action seems certain to stoke ideological battles between supporters and opponents of abortion rights over the responsibilities of doctors, nurses and other medical workers to their patients.
Along with other amendments that are being tossed aside, I guess freedom of religion is no longer allowed.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Will It Look As Good Coming Up as It Did Going Down?
Las Vegas is having trouble attracting visitors and I'm not sure this is gonna help:
I took that picture at the NASCAR Cafe last July as we watched the Daytona race on the TVs around the restaurant. They didn't have the 6-pound burrito back then, and it wouldn't have mattered if they did. That's way more burrito than I ever want to see, and way more burrito I want to see all over the rollercoaster cars.
LAS VEGAS (AP) - A Las Vegas casino cafe is rewarding patrons who can put away a 2-foot, 6-pound burrito with a most logical prize—free unlimited rides on a roller coaster that runs in both forward and reverse.
The offer comes with a caveat, though: Those who accept the challenge but can't finish "The Bomb" burrito have to take a picture with an extra small, pink T-shirt that says "Weenie."
The NASCAR Cafe at the Sahara Hotel & Casino began selling the cheese-and-guacamole slathered burrito on Thursday for $19.95.
Those who can finish the monstrous entree get it for free, along with two unlimited coaster passes and a T-shirt proclaiming they "Conquered the Bomb."
I took that picture at the NASCAR Cafe last July as we watched the Daytona race on the TVs around the restaurant. They didn't have the 6-pound burrito back then, and it wouldn't have mattered if they did. That's way more burrito than I ever want to see, and way more burrito I want to see all over the rollercoaster cars.
Full Circle Moments
Pardon me while I wax philosophical on this Friday afternoon, but even I need a break from politics once in awhile. I was thinking about how funny life is sometimes when we find ourselves back in the same location but under circumstances that you probably could not have foreseen on your first visit. I coined the phrase "full circle moments" to describe this phenomenon. In my case they seem to involve performing. I have three examples.
In 1973 I was looking at the Saturday newspaper and saw an ad announcing that The Blackwood Brothers Quartet was going to be singing the next day at Knott's Berry Farm in the John Wayne Theater. I had become a fan of gospel quartets thanks to the records my dad brought home from concert, but I had never seen a professional group in a live performance. The Blackwoods were a legendary name in the business and I just had to go.
I told my dad about the performance and on Sunday we headed over to Knott's. This was back in the days before you had to pay to get in (you had to pay for rides but not admission), and in my excitement to see the group I think we got to the theater ridiculously early and stood for a long time as the only ones in line.
I watched the performance and was firmly hooked on quartet music forever. At the time I was not a member of a group, though my dad was singing bass for The Watchmen. I would join The Watchmen as bass player in 1974.
Flash forward to 1988. I had been in The Watchmen for 14 years and had taken over the bass singing duties when my dad retired from the group in 1983. We were singing about 60+ dates a year around the West Coast and in March were invited to sing for the annual meeting of the Nazarene Credit Union. Here comes the full circle moment - the performance would be in the John Wayne Theater at Knott's Berry Farm.
That night I got to stand on the same stage and perform with a quartet where I had seen The Blackwoods 15 years before and I've got to tell you, it was pretty cool.
A second example: In 1976, right after the Bicentennial, I was part of a church choir tour that took us to New York City, Atlantic City, and Washington D.C. We had a great time and had the opportunity to perform in each city, including performances in Rockefeller Center and the Pentagon.
In June of 2007 I found myself in New York City once again. This time I was traveling with my daughter's high school orchestra as she performed at Carnegie Hall and the Trump Tower. As I sat in Carnegie Hall watching their performance I couldn't help but think back to that 1976 trip and how cool it was to be back in New York under these circumstances. In my wildest imagination I probably couldn't have dreamed up watching my daughter play at Carnegie Hall.
A full circle moment.
Finally, another example occurred just yesterday. In 1983, just a few weeks after taking over the bass singing spot with The Watchmen, the group was booked to sing for Nazarene Night at Disneyland. That night, as the rain poured down and the wind blew, we did two stands at the Carnation Plaza Stage near Sleeping Beauty's Castle. It was freezing cold and at times the rain was blowing in under the canopy that covered the audience, but it was fun. To this day I can't walk by that stage without thinking of that night.
My son recently joined the Hawthorne Gold Drum & Bugle Corps and they had their first performance yesterday...on the Carnation Plaza Stage at Disneyland. I didn't get to go see him, but I thought it was kind of neat that he played the same stage I did 26 years ago. Another full circle moment.
You may think of some of your own, and you're welcome to write about them in the comment section.
In 1973 I was looking at the Saturday newspaper and saw an ad announcing that The Blackwood Brothers Quartet was going to be singing the next day at Knott's Berry Farm in the John Wayne Theater. I had become a fan of gospel quartets thanks to the records my dad brought home from concert, but I had never seen a professional group in a live performance. The Blackwoods were a legendary name in the business and I just had to go.
I told my dad about the performance and on Sunday we headed over to Knott's. This was back in the days before you had to pay to get in (you had to pay for rides but not admission), and in my excitement to see the group I think we got to the theater ridiculously early and stood for a long time as the only ones in line.
I watched the performance and was firmly hooked on quartet music forever. At the time I was not a member of a group, though my dad was singing bass for The Watchmen. I would join The Watchmen as bass player in 1974.
Flash forward to 1988. I had been in The Watchmen for 14 years and had taken over the bass singing duties when my dad retired from the group in 1983. We were singing about 60+ dates a year around the West Coast and in March were invited to sing for the annual meeting of the Nazarene Credit Union. Here comes the full circle moment - the performance would be in the John Wayne Theater at Knott's Berry Farm.
That night I got to stand on the same stage and perform with a quartet where I had seen The Blackwoods 15 years before and I've got to tell you, it was pretty cool.
A second example: In 1976, right after the Bicentennial, I was part of a church choir tour that took us to New York City, Atlantic City, and Washington D.C. We had a great time and had the opportunity to perform in each city, including performances in Rockefeller Center and the Pentagon.
In June of 2007 I found myself in New York City once again. This time I was traveling with my daughter's high school orchestra as she performed at Carnegie Hall and the Trump Tower. As I sat in Carnegie Hall watching their performance I couldn't help but think back to that 1976 trip and how cool it was to be back in New York under these circumstances. In my wildest imagination I probably couldn't have dreamed up watching my daughter play at Carnegie Hall.
A full circle moment.
Finally, another example occurred just yesterday. In 1983, just a few weeks after taking over the bass singing spot with The Watchmen, the group was booked to sing for Nazarene Night at Disneyland. That night, as the rain poured down and the wind blew, we did two stands at the Carnation Plaza Stage near Sleeping Beauty's Castle. It was freezing cold and at times the rain was blowing in under the canopy that covered the audience, but it was fun. To this day I can't walk by that stage without thinking of that night.
My son recently joined the Hawthorne Gold Drum & Bugle Corps and they had their first performance yesterday...on the Carnation Plaza Stage at Disneyland. I didn't get to go see him, but I thought it was kind of neat that he played the same stage I did 26 years ago. Another full circle moment.
You may think of some of your own, and you're welcome to write about them in the comment section.
James Dobson Resigns as Chairman of Focus on the Family
From the AP:
He built quite an organization and I'm sure it will continue to thrive, especially in the age of Obama.
DENVER (AP) — The Associated Press has learned that James Dobson has resigned as chairman of the conservative Christian group Focus on the Family.
Jim Daly, president and chief executive officer of the Colorado Springs, Colo.-based ministry, said Friday that Dobson will continue to host the organization's flagship radio program and speak out on moral issues.
The departure of the 72-year-old Dobson as board chairman is part of a succession plan. He founded the group in 1977.
Dobson began relinquishing control of the group six years ago by stepping down as president and CEO.
He built quite an organization and I'm sure it will continue to thrive, especially in the age of Obama.
A Tea Party Without Tea
It's hard to have a decent protest these days:
I hope there are at least a few real teabags tossed in. Those guys in Boston way back when would be embarrassed to hear that modern day protesters were afraid to get the water a little dirty.
A Cedar Rapids group will do a symbolic tea dumping into the Cedar River on Saturday because state officials won’t let them use the real thing.
An anti-tax group wanted to pitch in real tea like the Bostonian revolutionaries opposed to England’s tea taxes.
Tea, although natural and quite tasty, is considered a pollutant that can’t go into a body of water without a permit, said Mike Wade, a senior environmental specialist at the DNR’s Manchester field office.
“Discoloration is considered a violation,” Wade said.
I hope there are at least a few real teabags tossed in. Those guys in Boston way back when would be embarrassed to hear that modern day protesters were afraid to get the water a little dirty.
Go Ahead, Make Me Laugh
Clint Eastwood has some thoughts about this age of political correctness we live in:
I haven't seen his latest movie, Gran Torino, but I understand it's wonderfully politically incorrect. I'm gonna have to check it out.
London, February 27 (ANI): Acting legend Clint Eastwood , 79, apparently believes that political correctness has rendered modern society humourless, for he accuses younger generations of spending too much time trying to avoid being offensive.
The Dirty Harry star insists that he should be able to tell harmless jokes about nationality without fearing that people may brand him "a racist".
"People have lost their sense of humour. In former times we constantly made jokes about different races. You can only tell them today with one hand over your mouth or you will be insulted as a racist," the Daily Express quoted him as saying.
"I find that ridiculous. In those earlier days every friendly clique had a 'Sam the Jew' or 'Jose the Mexican' - but we didn't think anything of it or have a racist thought. It was just normal that we made jokes based on our nationality or ethnicity. That was never a problem. I don't want to be politically correct.
We're all spending too much time and energy trying to be politically correct about everything," he added.
I haven't seen his latest movie, Gran Torino, but I understand it's wonderfully politically incorrect. I'm gonna have to check it out.
Political Quote of the Day
From Sen. Judd Gregg, Obama's 2nd choice for Commerce Secretary, when asked about the effect of the Obama spending plans on America's future:
"It is going to bankrupt the country."Good thing he didn't take that job. More here.
I Don't Want to Pay For It
Jonah Goldberg expresses what I think a lot of us are thinking about the Obama plans:
Precisely.
Steve Hayward adds his strategy:
I Don't Want To Pay For It
That is, by far, my driving attitude in all of this. I just don't want to pay for it. It's not that I don't want government to do nice things for deserving people in certain circumstances. It's not necessarily that I'm hostile to this group of beneficiaries or that (though I am in fact hostile to some). It's that I think most of Obama's ideas will not work, will be a waste of money and will hurt the economy. And, flatly, I don't want to pay for it. I don't want to break the law. I don't want pull a Geithner or a Daschle or anything like that. But I don't want to pay for it. I will look for every means within the boundaries of the law to minimize what I pay in taxes and I make no apologies for that whatsoever.
Precisely.
Steve Hayward adds his strategy:
Amen, brother Jonah. I don't want to pay for this stuff either. I was sympathetic to Ben Stein's argument during GW Bush that we should have an income tax surcharge on the wealthy to pay for the war, and I'd have gladly paid such a surtax for that cause. But not this explosion of government.Higher taxes will equal less productivity which in turn will equal lower tax revenues.
Options: I've started buying municipal bonds, which I never thought I'd do until. . . well, never, actually. Good ones right now are an attractive buy on the merits, but the added bonus of sealing off the income from Obama makes it all the nicer. But my bigger idea is to go all Randian and literally go on strike (and I've never really been much of a Rand fan, by the way—Whittaker Chambers had her down right). I'm going to start converting income opportunities into more leisure by deliberately reducing my income. Already between federal and state income taxes, self-employment taxes, the AMT, and phased-out dependent deductions as income rises, I'm at a marginal rate of about 50% on my last dollars earned from writing or anything else. So it will pay to keep below Obama's high income threshold. I suspect a lot of self-employed people will make similar calculations and adjustments, and the revenue yield will be far below what Obama's people project. Welcome to Europe.
$1 Trillion in New Taxes
Jake Tapper has some illuminating numbers:
Ed Morrissey adds some analysis:
Democrats have long been of the belief that you can raise taxes on business and they'll just pay it out of their profits. They don't seem to understand the connection between higher costs to the companies and higher prices to the consumers. They just assume that higher taxes and fees will be absorbed by the evil corporations. Consequently, any taxes on business are in reality a tax on you the consumer. You will pay the bill.
They also seem to be strangely dim about the concept that whatever you tax you get less of. For instance, raise the capital gains tax and you will get reductions in capital investment. It works every time it's tried. Investors don't enjoy seeing the value of their investments destroyed and they will look for other avenues to keep their money.
As Ed said, there's no way these numbers will work out they way they've been advertised.
President Obama's budget proposes $989 billion in new taxes over the course of the next 10 years, starting fiscal year 2011, most of which are tax increases on individuals.
1) On people making more than $250,000.
$338 billion - Bush tax cuts expire
$179 billlion - eliminate itemized deduction
$118 billion - capital gains tax hike
Total: $636 billion/10 years
2) Businesses:
$17 billion - Reinstate Superfund taxes
$24 billion - tax carried-interest as income
$5 billion - codify "economic substance doctrine"
$61 billion - repeal LIFO
$210 billion - international enforcement, reform deferral, other tax reform
$4 billion - information reporting for rental payments
$5.3 billion - excise tax on Gulf of Mexico oil and gas
$3.4 billion - repeal expensing of tangible drilling costs
$62 million - repeal deduction for tertiary injectants
$49 million - repeal passive loss exception for working interests in oil and natural gas properties
$13 billion - repeal manufacturing tax deduction for oil and natural gas companies
$1 billion - increase to 7 years geological and geophysical amortization period for independent producers
$882 million - eliminate advanced earned income tax credit
Total: $353 billion/10 years
Ed Morrissey adds some analysis:
Most of this is vaporware. This is a triumph of static tax analysis, which assumes that increased taxes have no effect on the amount of money available for taxation. For instance, the hike from 15% to 20% on capital-gains taxes assumes that people will invest and cash out in the same manner they do at 15%. They won’t. The fact of increasing the tax will discourage investors and encourage them to shift money out before the hike. Not only will the extra revenue vanish, but investment levels will drop, leading to job losses and less opportunity for American businesses.
And what “itemized deduction” will get eliminated? All of them? Some of them?
The business tax hikes are even worse. Obama will increase taxes on existing American oil production starting in 2011. Do we have massive amounts of alternative energy capacity ready to replace the energy production and usage that this will discourage? A growing economy has to have a reliable energy supply. Energy producers get hit on several fronts in this plan, and those costs will either result in lower energy production or increased cost to the consumers.
Again, the expected revenues will far exceed the reality, once the depressive economic effects of these taxes kick in. The spending, unfortunately, will be all too real, which will mean huge, ballooning deficits. It’s the inevitable result of Deadbeatonomics.
Democrats have long been of the belief that you can raise taxes on business and they'll just pay it out of their profits. They don't seem to understand the connection between higher costs to the companies and higher prices to the consumers. They just assume that higher taxes and fees will be absorbed by the evil corporations. Consequently, any taxes on business are in reality a tax on you the consumer. You will pay the bill.
They also seem to be strangely dim about the concept that whatever you tax you get less of. For instance, raise the capital gains tax and you will get reductions in capital investment. It works every time it's tried. Investors don't enjoy seeing the value of their investments destroyed and they will look for other avenues to keep their money.
As Ed said, there's no way these numbers will work out they way they've been advertised.
Honey I Shrunk the Economy
As bad as the fourth quarter was, it was worse than anyone thought:
The other economic news this morning is that soon you'll be able to buy large chunks of Citigroup with just the change in your pocket. I think we're in for another brutal day on the Dow.
The economy contracted at a staggering 6.2 percent pace at the end of 2008, the worst showing in a quarter-century, as consumers and businesses ratcheted back spending, plunging the country deeper into recession.
The Commerce Department report released Friday showed the economy sinking much faster than the 3.8 percent annualized drop for the October-December quarter first estimated by the government last month. It also was considerably weaker than the 5.4 percent annualized decline economists expected.
Looking ahead, economists predict consumers and businesses will keep cutting back spending, making the first six months of this year especially rocky.
The new report offered grim proof that the economy's economic tailspin accelerated in the fourth quarter under a slew of negative forces feeding on each other. The economy started off 2008 on feeble footing, picked up a bit of speed in the spring and then contracted at an annualized rate of 0.5 percent in the third quarter.
The faster downhill slide in the final quarter of last year came as the financial crisis -- the worst since the 1930s -- intensified.
Consumers at the end of the year slashed spending by the most in 28 years. They chopped spending on cars, furniture, appliances, clothes and other things. Businesses retrenched sharply, too, dropping the ax on equipment and software, home building and commercial construction.
Before Friday's report was released, many were projecting an annualized drop of 5 percent in the current January-March quarter. Given the dismal state of the jobs market, though, some economists believe an even sharper decline in first-quarter GDP is possible. A smaller decline was expected for the second quarter of this year.
The other economic news this morning is that soon you'll be able to buy large chunks of Citigroup with just the change in your pocket. I think we're in for another brutal day on the Dow.
More Newspaper Troubles
Top of the Ticket reports that the former leader of the free world can't get the Dallas Morning News to deliver to his new home:
Mr. President - just do what the rest of us do. Read it online. It's free.
And newspapers wonder why they're in trouble.
Less than five weeks ago as the most powerful commander in chief of the world's greatest superpower, President George W. Bush got his morning global intelligence briefing and had access to information that most of us don't even know exists. Now, the Bushes have moved into a newly-purchased 8,000-square-foot private house on a cul-de-sac in the Preston Hollow section of north Dallas.
And everything's going well. Except for one thing: Bush and former First Lady Laura Bush can't seem to get the Dallas Morning News to start home delivery. Her friends have to bring her their copy come afternoon.
Mrs. Bush says they've tried and tried. So far, unsuccessfully, she reports.
Mr. President - just do what the rest of us do. Read it online. It's free.
His Blue Heaven
From Russia with love:
A Russian man died after guzzling a bottle of Viagra to keep him going for a 12-hour orgy with two female pals.It may take the funeral home days to get the smile off his face.
The women had bet mechanic Sergey Tuganov $4,300 that he wouldn’t be able to follow through with the half-day sex marathon.
But minutes after winning the bet, the 28-year-old died of a heart attack, Moscow police said.
A Terrorist Wants Protection From Terrorists
This is almost surreal:
There's something delicious about the thought that William Ayers could be concerned about being the victim of a terrorist.
Millersville University has asked the regional counter-terrorism task force to provide security when William Ayers, a former militant anti-war activist, speaks at the university next month.
Area law enforcement officers are disturbed.
Speaking on their behalf, Lancaster County District Attorney Craig Stedman said law enforcement must provide security if the university requests it, "regardless of how we feel about an unrepentant terrorist."
However, he called MU's decision to invite Ayers "a remarkably irresponsible choice" and urged the university to consider alternatives, such as remote video, "which would provide a forum without the public safety risks or costs."
State Rep. John Bear, who was informed of the security plan by a local police officer, also teed off on the university. He said he shared the plan with the Lancaster County House Republicans and they also were "appalled."
"The fact that they even asked the anti-terrorism task force to be involved shows you they think this is going to be controversial, maybe even dangerous," he said. "Why would they even hold the event in the first place?"
The counter-terrorism task force was created in the wake of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
The university has explained that Ayers' appearance here on March 19 is part of an initiative by the School of Education to revitalize its urban education program for future teachers. Ayers is a recognized authority in the field of urban education.
A professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Ayers helped found the Weather Underground while in his 20s. The group protested the Vietnam War by bombing several public buildings in the 1970s.
Ayers, who has acknowledged participating in the bombing of the Capitol in 1971 and of the Pentagon in 1972, faced criminal charges, which were dropped.
Protests have been staged at other colleges where Ayers has spoken, especially since the media reported his association with President Barack Obama. Several colleges have canceled appearances, citing security concerns and costs.
Bear and Stedman criticized MU for thinking about using a public agency and public funds to protect Ayers.
"I just think that it's absolutely wrong for the university to use public funds," said Bear. "The guy's a known terrorist. Using anti-terrorism funds to protect a known terrorist is irresponsible."
Stedman said, "Especially in these economic times, I believe it is unthinkable that any taxpayer money should be spent on a situation entirely created by choice, and I believe the university should pay for all costs."
There's something delicious about the thought that William Ayers could be concerned about being the victim of a terrorist.
Top 2% Will Save Us All
Thus sayeth The One, but nayeth sayeth the Wall Street Journal:
Obama is not concerned with how all this will be paid for. It's all about putting the huge growth in federal government in place, and once there, the arguments will be made for higher taxes on all of us to pay for all this. At that point there will be no other choice.
Other than cutting spending, of course, and that won't happen with this president or this congress.
President Obama has laid out the most ambitious and expensive domestic agenda since LBJ, and now all he has to do is figure out how to pay for it. On Tuesday, he left the impression that we need merely end "tax breaks for the wealthiest 2% of Americans," and he promised that households earning less than $250,000 won't see their taxes increased by "one single dime."
This is going to be some trick. Even the most basic inspection of the IRS income tax statistics shows that raising taxes on the salaries, dividends and capital gains of those making more than $250,000 can't possibly raise enough revenue to fund Mr. Obama's new spending ambitions.
Consider the IRS data for 2006, the most recent year that such tax data are available and a good year for the economy and "the wealthiest 2%." Roughly 3.8 million filers had adjusted gross incomes above $200,000 in 2006. (That's about 7% of all returns; the data aren't broken down at the $250,000 point.) These people paid about $522 billion in income taxes, or roughly 62% of all federal individual income receipts. The richest 1% -- about 1.65 million filers making above $388,806 -- paid some $408 billion, or 39.9% of all income tax revenues, while earning about 22% of all reported U.S. income.
Note that federal income taxes are already "progressive" with a 35% top marginal rate, and that Mr. Obama is (so far) proposing to raise it only to 39.6%, plus another two percentage points in hidden deduction phase-outs. He'd also raise capital gains and dividend rates, but those both yield far less revenue than the income tax. These combined increases won't come close to raising the hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue that Mr. Obama is going to need.
But let's not stop at a 42% top rate; as a thought experiment, let's go all the way. A tax policy that confiscated 100% of the taxable income of everyone in America earning over $500,000 in 2006 would only have given Congress an extra $1.3 trillion in revenue. That's less than half the 2006 federal budget of $2.7 trillion and looks tiny compared to the more than $4 trillion Congress will spend in fiscal 2010. Even taking every taxable "dime" of everyone earning more than $75,000 in 2006 would have barely yielded enough to cover that $4 trillion.
Fast forward to this year (and 2010) when the Wall Street meltdown and recession are going to mean far few taxpayers earning more than $500,000. Profits are plunging, businesses are cutting or eliminating dividends, hedge funds are rolling up, and, most of all, capital nationwide is on strike. Raising taxes now will thus yield far less revenue than it would have in 2006.
Mr. Obama is of course counting on an economic recovery. And he's also assuming along with the new liberal economic consensus that taxes don't matter to growth or job creation. The truth, though, is that they do. Small- and medium-sized businesses are the nation's primary employers, and lower individual tax rates have induced thousands of them to shift from filing under the corporate tax system to the individual system, often as limited liability companies or Subchapter S corporations. The Tax Foundation calculates that merely restoring the higher, Clinton-era tax rates on the top two brackets would hit 45% to 55% of small-business income, depending on how inclusively "small business" is defined. These owners will find a way to declare less taxable income.
The bottom line is that Mr. Obama is selling the country on a 2% illusion. Unwinding the U.S. commitment in Iraq and allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire can't possibly pay for his agenda. Taxes on the not-so-rich will need to rise as well.
Obama is not concerned with how all this will be paid for. It's all about putting the huge growth in federal government in place, and once there, the arguments will be made for higher taxes on all of us to pay for all this. At that point there will be no other choice.
Other than cutting spending, of course, and that won't happen with this president or this congress.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Israel Doesn't Recognize the New Hillary
There's a sizable population of Jewish people in New York State, and thus Hillary Clinton had to play nice with them and assure them that she supported Israel. Now that she's Secretary of State she has reverted to what she probably really believes - the problems in Gaza are all the Israeli's fault:
In a related story, a shill for the Saudis has been chosen to head the National Intelligence Council. His anti-Israel views are pretty well known. More here.
In a swift about face from her views as New York's senator, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is now hammering Israel over its treatment of Palestinians in Gaza.I'm sure Israel is starting to realize that the days of unqualified support from the U.S. are over...for now.
As first lady, Clinton raised eyebrows when she kissed Suha Arafat.
Since she was then seeking a Senate seat the resulting brouhaha caused her to "re-think" her positions.
"I'm a very strong supporter of Israel," Clinton said back in February 2000.
On Thursday, as Secretary of State she had yet another about face in the form of angry messages demanding Israel speed up aid to Gaza. Jewish leaders are furious.
"I am very surprised, frankly, at this statement from the United States government and from the secretary of state," said Mortimer Zuckerman, publisher of the New York Daily News and member of the NYC Jewish Community Relations Council.
"I liked her a lot more as a senator from New York," Assemblyman Dov Hikind, D-Brooklyn, said. "Now, I wonder as I used to wonder who the real Hillary Clinton is."
Clinton's decision to hammer Israel comes as the Clintons and President Barack Obama are planning to give the Palestinians $900 million toward the rebuilding of Gaza in the wake of the Israeli offensive that was sparked by Hamas rocket fire.
In a related story, a shill for the Saudis has been chosen to head the National Intelligence Council. His anti-Israel views are pretty well known. More here.
88 Days
Per Jim Geraghty, at the current rate the Dow Jones Industrial Average will zero out in 88 days. I'm beginning to think that's what's gonna happen.
An Afternoon Palate Cleanser
Let's all take a deep breath and enjoy Louis CK's take on how everything is amazing and yet nobody is happy:
Watermelons in the News
Awhile back we had watermelon seed drawings declared racist, and now we have an email sent from a local mayor containing a picture and message that has people stirred up:
In the racial environment we live in today you'd have to be pretty dense to send out something like that. You're just asking for it.
I wonder if Eric Holder would consider the mayor a "coward" after bringing up this racial discussion? After all, Holder thinks we're all cowards if we don't spend our time talking about race.
UPDATE: The mayor is resigning.
LOS ALAMITOS – Some Orange County residents and city leaders here have said they are disgusted after reading the mayor's apology for sending an e-mail to a local businesswoman and community volunteer that she said is racist and inappropriate.
Some say they mayor's e-mail is highly offensive while others have said in online comments that the e-mail was simply a joke that has been blown out of proportion.
"It appalls me how much racial insensitivity continues in this day and age," Aliso Viejo resident Brian Alpers, 48, wrote in an e-mail. "Even forwarding e-mails like that continue to perpetuate stereotypes and yes, even racial hatred."
Mayor Dean Grose on Tuesday apologized for an e-mail he sent to Keyanus Price that showed a photograph of the White House with a watermelon patch imposed as the White House garden.
Price said she was offended by the e-mail and wanted a public apology.
"I was horrified when I read that e-mail," Price said. "What I'm concerned about is how can this person send an e-mail out like this and think it is OK?"
Grose sent an apology e-mail on Tuesday to Price, her boss and members of the City Council.
"It was just poor judgment on my part, and I am deeply sorry," he said. "It wasn't meant to hurt her."
In the racial environment we live in today you'd have to be pretty dense to send out something like that. You're just asking for it.
I wonder if Eric Holder would consider the mayor a "coward" after bringing up this racial discussion? After all, Holder thinks we're all cowards if we don't spend our time talking about race.
UPDATE: The mayor is resigning.
Political Picture of the Day
From the Carnival Celebration Parade in Duesseldorf, Germany:
My question is: What's the blonde holding on to?
My question is: What's the blonde holding on to?
Rocky Mountain Low
Denver becomes a one paper town:
The Rocky Mountain News would have celebrated their 150th birthday in a couple of months. This story will be repeated in towns large and small around the country.
DENVER (AP) -- The Rocky Mountain News will publish its last edition Friday.
Owner E.W. Scripps Co. announced on the newspaper's Web site Thursday that its search for a buyer for the paper was unsuccessful.
"Today the Rocky Mountain News, long the leading voice in Denver, becomes a victim of changing times in our industry and huge economic challenges," Scripps CEO Rich Boehne said.
Scripps said the paper lost $16 million last year.
The Rocky Mountain News would have celebrated their 150th birthday in a couple of months. This story will be repeated in towns large and small around the country.
Liberal Dems Target Conservative Dems
The quest for ideological purity continues within the Dem party:
It's sort of like the Iran-Iraq war - I really don't care who wins as long as somebody loses.
WASHINGTON (CNN) — A powerful union, influential bloggers and several liberal groups have formed a political coalition to pressure conservative Democrats to support liberal policy goals.
“Accountability Now PAC will recruit, coordinate and support primary challenges against vulnerable congressional incumbents who have become more responsive to corporate America than to their constituents,” the PAC said in a written statement provided to CNN.
Accountability Now comprises of BlogPAC, Color of Change, DailyKos, Democracy for America, MoveOn, Service Employees International Union and 21st Century Democrats.
The PAC was created last September, and organizers have been acquiring funding and hiring an executive director to oversee the project, Jane Hamsher, of the political blog firedoglake.com, told CNN.
It's sort of like the Iran-Iraq war - I really don't care who wins as long as somebody loses.
Prayer as a Political Tool
All prayers shall be submitted and approved in advance:
"Excuse me sir, but Sasha and Malia have submitted their bedtime prayers for review. I think we can leave the 'pony' part in, but the section about the bully on the playground will have to be dropped because the kid's Hispanic and that could cost us in California and Texas."
When Barack Obama's presidential campaign contacted Ryan Culp last year to ask him to deliver a prayer at an Obama rally in Culp's native Elkhart, Ind., the high school wellness teacher declined. "I'm a conservative Republican," Culp, who met his wife and raised his two kids in the same evangelical church in which he was brought up, said in a phone interview. "I didn't want to be perceived to be a supporter of a Democratic campaign."
Earlier this month, though, when the White House phoned Culp to say that President Obama was returning to Elkhart—this time for a nationally televised town hall meeting to sell his economic stimulus plan—and asked him to open the event with a prayer, he agreed. "It was an opportunity to say that we're not Democrats or Republicans," said Culp, 36, "but Americans searching for an answer."
The day before the president arrived in Elkhart, Culp spent an hour and a half crafting his prayer, roughly a minute and 20 seconds long, before calling an aide from the White House Office of Public Liaison to recite it for vetting, as the administration requested. "She said that it was beautiful and that there shouldn't be a problem with it but that she would call in the morning if there was," Culp recalls.
The White House had no revisions for the prayer, which opened with the line: "Dear Heavenly Father, we come to you this day thanking you for who you are—a God that cares about each of our needs, our desires, and our fears." Culp delivered it the following day at Obama's town hall meeting, landing a handshake from the president and mentions in several local papers.
A once-in-a-lifetime experience for Culp has become routine for President Obama: In a departure from previous presidents, his public rallies are opening with invocations that have been commissioned and vetted by the White House.
During Obama's recent visit to Fort Myers, Fla., to promote his economic stimulus plan, a black Baptist preacher delivered a prayer that carefully avoided mentioning Jesus, lest he offend anyone in the audience. And at Obama's appearance last week near Phoenix to unveil his mortgage bailout plan, an administrator for the Tohono O'odham Nation delivered the prayer, taking the unusual step of writing it down so he could E-mail it to the White House for vetting. American Indian prayers are typically improvised.
Though invocations have long been commonplace at presidential inaugurations and certain events like graduations or religious services at which presidents are guests, the practice of commissioning and vetting prayers for presidential rallies is unprecedented in modern history, according to religion and politics experts.
Interviews with former White House aides and official presidential archivists going back to the Carter administration turn up no evidence of similar programs, though some of Ronald Reagan's events featured invocations from clergy from a variety of religious traditions. The Reagan White House appears to have received copies of the invocations after they were delivered, as opposed to before, according to Ronald Reagan Presidential Library archivist Lisa Jones.
"If a similar thing had been done by President Bush's White House, I guarantee you there would have been a lot of people crying foul," says Bill Wichterman, deputy director of the Office of Public Liaison under President George W. Bush. "Democrats can do this with immunity, but when Republicans do it, it becomes controversial."
The Obama administration may have skirted controversy by scheduling the invocations to be delivered before the president arrives at the events—and before national cable network cameras start rolling. "Having prayers in places like Indiana where public prayers are commonplace would help the president," says John Green of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. "Whereas seeing it on national TV would cause controversy because there are places where these things are less popular."
"Excuse me sir, but Sasha and Malia have submitted their bedtime prayers for review. I think we can leave the 'pony' part in, but the section about the bully on the playground will have to be dropped because the kid's Hispanic and that could cost us in California and Texas."
Pelosi Claps As Well as She Blinks
A year ago there was a lot of attention drawn to Speaker Nancy Pelosi as her eyes batted a furious beat during President Bush's final State of the Union Address. This year, as The Ticket points out, she acted like a high school cheerleader madly in love with the star quarterback:
In the interests of promoting Democratic comity, The Ticket points out to President Obama this morning how really, really supportive of him and his speech and his wonderful ideas and glorious prose and also his lovely suit was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi the other night.San Fran Nan is in love.
We haven't seen someone so into clapping since that mother at the second grade Flutophone concert.
It was truly Pelosibolic. Or an awful lot of caffeine. Or that new disease we see advertised on TV called Restless Leg Syndrome. (Ask your doctor about RLS.)
Loyal Ticket readers will recall earlier this month Pelosi was so into helping the president sell the notion that the nation's economy was utterly hopeless and needed his stimulus plan yesterday that Pelosi announced a staggering 500 million Americans were losing their jobs every month, which is 200 million more lost American jobs than there are Americans.
But Tuesday evening was even better. Every few words all night long the 68-year-old representative was doing her best supportive aerobics by jumping up and clapping like some crazy Californian for her president, sometimes even pointing her applauding appendages at her podium mate as if to say, "Get up and applaud, you silly Delaware dufus!"
HuffingtonPost called the competitive scene the official Clap-Off between Pelosi and Vice President Joe Biden, who's slightly younger but slower, as senators can be.
Most times Pelosi beat Biden to her feet. And, if anyone in the White House is keeping track, she was clapping harder and more often too, although we lost count in the flurry of moving fingers.
Unfortunately, the president was unable to see his most enthusiastic House supporter because he was ridiculously intent on the TelePrompters and giving the speech, silly person that he is. After a while some of us gave up watching the speaker and watched the Speaker.
Mr. Whipple is Destroying the Earth
Of all the things the New York Times has to worry about these days you'd think toilet paper would be well down the list. Apparently not:
Look, if you people at the Times want to go back to using corn cobs for those hard to reach places, go ahead. However, the rest of the civilized world chooses to use nice, soft products which come from a renewable resource. Believe it or not, we can plant more trees and there's nothing magic about "old growth". They're trees.
And, as Don Surber points out, this story originally appeared on paper made from trees. Perhaps the Times should start printing on corn cobs.
Americans like their toilet tissue soft: exotic confections that are silken, thick and hot-air-fluffed.
The national obsession with soft paper has driven the growth of brands like Cottonelle Ultra, Quilted Northern Ultra and Charmin Ultra — which in 2008 alone increased its sales by 40 percent in some markets, according to Information Resources, Inc., a marketing research firm.
But fluffiness comes at a price: millions of trees harvested in North America and in Latin American countries, including some percentage of trees from rare old-growth forests in Canada. Although toilet tissue can be made at similar cost from recycled material, it is the fiber taken from standing trees that help give it that plush feel, and most large manufacturers rely on them.
Customers “demand soft and comfortable,” said James Malone, a spokesman for Georgia Pacific, the maker of Quilted Northern. “Recycled fiber cannot do it.”
The country’s soft-tissue habit — call it the Charmin effect — has not escaped the notice of environmentalists, who are increasingly making toilet tissue manufacturers the targets of campaigns. Greenpeace on Monday for the first time issued a national guide for American consumers that rates toilet tissue brands on their environmental soundness. With the recession pushing the price for recycled paper down and Americans showing more willingness to repurpose everything from clothing to tires, environmental groups want more people to switch to recycled toilet tissue.
“No forest of any kind should be used to make toilet paper,” said Dr. Allen Hershkowitz, a senior scientist and waste expert with the Natural Resource Defense Council.
Look, if you people at the Times want to go back to using corn cobs for those hard to reach places, go ahead. However, the rest of the civilized world chooses to use nice, soft products which come from a renewable resource. Believe it or not, we can plant more trees and there's nothing magic about "old growth". They're trees.
And, as Don Surber points out, this story originally appeared on paper made from trees. Perhaps the Times should start printing on corn cobs.
Democrats Ignore The President
I guess the Dems were so deafened by their own clapping and cheering that they missed some important stuff in Obama's speech to Congress:
Let's congratulate the nation's governors, mayors, city councilmen, and other local leaders who have now been declared "nameless, faceless bureaucrats" by Reid. Your services are no longer needed. We have the federal government to take care of us now.
Leading Democrats on Wednesday appeared to brush aside President Obama’s suggestion that they sacrifice earmarks in the federal budget, arguing Congress knows better than “faceless bureaucrats” how to spend taxpayer money.
The pushback came just hours after the president, during his address to a joint session of Congress, implored lawmakers to help put the nation back on a path to fiscal health.
Despite Obama’s request, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) on Wednesday stood by thousands of earmarks in the $410 billion omnibus spending bill, which the House passed Wednesday and is expected to be debated next by senators.
A slew of top Democratic appropriators in the Senate also defended earmarks, saying the process of setting aside federal money for specific member projects keeps decisions about taxpayer money in the hands of elected officials, where it should be.
“We cannot let spending be done by a bunch of nameless, faceless bureaucrats,” Reid said Wednesday.
Let's congratulate the nation's governors, mayors, city councilmen, and other local leaders who have now been declared "nameless, faceless bureaucrats" by Reid. Your services are no longer needed. We have the federal government to take care of us now.
More Trouble for Burris
The saga of Roland Burris continues:
Chicago politics at its best.
The son of embattled Sen. Roland Burris is a federal tax deadbeat who landed a $75,000-a-year state job under former Gov. Rod Blagojevich five months ago, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.
Blagojevich's administration hired Roland W. Burris II as a senior counsel for the state's housing authority Sept. 10 -- about six weeks after the Internal Revenue Service slapped a $34,163 tax lien on Burris II and three weeks after a mortgage company filed a foreclosure suit on his South Side house.
A spokeswoman for the Illinois Housing Development Authority indicated Wednesday there was nothing improper about Burris II's employment by the agency, whose mission includes overseeing mortgage programs for low-income home buyers and anti-foreclosure initiatives.
Burris II's hiring, however, raises more questions about Sen. Burris' interactions with Blagojevich and his inner circle at a time when the governor was soliciting Sen. Burris for campaign contributions and Burris was angling to have Blagojevich appoint him to the Senate seat once held by President Obama. ...
Blagojevich appointed Burris to that seat in late December after Blagojevich was charged with trying to sell the vacancy to the highest bidder.
Burris II, 42, once worked at the same law firm as his father: Burris, Wright, Slaughter & Tom. That firm merged with another in the fall.
Burris II had resolved two federal tax liens in 2005 before being hit with the $34,163 lien in July. That lien against his property seeks unpaid taxes for 2004, 2005 and 2007.
A month after the IRS filed the lien, Burris II's lender filed its foreclosure suit. Since Burris II and his wife got the $372,000 mortgage on July 18, 2006, they've paid less than $3,000 on it, the suit alleges. The balance due is $406,685, including interest and penalties.
The fact that Burris II faces foreclosure but is working at a housing-related state agency "reeks of hypocrisy," said state Rep. Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs), who was the first to call on Sen. Burris to testify before the impeachment panel.
Chicago politics at its best.
Obama Hood
Here comes the "soak the rich" part of the Obama tax plan:
I personally think he went too far by removing millions of people from the tax rolls altogether. It's not healthy for a country to have over 40% of the wage earners getting a free ride from the income tax system while the rest pay all the bills.
Back to the article:
Feb. 26 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama is proposing the first tax increase on high-income earners in 16 years to help pay for sweeping health-care reforms, asking the U.S. Congress to cap the tax deductions for affluent Americans.Let me stop right here for a moment and correct some lazy writing by the Bloomberg people. Bush's policy was not "tax cuts for high-income people", it was tax cuts for everybody. If you paid federal income taxes, you got a tax cut. Of course higher income people received a greater benefit because they paid more taxes, but it's intellectually lazy writing to claim Bush's policy was aimed only at the rich.
The move would reverse a course set by former President George W. Bush of lowering taxes for high-income people, the cornerstone of his administration’s economic program.
“It’s a clear repudiation of Bush’s policy,” said Peter Morici, an economist at the University of Maryland in College Park. “It’s more Obama Robin Hood.”
I personally think he went too far by removing millions of people from the tax rolls altogether. It's not healthy for a country to have over 40% of the wage earners getting a free ride from the income tax system while the rest pay all the bills.
Back to the article:
Obama proposes spending $634 billion to overhaul the U.S. health-care system, partly paid for by limiting tax deductions for couples making more than $250,000 a year, an administration official said.
He will seek the money, to be spent over 10 years, in his first budget request to Congress today. About half would come from changes to Medicare, the health plan for the elderly, and the rest from the tax revisions, the official said. Limiting deductions for upper-income taxpayers is projected to generate $318 billion over 10 years, the official said.
The administration also proposes in its budget plan to use revenue from the sale of greenhouse-gas emission permits to help finance a tax credit for some workers and offset higher energy costs for low- and middle-income people.
One correction - the president said that this change would affect those couples making $250,000 or more. However, the top tax rate that this change will effect starts at $208,850. It didn't even take 24 hours for that statement to expire.
If his cap-and-trade carbon program is enacted there won't be lower energy costs for anybody. We'll all get soaked.
And as taxes are increased to people with higher incomes, what incentive will there be to try and make a higher income? When you tax something you get less of that activity, and the folks who make the big money are not going to sit idly by and allow their work to be wasted on federal programs. They will find ways to shelter or hide income. They always do.
If Obama really wanted to spur the economy and pay for all his new programs he would immediately cut tax rates, especially the highest rates, like Kennedy, Reagan and Bush did and he'd have more money flowing into Washington than he would know what to do with. That doesn't interest him, though, because it doesn't meet his definition of "fairness".
How "fair" is it that so few people will end up paying the bill for everyone else?
Obama's Straw Man
Karl Rove finds a creative way to call President Obama a liar:
President Barack Obama reveres Abraham Lincoln. But among the glaring differences between the two men is that Lincoln offered careful, rigorous, sustained arguments to advance his aims and, when disagreeing with political opponents, rarely relied on the lazy rhetorical device of "straw men." Mr. Obama, on the other hand, routinely ascribes to others views they don't espouse and says opposition to his policies is grounded in views no one really advocates.Karl provides lots of examples where Obama claims to be opposing Republican views, but no Republicans actually hold those views. It's disingenuous at best, outright lying at worst. Read the whole thing.
Today's Quick Headlines
Some quick hits on today's headlines:
Scientists Find First Animal That Had Sex
Boy, that sucker must be really old.
Chimp Cremated; Victim's Family May Sue
I love the smell of burning monkey in the morning.
Woman Infected With Herpes Awarded Nearly $7M
Almost makes it worth getting sick.
Octomom Gets $1 Million Porn Offer
Who wants to see a woman naked who just had eight kids?
24 Drinking Arrests at Home of MADD Volunteer
I'll bet he's really mad now.
Tiger Woods returns and wins match at Match Play
The first of many.
First Lady of San Francisco Stars in Racy Flesh Fest
She's just showing off her political figure.
'Honk if you will pay my mortgage'
Actual bumpersticker being offered by WND.Netanyahu Set to Fight Israel's Recession With Repeat Dose of Tax-Cutting...
Can we make Bibi our Prime Minister?PANETTA: 'THERE'S NO QUESTION' THERE'S STILL WAR ON TERROR...
Really? The new Homeland Security Secretary can't even say the words.
The New GOP Strategy
Byron York has the details:
The can't just be the party of "no". They have to provide alternative plans and explain why it's superior to what the Dems want to do. The media won't help them get the message out, so that's always going to be a problem. However, Newt showed in 1994 it could be done, and that was before the internet and blogs were so prevalent.
I just got off the phone with a very plugged-in Republican strategist who told me that Republican reaction to President Obama's speech, which the party will roll out in the next few days, will mark the beginning of a new GOP approach to opposing the president's initiatives. (No, Bobby Jindal's ineffective response was not part of that new approach -- everyone seems a little embarrassed about that.) The Republican leadership in the House has concluded that in the stimulus debate, the GOP succeeded in dominating a number of news cycles but failed to score any points on actual policy. That, the leaders believe, has got to change.One thing the GOP has not done well for many years is articulate and act upon conservative principles. Maybe they've finally gotten religion on the subject after being drubbed in two elections.
"You're seeing a major doctrinal shift in how Republicans are going to focus all these debates," the strategist told me. "The key is to focus on winning the issue as opposed to winning the political moment. If you win the issue, people will think you are ready to govern."
I asked him to elaborate a little. "With the political moment, it's how can you find the one thing that gives you the momentary upper hand in terms of the coverage for the next six hours -- as opposed to engaging the electorate in creating a structural change in their opinion on which party is better able to handle an issue."
During the stimulus debate, the strategist argued, Republicans had an actual alternative but were unable to direct much attention to it -- in part because they were focusing so much of their rhetoric on the massive and unnecessary spending in the bill. The debate became a question of an up-or-down decision on the Obama/Democratic plan -- not a choice between the Obama/Democratic plan and a Republican plan. "The coverage of the stimulus bill focused on the difference between the House and Senate versions," the strategist told me, "which were basically two sides of the same coin." The Republican role was limited to a) saying no to the Obama/Democratic bill, and b) having three moderates in the Senate approve of the bill as long as it offered a little less than what Democrats proposed. The idea that Republicans, mostly in the House, had an actual full-scale alternative, was lost. "On the Sunday talk shows, right after it passed, find me one person who mentioned the Republican alternative," the strategist said.
So now Republicans want to try something new. They point to last year's debate over energy, in which the GOP got the upper hand on the issue of drilling -- so much so that majority Democrats were forced to retreat from their position. That, the strategist says, was the kind of clearly-articulated policy alternative that Republicans will be seeking to put forward today.
The can't just be the party of "no". They have to provide alternative plans and explain why it's superior to what the Dems want to do. The media won't help them get the message out, so that's always going to be a problem. However, Newt showed in 1994 it could be done, and that was before the internet and blogs were so prevalent.
Supremes Get One Right
The Supreme Court ruled on the side of common sense:
Can we now do away with the notion that you can't have a nativity display without allowing every other religion or cult to put up something too?
The U.S. Supreme Court today ruled that governments in the U.S. are not required to post or display every statement offered by private organizations.
The ruling came in a case stemming from a dispute in Utah in which a religious organization called Summum demanded the city of Pleasant Grove display a monument containing its seven "aphorisms." Summum argued the city already had accepted a donated monument displaying the Ten Commandments in a city park.
Lawyers with the American Center for Law and Justice, who defended the city, said a requirement that governments display any message offered was "scary" and would lead to absurd scenarios.
"The Minutemen in Massachusetts? We need a Redcoat. A George Washington statue? Why not George the 3rd. A Holocaust memorial? How about a Hitler memorial?" said the ACLJ's Frank Manion in a previous interview with WND.
The non-profit legal group also had suggested that according to Summum's logic, the nation could be required to allow a "Statue of Tyranny" in New York Harbor to accompany the Statue of Liberty.
The Supreme Court's ruling concluded those fears are "well founded."
Can we now do away with the notion that you can't have a nativity display without allowing every other religion or cult to put up something too?
When Shamu Goes Bad
In February of 2008 a tourist visiting Sea World caught some scenes of nature in action when a pelican decided to join the Shamu show. Big mistake. Shamu doesn't share the pool with anybody.
What makes it all the more surreal is the way the music keeps going throughout.
What makes it all the more surreal is the way the music keeps going throughout.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Sen. Byrd Doesn't Like Czars
The guy for whom most of West Virginia is named is having problems with the rookie president:
Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), the longest-serving Democratic senator, is criticizing President Obama’s appointment of White House “czars” to oversee federal policy, saying these executive positions amount to a power grab by the executive branch.You have to give him credit for sticking to his guns on constitutional issues. There does seem to be a whole new layer of bureaucracy that's immune from Senate confirmation and House oversight.
In a letter to Obama on Wednesday, Byrd complained about Obama’s decision to create White House offices on health reform, urban affairs policy, and energy and climate change. Byrd said such positions “can threaten the Constitutional system of checks and balances. At the worst, White House staff have taken direction and control of programmatic areas that are the statutory responsibility of Senate-confirmed officials.”
Political Headline of the Day
Reader Bob asks if anyone (such as Al Sharpton) will find this headline racist:
You add that to the 'coons in the White House story and there are all kinds of racial double entendre's floating around.
Stocks Shed 1% as Obama Spooks Market
You add that to the 'coons in the White House story and there are all kinds of racial double entendre's floating around.
Should We Abolish The Death Penalty to Save Money?
Read this and then I'll comment:
California has hundreds of inmates on death row at a staggering cost every year for appeals, lawyer fees, etc. It can take 15-20 years before an execution takes place...if ever. Because of the interminable delays involved, I personally doubt that the death penalty is much of a deterrant anymore. Although I'm not quite convinced that eliminating it would be best, I'm willing to give it more consideration.
We either need to dramatically reform the process so that there's an obvious connection between the crime, conviction and execution, or we need to dump it and use the money saved to build more prisons or as the story suggests above, to try and clear more cases. What we're doing now clearly doesn't work.
The idea of abolishing the death penalty in Colorado and using the money it takes to prosecute such cases to solve so-called cold cases stirred debate in a House committee late into the night Monday.
House Majority Leader Paul Weissmann, D-Louisville, revived his bill that just missed passing the House in 2007. The threat of death does not deter people from committing murders, he said, and the $370,000 spent to prosecute those cases could be better spent on investigating unsolved murders.
Since 1967, Colorado has executed one person and there are only two people on death row, Weissmann said. During that time, there have been 1,435 unsolved homicides.
Since the early 1980s, the national clearance rate for murder cases has dropped from 80 percent to 62 percent, said University of Colorado sociology professor Michael Radelet, who has written seven books on the death penalty.
California has hundreds of inmates on death row at a staggering cost every year for appeals, lawyer fees, etc. It can take 15-20 years before an execution takes place...if ever. Because of the interminable delays involved, I personally doubt that the death penalty is much of a deterrant anymore. Although I'm not quite convinced that eliminating it would be best, I'm willing to give it more consideration.
We either need to dramatically reform the process so that there's an obvious connection between the crime, conviction and execution, or we need to dump it and use the money saved to build more prisons or as the story suggests above, to try and clear more cases. What we're doing now clearly doesn't work.
The First Dog
After much consultation (and probably focus groups) the First Family has decided on a dog:
You know who else has a Portuguese Water Dog? Ted Kennedy.
His name is "Splash".
You can't make that stuff up.
The Obamas are getting their new dog in a matter of weeks. And they have come to some important decisions.
First off, the breed.
First Lady Michelle Obama told People Magazine that the the family wants to find a rescue Portuguese Water dog.
"Temperamentally they're supposed to be pretty good," she said. "From the size perspective, they're sort of middle of the road – it's not small, but it's not a huge dog. And the folks that we know who own them have raved about them. So that's where we're leaning."
Portuguese Water Dogs are a fairly rare breed similar to poodles that have become popular in recent years because they don't shed. They are native to Portugal's coast, where they have been used by fishers to herd their catch into nets.
You know who else has a Portuguese Water Dog? Ted Kennedy.
His name is "Splash".
You can't make that stuff up.
Has Abuse At Gitmo Worsened Since Obama Was Elected?
Let's just say I have my doubts about the accuracy of this information:
Now, I could see the possibility that some guards, aggravated that this scum might be turned loose by the Obama administration, might be taking their frustration out on the residents of Club Gitmo. However, given the attention that Gitmo got during the election and aftermath, it's hard to believe that the alleged activity could actually be going on.
LONDON (Reuters) - Abuse of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay has worsened sharply since President Barack Obama took office as prison guards "get their kicks in" before the camp is closed, according to a lawyer who represents detainees.
Abuses began to pick up in December after Obama was elected, human rights lawyer Ahmed Ghappour told Reuters. He cited beatings, the dislocation of limbs, spraying of pepper spray into closed cells, applying pepper spray to toilet paper and over-forcefeeding detainees who are on hunger strike.
The Pentagon said on Monday that it had received renewed reports of prisoner abuse during a recent review of conditions at Guantanamo, but had concluded that all prisoners were being kept in accordance with the Geneva Conventions.
"According to my clients, there has been a ramping up in abuse since President Obama was inaugurated," said Ghappour, a British-American lawyer with Reprieve, a legal charity that represents 31 detainees at Guantanamo.
"If one was to use one's imagination, (one) could say that these traumatized, and for lack of a better word barbaric, guards were just basically trying to get their kicks in right now for fear that they won't be able to later," he said.
Now, I could see the possibility that some guards, aggravated that this scum might be turned loose by the Obama administration, might be taking their frustration out on the residents of Club Gitmo. However, given the attention that Gitmo got during the election and aftermath, it's hard to believe that the alleged activity could actually be going on.
Jindal Starts His Recovery
Bobby Jindal's performance last night as the GOP responder to Obama was pretty much panned as being too robotic, plastic, etc. It would have been hard for anybody to follow a speech to a joint session of Congress, but unfortunately Jindal wasn't up to even the lowered expectations.
I posted that I thought he had hurt himself, but still had plenty of time to recover before he makes any big national plans. Today he started the recovery with an appearance on Today that reminded everybody what they liked about him in the first place. Here's the video:
He may be another one of those guys who doesn't do that well with a teleprompter and no live audience, but is outstanding in a more impromptu situation or in front of a crowd. President Bush was a classic example of that kind of guy.
I posted that I thought he had hurt himself, but still had plenty of time to recover before he makes any big national plans. Today he started the recovery with an appearance on Today that reminded everybody what they liked about him in the first place. Here's the video:
He may be another one of those guys who doesn't do that well with a teleprompter and no live audience, but is outstanding in a more impromptu situation or in front of a crowd. President Bush was a classic example of that kind of guy.
More Governors - Even Dems - May Reject Some Porkulus Money
Dem Gov. Phil Bredesen of Tennessee may be joining GOP Governors in rejecting some of the porkulus funds because of the long term changes they would require from the state:
Sen. Chuckie Schumer had a cow when several GOP governors stated they would not take certain funds because it would require state law changes that would have long term impacts on their states. He wrote a letter to the Budget Director demanding that states be forced to take all the funds or none of them.
I haven't heard him come out against Bredesen yet.
Schumer's demand was based on the shaky logic that because the Congress appropriated these funds the states had to take them and change their laws accordingly, thus making Congress the de facto heads of each state. That will never fly in the courts.
Those states that are not in dire straits should be free to accept or reject whatever portion of the porkulus monies they wish. No state should be forced to make permanent changes in their laws based on temporary funding.
Tennessee could reject a portion of the $787 billion economic stimulus package out of concerns that it would force the state to raise taxes on businesses in the future.
At the National Governors Association meetings in Washington, D.C., Gov. Phil Bredesen said this week that he might turn down relief for unemployed workers worth an estimated $143 million because of conditions placed on the money by Congress.
The stimulus package would also raise unemployment benefits by $25 a week for all workers, but in addition, lawmakers want states to expand the pool of people who can apply for benefits. That would put more pressure on an unemployment trust fund that is already trying to stave off insolvency.
"We are evaluating this piece of money, whether it makes sense for us to take it," Bredesen said in an interview Monday with the Chattanooga Times Free Press. "We're in the position of going back to our legislature this year for changes in our tax structure just to keep our fund whole, and taking it to a new level may be too much of a lift for the legislature this spring."
Sen. Chuckie Schumer had a cow when several GOP governors stated they would not take certain funds because it would require state law changes that would have long term impacts on their states. He wrote a letter to the Budget Director demanding that states be forced to take all the funds or none of them.
I haven't heard him come out against Bredesen yet.
Schumer's demand was based on the shaky logic that because the Congress appropriated these funds the states had to take them and change their laws accordingly, thus making Congress the de facto heads of each state. That will never fly in the courts.
Those states that are not in dire straits should be free to accept or reject whatever portion of the porkulus monies they wish. No state should be forced to make permanent changes in their laws based on temporary funding.
Political Quote of the Day
From Slow Joe Biden, as he forgets that Recovery.gov is the name of the website that will detail all the stuff he's supposed to be in charge of:
'Do You Know The Website Number?'
AP Fact Checks and Fawns
The Obama speech drew different reactions from the Associated Press. On one hand they did a nice job of fact checking his speech and pointing out all the nonsense, and on the other hand they slobbered all over him. First, the fact checks:
Nice job by the AP on that one. And now, from AP's Ron Fournier, the fawning:
Gag.
A look at some of his assertions:
OBAMA: "We have launched a housing plan that will help responsible families facing the threat of foreclosure lower their monthly payments and refinance their mortgages. It's a plan that won't help speculators or that neighbor down the street who bought a house he could never hope to afford, but it will help millions of Americans who are struggling with declining home values."
THE FACTS: If the administration has come up with a way to ensure money only goes to those who got in honest trouble, it hasn't said so.
Defending the program Tuesday at a Senate hearing, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said it's important to save those who made bad calls, for the greater good. He likened it to calling the fire department to put out a blaze caused by someone smoking in bed.
"I think the smart way to deal with a situation like that is to put out the fire, save him from his own consequences of his own action but then, going forward, enact penalties and set tougher rules about smoking in bed."
Similarly,the head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. suggested this month it's not likely aid will be denied to all homeowners who overstated their income or assets to get a mortgage they couldn't afford.
"I think it's just simply impractical to try to do a forensic analysis of each and every one of these delinquent loans," Sheila Bair told National Public Radio.
---
OBAMA: "And I believe the nation that invented the automobile cannot walk away from it."
THE FACTS: Depends what your definition of automobiles, is. According to the Library of Congress, the inventor of the first true automobile was probably Germany's Karl Benz, who created the first auto powered by an internal combustion gasoline engine, in 1885 or 1886. In the U.S., Charles Duryea tested what library researchers called the first successful gas-powered car in 1893. Nobody disputes that Henry Ford created the first assembly line that made cars affordable.
---
OBAMA: "We have known for decades that our survival depends on finding new sources of energy. Yet we import more oil today than ever before."
THE FACTS: Oil imports peaked in 2005 at just over 5 billion barrels, and have been declining slightly since. The figure in 2007 was 4.9 billion barrels, or about 58 percent of total consumption. The nation is on pace this year to import 4.7 billion barrels, and government projections are for imports to hold steady or decrease a bit over the next two decades.
---
OBAMA: "We have already identified $2 trillion in savings over the next decade."
THE FACTS: Although 10-year projections are common in government, they don't mean much. And at times, they are a way for a president to pass on the most painful steps to his successor, by putting off big tax increases or spending cuts until someone else is in the White House.
Obama only has a real say on spending during the four years of his term. He may not be president after that and he certainly won't be 10 years from now.
---
OBAMA: "Regulations were gutted for the sake of a quick profit at the expense of a healthy market. People bought homes they knew they couldn't afford from banks and lenders who pushed those bad loans anyway. And all the while, critical debates and difficult decisions were put off for some other time on some other day."
THE FACTS: This may be so, but it isn't only Republicans who pushed for deregulation of the financial industries. The Clinton administration championed an easing of banking regulations, including legislation that ended the barrier between regular banks and Wall Street banks. That led to a deregulation that kept regular banks under tight federal regulation but extended lax regulation of Wall Street banks. Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, later an economic adviser to candidate Obama, was in the forefront in pushing for this deregulation.
---
OBAMA: "In this budget, we will end education programs that don't work and end direct payments to large agribusinesses that don't need them. We'll eliminate the no-bid contracts that have wasted billions in Iraq, and reform our defense budget so that we're not paying for Cold War-era weapons systems we don't use. We will root out the waste, fraud and abuse in our Medicare program that doesn't make our seniors any healthier, and we will restore a sense of fairness and balance to our tax code by finally ending the tax breaks for corporations that ship our jobs overseas."
THE FACTS: First, his budget does not accomplish any of that. It only proposes those steps. That's all a president can do, because control over spending rests with Congress. Obama's proposals here are a wish list and some items, including corporate tax increases and cuts in agricultural aid, will be a tough sale in Congress.
Second, waste, fraud and abuse are routinely targeted by presidents who later find that the savings realized seldom amount to significant sums. Programs that a president might consider wasteful have staunch defenders in Congress who have fought off similar efforts in the past.
---
OBAMA: "Thanks to our recovery plan, we will double this nation's supply of renewable energy in the next three years."
THE FACTS: While the president's stimulus package includes billions in aid for renewable energy and conservation, his goal is unlikely to be achieved through the recovery plan alone.
In 2007, the U.S. produced 8.4 percent of its electricity from renewable sources, including hydroelectric dams, solar panels and windmills. Under the status quo, the Energy Department says, it will take more than two decades to boost that figure to 12.5 percent.
If Obama is to achieve his much more ambitious goal, Congress would need to mandate it. That is the thrust of an energy bill that is expected to be introduced in coming weeks.
---
OBAMA: "Over the next two years, this plan will save or create 3.5 million jobs."
THE FACTS: This is a recurrent Obama formulation. But job creation projections are uncertain even in stable times, and some of the economists relied on by Obama in making his forecast acknowledge a great deal of uncertainty in their numbers.
The president's own economists, in a report prepared last month, stated, "It should be understood that all of the estimates presented in this memo are subject to significant margins of error."
Beyond that, it's unlikely the nation will ever know how many jobs are saved as a result of the stimulus. While it's clear when jobs are abolished, there's no economic gauge that tracks job preservation. The estimates are based on economic assumptions of how many jobs would be lost without the stimulus.
Nice job by the AP on that one. And now, from AP's Ron Fournier, the fawning:
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama gave America the audacity to hope again.
After describing the U.S. economy in nearly apocalyptic terms for weeks, pushing his $787 billion stimulus plan through Congress, the president used his address to Congress on Tuesday night to tap the deep well of American optimism — the never-say-die spirit that every president tries to capture in words. And great presidents embody.
Gag.
54% Want No Bailouts
From Rasmussen:
Given the choice between federal bailouts for the auto companies, the finance industry and financially trouble homeowners or no bailouts for any of them, 54% say no bailouts period.Put me in the 54%. I don't think the economy is out-of-control, but I do think the federal government is out-of-control.
Just 26% support bailouts for all three, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Twenty percent (20%) aren’t sure which course is better to follow.
Investors, with their eyes on the financial markets, are even more strongly opposed. Sixty-two percent (62%) of investors say “no” to all three bailouts, with 24% who favor them. Twenty-eight percent (28%) of non-investors support the bailouts, but 45% are opposed.
Hearst Could Shut Down Two Big Newspapers
How bad is it in the newspaper business? Pretty bad:
Both papers have a far-left orientation, but are both based in far-left towns. If they can't appeal to those audiences, they haven't got a chance.
NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 24 (Reuters) - San Francisco may lose its main newspaper, the San Francisco Chronicle, as owner Hearst Corp cuts a "significant" number of jobs and decides whether to shut or sell the money-losing daily.
The privately held New York-based publisher already is considering shutting a second West Coast paper, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, in the face of a devastating decline in advertising revenue and big losses.
Founded shortly after Gold Rush fever hit California in the mid-19th century, the Chronicle has long been an essential part of daily life for many Bay Area residents, even as it sometimes disappointed or outraged them.
But the Chronicle lost more than $50 million last year and this year's losses to date are worse, Hearst said on its website on Tuesday. It said the paper has lost "major" amounts of money since 2001, a year after Hearst bought the paper.
"Survival is the outcome we all want to achieve. But without the specific changes we are seeking across the entire Chronicle organization, we will have no choice but to quickly seek a buyer for the Chronicle or, should a buyer not be found, to shut the newspaper down," said Hearst Corp Chief Executive Frank Bennack Jr.
Both papers have a far-left orientation, but are both based in far-left towns. If they can't appeal to those audiences, they haven't got a chance.
Some Comments From Newt
Newt Gingrich offered a couple of Twitter comments during Obama's speech that were interesting:
Speaker Pelosi standing up to applaud the private jet line while she flies around in a government jet at taxpayer expense verges on bizarreThis is from a guy who has sat behind the president during a State of the Union a time or two.
Nobody messes with joe and the smiles and nancy handshake resembled a democratic pep rally not a state of the union--sophomoric and silly
Today's Quick Headlines
Some quick hits on today's headlines:
Yacht killer described as caring Christian
The Bible never said "Thou shalt not kill yachts".
Obama says America will be back
Right after this word from our creditors.
HEARST Plans to Sell or Close SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE Newspaper...
The last five subscribers will be very disappointed.
URGENT: HOUSE PASSES BILL BANNING CHIMPS AS PETS...
Can they still be used in cartoons...or Congress?
Oslo looks more like 'Ice Age'; City resorts to 'dumping truckloads of snow in sea'...
Won't that raise the sea levels?
Topless 'Over 18' Cafe Gives New Meaning to Cup Size
Does "Venti" describe the coffee or the waitress?
School Spends $10G to Teach Spanish Kids Spanish
Some jokes write themselves.
Bernanke: Recovery Possible In '09 If Programs Work
We're screwed.
Gay Remark Stops Utah Legislature Business
They had to look it up to see what it meant.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Jindal Hurt Himself
I'm afraid Bobby Jindal's chances for 2012 just took a hit with his response to Obama's speech. The reviews I'm seeing of his performance are pretty uniformly bad. He's a great speaker under many circumstances, but doing a TV speech was not his thing. Too bad.
However, remember that in 1988 Bill Clinton gave a snoozer of a keynote address at the Dem Convention, but came back to win in 1992. One speech isn't fatal, but this one probably set Jindal back a ways.
However, remember that in 1988 Bill Clinton gave a snoozer of a keynote address at the Dem Convention, but came back to win in 1992. One speech isn't fatal, but this one probably set Jindal back a ways.
The Speech in Summary
Will Wilkinson:
Oratorywise, so good. Ideawise, so weak. Combination, so dangerous.
Fathead Tuesday Speech - A Viewer's Guide
Tonight the rookie president will stand before Congress in a joint session and will outline his economic plan among other things. We'll call it the "State of the Unions (Own Me and the Dem Party)".
I'm sure the Democrats will give him a standing ovation every time he pauses for an "uh" and Republicans will give him a polite golf clap every now and then. It will be quite the spectacle. In fact, in the spirit of Mardi Gras I expect Sen. Claire McCaskill to flash him as he speaks. I don't know if Obama will have any beads to throw to the adoring throng.
I've created a little viewer guide for you to use should you choose to watch the speech. Simply print this post out and tape it to your TV right below the picture. It will offer you some important reminders as you listen:
RedState offers a key to help you decipher tonight's speech:
I'm sure the Democrats will give him a standing ovation every time he pauses for an "uh" and Republicans will give him a polite golf clap every now and then. It will be quite the spectacle. In fact, in the spirit of Mardi Gras I expect Sen. Claire McCaskill to flash him as he speaks. I don't know if Obama will have any beads to throw to the adoring throng.
I've created a little viewer guide for you to use should you choose to watch the speech. Simply print this post out and tape it to your TV right below the picture. It will offer you some important reminders as you listen:
All of my statements come with expiration dates.
I believe you can tax your way to prosperity.
I don't know what I'm doing, but don't I look good!
Gosh, I sure hope the teleprompter doesn't break.
RedState offers a key to help you decipher tonight's speech:
KEY:
“Since the Great Depression” – The economic one, not the feeling you’ve had since he signed the “stimulus” bill.
“Save or create” jobs – Obama’s new metric whereby he can claim credit for the outcome no matter what happens (how exactly does one determine the number of “saved” jobs?)
“Crisis” - Excuse to hike taxes and grow the government per Rahm Emanuel’s theory: “Never let a crisis go to waste.”
“Stimulus” – The 1,000 page Pelosi-Reid-Obama pork bill rushed through in the dead of night with no transparency and that not a single member of Congress who voted for it actually read.
“Hope” – The optimistic expectation, against all evidence that this government will be the first in the history of time to succeed in spending its way out of economic problems.
“Change” – Take-home pay of future generations due to massive spending increases and government expansion.
“Bipartisan” – “Pelosi and Reid get to decide what we’ll do, but I’ll have you over for tea first.”
“Children and grandchildren” – The people picking up the tab.
“Shovel-ready” – Vital projects that somehow are not important enough to receive funding through the regular appropriations process at the local, state, or federal level. “Toxic assets”- Now the responsibility of those who followed the rules and made wise decisions.
“Failed policies of the past” – An overspending problem by George W. Bush to be expanded by Obama
“Investment” – Government spending.
“Sacrifice” – Tax hikes.
“As I’ve said before” – Prepare for a poll tested line from stump speeches.
“Make work pay” – Writing welfare checks through the tax code (and then calling it a tax cut).
“Climate change” – (Formerly known as Global Warming) The natural cycles of the sun and the four seasons.
“FDR” – The last President to attempt and fail to spend the country’s way out of a hole.
“Let me be clear” – Warning to “have your shovel ready.”
“Executive pay” – A serious problem because large cash awards are only appropriate when politicians dole out taxpayer money to the pet projects of their sons, brothers, wives, or campaign contributors.
“Protecting responsible homeowners” – Forcing you to pay your neighbor’s mortgage.
“Trillion-dollar deficit that we’ve inherited” – Bush overspending – which Obama just doubled.
“Essential services” – Government programs that employ unionized bureaucrats.
“Vulnerable Americans” – People that Obama wants to make dependent on the government.
“Tax cuts to 95 percent of working families” – See “Make Work Pay”
“Alternative energy”– Energy that is either too expensive or hasn’t succeeded in the free market on its own (if it worked, it would just be called “energy”)
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