“The most powerful force in the universe is compound interest”
As the Fleebagger 14 can attest, Rockford, Illinois, just to the south of Wisconsin's southern border, has suddenly become quite the little late winter destination of choice for many.
The Rockford visitors bureau has some fun at the expense of Democratic Wisconsin lawmakers and plug their city at the same time.
Alternate headline: Do you remember when they told us that if we voted for McCain it would mean at least four more years of discretionary consolidation of power in the executive branch? Well, they were right.
Of course, the administration and the Justice Department haven't abdicated enforcing the law of the land with respect to ObamaCare but rather another law. No matter the law, it's the law and refusing to enforce always has negative ramifications towards the continuance of liberty in the republic.
B-Daddy has more here on the subject.
Whether it's the economy or the law, it's all about picking winners and losers now, baby!
What's the best way to get Americans back to work?
Raise taxes, according to AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. Specifically, he wants to raise the federal gas tax as a means to fund infrastructure spending. "We need a dedicated source of revenue to create infrastructure in this country," he tells Aaron Task in the accompanying clip.
"We need to create jobs. The best way to do that is through infrastructure development." Simply maintaining the existing infrastructure in this country will cost $2.2 trillion over five years, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers. That doesn't include Obama's objective of high-speed rails and green energy projects
Trumka didn't say specifically how much he would raise the gas tax, but mentioned he's shown the President a $256 billion plan to improve infrastructure. If every billion spent on infrastructure creates 35,000 jobs, as he claims, this package would create close to 9 million jobs over the next five years.
"If we want people working in America, we got to make sure our highways and roads are modern,…We've got to bring up this transportation system into the 21st century."
Vice President, Joe "Choo-choo" Biden is in the news and talking trains again:
Biden Vows to Jump Canyon by Amtrak
GRAND CANYON, AZ - Standing on the rim of the gaping two-mile wide chasm of the Grand Canyon in a star-spangled jumpsuit, Joe Biden today announced a new $53 billion federal high speed rail program that will include funding for "SkyTrain X-2," a new experimental locomotive that, if successful, will make him the first known U.S. Vice President to jump the Grand Canyon by rail.
"This is a big fu%#ing deal - a big fu%#ing deal," explained Biden. "And I wouldn't have volunteered for this mission if I didn't have complete confidence in Amtrak, my good buddy [US Transportation Secretary] Ray LaHood, and Four Loko - the official energy drink of SkyTrain X-2."
Biden, joined by LaHood at the canyon-side press conference, said the dramatic jump attempt was planned to publicize America's return to world rail prominence.
Columbia University students heckled a war hero during a town-hall meeting on whether ROTC should be allowed back on campus.
"Racist!" some students yelled at Anthony Maschek, a Columbia freshman and former Army staff sergeant awarded the Purple Heart after being shot 11 times in a firefight in northern Iraq in February 2008. Others hissed and booed the veteran.
Maschek, 28, had bravely stepped up to the mike Tuesday at the meeting to issue an impassioned challenge to fellow students on their perceptions of the military.
"It doesn't matter how you feel about the war. It doesn't matter how you feel about fighting," said Maschek. "There are bad men out there plotting to kill you."
Several students laughed and jeered the Idaho native, a 10th Mountain Division infantryman who spent two years at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington recovering from grievous wounds.
Only the President, only the President can break the logjam. His State of the Union was a profile in cowardice. His budget is a profile in cowardice. I hope there’s a secret plan he has here to come forward to lead us, but he hasn’t shown it yet.Secret plan? Uh, yeah. With a Republican-controlled House, the President has a historic Only-Nixon-counld-go-to-China opportunity for entitlement reform and Thomas is hoping for a secret plan. We're in the very best of hands.
Obama: Let's drop anymore of that "centrist" talk, shall we?
Scott Walker: If you've been paying attention to this guy's political career, this should come as no big surprise.
If multiculturalism is so swell, what ever became of multimedicinalism?KT has more on the subject, here.
We baby boomers have been called, with good reason, "The Worst Generation."
Our parents survived the Great Depression, then donned uniforms to fight the Good War and save Western Civilization. We call them "The Greatest Generation." We use capital letters to honor their achievements and spirit of uncomplaining self-sacrifice.
But they gave birth to us, the cohort born between 1945 and 1964, and they gave us everything they never had. Since fate has demanded little of us, we spoiled "baby boomers" are, as former Clinton adviser Paul Begala (born 1961) has written, "the most self-centered, self-seeking, self-interested, self-absorbed, self-indulgent, self-aggrandizing generation" in U.S. history.
That epic selfishness is on full display in Wisconsin's budget battle.
Like the rest of the country, Wisconsin's government, unions and schools, led mostly by boomers, are trying to stem a tide of red ink. Unlike the federal government, Wisconsin can't just print more money or borrow from the Chinese.
So the rest of America is closely watching Wisconsin: Will the boomers finally step up, as their parents did, and do what's best for the next generation?
The game that’s being played is obvious. Civility has no intrinsic worth for these individuals; it is merely another weapon in an endless political battle.Remember, kids... this civility thing is just the ruling class's polite way of shutting down dissent.
Sometimes it's necessary to get out on the streets and "get a little bloody," a Massachusetts Democrat said Tuesday in reference to labor battles in Wisconsin.
Rep. Michael Capuano (D-Mass.) fired up a group of union members in Boston with a speech urging them to work down in the trenches to fend off limits to workers' rights like those proposed in Wisconsin.
"I’m proud to be here with people who understand that it’s more than just sending an email to get you going," Capuano said, according to the Statehouse News. "Every once and awhile you need to get out on the streets and get a little bloody when necessary."
Political observers have been the lookout for potentially incendiary rhetoric in the wake of January's shooting in Tucson, Ariz., where Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D) survived an assassination attempt, six were killed, and 12 others were injured.
When Josh was at his best, he was simply the best person I knew. The Joys of Yiddish says that a mensch is “someone to admire and emulate, someone of noble character. The key to being ‘a real mensch’ is nothing less than character, rectitude, dignity, a sense of what is right, responsible, [and] decorous.”How cool is that? Is there an equivalent term for us goys?
2.Employers won’t help. Only about half of American workers contribute to a voluntary 401K or other employer-sponsored savings program, and greedy capitalists are not handing out raises or enhancing benefits due to some imaginary “economic crisis”.
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5.Savings isn’t a priority. Families with children are dealing with skyrocketing food and energy inflation to get the kids fed and off to school. Single men and women are investing in tattoos and tits without a single thought to the future.
The Herkelmans -- and most of the state of Iowa -- praised Northrup for being a boy of faith. "It's his religion and he's strong in his religion," says Megan Black, the only other girl who made state. (These were the first two in the state's history. Black lost both her matches.) "You have to respect him for that."
Why?
Does any wrong-headed decision suddenly become right when defended with religious conviction? In this age, don't we know better? If my God told me to poke the elderly with sharp sticks, would that make it morally acceptable to others?
Programming note: In a first for both San Diego St. and the Mountain West Conference, the game will be played in front of a national audience when they take on BYU Saturday on CBS at 11 A.M. (PST). We've sent maps and road atlases to the CBS crew as this trip west of the Mississippi, though not a first, is certainly a rarity.
Alternate headline: "Never let a horrible tragedy go to waste even if there is absolutely no connection between said tragedy and your self-congratulatory boondoggle."
Former presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush will serve as honorary chairmen of a new center at the University of Arizona that will focus on civility in political debate, university officials will announce Monday.(italics, ours)
The National Institute for Civil Discourse - a nonpartisan center for debate, research, education and policy about civility in public discourse - will open Monday in Tucson. It was created in the aftermath of the Jan. 8 shootings in the city where six people were killed and 13 injured, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.).
"Our country needs a setting for political debate that is both frank and civil," Bush said in a statement.Eh... what?
Clinton said in a statement that the new institute "can elevate the tone of dialogue in our country."
You want red meat? We give you red meat.
Via: NRO. Apparently, some dude from CAIR decided to ambush freshman senator and former Marine Corps Colonel, Allen West (R-FL), at a town hall meeting regarding where in the Koran it says to "attack America". This does not end well for CAIR-boy.
To the wood shed we go!
"I went to Muslim countries to defend the freedom of Muslim people"
The SLOBs (San Diego Local Order of Bloggers) got together this past Sunday evening to convene our regular (quarterly-ish) beer summit this time at the Yard House in downtown San Diego.
Leslie of Temple of Mut took an open primary straw poll of the summit's attendees to see who was their front-runner for the Presidency in '12 and Indiana governor, Mitch Daniels, took 3 of the 12 votes cast for the win... this time around.
For more on the poll results and an outstanding round-up of what's happening on the ground in Wisconsin, check out Leslie's post here.
Also:
"My question is a basic science question," I started. "In science, Falsifiability is key to any theory. So, is Climate Change Falsifiable?" The young man asked for more detail to be sure that I was not just reading some script. "For example, if I had a theory that all cars are green and then observed a red car it would prove my theory false." The call screener proclaimed his approval of the question and I shortly layed the question out to the two global warming advocates.
Or just consider it the 21st-century equivalent to the ruling class's vote early - vote often.
The US government is offering private intelligence companies contracts to create software to manage "fake people" on social media sites and create the illusion of consensus on controversial issues.
The contract calls for the development of "Persona Management Software" which would help the user create and manage a variety of distinct fake profiles online. The job listing was discussed in recently leaked emails from the private security firm HBGary after an attack by internet activist last week.
According to the contract, the software would "protect the identity of government agencies" by employing a number of false signals to convince users that the poster is in fact a real person. A single user could manage unique background information and status updates for up to 10 fake people from a single computer.
The software enables the government to shield its identity through a number of different methods including the ability to assign unique IP addresses to each persona and the ability to make it appear as though the user is posting from other locations around the world.
Included in HBGary's leaked emails was a government proposal for the government contract. The document describes how they would 'friend' real people on Facebook as a way to convey government messages.
B-Daddy here. On Saturday, I questioned the wisdom of including "bargaining rights" in the package of reforms in Scott Walker's proposed legislation. Specifically, he has proposed that the right to bargain over benefits and working conditions would be removed from the current legal framework for government unions. Further, he is proposing an end to payroll deductions for union dues as well as instituting right to work, which ends mandatory union participation. Also he is proposing an annual vote of collective bargaining units to maintain certification as a union. The full list of proposals here. I was concerned that the proposed removal of bargaining rights would be seen as anti-democratic by the general public and harm the greater cause of getting union power reduced. This is a tactical not a fundamental concern. I don't think that there is an inherent right of collective bargaining for government workers in the same way that I believe freedom of speech is an inherent right.
The intervening days have brought new information to apply to the problem. First, Rasmussen reports that likely voters favor the governor over the unions by a 48%- to 38% margin in a national poll. (Wish it were a Wisconsin poll.) I was hoping the margin would have been higher, but given the loud and angry protests, this is a great sign that the public isn't ignorant of the underlying issues.
Second, Scott Walker was on the TV over the weekend and made the case that in Wisconsin, the state employees have some of the strongest worker protections of any state. What this means in practice, from my experience in the federal work force, is that it is almost impossible to fire workers except for the most blatant misconduct. Given such protections, where workers cannot lose their jobs, is it fair that they can then hold their employer hostage by striking? It creates a huge imbalance that allows the unions to blackmail the government into accepting binding arbitration where they tend to get their demands met. Explaining these facts could go a long way towards getting voters to approve of such a legal outcome.
Third, Rush Limbaugh today talked about the importance of being on offense, not defense. He brought the following to my attention. According to TPM:State Senate rules require only a simple majority to pass a non-fiscal law. That means that only 17 Republican votes from the party's 19-vote majority would be needed to end the collective bargaining.
Republicans could strip the collective bargaining provision out of the budget legislation, pass it separately without Democrats present and get on with life. Further, this would remove the reason that the Democrat state senators are on the run, and get the budget passed as they might feel compelled to get back to their jobs. Republicans should take a page from Democrats and pass legislation when they have a majority. As much work as we did to kill Obamacare and rally the country against it, the bill is still on the books. The time to get our legislation passed is when we have the votes.
Ace of Spades has evidence of SEIU's tactics of intimidation (H/T: Temple of Mut). Trying to stop the Pledge of Allegiance? Really? The SEIU has every right to protest, that right is fundamental, unlike collective bargaining. But ever notice how when SEIU is involved, there is a potential for violence, and many times there is actual violence. Every Tea Party rally I have attended has had a police presence, and they act like they have nothing to do, because they don't have anything to do. Tea Party types don't even leave litter at their rallies. Meanwhile, lefty types who define themselves in opposition to the Tea Party movement are calling on their supporters to harass Tea Party coordinators who have nothing to do with so called "infiltration tactics."
I am rethinking my position. Like many conservative positions, there is often a "feel good" slogan used by the left in opposition that turns out to be incoherent when examined. Apparently, the country has decided that the direction of government requires the general public to pay more attention. Thank God and take my poll about the situation.
On the floor of the House last week, here's Sheila Jackson Lee (D - TX) talking about, what else, the Democrats' failure to articulate to the electorate just how wonderful ObamaCare is:
Message to you unwashed yobs out there: Sheila Jackson Lee knows just how much damn nuance is in this bill. It's unbelievable.
And hard work? You bet. It's a small wonder the Congressional infirmary wasn't forced to turn Congressmen away suffering from thrown-out backs and strained ligaments such was the effort to cram in all those special deals and kickbacks.
But "nuance" is a perfect word for describing what's in ObamaCare as only nuance can explain the mechanism for how it is that ObamaCare waivers, as one example, were granted as "political patronage" can be such an unseemly term.
Thanks to Representative Lee for speaking truth to power or something.
It's come to this...
... but weren't you almost expecting it?
Reporter asked, "Do you think you could get in trouble?" Dr. Kathy Oriel said, "Certainly, we think its worth the risk to support the people, and we feel very strongly these are officials who would really like to be in school, and in their classes, but they're put in a position where they really have no choice."
The Heritage Foundation sent their cameras to Madison, Wisconsin to see what was happening on the ground there at the state capitol.
Time was a comparison to California was usually meant in a favorable light. No longer.
Also, Governor Scott Walker was on Fox News Sunday and had this to say:
“My hope is that cooler minds will prevail,” Walker said. “Democracy is not about hiding out in other states.”Walker also had a gentle admonition that perhaps the President ought to worry about his own debt problem.
Walker acknowledged that his battle against the public-sector unions has “large ramifications” for the rest of the country, especially as fellow governors grapple with their own budget gaps. “For us, we have to do this,” he said. “For decades, we had leaders who pushed off the problem.
This past week, the President had himself another "Cambridge moment" where he first admits to not knowing a whole lot about the situation on the ground in Wisconsin before charging forward anyway and sticking his foot in his mouth by saying what was happening there was an "assault on unions".
"It is best to keep your mouth shut and be presumed ignorant than to open it and remove all doubt."- Mark Twain
President Obama thrust himself and his political operation this week into Wisconsin's broiling budget battle, mobilizing opposition Thursday to a Republican bill that would curb public-worker benefits and planning similar protests in other state capitals.
Obama accused Scott Walker, the state's new Republican governor, of unleashing an "assault" on unions in pushing emergency legislation that would change future collective-bargaining agreements that affect most public employees, including teachers.
Lawrence O'Donnell of MSNBC equates cartoon caricatures to racism... and bores everyone into a coma in 6 short minutes while doing so.
Abortion advocates said if Planned Parenthood loses its place at the government trough that women would be hurt.(italics, ours)
"Planned Parenthood has provided health services to one in five American women," Rep. Nita Lowey of New york said.
Rep. Barbara lee of California called the amendment a “war on women” and Rep. Jan Schakowsky said Planned Parenthood “saves money and saves lives” by the non-abortion health care it offers and “now it not the time to restrict women’s access to health care.”
And rep. Gwen Moore of Wisconsin went as far as implying that it is better to have an abortion than make a child be forced to live “eating Ramen noodles” and “mayonnaise sandwiches.”
They have to lead, because this president is too weak, too cautious, too beholden to politics over policy to lead. In this budget, in his refusal to do anything concrete to tackle the looming entitlement debt, in his failure to address the generational injustice, in his blithe indifference to the increasing danger of default, he has betrayed those of us who took him to be a serious president prepared to put the good of the country before his short term political interests. Like his State of the Union, this budget is good short term politics but such a massive pile of fiscal bullshit it makes it perfectly clear that Obama is kicking this vital issue down the road.Shocked, shocked... that a junior Senator might lack some of the necessary leadership skills to make tough decisions when they are needed.
At least a dozen other lawmakers over the last couple of weeks warned that cans can no longer be kicked. And now, as the president's budget director says, the era of can-kicking is over. With the release of Obama's budget proposal, Washington's budgeting style can instead be described as tiptoeing past the can and hoping nobody notices.
Obama's budget proposal is a remarkably weak and timid document. He proposes to cut only $1.1 trillion from federal deficits over the next decade - a pittance when you consider that the deficit this year alone is in the neighborhood of $1.5 trillion. The president makes no serious attempt at cutting entitlement programs that threaten to drive the government into insolvency.
After a standout season in which he went 35-4, Joel Northrup had every reason to dream of winning an Iowa wrestling championship this year, but he gave it all up before his first state tournament match Thursday.
Northrup, a home-schooled sophomore who competes for Linn-Mar High School, said his religious beliefs wouldn't allow him to wrestle Cassy Herkelman, a pony-tailed freshman from Cedar Falls who is one of the first two girls to qualify for the tournament in its 85-year history.
Northrup issued a statement (posted here on WHOTV.com, an NBC affiliate in Des Moines) through his school expressing his "tremendous" respect for what Herkelman and Ottumwa sophomore Megan Black achieved this season, but he said didn't feel he had a choice.
Well, this is what happens when some adverse weather hits Southern California - it just totally scrambles the brain. Our usual "Quickies" time slot will have to be delayed as we've misplaced some content material.
In the meantime (via Deadspin), please enjoy this dunk compilation of Los Angeles Clipper forward, Blake ("Blaker", "Future Laker") Griffin in advance of tonight's NBA All-Star weekend dunk contest of which he will be a participant.
Here’s A (Nearly) Exhaustive Video Compilation Of Blake Griffin Dunks from Deadspin on Vimeo.
Each year, the world demands more grain, and this year the world's farms will not produce it. World food prices have surged above the food crisis levels of 2008. Millions more people will be malnourished, and hundreds of millions who are already hungry will eat less or give up other necessities. Food riots have started again.
Nearly all assessments of the 2008 food crisis assigned biofuels a meaningful role, but much of academia and the media ultimately agreed that the scale of the crisis resulted from a "perfect storm" of causes. Yet this "perfect storm" has re-formed not three years later. We should recognize the ways in which biofuels are driving it.
Via Instapundit:
A little red meat in the morning? Don't worry - it's dinner time somewhere on this planet.
Plus... dominos?
... but first, this is what a tax-payer-funded protest looks like.
1: to cast off : discard
2: to relinquish (as sovereign power) formally
Democratic State Senators who protested the budget repair bill by leaving the state have been found.(italics, ours)
The lawmakers are in the Best Western Clock Tower Resort in Rockford Illinois.
Law enforcement officials have been looking for at least one Democratic senator to bring in for a quorum required for a fiscal measure, but Democratic Senator Jon Erpenbach confirmed to Newsradio 620 WTMJ that he and all of his Democratic colleagues boarded a bus and left the state.
"We're not in Wisconsin right now," Erpenbach said. "The reason why we're doing this is because there are some jurisdictional issues that we'd be dealing with."
The Senate's Sergeant at Arms cannot compel Senators' attendance in an open session if they are outside of state lines.
According to the Twitter account of Democrat State Senator Chris Larson from Bay View, "For those looking for us, we are right here, standing with the people of Wisconsin."
I know of no other retirement plan where workers contribute a paltry 0.2% of their pay for their own retirement and only 6% of their health insurance premium. In return for concessions, the governor has said their will be no furloughs (layoffs), and still the unions are stirring up huge trouble.
Here's New Jersey Governor, Chris Christie, at the American Enterprise Institute yesterday addressing the subject of Social Security reform.
Moments ago I spoke with u.s. transportation Secretary Ray LaHood to inform him of my decision. I appreciate the secretary’s efforts to work with us and I look forward to working with him in the future. #(italics, ours)
My decision to reject the project comes down to three main economic realities: #
First – capital cost overruns from the project could put Florida taxpayers on the hook for an additional $3 billion.
•Second – ridership and revenue projections are historically overly-optimistic and would likely result in ongoing subsidies that state taxpayers would have to incur. (from $300 million – $575 million over 10 years) – Note: The state subsidizes Tri-Rail $34.6 million a year while passenger revenues covers only $10.4 million of the $64 million annual operating budget.
•Finally – if the project becomes too costly for taxpayers and is shut down, the state would have to return the $2.4 billion in federal funds to D.C.
Alright my fateful friends of the hop, I am going to renege on last week’s promise to begin the countdown of my top nine favorite breweries of all time. Instead I am going to be blasting one of the most popular beers ever and tell you why I think that both Pliny the Elder and Pliny the Younger are the MOST OVERRATED BEERS OF ALL TIME!!!!
Sos I wake up last Thursday morning about the same time I wake up every morning, 11:30ish, and see that I have five text messages from some of my favorite beer lovers around town all telling me that Pliny the Younger is being tapped at Toronado that day. I am unimpressed, but for “research” decide to see what all of the hullabaloo is about as it had been a couple years since I got my grubby little mitts on this supposed ‘nectar of the Gods’. So I head down to meet a few of my pals and catch a pint or two of this delicious brew. At 12:30 in the afternoon on a Thursday, Toronado was absolutely PACKED with what I can only assume are the most hardcore of beer lovers. One idiot was even so stoked on this beer that he got there some two hours before the freakin’ place even opened, at 8:30 in the morning! Are you high!?!?!
Don’t get me wrong, this beer was a pretty fantastic beer to be sure, with notes of caramel and the hop aroma of a baby Zeus, but the amount of people that absolutely cream their jeans over this bubbly brew is completely outrageous. My good friend Matt Steele once told me an anecdote about this one time when he was meeting a friend at Hamilton’s (talk about overrated), was a little early and decided to take in some nicotine. As he stood out front, this dude was there and Steele asked him why the place was so hoppin’. “I don’t know. They got some amazing beer on called Younger, or sumpin’”, replies the beertard. Exactly!!!! MFers don’t even know what the name of the beer is, but because everyone else says it’s good then it must be, right? (Insert sheep sounds here)
Pliny the Elder is the other one that just chaps my derriere. People talk about this beer like it’s the second coming of Christ when it’s mediocre at best. It’s so earthy that I feel like charging people five bucks to open their mouth so I can throw a hand full of dirt in, add water, rinse, and repeat.
So my people, lesson of the day: Think for your effing selves!!! If you like Pliny the Elder, more power to ya. And if you find yourselves coming across a tapping of the Younger do yourself a favor and go… for the experience. But don’t be that guy that sits outside for two hours waiting for the doors to open at a joint; not cool. Exponential Hoppiness was on at the same time and is just as good if not better.
Thanks for tuning in to this week’s edition of MAXED OUT - as always, feel free to comment in the comment section below, on Facebook, or at maxamilliondollars@gmail.com.
Until the next time, have a beer for me.
The news out of California's state capitol:
Democratic lawmakers on Monday explained just how widespread budget cuts will be in California if the Legislature or voters do not extend temporary tax hikes to help close a $26.6 billion deficit. California would have to allow oil drilling to be expanded off the coast of Santa Barbara; end class-size reduction efforts in kindergarten through third grade; reduce wildland firefighting; and stop support for various public safety programs, according to a memo drafted by the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office at the request of Democratic lawmakers.(italics, ours)
We suppose this is some more of that "new civility" they've been talking about.
On Friday, Feb. 11, the day Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak stepped down, CBS chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan was covering the jubilation in Tahrir Square for a "60 Minutes" story when she and her team and their security were surrounded by a dangerous element amidst the celebration. It was a mob of more than 200 people whipped into frenzy.
In the crush of the mob, she was separated from her crew. She was surrounded and suffered a brutal and sustained sexual assault and beating before being saved by a group of women and an estimated 20 Egyptian soldiers. She reconnected with the CBS team, returned to her hotel and returned to the United States on the first flight the next morning. She is currently home recovering.
On Monday, Valentine's Day, people arriving in San Diego at Lindbergh Field were treated to a flash chorale of young "travelers" who serenaded them with the Beatles' "All You Need Is Love". The kids were UCSD students and members of the University's Tritones and the BEAT.
Yeah, sounding good in an airport baggage claim area is as difficult as it sounds. No matter - it's the sentiment that counts, here.
Christopher Hartman writing for The Daily Caller argues that the tea party needs to come up with a foreign policy or something.
A tea party foreign policy? Not going to happen because it can't happen. It is a theoretical and ideological impossibility.
Asking a coalition of Randian libertarians, Reagan conservatives, neo-cons, paleo-cons, so-cons, independents and yes, Democrats who have rallied under the banners of fiscal discipline, free markets, entitlement reform, Constitutional fidelity and limited government to come up with a coherent foreign policy would be a counter-productive exercise in futility. Why bother?
Foreign policy is rarely, if ever, even discussed at our periodic SLOB beer summits here in San Diego as it's acknowledged before the first round hits the table that even in our intimate gatherings of 6-10 people, there will not be anything resembling a consensus on the matter.
So what's Hartman's contribution towards assisting this formulation of a foreign policy:
Conservative estimates put the number of American military bases around the world at over 1,000. This Leviathan supports a massive American interventionism that costs extraordinary sums to maintain, with no end in sight. If one wants to get really tough on deficits, defense spending — whether weapon systems, bases or personnel — must be a major part of the debate.That's right. Hartman's opening salvo is base closures. Now closing our bases overseas may or may not have merit on its own standing but if that's his "big idea", it simply reinforces the impossibility of developing any sort of tea party foreign policy.
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From Bloomberg News:
Geithner Quietly Tells Obama Debt Expense to Increase to Record
Considering how this might blow the cover for the new "centrist" and "fiscally conservative" image hinted at by the President during his State of the Union Address, we wonder just how this was executed?
Did Geithner whisper it to the President? Did he use flash-cards or perhaps sign language?
Or did they use much older but still-dependable technology...?
CPAC wrapped up this past weekend and though we didn't follow the proceedings very closely, the appearance and speech by Indiana Governor, Mitch Daniels, generated quite a buzz as he was deemed one of the "winners" of the event by the Washington Post (please insert "back-handed" and "dubious honors" quips, here) and more importantly, a blogger who will remain nameless but with whose work you are familiar confided to us over the weekend that he was ready to go all in for Daniels ahead of the primaries.
For a video of the speech please go here. And for the text of the speech, here.
P.S. Looks like B-Daddy couldn't contain himself any longer in throwing in for Daniels so our efforts towards "outing" him have been for naught.
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